The Uplifters

Our guest today is Beth Raynor Webb. Beth grew up in a world that had strong opinions about what girls could and couldn’t do. She married young, started a family, and followed the path that was laid out for her.

When her kids left the nest, she began to ask herself some big questions: “Who am I really? What have I not done that I really wanted to do?” She realized that she’d spent most of her life caring for others, supporting them in their dreams, but not actively participating in life. She was an observer.

“There's nothing more empowering than becoming a participant in whatever it is that you find joy in. When we get into a participant mindset, we stop just dreaming and we start doing.” Beth Raynor Webb

So, Beth decided to start doing things, especially those that scared her. She took up hiking and kayaking and cooking, she moved across the country, and now, she’s looking straight into the eyes of a fear that she’s held since she was a little girl: horses. 

Fear is contagious, but so is uplifting.

So, if you want to catch some of Beth’s courageous and participatory mojo, here are some things you might want to experiment with:

1. Understand the source of the fear with compassion for its’ context

2. Suss out whether your fear is there to save you or stop you

3. Find a safe space and a capable teacher or another source of support for facing your fear in small steps

4. Celebrate all of the wins and learnings

5. Stop when it’s no longer serving you. It's okay to dive in, and it's okay to climb out.

After you listen, join Beth and me and a host of other uplifting women over at Live Up Daily to continue the conversation. And if you find value in this episode, please leave us a review and share this episode with your friends and colleagues who might benefit from Beth’s story.

Share

Beth Raynor Webb has been a weight loss leader, trained personal coach, and certified Focus coach since 2013. After living over fifty years in upstate New York, she and her husband embraced adventure and moved to the beautiful southwest and now reside in El Paso, TX. She enjoys travel, hiking with her Yorkie, off-roading, and loves spending time with her children and greatest inspiration…her granddaughter. Learn more about Beth and her work with Blue Owl Solutions.

Our guest today is Rachel Lipson, the founder of Blue Balloon Songwriting School, who has been called the “matriarch of modern music education.”

Rachel shares her journey from leaving a steady and secure full-time job as a school teacher to pursuing the uncertain path of teaching songwriting to children and creating her own business. 

She talks about leaning into the unknown and how letting others in on the secret of your dreams can help you, financially, emotionally, and more. Whether it’s a Kickstarter or GoFundMe or asking people to support your goals in other ways, there is nothing more energizing or empowering than letting the people you believe in demonstrate that they believe in YOU! As Rachel says, “If you’re doing it, you care about it, so maybe it’s time to admit it.”

Rachel helps us understand how to thrive despite our fears and anxiety. She also shares tips on creating physical spaces that cheer us on when we need a boost and ways to stockpile evidence of our success when we need a reminder of how capable we are. As an added bonus, she also shares the biggest hurdles she hears from the entrepreneurs she coaches.

If you're an entrepreneur or considering starting your own business, this episode is for you! Rachel's story is inspiring and full of practical tips that you can apply to your own journey.

“Everyone has ideas. What sets an entrepreneur apart from anybody else, is that they have the ideas and they move forward with them.

I sometimes thought this is a great idea, but not for me. I mean, who am I? Why should I do this? I mean, somebody's better at guitar than me. Somebody's a better songwriter. Somebody knows more people,  has more money, has more, connections, and resources. There's a mile long list of things that could make me think I'm the wrong person to do this. And then I thought, ‘OK, well, there's not a line of people saying, ‘Rachel, if you don't wanna do it, step aside and I'll do it.’” 

Make sure to listen to the entire episode and take notes on the valuable insights shared by Rachel Lipson. And if you're looking for more inspiration, Rachel recommends the book "I Want to Thank You" by Gina Hamedey or sign yourself or your loved one up for Songwriting lessons at Blue Balloon! 

Don't forget to subscribe to The Uplifters Podcast at www.theuplifterspodcast.com to hear from more courageous and inspiring women, sharing their wisdom, to help us all rise higher, together. And, remember, uplifting is contagious, so if you find value in this episode, please leave us a review and share this episode with your friends and colleagues who might benefit from Rachel's story.

Welcome to The Uplifters Podcast!

You can listen to our latest episode in the player here or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch us on YouTube. 

Our guest today is Rachel Lipson, the founder of Blue Balloon Songwriting School, who has been called the “Matriarch of Modern Music Education.”

Rachel shares her journey from leaving a steady and secure full-time job as a school teacher to pursuing the uncertain path of teaching songwriting to children and creating her own business - a company that has since grown into a network of 75+ independent instructors, teaching over 400 students a week on many different instruments all over the world.

You’ll hear Rachel share what it took to lean into the unknown and how she keeps going despite her fears, anxiety, and limiting beliefs.

Rachel says, “I thought, “This is a great idea, but not for me. I mean, who am I? Why should I do this? Somebody's better at guitar than me. Somebody's a better songwriter. Somebody knows more people, and has more money, more connections, and more resources. There's a mile-long list of things that could make me think I'm the wrong person to do this. And then I thought, ‘OK, well, there's not a line of people saying, ‘Rachel, if you don't wanna do it, step aside and I'll do it.’ I think a lot of women feel this way… they look in the mirror and say, who am I to have started this? Who am I to do this? But if you don't do it, it may never happen.” 

Rachel helps us understand how to thrive despite our fears and anxiety.

She also shares:

* Why letting others in on the secret of your dreams can help you, financially, emotionally, and more.

* Tips on creating physical spaces that cheer us on when we need a boost

* Ways to stockpile evidence of our success to sustain us

* The biggest hurdles she hears from the entrepreneurs she coaches.

If you're an entrepreneur or considering starting your own business, this episode is for you! If your mindset or confidence has ever stalled your progress, Rachel's story is inspiring and full of practical tips that you can apply to your own journey!

After you listen, join Rachel and me and a host of other uplifting women over at Live Up Daily to continue the conversation. And uplifting is contagious, so if you find value in this episode, please leave us a review and share this episode with your friends and colleagues who might benefit from Rachel's story and spread the love.

With lots of love and moxie,

Aransas

A Messy Transcript of This Episode, for those who prefer to read it.

Aransas Savas:

So tell me your story in a nutshell. I feel like there's so much I don't know about you yet. And maybe that'll help us all kind of ground in who you are and how you do what you do.

Rachel Lipson:

Sure. Well, my story. Well, I was, you know, around the time when we met, I was a teacher and, you know, trying, I probably had, I think at that time, three or four jobs. I was a waitress, I was a teacher in a classroom, I was teaching after school. I mean, I was really doing the whole, you know, 20-something New York City hustle to try to pay my rent and make it work. And, you know, really found My favorite part of the day was teaching music lessons to kids. And so that was how I originally kind of started my business, not even knowing I was starting a business. I just thought, you know, here's a way to make some extra money, something I really enjoy. And as time went on, that, you know, turned into more than my full-time job. I was going from a full-time job to teaching a whole bunch of music lessons. And at one point I remember thinking, to choose, I cannot sustain this. And I thought, you know, I probably did it for much longer than I should have, doing both things. You know, really like superhuman kind of moments where you're thinking, how could I possibly wake up tomorrow and work all of these jobs? And I would do it, and I loved it. But I knew that in the future I wanted to have a family and I wanted to have some time to myself. And so I had to choose and I chose to start my own business. And, So that was kind of the beginning of Blue Balloon.

Aransas Savas:

And so you had at that time, you had a full-time job, you had a salary, you had all the comforts that come with that security. And that's really valuable to people in terms of psychological safety and comfort. How did you muster the courage to let go of that comfort and shift into something that, even though it sounds like it was providing you lots of personal satisfaction on in terms of understanding the need and the potential there. How did you lean into the unknown?

Rachel Lipson:

Well, I mean, that was really challenging, obviously. It was not. It was a lot of the conversations with myself and conversations with other people about how I can look at what I really want ultimately and figure out what I need to do to get there, even if it's scary, which is

Aransas Savas:

Mm-hmm.

Rachel Lipson:

something I have a lot of experience with. So that was, so that was difficult because you're right, having all that security and knowing that I had a paycheck. Now, health insurance is a big one. daughter of two public school educators. I had great insurance my whole life. I never had a moment without, you know, amazing health insurance, which I feel so fortunate about. And then there I was in my 20s about to lose, you know, that coverage from what I had had from my parents and you have from your job and those things that do make you feel protected and safe. And actually what I ended up doing was I started, I started a Kickstarter. Kickstarter was like early go fund me and it was like the very beginning of Kickstarter I mean, I don't remember when they were actually founded but it was early Kickstarter and I founded and I, and I said I'm founding this songwriting school and Asked people to give and at that time no one knew what Kickstarter was even this idea I had to one sell them on my music school But also to sell them on like donating the Kickstarter like why would anybody do that? No one even knew it is it safe to put your credit card information into this platform nobody knew. And what I ended up doing, I raised a few thousand dollars, which was amazing. And it was at that time, I mean, I was young. I, that, that money really went to my health insurance. And that was actually interesting because you think of starting a business and you think of the expenses. And I think a lot of people would think, oh, I need, I need to figure out how I'm going to get an office space. Maybe not now post COVID, but you know, some of the things that at that time you would think that's what makes your business a business. space. There's just so many things that people think of that make them feel like they've really done it and they've pulled the trigger and the business is real. But for me, I was operating under very low overhead. I really didn't have an office space. I worked from home. I always liked to work from home when I was doing that business-y kind of stuff. And so the Kickstarter really went towards paying for my health insurance and making me feel like I would have some time to get things going. And in the meantime, I know that I would have that protection. 

And I'll just add that all of those people who donated in those early days, I mean, it went to some other things. It was not all health insurance, but that was at the end, what I actually really needed.

Rachel Lipson:

And all of those people that contributed like they supported me and believed in what I was doing, it actually really helped me. And it helped me for years. It helps me now. Sometimes I think back to those people who contributed, even $5, I mean that was the thing with Kickstarter. It could be $5, $500, $1000, it could be anything. And a lot of people made really small contributions that to them probably felt like, oh, this is going to make any difference. But just knowing anytime I had a that I had this like group of people behind me that really, you know, even people who just said amazing I support you. Look, it didn't have to be financial but it just was one thing I could look at and say all these people are there for me and they support me and believe in it.

Aransas Savas:

I think that's so beautiful and important that you point that out because you talk about the insurance being one of the scariest parts. I think one of the scariest parts for a lot of women entrepreneurs is stepping into that place of declaring their dreams. And you did that twofold. You said, yes, I'm going to build something and I want your support. And so asking for help. So many of the women I talked to are women who have sort of maybe set aside their own dreams for all sorts of reasons right, whether it's because of raising children or taking care of aging parents or Going into careers that they thought they should and these women I think so often have a real fear of asking for help and really owning that they're gonna step out of this comfortable familiar place where they are known and seen and into something where it's full of unknown and mystery and uncertainty. And so you kind of dove right into both of those.

Rachel Lipson:

Yeah, absolutely. And that 100% was huge, was scary. I mean, it's scary to go off on your own and say, I have this idea and I'm gonna do something about it. It's scary. I mean, a lot of people have a lot of ideas. Everyone has ideas.

Rachel Lipson (10:08.970)

I mean, that's the thing is no matter what you realize what kind of sets somebody apart as an entrepreneur from anybody else is that they have the ideas and they move forward with them.

Aransas Savas:

Mmm.

Rachel Lipson:

But everybody has the ideas. And so having those moments where you sit back and say, or lean forward and say, I'm going to put this out in the world. And sometimes you think, oh, and I don't care what anybody thinks. But I did care what everybody thought. I can't say I didn't care. I wanted people to believe in it. I wanted people to be excited about it. And I mean, I remember thinking, who am I to be doing this? doing this. I sometimes thought this is a great idea but not for me. I mean who am I? Why should I do this? I mean somebody's better at guitar than me, somebody's a better songwriter, somebody knows more people, has more money, has more connections, resources, a mile long list of things that I could, I at that time remember thinking, oh I'm the wrong person to do this. And then I would think, okay but it's not like there's a line of people who do it, like step aside and I'll do it. It was like, okay, here's your chance, like why not? Try it. 

Rachel Lipson (10:38.850)

And so I kind of listened to that voice and moved forward, but I do feel like that, especially for women, is a voice that doesn't go away. And I've learned over the years, you know, this is over, you know, 15 years now of doing this, that, and like you said, I mean I was of a kid when I met you. But now, you know, now I've got two kids of my own and I'm, you know, and I think a lot of women feel this way. A lot of people feel this way that they look in the mirror and they say, who am I to have started this? Who am I to do this? But if you don't do it, it may never happen. And I'm so glad that I took the plunge and I did it because it's been, you know, incredibly rewarding and satisfying and all the things.

Aransas Savas:

What was the hardest part for you?

Rachel Lipson:

Ooh. The hardest part. So many hard parts.

Rachel Lipson:

The hardest, sometimes I think, I think some of the early days, like we've talked about with kind of the feelings of imposter syndrome were huge. That was really hard for me. And I still feel that, but then it was really, really at the forefront of everything I did. You know, I think that. It's, you know, I'm somebody who my whole life struggled with a lot of anxiety. So that's something that I don't talk a ton about, but it's something that I've had, you know, my whole life. And so it's interesting because I think sometimes somebody with anxiety might do better with a salary, with a job where you show up for work and you know what to count on and you don't have to think about how are you going to make this happen. It's, you know, there for you. And obviously there's not 100% security in that, but it is a really different experience in being an entrepreneur and being in charge of every aspect of your livelihood. And that I think has been something I've looked at as a hindrance to my growth, but also as a real superpower. So it's gone back and forth, but that's been a real struggle the whole time. would happen that anybody else, not anybody, because who knows, but a lot of people might brush off and just say, oh that person was having a bad day, why did they say it that way? You know, but to me it would be, oh my god my business, this is it, this is the last, this is goodbye blue balloon, goodbye everything, you know I would think that's the end, it's the end. And I, you know, and I learned over the years that it's just, that's just business, that's just business as usual. Things come up, you deal with them, and you move on and that's a big part of it. But I think dealing with the ups and downs and the uncertainty, which is just, you know, part of the day-to-day of business has been a real struggle for me to, and I've learned a lot from it and learned how to kind of work through it.

Aransas Savas (15:08.543)

I'm so grateful to you for saying that. I mean, I think a lot of people, we all have anxiety. Whether we have clinical anxiety disorders or not, we all have anxieties and we all fall prey to catastrophic thinking sometimes. 

