Podcast

63. Stop Waiting to Be Noticed at Work: How Karolina Advocated for a Promotion, Gained Executive-Level Visibility, & Generated Job Opportunities

🚨 RESILIENT enrollment is open. Get $300 off until 9/12 11:59pm with code SAVE300. Final cohort of 2025. Secure your spot: https://melodywilding.com/resilient 

In this episode, I sit down with Karolina, a self-described “data ninja” who went from staring at blank email drafts for 20 minutes to confidently advocating for her promotion and building a powerful internal network. Karolina shares how she broke through the negative self-talk and fear of rejection that kept her standing in her own way, increased her confidence scores by 34% in just 13 weeks, and transformed from someone who avoided emotions to someone who uses them as strategic data. If you’ve ever found yourself knowing exactly what you want to say but freezing when it’s time to speak up, this conversation is for you.

  • Why Karolina’s boss pulled her aside and said “you show up differently now” –– and what shifted to make this happen
  • The framework Karolina uses when her brain starts spiraling (it’s a simple acronym that works in seconds)
  • How a quarterly 20-minute strategy landed Karolina a referral to her dream role (even though most people ignored her messages)

63. Stop Waiting to Be Noticed at Work: How Karolina Advocated for a Promotion, Gained Executive-Level Visibility, & Generated Job Opportunities Transcript

Melody Wilding: Imagine your boss comes up to you and says, this, you know, you’ve changed, you’re different. Maybe your heart starts to pound, your stomach drops. You think, oh, no, what did I do wrong? But then the next thing they say is, no, in a good way. I mean, I, I really appreciate how you’ve been advocating for us, even when everyone else in the room wasn’t on board.

I’ve seen a change in you. More confident, more decisive. I like it. Keep it up. This is exactly what happened to today’s guest, Karolina. She’s a Resilient graduate and she is here to share her story of going from holding herself back with negative self-talk and waiting for others to notice her work, to advocating for her promotion, speaking up in front of executives and creating networking opportunities that open some major new doors.

She specifically shares a pivotal moment that I think you can probably relate to. One that turned out to be a turning point for her. And I’m sure you have been there. You have an important email to write, maybe to request resources for a project, maybe to chime in to correct someone who’s giving inaccurate information.

Maybe it’s to put your name behind all of the work you’ve been doing in the background. You know what you want to say. You still can’t seem to get the words down the cursor, blinks, minutes go by. The fear is paralyzing. Karolina found herself here after years of over-delivering in her role, and that was her last straw.

She was sick of being her own biggest roadblock. You’ll hear how she created space for strategic work to strengthen her advancement case and how she set solid boundaries without alienating her colleagues. How she was able to contradict some of those high powered executives in meetings in a way that gained their respect and buy-in. And most importantly, how she initiated that promotion conversation and how it was well received.

Now one of the best parts of Resilient is that our clients get real data on their growth. And for Karolina, she reached 91% balance across different measures from decisiveness, assertiveness, risk-taking, emotion regulation, and more. That was a 34% increase in just 13 weeks. All of this was possible because she used the coaching sessions, the community, the on-demand teachings, the targeted scripts and tools we have inside of the program, and I have great news for you.

Doors for Resilient are open as of today, but only until September 18th. The program starts September 25th, and this is the last cohort of the year. We will not reopen the doors until mid 2026. So that means before the holidays, you can expect to cut your overthinking time in half, making decisions and moving forward without ruminating over every single move.

You can rebound from setbacks in hours instead of days. You can handle those pressure situations without the inner spiraling. You can reclaim three to five hours a week from unnecessary meetings on reasonable requests without overexplaining, or that crushing fear of disappointing others. You can feel two times more confident influencing decisions because you know your ideas are solid and your voice deserves to be heard.

Just head to melody wilding.com/resilient for all of the details and to claim your spot. You can also book a call there to chat with me about your situation and if the program is right for you, but those spots are very limited, so if you wanna do that, you have to act fast. With that, let’s get into today’s conversation with Karolina.

