Beauty of an Exit Strategy with Guest Tracie Collins

In this powerful and inspiring episode of Wise Women Radio, hosts Brooke Haynes, Lin Schussler-Williams, and Holly Hartman sit down with the incredible Tracie Collins for an illuminating conversation on personal growth and reinvention.

Tracie shares her remarkable journey of scaling, selling, and letting go of her business—the National Black Doula Association—to step fully into her own reinvention. She delves into the mindset shifts required to embrace change, the importance of separating your personal identity from your business, and the art of creating scalable, sellable systems. With raw honesty, Tracie talks about her decision to move to Mexico for healing and how it fueled her transformation into a leader who now empowers women in leadership to reach their next level.

The conversation explores:
        •        Why reinvention is essential and how to know when it’s time.
        •        The mindset shift from “Why me?” to “Why not me?”
        •        The power of embodying the woman you want to attract in business.
        •        Overcoming imposter syndrome and stepping unapologetically into your worth.
        •        Why creating an exit strategy is vital for every entrepreneur’s journey.

Tracie’s wisdom, coupled with the hosts’ thoughtful reflections, makes this episode a must-listen for women seeking to elevate themselves, their businesses, and their lives.

🎧 Tune in and discover how to amplify who you are, step into your purpose, and write your own reinvention story.

📝 Learn more about Tracie Collins:
Website: TracieCollinsOfficial.com
Follow her on all social platforms: @TracieCollins

Tracie is a passionate advocate for empowering women in both their personal and professional development. Over the last two decades, she has dedicated herself to uplifting women of color.

She is the Founder of the National Black Doulas Association®, an organization committed to fighting the Black Maternal Mortality rate in America. The NBDA provides education, certification, and doula matching services for Black families. Through her influential leadership, Tracie has become a leading voice on midwifery, doulas, and at-home birthing, empowering Black women to take charge of their maternal health.

Her insights have been published widely, including The Grio, Rolling Stone, Essence, Washington Post, GMA, and as a contributor on Black Love, CNN Health, NBC Today and more. With over 23 years of experience in women’s holistic health and healing, her career has touched countless lives.

In November 2023, Tracie successfully sold the NBDA, capping her pioneering entrepreneurial journey. Having walked the path herself, she understands both the trials and triumphs of business ownership firsthand. Now, she is dedicated to crafting tailored solutions to help other entrepreneurs thrive.


At the heart of all her work is the passion to see women of color succeed and live the lives they desire. Through her coaching and community, she continues empowering them to harness their inner power and potential.

