89. Andrea Canny Discusses: Ageism, Interviewing, Pay Gaps, Career, Talents, & Seeing Our Gifts
Girl, Take the Lead!August 10, 2023x
89
00:31:0017.48 MB

89. Andrea Canny Discusses: Ageism, Interviewing, Pay Gaps, Career, Talents, & Seeing Our Gifts

In this episode, Andrea “Baba” Canny furthers our discussion about ageism (from Ep 88) and provides some great interviewing tips. We also get into pay gaps, career expectations, talents, gifts and dreams.

 

Andrea is in her mid-50s and since the pandemic finding steady work has been a challenge. She’s shown great resilience and looks for the gifts present with the challenges. Her story is inspirational for all of us and is a great example of a “Girl, Taking the Lead!”

 

3 Episode Takeaways:

1. Ageism is going to happen to everyone – best to be aware and accepting early in your career.

2. Listen for the interview vibes you’re picking up and be sure to share examples of your “trainable chimp” moments.

3. Change is inevitable – don’t attach your job to your identity so you can build your own resiliency and see dreams you want to pursue.

 

As Mentioned in the Episode:

Ep 88 with Nori Jabba

Nori’s book, Keeping Your Seat at the Table

Andrea’s Workshop: Princess to Gargoyle: Embracing Change & Creating Longevity in your Career
http://www.andreacanny.com/workshopsmaster-classes

 

Previous Episodes with Andrea:
Ep 1 “Wait, I Can Sound Wimpy?”

Ep 2 “Is Leadership Funny”

Ep 3 Betty White: More than Just Funny

 

More about Andrea:

 

Andrea Canny’s 38-year career has spanned through Asia, Europe, and the USA. Her Disney career began at Disney’s MGM Studios as the original Belle (Beauty and the Beast), original Laverne (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Adventurers Club, and more. Andrea was voted Vocalist of the Decade on Broadwayworld.com in 2020. She also won Critic’s Pick: Best Actress in a Musical 2018 for her portrayal of Mama Rose in Gypsy at the Garden Theatre. She also has a solo CD, Cab Fab, and she recorded the role of Sleeping Beauty for the 10th Anniversary recording of Disenchanted that was released worldwide in September 2019. Ms. Canny co-produced the Emmy Award-nominated & Golden Brick Award-winning concert, From Broadway with Love: Orlando, benefiting 3 Orlando LGBTQ organizations after the Pulse tragedy, featuring Broadway stars, as well as From Broadway with Love: Parkland. Andrea has her own Proofreading/Editing business (books, scripts, etc.) and her coaching studio for corporate speakers and private & group coaching in vocal performance & the business of entertainment for performers.

 

Ways to reach Andrea:

 

acannyvisionandvoice@gmail.com

 

 www.andreacanny.com.

 

https://www.instagram.com/pupbutt/

 

Ways to reach Yo: 

yo@yocanny.com (Yo)

 

FB group: Girl, Take the Lead

https://www.facebook.com/groups/272025931481748/?ref=share

 

IG:

yocanny (Yo)

 

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yocanny/



00:00:04
Welcome to episode 89 of Girl Take the Lead, where each week

00:00:08
we explore womanhood and leadership.

00:00:10
And I'm your host, Yo Canny. Today, Andrea Canny, AKA Bubba,

00:00:16
my beloved sisterinlaw returns. I know a couple of you listeners

00:00:23
out there have told me you wish you had her as a sisterinlaw,

00:00:26
but too bad she's taken. In this episode, Bubba furthers

00:00:31
our discussion about ageism and provides some great interviewing

00:00:35
tips. We also get into discussing pay

00:00:38
gaps, career expectations, talents, gifts, and dreams.

00:00:45
A bit about Andrea if you haven't caught her.

00:00:47
On our earlier episodes, she has traveled the world entertaining

00:00:52
audiences in Europe, the United States and Asia on stage and on

00:00:56
TV for the past 38 years as a singer, dancer, host, MC Improv,

00:01:03
sketch comedian, creative director and producer.

