Episode 99: Teresa Vozza

Teresa Vozza Episode 99

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Pretty Powerful Podcast, where powerful women are interviewed every week to share real inspiring stories and incredible insight to help women or anyone break the barriers, be a part of innovation, shatter the glass ceiling, and dominate to the top of their sport, industry, or life's mission.

Join us as we celebrate exceptional women and step into our power. And now here's your host, Angela Gennari.

Angela Gennari: Hello, welcome to another episode of the Pretty Powerful Podcast. My name is Angela Gennari and today I am here with Teresa Foza. Hi, Teresa. Hi, Angela. How are you? I am doing so good. Thank you for joining me today.

Oh, it's my absolute pleasure. So I want to introduce Teresa to you. Uh, so Teresa is an award winning leadership expert, certified executive coach, a keynote speaker, writer for Fast Company and Business [00:01:00] Insider, and the former CHRO at Allianz Partners. She is on a mission to help people. Executive professionals lead with presence, power, and purpose.

I love it. I love it. So I, we were just talking prior to the call about burnout and how this is one of nine meetings I had today, which I thought, golly, this is a timely topic. But one of the things that I love that you're going to talk about is leading with presence and power and purpose. So tell me what that means.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah, I think the best way to to share what I mean by that statement is maybe just to take a step back and understand the context in which that all came about, which is so my prior life was as a corporate executive and I spent over 20 years as an executive for a Fortune 500 company, Allianz, which is a very respected global business.[00:02:00]

I, at the precipice of being promoted to vice president at the time, I experienced a pretty significant burnout episode that was very visible in front of the CEO, was very visible in front of another executive that we were interviewing at the time. And I call this my crucible moment because it was at that moment with full embarrassment and shame when I got up from my chair and I had to excuse myself because I was feeling really significant heart palpitations.

And I remember telling myself, Oh, it's nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing. You're just anxious. You're just nervous. But it just continued to Increase and worsen and as I stood up, I nearly fell over and because I was feeling faint and flushed. Thankfully, I was able to reach a chair. So I didn't completely fall flat on my face in front of [00:03:00] the CEO, but that elicited a whole chain of events.

The paramedics came. They called 911. I was carried out in a stretcher, went to the hospital, had a battery of tests. And I was convinced that I was just having anxiety and, or that something was wrong with my heart. And I'll never forget after all the tests, the physician at the time said to me, ou ever stopped to examine just how much you're working?

And I was like, well, I'm a vice president. I just got promoted. I have to, I have to prove myself. This is how it goes. The whole story that goes on in our heads. And he said, I don't think you have a heart problem. I think you have an anxiety problem and I think you're burnt out. And that Event was like the [00:04:00] beginning of a whole exploration in how I worked and how I identified with my work.

And in the past, presence, power, position were all molded into one thing. It was very visible. It was very pinstripe suit, high ponytail, pasted smile, performing, like performing at work and being very much a go to person and saying yes to everything and not really having true agency. And through that entire process of then, going through some therapy, having a coach of my own, I soon discovered that To be truly powerful, to have true presence and to really own your position, whether it's as an entrepreneur, founder, CEO, or as a corporate executive or senior manager, or whatever the case may be, [00:05:00] is to really work in alignment with what matters to you and your business at the time.

But also it's a process of discarding. It's a process of discarding what no longer serves you. Yeah. And what was no longer serving me at the time was this incessant need for approval, which was actually the true catalyst

Angela Gennari: for the burnout. Wow, what an amazing story. And you're right. I mean, that feeling of embarrassment and shame and getting wheeled out of a meeting is one thing, but it's the eyeopening experience that comes from that.

That's a huge blessing because it probably allowed you to really. Just discover what it is that you wanted and what was important to you and how you move about your day instead of having to take everything on and huge learning opportunity for me, because as I'm on the phone with my coach this [00:06:00] morning.

I'm reading through all the things that I've got to do. I've got to do this, and I've got to do this, and I've got to do this, , and this. And she's like, what can be taken off your plate? I'm like, nothing. Yeah. You really start going into, you're like, kind of, kind of a lot. Like I, I could probably delegate a little, but it's that control.

