Minisode Live Series: Women's Voices and Social Change

This episode delves into themes of authenticity, personal growth, and confronting societal hurdles that women face. With insights on letting go of outdated notions of perseverance and the importance of community support, the host facilitates a thought-provoking conversation that beckons listeners to reflect and engage. 

• Exploring the theme of "doing it messy" as a path to authentic self-expression 
• Conversation with guest Melissa on personal growth and realistic goal-setting 
• Discussing the need to recognize when to walk away from relationships 
• Acknowledging the emotional impact of wildfires in California and fostering community support 
• Using an analogy of women as cyclists navigating a male-designed world 
• Emphasizing the urgency of elevating female voices and experiences 
• Outlining exciting future episodes and encouraging listener feedback

Chapters

• 0:01 Empowering Women's Voices and Realistic Goals
• 6:04 Raising Voices, Building Community

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello everybody. Happy Friday, january 10th. This is Steel Rose's podcast. This podcast was created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices.

Speaker 1: 0:14

A little bit of a wild card today, because I wasn't planning to go live, but I figured, why the hell not? Which is almost the theme for my year. At this point I keep reading bits and bobs Like so I'm really into synchronicity and I think that there's a lot to be said for things that kind of just come your way and you're like it gives you a moment, a pause moment, where you're like huh, oh, that's an interesting thought. I pay a lot of attention to that, because every time that happens I think to myself like well, maybe I need to pay attention to this thing. That just kind of triggered me a little bit. So the thing that I keep seeing is like just do it messy, rip the bandaid off. And I was telling my cousin recently that I was like I did a live feed, I did a live stream. I'm really excited about it. And then I told her I was like but I didn't tell anyone I'm doing it. I still haven't told anyone. I'm doing it partially because it's really scary and it seems so silly because everyone does live streams. My husband is constantly showing me live streams of people on Instagram where they're literally just like doing chores and they're chatting with people online and they're not nervous about it. Like, well, why am I nervous about it? Because I really want what I say to be important and impactful. It's not, you know, I don't want it to just be nonsense or just be white noise. So I am nervous about it. But nevertheless, rip the bandaid off, do it messy. Let's make 2025 our. Let's just do it messy and get our voices out there, show up. So, on that note, happy friday.

Speaker 1: 1:49

Um, I'm also going to be taking this recording and putting some of the audio onto, you know next week and everything, so people can hear it that don't follow the live stream, so it'll be here. Um, so couple of things. Um, the first guest broadcast is happening this Sunday on the what is it? 12th Special guest. I'm pretty excited. My original co-host, melissa, is coming back for our debut season three first episode. So you're going to hear that episode on sunday.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Um, let me just pull some takeaways from it just so you guys can get an idea or a sense. Um, so it's personal growth, embracing change and setting realistic goals. Um, we talk through a bit of when, knowing to when, when, when it's time to walk away from something personal or professional relationships, like recognizing when it's time to go because a lot of us, I think, struggle with that, men and women alike. I think we all struggle with that notion of sometimes you just have to step away. I don't know if anyone else was fed this um line growing up, but if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That's, I feel like terrible advice. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That's I feel like terrible advice. If at first you don't succeed, take a minute. Do you want to try again? Is that the right method? Should you maybe employ a different method? Or maybe you shouldn't even try again at all. Maybe we need to move on from here. So those kinds of things are what we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 3:20

We also talk a bit about authentically showing up as yourself and, you know, really giving people space to live their lives. I think a lot of what I used to get hung up on prior to this entire journey of my, you know, expanding my mind life. I used to get really hung up on trying to control other people's actions and thoughts, and you really can't do that. You're going to drive yourself insane trying to do something like that and thoughts, and you really can't do that. You're going to drive yourself insane trying to do something like that. And I mean to the point where, like you can be, have an opinion about someone else's actions, but you can't force anyone to do anything unless they really want to do it. Otherwise, it's just going to be a big hot mess. Nobody wants that. Who needs that kind of drama? Let's be 2025 drama free. I'm like really into it this year. I want us to really scale. I want us to really make this the best year ever, because we have so much to do and we really need to be showing up. So that's for this Sunday's episode, and it's a little bit nostalgic too, because Melissa used to be on with me all the time and now she's coming in for Sunday, so I'm actually kind of excited about that.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Now, outside of that, I also wanted to take a minute to acknowledge today what's happening in the United States, in California Now, for the international audience. Right now, we have a lot. It's a pretty awful situation. Fawful doesn't even begin to cover it. Um, in california there are wildfires raging and it's not, um, it's not in areas that are unpopulated. These wildfires are wiping out people's homes and I, one of the I'm getting.

Speaker 1: 5:01

I get a little emotional thinking about this, because to know that your home is being threatened by something that is out of your control must be the most gut-wrenching feeling. Kathy Heller is somebody that I've talked about quite a bit on the podcast because she's the person who really sparked me down this path and down this journey, and she's been keeping in contact with her audience, basically, and her people, and letting people know this is what's going on. This is where we are. We're safe, but we're okay, but this is what's happening. And she sent a message saying that they were given one minute's notice to evacuate their home because a fire had started in their area and they had to leave, and they had to leave without one of their pets and you know, obviously it's a very traumatizing experience and so that's just like one example. You know, I know that they're still. I think they got another. They were able to go back home, but then they got received another evacuation notice.