Aransas Savas (16:36.682)

I'm so grateful that you're bringing up imposter syndrome. It keeps coming up in my conversations with entrepreneurs and I mean I keep coming back to this idea that we're like if we wait until we feel like we know everything and we're the perfect one to do it we're dead. Like it's over.

Rachel Lipson (17:39.390)

I think there are a few things that have helped me kind of quiet the voice that says you're not good enough, you shouldn't be doing this or, you know, all the, like the number of things, you know I probably said to myself at times or thought but the things that have helped me One, like community, just knowing there are people out there that really believe in what you do and believe in you can make such a huge difference. And so kind of back to that idea of the Kickstarter, you know, there's been like, there was that Kickstarter, but then there've been like Kickstarters, like not financial, you know, campaigns, but you know, people who've just been like cheerleaders my entire career. And those people have made me feel grounded and at home in what I do. And that's been really helpful. And then some other things I've done that have just helped me that I think sometimes, you know, in my house I finally have my own office, which is something that I always wanted. You know, I worked for years on my bed, sitting with my computer on my lap. You know, it's like so many people had made it work. kids were little, I mean it still happens from time to time, but when my kids were little, you know, I'd be running from one room to another to try to find a quiet space, you know, the kids crying in the living room and I'd run upstairs or run downstairs or run to the other, you know, whatever I had to do to get out of the way and to be in a quiet space. But now I have my own office and I love my office. It's my favorite. It's like my favorite place in the world. And one of the things that I did in my office that sometimes I feel like self-conscious about, but it's funny. it's really helped me, is I actually framed a lot of my press pieces. And sometimes I'll be sitting there at my computer, in my office, and I have those moments of doubt. And it's not like it's all about what other people think, because I think really it is about, who cares what they think? Like, what's the saying? Like, what other people think of you is none of your business. Like, I love that, absolutely love it. But it helps when they feel, when you feel their support, because everybody wants to feel community, and you want to feel like, yeah, at home in the world. And I look at that wall and it reminds me of how far I've come and how much I've done. And it's like, what am I gonna do? Stop now? Throw in the towel now? 

Aransas Savas (21:24.762)

I talk a lot about evidence right our thoughts sound true oftentimes and it's especially the limiting beliefs it's especially the ones that tell us we're not enough we can't we shouldn't we're not the right person we're not enough whatever they sound super true and they're past experience, right? Like I had this realization one time that I had like this whole vision of myself that was based on some cheerleader in sixth grade whose name I don't even know. 

I don't even know who this girl is, but she said something to me that made me believe that I was a certain type of friend. I'm like, why does that random girl, God knows what was going on in her life, have any authority on my personal belief in my future? Like, it's ridiculous. And yet I think we all have Like the person who said something when we were early in our career, or the person who said something about how we are in our relationships, and we just start to absorb those things as truth. And so I think to counter that, we have so much power when we start to look at other sources of evidence beyond our thoughts.

I think this space that you created is so powerful to be able to have a home that you can step into and say, oh, this is the space of someone who's doing it. It just further deepens our sense of self-belief and confidence and it does, it just elevates that belief enough that we can take the next step toward whatever it is our next dream is. And then finally, these proof points that you described, little bits of evidence all around you to remind you, because we are all gonna need that. If we're not doing scary stuff, then we're probably stagnating. And if we're doing scary stuff, we need more evidence. 

So talk to me about songwriting.

Rachel Lipson:

Oh, songwriting. Well, songwriting, you know, it's interesting because when I started the company, well, when I started teaching music lessons, I said to the parents who were, you know, I was a preschool teacher and parents said, oh, you play guitar, will you teach my child how to play guitar? You know, we're talking about like three and four-year-olds. But I had no interest, absolutely no interest in doing scales and learn how to play, you know, even you know, Mary had a little lamb and all this stuff. I had this feeling from the very beginning that what I wanted to do was sit with kids and write songs. However that would happen from the beginning. I didn't want to wait. I didn't want to stay to the kids. You know, I've always hated that kind of with education when people say, oh, you'll thank me later. Like do all this, you know, thank me later. Where's the joy? Where's the joy? Like I want, I wanted the kids to feel I wanted kids to feel like it was a way to express themselves and that songwriting was a tool and they could use it for creative expression right from the start.

Rachel Lipson (29:00.210)

And the kind of experiment of it from the beginning was, well what will happen when those kids grow up? How will they experience music? What will, what will they're really Relationship be with it and it's amazing because I mean this was 15 years ago I mean some of these kids are in music school. Some of these kids are in You know, they're they're songwriters. They're that's just that's part of what they'll always do. 

Aransas Savas:

It's really beautiful though, because I've been to a lot of your showcases over the years and the truth is you're not just working with kids who are musically inclined or gifted. There is a wide range.

Rachel Lipson:

We don't say you have to be amazing. You don't have to. You do. Anyone. We always say anyone can do this. Anyone can write a song.

Aransas Savas:

And that's what's so cool about it, is that anyone can express themselves. And it's just a tool for self-expression and self-awareness. Because I think what I've witnessed these teachers do is they ask kids what matters to them. And when I hear your story about how you created this, I hear such a loud echo of that question you asked yourself in the beginning, which was, what do I enjoy? 

As you said at the very beginning, I asked myself what was my favorite part of my day. And it was teaching guitar. And it was those little moments. And so I decided to do more of that. And that I think is what these teachers are asking these children. What is it you enjoy doing? What is it that excites you or awakens your curiosity? And then they legitimize that instinct in these children. And again, not all these kids are confident, right? You can tell that for some of these kids this is freaking terrifying, but they do it because they have a system of support, they've rehearsed, they've been encouraged, and I think they've gotten a sense of belief from others. So it's just a really beautiful full circle model, I think, of what creator as well. 

Let's talk now about what you're doing consulting What do you believe the biggest hurdle is for the entrepreneurs that you're working with?  

(33:35.123)

Rachel Lipson:

I think the biggest hurdle for a lot of the clients that I've had is really recognizing their own accomplishments. Like, how do you look at what you've done and actually look at it and feel proud of it and not belittle it, not diminish it, not think, oh, everybody could have done that, anyone in my shoes or I could have done better. All those things that I've struggled with. in the same boat. And so that's been really interesting to see that it's kind of across the board with all different all different kinds of businesses, all different kinds of people, and it's a lot of the same question of, you know, a lot of it is reminding people what they're already doing, not even getting them to do something new other than take time to think about what you've done and what's worked and what you enjoy

Aransas Savas:

I find that everybody has these feelings. And so often my, my immediate reaction really, to be honest, is like, you, you think that, but you look so crazy qualified from the outside and you look so ready and so all together, how can you think this, right? Like it's surprising to me.

Aransas Savas: (36:27.695)

And I think we do have to get out of those bubbles sometimes and scare ourselves and try new things in order to really find out what we are made of. Because how can we know what's outside when we're inside? 

(40:25.650)

Aransas Savas:

I am so grateful to you, for you, you're doing in the world for children, for songwriters, for entrepreneurs. And it's kind of awesome, Rachel, to sit and think about the impact and the ripples, to think about these children and how these little songwriters telling their stories have impacted their families. 

Aransas Savas (41:35.842)

And I was so excited to have you on this show for lots of reasons, one, because I wanted to share your story and I wanted to understand your mindset, but also because you are baked into the story very fabric of this show. I don't know if you even know it, but you, when my daughter was born, Rachel knows this, but for anybody listening who doesn't, when my daughter was born she was a hyperverbal kid. She kind of came out rhyming. 

Aransas Savas (43:27.462)

And I looked up Rachel and signed my daughter up for classes, and she's been writing songs since, I don't know, she was probably four or five. She's 14 now and still writing them. 

And she wrote the theme song for the Uplifters podcast. And so a song of hers opens and closes the show. And she never would have had the means to express this without support and without encouragement and without the space that you have created for it. So you will forever be a part of the Uplifters podcast. And each week, I will listen to that little song of you and just one of the many many ripples of your work.

Rachel Lipson:

Oh my gosh.

Aransas Savas:

So we talk about ripples a lot in here and I really believe that as uplifters it's essential that we surround ourselves with other people who inspire us and that is why I share your story so that other people can be inspired by you so they can learn from you and apply your experience to their own mindset to help them overcome to keep wading into these unknown forests without all the answers, despite anxiety or imposter syndrome or all the other things that can stop us in our tracks. And I think in your story, we can hear so many powerful ways that we can all keep moving forward. But I want to also know who inspires you so that I can learn from them. Who is someone who inspires you, Rachel?

Rachel Lipson:

Well, you know, I think about that. Probably the first person I, you know, one of the first people I would think of when I, if I were to make a list of, you know, the top people who've inspired me, like you would be on that list.

Rachel Lipson (45:57.015)

I was thinking about a friend of mine who has been, it's interesting, she's really changed the way that I've kind of thought about gratitude.

Her name is Gina Hamadey, and she's a writer. She wrote this amazing book called I Want to Thank You. And she took a year of her life, and she wrote thank you notes kinds of people in her life. And whether it was the doctor who delivered her baby or the guy who works at the counter at the coffee shop that she goes to each day or a teacher from her childhood or a friend, you know, she just took those opportunities to write thank you notes to all these people. And at first when I thought of the book, I thought, you know, she shared it with me. And I thought, here's gonna be another thing that's gonna make me feel bad about all the thank-you notes I forgot to write for gifts or you know all these things that I should have done that I didn't do and it's been the opposite it's really given me a chance to think about how can you really express to people who have been meaningful to you that they've been meaningful to you.

People don't always know and I think we think that they know or that they won't be affected by it, that it's important for us, but it's really amazing to be able to tell people how much they mean to you, or even just that you're thinking of them. It doesn't have to be so heavy,

Aransas Savas (48:14.562)

That's huge. There's so much great research too on the power of gratitude and reflection and how it affects our life satisfaction overall. All right, we're rounding down here. Can I ask you our three lightning round questions?

Aransas Savas:

All right, one quick way you raise your own energy.

Rachel Lipson:

Reading a book, watching a good movie.

Aransas Savas (49:02.166)

One easy way you boost other women.

Rachel Lipson (49:05.935)

Um, I really try to listen to other women and, you know, kind of back to what I said before, like give them positive feedback, remind women how much they've done. You know, I heard somebody say the other day that she's not really an entrepreneur, but yet she's had a photography business for like 12 years. And she said, well, I don't want to grow it into anything. I said, nobody said that the definition of being an entrepreneur is that you have to hit a certain point. a certain amount of money, like grow it to a certain level, like if you've made your job the way you want it to be and you've created it, you're an entrepreneur. So you know, trying to remind people of how far they've come and what they've done and not let those moments just slip by and say, oh yeah, I guess not. You know?

Aransas Savas:

That's so good. One little way you elevate your community, the planet, or the world.

Rachel Lipson 

I really love connecting people. I love it. I love when I talk to somebody, there's that part of me that's like, I cannot wait to introduce you to this person. Tell you, you know, I can't wait for the two of you to meet. this will be a special connection. I love doing that. I love connecting people, thinking of the right person for the right job, that kind of thing. It means a lot to me.

Aransas Savas:

You've given us so much to think about in our own lives, Rachel. You've challenged us to consider our own mindsets and where feelings of not being enough, or not being ready enough, or not having enough assets or experience or whatever could get in our way and how we can really start to set ourselves up to believe something truer than maybe the limiting thoughts that have stood in our way over time. And you've given us a real challenge, I think, to ask ourselves what's enough. I love that last question about who said, that's what an entrepreneur is. But you also, you ask that at other points in here. You said, well, what is success? Is it becoming the biggest name or title? Or is it having this really specific impact? put ourselves in the position to answer those questions if we ask them, right? And it really does take slowing down, pausing, and finding our own answers instead of just letting ourselves flow down the chute of what we've been doing. And I think just listening to this, I feel clearer and more confident about my path. I'm just so grateful for you and your time here For all of you who are listening, take a moment. Ask yourself what you really want. Ask yourself what talents and gifts you can spend more time creating impact with. It doesn't have to become anybody else's idea of a business or anybody else's idea of success. If you are doing it, if it is your gift, it is your passion. and you were allowing it to have impact, you're winning. You are, as Rachel said, you're an entrepreneur. And I don't even know that it needs to be a business, right? It's really about just doing these things and the satisfaction that comes from the creation of it and then deciding what we do next. We don't have to have all the answers. If you enjoyed this episode, if you found some of what you needed in this story, please share it with the women in your life. who might need a boost as well. Let's all keep rising higher together.

Listen by clicking above or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or watch us on YouTube. 

Susie Jaramillo is an Emmy Nominated Director,  illustrator, storyteller, and entrepreneur.

She serves as President and Chief Creative Officer of Encantos, an award-winning entertainment company for kids.

Encantos Original properties include the Emmy-nominated and 2x Kidscreen award-winning preschool brand Canticos,  and Tiny Travelers, a brand designed to introduce children to the countries and cultures of the world. 

Susie is the creative heart of Encantos, creating the vision and setting the bar for brilliant stories with captivating, diverse characters that will endure the test of time. 

A fierce advocate for diversity and representation in media, she is a sought-after speaker.  She has been featured in Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, NPR, NBC, AdWeek, Brandweek, Univision, Telemundo, and more. 

But, this isn’t a conversation about Susie’s many accomplishments. It’s a conversation about the mindset she uses to break through barriers and keep moving forward when she faces obstacles.

Susie Jaramillo’s story reminds us that we all have a story to tell, and that success comes not when we do what the storybooks or our families tell us we should do, but when we have the freedom to pursue what genuinely interests us.  

A natural rule breaker, Susie has always marched to her own drummer. In this episode, you’ll learn the powerful process she relies on to refine and narrow her focus to increase impact! 

Here’s how to increase your impact in 6 steps:

* Identify your talents and gifts and lean all the way into them

* Accept that you will NEVER know everything you need to know in order to be ready. Trust that you already know what you need to get started and that you will keep learning. No amount of pondering is going to create action or change. Readiness is way overrated (and the most successful people don’t ever ask themselves if they’re ready).

* As you embark on new adventures, notice what you really enjoy doing- the parts of the process that excite you and engage your curiosity. Find ways to do more of those (and less of the stuff that bums you out or drags your energy down).

