32. The Power of Story for Healing and Transformation with Lori Gasca

Imagine the transformative power of your own story - the trials, the triumphs, the lessons learned. This week, we invite you to do just that as we sit down with empowerment coach and lifelong entrepreneur, Lori Gasca, for a deep and powerful discussion.

Lori shares her inspiring journey from operating a successful co-working space for women to emerging as an influential speaker. Together, we discover how these non-negotiable elements lay the groundwork for personal growth and entrepreneurial success.

We also talk about the upcoming Growth Summit, a safe space for women to achieve transformation and growth. Join us in this episode and let's take your vision to new heights.

 

Join us in THE GROWTH SUMMIT 2024 using my discount code "VISION" and get $30 OFF! Click HERE to learn more.

 

What You'll Learn From this Episode:

• The role of setting personal boundaries and nurturing self-love in personal growth.

• The power of vulnerability and the need for a safe space to share stories and release shame.

• The importance of recognizing our worth and learning to courageously say "no."

• The healing and transformative power of personal storytelling.

• Insights into the Growth Summit, a platform created for women to connect and achieve transformation.

   

Featured on the Episode:

• The Growth Summit

 

Lori Gasca's Bio:

Lori is a lifelong entrepreneur and successful business woman.

She hung up her corporate marketing career back in 2003 to come home and be a mom to their 4, now grown, children.

Her heart's desire is to help women understand their true value so they can make a bigger impact.

Once her children were in school, she joined a network marketing company and her team grew to over 7,ooo members with sales topping five million per year.

Upon seeing a need for some local moms, she founded the non-profit "Moms Helping Moms Texas"

August 2019 she opened a female-focused coworking space, The Grove Creative Workspace for Women, to offer a supportive, nurturing community for women ready to launch a dream, grow existing ventures, and be a part of a sisterhood.

 And, launching soon is The Hub: Connecting Christian Women for those who are ready to make a Kingdom impact not only in their own life, but in their family, community and world.

 

If you want to find out more about how coaching with me will help you get in touch with your dreams and start living them, here are some resources for you.

Book a Free Strategy Call  Click here to book a call with me

Get my Free Course  Click Here to learn How to Get 10 Hours Back a Week

Get my Free Workbook Click here to download  How to Coach Yourself

 

Listen to the Full Episode:

 

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FULL TRANSCRIPT PDF

Full Episode Transcript:

📍 You're listening to The Success Minded Woman with Deidrea Keisling, episode 32. Today is a very special episode where I talk with Lori Gasca all about the power of story for healing and transformation. Lori is a lifelong entrepreneur, having had her first taste and desire for business at the young age of six.

When she offered to help at the local corner store in the small Texas town, where she grew up and after all four of her kids were in school, she joined a network marketing company and grew her team to 7, 000 members with sales of 5 million a year. So, she knows a thing or two about success and business, but she wanted more, not more money, but connection with women to follow her passion and purpose to help women live their best life.

She created The Grove, a co-working space for women in the Woodlands, Texas, and that is where I met her and held my last two-person vision workshops earlier this year. Lori is on a mission in this next phase of her life to help women break free of the hurts and hangups so that they can bravely pursue their passion and purpose.

And as an empowerment coach and speaker, Lori shares her message and her valuable life lessons, wherever she is, small gatherings of women or on large stages or one on one with her coaching. Her message is the same. Embrace your story. Heal your past. You are a child of God, and you were meant for greatness.

In today's episode, Lori shares the power of story and how that has helped her and now how she helps other women to empower themselves to live their best life and stay tuned to the very end, because I'm going to share with you all the details of the upcoming Growth Summit. Lori and I talk about it throughout the episode.

And at the end, I will share with you a special invitation and a special link for a discount. It's a gift from me to you. I would love to see you there on Friday, January 26 just down the road from me in Conroe, Texas. So, stay till the very end and I'll give you all the details.

Hi, I'm Deidrea, wife, and mom to three teenagers, coffee snob, and certified life and business coach. If you're a high-achieving, goal-oriented woman and you know you were meant for more, then you are a success minded woman and you're in the right place. I'm here to help you make the money and the impact you've been dreaming of, to step into your confidence, create habits and systems to support you, ditch that and post your syndrome, and harness the power of your mind. If you're ready to create a life and business you love, then let's go. I'm so glad you're here.