00:01:07
In 1991, she finished a European Tour and moved to Orlando to

00:01:11
open Beauty and the Beast live on stage, originating the part

00:01:16
of Belle at Disney's MGM Studios.

00:01:20
She has performed with musical theater and TV legends such as

00:01:24
Jerry Orbach, Robbie Benson, Betty White, as well as on The

00:01:28
Oprah Show with Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson, a Cincinnati

00:01:34
native. She recently moved from Orlando

00:01:37
back to her hometown with Gus Gus, AKA the Mayor of Plant

00:01:42
Street or the Baron of Blue Rock.

00:01:46
We hope you'll enjoy the listen and find it fun as well as

00:01:49
inspiring. Here you go.

00:01:55
Welcome back to go take the lead.

00:01:59
We are so glad you're here. I know we we've talked a lot

00:02:02
about this topic of ageism and I just thought you'd have some

00:02:08
terrific thoughts for our listeners about that.

00:02:11
Yeah, it's. I think one of the biggest

00:02:14
things that I wish with the the subject of ageism is.

00:02:20
How can we teach younger people to understand that this is going

00:02:24
to happen to them too? Because if I look back at my

00:02:29
younger self, you just don't even think about that stuff

00:02:32
because you're just working. You just keep working.

00:02:34
You don't sit there, sit back and analyze why you're getting a

00:02:38
job. You just got the job.

00:02:40
You do the job, you usually usually, you know, complain

00:02:43
about stupid stuff that you shouldn't be complaining about.

00:02:46
And because you're. You know, not being grateful in

00:02:49
that moment. And then life just keeps going.

00:02:52
And then eventually you realize, oh, I'm now that invisible woman

00:02:57
in my 50s. I'm making assumptions as to why

00:03:02
I've been out of consistent work for almost three years.

00:03:06
My assumptions are I'm overqualified because I've been

00:03:11
in interviews, you know some of the one of the.

00:03:15
Very few interviews I've even gotten is I was told, you know,

00:03:22
well, I, I, I do. Do you realize that this job or

00:03:28
it was actually for two jobs? Do you realize that these jobs

00:03:31
do not require 30 plus years of experience?

00:03:34
And I said, sure, you know, of course, yes.

00:03:38
I I I can't imagine that it would require that, but sure

00:03:42
couldn't hurt, could it? And she didn't really know how

00:03:46
to respond, you know. And because I was thinking,

00:03:49
like, why on earth would you think that would be a detriment?

00:03:52
Like why wouldn't that be a positive?

00:03:54
Like, oh, we can get so much more positive work done, you

00:03:58
know, because it was in the arts and fundraising for the arts and

00:04:01
everything. So I'm like, think of how much I

00:04:04
come to the table with experience wise and creative

00:04:08
ideation wise, that I could help you with so many things.

00:04:12
But, and then she said, You know.

00:04:15
Also the salary pay range is not commensurate to 30 plus years of

00:04:19
experience. And I said said you know when I

00:04:21
applied for the jobs I accepted that pay range that you had

00:04:26
stated in the posting and I said you don't have the benefit of

00:04:30
already knowing me. So let me clue you into who I am

00:04:33
as a person. I said I'm not that person who

00:04:37
will say, Oh, my salary is is 70% of what I'm worth.

00:04:42
So I'm going to give you 70% of my abilities and effort as like

00:04:47
if I say yes to the job, you've got me and you're going to get

00:04:49
120% most of the time, you know, if not more, because I can't

00:04:54
help myself. It's just how I roll.

00:04:56
But it's it's baffling to me that people will look at your

00:05:01
amount of experience and not value it because it's too much.

00:05:07
So that makes my brain go to okay.

00:05:11
Are they threatened? I mean this was a the VP of

00:05:13
Marketing for this organization. I mean and she was wonderful.