It's that I need to do it. I need to feel like you said, that sense of approval. I think that really, Creeps up on us as especially as women because we can't we constantly feel like this imposter syndrome of I have to do it all so they know I'm capable of doing it all.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah, that's such a good point. And, I remember vividly thinking to myself enough is enough.

I remember just having this like inner voice at the time bubbling to the surface. That was like the buck stops here. Teresa. Yes, I remember that so vividly because it was so palpable, but, you mentioned control. I think, yes, it was control, but I think, my display was pretty splashy. There's a, there was a paramedic, there [00:07:00] was a stretcher, there was a whole thing, but 90 percent of the time in, especially with the women that I coach that are men is that it That's not necessarily the case.

It's just an accumulated level of micro stresses that reach a point where you're either snapping at your partner or you're not working out anymore, or you're, saying yes to business with clients that are not really The right clients. Like you just start noticing that you make more and more decisions that are not integral to how you would work otherwise, because your executive functioning is off and your cognitive ability is diminished.

And so many other myriad of things are happening, but there's this. Especially for women, I think this need to, and I know for myself, it was definitely this at the time to be able to do it all. I had two young kids, I was commuting I was the primary breadwinner at the time, like it [00:08:00] was a lot and I felt the control of having to keep it together.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Teresa Vozza: Until you can't. Right.

Angela Gennari: And so you break down and you burn out and then you're no good to anybody, including yourself. Yeah, absolutely. And I think we do that all the time. I think we take on so many things and then we feel like we have all these obligations, like you were saying, obligations to my children, obligations to my work, obligations.

And if you're volunteering at your kid's school, if you're doing anything with children. Church. If you're doing anything in the community, like we, we have a hard time saying no, because we don't want people to be disappointed in us. It's that seeking approval thing. And to the point where we then have nothing else to give, we have, we're, our cup is empty.

We're not taking the time to,

Do what we feel is important to our core. What we believe, and if you're not, I love your word of integral, so tell me what integral means because I feel like [00:09:00] that's exactly what I'm trying to say.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah. Oh, I love the word because. It's the complete opposite of how I used to live.

So yeah, when I think of integral, I think of where your personal and your professional, they integrate, they come together, they are one and they're integrated. Whereas when I was growing up in the executive corporate world, it was very much like, Your professional self and your personal self and never shall the two meet and we were encouraged to be quite honest.

I think in corporate businesses changing now you're seeing a lot more of a shift now. It's why people that's why the great resignation started to become so big is because people were no longer willing to do that. But at the time it was very much like put your game face on. Whatever happened that morning with your kids, whatever happened that weekend with your in laws, whatever [00:10:00] babysitting mishap came up, or, elder care situation arose, that stays home.

And when you come to work, you put on, you just, you do not put on makeup. Talk about any of those things. And I think that took a huge toll on executives because the rate of burnout increased substantially after the, or during the pandemic and then after the pandemic. But I think we were wearing that even well before where we were no longer willing to work in a environment where we were not able to integrate the Our home lives with our professional lives and still be okay, and still be effective producers for the company.

So for me, integral is where the two coexist in harmony and are integrated and that the employer has a role to play in [00:11:00] acknowledging your personal life. And we have a role to play in acknowledging that our employees are And I think that's where we need to be. And I think that's where places of work. Should expect really good performance

Angela Gennari: from us as well.

Yeah. So I love this concept because everybody talks to me about work life balance and you need more work life balance. And I try to explain. I don't feel like there's a separation of work and purse. Like for me, it, my. work. I'm passionate about my work, but I'm passionate about my family. And so why can't I have the two together?

And so I like that you integrate them because you can't just shut it off. It's really hard to leave one, facet of your life. That is a very large component, like your career and go home and have, have a completely shut off. Cause I don't feel like that's a real thing. I feel like you carry, your personal life into your work and your work into your personal life.

Teresa Vozza: I agree. And I think that [00:12:00] this is why you're seeing a lot more organizations now and embracing the educational component and the movement towards better mental health and listening circles and all the different things that we're seeing now. I think this is such a welcome surprise, but it's also a reason why I think.

