182 – Get Clear on Your Gift to the World with Christine Powers

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 182.

Intro 0:05
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:23
Hello there. I’m your host, Karen Yankovich. And this is episode 182 of the good girls get rich podcast. And this podcast is brought to you by she’s linked up where we teach women simple relationship and heart based LinkedIn marketing, relationship marketing that gets you on the phone consistently with perfect people, the people that can change your business, your life and your bank account forever. We create wealthy Women of Influence around here and maybe that’s you, right? So digital marketing with the human touch human to human marketing. So if you’ve listened before, or if you love what you hear today, you know, we love hearing from you. So make sure that you’re subscribing so you don’t miss an episode, wherever it is, you’re listening to this. And if you’re feeling it, leave us a review that helps us know what shows are resonating with you and what we should do more of in the show notes. There’s a link for SpeakPipe, you can leave us an audio message. We love all your audio messages, maybe you can leave us a review. Or maybe you can tell us about a guest you think that we should interview or topic you’d love to hear. Just go to Karen yankovich.com/ 182. You’ll see the blog for this episode, and you’ll see the link to SpeakPipe. And we can hear your voice and you can tell us directly what you’d like to hear more of. So in this episode, I am really excited to introduce to you, my friend and my mentor Christine powers. Christine powers has been so instrumental in just me shifting into a new paradigm to really run the business I started out wanting to run right. But you know, when you are still the person you’ve always been and trying to step into being the CEO of something that you’ve never done before, right? It’s not just business strategies that help you get there. Sometimes you need to dig a little deep into you. So Christina helps me with that. So on our last retreat, I locked her in a room for a little while and we got to chat, to just get some insight into what she does, why she does it and how impactful it is. So I am really looking forward for you to hear this episode with my friend and my mentor Christine powers.

Okay, I have a special episode for everyone. Today I am here with Christine powers. And this is the very first on location episode of the girls get rich podcast. I just spent five days with Christine, on a solo CEO retreat. It’s my second one. We’ll talk a little bit about it. But I absolutely knew coming into the second one that I wanted to make sure that I made time to interview Christine for the podcast because you all need to know her. So Christine, I am because it’s ad hoc. I don’t have her bio or anything. So I’m going to let Christine introduce herself. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.

Christine Powers 3:01
Thank you so much self introductions are incredibly dangerous.

Karen Yankovich 3:06
Go for it. I trust you. I trust you.

Christine Powers 3:09
So I know there’ll be an introduction. So what I will say to describe myself, I am a reformed nonprofit executive living in 100 Mountain acres. In fact, Karen and I right now are looking out over stunning 10 layers of mountains, to the Adirondack high peaks in upstate New York. And I moved here,

Karen Yankovich 3:40
Christine remind me to take pictures of this one before we leave so that I can add them. Yeah, people that are listening to this now can look in the show notes and see some of the pictures of the view we have right now.

Christine Powers 3:49
Sure. So my husband and son and I moved here to have an adventure. Because as an inspirational figure, one of my colleagues pointed out, you’d better be leading an inspirational life move. And I realized about six years ago having a nice tidy office in a suburb of Albany, New York that I wasn’t risking anything. I was very comfortable. And one of my mantras is comfort is a soft killer. So we bought the 100 acres surrounding our little getaway, rustic cabin, and we moved here full time. So I went from being a Suburban Girl to a mountain mama. And

Karen Yankovich 4:34
I didn’t know I didn’t know the Suburban Girl. I only know the mountain mama and US Does this suit you

Christine Powers 4:40
Yeah, so my past life includes being in charge of fundraising communications for a regional American Red Cross. I ran marketing advertising for one of the largest credit unions in the country. I ran the education conference and marketing division of a state Why trade association? So I have a really diverse background in PR, communications, copywriting, graphic design, editing, fundraising, product development, program development and event management, production and development. And I’m a professional operatic singer for fun.

