This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Why the future is female
This is not a feminist blog. This is a blog on why vulnerability is awesome.
I have been going around telling people (and at networking events – not just people I’m close with) what is going on with me, which is that as a person, I am feeling good, despite business not being as good as it was this time last year. This is huge progress from two years back, when I would go around telling people “I’m good” even when I wasn’t. Call it a front, or just trying to play Law of Attraction, but in retrospect it was all bullshit. The same act of looking good instead actually feeling good (and they do not always go hand in hand).
Last month, Kate Muker of The Conscious Divas launched her new site and told a vulnerable story about her own growth. On Tuesday, I had a chat with the amazing Megan Sheldon of Narrative Communications who talked to a group of MBA students at a conference. She talked about being vulnerable and how that resonated with some (not all) of the audience. Yesterday, I read the ballsiest of blogs yet by Jenna Herbut about a conversation she had with the president of what is probably Canada’s leading craft show production company.
It is great to see women leading the charge in breaking down these invisible barriers and showing who they really are. It is not sunshine and roses on the inside or on the outside. I wonder why we try so hard to fake it and make it true, or at least I do.
One of my mastermind colleagues has dared me to go vulnerable at the next networking event we are at together, and online. I feel like I’ve already been putting it into practice, and reaping the benefits in the form of practical and emotional support from colleagues — even ones I’ve met for the first time. There is a power and a sense of community that stems from these types of conversations, and it is rare – but not impossible – for them to happen around men. SVI Hollyhock is the one place that stands out where the men have been as intimately engaging as women.
In this digital age when everything is becoming transparent (as it should), I think that those who are willing to be raw and real will emerge the leaders. And I think that naturally that is going to be a lot of the women in the world, so long as they are given rights.
While I don’t think you should go around telling your life story everywhere you go, I challenge you to be a bit more vulnerable in a situation where you typically keep your guard up. See what happens. I almost guarantee you’ll emerge stronger from it.