Lin Schussler-Williams

Brooke Haynes

Holly Hartman

Transcript

welcome to the Wise Women Collective show join hosts Lyn shler Williams Holly
0:05
Hartman and Brook Haynes with their inspiring guests for conversations that
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fuel personal growth Career Success and Community impact tune in to connect and
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amplify your power because when women rise the world follows I am Brook Haynes and I'm one of
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the uh co-hosts of Wise Women radio and I'm here with our co-host Lyn shler
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Williams Holly Hartman and our special guest Tracy Collins so uh Tracy I am
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very excited to have this conversation with you um it's a special time it's
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you're in a you're a a wonderful example of our conversation today that has to do
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with personal growth and reinvention but before we get started can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself who
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you are and how you show up in the world so my name is Tracy Collins and the
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funny thing is is I actually hate talking about myself so refining my elevator pitch has been something that I
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had to do in my personal growth transition so I specialize in working
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with women in leadership to build scalable sellable businesses W and and I've I've been able
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to get a little dose of what you do and a couple different ways I've been able
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to um follow come up come upon you in your Journey with um nbda which is
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national black du Association um I and I have seen you transition grow that scale that and
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trans now I'm saw you transition into something uh totally different and Rebrand yourself and in such a beautiful
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and inspiring way and now I'm getting to watch that so um I know one thing for
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sure is that anything you say today um the the is going to be something that you have lived and experienced and and
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been a part of so let me ask you um I want to just jump off with this kind of
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question why reinvention like what is it about reinvention why do we have to when
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do when are good times to do it why do we do it why did you do it and uh tell me about it so reinvention I think if
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you're not changing and growing then literally what are you doing I think complacency is such a great killer it's
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a killer of Dreams it's a killer of aspirations so I am a believer in
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evolution a believer in change and a believer in elevation and what I know is
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if I'm not I don't want to say chasing but aspiring to whatever it is my next
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calling is or the next level and layer in my life then what am I doing my goal and what I know about me is that I'm
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always here to be an example for women and in in that it embodies so much I
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know that's why I've been put here on this Earth so for me when I you know
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scaled my company that you mentioned the national black d i created it I scaled
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it and then I sold it and I knew in that Journey that that was not for me and
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people would hear me say that this was not created for me I did not create this
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company for me and it is it continues to live on to this day and it continues to
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serve the population and demographic that it was designed to serve which was again the purpose of it um but in the
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reinvention process and when I sold the company I knew like it was time for me to really focus on what Tracy wanted to
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do and what Tracy's goals are and as you know in the political climate not to get
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into politics but I just did not see my life in the United States so part of my rebranding is literally moving out of
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the states and that Journey was it went from 2022 to almost 20 the
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end of like you know the third quarter of 2023 and you know Mexico has been such a
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healing space for me and being a California girl growing up I was like
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why is everybody going to Mexico like you know I grew up with Mexico down the street and I grew up with Mexican people
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however really understanding the culture and The Healing Place that it is I didn't experience that
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um that that Synergy until I landed in the country itself so part of my
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rebranding journey and why it's so important it's like I think it's important to be in a place that you feel
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fulfilled and because it gives you life it gives you energy and it gives you inspiration and part of my my rebranding
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Journey was about a year it really took about a year because you are not your business you are not your business your
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business are elements of you but you as a whole are not your business and the United States really embeds that in
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people you are your work or you are what you do that's why the common question is well how are you what do you do and for
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me I've always hated that question hence which is the reason why it's hard for me to talk about myself but um in my
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journey of like who am I now what am I now what am I doing what's my next level and layer of
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impact it's like you know what I did no one can take that away from me what I brought to the table what I created that
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that level of of leadership that I brought no one can take that away from me so now I really enjoy teaching it to
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other women how to do it how to Brand yourself how to Rebrand yourself how to create a vision you know bring it to
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life and um you know how to be of impact and I think that is another piece that
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is important it's like how are you impactful how are you changing somebody else's life so it was a process it was
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not easy introspection is hard um introspection with the intention of
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growth is even harder and then introspection with an intention of growth and your next level of impact
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it's like okay girl what you doing now but here I am the long answer to that question no
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it's great and Brooke I want to jump in because I want to say Tracy this is so
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much why we do this show and have these Roundtable conversations I think it is
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so fabulous to hear you say you know it took a while and you know my reinvention
