Hi, and welcome to the Awfully Quiet podcast. Today is about a little bit of jealousy. It's about quiet grit and something that clicked for me and I feel like something that I've been grappling with for months, if not years, and I feel like I've figured it out now. So I'll leave that with you as a teaser.

But what I really wanna talk about is.success in the workplace. It's, you know, both success in pursuing a, an endeavor like starting a podcast or starting a business. But it's also success when it comes to like climbing the ladder in corporate and making a career for yourself and what that looks like.

Now, I wanna paint a little bit of a picture of my, my darkest thoughts around this and some of my, really uncomfortable. And frankly, unhelpful beliefs around that. So, this is going to be a little bit dark, but I wanna be so honest because I think that some of it might resonate. So when it comes to success, my personal inner demon just always looks at others and things.

Oh, well, I wish I had what they had. but they have certainly been privileged or they had some sort of advantage or they had some sort of thing that I didn't have, and this is why they're now so successful. I'll sometimes think of this in, let's start with a corporate example, because you know me, I'm, I'm 10 years into my corporate experience.

I would describe myself as driven, ambitious. Like going into the corporate world, I, all I thought about was, how do I get, you know, from A to Z in a straight line? And, some of that is still with me and some of that is more nuanced today. But I would always look at people who like climbed the ladder extremely fast.

People who were extremely. Who were like the corporate rock stars, I'm sure you know some of these people who are the obvious talents in the organization, like people who you know, time and role doesn't exist. They'll be promoted after a year in the role. They'll be on the fanciest projects. They are outspoken, they are extrovert.

They do all the right things. They are seen by all the right people, and they are extremely good and successful with what they do. I'm sure you'll know somebody like that. Now, I always thought of these people and I always thought about that as like, you know, this is because they have such a great network.

This is because they are so extroverted. They talk to everyone. Everybody knows what they're doing. They're extremely visible, they do all the right things, and therefore they are so successful with what they do. And the, and this is my deepest, darkest thought that I would normally not say out loud, but obviously this is, this is the awfully quiet podcast.

So, we need to say some of those uncomfortable things out loud. And then I think where it clicked for me recently, and maybe because. I unlocked some of the steps in my corporate career that I really wanted. I ticked some of my, my dreams off. I became a brand manager for a brand that I really wanted to work for.

I became a senior brand manager and it feels like some of the things I really, really wanted have happened for me, and now that I feel like successful to a certain degree, it feels odd to say that, but now that I feel. A level of corporate success that I wanted and have achieved. I can tell that it is not about privilege.

It is not about having some sort of advantage. It is not about knowing, you know, building this, this big, big network or being extroverted or being anything that you're not. It's a lot about hard work, resilience. Correct, yes, you can be privileged. It might be that, you know, you have some sort of advantage of getting into a role, and then there is a senior leader somewhere who has previously worked with you and promotes you into something faster than usual, because that was like a, a good, you know, a great coincidence, great thing to happen to you.

So yes, sometimes there are advantages that, that people have, but this is not how you sustain that level of success. You sustain that level of success by working really hard and being gritty and being resilient and shit will hit the fan for everyone in the workplace. I often feel like when I, when I look at successful people or when I look at supposed superstars or legends in the workplace, often think to myself, oh, everything must be easy for them.

You know, they must just walk through and waltz through their day, and it's not the case. This is what I've been seeing recently. It's like if you're lucky enough to witness how some of these people operate on this very high level, you can feel and you can see the difference. You can see that they deal with the same amount of shit that you deal with, but they think about it differently.

It's a different mindset. It's a different way of approaching things. It's a different way of looking at things, and I feel like this is where it clicked for me. Yes, sometimes. People are privileged. Yes. Sometimes people get opportunities that weren't offered to you at, or that you didn't get for some reason, but at the end of the day, long-term success and whatever that means for you.

