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The Mentorship Impact: From Guidance to Growth in Technology with Lauren Magistro
75 Plays11 months ago
Episode Summary:
This episode of the Women in Revenue podcast features a candid conversation with Lauren Magistro, a seasoned leader in customer success and now a dedicated coach. Lauren shares her journey of growth, the pivotal role of mentorship, and strategies for maintaining balance in the fast-paced world of technology. Through stories of personal development and insights into effective leadership, she offers valuable advice for anyone looking to advance their career and unlock their potential
Key Topics Discussed:
- Mentorship in Career Growth: Lauren emphasizes the transformative impact of mentors in her professional journey and how becoming a mentor herself led to fulfilling experiences.
- Work-Life Balance: She shares her strategies for maintaining boundaries between personal and professional life, highlighting the importance of taking vacations and disconnecting from work to recharge.
- Staying Grounded in High-Pressure Situations: Lauren offers practical advice on managing stress and maintaining equilibrium during intense work periods, including the concept of a 'minimum baseline' for self-care.
Notable Quotes:
- "Being able to see how mentorship impacts you and then being able to give that to your team... I found that to be really fulfilling."
- "We rise by lifting others." - Reflecting on the essence of mentorship and team leadership.
- "What does success look like for me today?" - Encouraging a personal definition of success and fulfillment.
This podcast is brought to you by Women in Renuve. If you’re a resilient woman in a revenue role and crave connection, join our community!
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Resilient Revenue, a women in revenue podcast series designed to magnify the voices, victories, and valuable insights of trailblazing women in revenue-generating roles. Each episode will showcase stories of resilience, mentorship, and self-advocacy. You'll learn exactly how these remarkable women are breaking barriers, redefining success, and showing us the transformative power of unity within the tech industry.
00:00:31
Speaker
So join us as we embark on this enlightening journey toward equality and empowerment in the world of resilient revenue.
Meet the Host and Guest
00:00:42
Speaker
So welcome, everybody, to Women in Revenue's Resilient Revenue Podcast. I am your host, Heidi Therian. And today, we are connecting with Lauren Magistro. Lauren is a leadership coach and the founder of Lauren Magistro Coaching and Consulting.
00:01:00
Speaker
Her mission is to empower women leaders to lead confidently, authentically, from the heart and unlock their innate strengths and true potential.
Work-Life Balance Strategies
00:01:10
Speaker
She also touches on topics such as imposter syndrome, people pleasing and emotional intelligence, which I really love all those topics. So today, however, the topic of question or in question is
00:01:24
Speaker
work to live strategies for balance. So I would like to welcome Lauren. Awesome. Thank you, Heidi. Thanks for welcoming me. I loved it. So nice to hear introduction. It's like rare that you hear people describing your own work. So thank you for that. I'm excited to be here. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Excited to have you. So I did some research, right, to like come up with these questions. And of course we have like core questions that we're going to touch on.
00:01:51
Speaker
But specifically speaking to work to live, strategies for balance, I'm really excited to see your thoughts on balance and mentorship and boundaries and strategies on maintaining balance. So let's just dive right in firstly and just touch base on making balance even a priority, right? Just because that has to be a thing first and foremost.
Prioritizing Well-being
00:02:17
Speaker
So Lauren, in your career journey,
00:02:19
Speaker
When I looked, I was like, oh, this is very impressive. You have had diverse roles in revenue generation across all kinds of different technology sectors. Maintaining work-life balance can be challenging in demanding fields like this. Would you be able to share a pivotal moment in your career
00:02:40
Speaker
where you had to consistently prioritize your wellbeing while excelling in your revenue role, right? And then what was the experience? How did it shape you and balance in the long term?
00:02:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think balance and work and life and thinking about what does that really mean and how do we create all the parts of ourselves, our life and our work and make space for kind of all of those pieces is a big part of kind of my work now as a coach. But when I was in a leadership role, prior to going into my coaching business, I'll be VP of customer success for
00:03:18
Speaker
a software startup and I was leading a team that was a global team with people in London, Paris, Singapore, New York, LA, and I'm based in San Francisco. So it was like a lot of traveling and a lot of just being available for calls.
00:03:36
Speaker
you know, early morning or late night to cover kind of the whole globe. It was like there's always somebody in the team that was working. So that was definitely a challenge to figure out how to balance that and prioritize my own time.
