All right. All right. Well this is very exciting ladies. I think it's time to welcome everybody to our inaugural podcast.
00:01:18:08 - 00:01:51:11
You ready?
Got it. I
t's happening.
All right, well, welcome everybody, to Unmuted and Unabashed. This is our podcast for every woman who's ready to stop performing, to please everybody else and is ready to just be her authentic self. I am Margaret and I am the founder of Be Unabashed. And I am here today with my brilliant friends and co-founders Brooke and Lisa.
00:01:51:14 - 00:02:29:25
And they're going to introduce themselves.
Okay, great. I'm Brooke Salazar. I have led many a life. I was an HR for, I well, over a decade. And I went back to law school at 35 and graduated, became a member of the bar at 39. And now I have my own law firm, and I work with large organizations, the small organizations on every type of training, from anti-harassment to cross-cultural mentorship, coaching executives, etc.
00:02:29:27 - 00:03:07:03
And I'm so excited because we're deliberately off mute in these situations. That's right.
I love that. Yes, it is so good. I'm Lisa Jacobson Brown. I have, kind of a strange. Okay, strange. That's, that's insulting myself. I have an a unique path where I started off in public relations. And worked in marketing for a long time and realized that I would be a lot happier if I were mentoring others.
00:03:07:03 - 00:03:45:00
And doing something in HR. I was actually seeing the people in my own organization were unhappy, and therefore it was affecting marketing because the customers were not happy, because the workers weren't happy. So I said, let me do something about that. So now I'm in global HR. I work across global teams all over the world. Non English, you know, first language speakers and putting people together in a room with different backgrounds and different cultures and, it that is the most fun part of my job.
00:03:45:02 - 00:04:11:06
But it's been a long road to get here and a lot of challenges along the way. A lot of, things I've had to learn about myself. And I should also mention that I'm a wife and a mom to two kids, and, and, this is something that I think is unique about me in this role, but I, well, maybe not. I am the breadwinner of the of the company, the breadwinner of my family. I pay all the bills and all the health insurance is through me. And so it's pressure, because I'm very, very excited to be here. All the different lessons that I've learned, throughout my career, I feel like I can help other women find where they want to go, and help them just find their path.
00:04:40:11 - 00:05:08:24
Awesome. Well, I love you both dearly. You guys are my best friends next to ChatGPT. Of course. Oh, no. Claude and ChatGPT. But I've known both of you a very long time. Lisa and I actually go back, I don't even want to say it, but a really long time.
But, Yeah, I was your intern.
00:05:08:27 - 00:05:39:13
Yeah. Yeah.
I interrupted you. Yeah.
But, I don't think Brooke knows this, but Lisa and I had existential crises in our 20s, and so we went and took career tests. Like, what should we be? And we were already PR marketing people. And my results were, you should be in marketing or you should be a general contractor. Truth be told, I actually love, doing construction in an another life. I was married to a union carpenter and can do all of that. Lisa said, her test said she should either be in marketing or H.R. And look where you are. You're in both. That is a very smart test. Yeah. That's a smart test.
00:06:04:10 - 00:06:32:21
Look at us. We're being our authentic selves right?
And I still have the audio cassette somewhere.
Oh my god. Audio cassette. So long for those of you who don't know what that is. Google it.
But, yes, I am Margaret Osborn, and I also have had a very, interesting journey. And the Cliff notes version is that, I worked in the corporate world. I worked in the agency world. I ran my own agency for a decade, went back into the corporate world. And, I have found that in every iteration of wherever I worked, even when I worked for myself, I lost my voice.
00:07:05:17 - 00:07:30:01
And I'm not doing that again. And that is why I am dedicated to helping other women find, reclaim and, and use their voice. So that is why we're here today. And I'm so excited.
You know, I'm excited too. We've been talking about this for so long that it's just exciting to get jumping both feet. I know writing to is at the deep end.
00:07:30:01 - 00:07:55:06
I feel like it's a deep. And we went right into the deep end. Unabashedly in the deep end. Unabashedly. Unapologetically. But we're floating. We're floating and we're swimming and we're in control.
