Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Maximize Your Career. I'm your host, Stacy Mayer, and super excited, as always, to be here with you again this week.

So today's episode is really special because I am gearing up for a 36 day executive reboot inside of executive ahead of time. This executive reboot starts officially live on April 21st, which is the Thursday after this episode comes out. But if you're listening to this episode afterwards, everything that we do inside of the 36 day executive reboot is going to be available to you inside of executive ahead of time. So definitely go to executive ahead of Time.com and get yourself enrolled right away. Not only are you going to be able to access for lifetime all of the amazing course materials inside of the program, you are also going to get immediate access. If you're joining us live, you get immediate access in that way starting April 21st. But if you're joining us afterwards, you're going to get immediate access to all of the recordings, all of the bonus worksheets, everything that we're going to be doing inside of the executive reboot. And I'm especially excited about this because it's been about a year and a half since I launched Executive ahead of time in 2020. And I am you know, I've learned a lot since launching this program. I've learned what the women inside of the group need to hear on the weekly coaching calls to really make those tweaks so that they actually see the results.

Right. You know that everything I do is about results, results, results. Show me the money, right? No kudos. Thank you. Are we actually advancing ourselves into those higher level leadership positions? And then I'm really interested in measuring that success once we get to that next level. Right. I don't want to set you up for failure by any means. And so the process that I teach in executive ahead of time, which has been proven over and over and over again, is really to set you up to be successful. But there are a lot of really cool things that also happen on our weekly coaching calls, different pieces of the executive ahead of time process that we go deeper into. And so I'm turning that into this 36 day executive reboot course that I'm going to be throwing out to you live starting April 21st, going through the end of May. And then again, you will have access, lifetime access to all of the recordings, worksheets, everything that is created during that time period. But definitely, if you're listening to this and you haven't, you've been thinking about joining executive ahead of time. Just get yourself in there because like I said, again, it's lifetime access. You might as well join us live so that you can get even more benefits out of this process. Executive Ahead of Time.com.

So in today's episode, I'm really going to be showing you exactly the steps that we're going to be taking you through in these 36 days.

So the core foundation to what I teach inside of executive ahead of time is based on building trust. So many of you think that the reason that you're not getting promoted is because you have a bad boss or you work for the wrong organization. And while many of those cases might actually be true, that could definitely be the case. What is essentially happening is that the executive leadership team doesn't trust that you can lead at a higher executive level. And the reason why I think it's so important for you to realize this as being the main reason why you're having difficulty getting the recognition you deserve is because you can do something about it, you know, not always. Can you just jump ship or get a new boss or switch companies, right? Eventually you might be able to do that. But right now, if you feel really stuck and low and you're not at your greatest, you're not going to be able to jump ship in a way that really elevates you. You're just going to bring a lot of the challenges with you, even if you do leave the company or leave your boss. And so what I do in the executive ahead of time process is start to be able to focus on what we can control, right? Make those changes internally with ourselves so that we can start to become that executive leader.

And essentially what we're doing is we're building trust with executive leadership. We're showing them that we're ready to lead at that higher executive level. And so in this 36 day executive reboot, I'm going to be showing you how to build trust and the different phases of trust that we go through as executive leaders. And it really is a phase one. Then you move into phase two and then you move into phase three. It's not like we just skip all the way to phase three and I'll break down what those different phases are. And as you're listening to this episode, I'd love it if you could identify which phase you're in right now. Where do you see yourself? How do you see yourself? And that's really going to help you start to see how can you get to that next level, right? How can you get even to that next phase? And and then when as you start progressing in those phases, you might get promoted as well. You might start making more money, you might start feeling more confident in your role. Hopefully all of those things happen as well. You don't wait until you get to phase three and then you're ready to go. No, we're going to be actually doing the work along the way.