 

Melody Wilding: Karolina welcome. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast here.

Karolina: I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Melody Wilding: Yes. Well, let’s start, uh, where we always do, which is tell the good listeners a little bit about you and what you do, and then we’ll get into more of your story.

Karolina: All right, perfect. All right, well, hi everyone. I am Karolina. My short is 4K. I’ve been in corporate pretty much my whole career. Right now, I am a data ninja. That’s what I like to consider myself. I get deep into the woods of data as well as I take that data and I create stories from it and then share it to leadership.

So I’ve been in my role right now under my current leadership, I would say about six years. I absolutely love it, but I also want to grow just like anybody else would. And as on the side, I also am a high performance coach, so I love to do that and help others on similar journeys or anyone that does need that extra help.

So that is a little bit about me.

Melody Wilding: I love it. I love it. Data ninja. That’s such a great way to describe it. And it is a real talent to be someone who can have that technical side of the work, but then also have to translate that, like you were saying, a lot of your work is having to tell those stories about the data to leadership to, so to be able to straddle those two worlds is really a talent.

Now, tell us where you were or what was going on for you when you decided to join Resilient. What sort of challenges were you facing that were making you think maybe this is the right time for me to get some extra support?

Karolina: Great question, and I’m sure that there’s a lot of things, but one thing that does stand out is I started to recognize that I was actually standing in my own way and what exactly does that mean? And I could recall exactly the moment that it happened. I was staring at like a blank email draft for I would say maybe 20 minutes, knowing this is the time for me to speak up.

Still, I, I didn’t. For some reason I couldn’t. And I kept telling myself, Hey, maybe this isn’t the right time. Maybe I need a little bit more clarity. But honestly, the truth was I was fearful of putting myself out there and hearing that potential rejection. So it is in that moment that I realized maybe it wasn’t really about having that additional clarity.

Maybe it was not sitting in that temporary discomfort. And that’s what got me stuck.

Melody Wilding: Yeah. And what was, what was some of the things going through your head at that time when you would get stuck on an email or trying to speak up or articulate yourself? What would be going on for you internally?

Karolina: Oof. A lot of negative self-talk. I have to be completely honest, and I know a lot of people don’t like to share it or bring it up, but I’m just going to be authentic and share it. And it’s just more like the, these little words that you would hear like, maybe I’m not enough. Um, maybe I shouldn’t be in this role.

Maybe there’s some kind of a imposter syndrome that’s happening, or maybe I’m just not the right person for this particular role. So it was a lot of like negative emotions that were coming up whenever I put myself in situations that were a little bit uncomfortable.

Melody Wilding: Yeah. And what was the consequence of that? So you, you were saying I was standing in my way. And so how did you know that? What did you feel like you were holding yourself back from doing?

Karolina: From taking the next step forward. I mean, if I’m trying to seek a promotion, I should be out there advocating for myself, and I wasn’t doing that. I let that fear block me from moving forward, expecting others to notice it. And, and they won’t. If you don’t advocate for yourself, you can’t expect others to do it for you.

Melody Wilding: It is true. And also who better to tell your story than you? You know, I, I always say that if, if we don’t do that, then. Yes, it might not get told at all, right? Our accomplishments are just totally invisible. Or the wrong narrative is told, or one that doesn’t represent us or our team or our efforts accurately.

And so to, to be the one who is shaping that, who is guiding that. Yeah. And you, I remember when you came into the program, you did have a very clear goal, which was to get promoted. And so beyond the self-talk, what else felt like it was, what are the roadblocks, did you feel like you were hitting, hitting there, that you were facing challenges getting past?

Karolina: H. Honestly, it does have to go back to that negative self-talk, and even though I would like to blame external factors, which would make. So much more easier. I just couldn’t, because I know that negative self-talk, it’s what prevented it. I was telling myself, well, other people were waiting longer for this.