All right. Well, welcome Lori to the podcast. I am so excited to talk with you. We have had some interactions over the past couple of months and every time I briefly chat with you, I'm like, I want to talk to her longer. I agree. So, I'm so happy to do this. So, I'll say a little bit about what I know about you.

And then I'd love for you to share more about your background. Because we just actually just met a couple of months ago, but what I know about you and what I've experienced of you is that you are a connector. You are a powerful connector. And I'm getting goosebumps when I say this because of the ripple effect that you've had in my life.

And in some of the women who have met, who are now clients of mine is magical. And it's all because you have a mission, I think, to empower women, to connect women, you have a natural leadership. And I would say that you have comfort, like people feel comfortable and approachable.

So, I'd love for you to say a little bit about your background and then also kind of your idea of networking and connecting and kind of how you created this network of amazing women that you are drawing us all to.

Lori: Okay, well, first of all, we may just be starting with tears. Thank you. That was so sweet.

Like, literally, that's really kind. And it has been an honor to get to know you the little bit that I've gotten to know you and I look forward to doing that more, which is, you know, the cool thing about intentional networking instead of just trying to get out there and just, you know, throw a wide net, you know, so I guess let's just start.

I grew up in a really tiny town not too far from where you and I are right now. It consists of about 500 people, so when I say tiny it was tiny I don't think it has much more than that now and I've been gone for quite a while. But I have been what I would call a serial entrepreneur most of my life. At a very early age, my little entrepreneurial brain was at work in that town.

And I remember, well, first of all, my home where my parents still live, my mom lived there since she was 12 years old, that same house is only one block off the town square and the town square in cold spring, even way back in the day was where all the business pretty much happened. It's expanded a little bit now down some of the other roads and things, but most everything happened on that little square.

And before we got a proper grocery store, we had the corner store, not Bolero, but an actual old corner store,

Deidrea: Real corner store.

Lori: The original corner store on the corner of that little town, one of the streets, that little main square. And it was actually run by my great aunt and uncle Billy and Uncle Sonny and yeah, and it was sunny to a great uncle.

He was pretty awesome. So, I just love that store. It was kind of magical, especially as a child. And now thinking back on it, like. As an adult, it still feels magical in my mind because I would go in and you can, if you've ever been in an old country story, you can hear the squeak of the door and the rattle of the bell in your brain right now.

When I say that, probably have it opening up and you go in and it's kind of damp and dank because it's probably full, you know, it's so old, but there was this giant wheel of cheese. Then we called it rat cheese. So, I'm sure it was some kind of cheddar, and he would slice a piece off and give it to me.

So, in around 1976, 1977, I'm 53 to save you the math. I was about six or seven at the time. I remember, for whatever reason, I think I was born with this desire to have a business and to make money. And I remember still at that time, it was relatively safe for children to kind of roam. And we kind of had free reign of that little town, walking across the street and around the corner and you know, sliding up to their counter that hit me about my chest and said, I want a job here. I want to work here.

And they did what you did. They laughed at me, and I was like, so offended. I feel that in my core right now. How many years later? Like, oh, my gosh, I feel that. And I still remember so many things. It was like a core memory for me. And of course, I would chuckle to have a 6- or 7-year-old walk in and say, I want a job.

You know, I would think, oh, how sweet and chuckle. But I thought I was so qualified, like, yeah, so like the next week I get a book in the mail how children make money, and I was like, well, that's even worse. That's like pouring salt in the wound, you know, like, I'm not a child or whatever.

Deidrea: So, did that book just come to you or did you order it?

Lori: They sent it, they sent it to me because it was just a sweet thing. And now, looking back on it as an adult, you're like, oh, that was so sweet. Like, they were really trying to encourage me. And, you know, that's really what we should be doing right with everybody. I guess that's kind of a lesson for us to think of the young ones in our life that might need that kind of encouragement.

So, I'll pay that forward. But I remember a few years later, I don't know how many years later, I cleaned out my room, cleaned out my toys, my closet, things I didn't use. And I took them to the resale shop. That was 2 doors down from the corner store, and they literally set up an account for me. I sold my things, and I made money and so I was like, wow, you know, as an entrepreneur, having your own business or your own thing, your own dreams.

