Don't Shrink! Embrace Your Power, Make an Impact!
HI, Katie McManus here.
It's time for us to have a dialogue about the challenges faced by individuals in the wake of political events that have adversely affected marginalized communities.
We have to recognize the fear and anxiety that many of us are grappling with and understand the vital importance of self-care in these tumultuous times.
We need to step up and be effective advocates for others.
But first we need to prioritize our own well-being.
And that's what this episode is about.
I thank you in advance for listening.
Transcript
Here's why you need to not shrink right now.
Katie McManus:Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach.
Katie McManus:And welcome to the Wheat Cast.
Katie McManus:Hi, friend.
Katie McManus:As I sit here recording this podcast, I don't feel like I'm alone with my podcast producer, Neil.
Katie McManus:I don't imagine I'm sitting here all by myself in my office.
Katie McManus:I imagine that I'm sitting in a room with you and with every other listener of the Weenie cast right now.
Katie McManus:If you've been paying attention to world events, the election on Tuesday didn't go the way that most of us wanted.
Katie McManus:It was a huge hit for women's rights, for the rights of LGBTQ folks, for any marginalized group.
Katie McManus:And while I haven't put all my thoughts together, here's kind of what is going on in my mind is that this is a huge sign that there's a lot of fear in the world.
Katie McManus:I don't think that the people who voted for Trump are necessarily bad people.
Katie McManus:I think they're extremely fearful.
Katie McManus:I think they listened to someone who pointed to some negative things that have been happening in their lives and then pointed to a bunch of other people and said, they're the villains.
Katie McManus:They're the ones to blame.
Katie McManus:Vote for me and I'll protect you from them.
Katie McManus:And unfortunately, without casting any dispersions on them, they believed him.
Katie McManus:And for the rest of us who don't live that way, who don't live making decisions from a place of fear, it really hurts.
Katie McManus:It feels like a betrayal.
Katie McManus:So in this episode, we're probably not going to laugh as much as we normally do, but I want to cover a few things.
Katie McManus:First and foremost, we have to talk about self care, because you, my love, cannot pour out of an empty cup.
Katie McManus:We're then going to talk about what you can do with your business, to set yourself up, to be prepared for whatever is coming and to also make a huge fucking difference in what is to come.
Katie McManus:And then we're going to talk about mindset.
Katie McManus:How do you keep your head and your heart in the game when all this is happening around us?
Katie McManus:And this isn't just for my American listeners.
Katie McManus:This is for my listeners all around the world who are watching what's going on right now everywhere, and are feeling really concerned.
Katie McManus:Before we get into any of that, I want to point to you.
Katie McManus:Yes, you, right there, sitting where you are, or standing or walking, however you're listening to this podcast, in this room that we're all sitting together in.
Katie McManus:If you're feeling hurt right now, if you're feeling scared, if you're really worried for what is to come, I know it doesn't feel good.
Katie McManus:I know it feels like this heavy, hollow weight in your chest.
Katie McManus:At least that's what it feels like for me.
Katie McManus:But this shitty feeling that you're experiencing right now is actually a sign of how much power you hold.
Katie McManus:The power it takes to feel concern and care for people you don't even know, whom you've never met, who you probably will never meet.
Katie McManus:The ability to care about our world, about our earth, about nature, about every aspect that is going to be impacted in the next few years, that's not something that can be taught.
Katie McManus:Your ability to want more for other people, yes, of course, because you know it means more for you as well.
Katie McManus:But because you believe that they deserve more, that is a superpower.
Katie McManus:Love is a really powerful thing.
Katie McManus:And the fact that you have love for so many, that is the part that gives me hope.
Katie McManus:You give me hope.
Katie McManus:The fact that you show up and you listen to this podcast and you want to make a difference and you want to do work that you love and you want to bring joy to the world, that gives me hope.
Katie McManus:So please, never give up.
Katie McManus:Don't turn your back on that part of yourself.
Katie McManus:Don't numb out, don't disassociate.
Katie McManus:We need that care and that love now more than ever.
Katie McManus:And I firmly believe we will get through this together if we're each determined to be the light in the darkness.
Katie McManus:So, first and foremost, you can't do that if you're not taking care of yourself.
Katie McManus:You can't show love and compassion and care to others if you're not showing love and care and compassion to yourself.
Katie McManus:Actually, that's bullshit.
Katie McManus:I know you can.
Katie McManus:We do it all the time.
