Please feel free to talk about yourself. We talked about vulnerability in two of the other presentations today. What do you think that means? Pretty important. 

 

We’ve been taught as women, for decades, to be like the guys. I worked for an insurance company, that I will not name, that made us wear four colors, brown, black, navy, and pin-striped. Any of them could be pin-striiped. We could do grey. The women were required, get this, to wear a ribbon around their neck under their collared shirt to emulate a tie. We were taught to be like the men. They didn’t know any different, that’s what they’d done all those years. I’ve been in the business 35 years of doing this. They didn’t know any better. 

 

Now what we know is to be yourself. Be vulnerable. BE TRUE TO YOU. I want to say this real clear, you are never “just.” You’re not just a new business. You’re not just a solopreneur. You’re not just a customer service rep. You are enough. You are strong and wonderful. In being vulnerable, the tears I saw earlier, that’s good. That makes you human. That makes you understand your customer better, and your employee better, and your family better. When you recognize you can be vulnerable and survive and thrive.