LA Women Leaders Association Chapter Meeting: Embracing Authentic Leadership

[Music] So now we are going to move on to our next presentation. So Nicole, can you turn your camera on and say hello? Absolutely. Good afternoon. Hello. Well, Nicole, as we pull up your slides, can you give us a self introduction? I shall. I am a group vice president of people and culture, aka HR, at Warner Bros. Discovery. I have been here for 20 years in April. Uh, yes, 20 years at some form of Warner Brothers. And I haven't spent all my time in HR. So, I am a what we call a recovering attorney. I practiced for about 20 years, 11 and a half of them here at Warner Brothers as an in-house employment lawyer before I moved over to human resources. So, I was an attorney for 20 plus years. I've been an HR executive for eight plus years. I have been a certified coach for 12 years uh since 2012. And uh most recently, I became a Zumba instructor. I've been a Zumba fanatic since 2012, but I became a Zumba instructor in January of this year. Uh, just because I felt like it. But, uh, more on that in a little bit because I know we don't have too much time today and I want to make sure we get to everything. So, the name of my talk today and and first let me just say thank you for having me to speak about a subject that is near and dear to my heart, authentic leadership. So, the name of my talk will be embracing authentic leadership, building your unique leadership style. And I have a few slides, but really I'm just going to talk. And I have some notes, so you'll see me look over at my notes, but really I just want to talk to you all today. Oh, thank you uh for the note about becoming a Zumba instructor. Like I said, I'm a Zumba fanatic. I figured I should get up and teach it since I like this stuff. So, I'm going to start with just this little story. This is a little silly story, nothing too deep. Uh, but I can't see you or hear you, so hopefully you will laugh at this. But, uh, I have a 13-year-old daughter who, uh, is the light of our lives, right? But, uh, she was here at, uh, Warner Brothers in the childcare center for like the first five years of her life doing, uh, infant room and toddler rooms and preschool there. And so, uh, it's right like five minutes down the street from the lot. And I got a call one day uh, from her teacher in the Todd B room. So she was maybe about three in between three and four years old. And of course when you see the number of the child care center come on the phone your heart just starts going oh my god. And so they are well trained to say to you nothing is wrong. Like the first before they even say hello nothing is wrong. Okay nothing is wrong. So she tells me a story about my sweet little Sophia Rose. Uh, and so apparently it was nap time and they were in the they have a little nap room where, you know, each kid has their mat and their pillow and their blanket and they're supposed to lay down and go to sleep. And I think you can probably tell what's coming here. So my daughter decides to stand up and pick up her blanket and say, "I don't want to take a nap." And we're we all shouldn't take naps. Everybody stand up. Nobody take a nap right now. So, she's telling me this story. I'm glad she couldn't see my face because I was kind of smiling, right? I know I'm not supposed to. And I of course said the right things of, "Oh, yes, that's I understand why you would be bothered by that." And and we definitely want her to follow the rules and uh we will have a a conversation with Sophia Rose this evening. Her father and I will. Um but I mean inside I was smiling. So why am I telling you this this silly little story from what she's 13 now? So this is what like almost 10 years ago. um because she was being so authentic in that moment. And um and my my girl, she was leading the charge. She was leading the charge. It's it's I I love this, right? I love to lead a charge. Uh so I just set that as sort of a a framework for talking about authentic leadership. And uh I if you can take it to the next slide, I'll give you just a little bit of a road map of what we're going to talk about today. So why is this important? Why are we talking about authentic leadership? And how do we Well, I I I said I'm a recovering lawyer, right? So, I have some little lawyer phrases in here, chapter and verse. How do we define authenticity and leadership? And then how do we make the case for authentic leadership? I I promised you there wouldn't be too many slides, but why uh this is important is really going to be a theme throughout all of the different tips. But basically, what I have for you today, what I want to talk about is five different reasons why you should bring your authentic self to your leadership style and practice. It strikes me before we move on because I want to, you know, have you on the edge of your seat for number one, uh two, three, four, and five, too. But at any rate, it strikes me that I should tell you about my my leadership role here. So, I lead the HR team that supports the chairman of Warner Brothers Television Group. So, we have hundreds of studio employees, what we call overhead employees that are on our payroll. And then we have tens of thousands of production hires who work on the various productions that we have. We've had obviously hundreds, thousands of shows over the years. You might recognize some of them. I might make re reference to some of them during my talk today because I am very proud of our content and our company. Like I said, I've been here 20 years. So, uh, but before I jump in, I just want to point out that and and I lead a team of 12, uh, different people who work in HR. And so, I just want to point out that I I am my corny self as part of my authentic leadership. Case in point, and and I'll say to you, I thought about putting up a a background that would