Katie McManus:We're able to treat others far more nicely than we treat ourselves.
Katie McManus:But when we don't take care of ourselves and when we're unkind to ourselves, that is when we are opened up to being driven by fear.
Katie McManus:So your new regimen for self care is you have to stay hydrated.
Katie McManus:You have to sleep enough.
Katie McManus:For men, that's between seven and eight hours.
Katie McManus:For women, that's actually between nine and 10.
Katie McManus:Get as much as you possibly can as close to those numbers.
Katie McManus:Any habits that you have that cause more stress, you're gonna cut out.
Katie McManus:This may be alcohol.
Katie McManus:If you've done any research on alcohol, alcohol actually spikes all of your stress hormones.
Katie McManus:Even though it does make you feel relaxed in the moment, it makes it worse over the next days.
Katie McManus:So if you've been flirting with the idea of going dry or really cutting back on your alcohol consumption, I highly recommend it right now.
Katie McManus:And you are going to limit your exposure to things that upset you.
Katie McManus:There's a fine line between staying informed and just triggering yourself over and over.
Katie McManus:And lastly, you're going to find your support system.
Katie McManus:This may not be your family.
Katie McManus:In a lot of cases, it's not.
Katie McManus:You're going to build lines of communication with people who, you know feel the same way you do, who you know you can trust to be energetically responsible with you.
Katie McManus:So if there are friends who are on the same political side as you, but they're doomsdayers, and that doesn't serve you, you get to set up a boundary with them, and you get to engage with people as much as you want, so long as your needs are being met.
Katie McManus:Before we talk about the impact that you get to have throughout this troubling time, we need to talk about you owning your power.
Katie McManus:And I know it doesn't feel like it, but you are powerful.
Katie McManus:You are so powerful.
Katie McManus:There is a reason why they want to take away the rights of women, of LGBTQ folks, of anyone who doesn't fit the mold of the cisgendered straight, white Christian, because they know how powerful we are.
Katie McManus:But for you to access that power, you have to feel safe.
Katie McManus:You have to feel like you are grounded in a place that supports you and allows you to be who you are.
Katie McManus:So I know a lot of folks in my world are talking about moving to a new place, either within the United States or outside of the United States.
Katie McManus:There's an argument absolutely to be made for staying and doing what you can to change things.
Katie McManus:Absolutely, if that's where you have access to your power.
Katie McManus:But if you do not, then you do.
Katie McManus:You boo, you go where you need to go.
Katie McManus:You keep yourself safe and grounded in your power.
Katie McManus:You can make an impact from anywhere in the world.
Katie McManus:Another part of owning your power is seeing where you get to be powerful.
Katie McManus:Little P and Big P.
Katie McManus:Which brings us to impact.
Katie McManus:In times like this, it's real tempting to try to do everything.
Katie McManus:It's tempting to make a list of all the things that you care about and all the causes you want to support and all the folks you want to be there for and all the groups that you want to be there for.
Katie McManus:And if you can handle that, then more power to you.
Katie McManus:But I'm here to tell you that we can't care about everything and have as big an impact.
Katie McManus:So if you Care about the environment, and you care about it more than everything else.
Katie McManus:Full permission to go all in on doing environmental work.
Katie McManus:If you care about racial equality more than you care about the other stuff.
Katie McManus:Full permission to go all in on racial equality work if you care about women's rights, about the rights of lgbtq.
Katie McManus:Pick your lane.
Katie McManus:Pick your lane and make the biggest impact you possibly can.
Katie McManus:I'm a very big believer that if we all just picked a cause and gave it our all, we would make the world a much better place.
Katie McManus:And it's really the difference of, would you want to have an inch of progress in 12 different directions, or would you want to have 12 inches of progress in one direction?
Katie McManus:So pick your cause and get involved.
Katie McManus:Your impact is not just limited to the work that you do, to the volunteering that you do, to the money that you give.
Katie McManus:It is also in who you are every single day.
Katie McManus:So be your favorite version of yourself every single day.
Katie McManus:That is the greatest act of defiance.
Katie McManus:Be the person whom you most enjoy being.
Katie McManus:Devote time and energy into the things that you love, into giving yourself joy, into creating joy all around you.
Katie McManus:This means get artistic.
Katie McManus:Start creating things.
Katie McManus:Write a book.
Katie McManus:Paint.
Katie McManus:Even if you're not good at any of it.
Katie McManus:Create something just for the sake of creating.