Sometimes the door closes and sometimes the door opens. And I think one of the most crucial mindsets of an entrepreneur is to be solutions oriented and not let no stop us. So, just a fun little story of the way I started out, but I literally have worked with entrepreneurial women.

Most of my life in various forms or, you know, different jobs, different positions, different entrepreneurial type activities. And I think that's what I see and have seen over time is that one, I don't like networking. I don't like that word. I don't like what it means. I like connection. And we haven’t mentioned this yet, but you'll probably have in your show notes.

I founded The Grove workspace for women that recently closed in September 2023. And that's a true testament that something doesn't have to be bad to walk away from it because it was really amazing.

Deidrea: It was amazing. It was an amazing place. So, it was a called The Grove, which is where I met you a coworking space for women that I did some workshops there.

I did some of my vision workshops there right before, like, the last two months that it was open, my son came with me to help facilitate in my workshops. He does the timing and the music and it's so fun to have him participate. But when we walked in there, he's like, mom, I feel like I'm walking into a Pinterest photo.

It was this, like, you felt like you were just home. If you like those kinds of Pinterest aesthetic, it was very like female and inspiring and just this beautiful, beautiful space.

Lori: So funny that you say that because I truly still have the Pinterest board from when I was planning The Grove. I'll just share it with you so you can show it to your son.

But my friend, she just naturally has a gift for designing another one of those connection moments. We lived across from each other for about 10 years and she never done interior designing intentionally, but I would run things by and she's like, oh, do this do that. The first time she came into The Grove, she said oh, my gosh, this is your vision board, and I was like, okay, we check, we did it.

So that was, you know, that's pretty cool, but I just know all the years of working with different women. There are some things that I have seen and now I would say at my a little wiser age. Things that I would love to help other women who are trying to do their own thing and start their own business.

Deidrea: Which you've got that history of doing that a couple of times before you're like, okay, it's done.

Lori: Yeah. Only five times. Five times the charm, but that's what I want to do. There are some pitfalls that we fall into as entrepreneurs and just women really in general, because a lot of times we put ourselves on the back burner. That I really want women to just it, you don't necessarily have to quit what you're doing.

If it's not working, you may just have to shift a little bit. You may just have to have some simple shifts in the way that you're showing up to have that breakthrough that you're looking for.

Deidrea: And one of the things that I found in my coaching, Misty Hassenstab and I created a coaching curriculum around called Her Mindset Matters REI and this initial program that she and I developed together.

And now she does it on her own, but about helping women get into real estate investing. And one of the things that was an unexpected result after the first couple of times we did that is that women would decide that they, it wasn't for them, you know? And I felt like that's a win, right? Then I can take that course and get in it and go, you know what? This isn't for me.

There's something else. And that's what I love about, you know, The Grove and all the things that you help women with connection is that to help them really solidify what they want, what women want, what they want, instead of what they think they should do right.

Lori: Yeah, and I do think that we all have that desire and dream in our heart that has been there since maybe we were a little girl who walked in a store and asked for a job.

And it's gotten covered up with layers, just layers of life and hurt and trauma and rejection and just really good things. It can be covered up with children and raising your family. And then you come to an age. I know I'm 53. I said, but when I was starting to turn 50, looking at 50, I was in the middle of my 49th year.

I was like, wow, this is a pivotal year. Like, and it, I don't know if it hits everybody like that, but for me, it was kind of like, I truly have lived half my life. I mean, unless I lived over a hundred, I had 106 now, you know, I've lived more than half my life. So that's kind of an aha, wake up.

What am I going to do with the next half of my life? That's different than the first half. Not that the first half was bad, but man, like what am I truly stepping into that the passion is going to be a legacy when I'm gone.

Deidrea: And that's really what you're stepping into now, right? This next metamorphosis of you.

We talked about The Grove and that was this beautiful coworking space for women and where women had a lot of connection and community. And like you said, you left that at the top, there was, you know, still flourishing and successful, but you made a decision to move on to the next phase of your life.

And that sounds like that was one of those things, those turning stepping stones of like, what do I really want to do with the rest of my life? Or what am I being called to do now? And one of the things that I've seen and heard from you just in the couple of months that I've known you is that you're really feeling this call to share your story to inspire other women to empower themselves with their story.