And it'd be interesting if you and I get into this because we're both entrepreneurs, but why we saw so many corporate executives leaving the workforce and starting their own thing. I was one of those people I left in 2020 or close to 2021. However, there's this expression that is often said in 12 step circles, which is wherever you go, there you are.

And so if you're not addressing, the roots of how you work and how you identify with production and ambition and success. What will happen is we'll [00:13:00] just carry those tendencies over into entrepreneurship and find yourself burning out or saying yes to everything and following the same pattern all over again as an entrepreneur with the added burden That now you're in a results economy.

So you only get paid for production. You only get paid for, what, what's the expression, what you kill.

Both: And so,

Teresa Vozza: It's really important to understand that and integrate the two in whatever path you follow, running your own business or CEO f a large company.

Angela Gennari: Do you find that it's higher burnout on one or the other corporate versus entrepreneurship?

Teresa Vozza: The rates, I mean, I haven't looked at the rates recently, but when I think back to like six months ago, the rates of entrepreneur burnout were high. Like they were over 60%. And what is it like less than one to 2 percent even [00:14:00] crossover that seven figure mark or even probably even less than that. And so I think the I think what I'm seeing is a lot more entrepreneurs are asking themselves.

What's the point? What's the point? Because either a, they're solopreneurs and they're doing it all on their own or B, they're bigger companies and they have teams and they have payroll and they have the entire industry, but they are not well. And I've seen both types of entrepreneurs. And then I've also seen the ones that, I'd like to think I'm one of them that, has, is emotionally aware enough to know when you're sliding and to course correct, and I'm seeing a lot more.

Leaders in both spaces, entrepreneur and corporate, that are becoming what I call psychoeducated. So they're educated about what's happening in their bodies under stress. They're understanding what's happening in their cognitive abilities. [00:15:00] They're able to recognize the signs and symptoms and when they're going offline.

And are reaching a, depleted state quicker, but kind of a long way of answering your question. But I think corporate burnout is, again, it's increasing. It's, over 40 percent of leaders in corporate America are burnt out or have indicated that they've been burned, been burnt out. And I haven't seen the most recent entrepreneurial stat, but anecdotally I hear it's quite high.

Angela Gennari: Well, and I'm curious to know your thoughts on this. There's this whole debate on whether or not work from home has created better or worse life balance. Because if you're working at home, a lot of people will report that they're working more. So they're working longer hours. They're working more at night.

They're doing, they're fitting it into their day all day versus certain hours that they, and then they have a hard time shutting it off. [00:16:00] And I know that's the case for me. So on days where I'm working at home, I have a balance. I go into my office a few days a week. I go, I stay at home a few days a week.

The stay at home days are really my days for zoom meetings. It's like, I. I have a very structured day at home, but that way I can end it when I end it and then I can go about making dinner and relaxing. But I do notice that I work longer on those days versus when I come home, that drive home becomes a buffer for me to be able to decompress.

I can come home. I don't feel guilty about making dinner. I can feel like, okay, now I'm in my home life mode. Whereas if I'm working from home, I feel like I have to like, Oh crap, let me hurry up and go down and start heating up water. Let me do this. And I feel like I'm fitting life into my work.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah. I mean, just on a personal level, Angela, I so relate. I mean, I think we hear what I was saying just before we got on this. Call like, I picked up my kids from [00:17:00] camp and then I went and I did some dishes. So I mean, I fit all these things in that I wouldn't otherwise had I been in an office. So I would say that what I've seen, and I think the study supported is that there's not a clear demarcation line when you are in a remote or hybrid setting.

So What that means is, yes, you may be picking up a chore or doing something in between your day. So you're having all these breaks, which can be hard to get going. Yeah. And maybe also healthy. But at the same time you have in the back of your mind, well, I can always just go back online later. And that's something that I know I fall prey to.

It's like, well, okay, I'm doing this between one and three. I'll just go on once the kids are in bed or whatever it might be. So I think there's that line. I also think. And it's become a very polarizing topic now, which is a shame. But I think the other part too, is that there [00:18:00] is power in what I call eyeball to eyeball, right?

