Episode 41: Trusting Your Inner Voice to Redefine Success | Candice Carlton | The Cubicle Revolution

Nov 27

Candice Carlton knows what it takes to walk away from the prestige of a high-level corporate career to build a life defined by joy, purpose, and authenticity. Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa, she climbed the ladder in finance, communications, and media - only to realize that success on paper wasn’t the same as feeling fulfilled. Today, Candice is the creator and host of The Cubicle Revolution podcast, founder of C Squared Consulting, and a coach helping people listen to their inner guidance and bring their full selves to the work they do. Her journey has taken her from San Francisco to Portland, through career pivots, spiritual deep dives, and the leap to start her own business. Candice shares how meditation, yoga, and honest self-reflection helped her tune in to what truly matters. She also reveals why embracing risk, trusting your intuition, and pursuing what scares you just might be the key to lasting happiness.

“People are not bringing their whole selves to work, and as a result they’re not creating on the level that they could be creating, and we’re missing the impact of the gifts they have to offer.”

— Candice Carlton

Portland, OR
The Cubical Revolution
Economi cs
Fina nce
Co mmunications
medita tion
yog a
Swa mi
Guru
Strength Finder
Emoti onal Intelligence the book
Elizabe th Gilbert
Ea t Pray Love
Y our Hobbies vs Your Job vs Your Career vs Your Vo cation
L ondon
Zi m babwe
Cap e T own
South Africa
A par theid
Seth Goden Podcasting Fellowship
Course in Miracles
Gabrielle Bernste in
Maryann Williamson
Maryann Williamson for President
Tribe Called Bliss Book
Bost on
Stacy London
Vog ue
Conan O ’Brien
Lac e y Hagen
Mi nimalist
M arie Kondo
Tiny Homes
Living Big in a Tiny House
Spiritual Leadership
Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters
00:00 Meet Candice Carlton
03:15 Growing Up in Zimbabwe and South Africa
07:40 Learning to Listen to Inner Guidance
12:55 Why We Need to Bring Our Whole Selves to Work
16:20 Career Pivots from Finance to Communications
21:45 Moving Across Continents with $500 and a Suitcase
26:10 Leaving Corporate Prestige for Joy and Purpose
29:45 Building Trust in Yourself After Failure
34:20 Starting The Cubicle Revolution Podcast
38:55 Minimalism, Tiny Homes, and Spiritual Leadership
44:15 Daily Practices for Joy and Connection
49:30 Advice for Anyone Considering a Big Career Change
People are not bringing them their whole selves to work and as a result, they're not creating on the level that they could be creating and we're missing the impact of the gifts that they have to offer.
That's Candice Carlton and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast where I invite my favorite humans, the awesome, the up to something, and the extraordinary to come and share their story. I hope that you'll be left, entertained, inspired, and moved to take action towards living your most powerful life.
Candice Carlton is the glamorous and wise creator and host of the podcast Cubicle Revolution. She's also the founder of C Squared Consulting and a coach. On her podcast, she talks to people who have left high performing jobs in the corporate world to follow the signs and feelings, to do something different and something bigger.
On this episode, Candice shares her wisdom on how to hear your own inner voice, how to define success on your own terms, and how to create a life path that truly brings you joy.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you. I'm so excited to be on it. I am excited to have you. It was such an honor to have you as one of our panelists this past week at The Powerful Ladies by Portland event, and everyone was really excited to hear what you to say. So I'm super excited to dive in deeper to your story and what you're creating and your advice for everybody today.
Thank you Was such a cool event. I just wanted to say like Kara had a tremendous opportunity just to have a room of like wildly powerful women, so really cool. Thank you.
My pleasure. Let's start by introducing yourself and what you're up to.
So my name is Candice Carlton. I am based out of Portland, Oregon currently.
And about a year and a half ago, I quit my very fancy very fun corporate job as director of Communications, and I decided to pursue my passion well. That actually sounds very like out there. Essentially what I wanted to figure out was there a way that I could create more meaningful work and joy in my life?
I had loved my job, but had felt the corporate constraints to be a little bit confining. So for the last year, I've been freelancing and consulting. I launched a podcast called The Cubicle Revolution, interviewing very successful people who were top of their game, but realized at some point that their inner guidance system wanted them to do something different.
And because that's the journey that I'm on, is discovering what it is I'm meant for and how I help other people do the same, which just makes me so happy because I wish more people were talking about that. I know. I think it's it. Yeah. I think it's such a weird thing because I think like we're taught to pursue success and I was one of those people who I think like you, Kara, 'cause you and I talked about like the panelists in this last week.
And like a lot of people we know where outwardly you can have all the trappings of success. You have, the shoes for me it was like I wore the shoes I wanted to wear. I got to go to the beach on the weekends. I was, on camera, I was coaching people, on camera producing and directing and loving everything.
But a part of me was just like, this is not what you are meant to be doing. And I think that so many of us just ignore that because it's inconvenient and we don't know how to navigate it in a world that tells us success looks a certain way and that there's a linear path to achieving it.
And I think too that there's the levels of.
Your heart telling you that, you're bored and you could be playing bigger and there's more out there. But at the same time, like you can love what you're doing. Like leaving a corporate job doesn't always occur before you do it as, oh, I hate this. This is stressful. My boss is a loser.
Sometimes you really love what you're doing and you find joy and you get things out of it, but you know that there's more. And that to me is like the scariest way to leave a semis safe, corporate successful environment because you're taking a leap from things that make you happy enough and provide so much for you to then jump and be like, I know there's something else.
And you may not know what it looks like yet.
And I think that's exactly the journey that I'm on. And a little bit of backstory is prior to that I had been pursuing finance. I was gonna be a financial advisor and my first job was on a trade desk. My undergraduate was in finance and economics.
And as intellectually stimulating as I found that, and I really liked the people I was working with, I at some point. Realized that I had, I think it always starts as like a gentle whisper, like a slight discomfort. Yeah. In what you're doing or like in your life. It's this doesn't quite feel the way I expected it to feel or I wanted to feel.
And then there's a sense of normalizing it. 'cause you're like no one really loves their jobs. We're told it's like it's hard and we're just, we have to suck it up. And to be honest, I did that for as long as I possibly could because I had, really great money coming in, really beautiful professional environments, a lot of opportunity and acknowledgement until that inner whisper got louder and louder.
And I think Oprah used to talk about this on her show. Like it starts as a whisper and then it becomes like rocks that are thrown at you. Yes. And yeah. And so for me, I developed just. Debilitating anxiety, insomnia. I'd have panic attacks in the bathroom at work. And that experience forced me to really take a look in the mirror and start asking questions that I hadn't asked myself before, which was, who are you really?
And what brings you joy and what are you meant for? And so for me it was a journey of really becoming acquainted with my truest self. And through that really hard 'cause you just can't paint it anyway. It's hard journey. I discovered my gift in communications in connecting people through the power of video or whatever we were working on.
And then beyond that. I then discovered, to your point, okay, I love my job. I'm definitely in my lane, but I feel like I'm meant to be doing more. And taking that giant leap. I remember when I left, I was just like, oof. I don't know what comes next, but I know it's gonna be good. And I know it's not gonna be easy, but I feel like it's gonna be worth it.
And that's where I am right now. And loving it, loving every part of it, and weirdly enough, like doing the best work. Not weirdly enough, but doing the best work I've ever done. And yeah, that's what I can say about it. Loving that.
What it, how did you know it was okay to jump? Like how did you know that there would be something better once you did?
This is the reality. Like I feel like you never really know. There's always this like uncertainty. So I had to go with okay, so I don't know absolutely what it looks like or how it's gonna work out, but I trust in this inner guidance system within me that I'd learned that I'd begun developing trust through when I moved into communications and out of finance.