have a very clean like bookshelf behind me, even though I hate that it looks kind of funny when you move with a background. But then I said, you know what? No, no, Nicole, this is a talk about authentic leadership, right? And this is you. So, I have a whiteboard behind me. And uh this is not just today that I put this or put a message up there. I do it almost every day. Some days uh the brain is a little lazy and I might have the same message for two days but I put up a little message about what I'm feeling and so today if you can't see it it says be yourself for today. Uh because that's really the theme right of this little this little talk that I'm giving. So okay so a little bit of framework let's go ahead and move to uh the definitions on the next slide. So five reasons why you should bring your authentic self to your leadership style and practice. We have to give a little framework. What do I mean when I say your authentic self? Well, we could look it up, right? What does Webster define as authentic, genuine, bonafide, fully trustworthy, right? What I mean by that, just coming from Nicole, not Webster, is who are you at your core? Who are you in your full essence? And I pause on that because I'm hoping you all will pause, right? if you're multitasking, if you're uh trying to go with me because I talk fast and I'll try and slow it down, but who are you? And I think there are three things you need to know in order to truly be your authentic self. First of those is who you are. Who you are at your fullest expression of yourself. Who are you? I'm a big journaler. I don't know about you all, but I love to just write my thoughts down and it helps me to remember things that have happened in my life that maybe 10, 15 years later, I don't remember all the details. But if you could journal about who you are, what would you say? The second thing I think you need to know in order to be your authentic self is what do you value? So as a coach uh and as a former lawyer uh and as a coach I have coached many a lawyer and and sometimes it's about career transition and and in the first session or maybe they'll give me one session of discovery in the second session they want to jump straight to okay what's my next gig? I'm I'm I'm trying to transition uh and and how do I get there? How do I find that next job? And I say well wait a minute I think we need to talk about what your values are. are. So, we do a values exercise, which some people really struggle with, and I would say take some time on it. Like, what do I value? Right? The first time I thought about it after working with a coach, it was like, well, I'm writing down this long list, but sometimes you need to pair it down to what are those three or four important values that you just can't live without. And just know that values can shift over time, right? Uh you I have a sister who is uh having an empty nest right now, right? So the values when you're raising kids who are in your house versus the values and as it relates professionally or to the relationships might shift a little bit, right? I see there's another recovering attorney here. I figured there might be one of you here. So you can understand what that means when we say recovering attorney. If if you need to know and you you don't you're not a recovering attorney, just ask one of us and then we will expound on it for a long probably longer than you'd like. So good to reflect on your values just to get back to what I was saying because it could adjust over time. So what does this have to do with authentic self and leadership? So here's what I would call a coaching question, a powerful question that I might ask a client is, are the choices that you're making right now aligned with your values. So you got to know what those values are, right? Before you can actually answer that question for yourself. So, who you are, what you value, these are three things you need to know to be your authentic self. What else? Why are you here? What's your purpose? I'm sure not everybody who's listening necessarily believes in a higher power like I do. And and you know, brace yourselves. I might have a a scripture or a quote or an idea or concept that has to do with spirituality. I am a a spiritual person. But I think all of us can sort of think about whether you believe in God or another um power. Why am I here? What am I here for? So that's what I would go if I was trying to get you to look at who is your who are you when you are being your authentic self? Who you are? What you value? Why you're here? What's your purpose? And then what do we mean by your leadership? So a lot of times people might say, "Well, I'm not a leader, right? I don't have any people that report to me, but I'm going to push back on that with you a little bit. And I think you know what I'm going to say is how you show up in the workplace is how you lead, right? We all are leaders in some way, shape, or form. Whether it's at work, and yes, I'm a leader on the org chart here at work, right? But I'm also a leader at home as a mom, as a wife. Uh I'm a leader in different organizations that I'm in where I have this role or I'm an officer here. But most importantly, focus on your personal leadership here. I'm a leader of my life, right? I'm a leader of what's going on in my world. And that's where you can really, really, really get rich, right? All right. So if you take us to the next slide, I'm finally going to give it to you. What's the number one reason why you should bring your authentic self? Well, I was mentioning a little bit this little bit of this just before. You are here on this earth for a reason. My sister, I I mean, and there might be some uh people who wouldn't identify as sisters on here, and that is not meant to be a a gender conforming statement at all. My friend, my person, you are here on this