And I would love to know more about that, how you came to do that sort of mindset around closing The Grove and going to this next phase of your life. And really, it sounds like you're being really intentional with sharing your story as another way of being of service and creating connection.

Lori: I think like everyone, our stories are not just 1D, they're 3D, you know, they're multi, they're multidimensional.

Because I think what happens is we do get stuck on one aspect of our story, and it's usually a part of our story where someone or something has impacted our self-worth or our value or our confidence, and that kind is where we may get stuck in it, and I'm a big believer in, if you aren't continually working through your story, you are stuck in it.

And I just think that there's somebody out there who needs to hear our stories, Yeah, and your story is different than mine.

My story is different than yours. And not everybody's going to resonate with my story or yours but being willing to be transparent and show up authentically, I think is what gives other people the permission to do that. And I really did not, I thought I was doing that before I started to grow, but I realized I was not, I was pretty buried.

My authentic self was pretty buried and when that started shaking loose and I started peeling back those layers, it didn't make everybody happy, because I was in an organization with where I was leading a ginormous team in direct sales, and I don't think everybody was really happy about that shit for me, but that's something that we have to own too, is that when we start setting healthy personal boundaries for ourself. The people who, and I'm not saying these women all did this, but just a few are in my brain in my memory.

The people who misuse the boundaries the most are the ones who are going to be the most upset by you putting your own boundaries up, but you really can't start to share your story or start to get real with things until you have those personal boundaries, because you have to be in a safe space. You have to feel safe to be able to share your story.

Deidrea: And I think one of the things about sharing your story, and I think it will evolve over time, right? The more lessons and layers that you peel back of that, you will get more, I think, clarity and insights. But one of the things I think about the power of story, and one of the things I think about sharing your story is you have to be a certain way through it, right?

You have to have sort of mind the lessons and go through that personal experience and kind of come through the other side to a certain extent to be able to share it in a way that can make an impact with other people. What do you think about that?

Lori: I know. I 100% agree with that in the past couple months since then, you know, I've been kind of shifting things.

I actually took a couple of speaking courses because I do desire to be speaking a whole lot more. And I thought, you know, we're never, even though I've spoken so much over the years, most of my life. We can always learn, and we can always hone our skills and whatnot. So, I started taking these classes and that's something that one that really resonated with me is that a guy.

One of the points he made in the class was your story can't still be so raw that you can't share it impactfully. Because there's a point some of my story is painful. So, there's a point where you have to get where you have truly given and received forgiveness, almost really, to get to that point where you can share it with emotion, but without it still controlling you, does that make sense?

Deidrea: You don't want to be sort of experiencing it while you're sharing.

Lori: Oh, my gosh, that is exactly right. You said that so much better. That's exactly the thing for sure. I mean, I think there needs to be a little distance.

Deidrea: I love what you said about it, this is my story, and you have a story, and someone needs to hear your story.

And what I love about that is that we all take in different speakers and different, you know, information in different ways, even if it's kind of very similar stories. And I love that. It's one of the reasons why it's so important for all of us to share our story to a certain extent, even if it's just with ourselves and with our close friends of being open and honest about your experiences and what you've learned from them and how you've grown from them instead of being stuck in it.

And I believe that that's really the difference between living in sort of a victim mentality of being a victim of the circumstances of your life and being stuck in that sort of victim story versus coming from empowerment, right? And being empowered from your story and mining the lessons and then sharing those.

And I love that because that's another area where you are such a connector of women and a facilitator for stories to be shared. And to be received in, can you tell, I know I'm kind of going all around, but can you tell us about The Growth Summit? So that's another area that you really expanded and created a platform for connection and community and women sharing their stories and their experiences and their skill sets.

So, you did the first Growth Summit last year and now it's coming. So, tell us a little bit about how that started and what kind of we can expect this year.

Lori: Let's back up just a little bit and I will share with you guys. If we get back around this a little bit about how my story came to me getting comfortable sharing it.

But I will say, every time we start to do something new, say, start a new business, you know, you've experienced that. But every time we start to start a new business. And there's a level of fear that's associated with it, right? Just anxiousness. Like, is this going to work? Like, I'm investing money.

