Unlock the Power of Authenticity in Life and Career

In this week's Conversations Worth Your While REPRISE, your host, Linda Bucher, and her guest, Jennifer L'Heureux of Citrine Synergy, share personal stories and actionable advice on how embracing your true self enhances your personal life and skyrockets your professional success.

Together, they offer insights into how authenticity is the key to unlocking a fulfilling life and a rewarding career.

Guest Bio:
Jennifer is a Leadership and Change Partner. She matches passion with results by working with companies on leadership development and leveraging agile change management for People and Culture initiatives.

Find Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheureux/
Website: https://www.citrinesynergy.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hi there. Hi. Hello. So welcome to Conversations Worth Your While. Today we are we are talking about the ROI of authentic living. And that is a wonderful, beautiful conversation that Jennifer and I have had, and we thought we would have another one and share with you. Today I have Jennifer LaRue with me, and it's very exciting, Jennifer, to have you. So why don't you just jump right in? Because we'll learn about you as you go. Okay. About like, let's talk about living authentically. Let's talk about what happens when you're not living authentically.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Oh my God. So many negative things. I don't know. I think there's a better way to put well, there's not a good way to put that. I think for me, I I a few years ago I um I was struggling. I had a health scare that turned out to be nothing, so I'm fine. There's nothing wrong. But I was I was definitely, you know, owning it all of my own on my own. And I just I became, not only did the health scare impact me, but I became physically ill and I became exhausted. And I think I became anemic. I mean, it was just all these side effects that happened because I wasn't I wasn't living my best life. I wasn't living who I was. I was trying to pretend to be someone. And then I remember I was talking to a friend of mine, and she said, You are kinder to everyone than you are to yourself. And she said, I want you to get help. And so with that, I started, you know, getting some help and working with a with a therapist. And I just learned that like I didn't have to own it on my own because so much of who I am is working with other people, but I wasn't doing that for myself. I wasn't being authentic to myself, and so I wasn't living a full authentic life, and it did, it had some health effects on me, and I was exhausted and and all these impacts, and so I just had to learn to like understand who I was so I could understand my place in the world in a much better, more positive way. So that's kind of where this topic came for me.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yes, oh, I so get it. Um there's a giant amount of pain that happens when you're a chameleon, which is how I spent most of my life just changing colors to meet other people and basically hustle for love and hustle for worth and hustle for approval and you know, oh, it was so awful. And I get the physical effects. My gallbladder stopped working, um, my back and neck were I was like almost paralyzed. I could sleep about 15 minutes and I wake up in pain. I couldn't turn my head more than like a like an inch to either side for years. I couldn't sit in my office chair very long and have a psychotica. Um I had extra weight on me, and it was all the physical responses of uh the physical manifestation of the emotional pain of not living authentically, of not being who I was. But here was the catch. I didn't even know who I was, and that's you know, the that's the the meat of this whole thing, right? Um it's exhausting, it's physical, it affects your relationships because you're not, you know, like I remember like you know, my husband at that time, he was like, Where do you want to go for dinner? I'm like, I don't know, where do you want to go? He's like, just pick a place. Well, where would you like and then I'd be thinking for him? It's so exhausting to think for other people, right? And at work, just trying to do the things I thought that someone else would approve of instead of like you know, really being who I was. Because you're much it's much better to you're you're gonna get more done. You're gonna be more productive. Plus, you're gonna be Are you good? Okay. I'm sorry, excuse me. That's okay. Um that's all right. So you're gonna be more productive, more effective when you're coming from a place of authenticity, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