00:05:17
We had a great conversation for about an hour and she was

00:05:20
basically interviewing me for two jobs that were, you know,

00:05:24
one that she would be the direct report and another one that her

00:05:26
colleague would. So she knew enough about it to

00:05:28
interview me for both. And we were having a great

00:05:32
conversation. And when I got to that, I just

00:05:34
thought, wow, like is this possible that you think that?

00:05:40
I would feasibly come in there, do such a good job, and then

00:05:44
take your job because that's not.

00:05:45
I don't want to be the VP of marketing because I don't know

00:05:48
enough about marketing to do that.

00:05:50
That's like that's not the job I'm interviewing for.

00:05:52
So I don't know if that's the answer.

00:05:55
There's so many questions, like why is it?

00:05:57
Why do people Why do women become invisible when they hit

00:06:01
their 50s and? Why are decades of experience

00:06:06
not validated? Why is it a detriment other than

00:06:09
people might think that, oh, they want to come in and boss me

00:06:11
around? I'm like, well, you know, that's

00:06:13
when you, in the interview try to get the vibe on the person's

00:06:16
energy and their personality and their character traits.

00:06:20
You know that that's more of a personality thing than it is

00:06:24
what's on your resume is what you've done and what your

00:06:26
experience is. Yeah, one of the things that

00:06:30
Nori Java brought up in her book and in the episode that we did

00:06:35
on ageism, she she said that her research determined that

00:06:41
sometimes hiring managers look at the older applicant and

00:06:46
think, oh, they're going to be hard to get along with because

00:06:50
they're not very flexible. They're they can't learn

00:06:55
anything anymore. They get stuck and I can't

00:07:01
imagine anybody saying that about you.

00:07:06
I get. I get that.

00:07:07
I mean, I when I listen to that, I was like, yeah, I understand

00:07:11
because I do have friends who didn't have the benefit of

00:07:15
having a father where, you know, we were the first family to have

00:07:18
a computer in our house in the 70s because of Dad's line of

00:07:21
work, you know, and he created a program to test me on genus and

00:07:26
phylum and. All the all these different

00:07:28
things for biology. So I've been on a computer since

00:07:32
I was in junior high, you know, and I'm 57 now, so it's some

00:07:37
people do not have that benefit. So I understand that some people

00:07:41
might be hesitant to learn. But one of the things I did

00:07:46
mention because I thought that was a very valuable thing that

00:07:49
she said is that that I think it's very important in an

00:07:52
interview to tell people, hey, I'm anxious to learn.

00:07:56
I really. Enjoyed that part of of your

00:07:58
interview with her, but when I recently had an hour long

00:08:02
conversation with an old friend of mine who is could be if I get

00:08:07
this job I just applied for could be my direct report boss.

00:08:12
And one of the things, you know, there are two things on there

00:08:16
that he mentioned, you know, after we talked for almost an

00:08:20
hour and he said, well, the two things that I didn't hear you

00:08:22
tell me about your experience wise is budgets and contracts.

00:08:26
And I told him absolutely. I'll be the first person to tell

00:08:28
you that was never my department.

00:08:31
But let me tell you the things that I my experience I have had

00:08:35
with contracts and and budgets. And so I gave him examples.

00:08:39
But I also told him, I said this is another thing I said, I

00:08:41
always call myself a trainable chimp because I'm willing to

00:08:45
learn. And I said the best way for me

00:08:48
to explain how committed I am to learning new things is that.

00:08:53
The whole left side of my brain is just Christmas ornament

00:08:56
storage. Like, I did not get the brain

00:08:58
that my brothers got for computers or, you know, for for

00:09:01
math or anything. So math to me just like gives me

00:09:06
hives, right? So when I was temping in New

00:09:08
York, I had this really good job, a good temp job at this

00:09:12
agency or at this mergers and acquisitions company.

00:09:16
It was like the largest one in New York and it was a good job.

00:09:20
It was steady and they wanted me full time.

00:09:22
And so I felt like I needed to do whatever I needed to do.

00:09:25
So I had to learn Lotus. Like what?

00:09:29
Like, no, I mean that I was like, what?