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and my personal growth is a journey right I think we you know we get so much
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Social programming as women especially around success and what does it mean to
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be a success and there's so much in our face on social media about you know
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whatever other people are doing and there's this comparison culture going on
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and I just I love this opportunity for us to be inspired by people who are
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walking the journey and and modeling for us that it doesn't always have to look
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like you know whatever the social media postcard thing right yeah I agree thank
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you for that thank you well that's true she did it with Grace I will tell you um
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just from from a from a person like watching the the move and the transformation um I remember a couple
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times we like it it's it's hard you know it's it's hard to know you have to
7:46
really know yourself or learn yourself and the way you embodied that even when
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you said the words of knowing from a woman to a woman you were going through a lot you you you you captured it you
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you you embraced it and you took it on so eloquently and so beautifully makes me want to tear up so so you will
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forever be an inspiration to me in that matter thank I think you
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guys go ahead I got a question for you when I loved what you shared and um and
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I I speak with a lot of women myself and and a lot of the leadership roles that I take on as well and um you said a year
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took a long time and for a lot of women that's probably like oh my gosh that's like that was so quick to do that big of
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a CH but for us people that run quick and we build quick like a year seems
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like a lifetime but for a lot of our listeners one year could seem like oh my gosh how' they do that and so quick but
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what I what I'm curious about for you is it sounded like you had that desire and
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then something switch that take like put the gas on the pedal was there an aha
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moment or or an event that that made you make that decision to go okay now it's
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time you know what my aha moment was is what I realized nobody could take away
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from me when I realized what no one could take away from me a lot of times
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people and especially women I focus on women
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um we think that whatever we bring to a job it's the job owns it not recognizing
9:29
that your skill set is your skill set so when I realized that what I did nobody
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could take away from me I can just duplicate a 2.0 now and I can teach and
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show other women how to duplicate it 2.0 and then and that was my aha moment and
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I was like that's it because I was a woman and still am a woman in leadership
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but now how do I transition that to to offering you know products or know Well
9:58
Services for and designed with that woman in [Applause]
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mind that was a good one good question yeah I love that and and Brooke I'm
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probably interrupting you because I know you have other things to ask but Tracy you know when you think about what was
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the thing when did you know you had successfully navigated this reinvention
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you know when did you feel like oh I'm actually on this this path and here we
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go and it's working and you know it's coming together and that sort of thing like I think there's a lot of social
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programming around that for us too right about what you know you know that old
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saying about people give up one minute before it worked you know kind of thing
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so so H how did you feel about it in the process of of kind of getting to the
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place where you knew it was working and you were doing it
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I think I'm still learning that part however um I am a believer in words and
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words are reality they become reality and so when I started really amplifying
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my verbage about I'm a woman in leadership supporting other women in leadership I
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help women build scalable sellable businesses and and because those are
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things that I've done as a person as a woman and as a businesswoman and so what
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I started to attract are with the intention of women who are leading other
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people so now the women that are in my you know Collective or who work with me
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privately they are leaders meaning they're in a tech space or they are um
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women in who who are also consultant and have other people that they work with or
11:56
therapists or somebody who is a project manager so these are people who lead other people and that's the mindset and
12:03
the woman that I tapped into but I had to embody her and that's the thing it's like you have to become what you want
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you and and I do it intentionally because I want other people to see that it's
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possible love that yeah and that is something from
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personally watching you through this process I think you have done and nailed is you know it's interesting because it
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wasn't long ago when I learned that um you can put energy into a picture right
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and you can and pictures can change so when someone put so there's that that
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there's two parts to that one when someone takes a picture your energy is there but that picture two years later
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can change that same picture and I saw your pictures change I don't know how
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much of that was me changing and seeing a different part of you but I tell you
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um I saw that that something in your your website and your pictures and all
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of the stuff that I had seen several times start to morph into this different
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energy even though it wasn't a different picture it was just the energy when the
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picture was different yeah and I felt like that's it happened about the same
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time you might have been possibly stepping into that at the same time you
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know so when in this world this world of women
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leaders um a lot of people a lot of women have lots of different um roles