* Notice where you have an impact. Do people need more of your talents and gifts in a single area? That’s a good sign that you’re meeting a need. If you have narrowed your focus based on point two, you’re in a really excellent position to continue narrowing your focus and energy into something truly meaningful

* Look for your people. Notice who gets what you’re trying to do, who challenges you to do more, and who offers support. These people are your champions. You need them, and they need you!

* Stay curious! Keep learning, keep refining, and keep discovering new answers to all of the questions above.

A Messy Transcript of Our Conversation

aransas_savas:

Welcome to the Uplifters Podcast. I'm your host, Aransas Savas, and I am here with a true Uplifter, Susie Jaramillo. I met Susie through my friend Julie, who you just got to hear introducing Susie. And the thing that strikes me about Susie, and so many of our guests, is that they've done a lot of really impressive things. and those things that they've done have had a big impact on other people. But what's most interesting to me about Susie and what I'm most excited to explore with her today is how she does them. So let me start by telling you about some of the things Susie has done, but then let's spend the rest of our time talking about how she does them. So Susie Jaramillo is an Emmy-nominated director, illustrator, storyteller, and entrepreneur. She serves as the president and chief creative officer possibly admire more or be more grateful for. It's a company called Encantos, an award-winning entertainment company for kids. Encantos properties include many storytelling venues that you've heard of, the Emmy-nominated and 2x Kidscreen award-winning preschool brand Canticos,  and Tiny Travelers, a brand designed to introduce children to the countries and cultures of the world.  They produced Wally the Worried Walrus, a precious little storytelling journey that Susie and I got to embark on together to help kids learn mindfulness techniques when they're struggling with anxiety. She's also the creative heart of this beautiful brand. She has created the vision. She has set the bar for brilliant storytellers. The stories that they tell, I think are truly remarkable and just so important as a parent myself. I really, really, really appreciate them. And there were so many times when my kids were little that I felt like I was telling them the same story again and again, because we, I think, kind of got into a long history of "there is this one way to tell a story and there was this one sort of moral moment that comes from it". And it all ends up sounding the same and teaching us the same things. And Susie and her team have expanded that palette exponentially through the work that they've done. And as a result, they're helping kids learn more skills in ways that are truly entertaining and educational, using technology that makes it accessible for larger groups of children. Her sense of mission, her commitment to excellence for creators, for families, for the children themselves, and frankly for the whole category of children's edutainment is remarkable. Susie, I know you're crazy busy doing all these things and I just can't tell you how much I appreciate you being here today to help me learn from you and hopefully help all of the other Uplifters out there listening and watching this learn from you as well.

susie_jaramillo:

Oh, please, thank you, Aransas, for having me here today. And thank you for such a lovely intro and for being the mama to Wally the Worried Walrus, which is truly a beautiful expression of helping children learn mindful techniques and see that they are seen and that their worries are understood and sort of breathing life into that world. I'm thrilled to be here.

aransas_savas:

Thank you, thank you. And truly thank you for helping me tell that story. And I think that is certainly one of your gifts and one of the expressions of it is that you help others find their stories. I don't know your story though.

susie_jaramillo:

Ha ha. See that? Everybody has a story.

aransas_savas:

We do.

susie_jaramillo:

We do. Everybody has a story. My story is that it's a meandering path. You don't know who you are until you do the earnest work of getting to know yourself and that there's a trap. And the trap is falling into someone else's definition of success. I think that's the trap. Be a lawyer because that's what your family thinks you should be, or be an engineer because that's what your family thinks you should be, or make that ton of money. I feel like that's the biggest trap in the world. I think that in many ways, one of my greatest gifts was not having any expectations being made of me because I was the number four girl child of a family of five. And my parents separated when I was little and my mother had too much on her plate you know, and so I was given a lot of freedom to just pursue whatever I wanted to pursue. And when I expressed an interest in art, my mother always encouraged it. And she took me to some of the best museums in the world, and she and I would like spend, you know, really, you know, we would take our time, like all of my siblings would be bored. But we would take our time talking about the Greek mythology that inspired this painting, painting and I grew up with no TV because my mom was very classical and very anti-media in general even though she was a journalist for a while and so I read books, lots of them and you know my mother always understood that I was a little different she used to tell me that I marched from a different drummer notes home, it said, Susie doesn't follow instructions well. It's totally true. I've never been very good at following instructions. I was the kid that did the free play with the Legos. And when I expressed interest in art, she was like, well, if you're going to study art, you have to go to Pratt. It was not even. And I had no idea how we would pay for any of that. But again, she always encouraged me to dream big, even though she was, for most of her life, a stay-at-home mom, and didn't really start to work until she had to work after the divorce. And then I grew up between Florida and Venezuela. And so my father's family and everyone on my father's side of the family is Venezuelan, Spanish dominant. My father actually never learned English and never moved to this country. And so I was always very aware of the cultural differences States and what it means to live in Venezuela, because I did live there for my tweens, if you will, from 10 to 15.

aransas_savas:

story. I knew none of this and I'm so fascinated to hear about how you became you. And one of the things you were talking about, and I think this comes up a lot in the conversations I get to have, is our definitions of success.

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

And I think it's super interesting that you said you didn't have expectations placed on you because who had the energy when you're raising that many kids alone. What was your definition of success when you were little?

susie_jaramillo:

For me, I always had this, I knew I wasn't going to be, I just have a gut instinct that I wasn't going to be successful in the traditional notion of success. And that for me, once I decided that I wanted to be an artist, for me, being true to my gifts and being the best at whatever I would do, was a definition. And then that definition evolved. Because my definition of success at age 18 today, right? So today, I'm way more concerned about the impact I might have on society and on my community than I am on how pretty a picture might look or a particular skill thing, right? And where before, I valued myself mostly skills now I value myself based on sort of like what I can bring to life and what I can give to other people and the impact that my work can have. And so it's a completely different mechanism for evaluating yourself. And I've always thought, for me, the ultimate definition of success is truly using your gifts in a way that make you happy, serve other people, and hopefully is monetarily rewarding so that you can do more stuff. And I feel like I've gotten myself, by making a lot of hard choices and from walking away, I've also known from an early age that a specific path would make me miserable and I don't do well under miserable circumstances. So I was like, let's just take the other path. It'll be harder, but you'll be happier.

aransas_savas:

interesting that you had the clarity of judgment throughout your life to be able to come back to that center point. And I think probably for many of us when we were 18, we were more purpose led than we became in our 20s and 30s when kind of in 40s, maybe even beyond when the rubber starts to meet the road and the reality of like

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

survival, right? You bring up the fact of like, following your gifts, making the world a better place, living a life of joy. And I feel like at 18, so many of us had a handle on that, and we were like, yes! And then as we started to face the realities of paying the rent, we were like, oh, forget all, like slowly we move away from that into the realities of paying the rent, having the kid, getting the

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

traditional measures of success.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah? No, it's true. It's so interesting. Because I have, I never expected to be super, super successful. I really didn't. I expected to be, all I wanted to be was a recognized artist and be respected for my skill. That's all I wanted. And I never expected to make a lot of money in Wall Street super powerful corporate executive. I knew that wasn't my path. And so I never really pursued money that way. And I always believed that if you can bring value to people, then you have value, right? And the best way for a creative person to create value for themselves that you serve more than yourself. That idea of the artists sort of exercising themselves, for me, didn't feel like something that would serve society much, unless everyone else is going through the same trauma.

aransas_savas:

Ha ha ha.

susie_jaramillo:

And so the idea of creating something with your talent that would be a gift to other people seemed like the way to go, because you're helping them live better lives and you're using your skill, and hey, there's probably a business opportunity there. And that was sort of like, so just a little bit of understanding of how I came to that conclusion. I went to art school. I graduated in painting illustration from Pratt, and immediately started working in production studios as an artist, as a storyboard artist, and in-betweener. And then kind of grew bored with that. And migrated over, did a stint in fashion illustration clothing, pattern design, plaid design, color, all that kind of stuff, which was fascinating because I learned how you curate collections, how you turn street trends into a design concept. And then from there, I actually, in a very odd way, I started an advertising agency. Again, you wouldn't expect this, but it was the 90s. And at the time, there was a lot of opportunity Latin space, and I was hanging out with a bunch of very seasoned advertising executives, and they were like, hey, we need a creative. Why don't you join us as our chief creative officer? And I got everything intuitively. And again, we're all in our 20s. We're all in our 20s. And I was one of the few people that spoke completely fluent Spanish, completely fluent culture and was coming at it from a completely fresh lens. And at the time, I think that there were a lot of creatives from Latin America that didn't understand the US Hispanic market. And I did. And that was perceived as something really powerful for the team. And the fact that I did understand production and I did know how to pull things together. experience in advertising, I started an advertising agency. Best school ever. Best school ever. I feel like it taught me so much. It was a dream in the sense that we pitched and landed clients and that's where I discovered, oh, I have front of the house skills. I pitched with passion. Clients find me refreshing because I'm earnest and I'm very sincere about the empathy for the people that we're gonna serve and I have a deep empathy for what they're trying to do in terms of the brands that they want to build and I'm able to convey a vision and a story and so I discovered that I was a good pitch woman right and again this I had no idea And so then, as we built teams, I discovered that I loved bringing out the best in people. Like I loved seeing things that people couldn't necessarily see in themselves and helping them work better and getting them unstuck and coaching and setting up processes because when you set up the process, the process takes care of the work. So casting, in other words, hiring the right talent for the right project and then setting and then convincing clients to invest appropriately so that you could really pull something beautiful together. All of that, I enjoyed that so much. And I realized that creativity had so much more value when it was solving a business problem. And if you solved a business problem and also uplifted people, like put a smile on their face, or you elevated a universal truth that people needed to be reminded of, that you were actually advertising making a difference. Now it got to the point where like you know We were doing a lot of really great work, and we were working for clients like Macy's, and for Iles and Morelos, and Bernard Ricard. And you're selling a lot of product to people. And at the same time, you're realizing that there's so much potential for this audience, which was very specifically the Latin market, which is where we competed. Because in the general market, we get outgunned every single day by the JWTs, and the Chai days, and the FCBs of the world. And so we worked with JWT. We worked with FCB and all of those other general market agencies. We were complimentary to their initiatives. And what I realized was, at the end of the day, I was more drawn to the stories that could be told in this market than I was to what could be created in the realms of advertising. I really wanted to build out, you know, brands and stories and content that I felt would make a difference in people's lives with whatever skill set I brought to the table. And so when YouTube came out, and I mean, when Apple came out with the iPad, I was like, oh my God, what a story platform. And when YouTube came out and anybody could put something online, I was like, okay, like for us to sort of like tell our stories. And I was at the time, I married my husband who was Colombian and we started having babies and I was gonna be bringing these little children into the world that I wanted them to be proud of their Latin culture and to be able to speak Spanish or at least as much as possible. And I realized that there were no tools. Where are my board books? Where are my apps? Where are my animation? There was nothing. 2012-13. So I decided to sell my company and get back to my roots of drawing and illustration and story and create the world that I wanted my kids to have and that I thought there would be so many other moms that would love to have, which is a world celebrating Latino nursery rhymes that was bilingual, that we would do everything two times, once in English and once in Spanish, so that kids would So why not capitalize on that repetition to teach them, you know, basic preschool concepts in English and Spanish with music and adorable characters? And I kind of put that out into the world, you know, I just, I worked on it, I put that out into the world, and then I started having lunch with people. And by the way, selling my company and starting from scratch was really hard when you start over. Because you're no one once again. budget or a media budget or a big title behind my name. I was just Susie, creative,

aransas_savas:

created with an idea.

susie_jaramillo:

creative, ex-entrepreneur, like entrepreneur. And I wasn't even sure I wanted to be an entrepreneur again, again. You know, it's funny how sometimes entrepreneurism finds you. You know, some people chase it. I don't think I chased it. Or maybe I did in the beginning. The second time for sure, it was the type of thing kind of came to me. I was in conversations with a publisher to do Glenticos the traditional way. I had an agent. I was being mentored by a really big, powerful guy from Nickelodeon. And I reached out to an old friend, and he basically saw what I was doing, and was like, oh my god, what are you doing? You have to do this with me. So literally, that's how I got my business partner, who was going through exactly the same thing that I was going through in terms of having babies and seeing that there was nothing really out there for them and understanding the business opportunity. So I think that that ability to understand the business opportunity around a problem that you're uniquely qualified to solve is powerful.

aransas_savas:

Hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

I think when you lean into your purpose and you lean into your gifts and you do what you're supposed to do Nick the universe and the angels like cooperate to like help you make it happen

aransas_savas:

It's such an amazing story. And I was trying to sort of track your process as I listened to you. And it's actually the same process I heard you follow in essence when you created your first company and even your decision to go to school and study art. And I would summarize it by saying that your first step in each process was to really pay attention to your talents and gifts. creative expression. It was sincerity. It was the ability to connect with people. It was an authentic breed of storytelling in a world where maybe authenticity was rare. And then from there it sounds as though in each instance you realized that you didn't need to know everything. And you took what I call a So, or a growth mindset and you said, okay, I don't have to have all the answers. I don't have to believe I'm an expert or the expert or the most qualified. And I always bring this up because I think so many women especially get stymied by a belief that they need to know everything to start,

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

right? And we feel as though we're

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

not qualified, right?

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, men don't do that.

aransas_savas:

No, no,

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

but we don't so many women delay getting his relationships, having children,

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

starting jobs, starting companies, going on trips

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

because they don't feel ready or like the time is right, they have all the resources

susie_jaramillo:

So

aransas_savas:

or

susie_jaramillo:

can

aransas_savas:

knowledge.

susie_jaramillo:

I just jump in and

aransas_savas:

Yes.

susie_jaramillo:

say funny you should say that? Because when I was at the agency, I had a male partner, I had two male partners, one of them was the CEO and the other one was a design director. And my art design director truly aspired to be a film director. And I saw him completely unplug from our business at hand and just work on his films and pursued that. And like, he had no problem doing it. And I learned from him, I was like, oh my God, he's just doing it. And he doesn't, you know, because he just wants I need to do the same thing. I just need to do it. If I believe in myself and I want to make this happen, you don't find the time, you just make the time and you do it. But the only way to see your vision through is to take the first steps and start executing them.