Setting Personal and Travel Boundaries
00:03:50
Speaker
So I think a pivotal moment for me was
00:03:53
Speaker
It was probably like a year or so into my job at this company that I was at, Tubular Labs. And I just felt like I was really getting to the end of my sort of feeling like I was burning out. And I was traveling multiple times a month between kind of LA and New York and London and from San Francisco. That's a pretty far way to go for a four day trip or something like that. So I was just really exhausted and I felt like I wasn't really prioritizing
00:04:21
Speaker
things that matter to me in my life. I was single and looking to be dating and wanted to meet a partner. I had friends I wanted to keep up with and just my own personal wellness and routines were really going out the window. At the time I was working with a coach and she actually helped me to realize that
00:04:41
Speaker
I was putting a lot of this on myself and thinking that I should be in the offices at a high frequency or that I was basing my travel schedule around what I saw other senior leaders and C-suite executives in the business doing, taking cues from them and just assuming that I had to do that too.
00:05:04
Speaker
and kind of what i thought people wanted and what i realized is like i hadn't really set any boundaries i was just like doing what i thought i should do and um yeah realizing that was really powerful to creating some change so what i i sat down and just got really clear with like
00:05:19
Speaker
how often am I willing to be traveling? And I decided that I could do like one week a month was doable. So I just rotated through each of the three offices. So I went to everyone once a quarter. And if I had to do one extra trip or something, I was like, I can figure that out. But I didn't even need to tell anybody that I had set this boundary. I was really just myself.
00:05:41
Speaker
And I see that a lot I think with the women leaders who are kind of up and coming or just getting into those positions for the first time that you look around or whatever everyone else is doing and you think you just have to do what they're doing. And I think really getting clear with what matters to you is like step one. And then from there I was able to
00:06:00
Speaker
trade off quantity of being there with quality. Because when I came, then I was more energized, I was more engaged, and I had the capacity to spend the time with my team to visit with our customers and do it in a way that worked for me and was more sustainable.
Self-care and Professional Development
00:06:18
Speaker
So yeah, I think after I did that, I then tried to refocus on the things that energize me. I think that's one thing I like to think about still now and something I work on a lot with my clients too is sort of getting back in touch with those little things that bring you joy, that energize you, that feel restful and restorative and start to
00:06:39
Speaker
put those back into your day. So for me, I like signed up for a yoga retreat. I really prioritized dating and made time for like passion projects. And even like, I think it was after that point that I was able to help co-found our women's ERG at the company, which was like extra work, but it was like really energizing and fun work. So I think it just made me realize that taking care of myself
00:07:05
Speaker
as the number one priority is just most important because without me, I can't do anything. Yeah, I take this a lot into account now running my own business because that is definitely something I keep learning over and over
Facing Challenges and Imposter Syndrome
00:07:21
Speaker
and over. It's not like you've solved it and now it's just all better, but yeah, you have to keep prioritizing it.
00:07:27
Speaker
Going off of that though, like when you said that you started showing up and it was more about the quality of the time that you spent there versus the quantity based off of your initial observation and just kind of the assumption that you had to follow in what you saw or like maybe what you thought others expectations were. Not that it sounded like there was a conversation of set expectations, it was just like as long as you get your job done kind of thing, right? But once you made that boundary and you really didn't have to tell anybody but like
00:07:56
Speaker
Did anybody even notice? Was there that fear there? I'm going to set this boundary. I'm not going to tell anybody and see if there's backlash. What happened? Did anybody even notice? Yeah. I mean, nothing happened. Nobody said anything. I didn't really even notice, honestly.
00:08:11
Speaker
Which is what made me realize, like, oh, I was creating a lot of this. I was creating this pressure. And that was a theme, I think, when I got into this role. It was my first time being a director. And I felt like I put so much pressure on myself. I felt like, I mean, there was pressure from the business to perform. And there was definitely a lot of eyes on my team.
00:08:32
Speaker
I came in at a time where the renewal weights were pretty low and we really needed to improve and the previous leader had been let go and coming in during some turbulence. So there was some definitely expectations. At the same time, I feel like I was just making it even more challenging for myself by
00:08:51
Speaker
adding on more things that were probably like not like they weren't the most impactful ways I could have been spending time and just created excess kind of work.
Mentorship and Leadership Skills
00:09:05
Speaker
And I love too that you started focusing on the quality versus the quantity. And with that, did you notice sort of an uptick in the renewals or what was the positive impact there?