What could go wrong? And all the things. So, there's a level of fear. So, when I started The Grove, I had that fear. I remember that decision being so hard. Like, am I going to do this? Am I really going to open like a brick and mortar? Like, really me? Like, am I going to do this? And I remember literally having this conversation with myself and saying, okay, look, the size of the loan that you had to take out was nothing more than just a midsize car.

So, if this doesn't work out, you know, you're just going to pay the car off. You know, like, you're just going to pay the girl. So, I did it. And then I was like, oh, my gosh, I did that. So, you, your threshold of what you can take on grows. When you start taking steps in fear, you know, and you're like, I'm going to do this in spite of fear with fear, dragging fear, I don't care.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to make myself do it. So, that's how the growth was. Then it came time, well prompting kept saying, no, you're going to have, you're going to have a summit, you're going to have this place. And that's been a dream forever.

But in my other business, I used to have these giant seminars, 500 women and men, whatever it was mixed in, but it was for a product. Like, they weren't there for me because I was the leader of the team, but we were selling a product. So, the company really provided the content and the samples and all that stuff. So, when it came time for the summit and having that and decided to pull the trigger on that was like, I don't have a product. It's literally me.

Like, is anybody going to believe enough in me and what I'm putting out there to come? You know, like, it was so scary. It wasn't even financial commitment or anything.

The Grove, it was just that intense. Like, am I going to be able to do this? And it ended up being one of the best days of my life so far. Like, literally, it was just such validation and so many lives truly were changed. And I have been looking forward to January 26, 2024 since January 7, 2023, the day after the last summit.

And so, yeah, it's amazing. That's been my dream to have a place where women will gather with completely open arms, completely open arms, open hearts, knowing that we are all coming into that room totally different. We have different political views, different religious beliefs, different marital situations, different upbringings, different colors of skin, different, all these things.

And it's a pleasant matter. That's what the summit is about. And that's why it's The Growth Summit because really the whole world should be learning from The Growth Summit, right? And those women who come in just oh my goodness, just wanting their sister in that room to be successful and succeed as much or more than they do.

And that's what we do. We have three main pillars of the summit. We have business. So, we teach you really, I make sure that people, the women coming to teach business sections are not going to just teach at you. They are going to teach you skills that you're going to be able to go and implement.

You can even start that day in their session implementing. So, we've got the business, we've got marketing, same thing. Let's make this applicable right now. We can implement. No pie in the sky, no big dollar programs. Let's do what's going to get the grassroots marketing that's going to make our business successful.

And then the third one is you as in the third person.

Deidrea: You as all of you of us.

Lori: You as in all of you, all of us. And it's just being able to become the best version of you. And I do not want one woman to walk in that room one way and not leave changed. You have to come prepared to change and to be prepared to open, be open and, and willing, but I promise you're going to come, you're going to leave changed.

Deidrea: Yeah. I like to call it transformational willingness to have that willingness. Of possibility of transformation of, like you said, exactly walking in one woman and walking out transformed, being more connected to who you are really want to be. And that's what I love about The Growth Summit. Women coming together and learning and teaching and connecting and communicating.

And I didn't know anything about The Growth Summit. Last year I didn't know you. I didn't know The Growth Summit. I didn't know about the group. I didn't know about anything. And that's one of the things that I think is so powerful is how much can change in a year that I am now. I have a podcast. I'm talking with you on the podcast.

I’m so grateful that you've selected me to be one of the speakers at the summit. And I didn't even know you last year. And that was one of the ripple effects of The Growth Summit because I found out about you from someone who had been at The Growth Summit because I saw a picture of it and I was like, what is that? Where is that? Why wasn’t I invited?

Lori: You were invited. You just didn't get the invitation.

Deidrea: Everyone was raving about it, people would rave about like going to a Tony Robbins event or going to some of these big events. I heard women say it was better than that.

It was the best I'd ever been to. I think Camille Davis said that this was better than some of the big-name events that she had been to. And why do you think that is? Why do you think that women walked away with that level of transformation of enthusiasm and connection?

Lori: I'm going to say and this is such cliche, but we were just raw and we were just real.

I mean, I broke down sobbing at one point on the stage and one of the activities we were doing and the women who were there last year when I share my story, they'll know why now, because when I share it. But I had to have Shaundra Dineen, who was our keynote, come up on stage and finish it for me because I was like, I, I couldn't get through it.