And so over the next 36 days, I'm taking the process that I teach inside of executive ahead of time and kind of turning it a little bit so that you can see it as these three phases. And it's still the same process that I teach over and over and over again. But it's it's like a different way for your brain to absorb the information and actually apply it. So these three phases that I see most leaders find themselves in, the first one in terms of building trust is you have to start to trust your ability, right? And many of you come to me and you're already in this phase, you trust yourself very much as a subject matter expert, as an expert in your field. You've climbed the corporate ladder, so to speak. As an expert, you know your stuff inside and out. You get called on to put out fires in the middle of the night. I mean, anybody who's listening to this podcast is not bad at their job. They don't have difficulty. So there's a certain amount of trust in your ability that you have already figured out. And that's what got you here. Right. And then I'll be breaking that down even more to start to show you how we can shift that trust so that we can begin to interview, how we can shift that trust so we can begin to enter into the second phase, which is trust in your leadership, trust in yourself.

So that we can begin to enter into the second phase, which is trusting yourself. So in phase one, there's two parts of it. We have our trust in our ability as a subject matter expert and also our trust in our ability as a leader. And then we start to to transition into phase two, and that's trust in our self. And that one is a hard one, right? It trusting yourself is the reason that you don't raise your hand for opportunities. It's the it's the reason that you don't speak up in meetings. And some people have called it imposter syndrome, but I think it's actually a little bit different than that because imposter syndrome almost makes it feel like you have this disease, that you have something wrong with you that you're going to have to overcome. And I just see these phases as natural evolutions of executive leadership. And when I interview executive leaders who are already in Phase three, they have gone through this process and learn skills to begin to trust themselves. So you're moving from phase one, which is trust in your ability to phase two, which is trusting yourself, right? That you have your own back, that you can be resourceful and this that you can manage your own time, that you know how to pull yourself out of the weeds.

Right. So we'll talk about that today a little bit more about what that's going to look like inside of the executive Ruby inside of the executive reboot. But I just want you to know that that's the place that we're going to. And then here's where the magic starts to happen. So once you begin to trust in yourself, trust in your own leadership, know that you can lead at that higher level. You start to put yourself out there, right? You start to ask for a promotion. You're you're stepping into the arena, so to speak, your your, you know, and you'll fluctuate back and forth. You'll lose trust in yourself, and then you'll gain trust right in in its moves. This is a very fluid phases that happen. They all kind of happen. Yes, in order, but all at the same time. And then the third phase is trust in. The Executive team trust in your leadership team and that is outside of yourself, right? So trusting yourself that you can lead at that higher executive level. Now you have to start trusting that they trust you, that they have your back, that they will pull you into the conversation. That is when the super sauce, the sweet magic, when I'm working with women inside of executive ahead of time and my advanced leadership table, that's when it all comes together. When you start to see your executive team, even if they're higher than you, even if you're your CEO as a peer, as somebody who you can just communicate with that you trust them.

That is when you have truly mastered executive leadership. So over the next 36 days, starting April 21st, I'm going to be leading you through this live process, moving through these different phases. And so whatever phase that you're coming in at, you're going to get so much out of revisiting phase one. If you already feel like you've moved into trusting yourself as a leader, you still find yourself back and forth grappling with trusting yourself. And then if you've already really grappled with trusting yourself and you feel incredibly confident, but yet you're still not really getting that recognition, then our work is going to be more on that phase three and how do we start to trust executive leadership? And I'm going to show you exactly how to do that. So in today's episode, I want to give you a little bit of a sneak peek, a teaser. I want you to get excited to join us in executive ahead of time. I want everybody who comes in just like gung ho, ready to go, like, all right, Stacy, I'm going to move through these phases. And it's quite possible that at the end of May that you could walk away with having transitioned into that third phase already. This doesn't have to take a long time. We think that it's going to be this long, drawn out process, but in reality, it's actually a repeated process over and over and over and over again.