For me, it always means also a level of fulfillment with what I do. It's not just climbing the ladder. It is not just, you know, bigger, better, higher, every step along the way. It is finding out what. Feels really meaningful for you. If it is a lot, a lot about playing to your strength.it's doing things and, and adding value that feels like that makes you feel good about yourself, but that also moves a needle in some way that feels meaningful to you.

At least that's, that's, that's my definition of that. And what, what is also really important for me is to be surrounded by people that I can grow with, surrounded by people that I feel inspired by. So that is what, what success feels like and looks like to me. And I noticed a very similar thing when it comes to the world of podcasting and online businesses, because I would think the same thing to myself.

I would look at some of the entrepreneurs or influencers turned entrepreneurs and think to myself, oh, you know, that must be nice. You know, whenever you think it to yourself, that must be nice. It's a mind fuck. You can already tell it. You know, something is wrong with you and you should be rethinking the way you think about it.

But, again, I feel like sometimes. It is important to name and to say out loud some of the deepest, darkest thoughts because then we can call out bullshit on ourselves and reframe them in a way that feels helpful. So sometimes I'll look at these people and think to myself, oh, you know, I see you with your aesthetic podcast studio.

I see you with your millions of downloads. I see your whole production team and your. You know, fancy microphones and the little merch things, and the little stickers you have.and that must be nice. That must be nice to be at that place. But I'm two years, at almost two years into this experience, well over, well not well over, but just over 90 episodes, and I see this from a different angle now.

When I see people sit in a studio, like in this fancy thing, interviewing somebody else on a podcast and it's a video production, what I think to myself is, wow, wow, I see this as a lot of work because this person, it's not just the sitting there and somebody, you know, gave you like a glamorous makeup and you are interviewing somebody else, but it's also.

This takes a lot of effort. Like this person will have really prepared for that interview, will have really thought about what questions to ask. This whole production team that is there on set, all the lights, the microphones, this whole thing, this person will be responsible for this podcast host will need to make sure that all these people are getting paid, that all this equipment.

Is being rented or is being paid or bought at some point. And there is a lot of pressure on this person for this particular episode to perform well, and for the next episode to perform well or ideally even better, and for this level of quality. To be consistent over time, to always be one step ahead, to always do you know one better, and to always become better, to hone your craft to, you know, get in better, bigger guests, to make sure that the conversations stay relevant, to make sure that.

This whole experience becomes better and better and better. And so yes, it looks great. They sit there in their fancy studios, but at the end of the day, there's also a lot of pressure that comes with it. And it's the same for online businesses. It's the same for influencers. I reckon. It is really tough to always reinvent yourself, to always stay.

on top of your game when it comes to being creative. I sometimes feel that, that with my Instagram posts and my Instagram is fairly, I don't want to call it fairly small because it's been growing a lot recently, but this also, gave me a little bit of that pressure of like, oh, this carousel performed really, really well.

how do I make the next one even better? How do I sustain this? And you can't always sustain this because the algorithm changes and the rules of the game change. And so you need to change as well. You need to, and not that I'm saying you need to do things for the benefit of the algorithm, but I think sometimes what becomes really visible on Instagram is how.

Strategies or content types or hooks that will have worked two years ago, maybe a year ago, maybe a couple of months ago. They don't work anymore. So some of the creators who have stuck to, you know, keeping everything the same, you know, repurposing things, one to one or copy pasting things, they will see that some of the things that flew and that became viral a couple of years ago, they don't work anymore.

So it's always about staying on top of your game and making sure that creatively you develop and you have the time to, yeah, just to stay brilliant and to, and, and to keep getting better. And so this is some of the glimpses that I have been getting and that have helped me with this belief and with this mindset of, oh, this person looks su successful.

They must have had some kind of. Advantage that I didn't have. And what I think to myself is that the advantage is the resilience, the, the, the work ethic and the grit. And I feel like these, concepts can easily sound masculine, extrovert, or like, not something that I can be good at. But I wanna reframe this a little bit and talk about.