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm. And that takes courage

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

and it takes support. I'm sure the support of your husband when you sold your first company and decided to start a second one.

susie_jaramillo:

Can I say something that my husband

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

is, while he is incredibly supportive, he didn't really understand what I wanted to do. And so I joke that it's true love because he supported me even though he had no clue what I was

aransas_savas:

It's amazing.

susie_jaramillo:

trying to do. So it wasn't like he saw it and he understood it and he was like, yes, you can do this, go, go, go. It was more like, okay, are you sure you know what you're doing? It was a little bit more like that. because that means that the driving force has to come from you.

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm. It does and and this keeps coming up with these pioneering women that I've been talking to is I wasn't even looking at the big picture because you didn't know the

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-mm.

aransas_savas:

answer to his Question wasn't no, you don't know what you're doing entirely

susie_jaramillo:

Thank you.

aransas_savas:

there's no way you could have because we can't predict the future and You were creating something that hadn't been made

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, you know what I knew, Arancis? I knew that if I didn't try it, I would be a bitter old woman. That's the only thing I knew. And I knew that there was the greatest risk in life is to not take risks. That is the greatest risk. So I knew that I risked more in trying to be what I wasn't and not live up to my purpose than I ever risked trying build this thing from scratch and trying to make a global Latino nursery rhyme brand. Like, to me, there was no, like, it was win-win. So if I failed, I still won.

aransas_savas:

I'm so glad you brought that up too. We did some research in testing a couple of years ago to

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

see what it took to get people to engage in healthy behaviors. And we had all these ideas about motivation and reward and pleasure. You wanna know the thing that got them to take action more than any other thing? Now it's not a long-term sustainable tactic, When we told them there was a chance they might miss out on money specifically, but I think it would work with anything

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

in this case. That was the reward we chose. We told them there was a chance they might win risk losing money

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

were they not to engage in play, they acted.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

Feeling a sense of joy, pleasure, satisfaction, self-confidence, none of that had the same immediate sense of reward. Actually, it's, as I said, not a sustainable solution.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

And it won't create long-term engagement. But for helping us get started, I think it's a really freaking powerful question. How will you feel if you don't do this?

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, yeah,

aransas_savas:

I don't

susie_jaramillo:

it's

aransas_savas:

wanna

susie_jaramillo:

like,

aransas_savas:

be

susie_jaramillo:

what kind of life do

aransas_savas:

a

susie_jaramillo:

you

aransas_savas:

bitter

susie_jaramillo:

want to

aransas_savas:

old

susie_jaramillo:

live?

aransas_savas:

woman.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, it was that simple. What kind of life do you want to live in? And I would kick myself if I hadn't tried it. And it's like, I had the skills. I knew I had the art chops. By now, I understood the branding. I knew the branding that went along with it. I understood the business opportunity. I knew how to get in front and present and present the whole opportunity. By now, I'm a seasoned creator director our way. I ran the agency for 12 years, worked you know, produced around the world, I felt like I was the right person to do this, as well as I happen to be a Latina mom. You know, so I can speak for the community, I can execute the way it needs to be done, and I can build a brand franchise in the way that, you know, few are qualified to do. And to have all of that in my skill set, I knew it made me a bit of a unicorn. I think it does. You need to be able to say that without humility and without any kind of false pretense. And I think it's just acknowledging that, wow, I'm here. I'm poised to launch a beautiful baby brand in 2016 when the world is changing. interview right after the presidential election, right? And where the landscape, if you're Latin in this country, has had completely changed.

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

And where all of a sudden like the home of the free and this land is your land, this land is my land, became a whole different thing. And what I was doing all of a sudden became so much more meaningful,

aransas_savas:

Okay.

susie_jaramillo:

you know, and it became meaningful not just because I was communities of Latinos that were here to share their culture with their kids and their language, also for moms like you, Aransas, so that you know and other moms so they could get to know this whole new beautiful world of nursery rhymes and expose their child to a second language, right?

aransas_savas:

Yes. Yes.

susie_jaramillo:

And we and build bridges because at the end of the day what I've discovered about myself is that I am an artist, storyteller that likes to build bridges of understanding between people because

aransas_savas:

Hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

back when I was like 19, I wrote something in my diary like that I want to be like the type of artist that shows in like the United Nations or something or that has something to do with like making the world a better place with their art. Like I knew I want I knew that's what I wanted to do but I didn't know that story would be as so important,

aransas_savas:

Okay, okay.

susie_jaramillo:

right? And telling stories that impacted people. And you know I like to say that the best stories are stories that made And they're educational, but you don't know they're educational.

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

You know what I mean? It's like,

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

oh, wow, that was an amazing story.

aransas_savas:

It's like healthy food that tastes good.

susie_jaramillo:

Exactly. It's like helping through the taste code. Sleady vegan. That's exactly what it's like.

aransas_savas:

Exactly.

susie_jaramillo:

I want to make slutty vegan stories.

aransas_savas:

Yes, please

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

do.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, no, I just, I feel like powerful storytelling is the best kind of education there is. I found all of it to be just, you know, rich and delicious and powerful and I want to make sure that I put out there just really cool, deep, beautifully told stories that move the needle on our humanity.

aransas_savas:

Well, and that again, and I mean, such an incredible mission. And if I go back to how you do this and how we can learn from you, again, I think this idea of acknowledging that you don't have to know everything, even in that story you just told about, well, I was uniquely positioned to do this. Yes. And you could have looked at that story a very different way. Well, I led my own company, but it wasn't a

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

multinational global brand, right?

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

Like,

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

we can diminish

susie_jaramillo:

Of course.

aransas_savas:

anything.

susie_jaramillo:

Of course. It's true. No, you know, it's totally true. I think that trusting that you have a calling and you have a purpose, even though you don't know what it is, is

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

super important. Trusting that there's a reason for things. And I think I did that intuitively.

aransas_savas:

Well, I think too, you were able to recognize that all of your past experience and all of your current experience and all of your needs had value.

susie_jaramillo:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

aransas_savas:

Right, so it was everything from the way you grew up to the work that you had done, to the position you were in currently as a mom, to what you wanted in terms of impact. And you allowed all of that to be as valuable and as important as any other credential or any other experience. I think that's part of the work that we as women have to do so often is to say, yeah, all that stuff mattered.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

And we have to let it matter and stop stopping it. The other thing I just heard you say that I think is really important that I want to just open up for a second is this idea of looking back for clues. So that, that little message you sent to yourself when you were 19, that, that was a, that was a clue about where you are going to feel a sense of impact and purpose.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, it's funny. When I was 19, I was, OK, so I was one of those really hardcore art students that I was accepted. And I think when I, when my, but I didn't go to art high school or anything like that. And so I was like up against students that had way more discipline than I do, and had way more experience, right? And I remember when I was accepted, one of my teachers was like, the professors actually never had him as a teacher. He was like, oh, this portfolio is like mediocre, or something like that. And I was like, OK, that's fine. And so

aransas_savas:

Hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

I was the type that would draw eight hours a day and then afterwards do four hour drawing classes on my own with peers, right? And I worked so hard and I had so much fun in art school and by the time I left, I was top of my class.

aransas_savas:

Eh.

susie_jaramillo:

I really was top of my class, not just academically, just even artistically. I was well known as, oh, you know, I had my own little reputation as someone the creative chops. And I always felt that I was a diamond in the rough and I had to figure out what to do with it. And it's funny because I always saw marriages like, oh my god, if I get married and have kids, that's the end of my life. Because I was taught by my mother

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

that, you know, when you get married, you dedicate yourself to your home and your children and then that's the end of the story. And that you see success from what your children and appealing even remotely to me. And when I did marry, I married a partner who, if anything, would help me with my goals and what I wanted to achieve. And had the same vision of me that you want to just be who you're supposed to be in this earth. And I think that that innate sense that I have something to give, I think that came pre-installed. and the And so I knew I had something, and I knew that I was bad at a lot of things. I'm not great at math. I'm dyslexic. I have no sense of direction. If I get nervous or discombobulated, I'll lose things. So I understand a lot of my shortcomings, which makes me deeply appreciative of other people who bring other skills to the table.

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

lean into your strengths, play to your strengths every single day, compliment

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

your weaknesses. If you play to your strengths and cover your weaknesses, you can execute faster and at a way greater scale.

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

And so that's also something that you know I understood as an entrepreneur and it has taken me so so far and I've also realized that's what the great creative people do. They

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

know what they're They know what

aransas_savas:

And they

susie_jaramillo:

they're

aransas_savas:

do

susie_jaramillo:

not

aransas_savas:

it.

susie_jaramillo:

good at.

aransas_savas:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, I wrote down a really corny phrase as I was listening to you because we've all heard it and maybe not internalized what it sounds like. And I think you're reminding us what it sounds like, which is the phrase, do more of what you love.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, absolutely. Do more what you love. And

aransas_savas:

It's so corny that my 14-year-old

susie_jaramillo:

yeah,

aransas_savas:

wears a t-shirt that says it.

susie_jaramillo:

and no, and be so good they can't ignore you. It was one of my favorites, Steve Martin quotes. Be so good.

aransas_savas:

love that. And I think too, I hear in you a similar mindset that I've heard in a lot of women who are pioneers, which is, Oh, I'm not great at this thing right away, or I got feedback that maybe I wasn't already the best. What does it mean? Anything except that you're not the best at that right now.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And you know what? It was fine. It was actually the best motivator to make me really focus and be hardworking and diligent. And the funny thing is, you realize, it's not like it was cultivated me as a child. It was just something I did because I was bored, and I didn't have TV. And you have all of these other kids that are coming in on merit scholarships I was not such a thing. I was in high school. My art teacher favored me. That's about it. You know? And but you know what I've come to realize, Aransas, is that I may have valued myself at that time because of my artistic talent. My professor always used to tell me, my mentor, the one who guided me the most, used to say, Susie, talent, that, and a nickel won't get you on the subway. And he was right. a lot of talented people out there. I just want the Bologna Book Fair. My god, are there talented people putting their work upon the walls? And so there's so much more beyond talent. There's a fair amount of empathy that you need to develop and an understanding of how to pull a vision together

aransas_savas:

Hmm.

susie_jaramillo:

and an understanding of the story you're going to tell in the context of today's society. All of those different things matter. and what are their needs, right? What problem are you solving for them? So I think that my corporate training as an advertising executive, as well as my sort of creative training, have given me a fair amount of empathy from a business perspective in terms of what we're doing, what we're building. And nowadays, I have to go in like lobbyist studio So it's a whole different ask. And so then it's like, well, why is this good for them? Why is building a new franchise interesting for somebody that already has five franchises, or somebody that's not in the franchise building business at all? And then I look at my community and I think, but wait a second, if you're a Latino, you don't have any underlying IP in this country. You don't have weird, your Snoopy, your Smurfs. She's got a TV show.

aransas_savas:

Ha

susie_jaramillo:

But

aransas_savas:

ha ha.

susie_jaramillo:

when you think about what your underlying IP is, and I mean intellectual property for those of you

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

that aren't fluent in the lingo,

aransas_savas:

thing go.

susie_jaramillo:

you'll note that if you're black or if you're Latino, there's not a ton of properties out there that have your DNA as underlying DNA. And there's not a lot of creators ethnicities that own their IP or that are able to execute their visions. It's way more common to see a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale with a person of color slotted in. That's

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm

susie_jaramillo:

way more common. Or maybe it's on Elisa on Broadway, except they're not all white. Something

aransas_savas:

night.

susie_jaramillo:

like that, to where you've kind of been slotted in

aransas_savas:

Mm-hmm

susie_jaramillo:

born of our culture, created by people of the culture. And I understand why that is, because honestly, these giant franchises need to keep on making money. And for them, it's just easier to lean into what they already do.

aransas_savas:

Yeah, it's easier for them to sell because they're selling it to somebody else, right?

susie_jaramillo:

But that's not really great for diverse audiences, And so we have to support each other, support diverse creators, look for the work of diverse creators, and really also stay true to our own stories. If we are, if you feel that you have a story inside of you that should be told, chances are it should be. Chances are it should be, and that you should put it out into the world in whatever form you can. If it only gets so far, it doesn't matter. You have no idea when it'll take off again. And something was put together and put out in the world. And I consider myself a gardener these days. I plant seeds. I plant seeds, and some of them bloom here and now. Canticos is one of them. Canticos is our very successful preschool brand. And others may take more time to get off the ground and truly broom. have been planted.

aransas_savas:

they're nourishing the soil.

susie_jaramillo:

Yes, and they're nourishing

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

the soil.

aransas_savas:

Yeah. What a beautiful message to all of us, no matter what our dreams are. And, and I will sort of add to it what I saw is the fourth step in Suzie's process, which was look for the impact and then lean in to that, find out where, where it's needed, your story, find out where it's having an impact. And when In fact, that is a call to keep going and to explore again. Right, so there is this highly exploratory approach that you take where you plant the seed, you see what grows, you plant more of the seeds that grow, and along the way, maybe you plant some experimental seeds that you have no idea what they'll reap, and witness what happens and learn. keep the analogy going in this learner mindset that you've cultivated throughout the course of not just your career but your life.

