Podcast #7 Summer Camp Takeaways

In this episode, you get to hear me and three of my friends, Del Friday, Vonne Jacobs, Megan Whiteside discuss our experience at Summer Camp which was held virtually at Miraval, Austin Texas, hosted by Heather Hubbard, founder of Simple Courage.

We all went to the same Summer Camp but every one of us had a different takeaway, and I’m so excited to get to share with all of you what each of us took away from it.

First, we discuss Megan’s takeaway to be you unapologetically. How we show up in business and in life, we need to get comfortable being uncomfortable and being vulnerable and being ourselves unapologetically. And that's really how we tap into our superpowers, and how we are going to make an impact. NOT by trying to conform to someone else's standards, or what we think others expect of us.

Secondly, we discuss Del’s takeaway to unplug your work from praise and criticism. It starts with eighth grade painting, and then Instagram posts, where everyone is looking at your work, and you might not get enough likes. One of the key takeaways we learned from this was by watching Heather put this whole event together. Her clients, her people, really didn’t want to have a virtual Summer Camp. There was complaining, and people not wanting to be on it. But we watched her keep pushing herself, keep persevering regardless of what everyone said. And it was so inspiring to see her keep going for something and not care what other people thought, she was going for her dream, and it turned out amazing!

And thirdly, Vonne’s takeaway that we are capable of such great things but we don’t always give ourselves space to believe that and to act on it. This event reminded us that we are capable of amazing things if we put ourselves out there and do them! And also, your people are enough to sustain you and your dream. Be you for your people. 

We also talk about the importance of really being present and focusing on what tasks we have in front of us, and not trying to multitask and do everything at once, but really be in the moment.

Summer Camp was full of speakers showing up being fearless, bold, and vulnerable and it inspired us to do the same! Heather not only created this event, but showed us how to do the same.

This episode is jam packed with so much goodness, I hope you enjoy!

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• Episode #6: Simple Courage

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello ladies. And welcome to this special edition of the summer camp takeaways. Would you ladies please introduce yourselves and then we'll, we'll jump right into all of the takeaways and the fun that we had. We'll talk all about Heather's summer camps. So I'm going to go to Megan first and then Vaughn and then Del Megan. Hi, I'm Megan Whiteside. I'm a plaintiff's personal injury attorney in Washington, DC and Maryland. And I'm excited to be here, Mia. Thanks for coming fun. Hi, I'm Vaughn Jacobs. I am principal and founder affairs, healthcare consulting. I am in Durham, North Carolina, and I'm dealt Friday. I'm an estate planning lawyer and basically Canada and I primarily work with elders, vendor, caregiver. Awesome. Yeah, we didn't plan this. Like I don't just know attorneys. So and, and like, you guys are also, you're, we're all co clients.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
You're co clients of mine and Heather's right. Yeah. That's how we all met. So this is what I want us to talk about today. So we all had, we all attended this thing called summer camp that our friend Heather Hubbard put on and it was amazing. Like it was so amazing. And I was like, Heather, I need to interview you. And I'm also going to interview these ladies and we're going to talk about takeaways. So that's the reason for us being here today. And I kind of wanted to share how, how we all have different perspectives, but we all had different takeaways, but with the main, this is going to probably be a thread throughout. And I have no idea because I haven't asked these ladies anything yet, but we're going to talk about our experience there and then what we took away. So I'm going to go to Megan first again.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Sure. Could you share your takeaway with us and then we'll kind of talk about it. So summer camp was awesome. It was spectacular to be virtually in the room with some powerhouse women. And my huge takeaway was to be you unapologetically. There were so many different speakers and workshops and some of the keynotes and the, you know, different women presented their own stories. Dell and Vaughn did which they were spectacular. And the common thread for me throughout is that how we show up in business and in life, we need to get comfortable being uncomfortable and being vulnerable and being ourselves unapologetically. And that's really how we're going to tap into our superpowers, how we're going to make an impact the way we want to and trying to conform to somebody else's standard or what we think other people expect of us is not how we're really going to make an impact. So what I keep coming back