Why would I deserve it above them if they’d been in their role, let’s say, maybe a few years longer than I have? So I believed in that. And then I was secretly hoping, as I mentioned, that somebody would notice, and unfortunately they didn’t. Because if you don’t advocate for yourself as you even mentioned, no one else will.

And the great thing that I remember even learning in this program, and I still have a sticky note on my bulletin board that says, you and you alone are responsible for you. And I think that was very profound and it helped me realize that if I don’t speak up for myself, nobody else will.

Melody Wilding: Hmm. Yeah. And that, that’s something we talk about in the program so much. One of the, the core teachings that has stuck with people over this time is responsible for versus responsible to. And this is something you may remember our co-coach, Wendy, teaching and talking about often, many times as, as deep feelers and thinkers, and I’m sure you can relate to this, we feel responsible for situations in other people.

So we over function. We’re, we’re like, well, I’ll keep all the, all the trains running behind the scenes, but I don’t wanna take the spotlight ’cause it was a team effort. So I don’t, I don’t wanna put myself out there as the only one who did this, versus we have a responsibility. Two advocate for our work to speak up so that we are leadership is aware of what we’re doing, so that we get the resources, we have the decision making power in the room where things are happening and decisions are being made.

Okay. Amazing. And so what made you think, because like, like you were saying, you’re, you’re immersed in this personal development, professional growth space. I believe you had done other leadership programs internally or coaching programs. So what made you say this Resilient program? I think this looks like a fit for me.

Karolina: Oof. I probably read way too many details on, on the website, but regardless, um, the one thing that really struck me is the, the word itself, and that’s what piqued my interest, like resilience. And whenever you think about it, and. Space. I was thinking, do I even have like self resilience? And that piqued my interest initially.

But whenever I was reading through the program, it talked about like, Hey, you’ll have practical tools. And even though yes, we have a lot of tools and we have created our own as we went through life, but I think. The practicality of the tools, the little frameworks. Um, I think I, I believe I saw a lot of YouTube videos as well.

’cause I like to make sure that I do research ahead of time. But like one of the simple things like how to effectively say no. And that’s one of the things that I was struggling with between, um, my own responsibilities as well as where can I truly say the no. And you had like these great. Frameworks that were listed in there.

Plus, of course, I read your book. I was even on vacation during that time. I clearly remember. And I was like, wow, this is like you’re talking directly to me. So that was more like a stepping stone into this resilient program. If this book was so profound, I could only envision how this program will work through. Plus there was a lot of support. Um, wherever you would have the two calls a week, one of ’em would be based on content, but the other one would be Q&A wherever we could bring in our own issues or anything that we’re going through, and we could just talk it out and work through ’em.

Melody Wilding: Yes. Yes. And that level of, like you were saying, the, the pragmatic, practical support combined, combined with that. That live component, because even as you know, as, as you went through the program, things come up right and you have questions or new fears arise, or you have, uh, you’re like, I’m not quite sure how I apply this to my situation. Or This happened in a meeting and I completely froze, and we’re there to support you through that.

Now I went back because I, I love before these conversations to go back to your Strive Diagnostic, which is the assessment you take throughout the program. And when you started the program, you were at a 68%. And so that would mean that across the different, uh, components that we measure, you were.

Measuring yourself about a 6.8 out of 10 in terms of your level of balance or confidence in each of those areas. And then by the end of the program, so the end of that 13 weeks, you were at a 91%. Which means that you were rating yourself a 9.1 out of 10 across those different components, which is, that’s a remarkable increase, and it is just a huge.

Credit to, to you, your determination, how you are someone who, and I I, I see this about you in every domain. Like you do not sit on your laurels. You are always pushing yourself, but you make the most of what you have. And like you were saying, you took ownership of, I’m gonna make the most out of this experience that I can.

And it is clear in your results that increase there.