earth for a reason. So my point here is each of us each of us and I believe this in my soul have a reason why we are here and we have unique gifts to bring to bear on whatever it is we're working on the job the relationship the project the organization whatever it is we have unique gifts that we are bringing and so for me it's my God-given gift right I have a lot of them but we won't go over those today we're not here for that right but if you believe in this this different higher power if it's not God maybe it's another but you believe in this concept of you're here for a reason so then I ask you who are we not to use those gifts and to do those things that we were put on this earth to do even if you don't believe spiritually you probably believe hey I I I have some purpose here and maybe it's less professionally related in terms of a job because some of us do a job to make the money to do the things we want to do. I get it. Right? But it could be at home, right? It could be in that organization that you're in. It could be all three. Right? Here's what I want you to do. you are struggling and and maybe you can just put in the chat if you if you feel like it. You don't have to, but if you're struggling with that or if if or maybe you just know what one of those God-given gifts are, feel free to put it in the chat because I I want to interact with you and I can't see any of you and I feel like I'm better when I'm interacting. And so, so feel free to put that in the chat. But here's here's what I want to say. you can't think of why you were put here on God's green earth or on this green earth. I want you to ask one of your friends or ask a family member like if I were trying to figure out what my special gifts are, what would you say? And I'm going to guarantee you right here that somebody that you really love and trust and really knows you could give you a list of a few different things just to get you going. Don't have them do the whole process. just have them help you get going on. Okay. All right. Well, I can't see you nodding and saying yes. Good advice, Nicole. So, I'm going to move on to reason number two. Uh, if I can get the next slide on five reasons why you should bring your authentic self to your leadership style or practice. Okay. Reason number two, authentic leadership leads to better relationships at work and at home. So, here's where I'm going to take it out of I we're leaders here and we're talking about professional stuff, but I'm going to put it into the home context, too, because I really think this is what happens. It comes up uh you know, what's happening at home comes up at work. What's happening at work comes up at home, right? And and it's important in both ways, right? Uh I I forgot to say the question of what's in it for me, right? Because some of you might be sitting there, why should I bring my authentic self to work? What's in it for me? And the answer to that is authentic leadership leads to better relationships at work and at home. So, a little story here. So, I I've I've been married for almost 17 years uh to my wonderful husband who yes, his last name is husband. I like to joke that's how I knew he was the one when his husband popped up on the phone way back when with caller ID. So, uh several several years ago, I was really struggling. It was over 10 years ago, struggling with a really difficult boss. I mean, just really super difficult. And I'm sure some of you have been in that situation before. what do you do? And I came home from work one day and I just I I just said I I'm I just broke down, right? And I remember I was sitting on the bed on our bed in our bedroom and I just broke down crying. And I mean the ugly cry, not the oh, we had a fight, I'm feeling sad cry in our relationship. And I think we were maybe about four or five years into our relationship at that point and a couple years married. So, I just really opened up and let it all out. And I remember thinking afterwards like, "Oh my god, my husband's be like, who who did I marry?" Right? And I had to be super vulnerable and open in that moment. And I just want to tie back to something that I believe Ally was saying about courage and vulnerability. And Bnee Brown, who I mean, I just love and admire. It does take courage to open up and be vulnerable. But you know what that really does? It builds those deeper bonds. It really builds those deeper bonds, right? And so that opened up for us in our relationship, I think, more trust and more relationship, a deeper relationship because he could see I'm not this perfect person that I try to be. Not that I was ever perfect or he ever believed that, but I'm just saying we try and hold ourselves to a certain standard and sometimes we break down and that's okay, right? So that opened up that relationship at home. I could give a similar story or lots of stories about how I've opened up to people on my team about what I'm struggling with which opened up the conversation about what we're struggling with at work and built a better bond between us a lot more trust a lot more openness and it really I mean it it was role modeling if you will that people can open up on this team we spend so much time at work right so I think I have proven I can't see you saying I've proven it But authentic leadership leads to better relationships. What's the other thing that's in it for you? I'm going to posit this. Opportunity. Opportunity. If you are bringing your true self, you're going to see those opportunities open up. Okay. So, uh, in the interest of time, I'm going to move it on to the next one. Reason number three. If I can get the next SL. There we go. There it is. Okay. And what is reason number three? It takes a whole lot of energy to pretend to be to imitate others, does it not? Okay. No, no, I can't see anybody nodding their head, right? But the