Right. So you're going to get to phase three by the end of these 36 days, and then you will start to get the recognition, you will start getting included in the conversation, and then, of course, trusting in your ability, trusting in yourself and trusting and executive leadership is going to come up again just at a higher level, right? So that's the process that I'm moving you through. I am super excited about it and really excited to share with you some of the behind the scenes about what I'm thinking about and how I'm going to move you through this process. So I talked a little bit about trusting in your ability and how there are two phases. So the first part of your career is really am I an excellent subject matter expert, right? Am I good at what I do my job? And a lot of times people will go to school for something, a specific area of expertise. They'll even go up an individual contributor track and then transition into executive leadership. And I talk a lot about how we have to start to shift into be seeing ourselves as that leader and trusting ourselves as that leader. And so really the work here in trusting your ability is trusting your ability to lead at that higher executive level.

So we're transitioning from being seen as the subject matter expert. And when I say being seen, I mean even just seeing ourselves and having that strong attention to detail, really knowing all of the answers, solving fires, putting out fires in the middle of the night, really solving everybody's problems with our area of expertise, raising our hands like I can do that. I can do that into how do we trust ourselves as an executive leader? And the way that we're going to start to do that is, of course, by pulling ourselves out of the weeds, you have to stop relying on what you are good at and you have to elevate the conversation. You have to be willing to to groom a successor, somebody who's going to never, of course, be able to do your job as good as you can, but be willing to let go of some of the details so that you can start to trust in your ability to lead at that higher executive level. You're going to learn how to communicate more effectively to your boss, to paint that bigger picture, to focus on the important challenges, how to make bigger, faster, bolder decisions for your organization, and really putting yourself out there as that leader, knowing your leadership style, knowing what makes you unique, right? So those are the first couple of modules inside of executive ahead of time, and we're going to be diving really deep into those and with this other lens in how we can move into trusting our ability as an executive leader so that then we can do the work of trusting ourselves.

And that is module three in executive ahead of time, which is managing your emotions because it always comes up once we start putting ourselves out there. You know, we have these little voices in our heads that say, you're not ready, you're not good enough. Oh, my gosh, you're going to screw this up again. Right? And then not only do we have those voices that are inside our heads that are we're combating, but we're also combating the forces at our organization that are challenging our ability to lead at that higher executive level. So in order to feel that confidence, we have to really understand how to have our own back. Right. And we're going to do this through a series of emotional resilience exercises. I have learned and applied to my own life and my own leadership over the years. Everything has been tried and tested personally by me throughout the years to really get myself out of that overwhelm, out of my head so that I can lead at the level that I really need to be leading in so that I can start to feel and understand my own authentic power. One of the challenges when we start to feel like we want to show up more authentically at work and when we haven't done the work of managing our emotions ahead of time, we start to show up in a way that's actually really small, that is apologetic, that has perfectionist tendencies.

So we're going to be working through all of those emotional challenges. Like I said, through different types of emotional resilience exercises, journaling prompts, really tapping into those parts of our brain that are holding us back from reaching our full potential, from really being able to step into our authentic, authentic power. And then now once you feel that grounded confidence and even if you only feel twinges of it, right, this is our goal is not to be perfect, to feel it 24 seven but really the goal at the end of that is to look back and to say, Wow, I've really changed. And that happened for me very recently. I think in the grand scheme of things in my life, it was about ten years ago when my mom looked at me and she was like, You are such a different person. And what she was referring to was the way that I react to things. And I used to be very emotional, very reactionary, and now I still consider myself to be incredibly emotional, meaning that I laugh really hard, I cry really hard, I feel things very deeply, but I stay out of that worry and that overwhelm. And when I do feel that, when I feel very stressed, when I feel very upset, when I feel angry at a situation, I'm able to notice it very quickly and pull myself out of it.

And so that's really what we're working with here, is how do we manage our emotions so that we can have the success that we really want to have in the world. And then we're going to use the process that I talk about in module four of executive ahead of time, which is how do we start to trust in leadership? Now, of course, we're building trust with leadership that we can lead at that higher executive level. And that's a nice byproduct, byproduct of it. But I think a lot of you don't trust that your executive leaders have your back and that's difficult. Like it's going to feel really hard to raise your hand and to ask for more and to take on more and more responsibility if you don't trust that your executive leadership has your back. And part of the reason why we don't trust that executive leadership has our back is because they haven't earned it. And we feel like they need to earn it, right? They need to call us into the room. They need to respect us. And on previous episodes of this podcast, I've talked a little bit about entitlement and what a trap that can be, because really at the end of the day, if we want to trust our executive team more, we have to just start trusting our executive team more.