When I started to, this is what I'll say. Through my spiritual practice, through getting to know myself through meditation, through yoga, and I know for everyone it's totally different. Maybe it's being out in nature through developing practices to really get to know myself with no bullshit. What I discovered is that I had this inner guidance system that was always talking to me, and every single person has it. We're just not taught to listen to it. Yeah. And what I knew about that is that if I listened to that and if I was guided by that, like I would be happy. And what I discovered is when I was happy and when I was in that doing work that was joyful or pursuing things that maybe were audacious and scary, but were like exciting, like I would end up Okay.
And so that was like the practice of switching from finance into producing and directing and communication. And then through other choices that I made in my life, I'd begun to develop that trust that if I listened to that inner whisper, everything would work out and everything would be okay. And not to say it's like you can't be practical and you don't have to plan and all that stuff.
You totally have to, but there's a sense of yes no. And that's what the inner, that's what my inner whisper helped me figure out.
Yeah. I've heard it described as there's things that we feel and then there's things that you know, and the feelings can be tied more to your ego, where the knowing is your intuition.
It makes it easier to start to deciphering like all the things you hear in your head and your heart and not knowing which is which all the time as you start to. Use those muscles a bit more and get to know yourself better. But that, that gave me clarity for people who are like, okay, how do I start?
So I think, in my journey I actually, because meditation helps me so much, I studied it with all kinds of teachers and swamis and spiritual gurus, and now I teach it to help other people decipher what is their inner whisper, what is their conditioning, what is their mind versus like their divine guidance.
And I think the reality is when you actually look at your life, think, choose you. You don't choose them. And so there it's almost like that feeling like when I first, when I had really bad anxiety, I wasn't sleeping and I was having panic attacks, the first thing I said discovered was I was going to yoga every day.
Instead of happy hour. That was one of my choices to calm my nervous system. And at that time, what I discovered, what I noticed was, huh, I feel different at yoga than I do anywhere else. And I don't know what that means, but it means something. So I'm gonna do more yoga. So I did more yoga, and then I did a teacher training, and I didn't choose yoga.
Yoga chose me. It's that sense of just that, that pulling you just don't have a choice in the matter. It's the same as sometimes you prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla. What dictates that? You don't know. It's just you want what you want and there's a certain feeling, a peace, a calm that comes when you're pursuing what you're meant to be pursuing.
And you can't really choose it again. It feels like it chooses you.
Yeah, that's very much what I've experienced with powerful ladies. Like we, when it started, I always had a corporate job and I was very happy in those jobs and doing big great things. But to your point, there was always that whisper of this could be bigger, and it just kept getting louder and louder, or it would show up and pop up in my head more often.
I'd meet people who in the past I would've thought would be a great collaborator for my day job. And it switched to suddenly seeing everybody as great collaborators for powerful ladies and Right. And you couldn't control that. It just arrived, right? No. Yeah. No. And it got to the point where I was like, I have to do it now.
I don't have a choice. Like it really wasn't my choice. Yeah. To finally take action. Like I it was that, or I knew there would be a repercussion of almost like the universe being disappointed. Like, how much more do we have to tell you? Come on.
That's why I launched my podcast as well to begin that conversation because I think that there's so many people who hate their jobs.
And they're really like in a soul crushing kind of environment or whatever it is. And it's not that old jobs are joy and rainbows, but there are things that you are built for. So like getting into that space of I love the Strength Minder by the Gallup Institute as, that was one of the first like books that I read where I was like, oh, we are meant for certain things.
It's just you innately feel it, you innately know it. But that's the first time I'd actually read it and seen it articulated like I, my gift is communication and I also get into trouble for it. When I was in school, I was in trouble for being outspoken all the time, but I didn't choose it.
It just was, I was just that way. It's the kind of this perception of yeah, you're just supposed to hate your job. That's like normal and like you just make the best of it. And I think what we miss in that is like people are not bringing them their whole selves to work, and as a result, they're not creating on the level that they could be creating and we're missing the impact of the gifts that they have to offer.
Yeah. And I just think it would be so different if, it's the whole thing in itself, but if our schooling systems were set up to identify what brings you joy based on the strength binder, what gives you energy? Okay, like doing mathematical equations for someone gives you energy, you should be pursuing that.
Whereas me, no. That would suck a living life out of me. And yeah. So really, like what is your gift in this world? What are you made for? And how do you offer that to the world as a contribution of the work that you do?
And I think it goes hand in hand with two things. One being like a big a book that had a big impact on me was emotional intelligence and how we aren't teaching enough of that in school, which is like a branch of what you're talking about right now, of, we don't teach people how to relate to each other and to deal with our life in a way that's conducive to see what you're good at or what you really want or to break down these the, we put people in very clear paths that they don't always want. So how do we allow them to identify what they actually want?
And the second thing for me is that I got out of the Strength Finder book was, we talk about people following their passions a lot. And that gets convoluted often with hobbies and like where you find your play. And I think so often where you find your play isn't always what you do naturally or what you do without thinking.
And once I read the StrengthFinder book and realized I had permission to make money doing what came easy to me, like I, I had this idea that. In order to get a real degree, it had to be an Ivy League degree. And that's where like the real like brain power and crunching came from to really push you to the next level.
And then once you were in a career, if you weren't constantly growing and pushing and evolving and getting to that next mental level, it wasn't a career, it was just a job. And the book gave me freedom to be like, you can, if that's your game. And obviously like my number one strength is learner, which you can tell in that chair.
But one of mine too, actually it's in my top five. Yeah. Perfect. But to have permission that I didn't need to use all of my intellectual power and problem solving to get paid and just do whatever came easiest so that I was freed up to use the rest of my brain and abilities any way I wanted to, was so refreshing because I didn't have to be an astrophysicist to earn my living.
I could. Do anything?
Yeah, like on so many levels. And I think what's really interesting about it all is the things that come easy to us. Sometimes we don't even realize that we're really strong in them because it comes so easy and we're like, are you kidding me? Not everyone can do that.
This, and I discovered that when I. Switched into communications and marketing. I started to notice that even though I didn't have this marketing background, I could see things that the people who'd been trained in it and had their whole careers in it couldn't see. All of a sudden I could see, no, that story is not gonna resonate with anybody.
And no, people don't want to be spoken to like that. And it's really developing that. And sometimes you need someone from the outside to say, you're really great at that. Did you like even realize that? But I honestly, it's the weirdest thing, but I attribute that strength finder to like the beginning of my spiritual awakening.
It's like Marcus Buckingham. I saw him, one of the authors in a restaurant once, and I just totally was like star struck because this the same thing as you. It's like really opened up something for me to just feel give me permission that yeah. What you are good at, what you innately are comes to you.
That's where you should be focused because that's where you can be of highest contribution.
Yeah. And we, and in the western world, there's so much pressure to always be making yourself perfect and like really focusing on where you need to improve. And it's so exhausting. Like you're either improving your finances or your health or your relationships or your focus or your, even just your ability to meditate can be a task for some people, so knowing that everything's perfect, just relax. What do you actually wanna do? What sounds like it would be. A good idea right now. And there we had a guest on a couple actually who have talked about intuitive eating and how everything you need in your life, whether it's what career path, how to help people, how to eat and fuel yourself to live optimally.
All of it can come back toward intuition if we clear out all the other junk. Which makes complete sense to me 'cause I'm a believer in that power. But yeah just to not worry about trying to fix everything in ourselves all the time is also such a nice relief.
I think that's what the whole cubicle revolution is about, which is what I'm really like deeply committed to is like, how do you define success for yourself?
And I think that comes not only into the work that you're doing but to your point, like what you are eating. We've been conditioned, especially as women to like diet to look a certain way, all this kind of stuff. Whereas what if someone gave you the permission? Eat what nourishes your body, eat what calls to you, learn your hunger cues.
Ugh. It's just like freedom. It's like you get rid of all those constraints of all the things you should be doing or what to like, it feels like when you say society, it's like what is society? But it's like these social norms that are we've put into place, which I think we're now starting to break and say, no, like this doesn't work for us anymore.