Karen Yankovich 5:21
Okay, so. So you have brought all of those skills to this beautiful, stunning mountain environment. And what you’re what I see is now you’re applying all of those skills to bringing the beauty and the magic of this mountain to people like me. Yeah, right. So So what made you decide to do that it’s one thing to move to the mountains. And it’s another thing to build cabins and create communities. And when I tell you, you guys will put links in the show notes to Christine’s associated websites, where you can learn about some of the stuff but it’s stunning. It’s beautiful. And it certainly and Christine’s husband, Larry is working every waking moment happily. But he’s, you know, got a backhoe one minute and a golf cart, login rocks the next minute, all in service of this beautiful mountain retreat that you’ve created. So why What made you do that versus just moving up here?

Christine Powers 6:17
Well, at heart, I’m a mystic. At heart, I’m a shepherd. I’m actually also an interfaith ordained minister. And my greatest hobby and joy in life is playing with the divine in the universe in ourselves. So I really in the end, when I hit around 40, realized I couldn’t get away from it, and be fulfilled within myself. So what that translates to is Larry and I, creating powerful sanctuary, we joke that, you know, we have all these wildlife refuges for animals. Well, we we have a wildlife refuge for people

Karen Yankovich 7:02
I don’t don’t know if I should be insulted by that,

Christine Powers 7:05
know where they are a refuge? Yes. And you see that? Yeah. And I was really inspired by an event that happened in 1858, which involved Ralph Waldo Emerson and several transcendentalist and theologians, and the poet Robert Lowell. And they spent a month in the Adirondack Mountains, rejuvenating, getting their bodies healthy, actually making scientific discovery, cross pollinating ideas, and toying with how they could uplift the world. And so this is, what I’ve done is I’ve resurrected that energy, that model model for a modern world. And I run group programs called the philosopher’s camp. And then I do solo executive retreats for the brave, the courageous in the gifted, looking guaranteed.

Karen Yankovich 8:03
I was brave to come here the first year, I can tell you that,

Christine Powers 8:06
and, and then we also, you know, it’s ad hoc people can come here and just rent a little tiny home, they can rent a cottage, they can stay at our luxury campsite. And people tend to have experiences here whether they are coming consciously for that or not.

Karen Yankovich 8:24
Yeah. So So last year, I tripped across somebody that had been here. And I saw that and I immediately said, Oh, my gosh, I need that. Don’t never heard of Christine. In fact, I remember a conversation where I said to you, Well, can we at least like have one conversation before I show up at your location? You were like, oh, yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I was like, I don’t even know you guys. And then I was driving here. And thankfully, it was daytime, I drove up here at nighttime this time. And I like in the woods in the middle of nowhere, thinking, what am I doing? Like, where am I going? But I have to tell you, it is. I mean, listen, I think anytime you can, you can make space, for whatever it is you need to make space for it, right? In my case, it really was I just my brain doesn’t ever stop. So I needed to force it to stop. So that was really one of the reasons I came. So I think anytime you do that it’s valuable. But coming here and being guided by Christine, in some of the, you know, the ways of this land and the ways of the world and the ways of whatever, has just been incredible. So, you know, I remember, we don’t really have time to get into all of the issued all of the last year’s adventures. But what what was interesting to me, was that what I thought I was coming here for was not what I got out of it, right. And I think it’s even even like what we had planned, almost none of that we didn’t know almost because it turns into be what it needs to be. So this year, what happened was, you know, my life got busy on both sides of it. So I got up here late because I had something I needed to do earlier in the day and you know, I mean woke up The next morning and I’m an early riser. And by the time I saw Christine, I had 2022. planned out. She was like, what? But I feel like to me what that what that what that meant to me was that gave me the space for the next five days, the next few days to lean into that and to really feel that and to see if that really felt right, and what did what did I need to do and who did I need to be in order to have those things happen. So I will take one step back, my business doubled from 2021 to 22. Like from last year, when I was here to this year, when I was here, in no small part due to I mean, I am my business, right, I created the programs, my energy. And what I put into this is so important for the success of my business. So learning how to manage that energy is crucial. And I had no idea how crucial until I started doing it. So so this year, we’re on the back end of it now and I again, it became something I had no idea it was going to be come and I learned things that I had no idea I needed to learn, all of which I think are going to be incredibly powerful for my she’s linked up family. And for you guys are the podcast listeners. Because it’s not I mean, I live by myself. I remember one of the exercises Christine gave me this weekend was be by yourself tonight. And I was like annoyed. I was like stomping around my beautiful little house going, Oh, good. This is like Tuesday, in my world, I lived by myself, I’m always in my head, you know, but I’m like, This is not anything new for me. You know, don’t talk like who I don’t talk to anybody all night any night, right? But I’m saying that because it was important. And I didn’t kind of realize that at the time that I needed to learn how to how to just slow down and and really be intentional. And just the the the ideas that I have, are all out on in this beautiful little journal that I have. And and we’ll see how they become implemented. But I’m saying this because it’s not like I needed to come here to have five days alone. I just we just lived through 2020 where I was alone in my house for a year. Right. So it’s not that I needed to be alone. I needed to be not in my space with the mentoring and support of someone that could help me understand what I needed to be doing. Does that make sense? Christine?