Speaker 2 (03:00):
To every time I think about summer camp, and I look through my notes as I'm trying to implement some new ideas, it's just be you unapologetically. Oh, that's really good. And I want to talk about unapologetically, right? I found myself in the last, I don't know if it was a week or so, where I was with, I had done some, some work with another coach and I had given her access to a program that I created for you guys. And one of her clients sent her an email about the title. So the title had the word bitch in it, and she was upset. Like her client was really upset about it. And so she sent it to me. She was like, Oh, I think we're going to have some pushback about this. And yada, yada, yada. And I started thinking, and so I sent her an email back and I was like, well, what do you want to do? You know? And for me, it was almost like I had all these things running through my mind about what it meant to be me and how I was showing up in that moment and then how she wanted to show up, because we had already talked about it before we sent it out. Right. So she had agreed to the name. And so what does it mean for y'all when you show up unapologetically? So I love that. Megan talked about that. What about, what does that mean for you though?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
I think a lot of it is calling my people to me and then rebelling the people at repelling repelling, pushing away people that are not my people. So that was the nice thing. When you, when you, when you just said that, that's what ran through my head was like, Oh, that's a wonderful thing, because those people are not your people. And it was like, it's almost like a self sign, right? Like an immediate, like, you don't want to work with me because this is how I work and I'm not changing myself to work with you. And yeah, I think I sussed out a way too. And like the other thing that comes to mind is that sometimes the thing that we are most self-concept about is the thing that other people want to be more of, like other things that I don't really like to show people. And yet that's like the essence of me when I do show people, it attracts them, you know, it's not actually pushing them away. Like I thought it would. It's actually the thing that, that calling my people to me. What about you, Yvonne? Yeah, all of this is resonating for me. This was, first of all, summer camp was just freaking amazing. And it reminded me that we are capable of such great things and we don't give ourselves space to believe that. And to, and to act on it, to realize that Heather had this vision of turning something that was supposed to be a small in person

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Gathering into this huge event and then made it happen in like two months was just a big fat reminder to me that I am capable of amazing things if I just put myself out there and do them. And so it was great to see that and have that reminder. And then I just took away a lot of the things that you guys are talking about being, owning your authentic self and letting that be what people see, because like Dell is saying your people are going to be attracted to that and want to be a part of that. And your people are enough to sustain you and your dream. Like I think we get caught up in this idea that, well, there are only going to be two or three people who like that, and that's not going to be enough, but honestly, there are enough of your people to sustain you and your dream and you don't need to worry about, well, I have to have 10,000 people on an email list or I have to have, you know, 25 new private clients come in this month.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
I may only need three people because those three people are going to be so all in that they are going to help propel me into what I want to do next. And right. So I just, it was just this great opportunity to really settle into that and take ownership of that idea and that concept, and then start acting on it, which was my sort of big takeaway was okay, now that you get this, now that you see what it looks like in real time, get to work, like really start doing the work and, and taking these risks because how to take a big risk financially and brand wise and all of that, and look at what she was able to accomplish. And everyone I've talked to that was at summer campus, just in all of, Oh my gosh. And they're all excited. And the impact that she's had by standing on her dream and being like, I can do this. Okay. I want to do that. I want to do that in my own way, in my own space for my own tribe. And so that was my takeaway was get to work.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Oh, I love that. And it, and because she presents it for all of us, and I think that's probably why we even want us to talk about it, right. Because you can actually see it happening in real time. And she actually practice which she was preaching, but I'm not going to jump into that. I'm going to let Dale talk about what her experience was and what she took away from it. My key takeaway I think at first, if you ask me this question first, I would have said one of the big key takeaways was to unplug my work from praise and from criticism. That was one thing I bought from Corey kuru of like things I'd known all along and yet the very nature of our society, like from tickets, I'm like grade eight art class. When everyone looks at your and says, that's good art, that's bad art all the way up to like 10 Instagram posts that no one likes or that Lisa MC thing that you've spent all this time on.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
And no one's reading, like all that stuff. And yet I knew she was right, but you got to keep plugging in. And Heather, a lot of people didn't like this idea to come up with a, doing the virtual online summer camp. Like even in her people like her, like loyal clients are like, I don't want to do it. Right. Like that was like, I, we heard a lot of people complaining. I was like, I don't want to be on it. I don't want to see you keep it. This is not like going in person. I don't want it. Like, there was so much negativity and she just kept persevering and pushing and pushing herself. And yeah. So I got to see that part of her, like how to say, you want to do something and just do it and don't care that other people don't want to do it and just keep doing your own dream.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
And then some people will join you. And then if you do it well at the end of the day, you like, you're doing it for yourself. It was really like, that was a real mind blowing thing for me to watch. And then my other, I didn't have two cases. The other thing that I was blown away with was like, there was all these people who I kind of had put on a pedestal and we got to like spend time with them. I'm like, I got to meet, not the made Brown's lawyer, but through Nate Brown PR people's lawyer, I was two steps away from greeting.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Cause I need Renee Brown for something else.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Okay. So I wasn't, I wasn't Renee Brown and it wasn't really around people, but her people, people that was close enough for me. And you know, like you start to realize I'm like this person participated the entire time. It wasn't an event where people just showed up, did their little bit. And you were so excited just to see them do their little thing. And then they disappeared. No, like Corey Ru was always in my Greenfield rooms from the next time, like every time we go into breakout room, there was Corey who I'm like autumn. Like I kept running into autumn into it, a little breakout rooms. And so I thought that was very cool. And then I also had to check myself cause like, why do I think these people are so sad? It's so cool.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
So you said that though, because like, I have been like LinkedIn stocking Corey for two years and like commenting on her stuff and like all of this and watching her videos and then to be in a room with her where she was acting like a real normal person, instead of this sort of thing that I've created an idea of her on LinkedIn, it was like so awesome. And not that she's not who she is on LinkedIn, but it's like, but I have now direct access to someone who I've been studying honestly for two years. And there were so people,