Katie McManus:The most beautiful thing about the human spirit and about how we interact with each other is that art really does impact our culture.
Katie McManus:Several years ago, I went and saw Gloria Steinem speak on a panel, and one of the most fascinating things that I've never forgotten is the point that was made that art impacts our culture, which impacts our laws.
Katie McManus: gay characters, it started in: Katie McManus:I know it seems silly that a picture or a TV show or a book might have that impact, but never forget, representation matters.
Katie McManus:That once you expose people to seeing that and having it be normalized and part of their everyday environment, it takes fear away.
Katie McManus:It takes fear away from that being different.
Katie McManus:So create as much as you possibly can.
Katie McManus:The thing that we have to remember is that there's no stealing our joy.
Katie McManus:And the interesting thing about joy is that it's not always tied to happiness.
Katie McManus:Joy isn't getting everything that you want all the time.
Katie McManus:Joy isn't laughing raucously at the hilarity around you.
Katie McManus:Joy is having purpose.
Katie McManus:And when you are truly joyful in yourself, you spread that joy to people all around you.
Katie McManus:Now, in your business, I know it's scary.
Katie McManus:I know you're thinking, what the fuck is going to happen?
Katie McManus:Well, let me tell you.
Katie McManus:Your new initiative is to be as successful as fucking possible by helping as many people as you possibly can.
Katie McManus:That's it.
Katie McManus:Your new initiative is to make as much money because money is power, and money equals options.
Katie McManus:Now, some of you listening already do work that helps people, that empowers them, that allows them to have access to more of whatever it is that you help them get.
Katie McManus:Could be rights, it could be peace, it could be love, it could be success.
Katie McManus:Keep doing that work.
Katie McManus:It is needed now more than ever and for others.
Katie McManus:What you're going to start doing within your work is you're going to start creating safe spaces.
Katie McManus:And don't overthink this.
Katie McManus:Ask your if you're not sure what kind of safe space is needed in the world that you can create through your business, ask yourself, what's the safe space that I want?
Katie McManus:Because if you want it, it is needed.
Katie McManus:And I don't care if it is hockey players against misogyny or knitters for gay pride, create that space.
Katie McManus:And your goal is to do this as fast as possible.
Katie McManus:The faster you can amass wealth, the faster you can become more influential, more powerful, and have more options, the greater the impact you're going to be able to have in the coming years.
Katie McManus:So if you need to invest in help to do that, do it.
Katie McManus:This is not the time for diy.
Katie McManus:I'll figure it out.
Katie McManus:I'll take my time.
Katie McManus:Fuck that.
Katie McManus:Get the help you need.
Katie McManus:Make it happen.
Katie McManus:Now.
Katie McManus:As for mindset, how are you going to get yourself through this?
Katie McManus:How are you going to get up every single day?
Katie McManus:How are you going to show up in your business?
Katie McManus:How are you going to show up for your clients?
Katie McManus:How are you going to show up in your community and be the change that the world needs to see right now?
Katie McManus:I'm going to say this as if it's simple and easy.
Katie McManus:It's not.
Katie McManus:Okay.
Katie McManus:I have so much compassion for you.
Katie McManus:If I say this and you're like, oh, God, that's so hard.
Katie McManus:It is.
Katie McManus:But it's really the only way.
Katie McManus:Our inclination right now, as we're hearing all the scary rhetoric, so we're hearing who they want to go after, is to shrink, is to make ourselves small and invisible and to hide away.
Katie McManus:And I want a name.
Katie McManus:That is a very natural human instinct.
Katie McManus:If we were walking through the wilderness and we saw a predator, you don't want to go up screaming at the predator and be like, Hi, I'm here.
Katie McManus:I'm really tasty.
Katie McManus:Hello?
Katie McManus:That wouldn't be good.
Katie McManus:It probably would result in you getting mauled by a predator.
Katie McManus:Don't want that for you or for myself.
Katie McManus:But we're not walking through the wilderness.
Katie McManus:Our nervous system doesn't know that, but we are not walking through the wilderness.
Katie McManus:And the more you shrink, the more you hide, the easier it is to ignore you, the easier it is to enact things that work against you.
Katie McManus:So do not shrink.
Katie McManus:Be loud, be big, be bold.
Katie McManus:I want each and every one of you on every single fucking stage you can possibly get up on, talking about the good work that you do, talking about the impact you want to make, talking about who the fuck you are and showing everyone else.
Katie McManus:We don't shrink, we step up.
