071: Kindness, Parallel Truths & Guttural Decisions with Lara Heacock
Hello Courgemakers and welcome to episode 71 of The Couragemakers Podcast.
Before we dive into this week’s episode, I want to share with you something pretty epic I’ve been working on lately.
So, as you might know from previous episodes where I’ve shared parts of my story, a big catalyst in my story has been burning out and leaving the nonprofit and activist world.
Since leaving that world, I feel like I’ve been on a huge journey of finding work that sustains me, brings me joy and changes the world at the same time. While I’ve learned so much during that journey, the biggest [something] that I’ve come to believe is that we’re all capable of finding work we love, that aligns with our values and makes the world a brighter place. And the most important part of that lesson? We each have work that only we can do.
In the past couple of years, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. My background is in community development work, activism, one to one client work and working to develop world-changing projects. And I absolutely loved the foundations of that work. I loved working on a grassroots level, I loved bringing projects to life and working with the people behind them, and I loved seeing dreams become reality.
But somewhere along the line, the depth of my frustrations specifically with the sector and the internal structures completely blinded me to the parts I loved.
And the strangest part was, that the work that I loved? It’s never stopped. Whether it’s the work I do here on Couragemakers to encourage and rebel-rouse you to do the work you love and find a life you love, the back and forth emails with lovely listeners who are trying to find a way to do the work only they can do, or the massive reams of blog posts, weekly newsletters and heart warming conversations I have - it’s become all too clear to see that that work never ended. And I don’t think the activist in me will ever go away, even if it is now different than marching on the front lines!
So, there’s been a question floating around in my head. I wondered: is there a way of properly combining the parts of the work I loved and excelled at, with That Hummingbird Life and Couragemakers? But the base of my question was this: What is the work only I can do, that really sets me on fire?
The answer came a couple of years ago, sat in a coffee shop. And it was a pretty bloody obvious answer: how about helping multi-passionate, creatives and fellow dreamers to do the work that only they can do? And that work only they can do? Well, that’s their epic shit.
Since being in that coffee shop, sketching out the basics of what would become The Epic Shit Sessions, they’ve developed into a series of sessions designed to help you on every stage of your dream chasing journey. They are now four standalone mentoring/coaching sessions for multi-passionate doers, makers and world shakers who want to want to get their shit rolling, make it happen and generally just get shit done.
Basically, taking you from from Ahh I'm drowning under post-it notes, to holy shit I can do it
They include a 90 minute brainstorming session to develop and refine your ideas and take you from overwhelmed to shut-the-front-door excitement (aptly named Get Shit Rolling) a 1:1 month long experience for turning your project into an action plan so you can walk away with your creative roadmap called Make Shit Happen and an email accountability service, which will give you the gentle kick up the arse you need to get your show on the road ,which helps you, as the name suggests, Get Shit Done! Oh, and also possibly my favouritely named one ‘Fuck This Shit’, a 90 minute session designed for creatives with no fucks left to give, to drag your enthusiasm back from its gap year and focus on what really matters and how you can do your work in a way that lights you up as well.
Think part coaching, part mentoring and part cheerleading without the cheesy pom-poms, but with the music.
Behind the scenes I’ve been working with clients on these sessions since May and now I’m so excited to officially bring them out into the world!
So, just wanted to let you know the latest in my mission to stop dreamshitters and get you doing the work that matters! You can find out more about the sessions by going to thathummingbirdlife.com/epicshit. Now onto today’s show!
This week I’m thrilled to share with you my conversation with Lara Heacock. I was introduced to Lara by the lovely Jo Casey who’s been a previous guest on Couragemakers. I’ve long been a fan of Lara’s work over on the online magazine Kind Over Matter and it’s fair to say that we bonded not only over our aligned values but also our shared love of goats!
Lara Heacock is an Executive Life Coach based in suburban Philadelphia and She brings a 15 year background in recruiting and leadership, an MBA and a life coaching certification, as well as her experience running an online business. Lara is passionate about empowering professionals to feel more confident, achieve goals and enjoy the lives they work so hard to build. Lara is an INFJ Myers Briggs personality type and is a travel lover and self confessed total animal nut.
In this episode we’re really diving into kindness, reclaiming the world selfish and the standards we hold ourselves and others to.
Lara shares her journey to running online magazine Kind Over Matter and becoming an executive life coach, the year that changed everything for her and fantastic advice for saying no and setting boundaries.
We have so many great conversations about holding our truths and other people’s truths simultaneously, how self kindness doesn’t always look like self kindness and also the power of making gutteral, intuitive decisions.
This is such a wonderful, practical episode, and the And/Or method Lara mentions in this episode is seriously changing my life! In a world full of so much confrontation, angst and polite conversations over dinner with family avoiding politics, I know you’re really going to love what Lara has to say about parallel truths and being able to hear each other without denying your own truth.
You might need a notepad and pen for this one!
Enjoy the show!
About Lara
Things we talked about
Lara shares her journey to running online magazine Kind Over Matter and becoming an executive life coach, the year that changed everything for her and fantastic advice for saying no and setting boundaries.
Looking after yourself not being selfish
The power of making gutteral, intuitive decisions.
Mentioned
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
Women, Food & God – Geneen Roth
The Gifts Of Imperfection – Brene Brown
The Desire Map – Danielle La Porte
About Meg & That Hummingbird Life
I’m Meg and I’m the host of Couragemakers and founder of That Hummingbird Life. I’m an INFJ creative and multipassionate who has a bit of a notebook and post-it note obsession, loves foot-stomping country music and likes her hot chocolate with way too much chocolate.
I started Couragemakers because I wanted to create a platform for passionate and unconventional women to have honest conversations and to share their stories, struggles and dreams. The intention behind this podcast is to inspire and encourage creative and mission-driven women to live a wholehearted life and follow the beat of their drum.
When I’m not recording episodes, writing bullshit-free, very vulnerable and encouraging Sunday emails to fellow couragemakers or making new friends with the wonderful guests, you can find me working on all manners of magic over at That Hummingbird Life. THL is the online home for unconventional creatives and multipassionates who want to show up unapologetically and intentionally as who they are, and really own, live and share their many stories. It’s made for couragemakers who have so much great shit to give the world and want to leave their mark but have too much self doubt standing in the way!