Speaker 1 (11:54):
So many women who attended, who had been on Heather's former podcast hustle and flow. And that was how I learned about Heather Hubbard. Somewhat. Another lawyer mom had recommended her podcast to me and her podcast was transformative. And then to be in the room with all of these powerhouse women who had been on her podcast, may I included, right. That's how I found Humean is through the hustle and flow podcast. And it was, everybody was real, you know, like you said, Vaughn, you kind of have an idea in your head, you know? Oh my gosh, these women they're so successful. They're so innovative. They're doing these amazing things, but we were all there and we all just dove right in and participated in whatever the activity was or the workshop was. And it just was, it was so uplifting. Like I can do this too. These women are doing it,

Speaker 2 (12:50):
That's it. And when you say participated, that was the difference. Because I have friends who like wanted to come, I got them, the tickets like great price, all those things they were coming and they didn't actually show up. Like you actually had to participate. Like you had to Heather called it, like taking the Brown paper bag off your head, like turn on your camera. You had to like show up and you actually have to go in the breakout room. And then you actually had to do the work and like be there. I remember when you started actually doing the work and saying yes, and I'm like participating, then you suddenly see like, Oh, the reason why the person, people, lawyer is like, she does the work. Like she shows up and asks for the work. Right. There's no other difference. Like, you'd get to see them on a level playing field, like who Corey rude, just does the work and puts it on the world for people to share. And like, it was so uplifting that we could do that too. I have a question for all of you,

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Because I want to know, did you see yourselves in those same people that you've been fan girling and stalking, right. Did you see yourselves in them? I mean, did you see yourselves in them?

Speaker 2 (14:09):
I did. I will say this. I remember exactly when I was like, okay, I can really do this thing. Right. And it was with Corey, right. So I was doing my summer camp, my campfire story. And you know, you can see some of the audience on Zack, you can do on zoom with the panels or whatever. You could see the audience. And I made, there was a line that I gave where I said something about like being the magical Negro in the firm brochure. And Corey jumped up and life started clapping and laughing. And I was like, yes, that was my, like, I don't need anything else. She got me. And that was my, my thing where I was like, okay,

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Well then we are more alike than we are different. Like we, if she got me and she got that line and she was so excited and engaged with that, okay. Then that means that we are, she's not like this all sort of character person, like we are we are really colleagues and compatriots and, and members of the same tribe. And that means that the same kind of great things that Corey is doing, I can do, I can do my version of that on the same kind of scale on the same sort of playing field. Like we are, we are not this very different thing. We are really on the same page with that. And that was how I was like, Oh yeah, I can do.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yes. Yes. And I saw that. So I want to know, did you feel any of that? Did you feel any of that?