I totally hear what you're saying there, and it's so funny because I think I think I knew who I was. That's the thing. The funny thing is, I think I knew who I was, but I didn't understand how I got there. I'd never looked at how I got there. And so for me, it wasn't not knowing who I was, but I didn't understand where it came from. So I didn't understand the unaware nature of who I was, so I didn't know how to present it to myself and to the world in a way that was positive for me, because the way I would present it would be counterintuitive to where it came from. And I know that seems a little bit, but that's for me is I had to understand where I came from in order to understand why I show up this way, what makes me tick, so I could kind of hone it in a much more positive way, is how that came out for me.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Ah, interesting. Interesting. So I'm sure um people who are listening to this, we have some people who fall in each of those camps. So we have people who are like, I don't know who the hell I am. So how can I live authentically if I don't even know whose life I'm supposed to be living, right? Because I remember saying that out loud, actually. I go, I remember one day I go, I don't know who life whose life or what life I'm meant to be living, but it's sure as hell ain't this one, not this one. I totally remember that. But then for someone like you, you knew you were living against your grain. I didn't even know that I just was like gapingly unfulfilled and had no idea why. But you knew you were living against the natural grain of yourself. And so for some people that it might be that way that they're just like, I can't, I can't let the real me out, let the real me out. And I remember I had a I had a client I have had many clients like that where I could tell when I talked to them, they almost had like this, their voice was almost strangled. Like there was some tightness to the their voice. I actually know some other people like that that aren't even clients. And what it was is they're holding their true self in, and I've my visual, because I'm super visual, I've they're like, um, do you remember? Well, I don't know if you're old enough, but Penelope Pit Stop. No, you don't know. Okay. You don't. Or maybe I'm from a different country too.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

So I mean I mean but was that a Canadian?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

It had to be a Canadian cartoon though, because it was about the Mounties, the Royal Mounties.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Oh yeah, then I don't know it.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah, too, you're too young. But anyway, she was always getting in trouble and getting kidnapped by the the bad guys, and they would wrap her in a big thick rope from her neck all the way down and just her feet would be sticking out. So head and feet, and the rest would be all tight. And that is the visual that I get for people who they are they know who they are, but they've been repressing it for so long that they actually have like their voice is actually strangled, and they're just too afraid to let it out, and mostly because when they were young, they were told you're too wild, you're too fiery, you're too much. So that they made a decision when they were a child, and the child's brain is not fully developed till we're 25 years old as a child that to be lovable, they had to not be too much, so they constrained that part of themselves.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah, I mean, I know for me, I I ended up moving abroad um when I was in my early twenties, and I remember I just felt so much more at home. I was just like, oh, I get to be who I want to be now, and I don't have to worry about these expectations of who I am. And I have I love my parents and I great, you know, I have nothing to complain about. It's just, you know, it's the environment in which you live in and in the family, and there's so many factors. And so for me, but even that that was a first step I went through, but then I had to go through a bunch more steps to get to a point where I really could own who I was, um, through really understanding it and understanding where I came from and where these thoughts in my head, these like these, you know, like that movie um inside out with all the emotions in your head to understand where like I could just imagine who my emotions in my head were and like how they would talk to me. And so to create a better conversation between the emotions in my head, so my outsides and my insides could match in a much better way.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Oh, I love that. And you know what? That's uh you have a high level of emotional intelligence to be introspective enough to say, okay, there's a disconnect between inside and outside. We gotta we gotta get this meshed up together. So I really applaud you for doing that. That is just beautiful. Um and these the benefits of doing that, of really aligning what you're doing and how you're doing it around who you are, and actually have like a quote that I've put all over the internet for many years now, and it and you know, my maybe something someday I'll be known for saying is when you wrap what you're doing and how you're doing it around who you are, success and happiness will meet you there. Oh, yes, yes, right? Yes, yes, it's so true. And I know it just sounds like words for many people, but you are living it and I am living it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Um, and it's because you get to define your success then. You get to pick your success, you get to define it. You don't let other people define your success. You get to figure out what success is for you then because you're living your authentic self. Ultimately, that's what that quote says to me, right? Like that's what that quote says to me. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Never too late. 45 when I realized that um I needed to discover who I was, right? And because it hit me that I was chasing someone else's definition of success. Because we're given definitions of success from other people. We watch and we learn, right? So here's interesting, this is a interesting little story. So my dad, you know, came from the west side of Buffalo, nobody had an education at all. Um when he had me, he was just finishing his two-year degree and making very little money, and that they were struggling, they didn't eat a lot because they had to make sure they could feed the baby. Like it was a struggle, but he kept going to school at night until he was 36 years old. And um, you know, and and he got better and better jobs as he got more educated. That's that's his way, okay. I'm not saying that education is the path for everybody, because it certainly is not. But for him, that was his his education, was his pathway. And then um after he finished his master's degree at 36 years old at night school on Saturdays, um, by 40, he bought a company and he moved that company, you know, to really grow and you know, and then he joined a country club, and then he built a house, and then he joined another country club, and he built a bigger house. And so this was the this was the vision that I kept seeing in front of me. That's what success looks like, Linda. But on that, my insides, I was like, but I don't I don't wanna build a bigger giant house. I don't want to join a country club, I don't even golf, you know. I don't I don't want that, you know. And of course, we were programmed, my sisters and I, when we were in kindergarten, we knew we were going to college, and guess what? Me and my two sisters, all of us children, we all have master's degrees, just like my dad, because we were groomed. You are going, you are gonna be educated, this is the way. So then here's what I didn't notice. My mother, of course, she did have a master's degree in music, but she was a piano teacher her whole life, so fulfilled, loved helping the children and even adult learners learn to make music, and she was so fulfilled her whole life. I had just as much her example as my dad, except for she sh it wasn't she wasn't like th you know, like it wasn't so noisy, right? So my dad's version was noisy, my mom's version was not noisy. So fulfillment wasn't like, oh, that's not important. You gotta have a better car, you gotta join the the country club, you gotta have a bigger house, you gotta, you know, move up in the corporate world, right? So that's what I was doing. And then I finally break the hundred K barrier in Buffalo, which is hard to do, and this is like 15 years ago, so that was even harder to do, right? So of course I've arrived and I'm so unhappy. This is when my body was was a mess. This is when my my emotions were a mess. This is when I was like, but this isn't who I am. I'm chasing someone else's definition of success. What the heck? This is not right. So then I had to step back and look at my mom's example and say, wait a minute, but she was fulfilled and happy. And guess what? She has everything she wants too. She doesn't want a country club, she's not in a country club, but she has you know, she has everything she wants and needs, and that's what I want. I didn't aspire to those gigantic, you know, things. Like I just aspire to, you know, make a difference in people's lives. And so that was a turning point for me. I don't know about you.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

