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solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
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Hello, thank you for coming to next I'm excited. I
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hope you all have been listening to our shows. We've
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had some wonderful people on and we have a great
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guest today, Fiona McCauley. I can't say enough wonderful things
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about Fiona. Really has into social social impact. She's a
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professor at Georgetown University in Washington, d DC, a real
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advocate for women and has been you know, her entire life.
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She's written numerous books and actually has a new book
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out which we're going to be talking about, Aim High
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and bounce Back. And I love the title of the
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book because bounce back we all run into difficult situations
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as we're aiming high and how to figure out how
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to bounce back, and that's sort of the next how
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do you figure out your next for yourself? Leona is
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a CEO of Wild Women in Leadership Development, which is
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a great organization. They do lots of fabulous stuff. And
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with that, let me bring on Fiona McCauley.
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Hi, Linda Heyriona, Hey, it's great to be here with you.
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All right, So tell us about a bunch of stuff
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I want to talk to you about. But how did
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you get into this in the first place? Has such
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a great entrepreneurial background.
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I worked in the global development industry for twenty five years,
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and that's the industry which works towards access to clean
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water overseas, gender equity, access to healthcare, helping communities grow
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climate resistant agriculture. And what I saw, Linda, I had
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the privilege of working in about fifty different countries and
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worked with hundreds of different organizations. When I was able
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to peek into all those organizations, what I saw over
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and over again is that there was women professionals who
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wanted to move into positions of greater leadership so they
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could have more power and influence and have an even
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greater impact in the work that they were doing and
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supporting others to do. And that much of the time
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they were really doing the bulk of the work that
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they did not have that formal leadership position or authority.
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Oh yeah, right for two reasons.
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One structural because you know, the jobs were not good,
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the jobs were more likely to go to men. And
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still are Fiona well and still are you know, in
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global health eighty percent of the people who work in
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global health are women, but they only hold twenty percent
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of the leadership positions. Amazing statistic, right, the data speaks
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for itself. And so I started the WILD Network Women
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for Impactful Leadership Development to support purpose driven women around
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the globe, so across America, Canada, Mexico, Sub Saharan, Africa, Asia,
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Middle East, really women around the Europe, women around the
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globe to be able to be even more impactful leaders
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than they already are by curating content both to support
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organizations and industries to promote more inclusive leadership opportunities and
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also to support women to step into their full leadership potential.
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Wow, how many years has WILD been going on? A
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long time? I know, but how many years?
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Yeah?
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Well, we're coming up on a decade, so we'll be
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doing our ninth Leadership for Social Impact Forum, which is
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we do an in person conference in DC every year
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in May.
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I'm going, yeah, that's right.
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I'm so excited to have you there, Linda.
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And that's the thing that's what's so exciting I think
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about this community is that we have women like yourself
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who have been leading in the inclusive leadership space in
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the US for decades.
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Will have a.
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Lot of certified leadership coaches who come from across America
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to attend. We also have women coming from different parts
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of the globe who want to be there in person.
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And then we have people from across the Greater Washington,
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d C, Virginia, Maryland area who identify as being a
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purpose driven leader. Whether they're working for Coca Cola or
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working for Save the Children or working for the US government,
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if they're working for positive social change, they really belong
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in the wild network and we would love to have
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them there at the leaders for Social Impactful So.
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You do I mean just because you go to the forum,
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it's not over there. There is a lot of other
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things that go into that form. Actually, after you actually
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participate right, Fiona.
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Well, exactly, because as you and I both know, Linda,
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you know, being an impactful leader it really is a journey.
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I think most of us wake up every day wanting
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to be, you know, the best leader, the most supportive
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leader that we can be, and then things happen right where,
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you like, have time constraints, or somebody says something or
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write something to us that kind of like throws us off,
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and maybe we're more impatient than we wish we were,
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or we are not taking a calculated risk, but we
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want to be taking right. We're all working on our
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leadership skills all the time. The best leaders are and
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so we feel we know actually from the research that
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coming together being with other like minded people committed to
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leadership development inspires us and fuels us. And when we
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layer on leadership competencies, that helps us to kind of
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maintain and even you know, become stronger leaders. And the
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one day is really important. We also realize that people
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want to stay in community.
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Yes, absolutely, so.
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For example, you know, you and I have a wonderful
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friend and colleague, Morag Barrett, and every year she generously
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does a session one month after the leadership conference, does
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a session that's about how to take small steps towards
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ambitious goals, because you know how it is you go
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to a conference and you do leave with a notepad
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or a phone full of things you want to do,
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people you're going to follow up with, and then you know,
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you get, as I say, like to misquote Muhammad Ali,
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you get like punched in the face by the by
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your email inbox.
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Right, you don't get into all those things.
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And so what we do is we reconnect the community
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a month after the event to reconnect people to their
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goals and then break down, Okay, how can you take
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small steps towards these ambitious goals?