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah, I feel like so both of my parents are no longer with me. And we have one life to live. So you've got one life to live. You've been given a fair amount of gifts. And it might be privilege from the way you were born. It might be skills or talent. It might be a certain insight into something. We've all got our chips to play. are we uniquely qualified to solve? What can we bring to the world to make it a better place? Because I truly think that's all we're here for. And absolutely,

aransas_savas:

Yeah.

susie_jaramillo:

I want to live a comfortable life, for sure. But I know that I remember being 16 and seeing a model magazine cover and I looked at her face and she's beautiful right and I was like she's not happier than I am.

aransas_savas:

MBC 뉴스 김지경입니다.

susie_jaramillo:

And I just knew it. I was like, that model right there, not happier than I am. And so money might make you comfortable, but it won't make you happy. And so what I think I personally derive joy and happiness and satisfaction from the things that I create and from the impact that it has on people, right? And so I feel like if you live a life where you're truly, And that's something you can figure out along the way if you want to, right? Because some people really care about, you know, being true to what they're here put on this earth for. And some people aren't less concerned with such things. And all's fair, right? But if you want to concern yourself with it, I absolutely think that you can find your purpose and that you can absolutely achieve what you were set here for.

aransas_savas:

I think so too. And I think you've given us a really beautiful process for doing that. So to start to wrap things up, we like to do a little lightning round to close out each episode. So three quick questions for you. One, one quick way that you raise your own energy.

susie_jaramillo:

raise my own energy. Let's see. I like to play music. I

aransas_savas:

Mm.

susie_jaramillo:

love music. I like to sing. So if I want to raise my own energy, I will put some music on and I will sing and I will dance.

aransas_savas:

favorite genre.

susie_jaramillo:

Oh my god, well, say you can't go wrong with Sallia Cruz. But I'm a big Dua Lipa fan as well. And my sister, I'm sorry, my sister, my daughter. My daughter and I were recently with Megan Trainor, you know, all of this.

aransas_savas:

so fun. One easy way you boost other women.

susie_jaramillo:

I love pointing out how special and talented and beautiful and uniquely qualified they are. And just shining, showing a mirror that they should be looking at about all of their special qualities that need to be valued.

aransas_savas:

a recipient of that. I am

susie_jaramillo:

Thank

aransas_savas:

particularly

susie_jaramillo:

you.

aransas_savas:

grateful. One little way you elevate your community, the planet, or the world, and we've heard so many big ways.

susie_jaramillo:

So I like to think that I very much am focused on the Latino community here in the United States because it's a community I understand well and that I can serve. And I elevate them by celebrating our culture, celebrating our culture, celebrating our language, and again, putting a mirror up to them and showing them how wonderful and special they are.

aransas_savas:

So one of the things we are trying to do here at the Uplifters is discover one another

susie_jaramillo:

Bye.

aransas_savas:

and create a rich community and tapestry of uplifting women. And so who is a woman who inspires you, who you think might inspire us?

susie_jaramillo:

So I'm going to recommend a woman called Beatriz Acevedo. Beatriz is an entrepreneur and a constant source of strength and wisdom for a lot of the entrepreneurs who are really putting together visions and seeing them through. She started off as a producer in Mexico and developed an Emmy winning. Emmys to her name shows, from reality shows, cooking shows. And then when Tech took off and she saw how YouTube was, social media were engaging people, she developed a short form comedy platform called Mitu, which became, it was kind of like in living color for Latin people. And it was short form comedy. Even today, it's still super, super popular. It makes you laugh all day long on your various social channels. And she sold that, for God knows how much, right? And she went on to decide, you know what? I've been serving this, she moved to the United States, I've been serving this U.S. Hispanic community. What our community really needs is financial literacy. So she pivoted to develop a financial literacy brand, a financial literacy tech platform that would serve and inform our Latino communities. connector and she knows everybody and she's a philanthropist and she's constantly shining a light on other women as well and she's just a light. She's as an Uplifter she is the ultimate Uplifter so I can't wait until you bring Beatriz Acevedo on to the show.

aransas_savas:

I can't wait to talk to her. Thank you, what a beautiful description of what it means to be an Uplifter in the world. It is not something that happens in a single moment, but it is a lifetime. It is what we choose to do in each moment. And for the sake of everybody listening, I wanna try to do a quick recap of some of the skill sets that I heard you employ in your way of being definition of success. Some of the main things I heard as I said before is just being able to not just identify your own talents and gifts but to own them and to not dismiss them or disregard them or push them off as being unimportant or not enough but to say this this is what I've got and lead with that and then to trust that you didn't need to know everything or have all the answers or figured out to explore and play and jump in to new opportunities and ideas, while constantly coming back to your own gifts and your own contributions, allowing yourself to feel a sense of purpose and impact at every stage of the game. And then finding through that what you love and then narrowing maybe how you enjoy doing and enjoy making an impact with and enjoy leveraging your talents around because you could have taken all of your beautiful talents in a million different directions but the magic is that you use them for something that you got satisfaction and joy out of and then you noticed where the impact was happening and you planted more seeds there and there was a moment in some of So that, so part three kind of took a step back and you were like, turn, let's start this process again. What am I good at? Where am I needed? What do I love? And then replanted those seeds that had been growing out of the last garden planted in the new gardens for new audiences. to do this throughout the course of your life and that when I talk to you again in five or ten years, we're going to hear more stories that are in essence no difference than this one, but with new impact, new audiences, and an even greater sense of purpose and impact. I am so excited to hear what others hear from this conversation. So please come join us at where we will be continuing these conversations with Susie and others, where we'll be looking at the how, so that we can all find our garden.

susie_jaramillo:

Thank you.

aransas_savas:

And we can all plant our seeds and watch them grow in surprising and magnificent ways.

susie_jaramillo:

Somebody said, I forget, it's some actress, I saw on social, said, when you plant seeds for trees that you won't get to enjoy, that is truly sort of serving humanity and doing something larger than oneself. And I feel that way. I feel like, you know, it's not all about what I can achieve in this lifetime. I feel like it's what I can contribute at the end of the day.

aransas_savas:

That's it. We all have that opportunity. Sometimes we need a little reminder, though.

susie_jaramillo:

Yep.

aransas_savas:

And I think your story, Conserve, is a really powerful reminder to all of us. And I absolutely include myself in this

susie_jaramillo:

Yeah.

aransas_savas:

recipe of that potential, that limitless potential. So if you're listening to this and it inspires you, please know that uplifting is contagious goal here is for us to all catch a little of Susie's spirit and to tap into and share our own. So please do share these stories with your friends and sisters and co-workers and the the women who lift you up and the ones who you know could need to use a boost today. And then we'll see you over at theUplifterspodcast.com. Susie, thank you so much for being here.

susie_jaramillo:

Thank you, Aransas for inviting me.

aransas_savas:

Thank you for all you do.

Susie Jaramillo is an Emmy Nominated Director,  illustrator, storyteller, and entrepreneur.

She serves as President and Chief Creative Officer of Encantos, an award-winning entertainment company for kids.

Encantos Original properties include the Emmy-nominated and 2x Kidscreen award-winning preschool brand Canticos,  and Tiny Travelers, a brand designed to introduce children to the countries and cultures of the world. 

Susie is the creative heart of Encantos, creating the vision and setting the bar for brilliant stories with captivating, diverse characters that will endure the test of time. 

A fierce advocate for diversity and representation in media, she is a sought-after speaker.  She has been featured in Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, NPR, NBC, AdWeek, Brandweek, Univision, Telemundo, and more. 

But, this isn’t a conversation about Susie’s many accomplishments. It’s a conversation about the mindset she uses to break through barriers and keep moving forward when she faces obstacles.

Susie Jaramillo’s story reminds us that we all have a story to tell, and that success comes not when we do what the storybooks or our families tell us we should do, but when we have the freedom to pursue what genuinely interests us.  

A natural rule breaker, Susie has always marched to her own drummer. In this episode, you’ll learn the powerful process she relies on to refine and narrow her focus to increase impact! 

Here’s how to increase your impact in 6 steps:

1. Identify your talents and gifts and lean all the way into them
2. Accept that you will NEVER know everything you need to know in order to be ready. Trust that you already know what you need to get started and that you will keep learning. No amount of pondering is going to create action or change. Readiness is way overrated (and the most successful people don’t ever ask themselves if they’re ready).
3. As you embark on new adventures, notice what you really enjoy doing- the parts of the process that excite you and engage your curiosity. Find ways to do more of those (and less of the stuff that bums you out or drags your energy down).
4. Notice where you have an impact. Do people need more of your talents and gifts in a single area? That’s a good sign that you’re meeting a need. If you have narrowed your focus based on point two, you’re in a really excellent position to continue narrowing your focus and energy into something truly meaningful
5. Look for your people. Notice who gets what you’re trying to do, who challenges you to do more, and who offers support. These people are your champions. You need them, and they need you!
6. Stay curious! Keep learning, keep refining, and keep discovering new answers to all of the questions above.

https://youtu.be/H14bBuluwB8

M’Lis Ward’s bio reads as a string of “firsts”, so it’s only fitting that this pioneering aviator is the first interview for The Uplifters Podcast. M’Lis is a United Airlines pilot and the first African-American female captain in commercial aviation. She graduated from the University of Southern California, where she also played on a National Championship Basketball team. She then joined the US Air Force, where she was an instructor-pilot on the T-37 and a First Pilot on the C141, and the first black woman flight instructor for the U.S. Air Force. 

Lisa Feldman Barret’s work in neuroscience shows us that who we surround ourselves with matters, and that’s certainly true in M’Lis’s work. In the 1970’s her mother, Anne B. Ward, decided she wasn’t helping people enough while looking for cures for diseases in a laboratory, so she decided to go to medical school and became the first black woman to graduate from  The University of Chicago Medical School. She did it all while caring for three small children. Witnessing that inspired M’Lis to say yes to challenges throughout her life, instead of shying away from them.

Here are a few of the many lessons I learned from M’Lis’s approach to life:

How caring about doing a good job can stand in the way of courage and learning

Why we must learn from life’s ups and downs equally

How important it is to admit that we want success, and how fears of looking greedy or ambitious block our progress and potential

How to avoid letting other people’s opinions distract us from excellence

The first interview of The Uplifters Podcast is live! Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack, or watch on YouTube. 

M’Lis Ward’s bio reads as a string of “firsts”, so it’s only fitting that this pioneering aviator is the first interview for The Uplifters Podcast. M’Lis is a United Airlines pilot and the first African-American female captain in commercial aviation. She graduated from the University of Southern California, where she also played on a National Championship Basketball team. She then joined the US Air Force, where she was an instructor-pilot on the T-37 and a First Pilot on the C141, and the first black woman flight instructor for the U.S. Air Force. 

Lisa Feldman Barret’s work in neuroscience shows us that who we surround ourselves with matters, and that’s certainly true in M’Lis’s work. In the 1970’s her mother, Anne B. Ward, decided she wasn’t helping people enough while looking for cures for diseases in a laboratory, so she decided to go to medical school and became the first black woman to graduate from  The University of Chicago Medical School. She did it all while caring for three small children. Witnessing that inspired M’Lis to say yes to challenges throughout her life, instead of shying away from them.

Here are a few of the many lessons I learned from M’Lis’s approach to life:

* How caring about doing a good job can stand in the way of courage and learning

* Why we must learn from life’s ups and downs equally

* How important it is to admit that we want success, and how fears of looking greedy or ambitious block our progress and potential

* How to avoid letting other people’s opinions distract us from excellence

A few of our favorite M’Lis Ward quotes from this episode:

"Wherever you start, whatever you aspire to do, shine brightly but try and conquer the item that's right in front of you, not the final goal."

"Sometimes you have to find your role and if you're going to be part of something that's really, truly big, then you have to find what your role is in that space and do it really well so that the outcome is that the entire team or company or unit is going to be successful."

"If you don't like what you're doing, change it. It's never too late to change." 

TRANSCRIPT

M'lis Ward

Aransas: [00:00:00] Welcome to Uplifters the show that celebrates the women who inspire us, the women who help us believe that we can be bolder and stronger than we even know we can be. And for our very first interview, I am really freaking excited to chat with M'lis Ward. I'm going try to share the highlights of your story, mostly stolen from Wikipedia to be honest, so you can get more detail there.The first interview of The Uplifters Podcast launches today! Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack, or watch on YouTube. 

M’Lis Ward’s bio reads as a string of “firsts”, so it’s only fitting that this pioneering aviator is the first interview for The Uplifters Podcast. M’Lis is a United Airlines pilot and the first African-American female captain in commercial aviation. She graduated from the University of Southern California, where she also played on a National Championship Basketball team. She then joined the US Air Force, where she was an instructor-pilot on the T-37 and a First Pilot on the C141, and the first black woman flight instructor for the U.S. Air Force. 

Lisa Feldman Barret’s work in neuroscience shows us that who we surround ourselves with matters, and that’s certainly true in M’Lis’s work. In the 1970’s her mother, Anne B. Ward, decided she wasn’t helping people enough while looking for cures for diseases in a laboratory, so she decided to go to medical school and became the first black woman to graduate from  The University of Chicago Medical School. She did it all while caring for three small children. Witnessing that inspired M’Lis to say yes to challenges throughout her life, instead of shying away from them.

Here are a few of the many lessons I learned from M’Lis’s approach to life:

* How caring about doing a good job can stand in the way of courage and learning

* Why we must learn from life’s ups and downs equally

* How important it is to admit that we want success, and how fears of looking greedy or ambitious block our progress and potential

* How to avoid letting other people’s opinions distract us from excellence

A few of our favorite M’Lis Ward quotes from this episode:

"Wherever you start, whatever you aspire to do, shine brightly but try and conquer the item that's right in front of you, not the final goal."

"Sometimes you have to find your role and if you're going to be part of something that's really, truly big, then you have to find what your role is in that space and do it really well so that the outcome is that the entire team or company or unit is going to be successful."

"If you don't like what you're doing, change it. It's never too late to change." 

M'lis is a United Airlines pilot. She was the first African American female captain in commercial passenger aviation. Her mother was one of the first two black women to graduate from the Pritzker School of Medicine. M'lis was brought up in Chicago, attended Whitney Young High School, was awarded an ROTC scholarship for college and went to University of [00:01:00] Southern California where I think you played basketball and then joined the US Air Force. And then after the Air Force moved on to United.

M'lis: That's correct. 

Aransas: It's a lot of firsts in that story. 

M'lis: Yeah. That's sometimes just being in the right place at the right time I think. 

Aransas: Yeah. 

M'lis: Yeah. I do. And then the other half of that is taking the opportunities that present themselves and trying to run with them. 

Aransas: Yeah. I'm really interested in hearing more about that because I think as women and today is International Women's Day, so it feels just extra special.

M'lis: Yes, it does day. 

Aransas: As women, I think we have had a tendency, many of us, to stand back from challenges or opportunities or to be intimidated. A friend of mine the other day said, I gotta channel my tall white man courage here. 

M'lis: I would tell her to channel her own tall courage because I think women are more [00:02:00] courageous than men. 

Aransas: I agree. I think there is a boldness though that maybe we get talked out of at some point in adolescence, many of us. And when I read your story, and I heard you share your story, so much of it was just you saying yes to opportunity. 

M'lis: Right? Yeah. And I think that comes a lot from my mother. You know, she didn't go to medical school until she was about 24 years old, mother of three. She had a master's in medicine and was working on, I think a cure for some disease with lab mice, and decided I'm not helping people enough here, so she just said one day I'm gonna go back to medical school. To watch her do that with three kids while she's still at the time and we're talking like the seventies here, so you know, she's still making dinner and washing clothes and doing all the mom stuff as well as doing her own career.

