Brooke Summer 0:00 Hello amazing business owners! Welcome back to bold with Brooke, the podcast and place to be if you want to actually make a living, doing what you love happy International Women's Day. I will say, this is like my sixth time recording this. My family's home today, which is making it a little chaotic. My dogs are going nuts. And isn't it funny how as soon as you're like busy doing something when I'm with a client, my phone won't ring any other time. But then all of a sudden, everyone needs to get a hold of you. Do you feel me? Are you with me? I wasn't sure what to title.

Today's episode, I wanted to speak about International Women's Day, but in a way that I don't often speak with most of my students, except for involed Marketing Academy, I wanted to share some things that have been on my heart lately. And the hopes and the bigger picture behind growing our businesses and what up that actually means. So this is a love letter to women in business for International Women's Day. 2024. And not gonna lie when I was typing out the outline, I was crying a little bit, it did bring tears for me. Because I think that we too often underestimate ourselves. So I'm gonna head right into the episode. listen in. And if you are not female, and you're listening Anyway, please forward this to any women in your life that may be running a business or maybe they're just running a household and they just need a little bit of encouragement. That's cool too. Because all of us have an impact. Wherever we're at. I can't wait to work with you. Let's listen into the episode. Hello, they're gorgeous business owners. Welcome to bold with Brooke, the podcast for creative business owners to learn the marketing and business skills they need to get more clients and design their lives on their terms. So we can actually make a living doing what we love, am I right? I am your host Brooke summer, and I'm an entrepreneur, educator and champion of women reminding them to embrace and step into their power, and bringing almost 20 years of business and marketing experience straight to you to help you get more clients and run a sustainable and successful business without burnouts or overwhelmed. Let's jump into today's topic.

Hello, amazing business owners Welcome back to bold with Brooke, the podcast and place to be if you want to actually make a living doing what you love today is March 8 2024. I am going to record this today and put it online today, which is kind of shocking. Usually it goes through some editing stuff like that. But I have been recording more last minute lately. Because there are some days that I just feel like I really need to say something. We're just feel led to share something with you. And today is International Women's Day, I was typing out an outline for what I wanted to say. And I started crying. As I was typing this out. And at the time, I didn't have a title for the episode. I didn't know what it would be called yet. And as I finished writing the last sentence in my outline, I had tears in my eyes and I knew what the title would be. This is a love letter for women in business, for International Women's Day 2024. I have so many things that I want to share with you every single day, I have a list of literally hundreds of ideas for podcast episodes, skills that I want to share with you. actionable content, inspiring content, all of these things that I want to tell you, I can share SEO tips, I can share things about email marketing, and how freaking important it is. And if y'all aren't building that right now, you really, really, really should. Because remember that meta outage this week when everyone freaked out and thought that Facebook and Instagram and finally just bit the dust. You need to have backups. Anyway, I digress. Collaboration, guests partnerships, working with other professionals, how not to be taken advantage of all the things, all the marketing skills that I want to share with you the reasons that I think women should be growing their businesses and stepping fully into who they want to be and embracing what they want for their lives. And I have all of these things swirling around in my brain at 100 miles an hour, and I get very overwhelmed. Have you ever hugged your kid or your dog and you were just so overwhelmed thinking, oh my gosh, I love this little human or this being or this dog so much and I just want to hug them and never let the outside world touch them and share all of the things that I know with them. That's the kind of overwhelm that I feel. When I'm thinking about what I want to share on this podcast. I love podcasting. I really, really do. I love sharing things with you. And I get overwhelmed. And one of my coaches said today on International Women's Day that she was tired of watching historical figures be celebrated on holidays like today. And that we should be celebrating ourselves instead of just other people, that their contributions are valuable and important. And they're amazing. But guess what, our contributions are valuable, too. And that we're ignoring those so that we can consume information about other people, instead of celebrating ourselves. And that really, really hit me. I wrote something on Facebook a few weeks ago, and I'm going to share it with you. I said, I feel like I'm watching so many amazing women step into their own lives as the main character right now. Leaving marriages, finding their amazing, Perfect Fit partner, changing things up completely, making difficult decisions. And it makes me smile so hard, they are living their best lives, and not in the bullshit cliche way, but in a way that honors what they want. Cultural messaging be damned, I love it. I'm here for it. I'm proud of all of you. And I'm cheering for you. I wrote that out late at night. And I meant it, I was 100% Sincere. But what I didn't say in that post, simply because I don't want to hurt someone's feelings or call someone out. But I'm going to share it with you here is that for every woman that I'm watching, that goes through this metamorphosis, this change, where she's showing up in her life as the main character, I know of at least three others that want to and they're not. They're longing to, but they're holding back. There are so many ways that we do this. And ultimately, it comes down to holding ourselves back for a variety of reasons, right? But the reason really doesn't matter. Because the end result in the end action is not doing the thing that we know we should be doing because we're holding ourselves back.