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Because I'm the kind of support we all need, right absolutely, well,
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we used to do, you know the thirty sixty ninety day,
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you know, follow up with people, because that happens with
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executives too.
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You know, you're in a company and you take people
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through these phenomenal leadership development, inspiring things, and then they
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go back into the same old workplace and it's gone.
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So you really do have to you really do need
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that follow up on a regular basis. But I want
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to I want to jump forward to your Santiago, your
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Camino walk, tell us about that. That's so, I'm so
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bummed I can't go this year, Linda.
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I'm looking forward to having you on the next chapter
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Accelerator and me in a walking retreat in twenty twenty seven,
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so we'll put it in the books.
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Absolutely.
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So I am.
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I'm now in solidly middle aged, like in my early fifties,
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and I went through a big transition when I sold
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my first social enterprise almost a decade ago, so in
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my mid forth had been I had founded this company
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in my mid twenties, and so for almost twenty years
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had been scaling a social enterprise, and I was ready
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to think new things and do new things, and spend
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time with new people, specifically focusing on boarding purpose driven
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women and their leadership journeys. And I was also interested
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in teaching and the leading business. So the time was
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right for me to sell that company. Up until the
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day that it sold, I had been busy being the CEO.
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I had been busy managing this confidential sale process, and
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I hadn't given much thought to what the next chapter
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would be, except for I knew I wanted to be
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doing those different things. And I remember the day after
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the sale went through, sitting on my couch being like,
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how do I do?
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You know?
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Oh? Mg o MG, And as someone who was used
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to having power and status comes from the you know,
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being the CEO of a successful, well regarded company. You know,
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no inbox, no speaking engagements, no pressing deadlines, and I
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think voicing what a lot of leaders in transition have experienced,
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though baby doesn't get set out.
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Loud very much. I think you're absolutely right.
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So, but what I learned through that journey of then
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making that transition to becoming an adjunct professor at Georgetown
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University's Business School also an entrepreneur presence there starting the
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wild network is that there was three things that you
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really need to make a successful transition and to enjoy it.
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One is community.
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It's lonely to try and like figure out all these
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options by yourself and and to go through.
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Such a change.
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So having a community of people who are also seeking
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to make this kind of change, or have made or
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are making this kind of change. The second thing is
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a process because in a way, the world is your oyster.
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You know, you've also spent several decades at that pot time,
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you know, building up your reputation and your skills and
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your network a process about how to leverage all of
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those things but at the same time not be trapped
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by them is really critical, essential, essential, and accountability. So
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when a friend and colleague of mine started the Next
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Chapter Accelerator two years ago, I had had that experience
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of transitioning as an entrepreneur. She'd had the transitioning of
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working for thirty years at Accenture and was that managing
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director when she left. She also faced kind of similar
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challenges and opportunities, and so we came together to develop
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the Next Chapter Accelerator and the main event that we do,
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we run it once a year is as a walking
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retreat on the Camino de Santiago, which is a historical
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pilgrimage trail, and we do we do a leg of
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that trail in northern Spain, which is our.
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Many leaders bucket list.
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So we can also do custom retreats, but the one
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that we do that's open is at the end of
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September early Offctober every year, and we're offering those things
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that I mentioned. So it's an incredible group of accomplished women,
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like ambitious, successful women who are I think fall into
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these different categategories.
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Yes, and you.
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Can tell me Linda, which one resonates with you. So
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it's women who are looking for the next big job,
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Like they're in a big job and they want one
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more big job probably before they down gear. It's women
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who are in a big job and they want to
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really take a fresh look at that so they can
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really leave their mark and have the greatest impact possible.
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So it's kind of rejuvenating your approach to your current
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big job. There's people who want to move into a
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portfolio career, so they want more control over their time
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a little bit like I was doing perhaps like I
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wanted to teach, I wanted to start this not for
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profit and were the people who want to have a
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very very active retirement. So they're probably moving into a
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position where they want to maybe sit on a couple
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of boards maybe, right.
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And so we have this.
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Do a radio show, you a radio show.
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So Linda, I'm curious, like, as I kind of talked
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about those people who are in transition, successful career women
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in transition, what like what transition would you say you
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had made?
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Well?
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Truthfully, I mean I was doing fine up until the pandemic,
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because you know, I was a public speaker as you
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well know, and Morag and I wrote a book together,
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and so it was it was Thinker's fifty this year
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that you were at where Linda Gratton made a comment
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about how much longer we all were going to live,
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and you know, you need to think about what is
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it that you're going to be you know, is going
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to be exciting for you. And that's when I said,
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you know, I sort of moved into retirement. Just like
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Marshall who said he was going to retire, he hasn't retired.
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And I said, you know, I just have too much
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more that I want to connect and do stuff around,