And I think it's so funny because what I was just when I was listening to you and I was like, you know what? I think what I hope people would take away from that story is not only to not let somebody else define your um idea of success, but to like show that when people do follow their path that they determine and that they set out for them, great things will happen for them. So when you figured out what your path should actually be, that's when great things happen for you. So it has so take that inspiration from your dad. Take that, take something from it, which is follow your path, work hard, get done what you need to get done, regardless of the cost, because it's what you want. Now, don't let somebody else tell you what you want when it comes to your life, right? So as I was listening to that's what it really thought about is that there's things we can take away from people we don't even agree with when they have decided to live their authentic, successful life. It just might not be not the the exact message, you know. I but being yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I love that. That is such a good point. So when I turned away from looking at his definition of success, the thing to remember is that he was living authentically, he was doing what he wanted. And that's the lesson I should have taken for all those years instead of this is how you do it. No, this is how he does it for him. This is how my mom did it for her. How do I do it for me?

SPEAKER_00 13:44

How do I do it for me? For me.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

And again, though, at the root, I gotta stress this again is if you don't know who you are, you will not find your passion, you will not find your purpose. People are like, I don't know it. I need to find it. Well, first you gotta find who you are. That that and you and and that entails letting go of who you're not, of who you think you're supposed to be. So it kind of all mushes all.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, and it's it's those words, like those S words, like suppose, should, like all of those words, like how do we get rid of them in our lives? Like, I should be doing this. And don't get me wrong, people, whoever's listening to this, I still have those supposed to's and shoulds come into my life. They have not gone away for me, but they're they're quieter now. They're quieter now, and I'm I'm able to look at them in a more objective way. And sometimes, you know, things like will come up that I might be like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna dig into that a little bit more. I'm gonna ask a little bit more questions, but it's ultimately to define my success. It's ultimate to say, what do I need to learn from this should? What do I need to learn from this supposed to? How do I make it my own? How do I make it Jennifer's path?