00:09:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's hard to tie that directly to the metrics in terms of renewals, but I definitely think it really helped with... One of my big strengths as a leader has always been relationship building. I think by spending more quality time with people where I could really... I had leaders, all of the leaders that reported into me
00:09:39
Speaker
managed teams that were in different offices. So I was in San Francisco and they were in all these other offices. So getting to spend the quality time with them really helped me to pinpoint, you know, where they were doing really well, where they needed to focus more or double down.
00:09:56
Speaker
And I think building those relationships with the teams in the field offices helped me get a better pulse on where we needed to change as a global consistent theme, which then could help me make better decisions with how we were.
00:10:11
Speaker
refocusing in our quarterly planning and things like that. Not exactly directly, but indirectly, I think it definitely helped improve the performance. Awesome.
00:10:27
Speaker
I wonder if this ties in or if there's something similar, but on the vein of challenges, if you will, what is an experience where maybe you faced a significant challenge in a revenue generating role? What did you overcome it? And then what did you learn from the experience? Yeah.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think in this role, I came in as a director of customer success and I think very early on, the first two to three months, but definitely the first six months, I think I faced, I felt a lot of challenges both from the business side and from the personal side too. I'm thinking about
00:11:10
Speaker
how both of those came into play here as I was thinking about this question is on the business side, I came in, the previous leader had been fired and the renewal rates were below the targets that they should have been. And I felt like the founders, the CEO, the CRO, everybody was looking to me to fix it.
00:11:32
Speaker
And I was like, oh, geez, this is like a lot of salon eyes, you know? Yeah. And at the same time, like my manager, who I loved and was a big part of, I took the job, like she was about to go on maternity leave. And so after the first month, she was gone and I felt like I was on my own. And that's when all the first small challenges I think came up. Yeah, I was like,
00:11:55
Speaker
That's when like the imposter syndrome came up, the like overworking, this like feeling like I have to hyper achieve, you know, and feeling like it was all on me. And I felt like I was sort of taking, I would take everything kind of personally, I think at the beginning there where the performance wasn't getting better, I would be like, oh, I
Seeking and Providing Mentorship
00:12:13
Speaker
failed. Or if, you know, people were asking me questions, it made me feel like I was doing something wrong. So I feel like I was like trying to make up for all of that by working harder.
00:12:22
Speaker
But I think what really changed some of the key things that helped me get out of that challenging time was I elevated the CS leaders in those market, in those field offices to be managers because at first I had a team of like
00:12:38
Speaker
20 people or 15 people that I thought they were managers, but they were just sort of team leads. So I elevated them, which helped me get a bit more focus instead of having to manage like all of these people. And then really just focus on like foundational processes. Like I think one of my superpowers has been in my career has been coming into startups that are in this growth phase where everything's breaking.
00:13:03
Speaker
and really putting in new processes that are sort of foundational, but helped to like tame the chaos. And so we like tiered all of our accounts. We added in like a support team. We created customer health scores, like a lot of these elements that would help us work smarter and like direct our resources in the best ways. Yeah, I focused on like relationship building, like how can I partner best with like the sales leaders, marketing team, like my counterparts in these other groups.
00:13:33
Speaker
Yeah, and like that also is the time where I hired a coach because I was like, wow, I feel like I need help now. Yes. Yeah. So got kind of intentional with getting support. Yeah. And I think the learning here, like for.
00:13:47
Speaker
Like if I were to share or like sum it up for myself and to share with others listening is like thinking about like your mindset, your self care and your support are like critical, especially I think at these like career junctures where you're like up leveling into something new.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. And I think also just now looking back at it, I'm like reminded that like, oh, I could figure these things out. Like I figured them out before I'm smart and like lean into your strengths, I think in those challenging times and like.
00:14:18
Speaker
mostly check yourself because I was creating a lot of it, I think, for myself. You had mentioned that you had uplifted the team leads, the so many team leads around you to be managers and help out in that way, which ultimately helped you to be able to do your role better, to have more of a touch point on what's happening.
00:14:43
Speaker
And it like brought, it made me think of like that whole re-rise by lifting others thing and then brought me to mentorship, right? And so mentorship and guidance play a very crucial role in career growth. And so what I'm curious is if you have any stories about mentors or advocates who have
00:15:07
Speaker
significantly impacted your professional development and how did that support shape your trajectory and all of that.