It was a really powerful exercise that we did, standing for your sister's scars is what I call it. And it was just so impactful. And I think I've talked to the speakers this year. My charge for the speakers who come to the summit to not just like I said, teach at people, but to connect the way we connect is through our story.

So, even if you're sharing how to do X, Y, Z, there's a reason why you're passionate about that. There's a reason where maybe you've succeeded in this, or you failed in this, but we have to show up and share that. So that women know they're not alone, they're not alone in their pain, they're not alone in their scars, they're not alone in their fear, they're not alone in this journey that we call life.

And even if it's just for one day that we're all in a room together and we can look in each other's faces with tears or with laughter or whatever it is, and just recognize like I see her in me.

Deidrea: I think that's one of the big things for all of us. When you go through this process that you've gone through of healing, reflection, breaking through and sharing your story and then changing the story, rewriting the story, that's how we can help other people, right?

Because they're going to recognize something in you. And that's how I believe that we change our identity to become more of who we really are without that story. I always like to say, you pick the good parts and leave the rest.

Lori: Yeah. And you know what? You use those parts as stepping stones. Launch yourself from those places. Use that to elevate yourself to the next thing. And you know that I have one tattoo on my body, and I may have more. I don't know, they're kind of addictive.

But for now, I have one and it says I got it on my 51st birthday two years ago, and it says, this is my story.

And it's an old hymn. I don't know. Blessed Assurance is the hymn, and that's part of the course, but I didn't really have any idea two years ago, the depth of the magnitude of having that actually tattooed on my body that at this point in time, it would carry and hold, like, it's on my writing hand, I intentionally put it on my writing hand because I, every time I write and write my book, my story, whatever it is, I see it, this is my story, I get to choose what I do with it, I get to choose how I use it.

Yeah, the truth will set you free. That's what I know.

Deidrea: What do you think was the biggest lesson that you gained from going through that from sharing your story and from going through the process of healing through your story and now where you are now?

Lori: I think the biggest lesson is that anything that we keep covered up.

It's going to come out in some way, it's going to come out through anxiety, which I don't have dealt with most of my life, adult life, for sure, anxiety, depression, less than thoughts, you know, it's going to come out, it could come out in a physical illness. It's going to eventually fester, but it's not dealt with, and so the freedom that I have felt in the few months just writing this down and actually, and I will pause and say, I have worked through a lot of it over 40 years but writing this down and just something about taking it from here to paper releases you.

Deidrea: Well, and I think that for me, I believe that it all comes down to self-love does self-love, which creates self-trust. And safety and protection, and then the more love you have inside of you, then the easier it is to say no, to say yes or no for what you really want, for what you really believe and what you stand for.

Lori: And be able to speak up for that, right? Like being able to stand up for yourself and that it's all about understanding your value. And if you don't understand your value, you can't really love yourself, right?

Deidrea: Yeah. And I think that's one of the things that for women, especially like women that would come to The Growth Summit, women that have an entrepreneurial piece, whether that's to make money or just to have impact, create a nonprofit, whatever it is to have some creative expression in the world.

This is part of the work that I like to tell my clients sometimes you pay now or pay later.

Lori: It's a hundred percent part of the work. It's that you have to come through. It's a hundred percent. It is 100% what has to happen. And that's not what people want to hear. They really don't want to hear that because we don't want to feel the pain.

We don't want to feel, we don't want to go through the journey of working through stuff that we've buried so deeply. We think that's not going to be there anymore. But it's there, you know.

Deidrea: Well, I know that by you sharing that piece of your story here on the podcast, that's helping someone that there's someone listening right now that needs to hear that and that you're helping them. And I would say giving them permission to be vulnerable to themselves and, and trust themselves enough to explore that.

And whatever way that is with a friend, with a therapist, with a coach, but to share that out loud with another human, I think that that is so powerful. And because that is how I believe that's the first step in releasing shame is to bring it to the light.

Lori: A hundred percent. I totally agree with you on that.

And there is a right and wrong way to share. Yeah, like this, right? Because if it's going to cause and there's a lot of pain to someone else in sharing your story. We can't do it just to dump it off of us onto someone else. You know, so I've been through counseling and therapy and have trusted, trusted friends that I've shared with before I ever got to a place where I ever thought I could share publicly.

