On the twenty-eighth installment of The Link Up with Latesha, our incredible host Latesha Byrd, founder of Byrd Career Consulting, touches on the concepts of life design and positioning, and she offers up several pieces of advice to help you prepare and train for your next season. She also talks a bit about her free webinar coming up on June 29th entitled "Black Women Breaking the Black Ceiling at Work: Don't Just Tell Me You Stand With Me, Give Me My Coin." Over 1,100 people have registered to attend so far - check the links in the show notes to add your name to the list today!

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TRANSCRIPT

Latesha: Hey, hey. Welcome to another episode of The Link Up with Latesha. It's only been two weeks since I talked to you all last, but it feels like it's been two years. Why is it still June 2020? I don't know. I struggle with wondering why time is going by so fast and also why time is going by so slow at the same time, you know? Like Erykah Badu said in her Verzuz with Jill Scott, "I have no concept of time," and that is literally my life. So anyways, I'm really excited to be able to talk to you all, and so many things have actually been happening in my world and in my business. If we're connected on social media, you know, I try to be as transparent about my journey as much as possible, and so something that I want to do talk about during this episode is preparing and training for the next season. Whatever you are working towards right now, everything you're working for, it's going to come to fruition, and I am living proof of that. Not to talk about me the whole time, but I just wanted to share with you all that I have worked so hard over the past five years since growing my business, and I'm in this place to where it's requiring a different level of me, and the two main things that I have been thinking about a lot lately, which I want to share with you all and want you all to start thinking about for your life, is life design and positioning. Life design and positioning, and one of my goals is to write a book in 2021, and I think the book is going to be about this, so y'all mark my words. So you have been probably rocking with me, you know, since I've been able to have this platform with Living Corporate, and I've learned a lot about myself during this season, and everything that I've worked for, I feel like it's happening. Businesses are reaching out to me to do training for their employees. They're reaching out to me to help them with developing culture and talent and leaders in their organizations. A lot of, you know, media publications have been reaching out, and I am just like, "Yo, who are y'all reaching out to? Me?" And so I'm having to remind myself and speak over myself with intentionality every single day. So I want to thank you all for rocking with me, and let's go ahead and just talk about training for the next season, because I have been training for this season for the past five years, and I'm finally at my season. I think it's all about the mindset, and what I've been doing during this whole quarantining experience is a lot of unlearning, a lot of unconditioning, a lot of challenging, literally challenging everything, everything that we've been taught, everything that we've been told. I'm doing my own research and my own reading to think harder, and it's hard. It's hard to be on this journey, so if you're on this journey let me know. Please hit me up and tell me how this journey has been going for you. My first question to you all is what is this season of your life telling you? This stillness right now is pretty uncomfortable, right? Especially for those of us who love to travel. You know, we are always hanging out with friends and family and doing this and doing that, and all that stopped, right? Like, literally, like, all of that stopped due to this pandemic, and it's like we're living through a Black Mirror episode and it's, like, a never-ending episode, right? What I realized though is that we were so used to traveling, spending time or doing other things to really distract us from facing who we are, and as a career coach, as a business coach, as someone that talks to people every single day about their life and their career, they're having to really face themselves in a new way, and it's a bit unearthing, you know? It's a bit unfamiliar. So my question that I'm asking you is what is this season of your life telling you? What are you learning about yourself? What are you having to unlearn about yourself? Because hey, there are no other distractions right now, and if you haven't thought about that I would encourage you to really start to think about that. So next thing is life design. I mentioned that two things I wanted to talk about today was life design and positioning. So when I say life design, I don't mean what's your, like, next job that you want, right? That's not what I mean here. What I mean by life design is what type of life do you want to live? What type of life are you creating for yourself? This is a very, very good time to really think about life design, okay? So many of us were, you know, living behind our accomplishments and, you know, traveling, and all the money that we're making, but if you don't truly have anything to spend that money on right now, right--'cause, like, I know for me personally, my money is going to groceries. [laughs] Like, that's it. So think about, like, what is that life that you are truly wanting to design for yourself? And I also mean how do you want to feel when you wake up every day. Think about who you want to become. Don't just think about what you want to do, think about who you want to become. That's really what I've been thinking about as it relates to life design and thinking about the moves that I need to make from a spiritual level and a mental level to get there, okay? The next thing I want to say when it comes to life design is put your dream job or dream business together. I want you to think about who is that person that you want to become, who is she? Who is he? Who are they? But think about that and put that dream job, dream career, dream business together. That's what I did earlier--actually earlier this week, y'all, I'ma be straight up. You know, earlier this week, because things have been moving so quickly I said, "Let me think about who I want to be and what I want my business to become," and I see that it's going to happen much much more sooner than later, but I had to lay it all out, and that clarity, it really can come through asking yourself these tough, hard questions without any distractions. And then I want to just share some tips with you all that have been helping me just kind of get through this period as I am training for the next season and kind of at the same time crossing into that next season. So once you think about what this season of life is telling you and you start to put that dream life design together, start thinking--and this is where you will be retraining your brain--start thinking best case scenario. Best case scenario. Not worst case scenario--that's where we typically go, right?--but best case scenario. That's hard. That's hard for a lot of us, and something that I've been thinking about is "Well, why do I always think worst case scenario?" And for me personally--and I'm being brutally honest on this podcast today--I think worse case scenario because, you know, I grew up in a household where we didn't have a lot, you know? I lived off of surviving, so now transitioning from surviving to thriving has been very hard for me. So I have to write affirmations, and I have to write those affirmations every morning and say those out loud and tell myself, "You deserve everything that you work for. You've worked for it. No one is taking it away from you," and I have to remind myself of these things throughout the day. So start thinking best case scenario--and words matter. Language matters. What you are saying to yourself matters, and I'm also having to catch myself in conversations with others, and this is why I do think having a coach, you know, having a business coach, a career coach, having a friend that is a really good listener, you know? A therapist that can help you and pinpoint those things that you are saying about yourself out loud, and I didn't realize how I was speaking over myself and my life until I started having these very transparent and real conversations with my business coach and a couple of my close friends who are very intelligent, and one is also a business coach, and she said, "I want you to hear the things that you're saying," and they're calling me out on my words. This is why I think that words matter. Pay attention to the words that you're using, especially when you're speaking about yourself. Next tip. It's not "it is what it is," it is what you make it. It is what you make it. I was talking to a friend and was sharing something that I was upset about that happened and wasn't sure how to move forward, and I said, "It is what it is," and my friend said, "No, it is what you make it," and--y'all ever, like, have someone tell you something and you have to--you just kind of stop dead in your tracks like, "Man, that was... can you say that again?" And I litera