Christine Powers 12:15
Yeah, it makes sense. And there’s being alone. And then there’s being with yourself?

Karen Yankovich 12:19
Oh, okay. Tell us about that? Well, because, Christine, you guys,

Christine Powers 12:24
we can be alone and keep ourselves distracted, right, such that we move so quickly. And we bombard ourselves with tasks, with stimulation from the internet, whatever it is that we actually are not alone, we’re not with ourselves, we have no space for that self reflection and that self awareness. And often it’s because we are afraid of what we’re going to find. So we keep going. The other thing I’m hearing you say is, which is fundamental to what I do is in our chaotic, kind of topsy turvy world, which there’s nothing wrong with by the way, it just is what it is. It is a necessity, not a luxury, that we tend to the garden of our soul. And you cannot do that if you are alone. But distracted, alone, but busy, alone, but occupied. Yeah. And so when you come here, we strip away your internet.

Karen Yankovich 13:31
Yeah, I forgot to mention that. There’s no internet or Wi Fi or cell signal, unless we give it to you. Right unless for it.

Christine Powers 13:38
And the land has many personalities and many sacred spaces, and the land that does a lot of the work. And so, so true. There’s a marination that happens. And so part of my role is a gardener for your soul garden. So yeah, so that’s, that’s essential. And the other thing, too, I want to double back to what you said about you know, the businesses, you one of my core gifts, is that I have the capacity to see the mass consciousnesses of organizations, entities, companies, products, product projects, and their creators, their founders, their owners, and then what are the core gifts of that person in creation with this company? What are they not bringing to the table that is essential to who they are illuminating that. And then what happens is this alchemy, that in its highest expression is the greatest contribution it can make to the world. So that’s also what you’ve been doing here. We’ve been exploring some of your core gifts. And the reason that it’s important to have a guide for that is because they’re so innate to We actually discount them. Yes. We don’t see them. Yes. Or don’t value them.

Karen Yankovich 15:06
Yes, yes. So true. True

Christine Powers 15:09
But the illumination, like literally just bringing awareness. Most often. That’s all that’s required. Because it’s already there. Right? It’s already embodied. Right? So it’s just like flipping a switch. Right? Right.

Karen Yankovich 15:23
It’s so true. And it’s so funny, because I know what you’re referring to, because I had, you know, I had, like, I had a so what, so what I can so what this is what I’m good at, right? And, but I realized that this is what I do to for my students. Yeah, right, the very first thing we do when you become a member of our shows linked up family, is you have a call with me, where we can get really clear on what your big gift is to the world. And often people like, can everybody do that? I’m like, no, no, everybody can’t do that. But we feel that the things that we’re really good at, we don’t value that because they come naturally to us, right. But that is where I want everybody listening to this show to be living and working out of that space of what you’re great at good girls get rich, meaning do what you’re good at, be stay in that space of doing what you’re good at. And that’s where the abundance comes into your life. But often we discount the things we’re good at. And we’re always seeking what you know, learning a new skill or learning a new set, like what if we just deepened into what we’re really good at, and then just built our life and our business from there. So there’s so much synergy, between what I’m learning here from you, and what I teach that it kind of is a little mind boggling to me, because it is so important. You know, everything that I teach is about you the human, not you, you’re not you’re the business owner, right? What are you the human good at? And how can we create a service a high ticket service, that allows you to pull from that skill and serve the world from that place of what you’re really good at? And you know, you’re like, Karen, what you teach LinkedIn marketing? Yeah, but you know, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, right? It’s a little bit what you know, but the who, you know, is the part I can teach you, I need you to, I need you to lean into the who you are. And then I can introduce it, we can use LinkedIn to meet the WHO YOU who you knows, so that you can have more impact on the world and have more money in the bank, which creates more impact in the world.