00:09:31
You want me to what? But I did it.

00:09:35
I hated every minute of it. But I did it.

00:09:38
And I was. I was proud of myself because it

00:09:40
was a challenge. But I did feel like I needed to

00:09:44
let him know as a perspective, you know?

00:09:49
Yeah, that I am willing to learn new things and that I'm not

00:09:53
stuck in my way. So I I really liked that she had

00:09:55
said that, yeah. But one of the things in the

00:09:59
episode we did about Machiavelli, being able to

00:10:03
present yourself in a way that demonstrates your power and your

00:10:10
ability to overcome the obstacle is actually your superpower.

00:10:17
I I think it would be so powerful for hiring managers and

00:10:21
people managing others begin to see that the more obstacles that

00:10:26
you've had in life. You know, in that episode, I

00:10:29
think I talked about being asked once in an interview what

00:10:33
competitive sports I played, right?

00:10:37
And it puts me at a clear disadvantage.

00:10:40
I was in an era where we didn't have AYSO soccer.

00:10:44
You're like just marriage and. But wouldn't it have been great

00:10:51
if I were asked, you know, tell me about some obstacles and

00:10:55
things that you overcame? Yeah, yeah.

00:10:58
Show your resiliency. Yeah, what you're bringing.

00:11:02
I I agree 100% and I I think one of the things that I.

00:11:08
Can credit my willingness to change on a dime when necessary.

00:11:14
Is my 38 year career in theater and especially the improvisation

00:11:21
part of it learning how to recognize something right away?

00:11:27
You know, I always talk about when I worked at the Adventures

00:11:29
club, I'm like you got to learn how to walk past the crazy.

00:11:32
You just got to walk past it and you got to seek out the people

00:11:35
who are willing to play. And and then you have to riff on

00:11:39
it and things will change at any given moment.

00:11:41
So a scene, you may think a scene is supposed to go this

00:11:45
way, but when somebody reacts to it, it may take it down another

00:11:50
alley, you know, when you have to be willing to go down that

00:11:52
alley with them. So I think people who have, you

00:11:57
know, the same thing happens in sports too, you know, I think

00:11:59
that's, you know, somebody's more sports centric that that

00:12:02
would be the analogy that they would give.

00:12:04
But I think theater definitely, because definitely gives you a

00:12:09
benefit, an upper hand, as it were, because you have to know

00:12:15
how to adjust and you listen when you do improv.

00:12:20
And theater, that's the biggest aspect of being an actor is you

00:12:25
have to listen. It's less about what you say and

00:12:29
more about how you listen. So what did you think of her

00:12:33
thoughts about money and anxiety?

00:12:37
Oh my God, that and panic that that brings up.

00:12:40
It's true. And it kind of put me in a

00:12:43
little bit of panic. I was like, wait, what?

00:12:44
Wait, like there's a deadline for your retirement, You know,

00:12:48
for like Social Security. I was like, oh, and and those

00:12:52
are put that in the math category for me.

00:12:54
That is an easy way for me to shut my brain down because I

00:12:58
don't understand that stuff, you know?

00:13:01
So it did. It kind of gave me a little

00:13:03
object of there, but I go check this out.

00:13:07
I not only have to worry about the fact that I don't have a job

00:13:10
or a savings, but now I have to worry about a deadline that I'm

00:13:12
going to miss. I'm not going to sleep tonight.

00:13:18
I ain't too worried. Well, you know.

00:13:20
Yeah. And it I've also read, after I

00:13:24
read her book, I read Machiavelli for Women by Stacey

00:13:29
Vanek Smith. And she also brings up things

00:13:32
about money in there, you know, because there's such a pay gap.

00:13:36
Did you experience that in performing like, did women get

00:13:41
paid differently than men got paid?

00:13:44
And you had the gap there too. Yeah.

00:13:47
And actually there's an example that just recently happened at

00:13:50
Disney because you would negotiate like say when I first

00:13:53
opened Beating the Beast, I think my.