Quiet grit, because I thought about grit a lot recently and I thought about how in my corporate experience I have always benefited from being resilient, being consistent on days where I didn't feel like it to, to show up regardless and to never really lose my faith and just kind of keep on going. It's not a hundred percent every day.

It's not, you're not at your best every day. But in showing up regardless, you build that muscle of resilience. And

I feel like th this is something that, throughout generations, it just doesn't cease to be important. And it's something that is often looked at very critically these days, isn't it? Obviously you don't wanna burn yourself into the ground. We don't wanna romanticize a high workload. We don't wanna romanticize grit and resilience to a point where it becomes unhealthy.

But the line is very blurry, isn't it? Between you know, what is resilience and and working extremely hard and grit, and where does it start to burn you out? So I think this is something that everybody needs to figure out for themselves is, is make sure that. There is enough rest that we do understand how our energy works just enough to keep on going, to keep on stretching out of our comfort zones without burning out.

But it stays important and I think it is not glamorous. It's, it's not at all glamorous, but it doesn't need to be loud. I think resilience is, it is really quiet. Grit is quiet because it is often something that you know is not, is not very visible. It's this inner work that you do with yourself and it's this conversations that you have at 11:00 PM at night with stretch GBT where you go, look, I feel like I feel like I'm done.

I feel like I can't do this anymore. And having this conversation every single night. And still showing up the next day. I've talked about this before. It's a little sad, but, it is what it is. And so this is what grid looks like. And the other thing that I think is going to happen at some point is that it will feel like a lot of work.

It will feel like it doesn't, there is no light inside. Mm, nobody is coming to save you and it'll feel like, you know, I can't do this anymore. If this is the work, if this is our, how hard I need to work to like chip away at this goal, at this dream that I have and nothing is really working and moves the needle.

At some point, something is going to to click and the knot is going to loosen. And then things are going to be happening really, really quickly, and this is the straw that I've been personally holding onto, and I feel like I'm starting to feel some of that not loosening. For me, I feel like quiet, grit, resilience, putting in the reps.

It's not glamorous, it's not what it looks like online. It has nothing to do with aesthetics. It has nothing to do with it. But it is this inner strength that you're building. It's this relationship with yourself in sustaining great work, in sustaining creativity and sustaining performance. That is what's going to help you and what's going to carry you through your whole life, not just in your career.

This is, this is in general, this is, it feels like it's something that. You need to figure out within yourself and inside yourself. This is to what, what quiet grit is to me. It's figuring out your mindset, your thoughts, showing up every day, how to sustain your energy, how to rest in the right moments, how to be kind to yourself, how to show up for yourself, and.

Sustain your excellence, sustain your brilliance, sustain your creativity. And I think this is the skill. I think this is what we all need to figure out. This is what, what, what we're here to do. If we are operating like that. I'm not saying this is for everyone, but if you feel a little bit like me, like.

You, you have ambitions, you clearly want things, in, in your, you know, whether it be your corporate career or you wanna start a podcast, you wanna start a business. And you have some of those same thoughts that I shared with you, some of those inner demons that tell you, oh, wouldn't that be nice? Then I think you're in the right place.

And. I'm here with you. We're building that quiet grit together and we're in it. And so every once in a while I wanna bring that level of honesty and vulnerability into the show.even though I haven't fully figured out every step along the way yet, but I feel like things are starting to move in the right direction, and that feels extremely exciting for me right now.

And so I wanna take you on this journey.let's glamorize that quiet grid. You know, some of the moments where we feel like, oh, damnit, you know, the grass is so much greener on the other side. I see you with your, you know, corporate promotion. I see you with your fancy podcast studio. I see you with your online business and your brand deals, and I will still keep going.

I'll still keep going even if nobody's watching, even if it feels hard, even if my self-doubt screams at me every night, I still keep going and I'm going here alongside you. I'm right here with you. Thank you for tuning in, and I'll see you next week.