Something shifted. You can feel it. You just can't name it yet.
Stand Tall & Own It is for women in the second half of life who are high-functioning on the outside and quietly disoriented on the inside. You built your life inside systems you trusted completely — until you realized you couldn't tell what was actually yours from what you'd just learned to navigate well.
Host Andrea Johnson doesn't offer formulas. She offers honest thinking, sharp observation, and the kind of conversation that makes you pull over and sit in your driveway.
Empowered: having the knowledge, confidence, means, or ability to do things or make decisions for oneself. Developing leaders IS empowering them. In this episode, I’ll share what I’ve learned and how you can begin your journey toward empowerment.
Recipe for your empowerment journey:
Learn from other Leaders’ Stories
Learn from other Leaders’ Expertise
Adopt and practice a Personal Growth Plan - like Intentional Optimism
You're listening to Intentional Optimist, the podcast for unconventional leaders, where you'll find inspiration, learn to discover and develop your own strengths, and hear from inspiring women just like you who are making a difference in their community. Who knows? You just might find yourself stepping up as the next unconventional leader right where you are. I'm your host, Andrea Johnson, the original intentional optimist. Well, here we are, my friends, at episode 83. Over the last 20 months, as I've highlighted the stories of female leaders and shared my reflections and takeaways, I've noticed a refining and clarifying of my own philosophies and positions. Now, that's not really a surprise. I mean, growth is inevitable when you both decide to do so and get curious and are open to change. However, what I didn't understand at first, and you can just call this, I guess, extreme naivete, is that when I set out to learn from and develop new leaders, I'm actually helping empower women to change their lives. The changes that have taken place in my own life as a result of this work are a direct reflection of that concept and have caused me to better define what I do and who I coach. So I figured it was time to share just a few of these revelations, you know how it goes. I learned and then I share, and then define what I mean by empowered or empowerment. So first, let's start with some definitions. Webster's defines empowered as having the knowledge, confidence, means or ability to do things or make decisions for oneself, and empowerment as the power, right, or authority to do something. Well, then I went out to Wikipedia and found this more of an expanded and relatable definition. Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. I love, love, love that last sentence. It is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. Yep, that's what I do. Now, to be clear, there is a systemic or civic aspect to empowerment, which includes laws and the means or authority to claim your rights. That falls more into the sphere of social justice, where others are much more qualified and even called to act. Because as Professor Aaron Murphy Graham puts it, just having knowledge isn't always enough. She says it this way: Education does not automatically result in women's empowerment, as the social and economic context in which women live can pose overwhelming constraints on their choices. And if you don't understand what she means by that, she means that just because you have an education doesn't mean the system is set up to help you flourish. And I will state for the record that I see much work yet to do in this area, both in the US and internationally. And I'm hopeful that empowering individual female leaders dedicated to that work and being role models for the next generation will equip and empower even more women to do what needs to be done. But how do I or we do this? Well, it starts with the woman in the mirror. There's absolutely no way around this truth, sister. This is where I can see the changes in my life and growth making such a big difference. As I stated earlier, I believe that I see in myself a direct reflection of the fact that developing leaders is, in fact, empowering them. Living out a personal growth philosophy has its own effects. But then couple that with learning from other leaders' stories and expertise, and you have a fantastic recipe for exponential growth. Let me break it down for you. Let's start with learning from other leaders' stories. I've now interviewed 42 individual female leaders for this podcast, and every single story is different. Every origin story, every bit of experience, every result and leadership principle or habit illustrates the pure, unique, and diverse nature of what leadership and empowerment can look like. When we learn from other women, instead of competing against them, we see the beautiful truth that we are truly all in this together. When we see the similarities to our own stories and experience, it opens our eyes to completely new angles or lenses through which to view our circumstances. Shifting perspectives and seeing what another woman has accomplished enables us to dream just a little bit bigger and expand our own vision for what can be. And that's just their stories. Learning from other leaders' expertise? Well, each woman that I've spoken to has a particular area of expertise. I learn something new in every single interview. I then highlight what she can teach you, giving you a list of tips and takeaways to implement immediately. I also include a special guest speaker series where many of these women do a free mini-class that you can access as a member of my Facebook group or over on my YouTube channel. Pulling together leaders from such diverse areas is my privilege, and I am beyond grateful that they're willing to freely share their knowledge in pursuit of this same end goal. Empowering you and me, my friend, with the knowledge we need to build our confidence, to employ the means and develop the ability to make decisions for ourselves and contribute to our flourishing. Or, said more succinctly, to be empowered. But most importantly, living out a personal growth philosophy and plan, like intentional optimism, is the biggest factor. Over the past six months, as I was basically learning what it means to be an entrepreneur, identity-wise, I mean, I've had both the ability and necessity to live out the six tenets of intentional optimism in a real-time, real-world way. I discovered it was much more than a philosophy and began truly using them as my own growth plan. As a result, I now have more of the knowledge, confidence, means, and ability to do what I'm passionate about and make decisions for myself, my business, and my family. I am becoming more and more empowered each day. Now, honestly, any good personal growth plan will do this for you. But intentional optimism is mine, and it works for me and my clients. For instance, this is what it looks like to live more purposefully into each of the tenets. Optimistic? I have a much clearer understanding of what it means to have hope in my future. I've shared much on social media about being willing to invest in small changes over time, providing me with the evidence that my future truly can be different based on each decision and action. Hope is then the foundation where my confidence has found a soft resting place. I don't have to fake it till I make it anymore. I have