Subscribe & Review on Apple!

 

Get first access to our latest episodes! If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to the Travel Agent Achievers podcast. Each week we release a new episode that will help increase your knowledge and expertise as a travel agent. Click here to subscribe to Apple.

Once you’ve subscribed, leave us a written review on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform.  Simply click here to give us a review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review.” 

If you have any colleagues that this information may be useful for, share an image of this podcast on socials and make sure to tag us! 

@travelagentachievers 

 READ THE TRANSCRIPT IF YOU PREFER - BELOW 

 

Behind the Scenes of a High-Touch, High-Volume Travel Business with Ali Raymer

 

Ros: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Travel Agent Achievers Podcast. It's Ros here. And today I'm joined by Christine Corcoran. Christine is a high ticket sales strategist, amazing, a business mindset coach, a speaker, bestselling author of a fabulous book, one that I will admit, I could not put down, I was absolutely hooked, called Turn Impostor Syndrome Into Your Superpower. She works with B2B female entrepreneurs, mostly to help them build confidence, shift subconscious patterns and attract aligned clients through authentic sales and grounded leadership. lot of big words, but she's amazing. You will hear more about that. Christine is known for helping high-performing women recognize imposter syndrome, not as a weakness, but as a signal of growth and expansion. She has qualifications in NLP, neuro-linguistic programming, for those that don't know Hypnotherapy, Matrix Therapies, and Embraining. Christine brings a deep understanding of subconscious mindset into her work. She supports all of her clients through overcoming limiting beliefs, building self-trust, and stepping into confident decision-making, particularly around visibility, pricing, and sales conversations, which in the travel industry and working with you all, I know are things that come up time and time again. Christine is also the founder of Unstoppable Sales and Next Level Masterminds, host of Unstoppable Women event, which is happening again this year in September. You'll hear more about that. And she's the voice behind the Next Level Life podcast. This is where she shares mindset tools and reflections for business owners ready to grow with intention.

Her work blends mindset, strategy and personal growth, helping women scale sustainable businesses while also staying aligned to their values and their sense of self. And as I said, I have had the privilege to be able to learn from Christine a number of times. And what I really appreciate about her work is the way that she blends mindset with very real and very practical language, the step by steps.

She helps people understand what's happening beneath the surface when fear or imposter syndrome shows up. And I know for you guys, this shows up time and time again. And how to move forward without trying to become someone that you're not. Her experience and the depth of it across mindset, as I said, subconscious work and leadership is amazing. But she also has a beautiful warmth and sense of ease that make these conversations feel accessible and human to everyone. As I said, I've had the pleasure of spending time with Christine and also hearing her speak at a few events. I'm really looking forward to sharing the conversation with you all today. So Christine, thank you so much for joining me on the Travel Agent Achievers podcast.

Christine: Thank you so much for a beautiful introduction. I'm so, it's such a privilege to be here, honestly, like I have loved our conversations and I'm sure today's one is going to be just as good, just as juicy.

Ros: My gosh, just as juicy, just as good, just as real as everything. And as I said, this is something I'm so privileged to have you here. I'm so excited. For me, actually took me, for everyone that's listening, it took me months. And I think it was probably close to six months to reach out to Kristin and say, can you please come on the podcast? Because the work that she shared with me and when I was challenged at a certain time, she was very practical in understanding and the imposter syndrome showed up for me in a really big way going, you can't have Christine come on to the travel agent achievers podcast, but I bit the bullet, felt the fear and did it anyway, which are some of the things that we're going to talk about. Now this session or this podcast episode isn't about getting rid of imposter syndrome. I'm going to put it straight out there. It's about understanding what it's trying to protect and choosing growth anyway.

So Christine, before we even talk about imposter syndrome, I'd love for you to share a little bit about yourself and take us back to an early moment in your life where fear was really loud, but growth was calling.

Christine: Ooh. Okay. So thank you honestly for having me here. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you. And it's so funny that you share like the conversations that we had. And then you actually asked me when we were talking, can you come on the podcast? And I was like, of course. Yes. Absolutely. And then it still took you months. But the interesting thing though is like,

Ros: Yes, I know! You gave me permission!

Christine: What were you fearing in that? Because that's what it was. It's always procrastination is just a form of fear. And so whenever we hold ourselves back, it's like, I always ask yourself, like, check in, like, check in with yourself and like, why am I holding back on this? What am I actually afraid of? And if you actually just name it, it helps you move through it. And, you know, I think one of the biggest things too, with what I'm hearing about what you just shared is try not to, this is what I've done and learned through my own journey, is like try not to pedestal people. Like we're just humans. I'm just like you babe. Like I'm running my business. I'm working in helping other people and I have all the challenges. I have flaws, like all the things I don't ever pedestal people. And when I've learned that for myself, when I've reached out to other people to be on my podcast or to connect with people or to speak to people at events that are next level people, every time I made myself feel more human alongside them, the conversation became so much more genuine and real.

Ros: Okay.

Christine: And I was able to have like conversations that not other people got to have because I was willing to see them as a human being and not fangirl over them. So like, I'm...

Ros: Yeah. Okay, so initially I was fangirling and then I went into a whole lot of other self stories about why not and even though you said yes and you were so willing but you were so caring and sharing in the conversations that we had that you're encouraging and supportive and like, wow, like this feels as though it's too good to be true but I think that was also my own imposter syndrome that was showing up for me and the fear that I wasn't good enough.

