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PODCAST: Not Lost in the Crowd with Gaelen Poage

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Every leader has an operating system.

It was formed long before they ever stepped into a leadership role.

It was built in the boardroom they grew up in before they ever set foot in a real one. Around the dinner table where certain feelings were welcomed and others were not. In the classroom where they learned whether their voice was an asset or a liability. In every environment that taught them the rules for how to survive, how to succeed, and how much of themselves they were allowed to bring.

Those rules were useful once. They shaped driven, capable, high-performing people. Leaders who know how to deliver, how to hold it together, how to make hard things look easy.

And those same rules are showing up in the boardroom today. In the leader who knows the answer but softens it before it leaves their mouth. In the executive who has built a successful career and still cannot shake the feeling that they are one misstep away from being found out. In the high performer who keeps hitting a ceiling they cannot explain and cannot seem to break through.

The pattern is not a weakness. It is an unexamined system still running on old instructions.

Free to Lead is where we look at that system directly. Together. With honesty and without judgment. We keep what is worth carrying and put down what was never really yours to begin with.

Friday, July 24. 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM PT. Live on Zoom. $149.

Three days. Link in the comments.

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #coachapproachtoleadership #shefirstworkshop

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Open post by gretchenhydo with ID 18123508705768866

Every leader has an operating system.

It was formed long before they ever stepped into a leadership role.

It was built in the boardroom they grew up in before they ever set foot in a real one. Around the dinner table where certain feelings were welcomed and others were not. In the classroom where they learned whether their voice was an asset or a liability. In every environment that taught them the rules for how to survive, how to succeed, and how much of themselves they were allowed to bring.

Those rules were useful once. They shaped driven, capable, high-performing people. Leaders who know how to deliver, how to hold it together, how to make hard things look easy.

And those same rules are showing up in the boardroom today. In the leader who knows the answer but softens it before it leaves their mouth. In the executive who has built a successful career and still cannot shake the feeling that they are one misstep away from being found out. In the high performer who keeps hitting a ceiling they cannot explain and cannot seem to break through.

The pattern is not a weakness. It is an unexamined system still running on old instructions.

Free to Lead is where we look at that system directly. Together. With honesty and without judgment. We keep what is worth carrying and put down what was never really yours to begin with.

Friday, July 24. 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM PT. Live on Zoom. $149.

Three days. Link in the comments.

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #coachapproachtoleadership #shefirstworkshop

Four days.

Friday is almost here.

I have been thinking about the women who are going to be in that room. The ones who have been carrying something heavy for a long time and are finally, finally ready to set it down. The ones who are accomplished and capable and successful by every outside measure and still feel the gap between who they are and how they are actually showing up. The ones who have done so much work on themselves and know, because they know themselves well, that there is still a layer underneath that has not been touched yet.

This workshop was built for her. It was built for you.

We are going to look at the operating system. The beliefs you inherited before you were old enough to question them. The labels that got put on you that you have been living inside of ever since. The narratives that have been quietly running your decisions for years without your permission.

And then we are going to decide together what actually gets to stay.

Because freedom is not handed to you. It is claimed. One honest decision at a time.
I need you to hear this: Free to Lead is not a workshop you attend. It is a workshop you do. You will leave with clarity, with language for things you have felt but never been able to name, and with the beginning of a new way of moving through your life and your leadership.

Friday, July 24. 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM PT. Live on Zoom. $149.

If you have been on the fence, this is your moment. I mean that. Link in the comments.

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #freedom #coachapproachtoleadership #shefirstworkshop

2 2

Open post by gretchenhydo with ID 18086424809224613

Four days.

Friday is almost here.

I have been thinking about the women who are going to be in that room. The ones who have been carrying something heavy for a long time and are finally, finally ready to set it down. The ones who are accomplished and capable and successful by every outside measure and still feel the gap between who they are and how they are actually showing up. The ones who have done so much work on themselves and know, because they know themselves well, that there is still a layer underneath that has not been touched yet.

This workshop was built for her. It was built for you.

We are going to look at the operating system. The beliefs you inherited before you were old enough to question them. The labels that got put on you that you have been living inside of ever since. The narratives that have been quietly running your decisions for years without your permission.

