Episode 177: Leadership and Legacy: Building a Lasting Impact
In today's episode, I dive into the topics of leadership and legacy in your business. So many people aspire to make a meaningful impact in the world. There's an importance in understanding that the "quiet work" we do for ourselves can be just as impactful as more visible efforts.
Tune in for an in-depth examination of how to lead and leave a lasting legacy.
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Episode transcript:
(00:00):
Welcome back FEM Nation. I'm glad to have you here with me again. Today I'm going to dive into a topic on what it looks like to lead, not lead, leave a legacy. So many of us want to feel purposeful in this world. We want to do something that makes sense of everything that we've gone through and all of the pieces that we have experienced in our lives. We want to use those areas as a springboard for others to be able to have a purposeful life as well. I work with and talk to and communicate with and view a lot, hundreds, thousands, probably of people who deeply want to leave a legacy or make an impact in this world, and sometimes for some people that's huge. It's a big ripple, it's felt or seen in the moment with everything they do and how they show up and how they hold themselves, but they have a purpose for it.
(01:21):
They feel that purpose and they drive forward with that purpose. Now, they may be passionate to some degree. A lot of us, you and I want to have feel that passion. We want to use that passion to move us forward, to propel us into that purposeful living. It's not always big though, and especially even if it's intended to be big and in the moment and present now, there is always an element of it that is silent and behind the scenes and quiet and has seasons to it. So being able to leave a legacy sometimes is in the moment. Sometimes we don't get to see that. Sometimes the legacy or the work that we do towards bringing forth an impact, making a difference in this world comes specifically from the quiet moments, the unseen moments, the moments where we are not sure what they are, if they did anything at all.
(02:40):
We also know that those moments can be moments that are moving towards the vision that we see or the impact that we are striving to make, but not necessarily realizing that impact and that drive and that striving forward is already being felt by some because we're showing up somewhere even on our silence. We're showing up even in our immediate circles or in our audience, however it is now, or however big or small or whatever that looks like at this point. Sometimes though, we miss seeing that it's in the quiet work that we do for ourselves, in ourselves that makes the biggest difference in the world, and then times we lose sight of it. When we leave a legacy, when we create an impact, when we have a ripple effect on others, when we breathe life into a program or an opportunity to help others, and many, many, many of you listening to my podcast or following my content online desire to do that, you desire to help others.
(04:05):
There is an overwhelming, overwhelming majority of people who do what they do and are working on creating what they're creating to make a difference because something was learned in their lives and they want to use that to further enhance or better others. I believe strongly that this world is so intentional on good, and yet we don't see it as often because negative takes a front seat. We will all experience moments in our live where we don't understand, we don't know, we aren't sure. Sometimes we put one foot in front of the other and carry on and just strive. Sometimes we lose a little bit of ground and feel like we've gone backwards. Sometimes we feel stalled, but that impact is still alive. That quiet work you are doing, creating your program or building your business to make a difference somewhere is the work that's necessary.
(05:23):
It's the work that needs to be done, and it is the work that will be the foundation and is the foundation of the impact that you want to bring forth and the legacy you wish to leave. Now, I don't know what legacy looks like to you, but to most of the people in my audience or my world or have been connected to me, an impact is related to building a business or building a program of some sort. Coaching to a degree, and coaching is not a wrong or difficult or bad thing. There's a lot of negativity around it, but coaching is teaching and leading, and it's also creating an impact, whether it's just to one or it's to 1 million, it doesn't matter. It is still there. You are meant to do it, and there will always be the underlying desire, your passion to keep moving forward, to fulfill that purpose, and it makes you feel purposeful, doesn't it makes you feel like the pain and the suffering and the roadblocks and the inner work that you're doing for yourself on yourself, with yourself, it makes it feel worth it.
(06:43):
It make, it gives you reason because if you can take it from internally and you can suffer the moments and bring life to it, so others may have clarity or simplify a process or simplify transformation or change, if you do that, then it makes sense, right? If you create a program that helps people get from point A to point B or C or D, much smoother or easier, it makes it all worth it, right? That's already impact. And if it's taking you time and you feel like you're behind and you feel like it's, it's, it's not quite a hundred percent clear yet. It's still impact, it's still purpose, it's still striving forward. It's still building a bridge for someone somewhere.