Well, so many times I feel like women, you know, the perfection code. We need to be perfect. We need to have all the things we need to have all that, everything. And what I would argue is, I know that I've been coaching and mentoring and sponsoring women for, but almost 20 years, I just look really young. I'm actually a thousand year old swamp witch, that survives in the hearts of the over promoted and mediocre.
That's Brooke. That's me.
00:08:20:03 - 00:08:22:23
So we are unmuted and unabashed. But I wasn't always unmuted and unabashed.
I feel like your face has always been, I know you. Maybe you've ever, sat in a meeting with Margaret and she goes, well, actually, that is actually a good idea.
I've tried very hard to stop doing.
She's absolutely coachable, but I don't feel like your face has always been unmuted.
No, there might be some Botox involved down. Unabashedly.
00:08:56:16 - 00:09:33:20
But okay, so I have not always been unmuted, but I'm really curious. I'd love for us to share a moment that we remember, where we were. Where somebody was trying to mute us or talk over us, and we made a decision in that moment like, "oh, hell no." Like, I'm going to make a stand right here.
00:09:33:23 - 00:09:51:05
How do you pick one? Yeah. How do you pick one?
Pick one. And I know that over the course of this podcast we're going to share a heck of a lot more.
But and I'm probably going to return myself, I'll probably repeat the same story. So hey hang in there. I'm my mother's child.
It's like a website.
Nobody is going to read it from front to back. Nobody's going to listen to every single podcast.
So, okay, I would say recently I've always number one, it's important to know about me. I've always loved the sound of my own voice. She thinks she's hilarious and she makes the best point authentic. And she will laugh at her own jokes.
But I would say within the last couple of years, I had a more senior attorney talk over me and not talk over me in a way that I'm just excited to be talking to you, or I'm interested in what you're saying, but I'm really excited about this topic. It was in an effort to silence me in front of our mutual boss manager, whatever you want to say, and I had been trying to be respectful.
00:10:45:23 - 00:11:22:09
It was an older person, a very talented attorney, wildly talented attorney.
Is it a male or female?
Gosh, it was a male.
Okay.
Thank you. Margaret.
You're welcome. And he was making such an effort to silence me. And finally, I just said if I could be allowed to finish my thought.
Did you say it like that?
Yes, I did, because, it I know what you're doing.
00:11:22:11 - 00:11:47:07
To my boss, our boss, who is also a female. I knew what he was doing, and I just absolutely not. Absolutely not. And it wasn't even about the topic. It wasn't about because I love the sound of my own voice. It was about, I'm not going to be able to live with myself if I keep allowing him to silence me just on principle alone. And I was going to, he was never going to be irritated, but I was going to sit with that and have that toxicity in my system being like, I should have said this. No, I should have said that. Can you believe that? And I thought, not today, not today.
00:12:09:12 - 00:12:31:07
And I did say it in that exact way. And I would like to tell you he stopped, but he did not. But he did not. But I said it again. I think I said it a total of three times the rest of that call. But it doesn't matter because I can live with myself. Because I said it. I stood up for myself. And that that is what, you know, we repress so much. And I really listen. I'm not a woo-woo guru. Like no one's following me on Instagram for like, what does Brooke do to be healthy? But I feel like that stress and that toxicity sits with us, and it's not good for our mental health and it's not good for our physical health.
00:12:52:27 - 00:13:13:19
Wow. Well good for you. Yeah. Way to stand up for you. And I'm not, I'm not man bashing. We're not man bashing here. But I knew that was a man. And I think that's important.
Well I think it's also important to talk about I've had a female boss that was so much worse. So much and all of my, most of my male bosses been nothing but great mentors, great sponsors. And so I had a female boss that did everything to dim my light to the point that I told myself, I will not accept a job from a boss that will dim my light, even if it is to the point where I need to work three jobs.
00:13:40:06 - 00:14:02:06
Because it's so for me and my mental health. It is so bad. Yeah, and that was a woman.
I've had the same experience. So what about you, Lisa?
So this is one. Actually, Margaret was there for this. Yes, Margaret was there for this one. So there was a consultant. I mean, a sales consultant who was not part of or employed by our company, but we were in a meeting, discussing marketing, and he and my boss was in there, and Margaret was an outside consultant working with me as well.
