Rebecca Fleewood Hession's Stand Tall Speech

Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: (singing) Hi, I'm Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, host of the Badass Women's Council Podcast. I'm also the creator, founder, official dreamer- upper of a transformational experience called Rise and Thrive. A seven- month experience for seven career women to go through together. And this culminates after seven months into a huge celebration called Stand Tall in Your Story. A night where we take these women's stories to the stage in full celebration with food, drinks, live music, a live audience, and a virtual one, with each woman giving a seven minute TED- like talk where they share their story. And these stories live on through video and this podcast for you to revisit, share with your team, your kids, your social media, because telling and sharing our stories is how we come together with true connection. And when we share these stories, we give others the courage and confidence to stand tall in their story. There's no mistake that the book that I'm launching in February 2022 is called Write Your Own Story, and that the big annual celebration event is called Stand Tall in Your Story, because y'all, it's tough to stand tall in a story you didn't write. Think about it, actors tell other people's stories. Do you feel like sometimes you're just acting out your life and not living it fully, authentically, genuinely, the one that's writing it?( singing) As I said, this is Rebecca Fleetwood Hession and this is my story from the stage, in our second annual Stand Tall in Your Story event. Which again is celebrating the women of Rise and Thrive but it's also celebrating women everywhere. Those looking for inspiration, confidence, and the courage to stand tall in their own stories. This is my opening talk from our April 20th event in 2021, held live at the Vogue theater in Indianapolis and also broadcast around the country via our Storybook platform, which is hosted by our partners at Cantaloupe TV. The favorite thing about my talk is the line," Fear accompanied by hope, the great combo pack of high achievers." Because the first step in writing our own story is overcoming the fear and uncertainty associated with releasing the societal norms and cultural expectations that have been cast on us. They're largely bullshit, but They've been so socialized, we see them as quote unquote the way. Things like," Pick a career for the money more than your deep passions and interest, or believing that there's one right answer. Or that we have to be perfect or right according to someone else's standards." In fact, in my opening keynote in this talk, you'll hear a balloon pop in the middle of the talk. If I'm honest, there was a day that that would have upset me to have something so spontaneous and unplanned happen at something so important to me, crazy, right? The belief that I was supposed to control every aspect of the things I was responsible for. But as you'll hear again, the only thing we all have in common is our imperfection. So over the next seven weeks, you'll hear the stories from Rise and Thrive Indianapolis season two participants. Stories that will inspire you, challenge you, stir something in you as our lives should. Here we go.( singing) Welcome to the second annual Stand Tall in Your Story event. He's pretty badass isn't he? He's my boy. I have a dream that this events and the videos of these people's stories, will become a TED- like site. A place where you go to find inspiration and watch those stories again and again, and share them with your colleagues and your friends, maybe even your children. Tonight, the women of Rise and Thrive season two take the stage. Rise and Thrive is an experience that I created for seven women to go through together for seven months. With the expectation that the end of that seven months they would stand tall in their story. Standing tall in your story is the essence of thriving, to grow, prosper and flourish. To write your own story so you can then stand tall in it. So let me tell you a little bit about the winding road that got us here tonight. So these seven women that you're going to hear from tonight, they met for the first time on November 4th at 4: 00 PM Eastern standard time, exactly 167 days ago. They were neck deep in quarantine life, buried on top of an already challenging life as a career woman. And because of quarantine, we couldn't get together and do our regular overnight retreat love fest, where you leave all of your cares behind and you break bread and you clink glasses and you really see each other. Instead, they logged on to Zoom and they looked around the Brady Bunch boxes and they thought," What in the hell have I just done? And please let this be the thing that lifts me up in my life and my career." Fear accompanied by hope, the great combo pack of every high achiever. To get here to this place where they can stand tall in their story courageously, they had to shed some layers. They had to let go of other people's expectations so that they could let their story stand. As we think about our stories and the scripts that we've been given, it's really interesting. I learned the power of real authentic stories from my partner, Jon DiGregory at Cantaloupe TV, who is bringing us our live stream experience tonight. So welcome to those of you watching at home via the Storybook platform, we're super glad that you're here. Jon and I go way back. We were working together in a previous career that I had, and John was filming a case study video for a corporate client that I was working with. And we showed up to film the first day, we got there before the clients, and he said," We're not going to use that script you brought, we're just going to ask the right questions and then we're going to see what comes up." And I looked at him and I said," That sounds an awful lot like winging it." But he assured me that it was a far better plan and I trusted him. And what I learned that day in that filming was the difference between when you tell someone who they are and what to say, versus letting them be themselves. And the results were authentic, genuine, beautiful, far better than the script that I had prepared, and that planted a seed for me. That got me thinking how much of my life am I living authentically and genuinely, versus living out of someone else's expectations and societal norms that were keeping me striving, struggling, and stuck. So it planted the seed that took me on a journey to find my authentic story. And that became the basis for Rise and Thrive. So tonight these women are learning to shed the expectations of others and to live their unique, authentic story. One where we can trust what we know and what we feel, our instincts, our intuition, our inner knowing, our story. In order to do that, again, we have to shed some of those expectations. And so as you hear these women tonight, there's going to be some... what you'll hear of them shedding those layers. When we live in reflection and connection, that's when we find our authentic story. Reflection is asking ourselves," Who am I? What do I want? What do I need? What gives me joy? What feeds my soul and connection? Who knows me, really knows me? Who knows that unique piece of the puzzle that I am in the world, with my jaggedy- ass edges and the dust from the bottom of the box? And who will help me find the beautiful side of me, so we can connect to be beautiful and stronger together?" Rise and Thrive is about living in community. And this community has been intentionally built over the last seven months, it will live long past this stage tonight. In fact, ask the women from Rise and Thrive season one, who over a year ago, stood on a stage and told their stories and are still here tonight as a community, fanning the flames of the embers in their hearts, in their life and their career. Is it going okay for y'all ladies? Living in community is the exact opposite of copy, compare and compete. Living in community honors our God given gifts, talents, abilities, experiences, struggles, personality and style. Living in community... Damn right, it inaudible, bring it.