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah, you know, I have an interesting tool that I created. It's called the language of freedom, and and a piece of that tool is exactly dealing with those shoulds. And what's interesting about it, and I'll share it with you in a minute, is that um it it when you use the tool, you can't help but be authentic because it's really uh you know, about um taking power, have m moving a moving forward in your own power. So we'll just take the should, right? So, you know, I always tell people like, stop shoulding all over yourself. Yeah. Um and so um because you know, should is almost like a little punishment. It's basically the reason you feel like it's a should instead of I get to, right? Like I oh, I get to do this, right, versus I shouldn't do that is because you want to do that. You just don't really want to. So uh I like to and it also makes you feel very shackled. I think should shackled, right? So the wrists are together. This is something you don't have a choice about. But guess what? We always have a choice. We know we have a choice. So, you know, I remember thinking like, oh, I should go to the grocery store because there's nothing but cereal in the house for the kids, right? But it's not really a should. I'm gonna go to the grocery store or I'm not. That's really what's gonna happen. So I can remind myself and say, I choose to go to the grocery store because I choose not to feed my kids cereal for dinner, or screw it, I choose to feed my kids cereal for dinner and go to the grocery store another. Yes. Right. So just say I choose or I choose not to, or I will or I won't. That's it's just a simple substitution. Pick one. And what happens is when you pick one, you feel automatically more empowered, and that is the pathway to your true self. Is is because you won't be your true self if you don't feel like you have any power. So that's a beautiful trick to empowerment. I will or I won't, um, I choose to or I choose not to. Beautiful word substitution. That's just a piece of that tool, but felt right to share.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Oh no, it's huge. It's a huge tool. And I I mean, I know so many people in my life that feels like their entire life happens to them. Their entire life happens to them. And I'm like, you know, a lot of things happen to us. We live in a world with other people, other environments, like we cannot control everything. We have to accept that in our lives, but we can control certain things, we can control the way we respond to things, we can control the choices we make in life, we can control a lot more than we did. So when you act like things just happen to you all the time and that you life is happening to you, yeah, you're not gonna have the life you want because you're not making choices in your life, you're not doing the things you want to do. And you know, there are things in my life that I have to do that I don't want to do. Like I have to clean my apartment, and I never want to clean my apartment, but I choose to live in a place that's tidy and clean. And so that's where I kind of come with it. I have to do this so I can get what I want. And so when you can kind of make those those those things, and so I love that language of not should, but I'm choosing to do this, I'm choosing to do this so I can get an ultimate outcome that I want to help me live my best life, my authentic life.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yes, exactly. And actually, it's another conversation for another time, but when you you mentioned um, you know, this happened to me, this happened to me. I actually just did a webinar the other day called uh reinventing your life for a happier, more successful you. And I talked about the victim's language versus the hero's language. And the victim says this is what happened to me. This is what happened to me, that is what happened to me, then the other thing happened to me. And the hero says, When this happened, I did this, and when that happened, I did this, and when the other thing happened, I did this. So it's really just a matter of of of taking it one step further. Yeah, that happened, but when it happened, what did I do? What did the hero do? Because the victim is focused on what happened to me, where a hero is focused on what I did when that thing happened, right? Yeah. So I just thought, I know that's like a whole nother talk we could have at some other point. But um, I just you know, when something comes up, like that's the thing about organic conversations. Who knows where they're gonna go, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Well, this is all about authenticity. What is coming up for us right now? What are we, what should we not show what should we be talking about? What do we want to be talking about? Like we we have this, you know, you and I both, we know we have this agenda of what we want to talk about today, but what makes sense for us right now? What brings out our authenticity as we're talking and what are the tools that we want to share with people? I think that's part of living your authentic life is not being guided when you don't have to be guided by something. How do you choose your path exactly as we talked about earlier?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Right, right. And so benefits. Let's just like tick off some benefits of because we're this is we could title this the ROI, the return on investment. You're investing in yourself and your own authenticity, right? So, what are the benefits of doing that? Um, so let's let's just take turns and bounce it off. Go ahead, you go first.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Um, you you get to feel like you're you're you're living your knife, your life is not living for you. That I think is a big benefit.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Nice, nice. And when you are doing that, you're actually stepping into your power. And so what happens when you're stepping into your power is everything's better. Your confidence increases, your abilities increase, your effectiveness at work, your effectiveness in your relationships, your boundaries. Like I can make a giant long list of what improves when you live authentically. And I and it's scary, but knowing that all these benefits are on the other side, like that changed my mind. So any other benefits you can come up with.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