Christine: Hmm, maybe. Interesting. And I think as well, like we've got to acknowledge that other people want to support you. And we often think that that's not the case. And I honestly want to see more women in business win. So like, if I can help you with that, if I'm, that's why I'm like always in it in those conversations, I'm like, what can I do to support you? Because you need to win babe. Like you need to go for it. And I see too many women will hold themselves back and it just really frustrates me. And I see the, what's going on behind the scenes and when

Ros: Yeah.

Christine: What they're telling themselves, it isn't bloody true. So to take you back, guess, like, I grew up in a household where we were taught to work really, really hard and we're taught to strive. And so I thank my parents for that. And I thank my dad for always encouraging me to step outside of my comfort zone and always encouraging me to go big and like the world is my oyster. And so I grew up in a very, very small town and there was a very like close minded mentality that I really found frustrating because at home that wasn't the case. And so I was like, well, anything is possible, what am I going to go for? And I knew right from the beginning, I did not want to stay there. I did not want to live there for very long. And so when I got the opportunity to apply for a job that was international, so I didn't go like, I'm just going to go to the city. I'm going to be like, what else can I do that's bigger than this? And I think we're also like, we're always manifesting. And I think I absolutely manifested a conversation that sparked this for me. had, I back then, I was a hairdresser. And so I was

Ros: I'm going big. Seeing clients on a regular basis.

Christine: Yep. And a client came in and sat in my chair and spoke to me about how she had just come back from working on cruise ships. She was traveling the world following the sunshine and was working and living and earning really, really good money back then. The U S dollar was incredible. And, she was telling me about this life that she was living. And I was like, how do I do that? I want that. And so then she passed on the details about the company that she was working for. And they were doing interviews in my city.

I think maybe two or three months later. And so there it was, it felt really scary and I'd had to travel to the city to do that, to do the interview and also do a practical exam. So it wasn't even like simple. wasn't a simple job interview. It was a full practical. had to be there the whole day, show them my skill sets, have interviews, you had to speak publicly. You had to stand up in front of the crowd and talk. Like it was very scary. And I remember going to that interview and being like, I have no clue if I got it or not. No clue. And they even said, we don't, we cannot tell you anything. You will just get a letter in the mail and let you know when you are successful or not. And I have a vivid memory of actually receiving that letter, walking into my post office box and opening it there. And I was at my lunch break at my job and I remember getting that letter and they were like, you've been accepted. And I think it was like November and in the hairdressing industry, November and December are busiest months. And they were like, you have to be in London in the middle of January. So you've got like a month and a bit and I had to quit my job and tell my parents. And it was so, it's like from the small little town I literally flew to London on a one-way ticket and was like I'm just gonna work on cruise ships and see when my life takes me and it was incredibly uncomfortable I was forced to really be reliant on myself really be independent figure things out because back then I'm gonna show my age here but back then. We were literally, I had to go do trainings. Did a bunch of training in London first. And then once you were given your ship, so your assignment, you were literally given a piece of paper with flight details on it. And we're like, off you go. So I had to get you, get your own way to the airport, figure out, and I had to fly to Santiago, Chile. So I, I didn't know where it was. I had to look at a map, Ros. I literally was like, I don't even know where this is. Yeah. And then began my days of travel. Right. And so I literally had to fly to Santiago.

Ros: Yes. Yeah.

Christine: There's a whole other story I'll tell you when we've had a few drinks but like it is a harrowing story of like I don't know how I survived I thought I was gonna die and got on this cruise ship and lived this life of like working so hard learning to sell learning to run a business in such incredible ways and just it set off a whole multitude of things that impacted me in such a huge way that then inspired me to get uncomfortable and challenge myself to grow in all new unique ways. So that's how it all began and now I run my own business and I work with supporting women in business and service-based businesses to help step out of their comfort zones, do things they've never done before, make more money, make good money that they really deserve and to succeed with in a way that feels really good and aligned for them.

Ros: So you were saying before as well, that the fear constantly can come up for a lot of people, but you're specifically focusing on women. And you're also saying before, you that you champion women to really step into this and do, you know, feel the fear, do it anyway. We'll talk about those sorts of things. And when you're saying that, that's exactly how I am. I am constantly championing other people. I want to see them succeed, celebrate the wins and successes. So why is it? Do you think that, you know, I can do that so easily for somebody else, but I I do it for myself a lot of the times. That just feels really...

Christine: Yeah, but it's interesting though, because if you understand that your brain, right, it wants you, this whole purpose is to keep you safe. It's to protect you, it's to preserve energy and to keep you alive, right? It's not wired for growth. And so when you think about you're encouraging other people, right? You're encouraging other people to step outside their comfort zone and your brain's like, it's easy for them. Go, you do it, that's safe. I don't have to do anything. So it's natural for us to have a little bit of fear for ourselves. And we have to remember that our brain is not wired for growth at all, right? Will prefer you to sit in front of Netflix and just chill and literally eat like that's what it wants you to do. It's safe, don't leave the house, there's no danger right so we want to be conscious of that that it's naturally easy for us to then tell other people what to do and be like yeah go for it girl you can do it because you don't have to face the fear that they have to face in order to do the thing right and so you have to rewire yourself for that it's not something that just comes naturally and I love that you have challenged yourself in so many ways to feel the fear and do it anyway because it

Ros: Absolutely. Yeah.