And it, the, it, I relate it to when we first started, when I first started learning like financial literacy, I thought I, I knew financial literacy. We have a mother who is very accounting oriented, even though she's not a professional accountant. So lots of like how to balance your checkbook and every month comparing your receipts and all this stuff that she still does to this day and trained us to.
And then when I really started to dive into financial literacy as an adult and see how I was using my budget to make myself feel guilty. And once I was like, no, like going shopping is something I enjoy and coming from the world I come from I like using clothing to be part of self-expression.
Like I'm just gonna make a budget for it. If I do my budget the right way, everything's gonna be fine. Everything's covered. Like it's okay to spend this amount of money. There was such liberation in knowing that wasn't guilty shopping. It was just like pre-approved plan shopping. Like I wasn't messing anything up.
And I feel like it's the same way of like just organizing the life that you want to have and being like, no, like this is what I agree to. This makes the life I want work, so there's no more worrying that I'm not doing something the way I should be.
I think it's really this idea of creating your own past.
And showing up in a way that like is joyous for you. And I think the idea of joy in the past, to your point, got this label of like frivolity and irresponsible, yes. Tied to it. But that's not really the space. It's take care of what you take, care of, what you've gotta take care of.
Everybody's gotta work. And sometimes that is a job and it's a JOB. Not even your passion or your whatever, but it's also your divine responsibility to be creating a life and doing the things that really fill you up. And I think because if you don't, you're just gonna be miserable.
It's the reality. I think Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, pray, love, she made this incredible YouTube video that really inspired me and I share it with as many people as possible. If you look it up, or we can put it in the show note. Show notes. And she talks about your hobbies versus your job, versus your career versus your vocation.
And she says point blank, everybody needs a job because that's the way you show up as a responsible adult in this world. You've gotta pay your bills. And sometimes your job is not great. Like sometimes it sucks. But the good thing about a job is you can, you don't have to give your whole self to it necessarily.
You can use up your creative energy on the side. She says, A career is when you're willing to make certain sacrifices because you're pursuing something bigger. Your vocation is something you do, whether you get paid for it or not. And then obviously your hobbies may be things that you love doing, but you're not very, you're not gonna get paid at.
Yeah. Or, and maybe you're not even very good at, but you still like it. And so she talks about herself and she says, when she was writing, it was always clear it was her vocation, but she had many jobs before her job even became her career, and her career was aligned with her vocation. And she makes it very clear that might not always be the case for her, in which case she, and people might not wanna read my books anymore, in which case I will need to get a job.
But she's clear that her job will be aligned with her natural talents of writing, editing, of having spoken word, whatever that looks like.
And it's a really interesting topic for me because I, in the past, oh man, like maybe two months and it came up again at our powerful Ladies event this past week that.
For younger people who maybe don't have a career yet and who are just starting in their adult job space. They hear when talking about finding their passion and their own path and leaving what they've created in a career space to find the joy that they've been looking for. And I think it's giving people some anxiety about choosing what that first job for them should be because they are trying to find that magic formula now.
And my advice to everyone has been just start stop putting so much pressure on your first job. Most likely your first job is not gonna be your favorite job. So just get the ball rolling. 'cause it opens the door for networking for something substantial in your resume. Just go don't put all the pressure on it now, you, you almost need to earn some of your stripes to figure out how all this makes sense to you and to get some experiences under your belt before you even know what these different things are that we're talking about.
I absolutely agree. I also think like you don't know until you're in it. Yeah.
There's just no way to know. I remember going to I got a PR job, one of my first jobs. It was like this socially conscious company. I felt like this was it. And I literally knew on day one, Ooh, this is not the right job for me. And I called my best friend in London and I said, how long do I have to stay there?
And she said, you have to stay there two weeks. I had an instant revulsion that wasn't the right job. And so within two weeks I left it and did something else. But even when I was in the career path of finance. Like I discovered there were certain activities that I got energized by in that job.
And they were like creating communication plans or putting together new ideas or creating new platforms from scratch. So that, like that is the creator and connector in me. And then I also discovered yeah, talking to people about the same thing again and again, just doesn't lighten me up.
Yeah. And even in the, yeah, and even in the context of that career and being in financial services, I was actually able to make the leap from this path of being a financial advisor to being a communications director in the same company while still getting paid. So sometimes you get in and it might not be the right job, but you have the opportunity to discover and learn what else is available within that framework.
So you might be able to change jobs, try out departments, all that type of stuff while still getting paid and being a responsible adult because. If you've got no money coming in, there's no ways you're gonna find work that you like because you're freaking out because your rent isn't paid.
Yeah. And there's so much opportunity to try things.
I think you mentioning that first job you stayed for two weeks and then you moved on. So many people get paranoid that they have to stay for a year or longer, and it's no. There's, you can really do whatever you want in the space of still making responsible choices and doing it the right way.
So I'm glad that you shared that because so many people, I ask that question like, how long is enough to either be polite or to really know if it's not just an initial reaction or if that's what it really is.
I also think you'll know. Like I just knew in my gut I could not go into work another day.
It wasn't right for me. Other times I've had jobs where I'm like, Ugh, this isn't ideal, but I've gotta pay my bills. I like the people. What can I do to really lean into my strengths? And I think in every job I've ever had, I've essentially recreated the position based on my strengths. I think you always have that opportunity too, and it's up to you.
It's not like I love the idea of getting a mentor and all that type of stuff. But ultimately it's like I feel like it's your responsibility. You have to be tuned into. What lights you up? You need to be experimenting, trying on things. No one's gonna come and give you like the magic formula. And even if they did, it may not be relevant to you.
And I think that's also another thing I discovered is like people would give me all these well-intentioned, very successful people that are wildly respected, would give me advice and I'd be like, it doesn't quite fit. It doesn't quite work for me. Yeah.
I've had the same experiences.
Yeah. It's just I think it's about creating some kind of support system, whatever that looks like for you so that you have the support to discover what you're meant for. And I think Powerful Ladies is a beautiful example of that. I think the reason I launched my podcast was to create a podcast that I wish I'd had when I was in a corporate job.
Yeah. And I see more and more of it of having like-minded friends and to be able to discuss these types of things with, but really paying attention to what energizes you and then what depletes you,
were you always powerful in, making big choices for yourself and being bold about them? Or is that something that you developed over time?
I think a little bit of both. I think. I, powerful choices. I think one of my boldest decisions just to begin with was when I was in university, I was on the law track, and then I was in law school and I realized that it sounded like gibberish to me. Like when you actually had to study for it, it didn't make any sense to my brain.
Even though I've been head of debate and public speaking and I switched my major to finance because I thought, these people are diverse, they're interesting they've got interesting things to talk about. So I switched there. When I graduated university, I was clear that I didn't wanna stay in South Africa anymore, south, and I left with a plane ticket and $500 and a suitcase of clothing because I was called to live in the States to try something different.
I think. I've made the decisions, and sometimes it was with some nervousness and self doubt, but in those circumstances I didn't really feel like I had a choice. Yeah. Like it was that something had chosen me that was bigger than me, and if I didn't listen to the call, I would essentially suffocate and die.
I think as I've gotten older though, I'm developing more of that trust and more of that confidence to make decisions and know that, yeah, they might not work and I might fail, but to know that I can get up again and try again, and that is more powerful than just trying to make everything look good on the outside, this perceived success.
You mentioned that you grew up in South Africa. What was that experience like for you and how has it, shaped the view from which you see the world today?
Wow. That's a big question.
I think, I grew up, I was born in Zimbabwe, which is a country just above South Africa. And then I went to school in Cape Town, which is at the bottom point of South Africa. So high school and university. And I think when I left it was primarily because it was not, it's a country that's still recovering from apartheid.
There's a ton of hope and there's so much inspiring work and so many inspiring people. But it takes a long time and it's it's gone through a lot. So I think how it really influenced my life choices was I, if you're living in that type of political environment, an economic environment you start to see when people and people's rights are taken away from them, and you see the impact it has.