When you have a mom that does that and then becomes the first black woman to graduate from the University of [00:03:00] Chicago medical school, you pretty much feel like yes, you can do anything. If your mom can do it, you definitely can do it. 

Aransas: There's a lot of neuroscience and other research, frankly, that's been done that's shown that, it's the whole see her be her idea. 

M'lis: Right. Exactly. 

Aransas: Yeah. If we believe something is possible, we are better prepared to explore and fail. Right. And that's what courage is, right. It's not like you're not going to fail, but it's that you're gonna keep trying.

M'lis: Yeah. Either that or, I think the difference between men and women is that men don't care. They're like, I'll try it, and then if it doesn't work, I'll just try something else. And they really don't care. And I think women care, they care about not just trying, but doing well, and they see not doing well as a failure.

And so that reflects poorly on themselves. And that's why women, I think, are sometimes a little bit timid to take an opportunity that men aren't. We see this a lot in sports. I had a softball coach who coached both men and women, and he said the difference between the men and the women is the men don't care if they strike out.

They just go, that's all right. I have another at bat coming up next inning. [00:04:00] The women would hang onto that strikeout and it would affect the next at bat and the next at bat. So it was something that I learned fairly early on in the psyche of men versus women. And I realized, opportunity, you have to just grab it and just work hard. If you work hard, you don't have to worry about failure. 

Aransas: And did that just come naturally to you or was that something you had to sort out how to do to let go of the strikeout? 

M'lis: Well, I think as an athlete I did have a little bit more learning than other folks had the opportunities fail and to succeed.

But I also think that I got better at it as I got older. I definitely wanted to succeed all the time. At USC playing on the basketball team, I walked onto that team and it was a national championship team. So it was a team that did not fail very often. And so you learn that you want to succeed and that's what the goal is. I don't know if you ever learn to take the losses better. You just maybe learn to work harder to avoid the losses. 

Aransas: That's interesting. I think definitely the hard work element of this comes through in your story. [00:05:00] There's also something you just said that I think is really distinctive, which is I wanted to succeed.

M'lis: Oh, absolutely. 

Aransas: And we all want to succeed. I think women are taught not to say we want it. 

M'lis: I agree. And, because they don't want to come off as being too greedy or too ambitious, because then we have other labels come with them and none of those labels are naturally positive.

I think that is definitely something we need to change in the younger generation of women today is that, you should decide what you want to do on your own, and you should just put all of your effort forward and nothing can stop you but you. And if you don't succeed at something you do, then find something else and do that really well.

There's no shame in failure. I do believe that a lot of women, my generation and before my generation were told not to try. That luckily was not my family, I was always told to try. 

Yeah. 

Aransas: Well, [00:06:00] and I think what you're doing is you're normalizing failure as a part of the process.

M'lis: It is. That's what makes you better, right? I'm a big baseball fan. If you only succeeded at your job 30% of the time, you would probably not be doing the job you're doing. But baseball players deal with that every day. So it's kind of, interesting to watch the game and to see how do they get past it and move on and get better. 

I always compare myself to the baseball player. I'm like, well, I'm definitely better than the 300% or a third of the time, so I'm doing all right and I'm just gonna keep moving forward and getting better every day.

Aransas: It's like putting it in perspective there. 

M'lis: Yeah, absolutely. 

Aransas: It sounds like you have this very real conversation with yourself when you have setbacks. 

M'lis: Yeah, absolutely. For me, one of the biggest setbacks was going from high school to college onto a national championship basketball team. And, going from a starter who played the entire game to hardly playing at all. And you know, I had to decide what's my role gonna be on this team? To me, you measure success in many different ways. And so the team's success obviously is measured in wins and losses, but [00:07:00] the individual success, if you're a starter, is measured in your stats.

If you don't play much, it's measured in how good do the starters play against the other players. And so I vowed from day one that I would be the best practice player you've ever seen at the University of Southern California. And that the starters would say, oh, it was easy playing that game because it's harder to play against M'lis every day in practice.

So that was my goal every single day, and I took pride in that. Sometimes I think it's also about knowing that, you don't have to be the star to be successful. You just have to be great at what it is that you do at your role. So I started early at trying to be great every day in practice, and I think that's where I got the fortitude to try and be great at a lot of other things.

Aransas: It's interesting too, because I do think a lot of us, we stopped that conversation at the point of, well, I can't be the star. I can't be the dream. 

M'lis: I would hope not. I would hope going into anything that [00:08:00] that's exactly what you're trying to do is to be the star and to achieve the best success that you can. I don't know too many people that go, I just wanna come in here and maybe be okay. Right. You know? And if that is where they're starting, then we need to change that directive. That you always try to go in there to be the absolute best you can be. But you should only compare yourself to yourself and not to somebody else. 

Aransas: yeah. And I think there's something really interesting in what you said about, I went in and I was like, I'm not gonna be the star of this team. I'm gonna be the best part of this team in the way that I am of service and impact.

M'lis: Absolutely. 

Aransas: That distinction, I think is huge. In part because we don't see all the range of models and possibilities, and I hope through this show that we start to see more ways that women can show up and shine really freaking brightly in their own way but I think there are just, like you could say, oh, you're a [00:09:00] captain. That's kind of a starring role. 

M'lis: It is, but it also starts way before that. Nobody starts at the top and so you have to shine in whatever role you start in to move up. And then you gain that confidence and people see that and they want to work with you and they wanna work for you.

And so that becomes natural progression then, right? I would say you always wanna reach for the stars, but you can't, learn to run before you learn to walk. Wherever you start at whatever you aspire to do, shine brightly but try and conquer the item that's right in front of you, not the final goal. Steps along the way. 

Aransas: Yeah. How do you mark those moments? 

M'lis: You mean the successes? 

Aransas: Yeah. The little conquers. 

M'lis: I share them with friends a lot. I belong to this women's group. It's just a bunch of friends of us. We actually titled ourselves the Wander Women because we choose to go do adventurous things together and sometimes they're local and sometimes they're international.

I think every time we have any kind of [00:10:00] individual success, we share it immediately with that group. Like we will text in that group. That's the one place that we feel like you can kind of toot your own horn and nobody will blame you for it. I know a lot of people do that on social media.

People can be very narcissistic on social media and I try not to do that. But definitely with my small group of friends, and I would say there are probably about 12 of them, I definitely will say, Hey, this happened to me. Or I will toot the horn of another woman in the group so that they have the opportunity to shine just in their small group.

And that's how we mark our successes along the way. And I think that's so incredibly important not only to realize you did something yourself, but that other people acknowledge what you did. That's where it pays to have a really good group of professional women that you spend a lot of time with that when they say, Hey, congrats, I saw this, or I heard this, it makes you feel really good because you do need that positive reinforcement to take it up to the next level and do better there. 

Aransas: Yeah. And what is it about their opinion [00:11:00] specifically? 

M'lis: Well, we're all peers. We all have very similar backgrounds and we all have, although very different career fields, we're all very successful in our career fields.

These are the people that they are the standard. And so when they say you did well, you know you did well, because they'll be the first ones to say you didn't do well either. You know, hey, is that the best that you've got, you can do much better.

 I think that kind of honest feedback is what makes me better personally and everyone in the group better. And the group itself such a really fun group to hang out with and go do things with. 

Aransas: Yeah, it sounds like you enjoy one another a lot. 

M'lis: Oh my God, it's such a fun group. We just got back from Mexico. That was the last Wander Women event. We do theater group pretty much almost once a month. We started that last October and there'll be something coming up like the last play we just saw, we saw To Kill a Mockingbird. That turned into a dinner and a play event and a lot of discussion and it's really been just a fantastic subset of friends that I can't imagine not spending time [00:12:00] with them.

Aransas: Sounds really enriching.

M'lis: Yeah, it is. 

Aransas: So much of what I hear from you, I keep using the word normalizing in my head, right? You talked about there will be failures. That is a practice of normalizing what we call the oscillating narrative. There are highs and there are lows, and they are a part of the journey and every time you climb up from a low, you climb up stronger and wiser and better equipped to manage the next low and the next high. 

M'lis: Exactly. 

Aransas: There is this normalizing of the highs and lows. There's this normalizing of celebrating success and of the power of female friendship, which I think we just don't talk about enough.

We celebrate intimate relationships a lot in our society, but I think what you're pointing to is the importance of having other relationships. 

M'lis: The second piece of that is that then you also have a group of professional women friends and one of the shortcomings I think of women in general is that we don't lift each other up.

We don't support each other as much [00:13:00] as we do. We compare other women to ourselves, and we say, oh, well, they're not doing it as well as I did it. So I don't want them to get any attention because I don't want someone to think negatively of me. And that's the one thing men don't ever do.

Men never worry about how their buddy is gonna reflect on themselves. They promote their buddies all the time and they never hold them back. And I think women need to learn not to hold each other back. I think we need to be the one that lifts people up or pulls them up and each one be one type of mentality because until we do that as a a group, we are never going to find ourselves on equal footing with men. 

Aransas: I think that's a really interesting point that is in its own right a limiting factor 

Oh, it is. It is, absolutely. I see it a lot in my career field. 

And so how do you counter that as a woman, as a leader, as a first of first?

M'lis: Every time I have an opportunity to speak to a women's group, I talk about it. I talk about [00:14:00] the importance of, not only should you want to succeed for yourself, but that you should want to succeed for others, and that if you feel that you have a female colleague that's not doing well enough, that's your responsibility to coach them up and make them better so that they can succeed at the level or maybe even pass you by. It has through the 30 years I've been at United Airlines, I've seen this, particularly on the pilot hiring side where women pilots who were doing the interviews were more strict on female candidates than they were on male candidates.

And I was like, this is ridiculous. You talk about the fact that only 7% of pilots at United are women and how are we gonna increase those numbers? We increase them by actually hiring women that are competent and able and stop comparing them to you who've been at the airline for 20 or 30 years.

You have to compare them to you when you first got hired. Or how about let's just compare them to themselves and to the standard and say, do they meet the standard? Yes. And I am going to do everything I can to make [00:15:00] sure that she succeeds in this whole endeavor. So I think that it's true across all career fields.

I just think women judge each other. It's just something natural about it that we need to be conscious of and cease and desist. 

Aransas: Do you think there is a fear-based mindset behind it? Like there's only so many seats at the table. I've gotta hold on tightly to mine. 

M'lis: I think that was where it started. I think that a lot of women felt like, okay, there's only going to be one position for a woman in this company or at this executive level, or even in the pilot world. And so because they felt there were a limited number of chairs, they wanted to put the absolute best candidates in there, but that is not true anymore.

That is something we have to let go of. The limit on the number of seats is how many seats are there because all of them can be filled by women. What did Ruth RBG say all the time the answer was when there are nine. Right? And the question was, when are there, when will there be enough women on the Supreme Court?

And I love that [00:16:00] because that's exactly the attitude that we have to have as women, no matter what career field we're in and when we are assisting or interviewing other women for these positions, we have to realize there will never be enough. And so give everyone the opportunity that deserves it.

Aransas: Why do you think women make great leaders? 

M'lis: Oh, I think that just physically, I think we're stronger. I mean, we're obviously not stronger than men one-on-one, but I think mentally we're tougher. I mean, women bear children. I don't think there's a single man out there that could deal with that kind of pain.

Not to mention the pain of life itself. From the time we can all remember being around 10 or 11 years old until, you know, we die. We always are dealing with something and we live longer, so we deal with much more of it as well. But I also think it's because we're a little bit more rational.

We don't think that the solution to everything is well let's just go out back and settle this. You know, I think that we think logically we're like, okay, wait a minute, why don't we compromise this a little bit? You want this and I want this. Why don't we [00:17:00] find some fair round in the middle? I do think this world would be better with a lot of women leaders of countries.

This country would be better if there were more women in the house and Senate. I do believe it's because they think more logically, and I also think they seek for compromise more than men do. 

Aransas: Yeah. I think you're right, especially about compromise, this ability to find common ground. It's inherent in our DNA and our ancient survival mechanisms. 

M'lis: I mean, it's something as simple as book club. You know, we all have to decide on the next book and we eventually figure it out. Even if it's not a book we particularly want to read. We figure it out and we agree on one and we move on maybe knowing that there'll be another book next month.

And, you know, men don't even have book clubs. They don't even have those little small groups that we practice these things every single day. Not to mention that if you have children, the mom is the one that's usually dealing with how am I going to sort the issues out between the kids and between their friends [00:18:00] and, you seem to be more hands on. For my wife and I, we both had to deal with that and we tried to share that responsibility because it's a tough job and I just think more women do it and so it makes them natural negotiators.

Aransas: Yeah. I think you're right. It is that it's the emotional intelligence too and that is why so many women end up carrying so much of the emotional labor in families and why I think it can be really hard to do both to run a company or fly a plane and lead the emotional labor for a family.

It's a lot, and I think we can't underestimate either how heavy that can be, but I think, too what you're reminding us of is that we can create support networks to make it lighter and to make it a little bit easier to carry. And there is a mindset involved in this that can make it feel tremendously heavy and unbearable or can make it feel like it is just a part of that [00:19:00] isolating narrative.

M'lis: Absolutely. Yeah. I feel if you can deal with all of the things women deal with on a daily basis, then running a company is easy. You know, dial back a little on the emotion. I'm not saying be emotional less, because I think people that work with emotion really truly believe in the outcome and have a passion for it. And then they're gonna do better work. 

I used to have a motto in college control your emotions or they will control you. I thought about that a lot because I was a little bit of a hothead especially in my military duties in college and so I realized I had to kind of pick and choose my battles. 

Aransas: It's interesting. So talk to me about your own personal growth. Like how have you evolved as a human being over the course of your life? 

M'lis: Well, I would say I started out kind of like the bull in the China shop. Everywhere I went, I was usually the only woman, maybe the only black in the group. Definitely the only black woman in the group. And so I kind of announced myself and walked in with a chip on my shoulder and defied anyone [00:20:00] to tell me I didn't deserve to be there. And then I realized later in life that you can do so much better job by just being yourself and being more subtle.

People recognize your work through your work, and you don't have to, you shouldn't thrust upon them what you think they're thinking. Now I walk in a room and I'm just, this is me and I'm gonna do a great job. If you don't believe that I'm gonna do a great job, you'll just have to be proved wrong.