So, you don't just, not everyone deserves to hear your story and not every story deserves to be on a stage. It shouldn't be, you know, so there's. There are right and wrong ways to share it, but there's someone in your life that I am quite certain most of us listen or anyone has a trusted source, they have someone that they know that they can go to and share.

And that's step one, you know, find, find the trusted source that you can share with. Find a counselor, find a therapist, find a coach like, like you or whomever, because I'm sure you could walk, walk women through this too.

Deidrea: So yeah, a safe space for sure. And I think that that's the first step, right?

Because I think, you know, we were talking about entrepreneur, you know, entrepreneurial journey and that a lot of the women that you support and connect with and speak to are in some level of entrepreneurship. And anything that is impacting your identity or sort of a negative perception of yourself or something that you are feeling shame about is holding you back because you can only, I believe achieve to the level that you have self-love appreciation, gratitude.

I think that's always the limit. That we can't outperform, there's a book, Maxwell Malt says that we, you can't outperform your self-image. And so, you're always going to be blocked by who you think you are. And that story is always part of it. So, the more that you can learn, love yourself, empower yourself, believe in yourself, forgive yourself.

I mean, it's connected to the level of success that you can have in the world and I believe that's why it's so important and everything. I really do believe that everything goes back to self-love

Lori: Yeah, and I think you know my faith, I would have known how loved I was if I didn't know how loved I was by God. And so, it's taken me most of my life just getting to know how much he loves me and how he sees me to make me see that I am worthy, I am whole, you know, I can love myself.

Deidrea: Oh, it's so beautiful. I mean, you are such an inspiration. With you sharing your story with the platform that you're creating for other women to share their story with. I believe you're just a connector. I think you're just a natural connector and everyone feels safe in your presence. I really feel that I can see even when you're talking like that.

When you were kind of doing some introductions at The Grove, like when you're talking, everyone is really like leaning in and focusing because you're just so you're just such a natural inspirer, like connector. And so, I believe that's one of the reasons why the summit was so successful last year, because I think that you spread your energy and all of that.

And even who you attract as attendees, who you attract as speakers, I'm so excited about it because I know that it's going to be a very powerful transformative day. If you could say your biggest vision or goal for The Growth Summit, what would it be?

Lori: Transformation. That's the one-word transformation. That sums it up. I want you to be transformed into who you're worthy of being, you know, and that that's the biggest thing I would say.

Deidrea: I love that. And I talk about that in with my clients is that transformational willingness. So being willing to experience the transformation and I think at the summit, it's such a safe space that it makes women comfortable to do that.

And I believe there's two pieces to transformation repetition, which is, you know, immersion and content and you know, connection and community and podcasts and coaching and therapy and whatever, all of that is repetition and then immersion, which is going deep. You know, in a community, which is what The Growth Summit is.

And it takes both of those things. And so, what I love too, is that this is in January. So, it's such a great way to set the stage for a breakthrough year for the transformation for everyone who attends.

Lori: You know, there's two, kinds of women. There are the women who have already bought their ticket.

Like as soon as they went on sale, they're like, I got to have my ticket. Those are the planners. And then there's the women who are going to be January 5th going, it's already 2024 I do something, give me a ticket, you know, so be one of those women. That's me. Like, just do it.

Now, Deidrea has a code for you actually to get a discount and it’s VISION.

Deidrea: Because I'm going to talk about vision, which is what I love to talk about. It's creating a vision and living in it. So, yeah.

Lori: That's awesome.

Deidrea: I think it's so appropriate to have a quote for that one of my favorite quotes. I ask all my podcast guests to share a favorite quote with us.

Lori: So, I hope I get it right. It's one of the favorite things I've ever heard in my life and it's “be the change you want to see in the world”. Gandhi. But just be the change that you want to see. And that's where I'm living my life right now is that I want to be the change for a woman who is stuck in her trauma or who's stuck in her past in any way.

That's it. Oh, if we all make it, we all make an effort to be the change, right? The world would be such a different place.

Deidrea: So, well, and it always all starts with us anyways. Yeah, I love that. So, I have a final question for you, Lori, as we wrap up. What does success mean to you? Or how do you define success?

Lori: We did briefly touch on that, and I would definitely say success to me. It means no matter what, there's peace in my heart. No matter what I make, no matter how much money, my circumstances, whatever. There's just an underlying peace in my heart and yeah, that's it.