You can never be okay with it in any circumstance. So I think that has profoundly shaped how I see the world. So even when I worked in companies, if there was any. Hierarchy or hierarchical structure where people thought that they were better than other people based on their title or the money that they earned.
I could never buy into that. I never believed that. And I also, on a practical level, think your best ideas can come from your 21-year-old or 22-year-old people on your team. So any sense of like hierarchy, I just don't buy into. Yeah. A sense, I think it's just differing levels of responsibility. And I actually think that the higher up you are on that responsibility chain, it's your responsibility to look after and serve all the people on your team, which is very different from most company structures.
I also think it gives you a wild appreciation for free speech. Yeah. One of the things that I just love about the Americans is. How anybody can become anything that isn't the truth in most of the world. Your waitress one day could be a waitress and they could be a political candidate or they could be a famous actress or they could be like a startup gu.
You just never know. So I love that. And also how people just speak their minds that you belong. Anyone can come to the states and you can find your people no matter what state it is, what city it is, there's a place for you. And so I love that. And I think that has shaped my worldview. If you are in a job or you're in a city or you're somewhere and you just feel like you don't belong, that it's not you just might not be in the right place.
And that there is a place for you. You just have to find it. Yeah. And especially coming from someone who's, moved enough to know that you can live anywhere for a bit and you need to honor if it feels right.
And I think it's the same for a job. Here's an interesting thing I know of all my friends, and even in my own experiences, you may be a rock star.
It's, it's really in the context of where you are most often.
Yeah. When when you decided to create your own podcast, where did you start? Did you already have experience in the past? Did you know people or were you creating it from nothing?
Yeah's a really interesting question. The truth is that I was doing consulting and freelancing, and I've been primarily specialized in video, and there was an opportunity to produce a podcast of which I was perfect for, but I hadn't had any podcasting experience.
So I actually took Seth Godin's podcasting Fellowship. Which I would highly recommend because you're in a community, a worldwide community of everyone launching their podcast for the first time, like all different kinds. So I took. Step Godin's podcasting fellowship. And I literally drip by drip, step by step, worked on what it was we were gonna talk about, the type of people I wanted to interview and how we were actually going to execute on it.
And did a ton of research and listening to people's very amazing podcasts and sometimes not so great podcasts. Yeah. Just to like, yeah. I mean that made me feel better because I, sometimes I'd listen to peoples and I'd be like, yes, not very good yet. And I think that's the important part of beginning anything new creatively to know.
Like the first episode you released, the first video you released, whatever it is, like that's gonna be your worst one. And it's only gonna get better. And just knowing that I think helped a ton.
It is so funny you say that because when I started doing the Powerful Ladies podcast, like you don't know what's gonna come out, right?
You just have an idea and you've done as much homework as you can and you start. And I'm really proud of our first episode, partly because we had such an amazing guest that had such an amazing story. And I remember hearing it the first time and I was like. Oh, like this actually sounds good. Like I didn't know what was gonna come.
And you know what? I also, at the same moment that I realized that this is a good episode, I realized, ah, shit, that means that I don't know what the bad one is yet, but it's gonna be there. But it's gonna be a whole bunch. So that I look back after I'm at like 500 episodes and I'm like, Ew, if I could go back, I'm gonna have to have this guest back on.
'cause I blew it for those episodes.
Yeah, I mean you just never know. It's a creative experiment. And I think like this whole idea of perfectionism is like what holds us back. Yeah. But the truth is like you could have a badly produced podcast and it could help one people, one person like profoundly and you have no idea.
Yes. So it's also like your responsibility. You've gotta do it and you just gotta get better. Better and better. And the only way you do that is through practice and actually doing it
and knowing, because I believe so firmly, that the stories that I am helping people share through this podcast really are meant for somebody out there, if not multiple people out there listening.
Like I, I keep coming back to that when I'm having a bad day or when I feel like, I dunno how to do x, y, and z part of the business yet. And I'm trying to figure it out and I'm just going anyway. 'cause I'm a firm believer in what you set up. Do it anyway. Just start. And knowing that and believing that there's someone waiting to hear the message, I'm like, okay, as long as they get the message, you're going to be fine.
This is not for you to look good. This is for somebody to hear what they have to say. But it helps, right? It helps to have that in my back pocket to, give myself a pep talk and a reminder that it's not about me.
It's not about you. It's really not. It's like you have to remove yourself from the equation and be like, I'm in service to other people.
This is why I am doing it. And then just take yourself out of the equation. Because I remember even my first few podcast episodes, I just kept recording them. I kept having guests and I did absolutely no editing for months, literally, because I could not bear to listen to myself. Yeah. It made me cringe.
I was like, and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. What am I doing? Who do I think I am? Like all this stuff. And I kept getting guests on, but was not releasing anything because it took me a while to push through that. And be like, no, I'm gonna do it. Even if it's terrible, I'm gonna keep going.
And of course it was never terrible, but it's just, we're our own worst critics, especially when we're taking on something that we're passionate about, that we're excited about or something that's even new.
Oh yeah. My. I the do it anyway. One of the do it anyways, I had to step over for the podcast was that I hated hearing my own voice.
Like I don't, I still don't like my voice. And the biggest surprise has been when people have called and been like, you actually have a good podcast voice. I'm like, what? Who knew that? Who knew that was in there? Imagine if I never started, because I'm like, no, I can't bear to hear my voice. Nobody else can.
It's so silly, right?
It's so silly. I remember when I was director of communications, I was on camera twice a week for four years, and the first couple of videos I cringed for anyone to see me on camera. I was like, oh my God, it's gonna be awful. And then I got better and I got better, and I got better until like I was the best.
At that is my company, aside from like our CEO and that journey has given me now the ability to coach other people, which is what I'm doing in my consulting work is like helping people with their marketing strategies, their video strategies, and coaching them through it so that they can show up authentically.
And it's ironic because one of the things I'm always saying to myself, I mean to people, is that I that are paying me is don't worry about the production value. What really resonates is the authenticity. So show up as yourself. So if the people that are looking for your services can get to know you, if you show up as someone overly professional who's got it all together, they don't really get a sense of who you are.
So it's just not gonna land the same way. And so we get so caught up on what it looks like and whether, but really the question is what does it feel like? And if we show up in our truest essence, people feel it and it resonates and it works. Yep. I am really fascinated by how people who are consultants and coaches start everyone that I've talked to has their own path of how it began.
How did you get into doing that yourself?
Yeah, so it's really interesting. I think it goes back to that of things choose you. I moved to Portland and I had this very clear idea that I was gonna open up a meditation studio and I was gonna have all these online courses, and who knows, maybe that will be the direction that it goes.
But I'd been in the corporate world for 12 years and the first six months I had all these plans of all these actions I was gonna take. And what I found was that energetically, I actually couldn't do it. Like I have this long list of all the things I was gonna do, and then at the beginning of the day, I'd literally find myself on my couch staring at the ceiling.
And I just didn't have it in me. And so I had to go through a little bit of a process of undoing. And I think I was more burnt out than I really realized. And I, when I talk to people in who are working in these really great, successful jobs, it's like, it's not a question of when you'll be, it's if you're gonna get burnt out, it's a question of like when, because even if you're self-care is really high, the pace at which we operate is unsustainable.
So I think I was lying on my couch looking at the ceiling and took a lot of walks in the forest at that time. Did a lot of sitting in the rose garden, drinking coffee, reflecting, reading, talking to friends. And what I discovered doing a lot of yoga, actually I was teaching a lot of yoga and meditation at that time.
And what I discovered was I wasn't really feeling the meditation studio, like it wasn't really calling to me anymore. And very randomly, one day I was driving to Starbucks and I'm always praying to the universe as a course miracle student. And I said, show me show me what I'm meant to be doing next.
And I need a miracle. Because that's the practice. So if you follow Gabby Bernstein or Marian Williamson. And I went into Starbucks and randomly I opened up Facebook and I was part of this group and there was this woman doing these live intuitive readings on Facebook Live. I couldn't make this up if I tried.