Christine: is what helps create growth. And the fear will keep showing up, but I will just say, if you are challenging yourself, because fear won't show up in times when you're not, when you're doing the exact same thing day in and day out. for me, a couple of years ago, that's what happened. I got to the point in my business where I was like, I was going through the motions. I was doing the thing and externally it looked like I was doing a lot, but I wasn't feeling challenged at all. And so you're going to go through motions where you get comfortable because we get to those stages of our comfort zone where like we have done certain things that were scary first, but then they became the norm. And then what you have to do is you have to move the goal posts and challenge yourself in different ways. Otherwise the fear won't show up. if you're listening to this and you're like, fear doesn't show up for me, maybe you need to stretch yourself more because I think you're playing small.

Ros: Absolutely. And hearing you say that as well, I'll just re-clarify. So there's a lot of things that I do exactly as you said, that I feel really comfortable with. so I do believe that champion others, that's where I'm meant to be, serve, help, encourage and support other people. The things that I get challenged with and where the imposter syndrome shows up for me is in those extra challenges now. So there's a lot that I can play in and feel super comfortable with and do you know like you say almost with your eyes closed it feels very natural I can encourage support and those sorts of things but it's myself getting to the next stage

Christine: And that's why it's so such an individual. Yeah. And that's why it's such an individual journey that you can't look at someone else and be like, Oh, it's easy for them because no, it's easy for them because they've probably done it many times. And so you've got to acknowledge like they've, they've built the muscle, they've done the reps. And so you need to acknowledge that for yourself and be like, okay, well, where am I stretching myself? And if I'm scared, that's just because you're doing something new. Like that's all it is. And if you're willing to try, you're willing to be a beginner. And a lot of us aren't willing to be a beginner.

Ros: Correct.

Ros:  Yeah.

Christine: You get to grow and expand and I think that we can often play small because it's comfortable and we're remembering a wide to play small because it is comfortable and safe and so when we're stepping outside of our comfort zone that's when the imposter syndrome shows up it's the only time it shows up so we're talking to someone actually recently about it and that was she was saying I'm not really sure if I if I have imposter syndrome and I was like okay let's talk about this I'm sure I can find it and she realized it was actually because she hadn't put herself in new rooms she had not stepped in

Ros: Yeah.

Christine: Foot in new environments that would be challenging. She was stuck in routine. She was doing very much the mundane day in day out. Her goals were, she thought were, you know, growth goals, but they actually weren't stretchy for her at all. And so when I added an extra zero to one of her goals, she was like, no, I couldn't, no way. And I was like, why? Let's like, I'm not saying you have to go for that goal, but let's explore where you're keeping yourself playing small because you possibly have a lot more potential to tap into that maybe you're like, you've just gotten comfortable. And she was like

Ros: years

Christine: Then she felt stretched and she was like, gosh, you're pushing me now. I'm like, that's what I'm here for.

Ros: And that was definitely in our conversation as well, where you were encouraging me to step out of the comfort and into something that was new and felt scary and what ifs, what ifs. So you describe.

Christine: And can I just say, can I just, can I say how alive did you feel when you started doing that?

Ros: I was scared, but I was excited at the potential, at the opportunity, at what could happen.

And over the last few months, a lot of things have continued to come up and you know, you get an, I'll get an email. I'm like, Oh, I don't know whether I can reply to that. Should I sit on it for 24 hours? What do I do? And it's like, just do it, just do it and roll with it. And each time it's becoming a lot easier. And that's where I've certainly seen the snowball effect to reach out to other people or do different things. And that has felt a lot more comfortable, but I know that there's always going to be the ceiling that, Hey, there's a thing there's a next thing and that's where you describe or what I interpreted that you describe imposter syndrome not as a villain but as a fear response can you explain you you mentioned that it's to keep it safe but what is you know imposter syndrome actually trying to do

Christine: So if you think about imposter syndrome, whenever we talk about it, everyone has very similar language. So the language will be like, who do you think you are? You couldn't do that. I'm not qualified enough. I'm not experienced enough. I'm not an expert. Like all the same similar language we use to describe the language that our brain is using to keep us playing small. So it is showing up when we're stepping outside of our comfort zone and doing something we've never done before. And it's impacting us in a way that causes us to question whether we have the capabilities, the skillsets, the experience, the qualifications, but

Basically what it's looking for is like is there any form of certainty that I'm going to be not put in danger here, right? So when it there's no certainty so when you're doing things are never done before there is no certainty You don't know for sure what's going to happen. Are you gonna get rejected? Are you gonna get judged? Is it gonna fail like all of those things have a potentiality there that we've our brain is so aware of So it knows exactly what to say to you to go. No. No, maybe that's too scary. Don't do it Let's go back to what we did yesterday because that was safe enough comfortable, right? And so it's understanding that it is using a form of arsenal against us and it knows exactly what to say to keep us playing small, right? And so it is, but at the end of the day, all it is is fear because it's all fear language. And we understand that because when you actually explore it and question that, that thought or that saying that it uses against you, like, who do think you are? Like, you're like, well, who do I think I am to do this? Instead of getting caught up in the fear. And if you stop and actually go, well, hang on a minute.