Speaker 1 (15:40):
It was an arc, right. And so Heather kind of talked about this. She had a, like a behind the scenes, a zoom afterwards to kind of talk about her vision and how she pulled this all off. And she talked about how she had a vision and for the arc of the event, we're going to start at one place. And she wanted all of us to get somewhere by the end. And it wasn't instantaneous for me. Right. It took those three days. But by the end, you know, some of the, the words that the speakers had said in day one started to click in day three. Right. I attended Amberville Howers, I don't know if it was a workshop or what event zoom event at early on in the summer camp. And she talked about how, the way forward to market yourself or your product or your business is to be vulnerable and open to connection.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Sounds great. Right. That, Oh yeah, that resonates. Okay. I get that, but I didn't really get it until day three when I saw other women being vulnerable, Heather Chauvin Corey kuru, all of the, you know, all of the campfire stories where, you know, people were real and raw and vulnerable, and we really made connections. You know, from, from people who, you know, aren't famous in their industry, you know to people who are, and it was sort of like, by the end, I thought I could do that too. I, I can, if I am my true self, if I'm vulnerable, because I have a vision and I know there are people I want to serve, I can really make those connections. Like, this is scary, but not impossible. So that w it took me the three days that I got there.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Awesome. What about you Dell

Speaker 2 (17:30):
In, in the people that you were, that you held to a different standard or higher yourself? I think the same thing where it took a little bit of time. Cause for, at the very beginning, it's not, I have this feeling like, Oh, do let me do the campfire story because I'm one of her clients. And like, this is like, this is like a perk of being one of the clients. But I didn't realize that it was competitive to get the campfire story and that she had turned people down, like that had never crossed my mind. I just, like, I had not put myself as a peer to any of those people. And then, so as the campfire stories went on, I was like, Oh, my stand up, like, mine is just as good as everybody else's like, I don't think I knew that. And so then, but by the end, like I went from like zero to 100.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
So Jen, Jen, Kim, who was the last speaker, but like mega codes, like the coachable coaches, but yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how you do it. Like I literally had, I could just see how she was doing it, what she was pirating, like how her business works, how she was strategically planting seeds without, for sale later. I like, I could feel the things and I could see why she does it and why it works and how valuable it was. And some of them that could be me. And then I finished and then I needed to lay down for a week.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
It was, but wasn't it also nice to be able to unplug, like, for me, I think I left my phone alone. Like one of the days I didn't even look at my phone and I appreciated the fact. Cause at first I was like three days, like we're supposed to participant cause I was like, I'm going to present and I'm out. And then Heather was like, no, I want you to come. Like you get to a 10. And that's the other part of it. Right. Everybody who was in the room was meant to be there. She, she, she had the people in the room that she wanted in the room. So there was matchmaking going on before she even started. And she talked about that a little bit on the podcast, but the other part was unplugging being present and having to participate, as you said, really helped me to like experience it. Cause that's what it was supposed to be about and experience. And I love the fact that she, she just had all that set up on the front end. Yeah. Perfect.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Her vision is amazing. I mean, that's her brilliance where she, she saw the different topics. You wanted speakers to cover. She saw how they fit together. She was purposeful in, you know, she had us in cabins at the beginning of each day and you know, I bonded with my cabin mates and we still are emailing and we're going to set up our own zoom to kind of go through how we've been implementing what we learned at summer camp. I mean, she was intentional and who she put us in a cabin way. So she thought about each of us and what we bring to the table, which I hadn't considered. I brought anything to the table when I signed up. Right. Like I thought I'm going to get to learn from such amazing women and a few men. But by the end, like Del said, it's like, I can do this. I am here for a reason. I get it. That was pretty cool. That is