00:13:56
Pay hourly pay was $12.50 I think, and we found out that the

00:14:00
Gastons were getting paid more than we were and we were all

00:14:04
opening the same show. And technically we were on stage

00:14:07
11 minutes 14 seconds every show and the Gastons were only on

00:14:11
stage 9 minutes and something every show, so you know it did.

00:14:15
The disparity is always there, and recently at one of the

00:14:20
Disney shows that I used to work at, they got together.

00:14:26
The cast got together, males and females, and they all decided to

00:14:29
disclose with each other how much great, It's great and it's

00:14:35
bad at the same time. Well, it's good in one respect,

00:14:40
but then in the other they kind of the people who had longevity

00:14:44
there, had more, more years, kind of screwed themselves

00:14:47
because it was great for solidarity, you know, because

00:14:51
they demanded that, you know, that the women get the same

00:14:54
rate. As the males get, but then they

00:14:57
took away. So everybody now is getting the

00:15:00
same rate, which is fine. But the people who have worked

00:15:04
there who've got seniority lost their edge, their seniority

00:15:10
edge. Because I truly believe, like if

00:15:12
I have to do that show that many times a day for how many days a

00:15:17
week and, you know, almost lose my mind because of it, you know

00:15:21
you you deserve to get paid. They're doing the same thing

00:15:24
over and over and over and over again.

00:15:25
It's still making people happy. It's when you're doing something

00:15:28
for that long, you deserve to get paid more, you know, because

00:15:32
you bring more to the table, You more experienced, You know, I

00:15:36
snooped around to try and find out what people were making when

00:15:39
it got to a point where I'm like like why is that person getting

00:15:43
paid more than me? I think they are, but I don't

00:15:46
know for sure impolite to ask somebody, oh, what are you

00:15:50
making? That's why I think that this

00:15:53
idea of transparency group on Glassdoor, I think you can find

00:15:57
out more about the range and more surveys are being done to

00:16:01
make sure that people are are paid appropriately.

00:16:08
I think that's so much better than it being a secret.

00:16:12
Oh, absolutely. And I've just never understood

00:16:16
the philosophy behind. A woman doing the exact same job

00:16:22
as a man is and getting paid less just because of her gender.

00:16:26
That does not make any sense to me whatsoever with you on that

00:16:31
one too. It just seems more.

00:16:33
Intuitive The things that Nori brought up was that ageism shows

00:16:40
up at different times in different industries.

00:16:45
Very much so. But it seems in your industry

00:16:49
you've been able to kind of reinvent yourself, you know,

00:16:54
having been having played Bell, you didn't have the expectation

00:17:01
that you would be Bell forever, right?

00:17:05
Thank God you're flexible, you're you're willing to try

00:17:13
different things, but I wondered in if you've seen it with your

00:17:17
colleagues and other people like how you reinvent yourself and

00:17:24
make yourself more flexible. Definitely.

00:17:26
I have a workshop that I started and I actually want to write a

00:17:29
book about it that it's I. It's called the workshops called

00:17:33
From Princess to Gargoyle. Embracing Change and Creating

00:17:37
longevity in your career Because literally in a 10 minute

00:17:42
contract talk, I went from playing a Princess.

00:17:46
To playing a centuries old gargoyle.

00:17:50
And the way I reacted to that, I believe one I consider that to

00:17:56
be the best gift Disney ever gave me.

00:17:59
Hands down. The best gift.

00:18:02
But the way I reacted to it helped me.

00:18:06
You know, I I embraced the change.

00:18:08
And then being able to embrace that and move along with it

00:18:11
helped me create longevity in my career.

00:18:13
Because basically Disney paid me to learn how to be a character

00:18:17
actor. Because if if you were, I don't

00:18:22
want to say smart, but if you if you accept the way the world is,

00:18:26
the way it is, you've got to. It would be you would be wise,

00:18:30
let's say that, to accept that you can't be an ingenue forever.

00:18:35
You may be a dancer your whole life.

00:18:37
You're not always going to be the same dancer.