We have to stop judging them. We have to stop marginalizing them. We have to stop pigeonholing them, thinking that they are this solid figure that's unable to change in the way that we're going to do. That is through 15 minute ally meetings. And that's why over the 36 day executive reboot, you're going to be actively doing these 15 minute ally meetings. And not only are they going to start to see you in a different light, you're going to start to see them. And I actually feel like that is something I don't talk about enough. But it's so important. If you want to step into those higher level executive positions, you have to start trusting your executive team. Now, we've had some unexpected results happen for the women inside of executive ahead of time. Once they start doing these meetings, they find out they actually don't like their CEO or they don't like their executive team. Right. They find I don't want to be a part of this group of executive leaders. I don't I don't want to be on this team at all. And that is so important to note, because now you can pivot from that place, right? So it's not from that place like now you've already gone through phase two. You understand how to manage your emotions. You're putting yourself out there in this big way and you realize that what you see in front of you is not interesting.

You want no part of it. Now you can pivot. You can move outside of your organization, outside of your group, outside of your company, whatever feels comfortable, but you're bringing your authentic power with you. This is like night and day. Okay from how you would have shown up if you left your company because you felt stuck and you know, and you didn't do the work on managing your emotions first. So we're going to put ourselves out there. We're going to have the 15 minute ally meetings and we might see that we don't want to work at this company anymore, that we're better than them. Right. Which is so good. Like, I want you to know that you have options, that you have choices. We might also see that our executive team are humans, that they're people with challenges and situations. We're going to learn how to start managing up. But in the way where we literally are managing up, we're helping our executive team. I had a woman that I worked with for a while and she kept getting feedback on her emotional intelligence that she needed to work on listening more in meetings and looping people in and you know, and there were just some challenges in that area. And she did that emotional resiliency work. And then she started having these 15 minute conversations with her boss and she surpassed her boss in terms of emotional resiliency.

So her boss started leaning on her for that emotional resiliency, like she started to see my client as a role model in that area. Right. And that is so good because now you can help your boss, you can ground your boss, you can bring your boss back into reality because they're not perfect. Right, obviously. But we start to see them. We trust them. Right. She started to trust her boss and she wanted to show up as that peer. She wanted to manage up in the way that it's like actually support her boss, make her boss's life easier. That's what we're going to start to do in this third phase of the executive reboot. Now, once you have trust in your ability to lead at that higher executive level, you have trust in yourself from an emotional standpoint. You're able to manage your emotions. You're able to be very emotionally resilient and pivot. You know, this isn't like I'm smiling every day, but it's like when I hit a rock, when I hit a hard place, right? I can do something about it from my brain and not just reactionary. And then you're going to start to trust in your executive leadership so that you can make powerful choices. Now you're going to be able to lead at that higher executive level. This is everything that I've laid out for you is the exact, exact process that I teach in executive ahead of time.

No changes. And there's still two more modules on how to actually create your promotion blueprint and how to move forward, how to continue this process even after you've gone through the complete training, right? All of that is still available to you for life. But I think that this reframe this way of looking at it as these three phases of growth as really being able to see ourselves transitioning in terms of building trust in our ability to trust and build in yourself, to trust in your executive leadership team is going to show you why. Not only does this process get you promoted into executive leadership, but it allows you to be successful. It allows you to want to be there. It allows you to want to continue to grow once you start to receive those higher level leadership positions. And it continues to get you included in that conversation. So it's so fantastic. I can't wait to see so many new faces inside of executive ahead of time. I think it's going to be great. Shoot me messages, connect with me on LinkedIn, make sure you get your questions answered. But if anything in today's episode resonated with you, just sign up, right? Take the plunge. Join us. This program changes lives and I am really, really excited about this executive reboot. All right. Thank you all so much for listening and I'll see you next week by.