Katie McManus:I want you amassing tens, if not hundreds of thousands of followers on all the social media platforms.
Katie McManus:Because with that reach, you're going to be really hard to ignore.
Katie McManus:You're going to be really hard to step on.
Katie McManus:The more powerful we become, the harder it will be to deal with us and the more people will listen.
Katie McManus:The FTC recently passed a new a new rule that you're not allowed to buy followers if you're also using that account to sell anything.
Katie McManus:And the reason they did this is because when we see how much impact someone has, how many people are following them, we assume it's because they have power, we assume it's because they have credibility.
Katie McManus:We're more likely to buy from someone or to buy the thing that they tell us to buy, if they're an influencer, if they have a massive following.
Katie McManus:Which tells us that the more people who are listening to us every single day, the more people who are tuned into us, who get notifications when we share something, the harder it is to ignore us.
Katie McManus:And for each and every one of those people that you reach, that you touch every single day, you'll be able to share the things that you care about.
Katie McManus:Whatever area you've decided to have impact on, to organize around, you'll be able to point to it and say, hey, pay attention here.
Katie McManus:This matters.
Katie McManus:You care about these things.
Katie McManus:Cool.
Katie McManus:Let's do something about it.
Katie McManus:Do not shrink.
Katie McManus:Take up as much space as possible.
Katie McManus:There's a really common story that happens when people start manifesting the, the life that they want, right?
Katie McManus:So you'll have perhaps a middle aged woman who is married, has a couple kids, works corporate job, and she just decides, I want to go on a manifestation journey.
Katie McManus:I want to have everything that I want.
Katie McManus:I want to Have a successful business.
Katie McManus:I want this.
Katie McManus:I want that.
Katie McManus:And what always happens if she's doing the work correctly is she ends up losing relationships.
Katie McManus:You know, I can't tell you how common it is that someone will start that journey and then end up getting divorced.
Katie McManus:That someone will start that journey and be like, you know what?
Katie McManus:I hate this house.
Katie McManus:I'm going to move that.
Katie McManus:They'll have to go.
Katie McManus:No contact with some relatives that they realize are really harmful to them, that they quit their jobs or get fired.
Katie McManus:Even better.
Katie McManus:The universe has a way of setting you on the right timeline to get what you want.
Katie McManus:But if your life is already full of a bunch of junk that doesn't surprise, guess what has to happen first.
Katie McManus:Some shit has to burn down.
Katie McManus:Some structures need to go away.
Katie McManus:Relationships that are getting in the way of you getting what you want, they have to end.
Katie McManus:I know this feels like the world is ending right now, but so does a divorce.
Katie McManus:So does losing a job.
Katie McManus:We have each and every one of us, gone through some kind of variation of our world ending before.
Katie McManus:And I just want to remind you, you're still here.
Katie McManus:The world did not end.
Katie McManus:I'll bet you things actually got better on the other side.
Katie McManus:And I want you to remember back to that moment where things started crumbling, where you were panicking and melting down and thinking, oh, my God, this is it.
Katie McManus:That feeling did not last.
Katie McManus:Because what actually happened is that that whatever it was that crumbled actually made space for something better to come along.
Katie McManus:And I need you to remember that something better is coming.
Katie McManus:And just like with a marriage ending and a new partner coming into your life takes time.
Katie McManus:And just like job loss is really traumatic, and then it takes a while to get your next job.
Katie McManus:This will take some time, but you cannot lose hope.
Katie McManus:Our minds are the most powerful thing in this world.
Katie McManus:I firmly believe that.
Katie McManus:So what we all need to do collectively is train our minds to identify all the opportunities to make the world better for ourselves and for everyone else.
Katie McManus:Because when we do that, we're far more likely to identify the opportunities where we can make a difference.
Katie McManus:So, my friend, that's all I have to share today.
Katie McManus:And as we sit in this room together, I want you to know I'm giving you a massive hug.
Katie McManus:And we will get through this, and we will be stronger together.
Katie McManus:And if this episode helped at all and it reassured you and it made you feel more grounded in the power that you have to make the world better, save it somewhere.
Katie McManus:Come back to it.
Katie McManus:If there's someone in your world who you know needs to hear this right now.
Katie McManus:Share it with them.
Katie McManus:And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here.
Katie McManus:Thank you for being in the weeniecast world, for devoting yourself to making a difference for yourself and everyone around you.
Katie McManus:The fact that you're here tells me you will.
Katie McManus:And I love.