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's sort of that fun, that fun thing of like you are able to get mentorship and then to give it and like I think kind of being able to see how it impacts you when you're able to have that mentorship and advocacy and guidance and then be able to like also give that to your team. Like I found that to be really fulfilling, which is how I ended up in coaching now.
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think a few, definitely a few mentors like come to mind. I think I've had some, some great mentors at my time tubular labs. There were a few people kind of the head of our
Effective Boundary Setting
00:15:49
Speaker
people team was really influential. Our head of kind of product and marketing really helped me. Our CEO before I left, he also was like really influential. I think especially in helping me move from my role as a VP of customer success into my coaching business.
00:16:04
Speaker
I think the person who stands out the most probably was my CRO, Pat Williams. He was my direct manager when I was a director of customer success. And I think through all the time periods that I just described, he was my manager. And I think it was my first time also reporting to like a C-suite executive. So I think also learning kind of, you know, you're not given as much like guidance or
00:16:29
Speaker
like one-on-one sort of direction of telling you how to do it. So that was like a challenge I think at first. But what I think he really helped me level up from like being more of a senior manager into like a director. And I think some of the things he brought that helped me most were like simplicity in your strategy. And I remember being like, my head was spinning, I was like,
00:16:56
Speaker
had all these slides for our QBR. And I was trying to pull all this data and all these things to be like, how are we going to improve things? And I think he just was like, he gave me this slide that was like a one slide. He's like, you should be able to fit your business strategy into this one slide. I didn't have an example.
00:17:16
Speaker
And I took that, and I was like, oh, it actually is really simple if you just really focus it. I think he was also just a really great listener. He never told me what to do, which at the time was kind of frustrating. But I think he would really listen. And we developed a personal rapport where we would have one-on-ones and talk about lots of things and not just about business. And I think that made me feel supported, and he cared about me as a person.
00:17:44
Speaker
But yeah, I think just like helping me to focus on the core priorities. He also served really well as like a buffer. If I was really trying to focus on a few things with my team, you know, there'd be lots of ideas coming around. Like, you know, I think especially if you're in a founder led company, especially as a startup, like the founders had lots of ideas, you know, and he really helped me stay focused on my OKRs and sort of like helping protect my time, which was valuable. Yeah, sort of helped me learn how to manage up.
00:18:14
Speaker
And then when it came to the point, I continued to meet with him outside of the business once he had left. And he was actually really helpful in helping me make the commitment to actually going to my coaching business full time and helping me make that decision and encouraging me. So I think that's definitely one example. But yeah, I've had a lot of different mentors I think who've helped me. Wow. To find a really good mentor that listens
00:18:43
Speaker
as their approach to helping you grow because we do honestly have to figure it out ourselves if we're really going to learn anything, right? It's always so refreshing to hear that. And what advice would you give to other women who might be seeking mentors?
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think like thinking about what you want support in like, I actually had another mentor and this guy, Neil Patil, he was our chief product and CMO, product officer and CMO, but when I was going from director to VP and I was like having trouble crossing that gap and I got feedback about my executive presence and he really mentored me on that specific topic and he had suggested
00:19:31
Speaker
going and gathering market research. He's like, I'm a product marketer by trade, you know, by trade. He's like, I would set up a 30 minute meeting with every C-suite executive and ask them, like, how would you rate me on executive presence one to five?
00:19:45
Speaker
ask them to define it for you. And then how do they define that? And then if you had one thing that would help me move up one number, like what would you recommend I do? So it really helped to shift like, one, I got a definition and realized everybody defines that very differently.
00:20:03
Speaker
And two, I got a sense of where I stood and I got a lot of ideas that I could then choose, you know, what did I want to implement? But I say that as like a advice for others. It's like think about what specific thing you want help on. Like for me at that point, that was what I wanted help on. So I sought out him to help me with that. Or think about where do you need encouragement? Like where do you need a little bit of a push or like what's really hard for you right now that you're challenged with?