And then we are going to decide together what actually gets to stay.

Because freedom is not handed to you. It is claimed. One honest decision at a time.
I need you to hear this: Free to Lead is not a workshop you attend. It is a workshop you do. You will leave with clarity, with language for things you have felt but never been able to name, and with the beginning of a new way of moving through your life and your leadership.

Friday, July 24. 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM PT. Live on Zoom. $149.

If you have been on the fence, this is your moment. I mean that. Link in the comments.

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #freedom #coachapproachtoleadership #shefirstworkshop

This is what I want every woman to walk away feeling.

Not lectured at. Not overwhelmed. Not handed a framework and sent home to figure it out alone.

Seen. Challenged in a way that feels like an invitation rather than a critique. Surrounded by other women who showed up with the same level of commitment and honesty.

That is what SheFirst is built around. Not professional development that checks a box. The kind that actually changes something.

When someone says they have never experienced anything like it before, that is the whole point. Because most professional development is forgettable. This is not supposed to be.

If you are a woman who is serious about your growth and ready to be in a room full of others who are too, I would love to have you join us. Link in the comments.

"Gretchen does an amazing job of helping you see what isn`t working in a way that doesn`t incite fear, but instead inspires growth. No boring monologues , just genuine connection and opportunity to develop. It is a unique type of professional development I have never experienced before." — SheFirst Workshop Attendee

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #leadershipdevelopment #coachapproachtoleadership #executivepresence

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Open post by gretchenhydo with ID 17866107807651100

This is what I want every woman to walk away feeling.

Not lectured at. Not overwhelmed. Not handed a framework and sent home to figure it out alone.

Seen. Challenged in a way that feels like an invitation rather than a critique. Surrounded by other women who showed up with the same level of commitment and honesty.

That is what SheFirst is built around. Not professional development that checks a box. The kind that actually changes something.

When someone says they have never experienced anything like it before, that is the whole point. Because most professional development is forgettable. This is not supposed to be.

If you are a woman who is serious about your growth and ready to be in a room full of others who are too, I would love to have you join us. Link in the comments.

"Gretchen does an amazing job of helping you see what isn't working in a way that doesn't incite fear, but instead inspires growth. No boring monologues , just genuine connection and opportunity to develop. It is a unique type of professional development I have never experienced before." — SheFirst Workshop Attendee

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #leadershipdevelopment #coachapproachtoleadership #executivepresence

Last month my husband and I hiked Devil`s Bridge in Sedona. I want to tell you what I kept thinking on the way up.

My husband is afraid of heights. Devil`s Bridge is a narrow sandstone arch sitting hundreds of feet in the air, and when we got close enough to see what we were actually walking out onto, he got quiet. I could see him doing the math in his head.

He did it anyway.

Watching him put one foot in front of the other on that skinny strip of rock with the canyon dropping away on both sides, I kept thinking about how often we talk ourselves out of things before we ever find out what we`re capable of.

When you tell yourself you can`t do something, that is not the truth. That is a rehearsed thought that has been keeping you in place.

Look at those flowers growing straight out of the rock face. No water. No soil. No logical reason they should exist there. And there they are.

That is you.

You can grow in conditions that don`t look made for it. You can do the thing that feels too big. You can walk out onto the bridge. Not because the fear goes away, but because the voice telling you that you can`t is not wisdom. It`s habit. And habits can change.

Next time you hear it, try this: remind yourself that it`s not a true thought. It`s just a practiced one. And then take the next step anyway.

That`s what Free to Lead is built for. The woman who is done letting practiced thoughts make her decisions. Who is ready to look at what`s been running quietly in the background and choose, on purpose, what she actually wants to keep.

July 24. Live on Zoom. 10 am to 12:30 pm PT. $149.

Link in the comments if that`s you

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #coachapproach #shefirstworkshop

2 1

Open post by gretchenhydo with ID 18110240911984380

Last month my husband and I hiked Devil's Bridge in Sedona. I want to tell you what I kept thinking on the way up.

My husband is afraid of heights. Devil's Bridge is a narrow sandstone arch sitting hundreds of feet in the air, and when we got close enough to see what we were actually walking out onto, he got quiet. I could see him doing the math in his head.