And and like she was doing a live intuitive reading on Facebook. And I typed my question because she'd been there for on a while and she was gonna close out. And she was like, Candice. And I said to her, I can't decide, should I do my a media company or should I do a yoga, a meditation studio?
And so she just said to me, I just don't see you in brick and mortar. I feel like you like to create and move on, create and move on. And a woman I've never even met is on Facebook Live on a Facebook group. And she said to me, no brick and mortar for you. And all that just sounded true to me.
Yeah. I was like, that's absolutely true. I don't wanna be in one space. I think a few days later I got a call and someone said, Hey, would you do some consulting? It was a big consulting project for me. And then I didn't do any prospecting, any marketing people just started calling me and asking me to do work for them.
And so I took that as a universal sign of Hey, if people are asking me to do this work that I'm really good at and that I really like and they wanna pay me for it, I think I should dive more into this and do it. And so that's what I've been doing. People, as I said, just call me and I'm like, great.
And so now I'm figuring out that step of how do I move this into a sustainable business model and take all the learnings and the great work that I've done to help people on a bigger level even.
Yeah. And were those people who called you people that you had worked with before?
Yeah. So they were all in my network.
Yeah.
And I, this is something I wanna say, I don't think I would've shared this anywhere actually else, but a lot of the. My meditation, spiritual practices that even if an environment isn't working for you, or maybe even if like you hate your boss, being in the practice of literally in my meditation, sending everyone light of saying, of I thank you for everything that you do contribute to my life. Thank you for I had this job. And so never leaving in a space of I hate you all fucking suck. Because that was never the case. Yeah. It was more of oh, this doesn't quite work for me. And so it's my responsibility to find out what does, but really being in that space of gratitude and blessing and literally sending light to everyone I'd worked with, and at one stage in my job.
When I was having a hard time, I was like what am I actually doing here? And I was like, I'm the light here. I'm, my job is to be kind to people. My job is to have appreciation. My job is to contribute at a level to make this a really, a high vibration, positive place and experience, not just for myself, but for everyone around me.
And so I think because of that, I have this network of like really high vibe people who reach out to me for work.
Yeah. No, it's so amazing and I do believe that it's what you're sending out comes back to you. The big message for powerful ladies is that I want to allow people to. Know how bright their light is, to know how to use it to maximize it and what they're capable of doing.
And also because we need everyone to be aware of what they're capable of and to be ready to share it, because we all need each other operating at our best. Like me helping you, helping them is like helping me in return. Because it's all of us that need to be showing up together. When I go, every time I step out of something that I feel like I want to do, or if I feel I'm feeling a bit lazy, right when I was launching the podcast or the whole thing, literally the day before I was going live, I had the opportunity to go to a local networking event.
And it made no sense for me to go. I had 20 more hours straight of work to do. Stepping away, sending insane, and I'm like, no. Like I'm just gonna go have a break. The people who are organizing this, I really respect. I'm just gonna go say hi, pop in, pop out. And it was one of the best things I could have done because I got to share what I was up to.
Other people got excited about it, it gave me energy back and it really set me on this path of momentum where I was like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Thank you universe for giving me the reminder right when I needed it, because like I, it was the final push. And to have the final push before launch, get that extra boost, really made an impact.
Yeah. It's like you've gotta be listening to that. And like you were invited for a reason.
Yeah. And also made me think about how a friend of mine came recently. They started a new job and they felt like they were sold a bill of goods that weren't getting delivered. There wasn't the integrity that the people they interviewed with talked about.
There wasn't all this creation and building what's next. And they were complaining and whinging about it. And they're like, and no one there is a leader. And I just let that sit for a second. I looked at them and I went, you're there. And they went, what? I'm like, you're there. Like you are the leader.
People don't always want to be a leader. People don't always, it's not a volunteer position most of the time, especially when there's no extra benefits coming with it. I'm like, but you're there. Like you're the leader, maybe the reason you're there is because you have to show everybody else what that looks like.
And they like got all mad and mopey about it. 'cause they knew they had to step up 'cause they knew like I was right. To some extent, there's always a leader in the room. It's just a matter of if you want it to be you or not. And
I think that's absolutely true and what I've discovered is I take the lead on, like just telling it like it is, of being in that space of vulnerability so that other people can do it as well, because it's so boring when we're just talking about things that don't really matter.
Like, how do we have those conversations that matter? How do we step into our, and how do we play bigger in the world? And I think you're absolutely right. There's been many situations where I'm like, I don't wanna be the person who says it, yeah. I don't wanna be the person who says it, and then I'm like, I gotta say it because no one else is gonna say it, and it's gonna empower everyone here.
Yeah. I definitely have a love hate relationship for being aware of my leadership. And the fact that there are so many times I'm like, can someone else just step up this one time? Please? And sometimes it happens and I get so excited to my, like when I see another leader at a place I'm working or in a group, I get so excited 'cause I'm like, yes, I'm not alone.
We can do this together. It'll be even bigger and more magnified. And it's been interesting to see in the corporate spaces how that's worked and how it hasn't. But yeah, it's like when you can't, you have to say what you're there to say for better or worse.
And I think sometimes, like to your point, people are leading from a space of that hierarchy of having status.
Not really leadership. Yeah. And so even if you're not in that position, you might be leading from a space of compassion and truth. And that frees everyone up, even the people that are theoretically above you in the organization because they get inspired by it and it moves them even if you don't know that it does.
Even if they don't show it. Whenever you show up as your authentic self, you allow everyone else to do the same.
Yeah. And. I think there's so much opportunity for discovering something new when you approach a job, not as, oh, here's my job. I'm gonna show up and do what I'm assigned. But to look at who do I get to be in this job?
What are, what's the lesson that I get to have? What's a lesson I get to share? 'cause it adds some extra dimensionality to it, whether it's, as you broke it up before, whether it's a job or a career or your vocation, there's a bigger exchange that can happen other than here's paperwork I did in exchange for cash.
Yeah.
Absolutely. Also, you're spending all your time there, so you might as well make it worth it. You literally eight hours a day plus it's all your, a lot of your creative energy and juice is going in there. And so I think what's also really important is to stop waiting for other people.
To choose you. Yeah. And to choose yourself. And that's something that I'm always practicing and I hear in my mind of choose yourself. And to me what that means is not looking for validation of the work that I'm doing from other people, but to be objectively look at it and say, is this my best work?
Do I think this is good? Is, and that's the same as like how you're showing up at work and then you being the judge of that, is this the best work I can do? Yes. Am I proud of it? Do I love it? And having just that, if you showed up every day at work and you were like, is this the best I can do?
It would have a profound influence on your work, on your life, how you see things, but also the people around you.
Going back to one of the other I think really important points that you made up about having real and deep conversations. The same group of women that I started a book club with this year, we started with the Course of Miracles.
We haven't of course finished it. We've been Oh, so good. Yeah. We've been layering on other books that are a little bit easier to read so that we can maintain our appreciation for course of miracles versus reading it in dense form as fast as possible. And one of those books that we just are reading now is a Tribe Called Bliss.
And the point of the book is this woman who was actually a student of Gabrielle Bernstein's she really wanted to have deep, meaningful female relationships who she could go to for advice and who could hold her accountable. And going through the book. A lot of what she recommends. I think for someone like you, I like it's common in regards to like how to set up a meeting and make sure that you show up all the time and to do what you said you would do to show up.
But there's an element that I really appreciated, which is her talking about these deeper conversations. 'cause I'm very impatient person and it's something that I have to be aware of all the time that. Like no other people don't always operate on car speed or endurance. My sister's nodding her head right now based on how many podcasts I've made her record in such a short time.
But I really enjoy getting to like the realness of things we could talk about, because I feel that once you talk about the real stuff and you get flat on where people are and you really see who each other are, then you get to create things together. And I really find joy in creating things with people.
And like that being my sense of relationship building. And it could be silly things we're creating or it could be, substantial things that make an impact in the world. And you brought it up about how you get to those deep conversations. How are those important to you in what you're doing for work and also your personal life, and how do you cultivate those in your life?
