Episode 58: 3 Simple Things To Make You Feel More Powerful
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
This has been quite an eventful week. Not only am I entering into the home stretch of my pregnancy, there were a lot of things that I observed this week which led me to creating this episode. Based on what I observed, I wanted to share three simple things that you can do to help you feel more powerful.
Mentioned in This Episode (quick list):
- The Power Presence Toolkit
- Amy Cuddy's book, Presence
- My article on LinkedIn entitled, “25 Books to Help You Have the Best Year Ever in 2016”
- Nathan Lozeron's video with highlights from Presence
- Amy Cuddy's extremely popular TED Talk
- My Spotify playlist called Ego Boost
- Beyoncé's video “Formation” (explicit lyrics)
- Scandal's midseason promo trailer
3 Things You Can Do to Feel More Powerful (listen to the episode for the full details)
#1: Use Your Body: The first book I read in 2016 was Amy Cuddy's new book, Presence. I mentioned it in my article on LinkedIn called “25 Books to Help You Have the Best Year Ever in 2016.” Anyway, this book has made a profound impact on the work that I do especially given its explanation about the power and influence your body has on your mind. Amy posted a video that was created by Nathan Lozeron that provided some of the key points from the book that reminded me of some of these findings including how something as simple as your posture can make you feel powerful or powerless.
Here is the video:
#2. Listen to Music: This past Saturday, Beyoncé showed how much of an icon she is by surprising all of us by dropping a new song and video called Formation. As a Black woman, I felt so much power, pride and excitement from listening to this song and watching the video. I have probably listened to this song at least 20 times since Saturday and every time I listen to it I feel like I can take over the world! Granted, I know this song and video is not for everyone, but this song reminded me how something so simple as a song can get you fired up! So let me ask you: do you have a theme song, anthem or playlist that gets you feeling empowered when you put it on? If not, it's time to get one. In fact, I have a Spotify playlist called Ego Boost that includes some songs that get me feeling . You can watch Beyoncé's video below (note: there are explicit lyrics in this video):
#3: Use Your Wardrobe: This past week I had two power shopping trips with some of my executive clients. This is one of the things I love about the work I do — working with women to craft the image they want to convey. Something that never gets old is seeing a client put on an outfit that she would have never selected herself that makes her look and feel super confident and powerful.
One more example that I saw of this this week of how wardrobe can be sued was the mid-season premiere of Scandal. Many of you know how much I have been known to obsess over Olivia Pope's fashion and all kudos go to the show's costume designer, Lyn Paolo. What I love and appreciate about Lyn is that she turns fashion on the show into another character. Each main character has his or her own personal style which may shift depending on the story line. So when I saw the promos for the mid-season premiere with Olivia Pope (who is notorious for wearing muted and neutral colors) in a red trench coat, I knew we were in for a treat. And we were. Olivia Pope was donning bright colors like red, orange and purple — colors we have never seen her in until now. These pieces still brought power and strength but a new dimension of a less subtle and more outward facing boldness and independence that we hadn't seen before. And like Olivia, we can use our wardrobe and even color to reinforce what we want to communicate visually.
Do you have anything else that you use to help you feel more powerful? Leave a comment below!
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.