Rise Into Passion, Prosperity, and Empowerment with Becca Powers
The life of your dreams shouldn’t come at an unsustainable price. If you’re the type of woman who is trying to do it all and you're not sure how much longer you can keep it up, this is the episode for you. Life can become so challenging when you feel like you're constantly juggling workdays, managing kids at home, and giving your relationships more attention than you give yourself. In this episode, you learn how to activate the confidence you need to take control of your life and find what brings meaning and fulfillment.
In This Episode You Will Learn About:
Prioritizing yourself, while accelerating your career
How to live a fulfilled life
What you should ask yourself as a "Gut Check"
"As high-achievers, we must aim for success, but need to learn to do so without so much sacrifice and self-sabotage." - Becca Powers
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Purchase Becca’s Book, Harness Your Inner CEO: Rise Into Passion, Prosperity, and Empowerment
About the Guest:
Becca Powers is an Award-Winning Sales Leader in Technology with over a 20-year career in Fortune 500 sales. She recently launched her first book, Harness Your Inner CEO: Rise Into Passion, Prosperity, and Empowerment, which debuted as best-seller in Personal Success and Women in Business.
As a Sought-After Speaker, and corporate trainer , Becca teaches individuals how to prioritize their well-being first over other people, situations, and things (including the business) .
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Becca Powers is an award winning sales leader in technology with over 20 year career in Fortune 500 sales. She recently launched her book Harness Your CEO: Rise Into Passion, Prosperity and Empowerment, which debuted as a best seller in personal success and women in business. As a sought after speaker and corporate trainer, Becca teaches individuals how to prioritize their well being first over other people's situations and things, including the business.
Prioritizing yourself in your career
I have a 20 year background in sales. And that means sales, leadership and also in the field as an independent contributor. Well, one of the things that got me to write the book was the career journey itself. In 2013, I was a first line leader at Dell and I had a firm believer, as many leaders do that people come before prophets, and I, like stood behind that mantra. And in doing so, when I was speaking at chambers, and just, you know, being out in the community, I got recruited by another company who had a very similar motto, their motto was putting people first. So without even really thinking about it, when they recruited me, I was like, I thought it was like fate. I was like, I have to work there. And I was like, yes. And so I did, I left Dell, I went into this role as a first line leader with a different organization, and it was out of it was in healthcare staffing, out of my normal industry of technology. And when I was in that role, what happened was that I really had to a couple different things happen about six months into the role, I realized it wasn't a fit. And I kept powering through because I was really believed in the in the mantra of putting people first. And I got really committed to proving myself and and making a difference and making an impact that I started prioritizing myself lower and lower, and an effort to prioritize everything else. So fast forward three years, and did that for three years. I one day came home from work. And it's not my most like proud moment of my life. But it is a real moment. Nonetheless, I came home from a 12 hour day and I had a it was a bad day. And I had about three or four of those right, right in front of it. So it's back to back kicker of a week, and I came home and my kids were in middle school, I had my purse on my shoulder and I walk through the door, and they're so happy to see me, you know, like the kids come up, like, oh, I can't wait to tell you about your day. And my stress level was still at like a 12. Like I was still way up. And so I looked at them. And I literally remember this, I was like, “Can I put my effing purse down?” and like, “kids, just give me five minutes, mom just need five minutes.” And I remember their eyes getting like turning sad. I remember their body like pulling forward. And I remember just seeing them shift into feeling like guilt and shame because of the way I reacted to them. And it was like one of those moments in time, Danielle, that, like, things became very clear, you know, like time almost slowed down. And I was like this and I'm getting the goosebumps, as I'm telling you this. I'm like, this is not the mom I want to be this is this is not the way I want to do this. And so later that night, when I got the kids down, and I was washing my face, and taking my makeup off, I was kind of just recounting that day and that moment and I broke down crying, I broke down to the bathroom floor, I hit my knees and I just called out to the universe, God, whatever you want to say. And I was like, “I can't continue this way.” I don't know how not to power through. I'm so resilient, which is a great quality. But I'm so resilient. And I've been powering through and I'm exhausted. I don't want to be like this. I just wanted another way. And I call it my instant miracle. But as I'm sitting there on the bathroom floor, I remembered that my former VP of sales from Dell so this will go back to the beginning of the story when I resigned. He told me he was really proud of me and he's said, “Becca, you're the CEO of your life.” So there I was sitting on the bathroom floor. And I remembered that I was the CEO of my life. It was that moment that I realized that I had a lot more power in the situation than I thought I did. And I've pretty much just rose off the bathroom floor, a different woman than the one that went down. So longer answer, but that gives you a picture of kind of like, you know, what work life looks like for me and what happened.
So I would imagine that experience of watching your kids face just completely melt. I know that there's probably many women out there that can relate to this, me included, we've had those moments where we've snapped, we've been irritated, because we've carried our work into our household. And when we do snap, and we get that reaction of hurt, the shame and the guilt that we put on ourselves, it is devastating. There's so many times, you know, we want we strive to be such a great mom, and there's times that we are awesome at it, and there's times that we fail. It's hard because these kids, you know, especially at a younger age, they don't always understand what we do all day and the pressures that we have on ourselves, or the pressures we put on ourselves, all of the above. And not to say that that's an excuse. It's just that that is that is a challenge. It can definitely affect that shame and guilt that we can carry on for a very long time.