00:20:30
Speaker
And then I think looking around you, like you can look within your company, like managers or other leaders within the business, you could look at like employee resource groups, you could look at like our women's ERG, we started a mentor group, looking at networking groups, like women in revenue has a mentorship. And then just looking at your larger network, like I think really for me, I would recommend looking at people who are a few steps ahead of you, of where you know you wanna be. So if you're like, well, I'm a,
00:20:59
Speaker
director of product marketing and I want to be a CMO, like look for somebody that's a CMO who maybe had a product marketing path that you can kind of learn from. Or for me in my coaching business, I work with a coach who is a sales coach and she has built up her business. She's like two years maybe ahead of where I want to be.
00:21:18
Speaker
finding those people who are a little bit ahead and then I think just asking, being clear to ask them for their mentorship and help in the area you want it, I think is the
Work-Life Separation Rituals
00:21:30
Speaker
key part. I think a lot of us are afraid to ask for help and so don't forget that part. Yeah, exactly. Thank you for that last piece. We can want and we can read and we can learn, but we do have to ask and we have to implement so for sure.
00:21:46
Speaker
on the other side of mentorship, but back on sort of like the balancing side work to live. But on your LinkedIn profile, you mentioned that you have a passion for empowering women.
00:22:00
Speaker
in male-dominated industries. And so we understand these significance of mentorship in professional growth, and it can also be a commitment of full-time and energy. So how is it that you strike a balance between offering valuable mentorship and nurturing your own personal and professional needs?
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a really good question. I think right now I feel like I'm in a position where I sort of merged the two together. Like my desire for mentorship and coaching now is like aligned with my professional needs. But I think like before I went full time into coaching, I think like when I was working full time
00:22:44
Speaker
I think for me, it goes back to what energizes you. When I looked at the times when I was leading our women's ERG group sessions, I was facilitating, or when I was having career development conversations with people on my team, or mentorship conversations with other people on other teams.
00:23:04
Speaker
I always felt better after and more energized by them because it was exciting and I felt like I was like giving them something that was going to help them. And that fulfilled me. So rather than being like energy draining, it was kind of refilling me, which actually I think helped me to like give more into the business side of it.
Staying Grounded During Stress
00:23:24
Speaker
I was there for five years and I was at a previous startup also for five years, which is like a marathon at a rapidly changing start. Wow. Well, I think like these mentorship things actually helped me
00:23:35
Speaker
stay longer and feel more engaged because I felt like I was getting that fulfillment. So I think checking in with yourself, why are you doing it? Is it something that is fulfilling? If so, maybe it isn't actually adding a lot more effort, but it is giving you something back.
00:23:54
Speaker
But I also think it's like the mentoring helped me in my professional goals as well. I think because I was viewed as a really strong leader. I was viewed as one of the best people managers in the business. And then when we went through a reorg as a result, like a whole new department was put under me and I took on like my team doubled in size. I had like 30 people and then
00:24:15
Speaker
Later on, I was able to then position that into this VP promotion. So I don't think they have to be counterintuitive, but I think finding a way that it works for you. And see, I mean, there's different ways you can mentor people and maybe some ways are more energizing and others are more draining. So kind of like following what works for you. Yeah. Awesome.
00:24:37
Speaker
So finding things that are energizing and letting go of things that can tend to be draining or even checking in with, why am I doing this? Does it fuel me? Yeah. Brings up an interesting topic.
00:24:53
Speaker
that I feel flows right into our next question regarding boundaries for violence. Right. Yeah. And so it's today it's fast paced. It's tell you the world is technology driven and it's common for work to spill over into personal time. It just is. It's just common.
00:25:13
Speaker
But as someone who has held leadership roles, how is it that you set boundaries to protect your personal life while also still being accessible and effective in your revenue focused responsibilities? Yeah, I think I mentioned earlier at a certain point, I feel like I had no boundaries. So I definitely went phases of realizing like, wait a minute, I need to take accountability for this.
00:25:41
Speaker
I have always had a few really firm boundaries though. I really will never work on the weekends. In a very rare instance, I might have to do something.
00:25:53
Speaker
almost never. And I also always prioritize taking vacations and I never work on vacation either. I always log out of my email and I don't even bring my computer. I don't know where I got that. I've always done that. So sometimes I don't understand where people are like, well, I bring everything and I check in and
00:26:11
Speaker
I can't do that. I never feel rested when I come back. So those have been very firm boundaries that I think helped me at least restore on the weekends and then taking the vacations, either even just taking a day off here and there. I know during COVID and working from home, my company in the past had implemented
00:26:32
Speaker
once a month we had like a Friday off or a half day Friday, finding those little moments where you're feeling like I need it, like to take it and then taking like longer vacations. But during the weekdays, I think some boundaries that helped me is just trying to not check my email or my Slack on my phone. I think the phone, it's like it's always with you and then you're all feel like you're always attached to it. And you feel like you have to always be on. So I think like now I try to plug in my phone across the room so it's not,
00:27:01
Speaker
right next to my belt.