I've shared previously, that in July of last year 2023, I went to a retreat with my mastermind, and I had some coaching that just kind of cracked me wide open. Because a lot of tears. I was in the pool, probably a good thing. So my tears didn't show as much because I was wet anyway. And when this beautiful woman asked me why I wanted to help women grow their businesses, I kind of went on a little bit of a tirade. Because ultimately, do I want women to be able to support their families financially? Yes, absolutely. Do I want them to be able to design their lives in a way that they want? Instead of what they've been told to want? For? Sure. Do I want them to have financial independence, so they can make the decisions they need? In situations where they might need it? Without question. But there's a much bigger piece to all of this. And that is the collective raising of women. The much larger picture of women saying no more. We belong in the places where decisions are made, we are worthy of taking up space, we will no longer accept half assed efforts, lower pay and less opportunity. And that means in all areas of our lives. And a few months, it will be the two year anniversary of Roe v Wade being overturned. And regardless of how you feel about that issue or decision, we're not we're not going to go into that debate here. The bottom line is that more women should have been involved in making that decision. Women belong in all of the rooms where this shit is happening, where these decisions and laws are being made, and where the discussions are being had. And growing your business to the level that you want, is one way to move you not only into these types of pivotal discussions that affect us all, but also into the most amazing version of yourself. The version of yourself that doesn't accept less, and knows that you're worthy of what you want to do in your life, what you want to have in your life. The version of yourself that is not only kicking ass in your business, because you want to support your family. But because you want to leave a better world for those kids once you're gone.

It's not just about a paycheck, or working with the clients you want and need. And to be clear, that paycheck is amazing. Okay, money gives us the opportunity to get out of situations that we don't want to be in, whether it's a job where someone is treating you terribly, whether it's a relationship that we need to go, it's hurting our mental health or an apartment, that money is important, but it's not just about that. And when it comes to my photography studio, it's the same overall theme. It's not just about feeling pretty. It's not just about the material things, the external things I've shared several times but when I started specializing in boudoir are in 2009, holy moly, long time ago, I wanted women to know that they're beautiful. And then when my daughter was born in 2014, so much changed for me, my photography, and soon thereafter, my business coaching was no longer just about reminding women that they're beautiful, but it became about so much more. It's about remembering, or maybe even discovering for the first time that you're powerful. It's about knowing that you can impact the world in so many amazing ways, and ways that you get to choose for yourself. And that is what I want for you when it comes to growing your business. Can I teach you marketing skills? Yes, I can walk you through SEO, I can teach you how to set up an email list. I can talk to you about business systems, business, finances, processes, all the things that you need, we can talk about taxes, we can talk about all the things. But knowing how to do those things and actually doing them. And implementing them are two very different things.

I want you to have the mindset and the confidence and the craving to really move yourself forward in your business to grow more than you ever thought possible. Because that will help you as a person grow as well. Ursula logwin is an author who spoke at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania in 1986. And I heard an excerpt of the speech that really really hit me, and I wanted to share a little piece of it with you. When speaking specifically about women, she said, we are volcanos. When we women offer our experience as our truth as human truth, all the maps change, there are new mountains. That's what I want to hear you erupting. You young Mount St. Helens, those who don't know the power in you, I want to hear you. I want to listen to you talking to each other and to us all. Whether you're writing an article or a poem, or a letter, or teaching a class, or talking with friends, or reading a novel, or making a speech or proposing a law, or giving a judgement or singing the baby to sleep or discussing the fate of nations, I want to hear you speak with a woman's tongue, come out and tell us what time of night it is. Don't let us sink back into silence. If we don't tell her truth, who will, who will speak for my children and yours.

Today, march 8 2020, for International Women's Day, instead of doing the passive celebration of yay amazing historical ladies, let's also start to look at our bigger pictures, the bigger goals that we have for our businesses and for our lives. What future generations will be saying about us on International Women's Day in 2074 and 50 years, the legacies that we are leaving behind for our children, or if we don't have children, for the kids that are around us. The collective raising the demands for equality and the rejection of disparity, may we move ourselves forward, as we come together as a collective, as a voice for all underrepresented or marginalized groups of people. Knowing that growing our businesses is one amazing and impactful way to do so. May we know and understand the importance of taking up space and letting our voices be heard in our businesses and our families and our communities to change the world on a much larger scale. To all of you listening, female, male, non binary, whatever you identify as you have the ability to impact the world in a much larger way than I'm sure you have ever thought possible. And for all of my ladies in business, never underestimate the power that you have when it comes to marketing your business, growing your business and the impact that you can have not only for yourself, but for all of your clients that you're impacting as well. And if you are not a female and you're listening to this, and you have women in your life, reach out to them and say Hey, we love you. We're supporting you. We're here for you. And for all the ladies and everyone else listening I love you. I want to encourage you and teach you and walk with you through the things that you need to learn or the steps that you need to take to grow your business and move forward. Because we are going to run the world ladies. We are powerful and we need to step into that take up space, unapologetically. Happy International Women's Day. Thank you so much for joining me today and listening in. You can find all of the show notes for this and every episode over at boldwithbrooke.com/podcast where you can also find all of the links or resources mentioned. I can't wait to work with you have an amazing rest of your day.