There is power in being able to intonate and to read body language and to be in a room with people and create that sense of belonging and camaraderie and all of the things that come with being, whether it's in an office or in a meeting with. With other people that I think is also important, like, I have, I've even had some friends say to me that sometimes they find it even awkward to know what to say anymore.

Like their conversational skills are really awkward in an office because. They're just not used to that back and forth anymore after four years of, or now, longer than that of being, uh, virtual. But I think that's true. I think that because there's no clear quitting and ending time, unless you have the discipline or accountability structures in place to create one, like I have one with my coach.

And so I, I [00:19:00] commit I'm off at five o'clock. I'm going to do this and whatever it might be. Unless you have those kind of personal limits or structures in place, you run the risk of keep going. And I think you see a lot more of that in home than you do in office per se.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. And I mean, people will complain, well, I cut out, an hour of driving.

So I have an hour more to work, that makes me more productive at home, but then, and so there's just, I don't know, it's hard to know, which has been more overwhelming for people to be in work at home status or, Go to an office because I can tell you, I mostly feel like a better mom when I go to an office versus when I work at home, because I feel like if I'm working at home, I'm in my home office, but ignoring, what's going on outside of my office, my child and dinner and things, it's, I feel like when I go to an [00:20:00] office and then I come home, I'm more present at home versus That's for me personally.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah, I'm a lot like you, so I relate. The one thing I will say though, because I do so much work with executives and their teams and in corporate, is that the people have spoken.

Angela Gennari: Yes.

Teresa Vozza: Whether we like it or not. Right. Can't I'm in Canada, but you know, in North America, and I think what we are hearing loud and clear is that what has increased in importance is choice.

Yes. I think, especially for mothers. I would hate to see us take a step back and not be able to create more bandwidth and choice and agency. And so oftentimes when I'm working with CEOs who say to me, like, well, what do we do? I always like to introduce to them the concept of give your employees some [00:21:00] agency in how they work.

When they work and what they will work on, not the whole kit and caboodle, but give them some agency and choice. I think where we've really gone off the rails is when you've had some very ego driven traditionalist, perhaps types say, production is down and it's because everyone's working from home.

Well, that is just not the case. Production is down and we have not. Caught up with the training and the learning and the development that's required to manage remotely, and it's going to have bumps. We know that. But if you can keep some semblance of choice for people, they will be much more inclined to say, okay, I will come in the office a couple of days a week.

Not that again, you can't. Not like if you work for a company, they're your employer. You that's the rules of work working with them. [00:22:00] But in this tight labor economy, if we're not offering people choice, even at the senior levels where I hear people say, well, they need to be visible. They need to be in the office.

No. Even at those CEOs, SVP, VP levels, they too need choice. So give them that, and you'll have a much better time in attracting and retaining people.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, I agree. I think having some flex days is important for our group. For our team, I generally will work from home on Mondays and Fridays.

We have a complete, there's nobody in the office. Everybody works at home on Fridays. And I just think it gives everybody that sense of having a three day weekend, even though it's not a three day weekend, but it makes them feel a little bit better about, I know I'm going to work on Friday, but I have that ability to get ahead.

Start on laundry and to run a couple of errands and get my oil changed. There's that flexibility in there, but you know, at the same time, I know we have everybody in the office [00:23:00] together on Tuesday, Wednesday. So, it gives us that little bit of flexibility so that we're trying to do a hybrid.

And I think that mostly works for everybody.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah, and I like that you also bring in the people together because then that creates cohesiveness. Right, right. It creates like that social belonging and it creates that sense of like we're all rowing to the same goal. Yes. As opposed to when we're increasingly fragmented.

And I believe we have become such an individualistic group. Society, unfortunately, since COVID that we run the risk of not bringing in innovation and creativity and all of those really great things that we need. When people come together, I think it can be pretty dynamite as opposed to not having people

Angela Gennari: together.

I agree, because when you start working in a silo, then you're relying on only your creativity, only your expertise, only your time [00:24:00] management skills. And when you're working in a collective or a group, it just feels like there's so much more power in that ability to collaborate. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. I agree. Yeah. So tell me about some of the obstacles that you've had to overcome starting your own business and going into your own company now.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah. I always start with the big one first being the identity shift was significant for me. It took me a good year and a half to two years before I fully made the transition.

