BEYOND
BEYOND
Ep.18 Beyond Social Anxiety: Me, 800 women and the Gold from Powerhouse Weekend
What if stepping out of your comfort zone could change your life?
Join me, Katie Lynn, as I recount my exhilarating journey at the Powerhouse Women event as I overcame postpartum social anxiety and embraced new challenges.
From the unexpected size of the event with over 800 women to the thrill of my first, first-class flight, this experience taught me invaluable lessons about vulnerability and the universal nature of growth. Discover how sharing my story and recognizing the struggles of others helped me transform my mindset and find empowerment in newness and authenticity.
In this episode, I challenge the notion that you need to be "finished" before you start taking on new ventures.
Breaking free from self-imposed limitations, I explore the importance of taking action despite feeling unprepared and how this can lead to holistic transformation in both personal and professional arenas.
Learn how seeking growth in one area can ignite widespread change and why embracing the unfinished journey can propel you toward playing a bigger game. This narrative is a powerful reminder that perfection is not a prerequisite for progress—your journey starts now.
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Hello, my friend, and welcome to Beyond the personal growth podcast for the people who are healing beyond their conditioning and beyond the cycles that played out before them. My name is Katie Lynn and, with 20 years of experience in the field of psychology and human behavior, I am bringing my natural curiosity, expertise and personal life experiences here for discussions that are guaranteed to be informative, inspiring and entertaining. I'm glad you're here. Let's get started. I am so happy to be sitting here today recording this episode post Powerhouse Women event. I feel like I'm just now coming down off of the high that I experienced from receiving in this way and engaging in this way with so many women. My body was riding a high, my mind was riding a high, my spirit was open and expansive, and if you've ever been to one of these events, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. Before I left, I shared on social media that postpartum brought forward for me a bit of social anxiety. I went to this event with the intention of giving myself the opportunity to work through that in real time, and I have never been to a business event ironically, even though I've been in business now for six years. I was going to this event thinking like, oh, this will be a 100 to 200 person thing, it's going to be probably 150, 200 women. That's what I'm thinking in my mind and I'm watching the previous trailers and the promotion materials and I'm like, yeah, that seems about right. Okay, cool, yeah, let's do it. So I decided to record this episode for two reasons One, to share my five takeaways and just give you an idea of what happens in these rooms or what can happen in these rooms. And then the second thing is to leave this as a bookmark for myself so that in a year. The second thing is to leave this as a bookmark for myself so that in a year I can come back and really re-listen and see what growth has happened, what transformation has happened, how I've shifted and allowed this event to change my life. So where I'll start is the event size. Again, I think we're going to an event that's going to be about 100 to 200 women. So I get on the plane and I get to have my first first-class flight, which is amazing. Little side note I was so happy, I was so excited about that. I felt so blessed sitting in that seat, like, oh my gosh, I get to go to powerhouse women and they get to fly their first class. So that was beautiful.
Speaker 1:We land, we get our luggage, we get in the Uber, we stop by Whole Foods on the way to the hotel. We pick up some food so that we have healthy options while we're there, just in case the food at the hotel is not what would be ideal for us. And when I say us, I'm talking about me and one of my best friends and my business partner. When we arrive at the hotel, we're checking in and we see so many women right, there's so many women coming in and so many women just walking around the hotel and like wow, there's so many women here. And my best friend goes well, yeah, there's going to be over 750. And I said come again. She said yeah, there's going to be like 750 women here. Come again. She said yeah, there's going to be like 750 women here.
Speaker 1:When I tell you that my job was on the floor because I asked God to help me with my social anxiety, and God said don't worry, girl, I got you and threw me into the experience of being in a room with over 800 women, room with over 800 women. Now, the cosmic joke is not lost on me. Okay, so that was my first pleasant surprise, as we arrived at this event and I was like, wow, you know, okay, let's go. So we check into her hotel room and we get organized and we go for a quick workout and then we go on a bike ride and we have dinner and it's amazing. The hotel's beautiful, it's at a resort style hotel, it's gorgeous.