I do everything with a lot more humor and more smiles and definitely with more grace than I did when I was younger, for certain. In the Air Force, I was a scheduler, it was a flight scheduler. The students had certain flights they had to do per day, and I scheduled the entire flight and all the instructors. I was pretty mean when I was a scheduler. I had a sign that said, don't bother the scheduler at work. If people interrupted me, I did not have any patience for them. And years later I looked back on that and I realized I could have been so much nicer and done an even better job.

I did it [00:21:00] that way, because that's the way the scheduler before me did it and it seemed that was the way to do things. I realized that sometimes the best way to do things is to be yourself and to create your own job description and make it fit you, and then it's natural. Everything comes so natural for you and you're obviously going to be good at it because it's you, it's authentic. 

Aransas: Well, and I think it's interesting, this has come up a lot in conversations I've had today, but there are all these different ways that we hide ourselves.

Whether it's a woman who says, oh, I grew out my gray hair, and now suddenly I feel like me, or I was talking to a woman today who said, my whole professional life I was this woman Catherine, and I felt like I was getting scolded by other people at work and so finally I went back to the name I had grown up with, which was Kit.

And I felt like I got to bring my full joy from self to work, right? So there are all these little things we put on because they feel like professional or acceptable or normal but here you are walking into rooms [00:22:00] constantly where you were the first one in the room who looked like you, or the first woman, the first black woman, the first gay black woman.

A lot of places where you were breaking ground there. Did you feel the need to, was this intensity that you described, was that part of, I got to fit in here somehow and this validates me or, was it a defense? 

M'lis: I walked in with the intensity that I had a responsibility to do really well so that the next person that looked like me or fit into any of those categories that I fit into, that they had it a little bit easier.

To me it was a little bit more of a burden in the sense that, when I upgraded to Captain I didn't know I was going to be the first black woman captain of a passenger airline. I knew I was going to be the first black woman captain in United Airlines, and I thought, I cannot mess this up.

I studied and carried that burden throughout the entire process to make sure, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't just good enough either. I wanted to be like the [00:23:00] best student that had ever gone through training so that the next black woman that came through training as a captain, she would say, someone's done this, it can be done.

And so I would say it was more of that burden that I brought with me as opposed to any statement that I wanted to make to anybody else. The statement was mostly to myself, but by the time I did do that upgrade training I had been a professional pilot for probably at least 13 years by then. I had matured to that. I would say that first lieutenant in the Air Force when I was first learning to fly, that's not how I looked at it. I looked at it like I had to defend my position. I have a right to be here type thing. And I realized that a lot of that I was thrusting that opinion upon others.

So now I don't even care who's in the room. I don't do a headcount anymore. I used to headcount and now I walk in the room and I really don't care in the who's in the room? I'm in the room. I'm in the room. And that's all that matters, right? So that's kind of the way I look at it.

Aransas: That is it right [00:24:00] there. Yeah. I guess the thing that I marvel at is it doesn't sound like your head is getting in your way. It sounds like you have an extraordinary level of confidence and self-efficacy. It's rare. 

M'lis: Well, I may not be as rare as you think as a pilot, it's very self-critiquing if you're not doing well. , it's a job where you have to be confident, obviously, to do it, and then you realize that you make mistakes and you need to correct them. It's not about being perfect, it's about recovering from errors and everyone makes mistakes. The idea is let's limit the mistakes that we do make to something small if we can.

And then let's not worry about, let's not dwell on the mistake we make. Let's find a solution and move on. I think that all comes from being a pilot, though, that is the job. A lot of pilots will seem overconfident, but the truth is every single one of them, they've all crunched a landing on where they're like, oh, that was the worst landing ever.

Or, they've made mistakes. We can't let those mistakes, defeat us because [00:25:00] it's more than us. We're carrying, 150-plus people on board, and so they're counting on me to be confident and not to be overconfident. I would hope. that's the attitude you would see from all the pilots that you would encounter is that little bit of confidence without being too cocky and realizing that everyone makes mistakes. Yeah. 

Aransas: Yeah. I think too, that is maturity, right? But it's also being okay with making mistakes and learning. Right? So it's we talk a lot about the difference between a win-lose mindset and a win-learn mindset. And so if we have a win-learn mindset, we can't lose because we are always learning.

M'lis: Absolutely. 

Aransas: Learning is the winning. I was talking to my 12-year-old this morning on the walk to school about, I think we've gotten into a place in society where we feel like if we're uncomfortable at all, if we're not happy, if we don't feel joyful and balanced, then there must be something wrong.[00:26:00] We've gotten to a place, I think, where we feel like it's broken if it's not working.

But I think what you're saying is, yeah, we're going to get uncomfortable all the time and we're going to keep learning from it and pushing through it. And I just think sending yourself that message all day, every day. That's the game. 

M'lis: Well, and that's how you get better. You put yourself in challenging situations, you learn from them you may make mistakes the first time, but then the next time you encounter that you should make less mistakes. Or maybe no mistakes at all because you've already gone through it. 

Every day is a learning experience and that's personal relationships, it's professional work ethics. It's everything you do in life you're going to make mistakes. And so I've always had that attitude about, well, I'm not going to be perfect. I'm going to try and get better every day. Sometimes I achieve it and sometimes I don't. I got a lot more living to do I figure, maybe I'll get it right, by the time I'm a hundred. 

Aransas: So as somebody who's done all these amazing things [00:27:00] but is far from a hundred. 

M'lis: Closer than I was.

Aransas: Aren't we all thank goodness. 

M'lis: Yeah, I guess that's, yeah, that's a good thing. 

Aransas: So what's next? What dreams do you still have? 

M'lis: Well, my dream of retirement, that's my current dream. The pilots have a mandatory retirement age and since working as a pilot is kind of like being retired on active duty, meaning that we get about half the month off, it's kind of hard to walk away from such a good job. So I plan to fly until I'm 65. But definitely after that I plan on a lot of golf with my wife and our friends and a lot of travel the Wander Women. 

One of our bucket list items as a group is the Galapagos, which we definitely want to go achieve here in the next 10 years. I am really looking forward to the next chapter where it's a lot more fun and a lot less work. And the work is more on the relationships or managing your money so that [00:28:00] you can afford to do everything you want to do, or just possibly trying to not get too bored with the fact that you don't have any work to do. There's so many gentlemen at work that they retire and immediately they are back into some aviation-related workforce working. And I'm like, why are you still working? You just retired. And they're like, oh, I just love flying. I just can't walk away from it. And I'm like, oh, I can walk away from it. There are so many other things I want to conquer that I don't have the time to do. One of them is just to clean my office. There is a lot to do on the to-do list. I'm looking forward to that. I'm almost count days.

Aransas: What do you still want to learn? 

M'lis: I like to learn to play pickleball better, because I realize that a lot of my friends are way better than I am and I don't like that. I would like to learn how to express my opinion strongly without having to get into an argument about it. Which I think is something [00:29:00] everyone could achieve.

I might even like to learn to speak Spanish a little bit better because I don't speak it well at all. Spanish is a language that you encounter quite a bit in your day-to-day lives, and I just would like to communicate better, yeah. 

Aransas: Yeah. It's interesting that at least two of your goals came back to communication. 

M'lis: Oh yeah. We have CRM in work, so we talk about it every day. Crew resource management and there are a lot of different parts to it, but the biggest one is communication. And the biggest part of that is probably listening.

 I would say that everyone needs to listen better and I'm definitely one of those people. That probably is another goal I should put on there too. To listen better. 

Aransas: Listen better. Yeah. It's a big way. We learn, right? 

M'lis: Absolutely. 

Aransas: And it's a big way I think we find out what other people really want and need so that we can be successful.

M'lis: Yeah. Instead of what you think they want and need because you thought you heard one thing when they really said something else. Yeah. Right. 

Aransas: Yeah. Parenting is helping me doing that. 

M'lis: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I did get a little bit better there but then parenting [00:30:00] also makes you bad at listening because you start tuning things out because you've heard a lot, so you have to kind of relearn it as they get older.

Aransas: They now market earplugs to parents that are like half sound, so that you can't really hear your family anymore. 

M'lis: Oh, that's really, that's terrible, isn't it? But kind of true. 

Aransas: They definitely days. 

M'lis: We just have filters, you turn your ears to either all or no kids, no wife, you can just select, put the selector anywhere you want. I'm trying to leave it in all so I can hear everyone, so 

Aransas: Yeah. And maybe retirement would give you a little more time. 

M'lis: Oh, I can't wait. I'm going to try and perfect retirement, that's for sure.

Aransas: Who are the women that inspire you, M'lis? 

M'lis: Well, my mom for sure. 

Aransas: I don't even know her, and she inspires me. 

M'lis: Yeah, she's delivered like half of my friend's kids. 

Aransas: She's an obgyn? 

M'lis: Yeah. I was at an event about two weeks ago, and a woman came up to me in Chicago and she's like, you know, your mom delivered my kids, and I didn't even know her. I was like, oh my God, are you kidding me? And she's like, yeah, make sure you tell her I [00:31:00] said, hi and she works for United Airlines and some other department. I just thought, what a random event. Except for that my mom was, one of the few, I should say, women OBGYNs in Chicago.

So when they, when she started practice, a lot of women wanted to have a woman OBGYNs. So it just became, it was, I guess, natural progression. 

Then I would say that a lot of the women that inspired me in college were on the basketball team. I played with probably the best women to ever play the game.

Cheryl Miller, Cynthia Cooper, Pam and Paula McGee. It was awe inspiring to watch what they could do on the basketball court and how they just naturally knew that they were going to win. That kind of really taught me early that you can have that attitude. I just want to win. There's nothing wrong with that. I carried that with me and really made me believe that nothing was impossible. 

And then moving forward, once I got out of the Air Force and I went to United Airlines. I met a woman once who, she was an FAA inspector and she was giving me a checkout, and her name is [00:32:00] Emily Warner and I didn't know who she was, but she was the first woman commercial pilot in the United States.

And she had trained for years, she had trained all of the male pilots because women couldn't get hired as pilots at a commercial airline. Someone introduced us and said, you both are kind of first, did you know that? And she didn't know who I was and I didn't know who she was.

And so that was really cool because I mean, she was the icon, you know, she's a modern day, Amelia Earhart or Bessie Coleman. It was very cool to kind of parallel her path there for a short time where we actually worked together closely and she taught me a lot.

That was pretty amazing. And she always did it with such grace in class. And I always said, I want to be like Emily, I want everyone to respect me and like me which I think are two different things that don't necessarily go together. She definitely was inspiring to me.

 I've had quite a few along the way. Yeah. 

Aransas: That's is some [00:33:00] pretty amazing women and it sounds like your life is very much sustained by inspiring women, whether it's your wife or the Wander women. 

M'lis: Yeah. I wish it were my kids too. I'm not sure I inspire my kids, but I'm trying, I have twin girls and they're trying to find their path right now and so it's time to be patient and let them figure that out. But I'm very proud of them as well. And the hard work that they put in every day. Now for me it's more about watching. What really inspires me is, so we went from I was the first black woman captain at United and I was the only for a long time.

And then two other women upgraded and they were very senior. They were actually, I think both senior to me, but they have a quality of life issue. They wanted to keep a quality of life. And they also wanted to fly international. So they waited to upgrade until they were international captains instead of domestic like I am.

Then there were three of us, and then one retired, so then we're down to two. That was last [00:34:00] February. And now at United Airlines, we have eight black women captains. We went from two to eight in a span of eight months. And it has been very exciting to see that explosion of career paths for these women.

And so now I'm inspired by them and what they're doing. And the press that they're getting and the accomplishments that they're making because I feel like in maybe one really small way, I made it easier for them to do it because no one even blinked an eye when they upgraded.

No one said, oh, this is really a big moment because no one's ever done it before, you know? So hopefully it was just another School to go through at United Airlines. It's been really exciting to watch their careers and knowing that, things are in really good hands.

To me this is the time to just kind of be in the wings and make my speeches wherever I have to and just try and encourage as many people to try the career field and watch it grow. It's really been kind of cool. Yeah. 

Aransas: Really [00:35:00] incredible, and I can only imagine the ripples that come from this.

So every woman that hears your story and then every woman hears their stories and that keeps rippling out as a deeper sense of belief and possibility until, like you said, it just becomes taken for granted. Of course, there's women in the sky. 

M'lis: Right? Absolutely. The numbers are bleak, something around 5% of all professional aviators are women. Black women don't even register on the scale. It's less than a percent, half of a percent I think. And so that is one thing that I hope in my lifetime, that I will see numbers grow significantly enough that maybe we stop talking about the numbers. I have a lot of hopes for that, as we delve right here into Women's History Month, and we'll be talking about this all month long. It would be nice if we didn't have to have a Women's History month, because every month was Women's History Month, that would be fantastic.

Aransas: It'd be great if there were no more trailblazers needed. 

M'lis: Right? [00:36:00] Yes, absolutely. That has always been the kind of my mantra for not only for women, but for minorities as well. It's just, let's stop celebrating first because we've accomplished it all. Hopefully I'll see that in my lifetime.

Aransas: Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. I think you're doing all the things. You're taking care of yourself. You're taking care of your inner circle. You're taking care of your role within your organization. You're inspiring people at all these different corners and angles and creating a greater sense of belief.

Your daughters now are out there touching all these different people, taking for granted that this is what success looks like, right? And I just think, that's how change happens. So what would you say to a young woman, like, you know, say your twin daughters who was looking for her place in the world.

M'lis: I would say find something you're passionate about doing, and pursue that because if you can find something you love to do, then doing it every day won't seem like work. And then you never have that feeling of, oh, I have to go to work today, because that always seems to be a [00:37:00] negative connotation.

But if you find something to do that you're really passionate about, and it really doesn't matter what that is, and the only measurement of success is against yourself and not against anyone else. If you can go someplace every day and be happy and do your best and be your true, authentic self, then you are incredibly successful in my book, and I'm the first one to be cheering you on.

Aransas: Yeah. I love that. I wondered how you define success, and I think you just said it. Finding that place of greatness where you're deeply curious and maybe have some aptitude. I think too I still think it's really interesting what you're saying about the basketball team. We're not all going to be the tallest person on the team. 