And I think a big part of it was, a little bit of status to be honest with you. Really? Here I am. I'm a chief HR officer and I work for a billion dollar company and I do this and at first it was like, well, who am I? If I give this up, I'm just a solopreneur. I'm just a coach or I'm, I'm just a, a strategic [00:25:00] advisor.

And I laugh at this now because I totally don't feel that way anymore. But at the time, it was like a giving up of something, a giving up of history, a giving up of f having that global acumen and presence. And so I felt like a bit of a loss. Here I was, I used to have teams, like days like yours of not nine meetings, and all of a sudden I'm like, Oh, I'm lost.

Oh, I was fortunate in that my business took off pretty quickly and I think a big part of that has been the fostering and nurturing of relationships over the years. And I quickly then found out after the words that I needed to become much more intentional in creating relationships. Ng with people I really am aligned to, like, I'm a big believer that even as an entrepreneur, like, I only want to do work for CEOs [00:26:00] and companies that I really strongly believe in and having that will, And also that, what's that word grit to follow through with that intention was something that I learned about myself in the process.

Because when you're an executive for a corporate company, you do what you have to do. There's not as much choice in agency as an entrepreneur. So that was another big shift for me is, okay, Theresa, you're going from a guaranteed paycheck every two weeks, leading at a very high level, managing large teams.

You creating the paycheck, you leading a team of one. Now it's a couple and you being the one that creates the relationship, builds a relationship and does the delivery, uh, for in large part. And that was a. scary proposition, but one that I [00:27:00] feel like I've come to naturally just from the work I've done on myself and what I stand for.

And again, back to that word integral, like what are the integral values that I have and who else has them that I can do business with and, play in a sandbox together?

Angela Gennari: Yeah, I love that so much. And I can totally relate to your, this comment about status. Like when you're in a corporation and you say, I'm the vice president or I'm a director, they know you've worked really hard and you've gotten through a lot of layers to get to that.

You have earned that place. Yes. But when you're an entrepreneur, the hard thing about being an entrepreneur is you, that could mean anything, right? Like that could mean. Like I hear all the time Oh, an entrepreneur just means you don't have a job. And I'm like, that's not like a true entrepreneur means that you are out there grinding for yourself by yourself.

[00:28:00] Like you, you are making something happen. You are creating something out of nothing. That is an entrepreneur in my opinion. But you know, a lot of people will misuse the term and I feel like it has been It has just been generalized so much that it's lost. It's a lure of being an entrepreneur because so many people use it now when they're just kind of between jobs and, Oh, I might be trying to get this thing off the ground.

Like there needs to be another word for that. There needs to be something where they have to earn their way into becoming an entrepreneur.

Teresa Vozza: That makes me laugh because. So my main platform is LinkedIn, and there was this great post that someone put it, put up, and it was a business owner, a woman who also challenged this definition of entrepreneur.

Right. And she goes, there's this notion that we are. Working a couple [00:29:00] hours a day that we have all this free time that money just, it just rolls in from like, courses that we're creating or things like, and she was likeo, no. And she said the first thing you need to know, if you're going to be an entrepreneur is the one thing you're going to have to get really good with and comfortable with is ambiguity.

Yes. There's so much ambiguity and there's To the point where you're always thinking about your business. And I don't know about you, Angela, but I'm always thinking about my business. And there's days I feel on top of the world and there's days I'm like, Oh my God, this is hard. And I think, yeah, we need to challenge that notion out there because the majority of us are creating success.

Through our minds and our creativity and our study and both mental discipline and, [00:30:00] cognitive discipline. And it's not for the faint of heart. I love it. I would never trade it. But is not for the faint of heart.

Angela Gennari: I 100 percent agree with you. And it is so difficult when I hear people saying, Oh, I'm an entrepreneur.

And, and gosh, that show shark tank Mark Cuban says the best word. You're in a watch for nor not an entrepreneur. And I think that's so true. So he's, he calls him a watch for nor. And I'm like, that is that should be the beginning. You should be a wantrepreneur until you've earned your place into becoming an entrepreneur.