Speaker 1:And my first takeaway is that everyone is in their own type of newness, and what I mean by that is I have done events before. I have facilitated events. Some of you listening have come to my events in the past. You have seen me attend events to see my husband speak. You've seen me speak at events. I am no stranger to events. I used to help put on weddings back in the day. Events are in my nature, in my blood.
Speaker 1:However, this is different, and what makes this different for me is I attended solely as a participant and solely for the purpose of being an ownership of the work that I do in the world out loud, and that is a different level of vulnerability, and if you are growing a business and if you have a business or you have a project that is so near and dear to your heart, it is your life's work. It is a part of your soul's mission. You know how vulnerable it can feel to speak about it out loud in front of people who don't know you at all. So that newness is something that I thought might be unique to me and there may have been a subtle judgment in there of Katie you've been doing this for 20 years Like maybe you should be over it. And the reality is I was not over it and the reality is, in this moment, still not over it. You know, still working on how I put what I create with people and what I do with my clients and what I do in the world into words that feel accurate and resonant and to really feel confident in that explanation for myself.
Speaker 1:And I learned that, being in the room with these 800 women, that every one of them is in their own unique version of newness. And there was one moment where the host, lindsay Schwartz who's amazing said how many of you are here for your first time and a bunch of hands go up, like probably half the room. Their hands go up and mine goes up as well. And that's when it really hit me of like I'm probably not the only woman here who is finding herself in a place for the first time with 800 women and knowing that I'm not the first and knowing that I'm not the only, I find a lot of relaxation in that and a lot of comfort in that, and I think this really pertains to any time we catch ourselves telling a story in our minds that we're the only ones or it's just us, or any type of story that revolves around the theme of isolation is inaccurate and everyone is in a newness in their own unique way. And if I can open myself up to that, if I can be in ownership that, I'm in newness and here's my newness, and because I can be with my discomfort in the newness, all of the feelings that come with this newness that I asked for. That's a key factor too. I asked for this, I signed up for it. Then I can be with others in the same experience and have compassion and feel like I can see you and you can see me and we're okay because we are doing this together. We are growing together. So that was really special as an awareness that every person I met in that space, and even the people who helped me get to that space, were in their own newness. So that was wonderful.
Speaker 1:As soon as I found out it was more women than I anticipated, right as soon as I found out it wasn't going to be just 200 women, it was going to be 800 women. I shifted my intention a little bit, because my intention originally was to engage with as many people as possible. And then the reality hit that there's no way I'm going to engage with 800 people, there's no way I'm going to engage with a hundred people probably. So I shifted my intention to let me practice the quality of my engagements and my ability to be with newness, both mine and every single person I encounter in this weekend. So I framed it as practice, which was very helpful for me, because then it became about reps and less about performance, which is always a great move for me personally when I'm in a space of newness.
Speaker 1:The second takeaway is everything is practice right, even if we're in a season of experiences and circumstances and situations where it's not ideal, it's not what was on the vision board, it's not really what we wanted. Every single opportunity is being brought forward as a gift of practice for us to practice being in the engagement at this event, to practice being a participant in an event, to practice being in the engagement at this event, to practice being a participant in an event, to practice being in a learner's seat, again for two days, to practice being in the different energies and versions, and practice approaching people who are more successful than me and who I have looked to for inspiration and who are really living in a way that feels bold to me. Now, everything is practice. This event was an opportunity for me to practice connecting with people and following up with people and listening and learning and sharing what I do right, putting it into English and then refining it and fine tuning it, then getting back in there right. And so, no matter where we are, we get to be there fully and be in the practice and get the reps, because we really will come to the point where we're no longer practicing and we're in the game and we're playing the game at a bigger level. So I encourage myself and wherever you are, to be in the practice and to see it as such. Right. 1% better. How do I get 1% better at being with newness? How do I get 1% better at seeing how I help others? How do I get 1% better at recording podcasts? How do I get 1% better at marketing podcasts, right, like, whatever it is that you're doing, let it be the practice.
Speaker 1:The third takeaway oh, this was such a big one for me. I wrote this in my notes that I was taking during the event, and this one was don't wait to be finished before you start. And that was really a big, big one for me. Like thinking that I needed to have a certain level of financial success before I could tell my story on a stage, but thinking that I needed to have a certain level of podcast success before I could tell my story on a stage, but thinking that I needed to have a certain level of podcast success before I could do, you know, a podcast tour.