So do you know that? I think there's this picture out there, it's like your comfort zone is this big, and then where the magic happens is outside of your comfort zone, that magic happens, becomes a lot more comfortable for you. Where the magic happens becomes a lot more comfortable for you because you know who you are in the magic, like you're not as uncomfortable in in things you don't control. I'd say that's a huge benefit for me.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

I love that. You become more comfortable with not being in control.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Yeah, exactly. Because you know who you are.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Because you are, because you know who you are, yes. And because then you're more comfortable, you can go out on a limb a little bit more. Like when I quit that big, powerful six-figure your job, blah, blah, blah. Um, it was it was like this. I don't know. I wish I knew who who this quote was from. I don't know, maybe it's a nias nin, but I don't know. Um, it says the bird goes out on a limb, not because it trusts the limb not to break, but because it trusts its wings to fly. Isn't that beautiful? And so that's what I did at 45 years old when I quit the job to go back to school, become a what the heck is a life coach? I don't know, but I'm doing it. Because I felt that inner pull. It's a pull. There's this difference between pull and push. Push feels icky, like, oh, push me, stop it, stop it. I don't want to go, right? And pull feels like, oh my god, this is the way, right? So it was a pull. And yeah, I never would have been able to do that if I didn't trust my wings to fly.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah, and you know that quote, I mean it's another we're going quotes now. Um you know that quote, I don't know where it's from, but it's like, well, what if I fall? And then it goes, Oh dear, but what if you fly? And I think if you're living authentically, you live in the what if I. Fly. That's where you live when you live authentically. You live in the not what if I fall, but what if I fly? And that's where you get to live when you live authentically. You do not mind.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Because they're always your instincts. I mean, they're we're animals. We have instincts and they're spot on all the time. And I I always think of this is so this is a funny thing about um discovering who you are and living authentically. It's like when you're I don't know if you when you were a little kid, do you ever play that game of getting warmer, getting colder?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Right? So like you know, someone babysitter or parent or whatever hide your little tiny stuffed animal somewhere in in the room. And then you'd walk in and they'd be like, getting warmer, getting warmer, getting warmer, and you keep going that direction, right? And if they say, Oh, getting colder, then you turn around, do an about face and go in another direction. You test it. And you're waiting for feedback the whole entire time, right? And then the more, the more you explore, the more you move, and the more you get that feedback, the quicker you will find your prize. And that's exactly how living authentically works. So when you are getting colder in life, the um unfortunate thing is adults go, Yeah, but I made my bed now, I have to line this, but your soul is like getting colder, getting colder, you're freezing. And you're like, Yeah, but this is the way.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Buy a new bed, buy a new bed, people, buy a new bed.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

And we're just all stuck in this one direction. And if we could just be that little kid who's like getting colder, what are you kidding? I gotta find my prize. I'm gonna get colder, right? Because and and where's the feedback now? The feedback is your soul, is your gut instincts. We know when we're getting colder, we know we're in when we're in a relationship that is not the right relationship for us, or that the relationship it doesn't mean it's the wrong person, it just means the relationship needs a big change, right? We know when we're in a job or in a friendship or in a you know that that is wrong for us. And that's the feedback. You can feel it in your body. That like I like my physical, you know, um symptoms, they were they were loud and clear feedback. That's it, inner GPS saying, turn the F around. Like you're going, you are getting colder, woman. You know. So we have that. And if we can just play the game of getting warmer, getting warmer, and when we get colder, we move, beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Yeah, and I think it's and that comes down to the word trust for myself. It's like when you're when you know yourself, you know how to trust yourself more. And that's trusting those instincts, trusting that gut feeling that we all have all the time, and letting the letting you drive your life, not the world drive you.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Totally. Yeah, totally, yeah. Oh my gosh, this has been such an interesting, cool conversation to have with you. I love it. When I created these uh conversations with you while I just put this call to action out that's that I want to talk with cool people and have cool conversations about awesome stuff and have it be organic and informative. Um, and this, I really think this conversation has fit the bill. So let's talk a little bit about how anyone can live authentically. Because this is when the yeah butt monster starts going up. You know, they're here and they're like, Yeah, I hear you, I hear you. Yeah, but right? Yeah, but um, so let's give people a little inspiration about how anyone can live authentically, and it might not be nearly as scary as you think it is.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