00:18:39
You're going to go through different phases and things will

00:18:43
change. I'm not saying you can't be

00:18:44
flexible for the rest of your life, because you can, But

00:18:47
things will change. And when you're talking about

00:18:51
marketability in the entertainment business, you may

00:18:54
not be marketable the majority of your life.

00:18:58
Sometimes it's a finite amount of time and your your on to New

00:19:01
Years are definitively A finite amount of time.

00:19:03
Because I didn't. Attach that job to my identity.

00:19:10
I think that's what kept me safe and kept me in reality was by

00:19:16
the time I had that contract talk, I've been, I've been doing

00:19:18
that role for 4 1/2 years. I was ready for a change.

00:19:23
That's why I like TV and film. You know, I love theater, but I

00:19:27
love TV and film because it changes all the time.

00:19:30
You're you're still always working on your craft, but you

00:19:33
get things change. So it's interesting and

00:19:35
exciting. You know, titles.

00:19:37
It's like, you know, thinking that a title a title gives you

00:19:40
power. Yeah.

00:19:42
Which to me that just immediately wreaks of insecurity

00:19:46
and you know, I'll be the first one to stay in line.

00:19:48
Like, yeah, I have insecurities. Everybody's got insecurities

00:19:50
but. Sometimes you just have to

00:19:54
pretend like you don't and you know, except that change is

00:19:58
inevitable. Sometimes it's painful too.

00:20:00
But. I think it's sometimes, you

00:20:03
know, there's a couple things that come to mind for me too.

00:20:06
I remember being told, you know, leave your ego at the door, you

00:20:09
know, that enabled me a lot to take a demotion and work at a

00:20:13
level which hadn't been, you know, the peak of my career.

00:20:17
Some some careers seem to be Okay.

00:20:20
Well all you do is keep going up and up and up and up and up

00:20:23
right and get more and more responsibility and power.

00:20:27
Yeah, my my career looks like. Oh, there's a little zigzag, you

00:20:32
know, it goes down, it comes. Back up, you know there's a flat

00:20:37
line you. Know it's creative looking,

00:20:42
that's for sure. But I know, I know you mean it.

00:20:46
If you have the expectation that it's just going to go up and up

00:20:49
and up and up, you know you you really can't recover from when

00:20:55
the downs come. I also think too that you have

00:20:59
the ability that you love performing.

00:21:06
Listeners, I'm telling you, this woman, when she sang the Ave.

00:21:09
Maria at my wedding, I will never forget it.

00:21:13
I mean, I was in the back room with my dad and I heard this

00:21:19
voice I couldn't believe. And I got to stop what I was

00:21:25
doing and just enjoy the moment with that, I mean, but I think

00:21:29
you were. It wasn't about you.

00:21:31
It was about the talent, about being and giving what your gifts

00:21:37
are. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm glad you

00:21:41
said that, because for me, I'm a I'm a highly sensitive person

00:21:46
and I'm an. Extrovert in that I derive my

00:21:50
energy from other people, but when I'm by myself, I'm pretty

00:21:55
insular, you know, Like I should never spend too much time alone,

00:21:59
basically. But when I was a kid, I always I

00:22:03
was referred to myself as painfully shy because, I mean, I

00:22:06
literally just would not talk, you know, from the moment I went

00:22:10
to bed until I had to 1st speak at school.

00:22:14
And I remember kids making fun of me.

00:22:16
In elementary school, when it was in math class of all things,

00:22:20
and I hadn't spoken since the night before, and they the

00:22:24
teacher asked me to answer a question.

00:22:27
But yes, the kids made fun of me because my voice cracked when I

00:22:30
first opened my mouth to speak again.

00:22:33
So I realize now now that I know that I'm a highly sensitive

00:22:37
person, that I was feeling and I'm also an empath.

00:22:40
I was feeling everything from everyone, everywhere.