Speaker 1:These things that come into our brains and these ideas that came into my brain that were really just serving as a limitation, a silly assumption that I got to look at over the weekend and go, who decided that was true? You know, who decided that that was going to be the rules of the game. And I got to be honest with myself and go oh, you did, katie. You decided that that was the rule, you decided that that was how you were going to play the game. And, man, if I make the rules. Why would I make rules that don't benefit me, you know, why would I make rules against myself? So I really got to look at, oh, in what areas of my life, in what areas of my relationship to myself, in what areas of my business have I been waiting to be finished before I even start taking inventory of those and then making a list of the action steps that would move me into starting, even if I don't feel ready. And so some of that looks like learning better communication styles to develop more confidence in myself when I'm communicating with others, especially in person, because, for whatever reason, communicating behind a camera for me feels very natural.
Speaker 1:I love it, I enjoy it. I was really bummed when social media started going to short form reels, because I love a good chat session with you. If you follow me on social media, I love to talk to you in that way, being face-to-face and just building up better skills in that, feeling more confident in that and and really understanding that I'm not finished. And not only am I not finished, you're not finished. And none of the women that have done such beautiful, incredible, amazing things on the stage and in these vendor booths none of them are finished either, and what a gift we get to be with each other and for each other, in being able to say I'm not finished and you're not finished and let's get to it. You know there's there's more to be created, there's more of us to get to know about ourselves, there's more healing to do, there's more connections to be made, there's more service to be had and to be given and and to be here for it. You know the fourth for it, the fourth takeaway oh, this one was wow for me. Okay, the fourth takeaway was that expansion applies to everything.
Speaker 1:I was sitting in the audience and I was listening to one of the speakers and I had never heard of this amazing woman before. She was telling her story and she had had some incredible accomplishments oh my gosh, I mean just incredible accomplishments. And then she also shared these incredible losses along the way, like these incredible false starts or errors that were made, or things that popped up, that were unexpected, or things that fell through that she didn't plan for. And as I heard her speak, I really heard God tell me like Katie, when you ask for expansion, when you ask for abundance, it all gets bigger. It all gets bigger to scale. So when you ask for more expansion in your ability to serve, then every other area of your life gets bigger. Your level of communications will have to get bigger, the amount of people you're engaging with will get bigger, the amount of people that you're managing will get bigger, the amount of times that you need to travel will get bigger, the amount of opportunities you'll have to speak and to show up and to support will get bigger, and the amount of times you're going to need to solve problems that are new will be bigger. Right, that, like everything, gets bigger.
Speaker 1:And so when I talk about having it all, especially with my clients, and I go you get to have it all. I mean you really do get to have it all, the whole spectrum of it. It's not like, hey, can you just give me wealth, financial wealth, and keep everything else in my life the same? It doesn't work that way. And this was such an important reminder because I was sitting there like, oh my gosh, my husband is at home with our children and I have not a concern in the world.
Speaker 1:And he's texting me and he's celebrating and he's like I'm so proud of you, I'm so happy for you, I'm sending him pictures and he's like you look so beautiful, you look so great, oh my gosh, are look so beautiful, you look so great. Oh my gosh, are you having fun? You know I'm calling him during breaks and in my mind I'm like, oh, it's so good. How could it get any bigger than this? Can you just, can you just focus on my business, you know? Can you just focus on my service? And I feel like God came back to me and said Katie, you've got to be willing to give it all to me. You've got to be willing to let go of it all and let it all transform, because the expansion doesn't just happen in one little sliver of your life, it happens in all of it.
Speaker 1:And so every time I decide, I as me, katie, every time I decide that I'm going to play a bigger game Because me, katie, every time I decide that I'm going to play a bigger game, my entire life gets to transform as a result of that. And I don't know what it will do to my relationship. I don't know what it will do to my mindset. I don't know what it will do to my relationship with my children. I don't know what it will do to my bank account. I don't know what it will do in terms of how the people that get the messages that I give or that work with me privately or that work with me in groups I don't know how that's going to roll out. And going back to point one, like that's a lot of newness, right, like that level of vulnerability to say I'm handing it all over because I know that God is asking me to play a bigger game and I know that that means everything is going to be expanded and most of it I have no control over. I can control how I think about it, I can control how I feel about it. I can control the meaning that I make of it. I could control the next best behavior or action or move and everything else I've got to surrender, and that was really powerful for me to experience over this weekend.