But that is something that, when people move from the corporate, once you've reached a certain status, then you move into being an entrepreneur. There's so many unknowns. You go from being, very dependable paycheck, know where your benefits are coming from, where you're, who you're.

Angela Gennari: higher ups are, you know who you delegate to, you know what the procedures are, to knowing none of that. [00:31:00] You have you and you only.

Teresa Vozza: Exactly. I'll never forget the first time I tried to create a funnel and I almost wanted to like lose my marbles because I was like, what is this? What am I doing? I have no clue what I'm doing.

And, thank God that was the, uh, the moment I decided to hire out. Yes. Going back a while, but yeah, there's a lot of learning curves and I think that, uh, that's why it's also good to know about burnout because actually as a solopreneur, when you're doing everything, when you're the admin and you're the tech and you're the creator, the delivery person, and you're the coach and you're the, the customer service, that's why we burn out.

Because

Angela Gennari: yeah, well, and I think that what we fail at as entrepreneurs sometimes is we feel like we have to do everything. And so, in our minds, it's no, I have to figure out how to design a website, and I have to figure out how to do marketing. And so Sales and [00:32:00] bookkeeping. And then I have to also deliver on the service that I'm selling or the product that I'm selling.

And I have to be the shipping and receiving, and I have to be, you have to be, you have to wear so many hats, but what ends up happening is number one, burnout, and number two, we hold ourselves back. And that was the biggest lesson that I had to learn was. I was holding the company back by insisting on doing everything.

And it wasn't until I got out of my own way that I could actually make progress and scale, because, we had mentioned right before the call. One of the things that gets entrepreneurs is this idea that we constantly have to be scaling. And before you get to scaling, you are doing all the things and you're wearing all the hats and you're taking on all the tasks and you're doing all the, everything.

You're the janitor and the CEO. Yeah. But you are, you're doing everything. You think you're at a hundred percent and you think you're the best one who can do all of these things, but you're actually doing everything at like a 40 to 60 percent level. And if you just bring one [00:33:00] person in, even if they're not doing it a hundred, if they're 80%, that's still twice as good as what you're doing it.

So, yeah,

Teresa Vozza: I know. It's like a process of letting go. Right? It's so hard.

Angela Gennari: Yes. Letting

Teresa Vozza: go. And it's, for me, it's like a surrender. It's like, it's just, like I, maybe I can do this. Maybe if I really put my head down, I could, but it's not about that. It's about, for me, it's all about bandwidth.

It's mental bandwidth. It's emotional bandwidth. It's spiritual bandwidth. I need to create bandwidth when I don't have it. You don't get the best of me. If I go in front of a boardroom and I'm putting together a big presentation and, or keynote speaking, if I have not intentionally created bandwidth, they will not get the best of me.

And when I put it that way, that's when I'm like, Whoa, well, that cannot happen. So I need to get some help. And that really was a. Mind shift for me.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. That's one of the hardest things for us to [00:34:00] kind of let go of is that need that needs to check all the boxes and do all the things. But yeah, you're right.

Because if you don't, it's burnout. It's wasted time. It's resources that could be, you're wasting your own resources, your own mental capacity to deal with all these different things. And that bandwidth is, I mean, you can't do anything if you don't have enough to pour back into yourself so that you can come out as, the best version

Teresa Vozza: of you.

It's the most precious thing we have, I think whether you're an executive or an, or a businesswoman or a businessman, your bandwidth is your most valuable asset. It's not the incorporation, it's not the tools, it's not the, the frameworks that you have in place. Those are all assets too, but your bandwidth is the one asset you can't sacrifice if you truly want to grow, both as an individual, but also especially as a [00:35:00] business woman or an entrepreneur.

A leader, it has to be protected and cultivated and nurtured and grow or else it shrinks. And when our, when that shrinks our profitability shrinks too. I do believe they come together. Absolutely.

Angela Gennari: So you have this phrase and I want to explore this phrase. It's called chunking integrity down. Tell me what that

Teresa Vozza: means.