Why would this opportunity have come to me if I wasn't ready for it and am I ready for it? Could I be ready for it? Is it something that I'm actually very capable of doing and so we often just get stuck at that fear because it activates the amygdala activates our fear response and causes us to either fly freeze or fight and then it's if we don't know how to Understand the fear response in our body We then often just get stuck there and then it causes us to go back to our comfort zone instead of going through

We've got to go through the fear you've got to feel it and you've got to understand it in order to transmute it into something more effective Otherwise, you just keep doing the same thing You've always done and fear will ride your life like it will literally ride your life and you will not be in the driver's seat anymore So at some point you've got to decide like I need to understand my fear response and explore it So then you know exactly when it shows up how it shows up how you respond and react to it Because you are losing power in that by you just reacting to it you giving away your power whereas what?

Christine: I love to teach in my book is like if we learn to embrace it and we learn to transmute that fear it can serve us because everything that you are going to do outside your comfort zone is going to have an element of fear. None of it is going to be comfortable, none of it is going to be your confident in it, none of it because it's new right you've never done it and so often we just get so caught up in thinking like I'll just do the things that I'm confident in well you just keep doing the same thing you've always done you never do anything new so I think it's one of those things.

Ros: Yeah. Isn't it that learned, is it learned behavior that the fear or the self-talk or is it something that we are just naturally wired as, as you say before, as humans to protect ourselves?

Christine: Which is pretty slow. Yeah. So we're naturally wired. So there's a part of the brain called the amygdala, which is where our fear response lives. And it's caused it's basically our brain is always scanning everything that we're experiencing on a daily basis. It's scanning in a millisecond. It will scan your new experience you're about to step into. And even if you're don't know what's going to happen, your brain will go into that fear of like, Oh, we it's a fear of the unknown. We don't know what's going to happen. So that's dangerous. And so it's like this little like warning signs go off in your brain. It's like, Nope, can't do this. This is dangerous. Don't do it. And it activates the hormonal, chemical, but response in your body too. So you feel scared, right? And so it activates you with your butterflies in your stomach and clammy hands, and you feel uncomfortable and you feel unsure like all of that insecurity. And then what happens is that then it responds to that feeling and then you feel even more insecure. So it's like, that's why your body is so wired. It's designed to keep you safe. And so it's honestly on the lookout all the time. It's scanning it like a little like CI agent, like always on the lookout for danger. And if there's any form of unknown or uncertainty, that is dangerous and that the brain goes to, we could die.

So we've got to go into fight or flight response in order for us to keep ourselves safe. And then it uses whatever it can in order to keep you safe, to go back to your comfort zone. And so we know that that's an actual wiring of our brain. And it happens with every single human being, no matter who you are on the planet, we all have that fear response because we need it to keep us safe. Like it stops us from walking out in front of traffic, right? Like we need it. Often it translates to everyday things. And so when we're talking about stepping outside your comfort zone, I'm even talking about those small little fears that happen at your desk every day. Where you don't respond to that email or you don't send that email or you don't do that reach out or you think about putting that new podcast episode out that is slightly controversial and you don't and you don't do it. Like all those small little things that you don't do is actually where fear is showing up on a regular basis and it's still activating your amygdala. It's still causing you to play small and the more that we can be aware of it and question it and then pause and be like learn to breathe through it and be like, okay, name it like I'm scared. literally just say that.

Ros: Yes.

Christine: Out loud, I'm actually afraid that this person will reject me, I'm actually afraid I'm going to get judged, I'm actually afraid that this will fail and then sit with that for a moment and be like okay but what other possibility could there be? Because we're wired for the fear but we have to rewire our brain to look for the possibility because there is always, it's always 50-50, there is a 50 % chance it'll fail, 50 % chance it'll work out.

Ros Mm-hmm, yeah.

Christine: Right. Or you'll learn something through the process. And so if we are always focused on the negative, we're always focused on the fear or not working out. That's what we'll see more of. And we will just get so stuck and we'll always think it's not going to work out instead of actually going, well, maybe. What if I asked Christine to be on the podcast and she actually said yes. And then I've actually followed up and she said yes again. Wow. Like what could be possible?

Ros: Yeah. I bet what I often say to myself or as you know, in our community when we're talking about things, I'll say, what is the worst that can happen? If you don't do that thing, whatever it might be, what's the worst that can happen? And you know, we'll share the worst and I'm like, no, go deeper than that. There's got to be something else why you're not taking action on that one thing. What is that one thing? And I will ask myself this. And, and I will get to a point where I go, you know what, nobody's going to send me a death threat because I send out an email to Christine to ask her to come on the podcast. Like she's not gonna she's not gonna go to that extreme. The worst possible scenario is no thank you. Right. And it may be a no for now and not late. Like, our brains are so wired to what I'm hearing is protecting us that I often feel that just feels really silly. So why not go into that silly space and go really? Are they going to do this? No.

Christine: It's not the dog.

Ros: Yeah.