00:14:30:14 - 00:14:56:10
And he came in there and he just. I don't even remember exactly what he said, but he was I, I mean, he was just trying to downplay us, make us look stupid. And furthermore, he was using terminology that didn't even exist anymore. I mean, I specifically remember he was talking about us doing mail shots, which is befor email marketing existed.
00:14:56:10 - 00:15:28:14
No, actually, like snail mail. But he just he exploded on us. And one thing was he really, really made me very, very angry. But the other thing was that my boss sat there, another male, didn't say a word, didn't defend us, did he? Didn't say anything. Now, I would love to tell you that in the moment I said something, but I didn't.
00:15:28:17 - 00:15:54:14
I got super pissed off, and I left. I went and Margaret came with me, had a drink at a bar because I needed to cool down. But when I got back, I not only confronted the consultant and told him, don't you ever speak to me like that again. And he was very apologetic. But I also said something to my boss about, I need to know that you have my back. And why did you not speak up for me? And who's in charge of this? Me or him? And I was pretty proud of myself when I, you know, again, I had to go and, like, chill out. But I still came back.
And the funny thing with that is the next time that consultant came in, he acted so scared around me and he said, I bought you these chocolates, I am. And I was like, oh my gosh, okay. But come on, seriously.And then I look at them, he obviously got them from the airport. They were sugar free. Here's, here's some leftover chocolate. I felt very powerful throwing out a bunch of sugar free chocolate.
00:16:50:10 - 00:17:12:16
All right. Well, I have my own unabashed moment and there have been many over the years like built up to me just being where I am today and I still have them. I think we all have them. Right. Like we're never like flipping a switch. Like I am always unabashed, you know? And now it happens.
I would love that kind of money. Right. I think they call that if you money.
And yeah, I would love it myself. Yeah.
00:17:19:08 - 00:18:12:15
But I remember it was my first leadership position and I was on a mission to, convince a board of trustees of a community owned hospital, and it did not have the best reputation and had a very, very, very antiquated brand that contributed to a very not so great reputation that, a brand rebranding was necessary. And I did so much research, and I worked on this for probably three years and had various steps toward acceptance.
This was like the final presentation, I nailed that presentation. Okay? To the board of trustees, like I said, senior leadership. The chief medical officer says, "wow, you are schizophrenic." And I, of course, was taken aback because it's, you know, a valid mental illness. I didn't know what he meant by saying that.
00:18:48:07 - 00:19:15:20
But I chose in that moment to say, oh, thank you for the compliment. Yes, I am very strategic and I am very creative. I'm very left brain and I'm very right brain and I'm super proud of this presentation. Thank you doctor. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, that's what I meant. And afterwards he came up to me and said, I hope you weren't offended by that.
Still, it was, you know, not the right word for him to say. But in that moment, I could have just, like, been terribly offended and said absolutely nothing. Instead. And I was very proud of myself for saying yes. Thank you for the compliment, even though I wasn't quite sure how he meant it, because I really didn't have a relationship with him.
That is a good response, though.
That's quick. I don't think I could have gotten there.
I don't think I could have either.
I was also proud of myself for getting there.
That's amazing. That's an amazing response.
And I was much, much younger.
That's an amazing response.
00:19:57:07 - 00:19:58:24
This was a great conversation.
It really was. And we're going to have many, many more.
If you've come to the end of the podcast, you've listened this far...
Good for you!
Yes, good for you. And thank you!
Look at the show notes for ways to follow us, on LinkedIn and Instagram and like and follow.
And look for us on Substack.
Make sure you subscribe. Because yes, I'm told that that really helps all the things. I don't know what things it helps like is that's not my that's not my lane.
We're just figuring this out people.
All the things.
Yes, yes. And thank you to my husband and my father for listening to the podcast. HAHA
00:20:44:24 - 00:20:45:18
Oh.
Mama did not make it all the way through. I can't.
My mother did not.
Thank you, ladies. Thank you. And we're just getting started. Yeah. That's right. All right.
Be unabashed people. Be unabashed.