Yes. I think the question is really like, how do you authenticate, how do you create real connection? Yeah. Is what it comes down to. I think. Because if you've been to a mixer or a networking event, like the first thing people wanna talk about is, who are you and what do you do?
And get a sense of like where you are in the status hierarchy. And I think what's more interesting for me is who are you? What do you do that lights you up. What do you do on the weekends? That's cool. Do you think your work is your purpose? And for me, developing those authentic conversations, you have to be you have to be grounded in who you are.
So I think the work is always on discovering your truth. And who you are in the world and being really grounded in that. Because if you can, then you make like anyone who's around you is comfortable, have you met those people like, who are like super dorky or like super eccentric and they're so comfortable in their own skin that they enable everyone else to feel comfortable in their skin.
Yes. And I think that the, the unconscious energy that we pick up on from people. It's are you okay with who you are or are you trying to bullshit us? Yeah. And we pick up on that. So I think it's less about, like how do you initiate those conversations? And it's more are you aligned in your truth and like what you are doing and who you are in the world?
And that's not easy. So it sounds like, okay, we'll be okay with who you are. But most of us have a lot of insecurities. We have those, shoulds. We have that external idea of what success is. And to be honest, I don't know how anyone is. Okay. And in that grounded feeling without some kind of practice.
And so for me it's of course miracles. You guys are taking on the book, which is a mountain. So just saying as a starting point, that's a big, that's a huge mountain, but it's about whatever it is for some people. I coach a lot of people on the side of being, a student and teacher of a course in Miracles and a meditation teacher and everyone's practice looks different.
And what do we even mean by practice? It's like things that you do that make you feel like yourself. So some people, it's like mountain biking. It like really like calms their nervous system. They feel authentically joyful, and it allows them to show up in other areas of their life with their whole self.
For some people it's a consistent meditation practice. It's yoga, whatever it is. I think that you need. Some kind of practice that you cultivate in your life where you can sit with discomfort as maybe like a signal that you're doing something that you're not meant to be doing. Or you're finding things challenging, that you have some kind of practice where a support group of like-minded people, like I love your book club idea of like people that you can be vulnerable with.
That you can tell them your truth about being judged and that you have some space where you are sitting with yourself in your truth and not like lying to yourself. And that's one of the panelists said like one of her decisions she made was she wasn't gonna lie to herself anymore. Yeah. And so being really truthful with yourself.
'cause if you have that, everything else just flows. You like find your people, you start to pay attention. This doesn't feel good, so I'm not gonna do this anymore. That person, when I spend time with them, I feel really good. So I'm gonna spend time with them. When I do this activity, I feel really good.
And when you're in that. Space like that authenticity and the connection is just a natural byproduct of it.
Yeah. And I and what I find so often with the people I'm coaching with is the first step is just getting them to tell me what they're afraid to wish for. 'cause so many people keep the big, bold wish to themselves 'cause they're so afraid to say it out loud because they're so afraid it won't happen.
And like that to me is like one of those lies that we don't realize we're telling ourself until you like step into No what do I really want? What sounds scary and awesome and like I can't do it. And if all those things go away, what would you want to create? What would you wish for? And I love and.
Go ahead. Yes. No,
I was gonna say, I just I'm like yes. But there's so much to say about that, and I think that comes down to things just choose you. And it's in, of course, miracles. Danielle LaPorte, who is a writer and author who says it the best way that I know. And that is she is wants what you goddamn want.
Yeah. Because if you're suppressing it, like you are suppressing yourself and your creative energy is gonna be suppressed, you're just not gonna be able to do what you really want. Yeah. So I could have been a very successful financial advisor, and part of my soul would've died. And, my clients would've felt it as well.
I wouldn't have been doing a service to them. So I think it's, you're absolutely right. It's want what you goddamn want? And it's, there's a sense of some things that you want are perceived as better and more noble, more, respectable. And that's just the story that we tell ourselves.
It's actually not even true.
Yeah. And we consider so many people in what we want to wish for instead of just going for it.
I used to think communications was not for smart people. I was like, oh, producing videos me.
You really, I even studied for that. I was like, because I believed finance was smart, respectable status. And then I couldn't deny it any longer. I was like, this is where my gift is. This is what lights me up. And it felt really like unserious, but it was what I was gifted with and it is really what I loved doing.
So it was just ironic.
Yeah. I really appreciate when in our personal development we get to a place where we can reflect on, where we've been like a butthead about things and just a jerk and be like, of course the universe is going to come back and be, it's like almost when people have children that are.
Like them when they were kids and they realize how bad they gave it to their parents. Sometimes, like the universe likes irony and it's very sarcastic. So if you if the snarky side of you has a point of view, most likely you're going to find yourself in that same place. So it's a, I Yeah,
I remember.
Yeah I had such a career highlight. It was such an interesting thing. I went to a video marketing and production workshop in Boston at this company called wia. They do hosting, but there's super rad company, and they were having this two day workshop and one of the workshops they were gonna have.
Adam of a sandwich video who owns this really famous studio in LA and they produced all like the hottest and best commercials for the top tech companies. So Apple Watch, all that type of stuff. And he's usually in the videos. Like it's very cool. They have their own flavor, like they're the coolest of the coolest.
So they were gonna have Adam Lior critique people's videos that they had submitted. And at the time I walked into the room and everyone there made videos for a living. It was a newer thing to me. And I was like, oh my God. I think I started to have a panic attack. There was no seating room, there was standing room only.
And I started to think to myself, God, I think I submitted a video. And I was like, oh God, I hope I didn't submit a video. And then I started, and then I said, put to myself. I was like, I know I did. I don't remember which one I did, but surely if they chose my video, they would've emailed me. Like they would've told me that they, that got my video right.
And so I stood there at the back of the room, like in this. Panic cold sweat. They were going through everyone's videos and then all of a sudden they were like, can, he was like, Candice Carlton is Candice Carlton here. And I was like, oh my God. And very, like slowly, like I raised my hand really slowly and the whole room watched the video of which or professional video makers I am in the video as the host.
That's the one they had chosen. So I was like, oh my God, what was I thinking? At the end of it, he said this was a superb job, high class. He is you as the host and your fellow host, you led the whole thing. I usually don't see videos like this. This is tremendous. And I was just blown away. And I think that's like another example of things just choose you don't try to be too perfect. It's the same thing with the podcast thing. And just create, 'cause never in my wildest dreams, but I thought that would've happened. And then he invited us to his studio in LA and I'm in LA in his studio, like asking him a million questions.
And it was just a point for me where I started to realize, like I started to get some validation from the universe of yes, this path you're on is the right one for you. Yes, you're really good at it. And one of the things I'd spoken to him, I was like, all these people have this technical training, they've done their whole career in it.
And he said, it doesn't matter. He said, you see how to solve a problem in a way that they don't? And so that's all that matters.
I think that's the equally liberating and frustrating part of how life goes. You can do all of this training and it can help you and you can use it and then you can also do none of it and do better than the people who have, and it's very much like athletics in that sense, where there are some people who have to train like an Olympian to run a half marathon and there are some people that just show up and run and can run even faster than the people who trained.
So it's really interesting to, to be balancing how are you preparing yourself for. The skills you need to do the, the path you think you're gonna be on, and then you just don't know what's gonna show up. So like my approach has always been how many different skills can I acquire and have some awareness of.
So I'm ready for as much of anything as possible. But that's not reality for most people and probably too stressful for a lot of people. But
when, what's so interesting is when I look back on it, I'm like, of course this is what I'm doing. And when I look at. Strength finder.
My number one is communicator. So it's yeah, like you're connecting people through the power of communication. And if I followed that intuitively, like I might've like from the beginning because I was head of debate in public speaking in high school, maybe I would've studied media or journalism.