The importance of boundaries
I think that brings me to a moment of of boundaries. And I want to talk about that, because it's a really good segue, even how you were mentioning, you know, the shame and guilt we can feel as moms when we bring this stuff home. So one of the first things that I had to do besides giving myself permission to prioritize myself because that clearly, if you hit the bathroom floor and complete depletion, you need some effort there. But with boundaries, and you know, boundaries is a pretty common talk track, but I had a unique experience with it, where I needed to say no to things to say yes to myself. And in the work world that can be really scary, especially as a high achiever. I found myself and I'll just give give the illustration as a first line leader who was really passionate, I was on boards, I was on committees, I was mindshare. In many projects, I was I had my hands almost in everything. And no wonder I was exhausted, right. In my head at the time, I thought I was contributing to everything. Like I was being a good leader, I was being a good employee, and a good person and all of those things. What I didn't realize is that that was what was causing me to come home and not be present for my kids. And that those very actions were the things that left me in the guilt and in the shame. So one of the first things I started doing was saying no, to taking on an extra project or being part of a committee. And I have more I want to say, but I want to pause and kind of just see like, what your thoughts are on that.
I will often say, show me your calendar. And I'll show you your priorities. And it's a really tough gut check to have. But it's true. A lot of times people will say, “Well, my core values are family and faith and my health.” And yet, when you look at their calendar and everything that they're putting on themselves, there's no alignment, absolutely no alignment. This is kind of that gut check question, show me your calendar, and I'll show you your priorities. And I can relate a lot to what you're saying, because I was you know, as a high achiever, you're 100%, right? We try to do everything and we want to have our hands involved because we feel appreciated and valued. And we like our creative side and being part of being part of that team environment. But then that also takes away from family time. And there's a benefit in saying yes to some things but also acknowledging that saying yes to your family is equally if not more important.
I think you bring up so many things that I could just riff on, but you know that the core thing is, you have to experiment when you're first putting boundaries in place, but you're gonna say yes to some things and no to some other things. But it would be really wise to look at your calendar and see where your priorities are going. Because if your time is being committed to things that don't match your values, that's where you're going to start feeling that over commitment and that overextension and the frustration. And one thing that was really interesting and kind of unexpected, is when I started putting these boundaries in place. And I was looking at it from the perspective again, like to say yes to me, and my life thriving and my kids thriving, I have to say no to other things. And that was a big nerve, even a big nervous system thing for me. But, you know, with high achievers, what I can say is a theme amongst us is we're resourceful. We know what's going on around us. We know who our people are, we know who the people are, we know who might be wanting to come up and ranks like we are paying attention to our surroundings in great detail. And so what I started doing is just the same thing I did in my sales role as a sales leader when I said no, instead of saying a hard, no, I was say, “maybe Jennifer can take that spot.” Or “I can't participate this time because my plates a little full, but I know that Jennifer has been wanting to spend more time on strategy, and she hasn't gotten a chance.” And so I started plugging other people in into my, into my spots. Then I unexpectedly became more of a mentor within the organization.
And that is something when you're able to be a mentor, that's part of being the legacy because what you're doing is you're being a resource for them and helping other people build the careers that you have built and what's led to your success. And that is going to leave such a lasting impression impression on their lives. And I always say, eventually, you get to a point in your career, where it's less about you and less about you continuing to achieve certain things your the way that you view success. Yes, you want the awards. Yes, you want the recognition. But you also get to a point when you've been in your role for a long time where you've been very successful, where you look at. I want to share this success by seeing others thrive and achieving their goals. And it's just a different phase in your career. And it's so exciting. I think that's where you and I are at this is where we started getting involved in coaching and helping other people. Because Could you imagine if you had somebody guiding you and helping you earlier on in your career?
How to make yourself a priority?
Give yourself permission to prioritize your well being.
And that sounds simple, but it's harder, like we do a great job. This is what I love to say about high achievers, we love ourselves, okay, like there is no lack of self love. My hair's done, my nails are done, like is all good. But prioritizing myself as completely different being able to say again, no to something no to overextending myself so that I'm not at a level 10 stress, maybe I'm only out of five. But so it really starts with giving yourself permission to prioritize yourself, and your well being first and then prioritize the business is what I like to say like put yourself your well being first then prioritize the business.
Maintain passion and fulfillment.
And I call that the power of and that that would be allowing yourself to also have an and whether that's one of my clients is a went back to competitive dancing. One of my clients started painting, like there's all sorts of things, but we grow up having this like I played competitive soccer, which is why I love coaching and teaching and training. But we grow up with things that we did, and then we turn 20, go to college, whatever, and we leave that old world behind, but they're still a part of us. So I always like to encourage people to come back to their and and incorporate it and oftentimes, if not all the time, fine. People become more successful when they're bringing in their passions.
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