flip side of this is it is so much easier just to be yourself. Now, if you are a person who has been covering up certain parts of yourself in the workplace or in a relationship for a long time, I understand it's going to take some practice to come out of that default. But there's so much rich richness and value in just being you. And I I feel like putting another guarantee out there. And I'm just going to say you're going to deepen those relationships. But you're going to find that people are more comfortable because even though you think that people can't see it when you are pretending or you're imitating somebody else, you we can see it. Don't sleep. They know when you are faking it, right? And I I know sometimes we have to fake it until we make it. But really what I'm encouraging you, urging you to do here is let her out. So what I will say to co to clients sometime is I want you to take that plug and plug it right in here to your gut and then let's I want to talk to that person that plugged in person over here that has been so covered up for whatever reason, right? That's who I want to talk to. So, why you should bring your authentic self? First of all, it takes way too much energy. And who has all that extra energy anyway? The older we get, the less energy we have, right? So, but bring out that real you because I think you're going to find some people really appreciate it and it really opens some things up, right? Okay. All right. So, let's jump on to reason number four. leaders know and believe in themselves, their ability, and their power. And I just I just want to go back a second because I forgot to tell this little story about a friend of mine who actually sits right here. I don't I don't know if she's listening, right? But we uh we hired uh my friend here about five years ago. In fact, I think she hits five years next week. And I remember in her interview, she was really uncomfortable, right? Uh she was super uncomfortable. And I was like, "Okay, this is more than just regular interview discomfort, right?" And we loved her. We decided to hire her. And then she started and a couple days in, uh, she comes in and and and listen, I I am black African-American. I've worn my hair straight. I've worn my hair curly. This woman in the interview was wearing straight hair. And when she came in, she had her hair curly. And it was so cute. I said, "Oh my gosh, I love your hair." And that's when it hit me. She was sitting in this interview with straight hair, which I'm sure she felt she had to wear in order to try and get the job, right? We we've moved the needle a little bit in terms of hairstyles, but uh and I said, "That's what you're when you're not being yourself, it shows because you you don't feel comfortable, right? And you're already uncomfortable in an interview context." So, of course, there's some time where you're doing something, maybe you're in tight clothes. They say don't wear those in interviews. But if you're not feeling like you look yourself, then of course that's going to show up. So that was really reason number three. But reason number four, leaders know and leaders believe in themselves, their ability, and their power. So here's where I'm going to tell y'all something. Yes, I say y'all. My parents were born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. I never lived in the South, but I don't know why I get a southern accent when I do these presentations. So one of the things my mom used to tell me and my two sisters, yes, I'm a middle child. we don't have to talk about that today. So when we were teens and probably into our early 20s and dealing with girl drama or maybe boy drama or any other drama, one of the things she would say to us is if you don't like yourself, how can you expect anybody else to like you? To which we would go, h got to go off and think about that, right? But I'm asking you in this context talking about your leadership style and your authentic self. If you don't believe in yourself as a leader and in your abilities and your power, then how do you expect anybody else to believe in it, right? If you are being your authentic self, if you are believing in yourself and if you are truly leaning into your power, you'll see some results. So, I saw this Alice Walker quote the other day. I thought it was really good uh to bring up and I think I mentioned I might bring up some uh Warner Brothers content. So, you know that Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple and that Water Rose Discovery released The Color of Purple in a movie that is a musical late last year. I believe it was Christmas Day in uh December of 2023. Movie did well. If you haven't seen it, I'm not a big musical fan in movies, but that one was good. So, her quote, "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." So, I'll let you sit with that for a little bit and then I'm going to ask you this question. And I'd love it if you'd put it in the chat. What is your superpower? The name of the music. So, The Color Purple is the name of the book that Alice Walker wrote. It was turned into a movie that Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover started in the 80s and then uh Warner Brothers Discovery made a musical version of it in December based on the musical that was on Broadway. So, what is that superpower? Throw it in the chat. Okay, I'm going to tell you. If you asked me, I would say, "Oh, it's talking because you can see I talk a lot." We have an old family friend that's known me my whole life that called me the mouth. Uh, and so then a story for another time. But what are those skills that I have that I really believe in that I would say I'm also an eagle-eyed editor. I was a managing editor in law school and I have that my eyes just go to, you know, an error on the page. So when you need something proof read, I'm the one. But