Christine Powers 17:16
And here’s the thing, by you working with your students and clients to bring forth their true essence, they show up in such a way that they’re totally they magnetize, right, and they draw people to them so that the LinkedIn work becomes effortless. Because they’re operating from this space. I don’t want to use the word authenticity, because it’s, it’s destroyed. It’s way overused yet, but they’re operating from their core essence,

Karen Yankovich 17:43
right from which soul the garden of their soul, right, which you mentioned earlier.

Christine Powers 17:47
And the other thing is, I think of this as a big chain, right? So I’m holding your hand and we’re playing all weekend, playing with your gifts, who you are, how you show up, right? So that you do that from a state of mastery for your students. And then they do that for their students and their clients. Well, guess what? I’ve had people who have held my hand, of course, right. So we’re all like in this big chain, and it’s just really, in in playing with one another. And one another, I look at my role as to amplify the amplifiers, you and I are this weekend are ripple at ground zero. And then you’re going to ripple and your students are going to ripple and on and on it goes. And we’re uplifting the world were uplifting, our lives were fulfilled, we’re contributing. And we’re playing what could be better.

Karen Yankovich 18:35
I was just gonna say, doesn’t that sound amazing? Doesn’t that sound amazing? You know, I’ve I’ve spent many, many years in jobs that I did was did not feel as fulfilled, as I feel in this job. And I wasn’t making the kind of impact that on the world that I can No, there’s there’s nothing wrong with doing those kinds of jobs, right? But if you are ready to make impact, if you are ready to What did you say you’re the amplifier of amplifiers, I am if you have, if you are if you have a message that you want to get amplified, then it starts with you. Right, it starts with you and you’re getting really clear on what that message is and how you can serve with that message. And then let’s talk because I can help you meet the people that can get that message in front of the people and that because at the heart of all everything I do and I you know, it’s funny that I it’s so funny cuz sometimes I forget that people know me as LinkedIn. Do you know what I mean? Because but at the heart of LinkedIn is relationships. Yes. And it’s meeting it’s not spamming your network with buying my stuff, or you need my 401k it is meeting cool people that can take you and your message to cool places so that you can serve in the world on the highest level, right on the highest level. It is it is always fun for me to have that conversation. I always think of my student, Claire Claire, if you’re listening, I still talk about this where she came to that initial call and she said, I have this idea. It’s a $5,000 idea, but I know you’re gonna want it to be a $10,000 idea. So we’re going to start with $10,000 and we Did we went through this? And then at the end, I said, Well, what if it was a $20,000 idea? And she’s like, wow, well, then I can then I can bring in because she works with corporations, then I can bring in their employees, and I can be doing this with their employees. And I can do like she started rattling off. I was like, that’s amazing. Like, why are you holding that back from this company? Because you weren’t thinking big enough, right? And here’s what happens when you do that you don’t need a million of them to have a nice life that I what I want is your cup to be overflowing so that you can serve the world from that overflow, right? So you can do that when you are really diving into what makes you amazing. And then serving from that place at the highest level you can. And that’s what I think, you know, coming here with you helps me do

Christine Powers 20:48
we worked a lot with replenishment. Yes, yes. And that’s what it’s all about to be working from that place of overflow and your program is wicked dialed in, by the way, the range of services from, you know, the the menu of how you work with your students to prepare them for all these facets of relationship building. And so the key one is, you said it already, I’m going to repeat it, you are the business, the business is you. And your impact in the world can only go as far and as wide and as deep as you go energetically. And if you’re top heavy, meaning you’re operating from ego, you’re operating which we all of us, at some level always are. Right until we’re enlightened, which is game anyways. Or you’re just not grounded deeply into a presence and a gravitas of who you are. Eventually your business will topple over, and you won’t sustain it. So it’s essential that you dial yourself in into who you are. And you take the time to nourish and replenish yourself not only in five day retreats, but all the time little bits every day.