Self-care Baselines
00:27:03
Speaker
And then another thing that helped me kind of break the bad habit of checking it is like creating a morning routine and actually use an app that's called Routineery where you can like put in the things you want to do.
00:27:16
Speaker
and how long it takes you to do each thing. And once you start your routine, it will prompt you, it'll be like, okay, time's up for teeth brushing, time to move on to meditation. And so I find it's less, it's harder to catch myself getting distracted on Instagram or some other things. So that kind of putting that in place helped.
00:27:37
Speaker
And then, yeah, I think at the end of the day, like I like to think about the boundaries of the day. So that's like the morning. And then at the end, I think especially with working from home, I tried to create sort of a ritual where I would like clean up my desk, like, you know, whatever papers or notebook or at the end of each day. Yeah.
00:27:57
Speaker
and then kind of close my laptop and sort of tidy it up so that, you know, it felt like the work day is over. I love that idea and I'm going to do it. Wow. I think having like something to bookend your day, you know, at the beginning and the end helps to contain the work, especially if you're working from home and your desk is like, my desk was like in my living room and, you know, it got harder with COVID. Yeah. A couple other things I think, like I mentioned, I had a global team, so it was challenging to have people like
00:28:26
Speaker
In the UK, I had to get up early for calls, and then sometimes I would have late calls with APAC, so feeling like I had to always be on. So I'd try to designate certain days that were like I would be on in the morning, but then do the later calls on other days, so I didn't have always
00:28:43
Speaker
being early and late was like more draining. So kind of choosing that and really just telling people like these are the days I can be available and then you can kind of create your own schedule that way. And then yeah, I think also like I am definitely like a recovering people pleaser. I used to say yes to everything and everyone. So yeah, I think I also just started to learn
00:29:07
Speaker
the language of like how to negotiate. Like someone asked me for something. I don't have to say no, but I could say like, oh, I could do it next week. Or I would ask more questions, get more context and or I would think like, well, what's the minimal amount I could give them, you know, but not have to do all of it. And that those kinds of things I think help to hold on to your time.
Redefining Success
00:29:29
Speaker
And then one tool I really love that I use that I teach or I share with my clients now is like putting everything in your calendar, like
00:29:37
Speaker
That way, if somebody comes to you and asks you for something, you could be like, well, let me look at my calendar. And if it's full, you have an easier way to say no. Or you can consciously decide, if I say yes to this, I'm going to have to move something else out or I'm going to have to work later. So just making it so that you have to be more active in those choices rather than just blindly
00:30:03
Speaker
just saying yes out of habit and then being resentful when you're working late and missing fun things that you could be doing. Life in general. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. What great actionable takeaways and
00:30:19
Speaker
So, the routine-ery, I'm going to check that out. I have a morning routine and I love, love the idea. Like, you have your morning routine, which gears you up for the day, and then you have sort of like your very intentional, like, I'm putting things away, I'm cleaning things up. Like, the closing of the laptop is like this, you know, of like, this is done. And I think, I can't wait to try that.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a ritual a little bit of a ritual and then it's nice when you come in in the morning and you're like Oh, it's a clean and like I'm organized Thank you yesterday me, you know Just setting this up for my future self here. Love you, you know, wow. I love that
00:31:04
Speaker
Okay. And this is my last question here. So like we've established with balances, we've established like how to balance within mentorship and then boundaries for balance, but strategies. I feel like we've also touched on this, like in the tools. So if there are any repeats, that's fine, but you've, you've excelled right in revenue generation across various like technology sectors, which undoubtedly involves navigating tight deadlines.
Episode Wrap-up and Community Invitation
00:31:34
Speaker
high pressure situations, the whole thing. During intense work periods, how do you ensure that you stay grounded and maintain that sense of equilibrium? Are there any specific strategies?