Speaker 1: 6:04

People are not safe at this point in time and these are our neighbors, these are our family members, these are our people and across the globe. I know there's tragedies every single day, but I do ask that if you take a minute today to just say a prayer for the folks out in California, if you don't pray, send some positivity their way, send something their way, just take a minute and reflect and think about them and also take that minute to be grateful for the situation that we are in here. We're not being threatened by something like this, and it's a big deal, and it should make us all pause and take a minute to be grateful for the safety and security that we currently have. Wherever we are, whether you're in a studio apartment somewhere or you actually have, you know, you have a big home. Whatever the case may be, it's time to be grateful. So I just wanted to take a minute there to talk about that.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Now. Thought starter so I don't know if you guys remember this, but I think it was the summer series I was doing thought starters for the audience. It's really just stuff that I see online that I would like you guys to reflect on and just like think it through. Now, this is not like a Jenny original. I found it and I want to relay it to all of you. So, yeah, debates in my home.

Speaker 1: 7:21

My husband is, you know, very alpha male old school, which is hilarious when people meet me. And then they meet him and they're like, how is this happening? Because you all know how I feel independent woman, feminism like I'm here for it. He's on the other end of the spectrum. We make it work Don't ask me how but we make it work because we respect each other. But one of the things that comes up quite a bit is I'll see him or I'll overhear him, like scrolling through social media, and he'll come across these videos of men sort of questioning like, oh well, you know what's the deal with, like feminism, everything is fine. You know, men and women, they're not equal. You know why are we trying to make them equal, which you know, in some instances they're not equal. You know why are we trying to make them equal, which you know, in some instances we're not exactly equal. It's not a one to one match. We know that Because women are incredibly smart and articulate.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Anyway, um so, beyond that, um, some, I'd like to have these nuggets, these bits that I can use to almost like give these analogies and give examples back of what it truly is like to be a woman in the United States and I will say like this probably is applicable everywhere, because the patriarchy is incredibly present, regardless of what everybody is like, wants to have really high and mighty opinions or they want to get up on their soapboxes the reality is this world and I can only speak for the United States, but I know it's elsewhere here it was built for men. Our whole system was built for men. We all know it. I really, I really, I understand people have opinions about this, but it was, the system was just built for men. There's a lot of reasons for that, but it doesn't mean that we can't change.

Speaker 1: 9:08

Now. This analogy that I want to read to you guys kind of provides a little bit of an example of like okay, no, this makes sense, and so let me, let me read it and then we can like chat on it for a second. So being a woman is kind of like being a cyclist in a city where all the cars represent men. You're supposed to be able to share the road equally with cars, but that's not how it works. The roads are built for cars and you spend a great deal of physical and mental energy being defensive and trying not to get hurt. Some of the cars want you to get hurt. They think you don't have any place on the road at all. And if you do get hurt by a car, everyone makes excuses that it's your fault. Get hurt by a car, everyone makes excuses that it's your fault. I have to tell you, I read that months ago and I revisited it because I wanted to share it today. It felt like something I needed to share. Maybe somebody needs to hear that message.

Speaker 1: 9:57

The world really was not built for us, and for a plethora of reasons. So if you are feeling strained and stressed out, if you are feeling like you know that you are out of body experience and you're fighting up, you know up against a brick wall, we all have those moments and we all are dealing with that. I don't care how high you are in your career, I don't care how fast you've gone. None of it really matters. The truth of the matter is, regardless of where you are in your life cycle and where you are in your level professionally, personally, whatever it is we are all going to experience this. We are all going to experience some form of you know you're on the back burner, you're taking a back seat. This world was not so many examples of you know we can talk breastfeeding, maternity leave, health care Don't get me started on the health care angle of it, like there's so much medical research but the car crash dummies are not even like women. You know it's not really for women. Statistics that they produce that say, like you exit with, people need eight hours of sleep to be productive, or eight hours of sleep is what we should all be getting, technically, not true for women. We're supposed to be getting, I think, 12 something, something to that effect. So the world was not structured for us.

Speaker 1: 11:24

This is our time now, with everyone being able to use our voices, to be able to say we are going to make this our time. This is our moment. People, we can use social media to leverage our voices and to connect with each other on a more personal level and be able to engage in a way that we've never been able to do it before. Now. I know there's dark stuff out there and I know that there's stuff out there that's like, yeah, inappropriate, whatever. That all aside, there is so much goodness that we can do here with this platform. I mean, if you think back 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, my grandmother's turning 96 this year. 50 years ago. 60 years ago, there was no platform for discussion, there was no window, there wasn't a community where women were coming together. This is the first time that we're able to really elevate each other, and we need to lean into this now. If it's not for us, it's for our future generations. It's so important.

Speaker 1: 12:35

So I invite all of you join me in season three for the podcast. There are a lot of really amazing, interesting guests coming on to share their stories, because we all have one every sunday. A new episode drops at around 8 a or 9am, eastern roughly. I can't remember which one, but it's there. I'm going to be producing Wednesday episodes like this, which is thought series episodes, and then we'll have some special series events happening as well. So I really, really want everyone to stay engaged. Message me, let me know if there's topics you specifically want to hear about so I can get people on for you.

Speaker 1: 13:13

I still have well, it was four spots left, but now I only have two spots left for guests to come on for the spring winter series. So if you're interested in being a guest, I do still have two spots available. Message me, let me know. We can get. I can get you set up with an intro call. We can get the ball rolling on that. I'm very appreciative of all of you. I'm very grateful to have all of you with me and to have this platform to be able to share with all of you. I hope you like the Thought Starter for today and I'll catch you next week and we'll keep this momentum going. Hope you all have a great weekend and I will talk to you next time. Take care.