Karen Yankovich 22:08
I love this. I love this. So Christine, I can we can talk forever. But I want to know how can people learn more about you? How can people learn about you and and start to start to experience more of the magic of Christine powers and and philosophers camp?

Christine Powers 22:25
Yeah, the easiest way is to go to Christine powers calm. And also there is philosophers camp calm. But if you want if you’re interested in working for yourself in a solo capacity, start with Christine powers calm and you can learn a lot more about me. I also do have a gift for folks. So I’m going to give the URL

Karen Yankovich 22:46
Yes, yes, absolutely. So yeah, I asked Christine what she could share. So people, you can experience a little bit of her magic.

Christine Powers 22:52
So I use this tool called the philosopher’s compass that I developed initially with a wonderful colleague, Barb Whitman, and then I’ve taken it and run with it for the last several years. And the compass is an inner positioning tool. So in support of that, I have created a meditation called calm in the storm. So that’s my gift for anyone who meanders upon this. You want the recording? You want. Oh, it’s christinepowers.com/calm.

Karen Yankovich 23:22
Okay, we’ll share that. We’ll share that link to make it really easy for you to get that yesterday, I think it was Christine did a took me through like a meditative journey. And as much as I really wanted to stay in the place that I was meant to be in. There was a big part of me going, I hope she’s recording this. We will definitely want to get that recorded with. It’s awesome. She’s awesome.

Christine Powers 23:45
Yeah, I actually, I do a lot of meditations. And that’s one thing that, you know, there’s so gazillion meditations out there and meditation apps. But I do find people come for the meditations. I do. So folks can also book time with me, happy to explore if you want to take a trip to the Adirondacks. If you want to learn more about philosophers camp, I’d love to meet people. And if in my experience the right people, you already know your your third chakra is probably already activated. So just make an appointment and let’s have a conversation.

Karen Yankovich 24:21
Well, yeah, and we’ll put a link in the in the show notes for you to be able to do that as well, Christine, I mean, I’m gonna thank you from the bottom of my feet because I need to be thinking from my feet, not my head or my heart. From the bottom of my feet. I thank you for everything you’ve done for me in the last few days and for sharing your gift with our listeners here on the good girls get rich podcast.

Christine Powers 24:40
It’s my pleasure, and my privilege and my honor.

Karen Yankovich 24:44
So go ahead. My right is Christina. Amazing. I mean, just honestly that weekend, the week that I was up there that was a four nights I think it was really just incredible. It was so powerful for me and just having Christine guide me through whatever the heck As I need to be guided through at any given time is hugely, hugely impactful and important to my life in my business. And I hope that you understand how it can be the same for you. And if you know like Christine and like me and like many of you other people that listen to this show, if you’re a woman that really is ready to elevate your life and your business and your bank account, you know, I’m here to support you, right? Imagine just seeing your calendar filled with calls of amazing people, right people that you just can’t even believe they’re in your life that is truly how I feel when I look at our zoom calls for our weekly calls for she’s linked up program. It’s incredible the people on this program and these are women that are really just stepping into a new paradigm in their life. And you know, if you want to know what that looks like, let’s talk let’s talk there’s no obligation just go to Karen Yankovich COMM slash call and let’s chat for a little while. And we’ll talk a little bit about you and your business and what’s working and maybe what’s not working so well. Most importantly, where you want to go and if I think that’s something I can help you with, I certainly will tell you what that looks like but either way, you know that I’ve got no end of ideas for you and I would love to brainstorm with you on how you can start to step into being the person you need to be for this next chapter. This next evolution of your life. So check that out Karen Yankovich COMM slash call if you loved this episode, you know take we’d love you to take a quick screenshot of it, share it with your social media audience. Tag me I’m at Karen Yankovich Tag Christine, her links are all below. That’s how we all get more visibility because I’ll be sure to share your posts with my audience right help you get more visibility. And that is that rising tide that lifts all boats right. All right, let’s do this. I will see you back here again next week for another episode of The Good girls get rich podcast