Facing Rejection and Spreading Kindness with Bravery

We all want to do good in the world, we all want to be successful. But we can’t do any of the above without taking risks life will be filled with endless conversations about what will happen “one day”.
 
In fact, I experience this all the time when I talked to aspiring freelancer friends. They ask me:” how can I make money off my passion?”
 
And when I reveal just how much work is required to do it, I check in with them months later, and they’re exactly where they were when we first talked about their interest in freelancing. That’s exactly what interested me the most about this week’s guest.
 
She’s a motivational speaker who travels across the US and talks to people about rejection and kindness. So, if all that is holding you back is your fear of the word “no”, there’s a lot you can learn from her.
 
What this episode covers:
 

• How Carrie Grace made the switch from teaching to motivational speaking
• Why she wishes she worked with a mentor earlier and why she wishes more people would prioritize that…
• Why Carrie chose her area of motivational speaking
• How Carrie went from playing things very safe and not taking any risks to being someone who helps other people take risks
• Why she believes taking risks is important when in business
• What the fear of rejection is really about: not trying to get rejected, rather than going out and getting rejected and why that’s a problem
• The biggest issue she finds with big dreamers: fear of rejection…
• How the topics she talks about go hand and hand: people not helping because of their fear of the word “no” is actually quite common…
• How Carrie tries to encourage and facilitate kindness by creating a lot of margin in her life (being early, therefore finding opportunities)
• How she finds not being in a rush and getting in the habit of not doing that, can allow her to really be present and help people.
• A rant by James May of Top Gear that reminded me of Carrie’s philosophy on helping others reminded me of: I was unable to find the original quote but you can watch the reassembler series on YouTube I was referring to right here. At some point in the series he points out how technology doesn’t save time at all, it creates less time.
• On her Twitter profile, Carrie often shares her random acts of kindness, and why it’s often in airports. I encouraged her to talk a little bit about the story behind her random acts of kindness.
•  A man she sat next to once in an airport, who started off by behaving inappropriately; why all it took was sheer kindness for him to decide to open up to her about his cancer treatments
• Turns they have something in common: experience with stem cell and bone marrow treatment.
• How being understanding and starting by saying “you never know what people you sit next to are going through!”
• Something she’s noticed about why airports need acts of kindness: the reasons for flying: joy, sorrow, or work.
• Why she believes that the multiple opportunities at airports are a motivational and perfect reason for her kind notes she often leaves for passengers, flight attendants, pilots, etc.
•  Why people are surprisingly receptive at airports about opening up to strangers
• Why Carrie believes that speaking to a crowd is about reading a person/ individual rather than adapting to an environment.
• Why Carrie finds that what works for her is her belief that “we’re all humans, therefore we can relate on that level.”
• The role of social media in the need for her work: why she thinks it’s both a good and bad thing in terms of the impact on others
• Social media’s darker side: pulling us further down some days…
• The most important takeaway of the scary word “no”: it’s a numbers game.
• What really stops people from moving forwards despite rejection, and a baseball analogy used to illustrate that.
• Why it’s important to not get disheartened by non-instant friendship and trust
• Why all it takes is one awesome “yes” for all the no’s in the world to seem meaningless
• Why it’s not about the “no’s in terms of what holds people back, they’re simply wasting the one “yes” and they don’t know it yet.
• The most important thing Carrie wants listeners to remember: do you want to give up on what you’re pursuing and have regret, or keeping going and not regret it later? Why you can have both.
• The “no but…” answer that is more common than you think, and how Carrie found out how common it is when she did the rejection challenge
• I added in the one I get in my work a lot, which is the time based one: “no but we’ll need you in the fall instead,” for example.
• Why Carrie wants to do more pro bono/ free speaking for places that can’t afford it/ are low income. And the partnerships she’s still working on.

 
Bio:
 
Carrie Grace is a former teacher turned motivational speaker. She is on a mission to inspire others to spread joy and kindness, in hopes of people making the world better than they found it. She believes that no act of kindness is too small or ever wasted. She loves the color pink, balloon, and Taylor Swift. She currently travels the country to inspiring others and has she's been featured on major media including USA Today, Huffington Post, His Radio, and many more.
 
Where you can find Carrie Online:
Website: http://www.simplycarriegrace.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carriegraceshop
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carriegraceshop/
 
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