And it sure goes back to a really interesting thing of want what you want. Yeah. I wanted to study fashion journalism when in a university, this is my idea. And one person, one person, I don't know why I took this. I said to me, oh, you're too smart to study journalism. I took that one person's opinion and changed my, and chose my major based on that.
Yeah. Whereas I think that's how much sometimes those external queuing like affects us. Whereas if I just listened to what lit me up, I might have. Studied fashion journalism. Who knows?
I think everyone has those stories of, and usually it's somebody that, sometimes it's somebody that's very influential in your life and often it's a random person makes one comment that just catches you in a way where it sticks with you.
And it really silly because most people aren't malicious and they're speaking from their own concerns or fears or judgements, but some just land with us and they stick when, to your point we're not in a place to be confident in our path and what we're made for. And it's fascinating how everybody has a story like that.
Yeah. I think if there's one idea that I can share and spread, it's like you have a unique path, and it's your responsibility to discover and create it, and it's not gonna look like anyone else's. Because no one else is like you. And I think that's just not how our common thinking goes.
And to your point of how, like everything leads to who you end up becoming.
When I met you this past week, like instantly I was like, oh, she's fancy and glamorous and this is awesome. And it's no surprise to me that you wanted to study fashion journalism because that, like instantly that came through to me as something that, like you, you get, and so of course it all makes sense that you caring about that or your awareness of it in any sense leads to how you show up looking professionally in your videos and how you show up presenting yourself glamorous and powerful and it changes how the listening people have of you based on how you present yourself.
Yeah, there's no doubt upon meaning you that. You command a space in a room and people wanna hear what you have to say, and I always think having a great accent helps with that too. So you really have checked a lot of boxes for maximizing your communication strengths.
You're so sweet.
That's so lovely. I so appreciate that. I think, what's also, wanted to share with that is I think, on your panel people had discussed I, are there examples of women that you look up to that you want to be like? And something that I had struggled with and sat with is like, how do I stay in my divine feminine of liking?
I wanna talk to you about lipstick and your heels and to Botox, or not Botox, or buy Lululemon or not buy Lululemon or. Whatever that looks like. And I wanna talk to you about your purpose. About the shit that you're going through, about how to elevate your business. And so that space of women sitting in their divine femininity, whatever that looks like for me, that's what it is.
And also being smart grounded woman of the world that affect change and that are helping other people as well. So I think it's like a beautiful mix. And historically we didn't have that many examples of it. And I think more and more we're having those, and I think of Michelle Obama as just a beautiful example of that.
Yeah. 'cause people don't wanna, we have so much conversation, especially today with the women's movement about, what people and women especially have to look like to be heard and. I've always said, and people haven't always appreciated that I've said this, that in order for there to be in the US more women political leaders, it is going to come down to how they present themselves.
You, you might say someone is or isn't a natural beauty, but you can always change how people view you, no matter what you're given at birth based on how you dress, how you hold your confidence, like there's like a styling element that you can do that changes the way people listen to you. And do I wish that didn't matter?
Sure, it would make a lot of things easier, but the truth is, it does impact how the world sees you and how they, whether they want to give you the space to speak.
No, I was gonna say as you're think ignoring it comes at a price. I think one of the best examples of that was Stacey London on the TV show of What Not To Wear.
Did you ever watch that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so she talks about working at Vogue and being a size zero to being a size 16 and saying that it whatever dress size she was, she could find clothing. That I think, to your point, not only makes you look powerful, but made her feel powerful. Yes. And that made her.
Felt feminine. And their whole show was about finding clothes that people felt joyful in, that they felt empowered in. And that affects not only just the way people perceive you, but it affects the energy that you exude because of how you feel about yourself. Yeah. So everyone has a different style and it's really just stepping into, I'm seeing a lot on Instagram and loving it of these new age of fashion stylists who are like, how do you dress for your higher self?
And I am digging that, like they're bringing in spiritual concepts and components to styling yourself for power, styling yourself, for authenticity and for joy.
Yes. And it's we have such a relaxed culture in the US right now in regards to what you can wear in corporate spaces and. I, there are some days when, especially if you work from home like that, wearing leggings and a hoodie might be what gets you through the day.
And it's perfect and it's empowering and, but I do think that there's something about being prepared for whatever's going to happen that day really gives you the most power because it frees you up from having to worry about if, what if you aren't like, like we're we record in a studio where you never know who's gonna walk through the door and most people aren't walking through the door when we're recording based on like the arrangement we have worked out here.
But you never know. There's a couple weeks ago where I was maybe going to meet Conan O'Brien. And I was like how would I wanna look if I was going to meet someone like Colonel O'Brien? Probably not in a hoodie. And it's just funny to think about that. So we had Lacey on a couple weeks ago and she's listen, every day I work from home or out of my workspace, every day I wake up and shower and get ready for the day as if I was going to the office.
Because I wanna be able to be a yes to whatever shows up and whatever that means I'm wearing. As long as I feel like I can be a yes to a client meeting, to a lunch date, to having to randomly show up on the news to promote my business, like I'm gonna be ready. And if I'm not physically ready, I better have a bag ready like in my car.
Yeah, I think that's amazing. And I also think that, to that point, there's been this the world that I came from, like fashion was not considered, it was considered frivolous and not serious. Which it is. It's like totally fun, but I, why can't you bring those elements into your serious work, yes. It's my thought on it. And you have to wear clothes anyway, so why don't you love the clothes you wear?
And loving them and be, and being stylish and feeling like you're expressing to your point before, like your higher power. It has nothing to do with how much you're spending on it or no.
Even like how much time you're putting into it necessarily. It's just really to your point, does this make me feel powerful? Does this make me feel awesome? Does this make me feel like I can do everything I ever wanted to do? And more then cool. And that can change every day. Just like how powerful we feel changes every day as well.
I love the minimalist moving movement too. Because when you see those people in the tiny homes, or with 33 items, or your Marie Kondo in your house which I've done several times in our house, it's like looking at your clothing and like those people who are in the tiny homes, they're like, I got 12 pieces of clothing.
I love every single piece of clothing Yes. That I own. And so it's just like creating that energy in your life of yeah. You know of, yeah.
I am a firm believer besides being obsessed with everything minimalistic and tiny house right now. I used to be a professional organizer. It was one of the first businesses I ever started.
Wow. And it's definitely one of those things where it is a strength of mine. Like I whistle Dixie while I'm like doing this for myself, for other people, and I even have to give myself rules you cannot purge the house for another six months because I will overdo it and then be like, wait, didn't we have a trash can?
Oh no, I sold it. Shoot. But so it's something that I like, really believe in that you, if you look at all the spaces we have that can consume us between spiritual space, emotional space, mental space and physical spaces, all of them impact us. And either put rocks in the bag, we carry around or take them out and.
I really think it's important, to look at all of those spaces and see what do you have that isn't benefiting you? And if it's not benefiting you, why do you have it? Either you use it or you love it. Those should be the two things that you have for all of that space. And there's such a difference when you clear out a physical space that I think allows you to start clearing out the other non-physical spaces and including
your
mind.
Yes. For work.
When like your spaces are clean and organized and you're clear on everything, I feel like inspiration flows much easier.
There, there's room for other things to show up, even if they're just an idea. So yeah, I love all of those things. I'm completely obsessed and I love that YouTube is a great place to find.
All those niche channels that are popping up like totally obsessed with big living in a tiny house.
It's like I kept sitting my cup cupboard and thinking, could I do a capsule wardrobe? What would that look like? And feeling like really empowered and excited about this possibilities of abilities amping up the joy, but like reducing the volume.
And I think that goes to exactly what we're talking about of that redefining success. And it's not like just getting more and more things the same way. It's not just like climbing the corporate ladder and earning more and more money, although it may be for you. It's really about asking that question what brings me joy and what am I meant for?
How can I be of my highest contribution?
Yes. One of the things that I struggle the most with, so I would love your 2 cents on this, is I constantly go back and forth because I've moved so much. I know so many people. I love so many people and I'm a keeper. If I like someone, I'm like, you're, yes.
