016: Connecting through Empathy and Storytelling with Karen Millsap

This idea of empathy and sharing our stories, especially our deep and vulnerable ones, has been coming up a lot for me lately, from panel discussions on politics and social media I’ve participated in to podcasts I’ve been on talking about the power of public speaking to build trust and empathy.

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. I would add to that not just feelings, but their life situation and what brought them to where they are today.

My guest today is Karen Millsap, the founder of The Grief Consultant, which helps organizations implement practical empathy in the workplace to strengthen engagement and improve overall performance.

In this episode, we talk about:

1. Why Karen started her company
2. The impact of vulnerability in sharing your story
3. What kinds of speaking engagements Karen has done and how she’s used them to build her business and network
4. How Karen has gotten speaking engagements
5. Her new podcast Invest Human and how she sees it aligning with her business goals
6. What it’s like to be a woman in her field
7. What she wants to be known for

Karen also founded Well Now Global Retreats, wellness-inspired retreats to help you navigate complex or suppressed emotional baggage and also teach you how to implement simple healthy habits that will change, and can often save, your life.

Karen has a book coming out soon called “Now What?”, in which Karen shares her journey of healing and personal development and gives you guidance on how to pick yourself up, grow through any hardship, and ultimately unleash the best version of yourself.

Links:

Karen’s website = http://www.karenmillsap.com/

Karen’s podcast Invest Human = https://www.investhuman.co/

Karen’s book = http://www.karenmillsap.com/nowwhat

Sheryl Sandberg article = http://time.com/sheryl-sandberg-option-b/

Main Street Vegan podcast I was recently on = http://mainstreetvegan.net/msv-show-notes-april-19-2017-romance-vegans-speaking-cause/

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Say hi to me on Twitter @CarolMorganCox

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If you want to speak more but you’re not sure where to start or your efforts haven’t produced the results you want, I’m hosting a live online workshop called “Become Bookable: How to Get Speaking Invitations” on Wednesday, April 15th.

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