the one thing I'll point out to you as you're thinking about it and please put it in the chat again. It's what is your superpower? You know, you're you're standing there like this where the victory stands, what what is it? Tell me what it is. You got to know what it is. What's that special unique thing that you bring to the workplace, to your friendships, to your relationships? So, for me, one of the coaches, I was doing a mindset makeover class last fall and and something one of the coaches said to me was I really was taken aback when she said it. said, "Nicole, um, you have this ability to, if something happens and it's not great, you have an ability to turn it around and turn it into something for good, to turn it in to I see somebody saying you have two superpowers you will never tell you." There might be some private superpowers. I get that. Uh, but they're being able to turn an adverse situation and turn it around and use it to my benefit. I'm going to call that a superpower. Now, she called it out and I really think it's true. It's about perseverance for me. So, what is your superpower? And you don't have to put it in the chat. If you're you want to write about it later, maybe you want to go ahead and journal about that later. Go right on ahead. Oh, I love it. Some people are putting some in. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. organization and structure. I like it. So, reason number five, as we are closing in on, I've given you four reasons so far. If we get the next slide, we'll get reason number five, which is It's coming. It's coming. Your message will be clearer if you are being authentic. Your message will be clearer if you are being authentic. What do I mean by that? So, I know that when I'm being my true self, I'm being heard. I'm being received and and yes, there's a little bit of, you know, I I might not say ex it exactly the way I want to say it. I might try and take some anger or emotion out of something, right? But when I'm truly saying how I feel and that person is listening, I'm heard, right? And I believe when it comes to your teams at work, when it comes to your family, when it comes to your friends or the organization where you lead, the chances are much better that those who are listening to you will follow and do it better in a more meaningful way and faster if you are being your authentic self. Okay? So, brace yourselves here where I might here's where I might get a little religious. The the truths shall set you free. But there's a there's a verse John 10:4. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. So might you have people following you in a more in a more authentic in a better in a more effective way if you are sharing your unique voice? I would posit the answer to that is yes. there's another legal word for you. So, I'm going to go over these five reasons again real quick and then close it out because I know we're uh close to time if not almost all the way over. So, those five reasons once again. One, reason number one, you're here on this earth for a reason. Yes, you are. Reason number two, what's in it for you? I think I said opportunity and better relationships at work and at home. Reason number three, it just takes so much energy, a whole lot of energy was on the slide to pretend to be someone else, to imitate someone else. Be yourself. There's a little bit of corniness for you. Reason number four, leaders know and believe in themselves, their ability, and their power. And again, if you don't believe it, then how can you expect somebody else to believe it? You got to believe it first. It starts there. And some people will sit there and say, "Oh, well, once they believe it, then I'll believe in it." But that's backwards, my friend. It's the other way around, right? You got to believe it first. And then reason number five, your message will be clearer if you are being authentic. So I will conclude and just say in my view, authentic leadership is worth it. I hope I have made my case here to you. Your unique leadership style that is custom to you. I throw in humor. I might throw in a little southern accent. I might throw in a little story from my past that I think highlights the point, right? That's going to be more effective, that's going to be more powerful, and that is going to be more impactful. So, go on ahead and try it. Maybe maybe you can prove me wrong. I'm happy to have that discussion. If you go to the next slide, I have a little picture, a little victory picture that I just wanted to share. Uh oh, the picture went sideways. So, just turn your head like that and then you can see me and my daughter who is a volleyball player. Uh, she plays for Sunshine and there's her her victory. And I just a lot of times I will say uh I'm coaching you to your victory to my clients, right? And so coaching you to your victory that this this picture just really made it uh seem like that for me. There's if you click again, there's a little thank you on there and that's my website there. If you are interested at all in connecting with me, please check it out. Don't get on me too bad if you see some of the blogs are dated. I I do have a full-time job and I'm a full-time mom and wife. But thank you so much for your time. I really, as I said, this is an a subject near and dear to my heart. So, I love talking about authentic leadership. And uh I am happy to Jinger, if there are any questions or I didn't catch all of the things in the chat, so I don't know if there are any questions in there, but happy to answer any questions there might be if we have time. Yes, I think we have time for a few questions. All right. So first, this is a first one from BB and you can answer it as an attorney or maybe even it can it could go to all the holes. So I can't give any legal advice. So BB says, "I'm also a recovering attorney. I