Christine: Yeah, exactly. you walked through it, right? And you looked at other possibilities and actually questioned it because sometimes, and that's why I say it out loud, because sometimes when you say it out loud, it's so ridiculous that you're like, that's crazy. Okay, just do it anyway. But it's when you keep it ruminating in your head that you just keep catastrophizing and your brain will catastrophize over and over and over again.

Ros: Even in a travel conversation.

Christine: It depends on to how wired you are for worst case scenario because some people go there very quickly. Whereas I actually don't look for the worst case scenario. I've wired myself to be like, what could be the possibility of this working out? And that is much more enjoyable because if we have had some really bad experiences, like let's say we've been rejected or bullied in the past. Let's say that we have had something fail epically. Let's say that like something's gone really bad. Like you are going to have an emotional connection to that experience that your brain in that millisecond

Ros: I'm flipping this page.

Christine: of doing the scanning, it's going back through everything you've ever experienced in your entire life and if you've got reference points of those being very negative and bad experiences, you will are going to remember those quickly and your body's going to activate those feelings and those emotions and those thoughts straight away and then of course it's going to stop you in your tracks, right? And that's why like when we're kids we're like so carefree, like cool I'll just take a job on the other side of the world and not have any plan or not have any money and not know what to do. Like that now when I think about like in my 40s I'm like that's

Ros: Yes.

Christine: That's insane, right? But luckily my brain wasn't fully formed when I was 20 that I did that because it was a great opportunity. you know, we have to remind ourselves that our brain is not wired for looking for the good, looking for the possibilities. So we have to wire it to look for that because we're missing out on such goodness when we're just listening to what our brain is telling us. Because often it is bullshit. honestly, I'm sorry, not okay to swear. But honestly, what our brain tells us is absolutely a crock of shit.

Ros: Yeah. It's not the boogeyman. Like it's not the scary thing. It's a signal really to just rewire. And one thing that I hear time and time again from travel professionals is it comes up for them in pricing conversations. So, you know, a client wants to book an incredible experience, but they start selling from their own hip pocket. And I know you work from a sales perspective. So there's a lot that comes up with that. Asking for

Christine: Yeah.

Ros: or payment, you know, asking or a retainer or something. Owning expertise is another big one for advisors. And I can pinpoint and I can see advisors when I have a conversation with them and I'm like, wow, that's amazing. That's a beautiful niche that you're working in. It's the expertise that you have, the knowledge, the experience you need to show up and share that with your clients because other people don't have it. But there's a lot that comes up.

Christine: I know.

Ros: into leadership even with getting team and supporting other you know people to grow in the industry there are so many times that I see imposter syndrome just rear its ugly head and I'm like wow it's amazing and it can come back to such granular small details exactly like you said of sending an email it can really come down to that or sending a quote to somebody or saying hey this is where we're at when I was reading your book one thing that stood out personally for me with the language

Christine: Yeah.

Ros: shifts and you touched on it before, why does language matter so much when fear is present?

Christine: It's so interesting, like language has such a power over our emotions and it causes us to have an emotional response. So every word is loaded. So if we've used certain words in our vocabulary our entire life, they are loaded with associations, right? And so those associations that have an emotional response and then we feel that in our body and then we respond to the emotion. So anything that you're saying, the way that you describe your experience, like if I was to sit here and be like, I'm really struggling with X, Y, and Z.

then your body, your brain goes struggle, what struggle? And then it refers back to all the times you've struggled and it gives you like a little... 

Ros: evidence, isn't it?

Christine: Must have a little snapshot of all of the times you've struggled. And then it has the, what's the emotion connect to struggle? What does struggle feel like? And then your body feels the feeling of struggle. And then you want to think like you're always responding to that too. So then like when you are struggling, how do you feel? Do you feel motivated? Do you feel inspired? Do you feel like you want to take an action on something? No. And yet we have so many words that we use on a regular basis to describe our experience that we're just literally talking about the facts of what's happening in our lives, right? But the words we choose to use to describe them have an emotional load. So be conscious of that because then that's impacting how you respond to it. So learning to train yourself to speak in words that feel better changes your whole life like it's honestly life-changing and so we want to acknowledge like and so same thing with like certain words that you hear that may trigger you versus they don't trigger other people right that's because of your associations that you have with it and so like I remember hearing this from Tony Robbins once and he was saying how like

Ros: Yes.

Christine: He had this, he was working within this company with two different business partners and they had something terrible happen where a whole bunch of money went missing. Like a lot of money went missing and it was stolen by someone else. Right. And he was like, so angry. He was like, so angry. I'm so pissed off. He kept using the word pissed off. I'm so pissed off at this person. Right. And then there's one other person that his other business partner was like, I'm going to kill him. And he went into a massive rage and was like off the extreme like rage.

And then the third business partner was like, hmm, that's interesting. And Tony turned to him and was like, why are you not reacting? Like, why are you not responding? And he's like, how does this make you feel? And he's like, well, I'm a little peeved.

Ros: What do you think?

Christine: And Tony was like, what? Like, what do mean? You're just a little peeve. He's like, I'm just enraged. I'm going to like, I'm going to get revenge on this guy. And he was like, why? Like we can't change that. Yes, we can go to the lawyers. We can do all the things we can control it, but there's no use in getting caught up in all of that emotion. When he had actually had past experiences, right? This, this person that was peeved, had had past experiences that he's handled before in the past. was, wasn't a new experience for him. And he was like, yeah, it's kind of annoying. That's kind of happened. Whereas for Tony.