evidence that it will happen. That's hope and being optimistic. For present, my curiosity has literally blossomed into a whole new character trait. When I don't understand something, or especially when I don't agree with or understand another's opinion or stance, and that happens a lot, I'm to the place where curiosity is almost the first response. Not every single time I confess, but amazingly, the more curiosity I have, the better my relationships are. At the very least, I am way less frustrated by expectations that are usually based in judgment or opinion, rather than a desire for resolution. Of course, I think this is also increasing my ability to be kind and open. I can see that evidenced in my relationships as well. Now, for energetic, y'all, being an entrepreneur is a whole other country. It turns out I had some identity issues to work through when I left my career of 23 years, and I needed to take control of things that had always kind of fallen into that done for me category. Out of necessity, two main pieces of this particular tenet have become daily practices. First, getting creative, and this all falls under industry, getting creative at figuring out what to do, when to do it, and what to do next, and becoming, still becoming, financially savvy. These are current, ongoing, and very important to being an empowered woman and leader. For the tenet of courageous, I think the most powerful thing in this tenet has been resilience through consistency. There are things that I know will benefit my business or my health in the long run, and I am willing to do them regularly in order to reap the benefits. I see this most vividly in my health and wellness journey. Daily food logging, daily gut health and energy supplements, almost daily exercise or workouts, and weekly accountability have made a difference that is both noticeable and y'all sustainable. For the tenet of wise, I have always admitted this one is a hard one for me. This tenet includes both the spiritual journey I've been walking and the understanding of boundaries and how they work. My Christian faith is the oldest truth that I have. Literally going back to birth and the beliefs that I was raised with. But just leaving the spiritual side of life at a surface level, or even one that contains regular practices, if not examined, tested, or questioned, can leave you with practices or traditions that may have no real meaning, at least in your own heart. Living this tenet has been hard, but has taught me to dig deep below the surface, past the outward signs and appearances, to the bedrock of truth that has always been there since the beginning. I am becoming more empowered each day as I continue to grow in the knowledge and gain confidence in what I believe, which is showing me for the first time what loving boundaries look like, feel like, and how they can actually promote reconciliation and restoration and human flourishing. And intentional? I've said it many times, this one comes the most naturally to me. Yet the more I grow, which is kind of where we started this conversation, the more I understand why I am here, what I have been created to do, why I feel so passionately about helping others flourish, find empowerment, and lead. And speaking of which, there are so many ways that you can begin your own growth, dare I say, empowerment journey, with the growth plan of intentional optimism. The simplest and easiest thing to do is just follow me on social media. This is where I share daily encouragement, inspiration, and tips for living as an intentional optimist. And ladies, you can join my Facebook group where you'll find daily encouragement, women who are dedicated to growing and seeing things from the sunny side, all while supporting other women and learning. This podcast is another great resource. If you're new here, there are 82 previous episodes to mine for the gems of leadership stories and expertise that will inspire you and open your eyes to your own story and how you can embrace your own leadership role and skills to become the empowered leader you were created to be. One who has the knowledge, the confidence, the means, and ability to make her own decisions. If you're ready to step it up a little bit, there's my membership community launched from the beach, where we work together to live out intentional optimism in daily life, infusing hope and intentionality into your future goals and present work in order to attain them. Now, if you're super serious, I do take on special strategic planning and one-on-one coaching clients. This is where you can get intense and targeted coaching and strategy to grow exponentially. If you want to go even bigger and bring intentional optimism and leadership development to your organization, your team, or your business, using Maxwell leadership tools like disc behavioral analysis and guided masterminds to truly change the culture, empowering individuals to do the work they love or become the leaders they're meant to be. By capitalizing on their unique strengths and skills, I am happy to begin that conversation by assessing your needs. To be empowered is to have the knowledge, confidence, means, ability, and authority to do what you were put here to do and to make the decisions necessary to make that happen. So while I can't change the laws to make every woman externally empowered today, I can work with, if necessary, one woman at a time, helping her develop the strength, skills, knowledge, and confidence to be the next leader and role model to turn around and do the same thing. This is where having a nurturing environment comes into play. This is why I created Launch from the Beach, to offer you a space where you can explore your ideas and options, learn and grow in a community based on the personal growth plan of intentional optimism. As much as I can, I will always offer you training in leadership and empowerment. But like I said at the very beginning, it starts with the woman in the mirror. You have to step in and choose to grow. So pick any of the options I shared above and just start. Or book a free 30-minute consultation and we'll figure out your next best step on your road to empowerment. All my contact information is in the show notes. Let's do this. Until next time. This helps others find us and will have an even bigger impact. If you're curious what it would be like to work more closely with me, or to step up as an unconventional leader yourself, schedule a free discovery session in the chat. But maybe you're an entrepreneur looking for a support team. I'd like to personally invite you into my collaborative community, Launch from the Beach. It could be just what you're looking for. All of my contact information and all the links are included in the show notes. And don't forget, you can always connect with other intentional optimists in our Facebook community. You can follow my Facebook or Instagram page, or even connect with me on LinkedIn. Additionally, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter, Optimistic Living. It's good stuff delivered straight to your inbox on a not so strict schedule, but always from the heart. Remember, unconventional leaders lead at every level, in any area, using their unique gifts. And you, my friend, are a leader. You are the future of leadership and the role models for future generations. Until next time.
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