00:22:44
And I didn't know how to process it because there was nobody

00:22:47
there to tell me that that I was a highly sensitive that was just

00:22:52
not in in the vernacular back then, you know, it was just

00:22:55
like, oh, she's shy. When I found out that I could

00:22:59
sing because I, I, I was a sophomore in high school or

00:23:03
whatever, I didn't. I didn't know what my future was

00:23:07
going to be because I was not. Other than being good at

00:23:10
English, I had no dream of being anything really.

00:23:14
And when I found out that I could sing and I had my magical

00:23:19
moment. I have never felt so connected

00:23:23
to something in the universe than in that magical moment when

00:23:26
I had my eyes closed. Rich Williams on the piano and

00:23:29
me singing The first time ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack.

00:23:32
That was the moment. And I started feeling so

00:23:38
connected to something other than me, something bigger than

00:23:42
me, when I would perform. And it became, you know,

00:23:46
certainly there's nerves involved and, you know, because

00:23:49
you don't want to mess up and everything like that.

00:23:50
But overall for me, performing is the safest place on earth for

00:23:56
me. As long as I do my rehearse, as

00:24:00
long as I'm well rehearsed, I know my stuff.

00:24:03
I'm I'm a okay getting in front of a whole stadium of people as

00:24:08
opposed to like, don't ask me to sing around the piano with like

00:24:11
two people there. You know, that's more nerve

00:24:14
wracking for me. But like, like the one time I

00:24:18
sang the national anthem for Orlando City Soccer, I was

00:24:21
honored to do it. And I I wasn't scared of the

00:24:23
people. I was scared of messing up our

00:24:26
national anthem line. Well, there's.

00:24:30
Plenty of people that just. Because my British cousins

00:24:35
overseas were watching it while it was happening and so like.

00:24:39
I was like, oh, please don't make me be like Robert Goulet

00:24:42
and mess up my national anthem like I was sure it was great.

00:24:48
Is there anything else that you can think of to pass along

00:24:51
anymore moments of wisdom about? This, no, this is wisdom.

00:24:56
But this is my dilemma. Part of this is a complaining.

00:25:03
A whining is and then. Well, then I have to turn around

00:25:07
it and say, oh, that's actually a gift.

00:25:09
So the first instinct is to whine wow, wow, wow.

00:25:13
About, you know, because we become invisible and we're

00:25:17
overqualified and all these things, We can't find the work.

00:25:19
Then we have to create something ourselves, which is like, well,

00:25:24
why do I have to do that? Like, why do I have to do all

00:25:26
the work? I, you know, And then I have

00:25:30
decided to turn that around into it's a gift that we are able to.

00:25:36
Create from scratch what it is we want to do in this world, you

00:25:40
know and how we want to show up and how.

00:25:43
It's not easy and I I will still complain in my head about how I

00:25:50
don't want to have to do it. But I'm training myself to look

00:25:55
at it as a gift and and also an opportunity to think, you know,

00:26:01
I was raised to not think too highly of my, you know, don't

00:26:03
think too highly of yourself. And that's really gotten in the

00:26:06
way of me. I don't have a fear of failure,

00:26:08
per se. I have a massive fear of

00:26:11
success. And so I'm trying to retrain my

00:26:15
brain to look at this as a gift of like, oh, there's so much

00:26:20
more I can do. Like I have an idea for I want

00:26:22
to be able to eventually buy this house, this land, and I

00:26:27
want to turn it into a sustainability place with

00:26:29
education. Bring people who live in food

00:26:32
deserts and bring the kids in. Teach them how to you know what

00:26:36
they're going to be planting. OK, this is what we're going to

00:26:38
cook today, all these different things.

00:26:40
We're going to have fun, we're going to play games, we're going

00:26:42
to learn about sustainability. We're going to learn about

00:26:44
planting and everything and go through the whole year doing it.

00:26:48
And at harvest time, bring their whole families in, Have a big

00:26:51
BBQ, play games. Everybody go for harvest and

00:26:55
then they leave with a bunch of produce, you know, and and also

00:26:59
with an education, you know there's parts of my brain that

00:27:03
don't think you're not capable of that you're not capable All

00:27:06
those little nasty little voices in your head.