So I'm so I love habits. I love this idea of habits. And um, I read one book called Atomic Habits. I read it. And he had this, I love it. And he had this thing about how when you're making changes in your life to make small changes. So the idea of making 1% changes, and it's like compounding interests. And so if you make a 1% change every day, that 1% gets bigger, and then the impact gets bigger. So I think the thing is sometimes people feel they have to make big, giant sweeps, but it's okay to make small changes and just do them consistently over time. And my favorite analogy of that is I'm live in Canada, so we work in Celsius, so we're gonna so an ice cube melts at zero degrees. Now, we're at 10 minus 10 degrees, and you only get one degree warmer every day, it's gonna take 10 days for you to see a change, right? You're gonna see that ice cube melt. And so the thing is to remember when you're making small changes is to stick with it and to keep going. So I'm a big believer in small changes. I'm a big believer in sticking to them and trusting that you're going in the right direction. And if you are following your path and if you are being authentic, you are going in the right direction, and it's okay if it doesn't happen overnight. I think is the thing we all need to remember. It's okay if it doesn't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Right, yeah. And yeah, ignore should it, because that would be way too topsy turvy to let it all happen.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Be terrified. Yeah. We might go back into our comfort zone, into that little circle again if we do that.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

So yeah. And so uh and that brings me to uh readiness, okay? Because not everybody is in the same place of readiness for change. They're just not. I use this metaphor um that that I love and I've been using for years, and people really get it. That I call it like the island of playing it safe. It's still it where it's like, oh, this is safe, but it's this island. I really want to be in this island, but it's it's safe because it's familiar and and change is scary. So um I created this quiz, and I'll actually put the link in the um in the description below. Um and it says, you know, it's like where are you on the island of playing it safe? Well, you can take the little quiz for going big and find out. But you might find yourself on one of three places. You might be an island dweller, and island dwellers really don't have a big they're not ready. They're not taking the steps, even the small steps, a one percent change because they're just not ready, and that's okay. I was an island dweller for decades, decades, not ready to make the change for one reason or another. Maybe there was something else big going on in my life, and I just didn't have the emotional or mental capacity to take on another change, right? Um, and sometimes it was like, I know I'm settling, but I'm willing to settle right now because this is all I can do right now. Um, and then there was a point during that where I was like, I reckon someday maybe I ought to think about doing this thing and making this change. So I was I knew it was gonna happen someday, but I wasn't ready. So that was like an island dweller. And then there are doc seekers. Those are people who there's some internal switches flipped where they've decided to stand up and start looking for the dock off the island on their own. I can do it, I'm smart, I got this covered, I'm gonna collect information, I'm gonna find my way through this jungle, I'll go it alone, right? And so they're making some small changes, um, dock seekers, but they're trying to find their way, they're trying to help themselves. Most people fall in in this category when they're like all done settling. Okay, like that internal switch flipped. Then they go right here. They don't, they don't jump to adventure yet. They're like, I can let's see what I can do by myself on my own. And then there's another internal switch that flips that's like, okay, I'm totally impatient. I've been trying to do it on my own for a very long time. I'm all done. I don't want to be here. Tomorrow when you check this island of playing it safe, I won't be on the island because guess what? I'm an adventurer. I'm not even looking for the dock. I'm flagging down the boat to get me off this island. They're adventurers, okay? So, where is the readiness to make this change and live authentically? Some people may be island dwellers, I'm just not ready to live authentically. I know I'm not, and and that's all I can do right now, and that's okay. And then there's people who are dock seekers and they're like, Yeah, I need to live authentically. I need to learn a little bit more about it. Like, they're probably listening to this conversation right now, right? And then there's the adventurers, and the adventurers are like, okay, I'm ready to do it. And they're the ones who might reach out directly to me to do this. Like, those are the people who end up, you know, becoming my clients, the ones who are like, let's do it. I'm ready right now, today, let's go. Do you have an appointment at four o'clock? I can have, right? They're like, they're no longer willing to settle, and they've done a lot and they're smart and they know it, but now they want to go fast. So um, you know, that's kind of the readiness is a really important thing to know when it comes to living authentically. I remember not being ready for so for decades. I remember that. So I don't know how your experience for readiness is.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, so for me, like I work more with companies. I'm a leadership and change partner and I help match passion with results. So I know sometimes when you're in a company, you're trying to make a change, it's really hard to do it internally, and you kind of need that outer lens to kind of help you kind of move the chess pieces around. So um, I would say book a like, I think the biggest thing for people to do is just book a collaboration call with me, and I'm happy to kind of meet with you the 30 to 60 minutes and just talk about what are some changes you want to make in your company and what are some tools and things like that that we can we can put together for you to kind of make that happen? And how can we get your company to be on that dock? And I think that's where we need to do is how do we get your company on the dock? Um, and so you're ready to kind of ask for help and bring people in and to see where you're at.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