went from real estate contracts to now being a sports event planner. How can I put up boundaries when I'm asked to do legal work like reviewing contracts?" Oh my gosh, you are speaking to me. I because I you know exactly what I've gone through, right? And I'm at the same company, right? I moved from being an employment lawyer to being in HR and uh it is really hard to push back on it when you know you know the answer. It's something that you know how to do. So I just want to acknowledge that. But I think putting up uh the boundary I can tell you how I have done that is um one I had to stop doing it which was a lot of times I would just jump in in the beginning as the employment lawyer and jump in with giving me the advice because it happens so quickly and the employment lawyer that works in another building and isn't in all of our meetings we can't just pull in right so I it really rests with me to stop doing it number one but number two also to clarify for people when because I I have some friends who will say I'm just I just really want to get your employment law advice and I often times will say friends at work uh and I will say listen we really really do need to get the employment lawyer involved in this one I haven't practiced in eight years uh so there might be something that I'm not sure about but two um that's that's not my job that's not why I'm here is someone that's here so let me help you and let me pull in that person and I I just want to acknowledge that that difficult, right? Because it's not in our nature to say no at work, is it? It's in our nature to be like, "Of course, I got this." Yes. Yes. You're proving yourself at the beginning. You're proving yourself in the middle. You're not wanting to say no and uh and have any issues with anybody. But I think that's a boundary that you do. You do have to set and you have to do it over and over again until it becomes wrote, right? And if you can't think of it from your own perspective of what you're doing for yourself, then think of it for the person who is doing that job. And I don't know if you have an in-house person or they're trying to save money. My guess is they're probably trying to save money and have you do that, too. Um, but I think you have to make it clear that that's not that's not your role, number one. But number two, that's it might not be the best legal way of going about that because you're not doing that type of work anymore and you're not up on everything that's happening in that world. So hopefully some of that was helpful to you. That is a tough one and believe you me, I have been there and struggled with it. And this is a fun statement that came from Clarissa when you were talking about being um authentic. and she says, "I have a 13-year-old car that will never die. I take Ubers so one friend group doesn't see my car." Well, uh, you know, we we all do what works. Uh, we all do what works for us, right? But, um, but but I I I think they probably know and I think we have time and everyone Nicole is staying with us for our next panel discussion today. So, I think we've got I know I saw one more question in here. Oh, I have one. This one from Lauren says, "I think that I'm authentic, but I know I'm not confident. How have you learned to show confidence in your leadership abilities?" Lauren, all right, you're going to make me earn my key, work hard today. I love that question. Um, one thing I think is tied into that is the loving yourself part of it, right? Um, if you truly do believe and your powers, whatever, it's a little easier to show that confidence. I think also it's helpful to have someone in the workplace who can help build you up. So, I don't know if you have some sort of mentor or sponsor or somebody that can be supportive to you in helping you to stand up and stand out. And then the other thing I would say, and I think I had this in my notes and I forgot to say, yes, it's uncomfortable to speak up and speak out. It's never I I have a I'm the mouth, right? So, I I have this tension for doing so in a meeting and yes, I question myself afterwards, but I do it anyway, right? And so the more you I'm go to a fitness thing, right? Exercise that muscle of speaking up, of standing up, of advocating for yourself, right? So it could be pushing for that promotion or that raise. You're going to feel a little scared when you do that, right? But do it anyway because that growth into being a more confident executive, a more competent person is in the discomfort, right? If you stay where you are in the comfort, then you're keeping yourself small. The growth and the showing up bigger and better and more effective and more you is in stepping up and standing out. I'll tell you, I don't go to a meeting where I don't speak. I don't. You got to speak. You got to say something. You got to ask a question. You've got to make a comment on something. And the more you speaking up, I think the more you'll build that confidence. and you have a place in that room and you have a voice and you should be heard. Very well said. Thank you so much. Well, so do you have any So, as I said, Nicole's going to stay with us for our panel, but do you have any final thoughts on this topic before we move to our final panel of the day? I think some of the the comments and uh questions I think are going to come up uh in this final panel, but I guess my final thought would be the same as I was I was just saying. your your leadership, your showing up as who you truly are, your unique self, it's going to have impact. And I I just assume all of us are on this women leadership summit because we want to have impact, right? So if you want that, how do we get you to the next step of really showing up as your true self? And that's what I'd say as my final thought. Well, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. Absolutely.