(07:48):
So as you're creating your program, your coaching program to help others, you will come across times where there will feel like setbacks. There will feel like you're stalled. There will feel like you're not making any progress, and that can be very disheartening, but I want you to know very specifically that it's not for nothing. Those are the moments that bring you the most amount of progress. Even if you think you're stalled, they bring you the most amount of progress forward to the impact and the legacy you desire to leave, you desire to be witness to or you desire to be part of. Many times we don't get to see the difference that we make in the moment. We see others making a difference in the moment, but they made a difference in your life in that moment. Maybe they're not seeing it either. Maybe they're just doing the things that are they're supposed to be doing, hoping and praying or sitting with and meditating on the possibility that that's what they're doing. Maybe their desires or their goals for them, they're not seeing them even if we see them on a grand scale.
(09:13):
So many people are striving for good, for better, for intentional, not just legacy in the way that is self-serving, but legacy for the better good of anyone's life that they touch, anyone's life that they come in contact with. And my friend, I want you to know you are already doing that. If you are showing up, if you are daring to be rejected, if you are boldly stepping one foot in front of the other or taking a pause, you are already doing that. You are making a difference. It doesn't have to be or a pure grand. It doesn't have to be monumental. It doesn't have to be something that is so significant that the world sees it in the moment. Most intentional leaders that we look to and we read about and we see have gone through many, many quiet silent times in their life. A lot of them will retreat to quiet and silent times in their life because they have perfected understanding what those moments bring forward.
(10:30):
Your vision, your dream, your goal is in the moment right now. It's intentionally in this time. You are already making a difference, and I know I've said that and I'm going to come back and say it again. You are already making a difference. This world needs you. There are people that need you. There are lives that cannot move forward and don't even realize that you have an impact and have made an impact on their life, and some of them will not know until they come across who you are as long as you're showing up. So even in these moments, even in the stillness, the quietness, the meditative time, you are already making an impact. I taught about the butterfly effect at one point, and I want to bring that back around to a focus for just a minute in this podcast episode because a butterfly effect cannot change anyone.
(11:40):
The butterfly cannot change anyone if you don't spread your wings and just start pushing for air, pushing to move forward, pushing to fly <affirmative>, and there may be no one around to see that, but that air current that you are utilizing to move forward in any capacity is shifting the air current for someone else around. And I want you to ponder this even metaphorically or not even intentionally as a real thought process. It's not like you're really out there flapping your arms, making them look like wings. No, no, no, no. Your moments, your forward motion is that butterfly effect, and it is shifting the current for someone else that you most likely have no idea it is. But if you hadn't tried and if you hadn't moved forward, if you hadn't flapped those wings, that butterfly effect will not change a life or lives out there.
(12:55):
And some of us, many of us actually most of us may not even know to the degree, even those that look like they are, we may not know to the degree of lives we're changing. We may not see all the comments or the responses, the connections. We may not see all of them when they're shared. There are people that we may change our lives and they may not comment or see, but we made a difference. And when we can own that every step that we take, when we can truly embrace that and believe that and know that to be truth, when we can take that and know that in the struggle of making a half step or one step or staying still for a moment is making a difference for others, then we can rest assured that we have made an impact. We are living purposefully and not just passionately, and we are leaving a legacy. I want to see your legacy steps, even if you're not sure what they are, I want to see you dare to be bold and to go out there and to lead, even if it's just leading yourself in silence or leading yourself in great steps and leading yourself to do something daring and brave for you. Someone somewhere out there is watching and we'll see whether it's today or in a year, you will have made a difference by your very actions alone. We have the capacity to move through our life and our very movements
(14:50):
Make a difference. So go leave that legacy. Know that you ha are touching lives. Know that building your program and all of the struggles and the work and the silent moments and the big steps that you are taking, they're doing it. You are doing it no matter what strategy or teaching or learning opportunity you are using to improve who you are so that it's for the better good of someone somewhere, no, no matter where or what that is, it's a difference. I want you to know that. I want you to embrace that and I want you to live with that. Your actions, your words, your meditations, your prayers, your very being is an impact. You are already a legacy. Think I'll wrap it up right there for today. I enjoy spending this time with you guys and I love that you trust and see the beauty in who you are. Own it, and don't ever let anyone shake that, and as always, keep moving forward.