So, what, going from that 68% to 91% balance, what were some of the most significant changes you saw in yourself? How you felt different by the end of that 13 weeks?

Karolina: Uh, great question, and I love that you brought this up, and I’m thinking from like my data mindset, I was like, ooh, we get to measure things. So I absolutely love it and it shows where that growth is coming from. Because sometimes if we don’t have that self-awareness, we don’t know where to focus our attention.

So I think like the Strive Diagnostic was the perfect example. It showed you what areas you can focus on and improve. Uh, so if I take a look back and think back to what happened during those 13 weeks, I honestly, I stopped second guessing myself. Um, I know that one of my score improvements was in the self integrity.

I started listening to my judgments better. I trusted them. And one of the other key things was I set up boundaries for myself, not only to protect my priorities, which are, amazing, but more about protecting like my own energy. So it didn’t feel like I was now managing my life. It felt more like I was owning it.

And you can see that through the transition of the scores.

Melody Wilding: Hmm. That’s so interesting that, like you were saying, I didn’t feel like I was managing my life. I felt like I was owning it. Do you have an example of that that comes to mind for you? Because that, it may sound simple or it may sound like semantics to some people, but I think it speaks to the feeling so many of us have, especially as as sensitive strivers, where we feel like.

We’re just reacting to everything and everything’s just coming at us all the time, and we’ve spent our entire lives responding to and accommodating other people. And to shift that, to feel like I can be more selective with my time, I can, I am more in control rather than just reacting to what’s happening around me.

So how, how did that show up for you?

Karolina: Ooh. Probably in numerous ways. I used to view my life like, like a to-do list. Like I have to do this, I have to manage this, I have to do this project. But instead of viewing it in that light, I actually felt like, alright. How do I wanna proceed with this? So I stopped instead of thinking like the overall value, like, um, what do I need to do?

I was thinking, alright, how do I show up as my best self in this situation wherever I have control about, not every aspect. ’cause we never will, even though we can tell ourselves we will, that’s not possible, but more how can we manage this? In the best way that aligns with either our values or how we wanna handle the situation.

So I think it showed up in different assets, especially whenever I was working on projects that maybe I wasn’t too familiar with and I had to own them instead of like manage them in that sense.

Melody Wilding: Mm. So good. So good. And I’m sure that became this almost self-reinforcing cycle where you believed in your judgment and your expertise more. And so you may have taken more confident decisions or made maybe, risks or judgment calls you may not have made in the past. And then that also affects how other people see and perceive you, right?

They see you as more of a decisive, uh, strategic decision maker. Uh, did you notice that, that as you were changing other people’s reactions to you or changing as well?

Karolina: Yes. And my boss is very candid and he literally called me out on that. He’s like, wow, you show up differently now. Uh, you bring your best self forward. And I, I used to be pretty quiet. As a data person, I’m used to looking at the data, then sharing the story and the strategy and creating that story around it.

But what I started noticing is I started sharing my own input a lot more, and it’s been even called out. My boss mentioned like, wow, I see that you’re showing up more and sharing your guidance even if it’s not the popular opinion. So what I’ve noticed is I’m actually trusting my own judgment and saying, Hey, this,

keeps coming up in the data, there could be a reason that might not align with like, the perfect, uh, situation that maybe they’re hoping for, even though there could be some wrong associated with it. What, what I mean by that is maybe it’s not the popular opinion or maybe something that they didn’t wanna look into, but my judgment is coming up more showing that, hey, maybe this is an area of focus we have to tackle first before we move on to the bigger project.

Melody Wilding: Yeah, and to, to have that courage to speak out against the status quo. Right. I think many of us are afraid to do that. But I, I, I was speaking to, um, a group of professionals yesterday about my new book Managing Up, and the executive sponsor of the ERG, the employee resource group was there and she was talking about how in, when she’s interviewing internal candidates for roles, a question she asked them is, okay, what do you think We’re doing well as a leadership team right now? And she lets the person answer and then she says, I want your honest feedback. What is one thing that is not going well that we need to improve? Seems like a very innocuous question, but to her it’s a knockout question because if someone is like, oh, well I think, I think everything’s great, it’s going really smoothly.