M'lis: Right. I wasn't even close. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you have to find your role and if you're going to be part of something that's really, truly big, then you have to find what is your role in that space, and do it really well so that the outcome is that the entire team or company or unit is going to be [00:38:00] successful. I coached high school basketball for about seven years with a really good friend of mine and one of our favorite things to tell the girls was try to be a part of something bigger than yourself. And try to make your part the best that you possibly could be. In that something that's bigger than yourself. And if you can do that, you will go home and sleep well every night going, I did something good today. Yeah. Yeah. 

Aransas: It sounds like you learned that from your mom too. 

M'lis: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely. No doubt. Still do every day. She lives four blocks from me, so I hear a lot of time.

Aransas: Even better. I loved that part of your story initially when she said I don't want to do this anymore because I could have more impact. 

M'lis: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And she also made me realize that, if you don't like what you're doing, change it. It's never too late to change. If you wake up one day and you're like, I really don't like my job or my career field or what I'm doing, do something else. I mean, you have the ability, just change it, you know. We have [00:39:00] one woman at United that I know of, probably several, but she was in her thirties I believe when she started learning how to fly.

And she is now just upgraded to Captain at United at 58, 59 years old. And that just goes to show you're never too late until, unless you get over 65 where they actually make a stop flying. But you know, honestly if you don't like what you're doing or you've always dreamed of doing something else, go do it. You know, don't let anybody hold you back. 

Aransas: Beautifully said. All right. So lightning round to close us off. Sure. Absolutely. All right. One quick way you raise your own energy? 

M'lis: Exercise. 

Aransas: One easy way you boost other women. 

M'lis: Laughter 

Aransas: One little way that you elevate your community, the planet, or the world? 

M'lis: Contribute.

Aransas: Pretty powerful stuff. 

Thank you, M'lis. 

It was so nice meeting you. Good luck with your entire podcast and [00:40:00] it's blazing paths. That sounds like so much fun. 

It's pretty exciting. Like you said, the whole goal in life, or at least for me with my career, is I want to do what I love and enjoy. And the things that make me deeply, profoundly curious and where it feels like we can have an impact and make a difference. And having this conversation with you feels like a really beautiful beginning for all of that. 

M'lis: Awesome. Well, happy women's International Day. International Women's day. 

Aransas: Yeah, that too. For all of you listening, please tell us what you think of this conversation, what you're learning from your own life, what you're taking from M'lis' story. We can be found and all the places, but also, and most especially @theuplifterspodcast.com. Tell us who inspires you.

Leave a voicemail with a nomination and we'll invite that amazing woman onto the show to inspire lots of other women so we can all keep learning and growing together.[00:41:00] 

It’s not too late to live your dreams. The Uplifters will show you how.

This podcast is dedicated to celebrating the Uplifters: the teachers, the coaches, the caregivers, and the servant leaders who can get so focused on helping everyone around them that they forget to nurture their dreams to go, see, and do big things.

But, it’s not too late.

In this podcast, we share the tools and strategies Uplifters use to bolster themselves, sustain their Work, and go after their purpose. 

The Uplifters Podcast believes that we all have limitless potential for growth and impact — but that sometimes we can feel stuck, lost, and in need of a boost to get up and claim our dreams.

In each episode you’ll discover:

* The deeply personal stories of inspiring women who have worked through challenges to create big, beautiful lives

* The way their blocks and barriers became tools for success

* The powerful mindset techniques you can use to create your biggest life

The research is very clear: If we surround ourselves with people who believe that change and growth are possible at every stage, we are more likely to courageously follow our dreams. Our show is designed as an Uplifter daisy chain, so every guest is someone who’s inspired our listeners and previous guests. 

Join the conversation with our guests and our community and tell us who inspires you at www.theuplifterspodcast.com.

Aransas Savas:

Aransas Savas CPC, ELI-MP, is a veteran Wellbeing and Leadership Coach, certified by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and The International Coaching Federation.

She has spent her career at the intersection of research, behavior change, coaching and experience strategy. She has created a uniquely holistic and proven approach to coaching that blends practical, science-backed techniques with energy coaching. 

She has partnered with customer experience strategists, at companies like Weight Watchers, Best Buy, Truist, Edward Jones, US Bank, and many more, to apply the power of coaching and behavior change science to guide customers on meaningful, and often, transformative, journeys.

As a facilitator on a mission to democratize wellbeing, she has coached thousands of group sessions teaching participants across socio-economic levels to leverage the wellbeing techniques once reserved for the wellness elite.

Aransas is the founder of LiveUp Daily, a coaching community for uplifting women who grow and thrive by building their dreams together.

Based in Brooklyn, Aransas is a 20-time marathoner, a news wife, and mother to a 200-year old sourdough culture, a fluffy pup and two spirited, creative girls.

https://www.aransassavas.com

linkedin.com/in/aransassavas

TRANSCRIPT

aransas_savas:

Welcome to The Experience Strategy Podcast. I'm your host. Forgive me if I burst into fits of uncontrollable giggles any second now, because I've waited a really long time to say that. This show, this moment is literally a dream come true. This show is very much a celebration of, and inspired by, what I call Uplifters. And these Uplifters, these are the women we've all known, and we've probably been them. These are the givers: The caregivers, the coaches, the teachers, the servant leaders, the women who spend so much of their lives focused on helping others and making everything better for everyone around them that they can forget to nurture their own dreams to go do and be and see big things. My story is, I hope, just one more little bit of evidence for all of these women that it's not too late. 

So if you're listening to this right now, thank you. Thank you for being a part of this big dream-making moment for me. Whatever it is you've been dreaming of doing or being, or if you're just in that place of wondering what it is your dreams are then maybe this moment will be an invitation and a reminder to you too that it's really truly not too late. 

I've been working with women of all ages and backgrounds as a coach and experience strategist for 20 years now. I've worked with in their 20s and 30s throughntheir 70s and 80s,  and I’ve seen how we can all get sucked into this belief that we've missed the boat somehow on whatever it is we want to do. I hope you’ll find in this podcast a greater belief that you can do what you want to do. You'll hear from the women who at 60 and 70 and 80 took up running or horseback riding or started to write that novel, or women in their 20s and 30s who thought it was too late to have the career or the relationship. You’ll learn how they tapped into powerful mindset strategies to overcome whatever limiting beliefs they might have had. Most of these women actually found that those limiting beliefs ended up enabling their success. And so in every episode, you're gonna hear their tools and their strategies that they use to bolster themselves, to sustain themselves, while taking care of lots of other people and things in their lives and what they used to achieve some really big purpose goals. 

These women are so inspiring. In some cases they will be people you've heard of, but oftentimes these are everyday heroes, people whose lives are impactful and rich, but whose stories you may never have heard. And you'll learn how they overcome their challenges, the way their mindsets enable them to create their biggest life. 

Sorry if I'm a broken record here, but the goal is that you'll be able to learn from them and use these ideas to create your biggest life. The reason we're approaching it this way is because there's some really powerful research, notably from the renowned neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, that says that the people we spend the most time with have the biggest influence on our well-being and happiness. My life is infinitely richer because of the women that I spend my time with. I want to give you some of that magic in this show. I want to wrap you up in the voices and the stories of uplifting women. And so we're all going to be in this together. And the show itself is going to be created as what I call an Uplifter daisy chain. So every single guest is going to be somebody who has inspired our listeners and our previous guests. My dream is that this show will bring us together. There's strength in numbers, right? And so we're gonna celebrate and inspire the Uplifters and we're gonna inspire and celebrate each other so that we can all keep growing and glowing brighter through the inspiration of one another. And so while these interviews will often just be me with inspiring women. The goal is to open up a broader conversation with you, the listener, the Uplifters everywhere. And my big dream for this show is that we'll find each other and that we will inspire each other to live and love bigger than we ever imagined. So I hope every single one of you will join the conversation at TheUpliftersPodcast.com. I might have cried when I purchased the domain because it was just that first moment of realizing that this little girl dream was coming true. 

So the best thing you can do for us right now is to help us connect with other Uplifters and to help support this show if this is a mission that you believe in, like and subscribe to our show. Please write a short review. It's amazing how much that helps other people find a brand new baby podcast like this one. And then if you are energized by our guests and you want to connect with them and you want to hear more of these stories, then come on over to theUpliftersPodcast.com and share the show with your friends, your sisters, your coworkers, all the women who lift you and the ones who could use a boost, and let's talk to each other. Let's learn from each other. Let's nurture our big dreams. I literally believe that if we can come together and if we can learn from one another, it could literally change the world. I'm really excited to do this with all of you. And if you've listened this far, then I feel like we're well on our way. 

I don't wanna end this without talking about one last really important element of this show though, which is that the entire show is completely Uplifter made. The music that you heard at the start and that you'll hear again in just a moment with some amazing lyrics, is by my wildly talented 14-year-old daughter Savannah. Art is by the also wildly talented Jenna Freimuth and Joanne Grobe. Our producer is one of my personal heroes and a huge inspiration, Traci DeForge, a legendary podcast and radio producer. The voices that you hear opening every episode are just a few little snippets of voices from some of the incredible and uplifting women who carry me through every day of my life, who help me grow and who help inspire me with their lives, from my daughters to my sweet, sweet grandma and my mom and my aunt. So Grandma, Momma, Derby, Savannah, Irene, Laurie, Heather, Jaclyn, Karen, Kyia, Joanne, Julie, Annamarie, Lakshmi, Kara, Sam, Sus, Lisa, Marci, Kyle, Elise, MaryBeth, Anita, Anne, Gina, Cheryl, Heather, Liz, Sharon, and the uplifting man without whom I would have a fraction of the joy and love I have in my life, Andy: this is for all of you. To all of you listening. I love you. I'm so proud to be an Uplifter with you. And I'm so excited to see what happens when we connect and we share and we inspire one another. Talk to you soon with our first big interview.

Click the arrow above and I’ll read this newsletter to you. 🥰

The pilot episode of The Uplifters Podcast launches today! You can subscribe for free right now on Apple Podcasts here, on Spotify here, or you can find all the episodes on my Substack here and you can watch all of the episodes on YouTube here. 

The pilot is just a short introduction to our mission, but it represents something much bigger: the work of many talented people and the realization of my biggest little girl dreams. (Anyone else out there dream of being Jane Pauley when they were little?) 

While this show means a whole lot to me, it is for all of us. We all have dreams we haven’t gotten to, things we want to go, see and do, but have put off because there are “more important things to do” or “it’s too late”. Through my coaching work, I am privy to extraordinary stories and some pretty mind-blowing breakthroughs and it’s always felt unfair that I’m the only one who gets to learn from these women. I try to share some of it in these newsletters, but now you’ll get to hear it for yourself every single Friday!

In the first three full episodes (starting April 7), I talk to pioneers and founders M’Lis Ward, Susie Jaramillo, and Rachel Lipson. These women have all accomplished so much, but the show won’t focus on that. It’ll focus on how they do these things.

You’ll hear first-hand how they overcome doubts and fears, how they keep going when things get tough, and how they figured out what their big purpose was. I am learning so much from them (and am relying on all of their wisdom while I do the brave work of launching this podcast). 

The episodes will be packed with actionable tips and strategies, questions you can explore in your own life, laughter, tears (mostly mine), and lots of raw truth. (More on that in my upcoming episode with Susannah Ludwig and Sam France about Overcoming Good Girl Syndrome and Building Resilience.)

I’ll see you next Friday with our first full episode! Once you subscribe via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, you’ll automatically get episode updates, and I’ll share lots more insider views and discoveries in these weekly messages.

Sexy Breakfast Break

This was a busy week. I needed lots of nutrition and extra long-lasting protein sources that would carry me through to later lunches, so I mostly made these green smoothies: kale + pea protein + ginger + chia seeds + handful of oats (my secret ingredient for making them less acidic) + half of a banana.

What did you eat for breakfast this week?

Please join me in celebrating big dreams, courage, and lifelong learning today, and in thanking the extraordinary crew of Uplifters, including every one of you reading this message right now, who made it all possible.

XO

Aransas

Thanks for reading Uplifters! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

It’s not too late to live your dreams. The Uplifters will show you how.

This podcast is dedicated to celebrating the Uplifters: the teachers, the coaches, the caregivers, and the servant leaders who can get so focused on helping everyone around them that they forget to nurture their dreams to go, see, and do big things.

But, it’s not too late.

In this podcast we share the tools and strategies Uplifters use to bolster themselves, sustain their Work, and go after their purpose. 

The Uplifters Podcast believes that we all have limitless potential for growth and impact — but that sometimes we can feel stuck, lost, and in need of a boost to get up and claim our dreams.

In each episode you’ll discover:

The deeply personal stories of interesting and inspiring women who have worked through challenges to create big, joyful lives 

The way their blocks and barriers became tools for success

The powerful mindset techniques you can use to create your biggest life

The research is very clear: If we surround ourselves with people who believe that change and growth are possible at every stage, we are more likely to courageously follow our dreams. Our show is designed as an Uplifter daisy chain, so every guest is someone who’s inspired our listeners and previous guests. 

Join the conversation with our guests and our community and tell us who inspires you at www.theuplifterspodcast.com.

Aransas Savas:

Aransas Savas CPC, ELI-MP, is a veteran Wellbeing and Leadership Coach, certified by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and The International Coaching Federation.

She has spent her career at the intersection of research, behavior change, coaching and experience strategy. She has created a uniquely holistic and proven approach to coaching that blends practical, science-backed techniques with energy coaching. 

She has partnered with customer experience strategists, at companies like Weight Watchers, Best Buy, Truist, Edward Jones, US Bank, and many more, to apply the power of coaching and behavior change science to guide customers on meaningful, and often, transformative, journeys.

As a facilitator on a mission to democratize wellbeing, she has coached thousands of group sessions teaching participants across socio- economic levels to leverage the wellbeing techniques once reserved for the wellness elite.

Aransas is the founder of LiveUp Daily, a coaching community for uplifting women who grow and thrive by building their dreams together.

Based in Brooklyn, Aransas is a 20-time marathoner, a news wife, and mother to a 200-year old sourdough culture, a fluffy pup and two spirited, creative girls.

https://www.aransassavas.com

linkedin.com/in/aransassavas

https://www.instagram.com/aransasrose

https://www.tiktok.com/@liveupdaily?_t=8W7ZR3Mak5T&_r=1

https://www.facebook.com/aransas

https://youtube.com/channel/UCDE1XweLbNynaPeykjDGNSA