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and not just one and when you find when some if you were to come across a client
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like take me for example and I'm like well I have like four different businesses but I'm ready to
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really the difference that that's happening with me is I'm coming out I'm no longer working working under the
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umbrella and being this brand and that brand and that brand Brick's coming
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through and working on her brand for with them okay so um is there any advice that
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you would give for someone who is starting to recognize this reinvention
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and stepping into this reinvention but they haven't really grabbed onto it yet
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yeah I would have you um think about what it is that you
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bring to the table and then what is the ideal client that you are trying to
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Target like who is that I don't like Edie your wildest dreams like who is
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that individual and then how can Brooke through a
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picture just a picture how do we capture that element of Brooks so they can say
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so that ideal client can say that's who I want to work with she gives me like a
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goal to attain to just by what she embodies then once we capture that element of like the visual branding of
15:04
people then we have to go into how you are packaging yourself from a word
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standpoint so what is your business model what is your elevator pitch and then how are you coming across we need
15:16
to be able to capture people because social media ly it it has has dummied
15:22
our attention spans down so how are we capturing them within the first seven seconds of what you say so when you hear
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me say I'm I work with women in leadership to build scalable sellable businesses I take care of that right
15:34
away you know who I am what I do who I'm targeting and what the goal is what is goal and so all of that is captured so
15:42
it would be several spaces how I would break that down to bring all of that [Music]
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together wow that I looked for a quick pen and didn't have one near me when you
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said who do you embody for that person to say I want to be that just by the way she embodies it yeah yeah you said it
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way more eloquently I'm G to cut it out though we're visual people so we have to make sure that we we are iding the
16:07
individual that we are aspiring to attract so not only we're like we are elevating ourselves simultaneously
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because the individual may not be where you are but they may have the resources
16:20
to say okay I she can take me there so I'm gonna work with that one I love that and I want to say you
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know along long time ago at the beginning of my coaching and entrepreneurial career somebody said to
16:34
me be the woman you want to serve if you want people to show up to your coaching
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and be excited to work with you and pay in full on time and do all then you do
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all those things right and and it was the best advice anyone ever gave me and
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I really feel like it has served me so much along Ong the journey and so there are little things like that that we can
17:02
but women have again received messages
17:07
so consistently about you know not receiving praise well
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we're none of us were when we were nine years old right taught to receive a
17:19
compliment and taught to be in front of the room necessarily and all that stuff
17:25
right and so Tracy I'm wondering when you work with women who who think
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they're ready to scale their business and they have some sort of self-doubt or
17:37
they think oh well she's for somebody way better than me but not for me and
17:42
you know they've got something special how do you help them kind of be willing
17:49
to step into who they are and and willing to see the value they're bringing to the world because it's my
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deep belief that wom you know it's what the dolly llama said about Western Women Are Gonna Save
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the World like we we want and we all are benefited it's why we're here having a
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conversation we're all benefited when women step into their greatness and
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power and so um so when you see it and you don't see them seeing it how do you
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help them um there's two parts to that if you remove the divine feminine from anything
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it is going to fail and I think we're living in the real time of that so when a woman embodies who she is and and
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understanding what you are and what the divine feminine is and walk into that
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and be Unapologetic yeah in it like to me being
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a girl is the best thing in the world like I would NE I would never like I I
18:53
love everything about that being a woman and being you know feminine and embracing that feminine energy and the
18:59
problem with the the society that we're in today the Western Society is that it's perpetually male energy that
19:07
masculine energy it is counterintuitive that everything that you bring to the table as a woman so you can't yeah I can
19:14
be in my masculine mind when I'm in meetings if I'm conducting myself and I want to get a certain level of outcome
19:20
because I have to show up that way but it doesn't mean that I can't have that feminine essence you know complimenting
19:26
you know the process throughout the entire time now as far as seeing
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somebody who hasn't yet stepped into that I actually just taught a master class on that called um embracing or how
19:40
to deal with your impostor syndrome that impostor syndrome and really this is why we start by writing down everything that
19:48
you can imagine that you've accomplished write it down I don't care how young you can remember if you are 5 years old and
19:54
you learn how to ride a bike write that down because that's a level of accomplishment so when you need a reminder of who you are what you've done
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and what you achieved you have that list to remind you so it's like it's not a question of well it's not for me it
20:07
should be why not me yes yes why not me we should teach every
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little girl to say why not me why not me I've got a question to segue into that I
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love where you've gone with why not me but a piece of what you shared in your story that I don't hear as often and
20:28
especially from women is the scalable and sellable what you what you mentioned
20:34
at the beginning talking about creating this uh black duela society like how
20:40
empowering that is to create something that didn't exist before but then to say it wasn't mine and that you're willing
20:45
to sell it to like to let it be its own entity here in the states we often are
20:52
very attached to the things we've created and we've built and and it's part of that masculine energy so you
20:57
share a little a little bit about that mindset because I don't hear that a lot from people it feels to me that a lot of
21:03
women I talk to they feel very entitled or like there's that scarcity mindset of
21:08
like I built it I can't release it it's my baby that's like when it when it is
21:14
you had a much different perspective on it could you share a little bit more about that because I I have a feeling