Ros: Yeah.

Christine: in the other guy it was very new to him that never happened they felt like it was a betrayal like the language they were using was like this is a betrayal we've been you know like and so that caused an emotional response to the situation that then impacted then how they were going to manage the situation so we do this every single day.

Right. And I pick it up with my clients all the time. And I'm like, it's not if it's when, if it's not, but it's and like, it's challenging the way that you describe your experience. anytime I hear the word struggle, I'm like, Nope, that doesn't you are living in the 21st century. You have plenty of food in the fridge. You have money in your bank account. Every person in your life right now is healthy. We are not struggling. Like that's not struggle, but we have to be so conscious on the words that we use to describe it and whether it's fact or not. Right. Like I think that.

Ros: Yeah.

Christine: That's where we also take it to the next piece of like, but Christine, but what if it's actually fact? Like, well, emotion isn't fact. That's actually not true. The emotion that you're putting on your experience is your choice. So we've got to come back to what am I choosing to describe it and how can I reflect on it and use a different word? And so I always love to like add in new words to my vocabulary that are so different that I've never used before because there's no emotional connection to it anymore.

Right? So until I'm using repetitive words and I'm like, that doesn't feel good to use that word. What else could I use that would not have any association that would feel different? And then it feels like you shift back to a neutrality place and you don't have all this emotional load attached to the way that you're describing your experience.

Ros: Do you do any couples counseling at all? Just kidding. Talking about language, mean, I'm just, I think about different, we're all.

Christine: No.

Ros: different humans, right? We're all wired differently. As you say, words will mean different things to different people. And hearing you say that, really, one thing that comes up for me as travel professionals, and as what we do, is a client will lose their luggage or a flight's delayed, or there's a cancellation or something. And I will always say to my clients, that, you know, if the shit hits the fan, this is why you have me because I know what to do. And for them, their emotional response exactly like you were just describing with Tony and his business partners could be that extreme, right? How dare they do this? I can't believe this has happened. Why do I have to have my bags lost and you know, whatever it might be. But for us as travel advisors, we're like we deal with this all the time. Here's what to do next. And so hearing you say that, I'm immediately thinking, yes, caught up in the emotion. Yes.

Christine: Yeah, which is...

Yeah. Yeah. It's disempowering. Like even just getting caught up in that, it's so disempowering to be like how, yeah.

Ros: How can we reframe it? And as business owners as well, there are going to be things that come up and you mentioned it as well. The struggle, I may not have the cash flow, I may not have this because in what we do, cash flow comes when a client's traveling. So if you book something now for 18 months time, we might do all of the work in the organization and keep you in contact throughout the whole trip, like until you travel, but we don't actually get paid until much further down the track. And so there's a lot of of rewiring in the brain for an advisor potentially to say, it's right now, like what is important right now? And what's the work that you're doing now? But how can we, you know, communicate effectively with clients? And that comes back to sending the email comes back to all of these other things because it shows up. my gosh.

Christine: Yeah. Hmm. So interesting. Isn't it like the, especially when it comes to like emails and situations like that, the amount of times like in my programs, I'll have clients that will send me an email, like I'm thinking about sending this or a challenging client or a payment that's been lapsed or something that's gone wrong. Right. And they're like, this is the email that I'm going to send when we're in it. We're so in our own emotions and we can respond emotionally. And I'm always like, come back to the facts, take out the emotions. What meaning are you placing on this? You don't know that for sure. Like take out the shit that you're making up. I had this with a client recently and she was like this was this person was so disrespectful and I'm like you don't know that you actually don't know the full like were they intentionally being disrespectful did they say that no you don't know this like don't do that to yourself right because what you're doing is you're creating a scenario that makes you feel worse and then you then get out of your own in even in out of your own integrity or out of your own empowered place to be able to make an empowered decision to change the way that you respond to that situation. It's emotional intelligence at the end of the day and even go back to what we're saying earlier like everything that we've just spoken about like we're so fearful of an emotion that we may feel if something doesn't work out.

Ros: Yeah.

Christine: That's actually what it all comes back to of like we're so scared of the rejection which feels bad. We're so scared of the humiliation. We're so scared of the judgment. We're so scared of someone being upset, right? Like all of these things are actually emotional intelligence and learning how to manage the emotions and understand that emotions aren't bad. They're allowing us to understand and experience our human experience. But it's also messages that are coming through for us. But at the end of the day, if you know how to understand and process your emotions, then you're not scared.

Ros: with it.

Christine: of certain things not working out and I think that's what I love to instill in the clients that I work with of like no matter what's going to happen like the worst thing you can experience is an emotion and you maybe something won't work out maybe you're gonna fail at it like I had a client this morning that was like but what if no one buys into my program like cool it may happen what are you gonna do about it

Ros: Yeah.

Christine: Like, because you can sit in a fear or you can sit in their vision of what you want to create and take action from a place that feels good, or you can do it from a place of desperation and fear. You get to choose. Right. And so if it happens, we will deal with that if it happens. And every other person experience has experiences before like this. It's happening. Like, don't stress about it. It happens. But there are things that we can do to navigate that. But at the end of the day, if you know how to process and experience your emotions, then it's less scary to then take that action because you're like, cool.