If someone doesn’t give her that candid feedback and be able to tactfully and diplomatically disagree and speak truth to power, that’s a knockout question for her because at those higher levels, you need to be able to have that discernment, and that’s what they’re hiring you for. That’s what they have you in that seat for.

Because they want your judgment. It’s not enough to just do yes, completing the task is table stakes, but that that next level of leadership is now tell us what to do about this. What is your recommendation? What is your, what do you wanna flag here for us that we should pay attention to? And that is what sets you apart and makes you more promotable.

So with that though, it sounds like you were having more higher stakes conversations. Of course, in your role, you’re getting brought into higher pressure rooms where you may be in front of executives who are trying to make important decisions based on the data that you’re prevent, that you’re presenting.

What did you learn about emotion regulation and managing your fear or your response in those situations? Because I know that was another area you worked on quite a bit.

Karolina: Yes. So the fear will always be present to some extent. So I’m not saying I’m perfect on it, but definitely I’ve, been I would say questioning it more. And I know that we talked about this in the program and one of the frameworks that stood out, uh, is the think framework. And, um, sorry folks, you’ll have to join the program to know what it is or if you wanna share it, that’s entirely up to you.

But I think what was powerful about that is helped that set of questions to come up and help me get through those scenarios. Um, so in the beginning, even though fear factor, that showed up for me quite a bit. I was the type of individual that would avoid most of my emotions, and then I would hit a point wherever, then they would overwhelm me.

So I thought, ooh, avoidance, that makes me strong. Let me break it to you. It does definitely not because it could show up in situations that are maybe more higher stake or lower stake. So what I learned is to take that pause, take that breath, even though it takes a few seconds, and then check in before I react.

Melody Wilding: Yes. Yes. And and thank you for saying that too ’cause we, I, very early on in the program, one of the, the first month we spend on foundations for resilience, which is managing your thoughts, your emotions, your energy. Because if we don’t do that, then I could give you the best script in the world for saying no or for sounding more strategic in the meeting.

But if you are emotionally hijacked in that moment. It’s not going to matter like you said, or you are avoiding your emotions. That’s like we talk about in the program, you know, you’re trying to push this beach ball underwater and just keep it down. Let me power through. It’s going to explode and come up and hit you in the face somewhere along the way.

And so we need to look at what are the signals coming from our emotions not indulging in that, but even the doubt that you are experiencing or the fear, those are signals of questions our brain has. Can I do this? What are people going to think about me if I start speaking up? And your brain wants answers to them.

And so the, the Think Method you were talking about. I’ll mention it very briefly for everyone here. But that’s a, it’s a mental reframing and really it’s a thought interruption tool because so many times we just get carried away down these spirals. And so with Think you can stop and check in, is this true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, or kind. And sort of just this audit, you can take your, you can take your thoughts through really quickly and just catch yourself in that moment so you have that pause to say, actually, is this, is this a story I want to be choosing right now? And what would be a more helpful, true, necessary inspiring kind one. So I’m, I’m so glad to hear that you still use that and that’s helpful to you. Um, all right. Let’s, uh, I wanna talk about you, you mentioned advocating for yourself.

You were working towards a promotion. So tell us about the progress towards that. What, what steps did you put in place and where does that stand now?

Karolina: Perfect. Um, so it took a lot of internal work and I, and I knew that it would, so I had to remind myself that speaking up. Wasn’t about like being ignorant or arrogant or ego driven. It’s more a self respect. So I had to get clear on on the value that I was delivering for the team. I pulled together proof, whether it was from the projects that I did, whether it was from individuals that were inside that project, or in our organization, we have a portal wherever we put, Hey, let’s highlight as someone.