So the idea of chunking is a term I learned as a neurolinguistic programming coach. And neurolinguistic programming, you may be familiar with it. It's just a process of using language to understand the mind and how we work. And so chunking down What it basically means is like looking at the bigger picture of something, right?

So when you're chunking down, you're looking at the details, right? So there's a time for both. When I think of in like chunking up integrity, for me, what that looks like is [00:36:00] Always continually asking myself the question, whenever I make a critical decision at work or in my family or in my faith or anywhere where I practice it, is to say, what's the bigger picture here, Teresa?

Before you say yes to this major client, What's the bigger picture for your business? Who do you have to hire? What time will this take away from your family? What travel is involved? What structures need to be in place? Like, what's the bigger picture? And for me, what that means is what's the truth. So the truth of saying yes to this business means X.

The truth of saying no to my daughter's request to, take her out for a frappuccino, which is one of her favorite things to do, means what? Like what's the bigger picture? So I look at it much more broadly. D I think for me integrity and integral living does mean consistently asking that [00:37:00] question of myself.

Like what's the bigger picture here of saying yes or of saying no to this person, place, or thing?

Angela Gennari: Okay. I like that. That is so interesting. Yeah. Cause you're right. I mean, it might sound great in the moment, but when you really look at the bigger picture of what the opportunity means, is it really an opportunity or is it something that's going to cause more stress than is needed in your life?

Teresa Vozza: Yeah, like I always look at it as truth, right? Like what's the truth about this opportunity? What's the truth about this client? What's the truth? And that allows me to go a layer deeper than I might have. Like the first layer might be looking at dollar signs. Yep. Second layer needs to look at energy.

and what energy that will take from me or, out of me.

Angela Gennari: I look at that a lot with price. So not that I like to determine anything with price, but sometimes those lower cost, clients will end up [00:38:00] causing twice as many headaches. Because, they're focused on all the wrong things.

And so when you have a client who's also focused on the same things you are, quality service, results, these are the important things to them. And it's what you deliver and what's important to you. Then you're in alignment. Whereas if you have somebody who's focused on, saving money and, what can I get out of you?

Like how are they focused and where are their values and is in alignment with your values? And if it's not, that's not a great client. And it was one of the hardest lessons for me, because when you're an entrepreneur, you just want to book as much business as you can, but not all business is good business.

Teresa Vozza: Ou're speaking just to something that, I'm actually dealing with right this very moment. So that was a perfect example, but that's just it. I think it's every time I've thought about business that I've either turned away or the individual, or the company said no to [00:39:00] deep down again, when I asked that question, it wasn't business I wanted.

Or it wasn't business that, after some time had passed, I realized would have been, the best use of my zone of genius, if you will. So I think that, again, when I think about integrity and living in integrity and integral living, Bringing it back to, like, what's the bigger why here, or what's the bigger picture enables me to make decisions from a much more grounded place.

Absolutely.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. I can totally identify with that. So, what advice would you give to your 18 year old self?

Teresa Vozza: Oh dear. I think of her.

There will be a day when the things you're worried about will cease to [00:40:00] matter. And I think back to my 18 year old self and my daughter's only 11, but she might as well be 18. It feels like she's 18. I know. I always think about the advice I would give her is, what do you want to do? Before saying yes, I think that's it.

So much of my youth was characterized by wanting to please others and do things in favor of their approval, even as an executive, even as a, and so I would tell a young 18 year old girl to like, just for a moment, check in with you, with your body, check in with yourself and ask, is this what I really want?

Before you say yes, ask yourself, is this what I really want? That would be something I would have probably been really wise to heed to when I was 18. I can

Angela Gennari: understand. That makes a lot of sense.

Both: Yeah.

Angela Gennari: [00:41:00] So one of the things that I talk about on this podcast is that we as women give our power away a lot.

And, that can be accidental. It can be, well, I'm just, Thanks, Julie. Going to let him have this accolade or her have this accolade or whatever it is. I know I worked my butt off for it, but you know, it is what it is. And we just disregard our own power and our own feelings in a situation.