Deidrea: Yeah. I love it. That's beautiful.

I think I have a similar feeling about that. That passes all understanding. It's just that level of, I believe, like connection with yourself, with God. I love that.

Lori: That's the only way I can have peace. That's the only way, you know, because life is lifey.

So, if you have your peace rooted in the right thing. You can have peace in the storms. That's my life goal.

Deidrea: Well, thank you so much, Lori, for being on the podcast. I know we could just talk for hours. That's how we are, you know, that's how you know, you found a like-minded woman, which we all are here on the podcast.

So, thank you so much. I want to thank you for reminding me to submit my application to be a speaker. And then accepting my application and I'm so honored and excited. And it is part of my dream to be a speaker. So, thank you for being part of my dream come true. And I am so excited about The Growth Summit.

And I just want to say like so much can change in a year. I didn't even know you a year ago. I didn't even know about The Growth Summit. And now I'm connected with so many women that were in The Growth Summit. I mean, just in so many different communities now that all came out of that. So, for anyone listening, this is worth a trip.

So, if you're not in the Houston area or the Texas area, like this is worth a plane ticket, a hotel room. This is a destination conference that you want to attend.

Lori: Yeah, so if you are coming from out of town, I live in the woodlands and the conference is in Conroe. There's a little neighboring town in a hotel in the woodlands.

Enjoy just having a weekend here. You can come on day 2. You can come to the level up day with me and Lonnie Jackson, who's my business coach, it's an all-day intensive where we're going to take all that you learned and we're going to actually help you implement because how many of us go to conferences and trainings and we get all these notes and all the things and we do nothing with it.

And the last thing I want someone to do is pay for this ticket and then do nothing, do nothing with what they learned. So yeah.

Deidrea: Information without action. It's just entertainment. Oh, I like it. Because I say knowledge. That's my quote. That's from my mentor, Mary Morrissey, but that's what she says.

Lori: I love it because, you know, your people say knowledge is power and mine is knowledge is not power unless you implement it, and knowledge is just wasted brain space and I don't have enough brain space to waste.

So, let's just make sure what we're putting in there is important, and we're going to actually implement it and make changes to it.

Deidrea: I love that. Well, I'll put the links in the show notes for the summit with my discount code that you'll get, and then there's an option to do the second day, the workshop, which is really more hands on and experiential.

So, I'm so excited. Thank you so much, Lori, for everything that you do in the world for all of us, helping us, supporting us to grow.

So yes, see us both at The Growth Summit. Bye!

I have a special invitation for you. Join me at The Growth Summit on January 26, 2024. This is an all-day event where you will connect with other women.

We will spend a full day nurturing and loving on you while giving you tools to create wild success in 2024. I am excited and honored to be a featured speaker and I would love to see you there. This isn't just a regular old business conference. We are after the heart of women and we want to reach you on a soul level and have you walk out feeling uplifted, encouraged, and equipped to joyfully face your new year.

And we will help you fully embrace your value. So, you can dream big, have flourishing relationships, and leave an abundant life of impact. When you leave The Growth Summit, your heart will feel like it has been wrapped up in a big warm hug. So, give yourself this day to pause, be treasured. Pour into an equipped to thrive in your new year.

So go to thegrowthsummit.info and use your special discount code that I have for you and get $30 off with the code vision, all capital letters. V I S I O N. So go ahead and sign up, use your discount code, and there's also a payment plan available. We don't want anyone to miss out on this. So, the regular price is 229, but you get a $30 discount with the code, and there's also a payment plan available.

And if you would love more hands-on support and an actionable plan to implement what you've learned, then connect with us on the second day, which is an in person intimate group of women where we will really go deep on what we've learned in The Growth Summit. I would love to see you there.

Thanks for joining me this week on The Success Minded Woman Podcast. If you like what you heard on the podcast, and you want to know more, then head on over to www.thedreamacademy.com where you can sign up for my weekly success and mindset tips to help you create your dream come true life. Talk to you all next week. Bye.

Thanks for joining me this week on The Success Minded Woman Podcast. If you like what you heard on the podcast, and you want to know more, then head on over to www.thedreamacademy.com where you can sign up for my weekly success and mindset tips to help you create your dream come true life. Talk to you all next week. Bye.