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P : How do you respond to those people who might be prone to letting the doubts of others — or their own selfdoubt , keep them from following those big dreams ? K : I call that death by a thousand doubts . [ Throughout the pandemic ], our decision-making power , our confidence , our trust in ourselves and our ability to better manage our inner gremlin — I call mine Regina George , from Mean Girls — began to diminish . It was like a computer program was running in the background , constantly draining our battery . We had nowhere to plug in . One thing I talk about in my book is the different ways that we can begin to face our “ fake news fears .”

An exercise that I talk about is called “ Facts vs . Feelings ,” where you try to determine a list of what you ’ re afraid is going to happen … and the hard , objective facts around the situation . The most interesting thing about this exercise is people see that the facts are so light , and the feelings list is so long . When you see the narrative that ’ s being created in your own mind , you can begin to find the bravery to authorize yourself to take that first step . Can you authorize yourself to know that some of your fears are fake news , and that if you look back through your failures , each one of those failure wounds healed , ultimately , into a success scar . We think of our failures as screw-ups , but they ’ re just cues for your most audacious destiny to unfold . In our failures , we discover our path and discover our passion . We ’ re better equipped to make better choices the next time . And each time we know more about what does not work , we know a little bit more about what does .

P : The pandemic has also given a lot of people cause to make bold life changes . Do you feel like this moment , in some ways , is ideal for taking those kinds of big swings ? K : It ’ s so true . I mean , if you think about it , we were forced into this great pause and the reality that even the smartest minds in the world have pretty much no idea what ’ s going on and are guessing as best they can with what they know . You can … feel completely paralyzed and frightened by [ that ] fact , but I find it to be extremely liberating that we ’ re in the middle of this great reset where the rules are being rewritten . The way that we do business , what we care about , even the language that we use in our marketing and our communications [ has changed ]. The messaging that used to resonate doesn ’ t resonate anymore . People don ’ t want to do more and be more because they ’ re pulling from an empty bucket . They don ’ t have the same reserves . They don ’ t have the same resources emotionally and physically . “ Survive ” became the new “ thrive .”

The bar for success as you define it might be different than what you thought was going to bring you and your customers joy . It ’ s not like we ’ re being wishy-washy , we ’ re just in a period where the whole world has been given this chance to reinvent and become evolved versions of ourselves . Instead of being freaked out about it , or exhausted by it , how beautiful to sort of reframe and reset that lens and look at it as this unbelievable opportunity to step into who you ’ re meant to be on the other side of this . There are a lot of people right now that I know personally who are

18 PULSE • MAY / JUNE 2022