Ros: Yeah. Yeah.

Christine: If that doesn't work out, don't care. I've got my back. I know how to take the next step. Why don't I do this? I know how to fix that. like, even I think back to last year when I ran unstoppable women, which was the biggest event that I've ever run before. And I had all the anxiety leading up to it. All of it. Like I had constant anxiety leading up to it. All the challenges that go with running an event at that size, the stretchiness of like having to do things I've never done before, figuring things out along the way, having difficult conversations, like all of it came into play. And now when I think about running this year's event.

Half like majority of that anxiety isn't there like I still have the doubt of like hope people show up, I hope people buy tickets like all the things but with because I've experienced it now I'm like I know how to handle that, I know what to what to do here and what to do there and it changes your experience of it right but you've got to choose what you make it mean and every single time when I was experiencing that anxiety I stopped and was like process your feelings first.

Ask yourself why you're feeling that. Why is it showing up? Anxiety is just fear. Fear of what? Fear that I won't be able to pay that bill because my God, this is the biggest investment I've ever made in a venue. Or fear that people aren't going to show up. Like, am I going to be able to handle that? Yeah, I've been to events before where I didn't sell that many tickets, but I still showed up and did my best. Like there's ways you can work through it if you learn to be emotionally intelligent and you learn to process how you're feeling as well as address your mindset.

Ros: Yeah, so many things. And unless you're asking the right questions of yourself, you're only going to get that fear-based response. And you said that in your book, and I take that with me, and I will be thinking of that as well. we're going to not play small anymore. I love that we've got the vision. We're going to step into that and look at how we can be the role models as well for other people in this whole environment. my god.

Christine: Yeah, that's what you were doing. You're being the example. Yeah, so good.

Ros: Thank you. Thank you. Now, if somebody is listening right now and they are recognizing themselves in this conversation as I have, what would you want them to know?

Christine: That you're human, like at the end of the day, like you're human. I think one of the biggest things I love to really like reflect back to my clients is learning, learned compassion.
Because we are not trained to be confident. We're not trained to manage our mind. We're not trained to be good with money. Like there's so many things that when you think about all the conversation we've had, depending on the like how well your parents parented, depending on how emotionally intelligent they were, depending on, cause back then, like in my age generation, our parents weren't, we, what we know now about the mindset about parenting and about the impacts that that has on us and about our conditioning that happens in the early stages.

Ros: It's crazy.

Christine: of life, what we know now is completely contrasting to what they knew back then, right? And so we've got to learn to reparent ourselves now, but acknowledging like there is so much that I feel like we get so caught up in not telling ourselves kind things. Like we're so conditioned to downplay our successes to beat ourselves up to berate ourselves and that inner critic that just constantly berates us. If you can just learn, train yourself to be compassionate for yourself, everything else is so much easier.

Like you would never say to a client what you say to yourself in your own head. You would never say to a loved one what you say to yourself in your own head. And so I love to like, whenever clients are voicing challenges or they often, you know, say things mean about themselves, like, I made that mistake or I stuffed up here or I, I buggered this or whatever it might be. If I can keep coming back to compassion, like love and compassion, then it's not as scary when you take the biggest steps. Because if you know that everything step of the way, no matter what happens, you've got your back and you love yourself no matter what, you can get through anything. Anything. Right? And so even if it seems like the smallest of things, but honestly is the biggest game changer that if you, you know, I used to call myself stupid all the time.

It used to just be a trained thought that just was a cycle in my head of like, you're so stupid, you're so stupid, which is so detrimental. And I would never say that to anybody else. And once I paid attention to that and was aware of the thoughts that were consistent in my mind, I was like, why? You're not stupid at all. Why would you say that to yourself? And I had to retrain myself to be like, no, you're learning. Like you're growing. This is expanding. Like I had to choose better words to describe my experience so that it felt true, but also just learn to have compassion. Like speak to yourself the way you would speak to a friend going through a hard time, right? And sometimes you need tough love and sometimes you need and still love in the word, right? Still tough love and other times you still, you just need kindness and you just need compassion to be like, you're figuring it out. Everything happens. Don't stress about it so much. Be kind to yourself. Take a rest. Have a nap. Do something for yourself and you are going to figure it out. You are confident. You are a good person. Whatever it is that you need to say to yourself, you always know what you need to say to yourself, but we are just not trained in that way. So being conscious of that is so incredibly important. I just really hope more people are just more self-compassionate. Women really need that. And I think in the world that we live in, we've been trained to treat ourselves like men.

Treat themselves and it's like that toxic masculinity anyway but also like men motivate differently like men are like go hard push push push whereas women are so different like pushing does not help and being so hard on yourself does not help it just only creates more of a detrimental inner critic so if I can take away anything from today's episode like please just have more compassion for yourself

Ros: Yeah, be kind. Be kind to yourself, have more compassion. I 100 % agree with you. And I just want to acknowledge how common this is. It's not just women, think, you know, comes up for a number of men as well. I don't think to be honest, I've seen it in my husband, but maybe it does.

Christine: We don't talk about it. It would, but then I'd talk about it.