He did it anyway.

Watching him put one foot in front of the other on that skinny strip of rock with the canyon dropping away on both sides, I kept thinking about how often we talk ourselves out of things before we ever find out what we're capable of.

When you tell yourself you can't do something, that is not the truth. That is a rehearsed thought that has been keeping you in place.

Look at those flowers growing straight out of the rock face. No water. No soil. No logical reason they should exist there. And there they are.

That is you.

You can grow in conditions that don't look made for it. You can do the thing that feels too big. You can walk out onto the bridge. Not because the fear goes away, but because the voice telling you that you can't is not wisdom. It's habit. And habits can change.

Next time you hear it, try this: remind yourself that it's not a true thought. It's just a practiced one. And then take the next step anyway.

That's what Free to Lead is built for. The woman who is done letting practiced thoughts make her decisions. Who is ready to look at what's been running quietly in the background and choose, on purpose, what she actually wants to keep.

July 24. Live on Zoom. 10 am to 12:30 pm PT. $149.

Link in the comments if that's you

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #coachapproach #shefirstworkshop

Somewhere along the way, you learned what it cost to be inconvenient.

Maybe it was said out loud. Maybe it was quieter than that. A look. A silence. A pattern of what got rewarded and what got shut down. What the people around you needed you to be so they could be okay.

And you, being brilliant and adaptive and someone who loved the people in your life, learned the rules fast.

Don`t be too much. Don`t make a fuss. Handle it. You`re capable. Figure it out.

Those rules saved you once. They helped you navigate impossible rooms. They made you the person everyone could count on, the one who never fell apart, the one who made hard things look easy.

But here`s what I want you to sit with: those rules are still running. Right now. In the meeting where you softened what you actually knew. In the relationship where you`ve been managing instead of connecting. In the quiet moment when everything in you said no and you said yes anyway.

You didn`t fail. You followed the programming. And the programming is old.

Real freedom isn`t just about what you`re walking toward. It`s about what you`re finally willing to put down to get there. The rules that were handed to you before you had any say. The version of yourself you`ve been performing so long you forgot it was a performance. The operating system running your decisions without your conscious consent.

That is what we do inside Free to Lead. Not to throw away the strength those rules gave you. To sit down with yourself, maybe for the first time, and decide with full awareness which ones you actually want to keep.

That choice belongs to you. It has always belonged to you.

July 24. Live on Zoom. 10 AM to 12:30pm PT. $149.

Link in the comments.

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #freedom #coachapproach #shefirstworkshop

2 3

Open post by gretchenhydo with ID 18087391553425245

Somewhere along the way, you learned what it cost to be inconvenient.

Maybe it was said out loud. Maybe it was quieter than that. A look. A silence. A pattern of what got rewarded and what got shut down. What the people around you needed you to be so they could be okay.

And you, being brilliant and adaptive and someone who loved the people in your life, learned the rules fast.

Don't be too much. Don't make a fuss. Handle it. You're capable. Figure it out.

Those rules saved you once. They helped you navigate impossible rooms. They made you the person everyone could count on, the one who never fell apart, the one who made hard things look easy.

But here's what I want you to sit with: those rules are still running. Right now. In the meeting where you softened what you actually knew. In the relationship where you've been managing instead of connecting. In the quiet moment when everything in you said no and you said yes anyway.

You didn't fail. You followed the programming. And the programming is old.

Real freedom isn't just about what you're walking toward. It's about what you're finally willing to put down to get there. The rules that were handed to you before you had any say. The version of yourself you've been performing so long you forgot it was a performance. The operating system running your decisions without your conscious consent.

That is what we do inside Free to Lead. Not to throw away the strength those rules gave you. To sit down with yourself, maybe for the first time, and decide with full awareness which ones you actually want to keep.

That choice belongs to you. It has always belonged to you.

July 24. Live on Zoom. 10 AM to 12:30pm PT. $149.

Link in the comments.

#shefirst #womeninleadership #selfleadership #freetolead #personalgrowth #freedom #coachapproach #shefirstworkshop

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PODCAST: Not Lost in the Crowd with Gaelen Poage

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