Speaker 2: inaudible.

Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: See how well planned this shit is, can't make that up. Living in community invites our inner knowing to the surface. Tonight, we invite that inner knowing to the stage. So as these badass women come out here tonight, they're going to be sharing some of the challenges and their uniqueness and some of the messes that happened. And what I hope happens is that you'll see some of yourself in their story, because who doesn't know the sting of disappointment and frustration, really its imperfection is the only thing that we all have in common. And so we kick perfection to the curb and let life be messy. So tonight we're going to invite these badass women to the stage. And as we do that, let's not let this just be a spotlight on them, let's let your light and your love shine up on the stage for them and shine all around. Let's let this tonight be a place where emotions can run free, where you can hoot and holler and sigh and sob, and just let this be a night for us to be us. Sound like a plan? Give it a little practice. All right, join me in this simple prayer. God, meet us here tonight and do your thing. As is our tradition with the Badass Women's Council Podcast, we have a reflection question from each episode for you to think about as a result of what you've heard here today. So here's our question. What societal norm or cultural expectation do you need to let go of, to write your own story? Y'all I can't wait for you to hear the stories from these amazing women. You can also watch them as videos from this amazing night at wethrive. live. Click on the Stand Tall in Your Story tab. And our season three group starts in Indianapolis, late October. We're recruiting. Now you can go to, wethrive. live and click on the Rise and Thrive tab. Learn more, schedule an info interview with me, I would love to hear about you and your story, and this is your year. Our season three event is March 8th, 2022, actually on International Women's day. So mark your calendar and you know what, let's talk about honoring the women in your organization by sponsoring this great event. Or inviting a group live to the Vogue, or creating a bun virtual watch party. No need to schedule your own event, we know how to throw a party. Let's just chat now, so you can budget plan and just check it off your list. Thanks so much for being here, make it a great day. When I work with my clients, I want them to discover their unique, personal story. So they can then stand tall in that story and live a life full of soul and emotions and their natural curiosity about their unique gifts, talents, and abilities, so they can live a thriving life. Because our brains are hardwired for stories and our brain wants us to thrive, so I help my clients tap into that. And I also have a sponsor for this podcast called StoryBook. Which is a unique and innovative platform that helps you bring your company's stories to life by tapping into the emotional flow and the natural curiosity that we have about your products and services. So check them out. You can go to my website, wethrive. live, click on the Stand Tall on Your Story link and see the kind of work they're doing for us or go to their site, cantaloupe. tv, and there's hundreds of stories there that they've created that you can experience. Check them out, we're so grateful to work with them and for them to sponsor the podcast. And please join the online community at badasswomenscouncil. community, where we can continue the conversation and you can meet other badass high achievers like you. Thanks so much, make it a great day. If you like the music for the podcast, go to iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen to your music and look up Cameron Hession, Clouds, you can download the full song there. He's got some other stuff out there as well. And yo, he's my son, it'd be great if you'd go and download some of his stuff.( singing)