So I pulled all that information together. And I walked into that room with confidence and ready to have the conversation and to my leader. If you are listening, I’m still waiting on that promotion. However, I was able to have that conversation and that was a huge personal win for me because I took the time to realize my value.

I took the time to say, this is what I accomplished. And I realized that, hey, it is time for the next step. So even though I don’t have it just yet, this is my keyword yet, um, we’re working towards it. Um, we’re also exploring other opportunities and I’m taking instead of believing that, hey, somebody else will help me in the process, which yes, there are sponsors, but if I don’t share, share that information, or I don’t ask them to sponsor, they’re not going to do that for me. So I’m networking within the organization as well as outside of the organization to create those opportunities now.

Melody Wilding: Fantastic. And I appreciate you being honest about that. ’cause this is real life, right? We can, we can have, we can muster all of our courage to have that brave conversation. And you may still hear, not now. And that’s just the mechanations of being in a corporate environment that a decision like a promotion like that, it often can’t happen overnight.

It often takes three, six, sometimes 12 months just because of the way the organization works. But what is important is you have made your aspirations known that you are not no longer. Like you said, I was standing in my own way and being the one holding myself back. Now you’ve made those aspirations known, so they are taken under consideration.

You are not the one putting what your needs on the backseat anymore. You are saying this is the value I can provide, and it’s almost like this, this partnership. Energy instead

Karolina: Hmm.

Melody Wilding: look at me, pick me, energy. It’s more of this, I have value to offer and I would like to find a more suitable way to provide that to the organization. How can we do that? And it’s very, it is so emotionally mature of you to have that perspective that I understand this takes time and that you are also diversifying your options, and I always like to say that optionality is power. So you’re, yes, you’re continuing to have a strong relationship with your leader and to deliver and to keep on doing what you can for your visibility within your team, but building those allies, having those other champions who can speak for you, who can make sure that you’re being pulled into the right conversations.

Or I’m sure you may have seen this in your organization, that change is happening every day. So the person who may be your leader today may not be tomorrow, and you need to make sure there are other people that know about your work and that your manager is not that single point, the only thing you have.

Yeah. Any thoughts or comments about any, any of that?

Karolina: I think you’re spot on, and I have a perfect example of what exactly happened yesterday. So I started creating these connections and there was an opportunity that came through that closely aligned to the skill, and this is a brand new networking opportunity. That opportunity, maybe I just started building the relationship, but at the kickoff of the call, and I set these up like on a quarterly basis, once I get to know someone. She’s the one that brought forth the opportunity to me saying, Hey, what would you think about this? And she’s like, I worked for this individual in the past and since one of my core values is I wanna make sure I have a leader that is not, I don’t, I mean, I’m not going to say this, but maybe, you know what, I will.

I don’t like micromanagers and I just have a difficult time working with them. So what she said is, oh, definitely he’s not like that. He’s more open to, you know, collaboration instead of telling you what to do. And just with that one simple discussion that I have on a quarterly basis, she personally referred me to, to this position. And we’ll see where that leads me. Maybe that is my new promotion, but it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t create these networking opportunities. So I couldn’t agree more.

Melody Wilding: Well, and, and creating, you can tell me if this feels true, but creating those networking opportunities had to come from a stronger basis of confidence in yourself. Because it, it takes self-belief to reach out to other people and not get into the, the thought of, well, who am I? Why would they wanna talk to me?

So I guess just, just talk about that a little bit because it has to come from the identity piece and what you believe about yourself even to take those actions and have those conversations.

Karolina: Oh, oh yes. Oh, I was terrified. I’m not going to lie or sugarcoat it, but what helped me is I had a list of networking questions of how to build, um, how to build better relationships. And I was ready with them just in case. I’ll be like, oh my gosh, I’m stuck. I don’t know what else to say. So I came prepared to the conversation and simply as having a few questions that are more like the top 10 networking questions or something that you get to learn about them. What you don’t recognize is a lot of people, once you pass that barrier of yourself, so it’s you standing in your own way, people are more receptive and they actually wanna talk to you and they wanna share their experiences and they want to guide you on the next path.