Speaker 1:The fifth and final takeaway please hear me on this. I was in a room of 800 women. There were women in this room who didn't have a business, who were in the ideation phases, who had felt a tug on their soul. Like I know I'm supposed to be doing something different and I'm not quite sure what that is. There were women who had six-figure businesses, low six-figure businesses, high six-figure businesses. There were women who had multiple seven-figure businesses. There was a woman in the room who had a billion dollar exit from her company. Shout out to Jamie Kern Lima for her presence and her heart and her wisdom and just her brilliance in this room.
Speaker 1:And I took a pause on Saturday and I looked around and there was so much beauty in the room. Everyone has come dressed as their highest self. It's like a fashion show, right? It is the most feminine room I've ever been in. The lights are purple, the staging is gorgeous, there's vendors everywhere, there's cold brew coffee on tap. It is like a woman's dream in this room. Well, let me qualify that. It's an ambitious woman's dream in this room. And I sit there and I'm like what is it? What is it really? Because you have 800 women. All of them are dressed beautifully, all of them are intelligent, all of them are talented, all of them are resourced. What's the difference maker? What puts one on a stage and the other one not on a stage?
Speaker 1:And what I realized is that energy hands down is the most unfair advantage you have and I have and we have. The way that we allow or don't allow our energy to move through our bodies is what will determine what we create in this world, because that was the only real distinguishing factor. Everyone in that room had had struggle. Everyone in that room had had their own traumas. Everyone in that room had had struggle. Everyone in that room had had their own traumas. Everyone in that room had had their own unfair advantages. And yet the thing that really created something unique and something memorable was the energetic signature.
Speaker 1:When I saw a woman who was really in her own energy and so expressed and so alive and so happy to be her Just flat out happy to be her Walking in the room like I'm happy to be me, I am me. How much better does that even get? It doesn't get any better than me being me. That is compelling, my friends. That is so compelling, it's irresistible. It's irresistible. There's no gimmicks, there's no manipulation, there's no pretenses. It is pure, it is so pure, and that was fantastic for me to experience. So, as I wrap this up, I'm sure there's going to be more that unfolds, because it's only been less than 48 hours since I get home and, like big win, I already unpacked all my suitcases and put everything away. Hey, so that's huge for me. But as this continues to unfold.
Speaker 1:I pray that these initial takeaways really support you in whatever way you were hoping for and needed, or maybe they pleasantly surprised you in some way, because I truly believe women really are magic and when we come together, that magic gets magnified. And I'm so grateful to have been in a place where, number one I realized, oh, these are my people. Every single one of us got up this morning and did a hard thing, every single one of us. That was very refreshing. It was an incredible event. I'm so grateful for Lindsay Schwartz and her team at Powerhouse Women, so grateful to every single woman that was in that room that contributed to the creation of what this weekend was, and I'm so grateful that I got to experience it with my best friend and my business partner and we got to really look at oh, this is what we would like to create in Femme Forward. This is our takeaways, this is our learnings, and it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing to experience. So if you are a woman and you are looking to transform your life in some type of way, I'm going to really encourage you to get out there in person and into the rooms and into the groups where there are more people looking to practice what you want to practice and become a master at the thing that you want to master. Until next time, I love you and I will talk to you soon. Have a great week.
Speaker 1:As we complete this episode, I would love to know your insights, takeaways and feedback. You can message me on Instagram, at katielinrojano, or send them via email to katie at katielinrojanocom. Any products or digital downloads I mentioned can be found via the link in my Instagram bio. If you enjoyed this episode, I encourage you to share it with at least one friend and leave a five-star review so we can get these impactful dialogues into the lives of even more people. I would also like to thank my guests for their vulnerability and generosity in allowing us to learn from them and grow alongside them. Until next time, friends, let's go beyond.