Ros: But it won't. then, okay, so that's, that's also different. Men and women, we are different. We're differently wired, and our brains work differently. I hear you with that. But I do want to invite everybody that is listening to this episode to notice where fear is showing up in what parts of your personal life and also in your business. Is it showing up? And what are you going to do? Like, what are you going to step into and actually acknowledge and see it, feel it? And you know change something change the narrative as Christine said it's around the language and recognizing it feeling the emotions changing the words to positivity being sorry being kind to yourself and one thing that I took away initially was how you manifest things as well Christine now some people will go that's a little bit woo-woo but I think that there is a part of that that it's also what are the possibilities so even changing the language or listening to the words and saying what are possibilities in this and what is it that I want for my future. It's not necessarily hey world give me this it could be used in different ways that really show up for different people. So sit with the questions everybody and listen to your body listen to the thoughts that you have and acknowledge and try and see if you can find where they're actually showing up for you. Imposter syndrome I do believe shows up a lot in the travel industry but also just in humans in general. see it in my son when things happen, you know, come up for him and he's 11 and I'm like, wow, it's amazing how your brain is wired for that already. How can we work through it and be challenged?

Christine: I think the hard part too with kids growing up because of the internet and because they have access to seeing so much on social media, it's almost creating this mindset of like, well, I should already know and I should already be good at this. It's really detrimental. so like, can you think about what imposter syndrome is right? Like it's showing up when you're stepping outside your comfort zone, you're doing something you've never done before or that you're concerned like, am I the expert? Can I do this thing? Right? Am I capable of this? You're not capable of anything at 11.

Ros: Yeah, that's true. Oh, I don't know. is pretty good at now after the school holidays. He's practised and that's the same in his sports. Yeah, it's exactly the same thing and it's evidence based and we talk about that all the time. Yeah.

Christine: I haven't even believed.

Yeah, and so sometimes you have to be like, you should have imposter syndrome. Like I feel the same thing with like certain things that I'm stepping into this year and next year.

I should have imposter syndrome because I'm not the expert in that or I'm not the best at this. I'm not great at it yet. Like I'm not capable. It is the unknown. Right. So it's like, don't make it the boogeyman. Like recognize that it's just a protection mechanism. You can work through it and you can turn it into your superpower because it actually is how you create a life that is absolutely extraordinary. When you challenge yourself to look for opportunities to grow and you put yourself out there and you feel the fear and you do it anyway, like you get to change your life by doing this and don't let imposter syndrome be this thing that you yourself is the reason why you can't do it. It's not an incurable disease, it's not something that you have and you can't overcome, like it's actually something you experience all the time and we acknowledge that every human being experiences it, right? It's going to keep coming back the more you step outside your comfort zone and so know that it's actually part of your growth, it's a sign that you're growing and if you're not experiencing it you probably stop growing.

Ros: I love that. Well, Christine, as I said, I absolutely loved your book. I know that everyone can find it on Amazon and also on your website, I believe as well. So we are going to link to all of those places on the show notes. Everybody, please make sure you go and grab a copy of it and have a listen or read through it. It was really empowering. So I just want to say thank you for creating it, Christine. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for doing what you do and sharing your knowledge, expertise and wisdom with the world.

Christine: Thank you.

Ros: Really needed and imposter syndrome my gosh we're all working for working through it it's a it's something to continue to work on I just want to say thank you so much but where can people also find you I'm so excited for your events this year all the other things where's where do you hang out what are the things that you you do

Christine: So I spend most of my time either on Instagram or on my podcast. So I have a podcast as well called The Next Level Life. And you can find me on Instagram at Christine Corcoran and underscore coach. I'm also on all the other platforms, same handle. Feel free to send me a message if you've taken anything away from this. I always love hearing from people who've listened to the podcast. want to say it means the world. And my event, I'm so incredibly excited for this next one. So this will be an annual event and this time it'll be on the Gold Coast at the QT Hotel in September on the 10th of September. It's the go-to event for women in business. It's a high energy blend between business strategy and personal development to support you to step into the most unstoppable you've ever been. So if you are ambitious and you want to surround yourself with other incredible women doing big things and the room honestly is incredible. And I mean that because of the people that are in it. It attracts incredible, genuine, real human beings that we're not there to placate. We're not there to be, you know, fake or anyway. It's honestly just such incredible realness and people that have read, willing to connect and collaborate. So I'm so excited to do this again in September.

Ros: I cannot wait for it. Tickets will be on sale very, very shortly. So make sure you keep an eye out for it. Find Christine on social media on her website as well. Thank you so much for being here. And my last thing that I just want to leave with everyone is to ask yourself this question. Where might fear be showing up right now?

Christine: Yeah.

Ros: not to stop you, but to signal growth. want you to think about that. Let it sit with yourself and just say, what's showing up for me right now? What is actually stopping you? Because I want you to be listening in, taking action, moving forward. And as Christine's book says, turn imposter syndrome into your superpower. So thank you so much for being here today, Christine. I really appreciate you and your time and I look forward to spending more time with you this year.

Christine: Thank you so much for having me, I really appreciate it.

Ros: All right, everybody, if you love this episode, which I know that you will have, please reach out to myself and Christine. Let us know what your thoughts are around imposter syndrome, how you're turning it into your superpower and have an awesome day and week ahead. Let us know what you think and always reach out to us. I love hearing from you as well. I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.