Forever. We are gonna be in communication. Like I have phone numbers from when I was like seven years old. Like I've always just been a keeper of wow people and like wanting, like never knowing when I might want to rekindle that connection. And I get stressed over not being able to maintain all of the personal relationships that matter to me.
So I'm constantly like not, I'm like, can I narrow it down to 20 people that I'm like really in connection with? And every time I go down that path, I laugh at myself because I just don't think it's gonna happen. But I do stress over how many people I care about and really get value and find joy in and wanna support, and how much time I have to do that and am I ever really doing it the way I want to from a meaningful perspective.
I think that's a lot of pressure
to put on yourself. Yes. And that's just one moment. That's one thought in my brain. Imagine the others, right?
I think yeah, you're not gonna, I think the truth is it's I totally get where you, you have that, where that thought comes from, right? Of like being of highest contribution, of feeling really connected to people that you love of like having them in your life.
But I think, I can only speak from my own experience is and it's like the quote, you can have everything, but you can't have it all at one time. Yeah. It, things will, you'll know things will show up for you. I think that your friends and the people that you love also it's like they show up at different times in your life.
And sometimes they leave and then sometimes they come back and you know those people that you haven't seen for years and then you see them and it's you didn't miss a beat. Yeah. Like you told them yesterday. It's ironic because I was lying in bed last night and I was contemplating the ways that I'd not shown up for people randomly.
And one of the things that I was thinking about was how important it's to go to people's funerals when they've got a death in their family. No matter who they are, that the moments that really matter are like being there when stuff is not good. Yeah. So I think we're stepping away from joy here, but like really showing up for people when there's loss.
I think really showing up for people when there's celebration. If you're invited to the weddings, the baby christenings, all that stuff to be going there and doing all of that stuff. But beyond that, to not put so much pressure on yourself to be like your friends come in and out.
They're available when they're available and to, just interact with them in a way that brings you joy. And I think that's different for everyone. I like one-on-one time with my friends. And then I've got better at touring myself birthday parties, because I used to never do that. But it's an opportunity to bring together everyone I love.
And it's not necessarily a celebration of me, it's a celebration to bring all the people I love and connect them together. So I think you just gotta know people are gonna cycle in and out. And there's no right or wrong way for it. I think that's just, there's like a there's a pattern there of what you can't really control.
Yep.
Yeah, it's I'm really good at causing big things to happen and then being like, oh man, I forgot how powerful I was. Shoot, now I have to go. I have to go cause it to happen. Like the way I said. And the Portland event was a great example because I said that was gonna happen way before I knew who would be on the panel way before I knew where it would be.
And but I love that idea of just throwing your hat over the wall and saying yes and being like, all right, we're gonna figure it out. Let's go. But yeah it's a wild ride when you just start living big and it's the relationship you have with fear and bravery and what you're capable of.
Like just throwing it all into the air and being like, all right, let's go.
I think it's an interesting thing because I think that you're just totally demonstrating that and living that, and it's just fabulous to watch. And I think that even for myself, like I start reaching out to people, presidents of companies that I know, and I'll be like, yo, what's going on?
Do you got some projects going? Do you want such, you want to get going that I can help you with? And once you step into fear, it's it just like dissipates. Then you're just not scared of anything anymore. It's like the more you face what you're scared of, the less scared you become.
Yes, for sure. It's I love expanding bravery and courage and encouraging other people to step into that as well.
It's one of my favorite games.
I think
that's totally what
you're doing.
Thank you. We ask everybody on the podcast where you would rate yourself on the Powerful Lady scale, zero being average, ordinary human, and 10 being super powerful lady. Where would you put yourself today and where do you put yourself on average?
I think on average, I probably think I'm about like an eight. I think that there's still room to grow into. And I think also it's nice to have that room of yes, I'm powerful when I show up. And also giving myself the permission to say sometimes I'm not powerful. And I, and whatever that looks like.
But I think for me it would probably be an eight. I think I'm most powerful when I am taking on. New, scary, audacious things. And within that space, like being really in the energy of service, I think that's when I'm at my most powerful, even with my clients, like making that big switch, that mental service of I'm here to give them whatever they need right now.
So it's less a boom in your space, in your face, powerful. And it's more of a grounded let's get you what you need. Powerful space.
Yeah, I totally agree. There was a book that made a huge impact on me recently is a book called Spiritual Leadership and it's a Christian oriented leadership book.
And I know that can be triggering for some people, but it really it didn't occur to me as overpowering. And I really recommend everyone read it because it just speaks to a lot of the humanity and ways that we can serve people and come from that place of how can I help today? Who is, who am I gonna cross paths with today that I can be of service to?
And I took on saying that every day for, I think I did a 60 day challenge with myself that I'd wake up and that would be my meditation statement for the day. And it was amazing what showed up. Amazing because some days it would be the super powerful CEOI was working with that I never would've thought I needed to be of service to.
And then the next day it might be a homeless guy that you would pass, you would think of more as someone that you could be of service to and everybody in between. And I love that you are in that space of just providing what people need to be their best selves. And I wish that there were more people than there already are doing that.
So like just huge thank you from me that's who you are for the world and people and that, yeah, that we get to share that. That's what you're up to on this podcast.
Yeah. Thank you. I think what's also really the interesting thing about that though is it sounds like really noble to be like, okay, I'm gonna be of service to other people.
And I guess on some level it is, but the ultimate reality is that it feels better to me. Yes. Like it takes the pressure off me. Like I can be more relaxed. And I think the spiritual practice in all of this is that what you give, you receive. And so when you're really in that powerful place of service, like you ultimately help yourself more than anything, like you help all these people and you allow yourself to be in that more grounded space of really being your highest contribution.
Completely agree. I think that is an amazing place to wrap this podcast episode up. Thank you so much for being a guest in The Powerful Ladies Podcast, and I cannot wait to see what else we collaborate on in the future.
Thank you so much. Kara was such a pleasure.
Candice is a boss. I love her confidence and clarity and her generosity to share her knowledge and what's worked for her to help others find joy. She knows that happiness is possible for all of us. It's not just woo. You really, truly can have the totally amazing life that is waiting for you. You really can learn to tap into your inner voice, your intuition, and the whisper of the universe.
Know the answers and the next steps you're looking for. Candice is proof and she's here to guide you. If you're looking for that help. To connect, support, follow, or reach out to hire Candice or to work with her on your next project. You can follow her on Instagram at be Your Own damn guru. Subscribe and listen to her podcast on YouTube at Apple Podcast, the Cubicle revolution.
You can visit her website, Candice carlton.com. Follow her on LinkedIn at Candice Carlton, or email her directly Candice@Candicecarlton.com. For all the correct spellings and direct links, please go to the powerful ladies.com. If you'd like to support the work that we're doing here at Powerful Ladies, there's a couple of ways you can do that.
Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Google Play, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Leave a review on any of these platforms. Share the show with all the powerful ladies and gentlemen in your life. Join our Patreon account. Check out the website, the powerful ladies.com. To hear more inspiring stories, get practical tools to be your most powerful.
Get 15% off your first order in the Powerful Lady Shop. Or donate to the Powerful Ladies one Day of Giving campaign, and of course, follow us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies for show notes and to get the links to the books, podcasts, and people we talk about. Go to the powerful ladies.com. I'd like to thank our producer, composer, and audio engineer Jordan Duffy.
She's one of the first female audio engineers in the podcasting world, if not the first. And she also happens to be the best. We're very lucky to have her. She's a powerful lady in her own right, in addition to taking over the podcasting world. She's a singer songwriter working on her next album, and she's one of my sisters.
So it's amazing to be creating this with her, and I'm so thankful that she finds time in her crazy busy schedule to make this happen. It's a testament to her belief in what we're creating through Powerful Ladies, and I'm honored that she shares my vision. Thank you all so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.
I can't wait for you to hear it. 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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Follow her on Instagram: @beyourowndamnguru

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Email her directly: candice@candicecarlton.com

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

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