And one of the great questions, and I’m going back to the discussion yesterday was I asked, how would you as a leader create visibility for yourself? And she said exactly what you’re doing, creating these networking opportunities. It’s literally only 20 minutes. Go on somebody’s calendar, ask ’em ahead of time.

If you don’t feel comfortable just setting something up, that’s completely fine. And if they, maybe they don’t respond, don’t take that personally, they could have other things going on, and honestly, they could have just missed your email. We get so many of ’em throughout the day. Sometimes yes, they could be missed with the pile, but if you want, follow up with them if it’s important.

If not, move on to the next person because you don’t know where that connection will lead.

Melody Wilding: Yes. And such a, a subtle but important point there about not falling into so much personalization and letting that demoralize you because it is. It would be really easy to, again, psych yourself up and feel like I’m gonna send all these networking messages and then, you don’t get a lot of responses and to make that mean something negative about you.

Right? See, oh yeah, see this confirms that nobody really cares what I’m doing or I don’t belong here, whatever it is. But that’s such a great example of resilience that you have grown is the ability to, have perspective on those situations and to understand that this is not personal and to keep going and to really use it.

Sounds like you were also using some of your Sensitive Striver qualities, being really thoughtful in how you were reaching out to people and when, how you were crafting those requests and the types of questions you were coming with. I always let that, that question you asked about, like, well, what, what would you do?

The sort of advice question that’s a magic one. ’cause people always love talking about themselves and what, what was, what worked for them. Yeah. Fantastic.

And so as we’re, we’re coming to the end of our conversation here, were there any other meaningful successes or areas of growth you had that you wanted to mention that we didn’t have a chance to talk that much about yet?

Karolina: So I would just mention one more thing and that would be more creating that self integrity portion. I know that was one of like my focus areas and I feel like it has grown so much. And it simply just started with recognizing it. And that’s what the strive diagnostic did. Like, Hey, your self integrity’s a little low.

You’re not even keeping commitments to yourself, but also the growth that came with it and all the transition. So it helped like grow the score. And um, I, I know we touched on this a little bit, I was more avoiding my emotions and then I let them build up. So I think the most surprising thing that happened is I have now a toolkit to manage those emotions, and I take that moment to pause instead of like pushing through ’em.

Because in the past I viewed it as, oh, this is a source of strength. I don’t have to manage my emotions. Let me break it to you. Yes you do. Because it will show up in ways that might not be the perfect time for ’em. And once you just take that one little moment to. Pause. It’s going to be a game changer.

Melody Wilding: Hmm. Karolina for the person who is listening who may find themselves. In a similar position that you were, who they’re like, yeah, I realize I’m getting in my own way. What, what would you, what would you tell them? What would you go back and tell Karolina at that point? The person who was considering doing resilient, maybe feeling a little unsure if it could help them.

What would you tell that person?

Karolina: Well, I would say join this program, but if you can’t, um, I would say make sure that you reflect on this, um, figure out really what’s getting in your way. Um, in a sense, for me, it was my emotional regulation. It was my negative self-talk. I had that awareness and I knew which direction I needed to go to.

But if you don’t have it or you’re at a point wherever you’re frustrated, just take that moment to pause. And it will, it will provide the insights that you need to move forward, whatever that direction may be.

Melody Wilding: Fantastic. Thank you so, so much for being here, for sharing. So just honestly and openly about your story, about your experiences, if people want to connect with you, is there a good place for them to do that? 

Karolina: I would say LinkedIn, that is the best spot for me. 

Melody Wilding: Amazing. Karolina, thank you so much again. It was amazing having you here and I’m just, I’m so excited for all the people that your story is going to speak to and help.

Karolina: Perfect. Thank you so much for letting me be on here.

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