00:31:50
Speaker
Yeah, I have kind of a thing that I've used that a coach in the past gave to me and I like to share with clients now is like this concept called like your minimum baseline, where you may have in normal times when it's calm and things are like just flowing, you have like your standard
00:32:08
Speaker
sort of operating procedures of your life. Maybe you cook your dinners, you grocery shop, you work out for an hour or something. You have these things that are kind of built in, but then when things get stressful, we tend to go to all or nothing, where we're like, everything goes out the window. And instead, this tool is like,
00:32:29
Speaker
But what's the minimum I want to do to take care of myself? And I even have worked with clients in the past where I was setting up Whole Foods orders so that, or your grocery order, so it's like your set items you need and you just click Deliver. And then it's like you have some stuff.
00:32:46
Speaker
if you can't get to the farmer's market or something. That's your preference, but this week it's busy. Or you have people in town visiting and you're not going to be able to go to the gym, then it's like, okay, well, at minimum I want to do a 20-minute walk. But it's defining it ahead of time and being clear with yourself, I am now dropping into
00:33:05
Speaker
this mode, like, and knowing that. So that's been, like, really helpful. And then I think for me, I think I'm just knowing what are the things that ground you. So for me, like, I went through yoga teacher training last year, and I since then have made it a really big point to meditate for five to seven minutes, like, every morning. So that is, like, that's in my routinely app, you know? I brush my teeth, I do my five-minute to seven-minute meditation,
00:33:34
Speaker
Because it's just a really nice quiet moment to check in with myself and Usually I notice I have all these thoughts and it's a really good time to just sort of try to settle And then I like to go for like a 15-minute walk at least, you know, ideally I could go for longer But if I don't have the time, I'll just try to do something outside helps me to get like awake and energized and then I
00:33:56
Speaker
I think also just thinking about what are little breaks you can take in the day. I know some people are feeling like they have to be on Slack and available all the time. If somebody sends a message and they're in the bathroom or eating lunch, then God forbid, they have to wait a few minutes.
00:34:11
Speaker
But yeah, just finding little breaks. I'll put on a song and dance for five minutes or sing a song or read for 10 minutes or something. And then I think when I was in my last full-time role, I feel like I was constantly on Zoom. It was like Zoom to Zoom to Zoom to Zoom.
00:34:31
Speaker
for eight hours straight. And so I'd like to do like little walk and talks instead sometimes for one-on-ones, I'd be like, can we just do a phone call and let's both go for a walk instead of like being in front of the computer. So those are some tips that I've had success with.
00:34:49
Speaker
Wow. If you were to say, let's do a call and do a walk, especially if I was also used to going from Zoom to Zoom, I would be like, yes, that sounds refreshing. Thank you for saving me. It's so funny. I feel like
00:35:06
Speaker
as people, we can tend to take life so seriously and almost too seriously at some point and overstress ourselves out or overwork ourselves for whatever reason we've come up with. Well, I think a lot of us use productivity as our measuring stick of success. I think if you can start to shift
00:35:31
Speaker
that to ask yourself, what does success look like for me today? Maybe success today is going for a walk. I think just thinking about that, because yes, we all want to be productive, and I think a lot of us are high achievers, and we want growth opportunities. We want the next thing, but I think pausing to reflect also on
00:35:58
Speaker
all that you have done and have achieved and actually celebrating that really helps you put things in perspective as well, which is hard to do. This conversation couldn't have been any better. Thank you so much for all of your insight in Strategies for Balance and just being a part of this, I had such a blast getting to know you.
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah, it was really great to get to know you too. And I'm glad we got to have this conversation. I feel like these things were challenging before COVID, but even more so now that things have blended more so with work and your home and your office. And there's less like structural boundaries. And so it's like up to us to create some of those. So yeah, I think creating the balance is hard. And yeah, but making it a priority will make us all feel
00:36:50
Speaker
more fulfilled and energized. Awesome. Well, thank you, Lauren. You're welcome. Thank you. And that wraps up another episode of Resilient Revenue. These narratives are more than just personal triumphs. They embody the collective journey that we undertake as we strive for a future where every woman, no matter her career stage, location, industry, or demographic profile, has the opportunity to excel in her chosen field.
00:37:19
Speaker
Women in Revenue exists because we know amazing things can happen when driven, talented, bottom line oriented women are fired up and collaborating to grow their careers and organizations. We invite you to join our amazing community of 7,000 plus members. If you'd like to become a member for free, head on over to womeninrevenue.org to join today. See you next time on Resilient Revenue.