Speaker 2 (21:06):
One of the, one of the things about Heather events when you're saying unplugging, right. Was that I knew from the two other events I had attended before the likes of LA, I can remember what you called it. But the first event he usually has, like this kind of three day event, I went to Miami and went to the event with her. And by day two, I was hot rack, like an absolute wreck because she like shook up the whole way. I thought about things. And so I kind of knew that going into her first retreat in Mirabelle, we had in January, it shook out giving me hard. And so I kind of prepared for that. Right. And even on this one, I prepared for it and I was a camp counselor and I knew like day one is gonna be fun. But by the time you get back on Tuesday, you're going to be questioning everything that you think about yourself.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
So on the Tuesday morning when I had my cabin comes together, I was like, I could finally come to be a good counselor the day before was just like, what are your name? How does this tech work? It's not working, but by the few people, you could see people getting transformed. And it's not an easy thing to be transformed. Like I find it and you have to create the space. So I was still happy. I knew to do that like that I would be tired, but I shouldn't schedule anything else on days that I needed to get away from the kids to do this properly. All those things. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have, did you have some of that? I, I am the queen of multitasking. And so, and, and I had not sort of considered what Dell was talking about. I should have learned that from January.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Right. But I didn't. And so I thought I was going to be able to play this game that I normally play, which is I'll be listening. And part of my brain will be engaged, but I can still sort of do some of these other little things, but that is not how Heather works. That is she, she truly designs the experience so that you have almost no choice, but to pay attention because number one, you don't get any warning ahead of time, really, as to what's going to be happening. When you get an overarching kind of theme, is that you're going to be doing this, that and the other. And so you kind of have to be checked in which meant I ended up without realizing it, having my phone turned over. So I didn't even see the light, you know, with the stuff popping up because I had to be, well, which room am I in? And who's talking about what, and how much time do we have. And it really did create the experience that I would not have been able to have if I had been trying to do my normal thing, which teaches me

Speaker 3 (23:46):
That I need to be less multitasking. And in my general life, because I feel like I got so much more done, I was much more productive when I said, okay, well, these hours are for this thing as what I'm doing, and I'm doing this thing and we had breaks. And so I could do, but like, this is what I'm doing. And that's a great lesson for me. Because I am always trying to do 15 things at once, which is why I feel like almost never get anything done until I sit. And we've had this conversation here when I sit still and said, okay, you're doing this thing. Now do this thing. And that was what her experience was designed as, and it showed me the power of really intentionally engaging with the one thing in front of you. And what published with that. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
That, you know, multitasking is a thing of the eighties. Like I really believe that people thought in the eighties that that was the thing. And now we're really finding that people who try to multi to multitask, they really don't get things done. They don't do it well, and it takes them longer because you're constantly interrupted. Right. So I can totally appreciate the fact that, that you decided to be there when you were there. And I love that. And then the other thing that I liked that she did was each session, like the workshops themselves were only 40 minutes. Yeah. Right. And it had me look at some other ways that, you know, I'm going to be training people like how long do I want to have them on line and have them looking into a camera or looking, you know, creating this new communication wave that we have here. Right. Because it is hard to, to be with each other this way.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
And I think that she was brilliant in that there wasn't even time for zoom fatigue, but we all were fatigued after, because we were engaged. But you know, what we kind of learned by the end of summer camp was that each room zoom room that you went into had a purpose and each presenter actively engaged the audience. So even, you know, the whole time they kept saying, you know, to make sure your camera's on be here, be present, but it's not just video. Like you couldn't just stay on video and stay on you. You were asked questions. There were calls, there were breakout rooms within these smaller workshops sessions. We had, you know, a prompt or a task and we'd get into a room. You know, like the four of us there would be, you know, three other women I had never met before. And we had this prompt and a lot of them asked you to be real and be vulnerable and start talking about,

Speaker 3 (26:30):
About stuff that you don't normally talk about.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
And so by the end of day one, I actually, wasn't tired. I had this huge adrenaline rush because I don't think I've ever done anything where I was. So, and then before, you know, the 40 minutes is over 45 minutes is over and you're onto the next thing. And it was go, go, go, go, go. And I didn't crash until the end of day

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Because the monster doing that two days in a row, I was,

Speaker 1 (26:57):
I think my mind and my body, my whole spirit was just, it was, it was awesome. And overwhelming.