And so when you work with people, do you help them to kind of work more authentically as well? Like, is your process help them to actually connect with them, you know? Because I like I remember when I was working in the corporate world, I was really bad at the things that just didn't mesh with who I am and what I wanted to do, mostly because I'm such a master procrastinator when it comes to those things. But then if something was something that was interesting and I was hungry to like learn or do or something about that I would really excel there. So do you help people and companies actually um like like tell me about that authenticity parallel in the work you do?

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Yeah, so I think I think the the if we can show up with our whole self, with a our most authentic self to work, we're gonna do our job better. And I think the thing we have to recognize in the corporate world, there's always gonna be things you don't want to do. There's things I don't want to do and I run my own company. Like there's just things we don't want to do. But I think it's about separating the I have to do's from the like I want to do's and how do I bring more passion into the world. So that's what it really helps people do is how do we streamline the things you have to do? How do we streamline that so it doesn't feel like as much work to do that? So then we can make space for you to bring in more of that authentic energy from not only you, but the people in your company, so you can achieve your goals in a much more authentic way. And I think we're seeing that so much with corporations is that there's this demand for authenticity in corporations to not be a corporate drone, to not be, you know, one of the, you know, I'm trying to come up. There's an analogy in my head that I can't come up with, but then just not to be another number on the page. No one wants that. Everyone wants, everyone, I always say it's like Dolly Partman, everyone's just trying to matter. So, how do we create an environment in your company so people feel like they do matter? And people are gonna feel like they matter in different ways. So it's really about streamlining the work that has to get done so you as a company have more space for the the things that light people up and make people want to come to work.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Right. And does that streamlining include helping people do the work they're best suited and fit to do? Um, so that your the path to excellence for a company is through the path to excellence for each person. That's that's how you do it.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

I can't say yes or no because every company is different. You know, every company is different. Like I can't say what the solution is gonna be for you, but ultimately we want to make sure that people are doing what they want to do and less of what they have to do because the has-to-do is gonna be there. It's gonna be there in a company, there's always gonna be things, but there's probably also people that love to do the I have to do things, right? So it's about matching the right people with the hatches.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Yeah, yeah, beautiful. Good. So what's the name of your company, Jennifer?

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Uh so my company's name is Citrine Synergy. Um, I think there's a there's a link in the bio if you want to contact me. Um, also I'm very active on LinkedIn, so that's another great place to find me. Um, but I mean ultimately book some time with me and we can have a chat about how we can make it so your company can be more authentic as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Beautiful, beautiful, great. Thank you so much. And I'm Melinda Booker, and uh my gift is synthesizing wisdom and knowledge with the soul connection. And I love helping people, I love lighting the way for people to get clear, to lighten their loads, to nurture their passions, and unleash their gifts on the world because that is your purpose. So thank you very much, Jennifer, for being with us today on Conversations Worth Your While, talking about the ROI of authentically living who you are. So I really appreciate it. And um, I know we'll have another conversation soon. This has been a blessing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Thank you.