Can you tell me about a time that you gave your power away? And then maybe another time that you stepped into your power? Yeah. What a great question.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah, I certainly gave my power away as a young leader. So when I was at that manager director level at the time I wasn't what we'd call an only woman on a male team.

And oftentimes I gave my power away by acquiescing to their demands. So for example, especially I'm [00:42:00] thinking back to when I was a director working for a senior leadership team that was all male. In an insurance company and they would ask me to take notes and they would ask me to get. Yes. No, they'd asked me to plan the office party, all the traditional female centric activities at the time.

And it was a very misogynistic environment at the time that though I didn't recognize it as much I believe I gave my power away by ignoring my intuitive voice and intuition that said, Teresa, this isn't right. Right. So I think that was a big one. And then where I gained my power back. Yeah. When I was promoted to, uh, CHRO about seven years ago or so now, or eight years ago now I advocated for that. I [00:43:00] advocated for my position. I advocated for my accomplishments. I, didn't speak in theoreticals. I spoke in hard facts. These are the things I've done. These are the accomplishments I've made.

These are the metrics that support what I believe is my value. And I believe that I am worthy and deserving of being promoted to CHRO and I took my power back rather than waiting for someone else to notice meere, over here, which is what I would have done in my younger self, my younger executive self.

I was like, no, I have enough here to be able to. And so when I did that and I had that conversation they listened and they, and they gave me that, uh, promotion. So I think that was an opportunity for [00:44:00] me to not wait for things to happen to me, but instead to go out and make it happen with enough, humility and professionalism intact

Angela Gennari: as well.

I love it because it's wonderful that you advocated for yourself. So many women are afraid to put themselves out there and to speak to their accomplishments or they downplay their accomplishments. There's statistics out there that show women will only apply for a job if they're, I want to say like a hundred percent qualified, where men will apply if they're like.

60 percent qualified. And so I love that you advocated for yourself. You had hard factual evidence. You didn't downplay your accomplishments. That's that generally has been not that way for many women. Many women don't tend to do that. And so I think that's fantastic. And, uh, I wish more women would just learn that, you have to advocate for yourself.

You can't just hope somebody picks you like it's a kickball game. You have to go out and [00:45:00] put yourself out there.

Teresa Vozza: I'm with you. I do the same thing with my clients too. It's not how the world works. No. And I think it's also not how we make a mark, right. And make a difference. Advocacy and sponsorship and all sort, all those kinds of things are really important for women.

Yes.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. A hundred percent agree. So I've really enjoyed this. You have been just such a pleasure to talk to Teresa. I have one more question for you. What do you wish more people knew?

Teresa Vozza: Oh, what a good question about me or just about life. What do I wish for people knew? That a lot of wisdom and answers to your life and business.

most pressing problems reside in the body. Yeah. If you tap into that somatic sense of [00:46:00] Understanding what direction to take. If you're still long enough and you're able to connect to what your body is trying to communicate, the answers do often reside. I don't think in court, especially in corporate America.

A corporate world, we're not trained to move beyond the head and the cognitive where I think a lot more wisdom and insight resides below within the body. And I think if we can train companies and leaders to, to help understand what that actually looks like and feels like on a day to day basis, you might find a lot of treasures.

both from a production standpoint and from a well being standpoint.

Angela Gennari: That is fantastic advice. And to counter that, it's also really important that you note what your body is saying to you when something doesn't feel right. So when you've had to make a decision that is [00:47:00] against your own value system, your body will generally tell you that too.

That's

Teresa Vozza: 1000%

Angela Gennari: right. I'm with you. Yeah.

.

Angela Gennari: Well, thank you so much, Theresa. So tell people how they can find you.

Teresa Vozza: Yeah, I hang out on LinkedIn, so, uh, you can, they can definitely find me there. They can also, my website's gonna be completely changed, but the name will be the same. So Theresa za.ca, www theresa vosa ca.

And, uh, be happy to hang out with them there.

Angela Gennari: Awesome. And I will make sure that we have all of her links on prettypowerfulpodcast. com as well. So thank you again, Teresa. You've been an amazing guest. All right, everybody have an amazing day today. Bye bye.

Thank you for joining our guests on the Pretty Powerful Podcast, and we hope you've gained new insights.

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