21:19
most people that are listening may not have had that model to them as much of this concept of not even just the
21:26
mission of of um having a business to sell it but to create something that is so powerful to then be lovingly being able
21:33
to release it so you step into your next reinvention that's powerful do you mind sharing a little bit more about that
21:39
part of it yeah um you're not going to be who you are
21:44
five years from now 10 years from now neither is your business and so you need to be able to create a product or
21:52
service with the idea of your next level in life with the idea of this is not
21:58
where I'm going to be I may want to retire I may want to travel the world I
22:04
may want to um I don't know sit and learn knitting I don't know whatever it
22:09
is but you need to make room for that new whoever you are and that is more
22:16
honestly I see more women doing that than men I see women who are like the mama birds this is my baby I've created
22:23
this this is my identity and we do that because you know we're natural nurturers most women are natural nurturers um but
22:31
in business it doesn't work that way it does not business works like you have to
22:37
be able to remove your personal identity from your business identity your business is its own entity so you have
22:44
to grow your create your baby grow your baby up to live and Thrive alone not alone but without you leading it and so
22:52
when we start to to take on that mindset you have to operate as if you are going
22:58
to sell it and then create move backwards in it and we are we're so
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we're so behind when it comes to selling businesses women I mean just the
23:10
percentages are wild because men are taught like you know you you do this this is how it works you and this is you
23:16
build and you grow and you sell and you you monetize and you move on but women are like no this is what I've done and
23:22
you can't do that your business is its own person and so you have to create it
23:28
and structure it to where it can grow and Thrive without you and this is why
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there's a difference between business branding and then there's personal branding and often times we we we
23:39
combine the two and that's what make people think that you are your business and that's why I started out saying
23:45
you're not your business you're not one of the biggest game changers when I work with my
23:52
clients is giving them that question what is your exit strategy and the reason why is because it totally totally
23:58
changes their mindset what do you mean by exit strategy and then that helps them start to pull apart a little bit
24:06
but um but but I don't I don't you know and I'm and I watch from there we don't you know I just watch how they help to
24:12
pull apart from there um I can tell you that I haven't personally been as good
24:18
with um how would I exit as I am working with my clients on how would they
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exit yeah and so today you know I am hearing the message be the person you
24:29
want to be I mean so far as like you know how are you broo going to um peel
24:34
away from your business next because I just keep morphing my businesses right I just keep changing
24:41
them into thing and you know I think too this this circle right here this Wise
24:48
Women Collective show happening at all is what I would
24:54
say has been the biggest lesson for me in that because was having collaborations and
25:02
collaborative Partners I think is such a powerful way to to do that step away
25:08
right you can't hold on tight to something when you bring Partners in
25:15
when you bring collaborators in right and and you know Holly and Brooke and I
25:20
have all been big proponents of collaboration over competition as a a
25:27
core value of our community and I think that's a really for me that has been one
25:33
of the best ways because you know when you're a solo preneur you're so used to do everything yourself and all of that
25:42
but you know looking at it the way you said Tracy as you're you're not your
25:48
business your business is an entity that has a purpose and a a a values and and
25:56
uh something that it is creating in the world that is separate from you is just so powerful um and gives us all that
26:04
opportunity to ask the question about well what's next and what is the exit
26:09
strategy broo that's a great thing to ask your clients I love it yeah I'm I
26:15
specialize in strategy and I specialize honestly in exit strategy I've exited a
26:22
country I've exited a business and there's not that many people that have done both um success
26:28
there's just not especially women who look like me and so they have to
26:34
representation absolutely matters you know seeing somebody who has done it before you but the there's steps and
26:41
processes to get there it takes an average of two years to even position your business to be sold so if you don't
26:49
even think about what an exit strategy is or what know what an exit strategy is you're going to be starting from scratch
26:55
about creating an exit strategy and in the process of of me c exiting my company when I learned that I was like
27:02
oh crap here I go so I was starting even though I was in my company I was starting from scratch with the exit
27:09
process and it's not about building your company you can do that but then there's a way to like exit it and what people
27:16
don't think about is when people purchase businesses it is they're purchasing the system of the business so
27:23
how are the systems in that business working and they have to be how are they monetizing what what can this individual
27:30
company or you know Corporation buy if you're selling something if you're exiting your company so how what are
27:37
they buying and they can't buy you they can't this is why you're you're
27:43
not that somebody might be able to no I'm just
27:50
kidding so Tracy this conversation went way too fast I mean it was just um a
27:58
wonderful I I could keep going for a long time so I'd like to wrap up with a couple different things I'd like to wrap up first I really want everybody to know
28:04
how they can find you where um where to go it will be of course underneath the
28:11
video when they listen to this but for those who aren't reading and those are just listening tell everybody how they can find you and then I'm going to leave
28:17
you with one last question so and that last question is when talking to a group
28:23
of Wise Women what is what is one wish that you have for them
28:30
so I'm going to answer the question first so my wish for them
28:36
is to write down and the reason why I'm a big proponent of writing things down is
28:43
when you are spelling you're actually spelling when you're spelling you're spelling so write down the amplification
28:52
of you who are you like in your wildest I don't care what it it if if you may
28:58
feel as unattainable I want you to write it down um and then start working to
29:04
become her like and in that don't identify yourself
29:14
attached to anybody else and oftentimes women do that if you ask a woman well who are you well I'm
29:21
somebody's I'm such and such as wife I'm such and such as mother that's not who you are that's not
29:28
that's just a part of you know those are a part of you but that's not who you are so really getting into who are you and
29:36
without being attached to anything meaning your job or your career or anybody else and then write that down
29:43
2.0 um as far as where you can find me it's Tracy Collins official.com t r a c
29:49
i e c o l l i ns official.com is my website but I'm Tracy Collins everywhere
29:56
on every social media platform is my name you can find me you are definitely Google Google Google
30:05
Google wonderful well thank you so much for being here and kicking us off we really appreciate your
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time thank you all thank you for joining us on the Wise Women Collective show we
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trust you're leaving inspired empowered and ready to make a difference keep the
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momentum going join our Wise Women Collective community at wisewomen
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Collective hq.com connect with other women amplify your
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power and together will continue to rise until next time stay strong and
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connected because when women rise the world follows [Music]



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