117 - Stop Efforting Your Way to Success with Tracy Oswald

In one of my all-time favorite interviews, today’s guest shares an absolutely powerful message. By sharing her personal journey from feeling less than enough to enjoying every moment, Tracy Oswald drives home the importance of vulnerability and being fully present. This episode is one you’ll want to listen to again and again to boost your confidence in speaking your mind, embracing your emotions, and showing up in your life and business as yourself. Tracy Oswald is the coach for Gen X corporate women who want to call the magic back into their lives by being more and doing less. Tracy is a national keynote speaker, and host of the podcast, Defending Lady Macbeth, the show for every woman who was ever told; you are too much, too loud, or too ambitious. Tracy is also the VP of Sales Learning & Development for LOCALiQ, part of the USA TODAY network. In other roles there, she designed and taught client-facing marketing labs across the country as well as hosted The Growth Lab podcast for USA TODAY. Tracy has an active following on LinkedIn of 7,500+ and encourages you to connect with her there. Show Notes: [1:56] - Welcome to the show, Tracy! [2:52] - Elyse and Tracy discuss an impactful quote: “Everything is not as it seems and fortune favors the bold,” from Sleep No More. [5:31] - What Tracy has learned is what we see in life is up to us to dig deeper. [7:02] - Tracy shares her background in sales and her understanding of human nature. [8:18] - Describing her career, Tracy was very successful but never really felt like she was doing things right. [9:34] - In her career, Tracy shares that she did not have meaningful relationships with people and work was her identity. [10:58] - Dealing with emotions was a struggle for Tracy and she had a hard time being vulnerable. [12:23] - How did things start transforming for Tracy? [13:38] - Tracy describes how she was afraid of taking the next step because of her fear of doing things wrong. [14:57] - In her experience with Sleep No More, Tracy felt like she could let her guard down because she had a mask on. She was present with her emotions. [16:24] - Referring to a quote on her LinkedIn, Tracy admits that she would never have been able to write that ten years ago. [17:47] - Being vulnerable allowed her to start speaking up. The more she spoke up, the more people listened, and the more confidence she had. [19:04] - When she started focusing on the moment and being fully present, things started happening without her working for them. [19:50] - The real work is not checking things off your list. It is being fully present. [21:08] - When your brain is working in a fight or flight state, no real profound realizations are going to happen. [22:57] - What were the results for Tracy making this shift? [24:46] - Everything we do is for the emotional pay off. [25:43] - Tracy hosts the podcast Defending Lady MacBeth for women who are told they are too much, too loud, and too ambitious. [27:06] - Being in a male-dominated field can cause many women to hide emotions. [28:27] - Now, Tracy says what is on her mind even if it makes someone uncomfortable. [30:20] - Tracy says yes every time when someone asks for assistance. She wants to show up for all women. [31:15] - Start off by speaking out a little bit at a time. Test the waters. [33:16] - We think that time is something that is outside of it. But all we ever have is this moment. [35:06] - Time is not something we need to control. Strip away the to-do list and be present. [37:53] - There are better ways to get where you want to be than putting in too much effort. Connect with Tracy: LinkedIn | Instagram Defending Lady MacBeth Podcast Defending Lady MacBeth Episode 24 with Elyse Archer Links and Resources: Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube She Sells with Elyse Archer Home Page