00:27:09
And I was like I'm just going to keep putting 1 foot in front of

00:27:12
the other. I'm going to keep saying it in

00:27:14
front of people. And I've actually had two

00:27:16
friends recently that I've shared that idea with.

00:27:18
One's a very successful real estate person in Georgia.

00:27:22
And the other one has, she owns quite a few properties and she's

00:27:25
got a real estate license. It's not what she does for a

00:27:29
living, but she's very knowledgeable about it.

00:27:32
And they both just gave me very great ideas about how to make

00:27:35
that actually a reality. So I've decided I'm going to

00:27:40
quiet the whining that I have to work, flip it, turn it into a

00:27:45
gift and then share the information.

00:27:47
So. It's going to attract the people

00:27:49
who can help me with it. Well, what I just so impressed

00:27:53
with and inspired by is how you're trying just different

00:27:56
things. It's not just one lane.

00:28:00
You're looking at a lot of different ways of expressing

00:28:04
yourself. So great.

00:28:06
I just, I mean because this, you know, being back home, it was a

00:28:10
very difficult decision for me to make.

00:28:11
But I mean, it definitely came out of necessity because I was

00:28:15
there was no work happening for me in Orlando.

00:28:18
And but I've just enjoyed the little things, like, you know,

00:28:21
Dad's magical asparagus coming up, you know, being able to eat

00:28:24
that, And the deer, the fox, the coyote, the rabbits, the baby

00:28:29
Robins that I got to watch grow. All these magical things that

00:28:33
are happening in the raccoons are now starting to come out in

00:28:36
the daytime because they're like, lady, you haven't filled

00:28:39
the compost recently. Get on it.

00:28:42
Get on it. Plus we need water to go along

00:28:45
with that. If you could put a little water

00:28:47
out for us that. Would be exactly, yeah.

00:28:50
And a couple of grapes. I wouldn't say no to it.

00:28:52
So I've really enjoyed that and it's it's got me more more

00:28:56
invested in. I just think it would be a very

00:28:59
big shame if this land went to a developer in my brain.

00:29:04
I'm planning for some sort of organization that I can liaise

00:29:10
partner with. That, you know, would be people

00:29:12
who are urban farmers or who know more about this stuff.

00:29:15
You know, we do so much to help all of us.

00:29:17
I Bubba was the one that kind of helped me, held my hand for the

00:29:22
first three or four episodes just so I could get going on

00:29:25
podcasting and just so grateful to you so.

00:29:29
Thank you for that. You and you're kicking butt.

00:29:31
I love your podcast. I love it.

00:29:34
I just love it. Love it.

00:29:35
Oh well, thanks for being here. Bye.

00:29:44
Thank you for listening today and we sure hope you enjoyed

00:29:46
this episode. If you did, please leave a

00:29:49
comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:29:51
Join our public Facebook group Girl Take The Lead or visit our

00:29:55
website girltaketheleadpod.com. We also have a YouTube channel

00:30:00
where your subscription would be appreciated.

00:30:03
Once you're on YouTube, search at Girl take the lead.

00:30:07
Here are the three episode takeaways.

00:30:11
Ageism is going to happen to everyone.

00:30:13
Best to be aware and accepting early in your career.

00:30:17
Two, listen for the interview vibes you're picking up and be

00:30:21
sure to share examples of your trainable chimp moments.

00:30:25
Three, change is inevitable. Don't attach your job to your

00:30:30
identity so you can build your own resiliency and see dreams

00:30:35
you want to pursue. We have more exciting guests

00:30:38
lined up for August, including Courtney Lee, Founder OYT

00:30:42
Cosmetics, Bessie Graham award-winning entrepreneur, and

00:30:45
Maria Moroccan, an expert in diversity, equality and

00:30:49
inclusion. We hope you'll join us for these

00:30:51
great episodes. Thanks for being here and talk

00:30:54
to you soon. Bye.