This week, Lorie Jones welcomes Meredith Farley, CEO and founder of Medbury, for a fresh look at what it truly means to forge your own path as a woman in business. You will discover how Meredith navigated a world full of double standards and learned to own her strengths, even when labeled “too much” or “too nice.”
The conversation sparkles with lessons on investing in your growth—whether through education, personal style, or boldly embracing your expertise. Expect real stories of career pivots, unexpected opportunities, and the grit required to build a business as a woman.
With practical wisdom, compassion, and actionable inspiration for self-belief, resilience, and standing tall in your authority, this episode is perfect for professional women who are ready to keep reaching higher and supporting each other along the way.
Show Highlights:
- How Chekhov can help improve your social media writing. [03:47]
- Key LinkedIn-specific training female founders are taking. [09:59]
- Financial need and “spidey sense” validity in career decision-making. [12:14]
- The value of investing in a good, high-end wardrobe. [15:24]
- Broadening initial service offerings vs. offering niche expertise. [22:23]
- Are trust dynamics among women elevating female founders? [23:53]
- Growth practices to learn self-compassion, and two key books. [27:34]
- Explore gender-based career influences women experience. [39:44]
- Learning to stop diminishing your authority as women in business. [46:47]
- Fearlessly owning the perception bucket the world will put you in. [49:41]
- Advice for young women to embrace what “nerds them out.” [52:45]
If you have questions, Meredith Farley can be reached via email at meredith@medburyagency.com.
Find Meredith on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-farley.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
00:01.40
Lorie Jones
Good morning, fearless females. So today we’re here with Meredith Farley. She is the CEO and founder at Medbury. Thank you so much, Meredith, for joining us. I really appreciate it.
00:13.40
Meredith Farley
I’m so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
00:16.82
Lorie Jones
So my very first question, always my favorite, but my stack is getting ever larger. What is your favorite book?
00:25.53
Meredith Farley
My favorite book. Oh, I’ll do that annoying thing where I feel so I’m like, I couldn’t possibly say my favorite book. I will say a book. I did read Hamnet and for some reason that one really stuck with me as a novel. i just absolutely loved it. Have you read that one?
00:44.49
Lorie Jones
No, Hamnet.
00:45.40
Meredith Farley
ah Yeah, by Maggie O’Farrell. it They just made a movie out of it this past year.
00:50.94
Lorie Jones
Oh.
00:51.74
Meredith Farley
think the the woman who played Anne in it won the Academy Award. It’s great. I love i loved the book. The movie was good too, but the book. But i will I want to give a shout out to this one because it’s like right next to me and I feel like I talk about it at least once a week.
01:04.96
Lorie Jones
Uh-huh.
01:05.11
Meredith Farley
It’s called a Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. he You might know him. He writes a lot of great novels and short stories. And this book, though, is based on a master class that he gives at Syracuse University, where he teaches the Russians to students who are in the creative writing program there. And the reason I bring this one up all the time is because what my agency Medberry does is we do thought leadership strategies and content for executives, mostly creating strategies and content for LinkedIn. And I actually think studying Chekhov is a great way to really improve your writing for social because it’s all about unexpected turns, subverting expectations and like really moving the reader forward. sentence by sentence. So if you’re in social media and you want to work on your writing, I recommend to swim in a pond in the rain. It’s a great book.
02:00.76
Lorie Jones
Oh, that’s so interesting. I actually spent, um we had to do a project for literature way back in high school, and I’m not even going to tell you how long ago that was for me, but um I did something on Russian literature literature.
02:15.86
Lorie Jones
ah Seriously, it was the hardest thing. like Because you’re reading in ah you’re reading a really depth in-depth kind of writing um that is is um you know before your time, so it’s not modern. and And you’re reading in a really complex language. So i i i had just I struggled with that. So I find it so interesting that that like maybe if I went back and revisited it, I i might be better at LinkedIn.
02:44.95
Meredith Farley
You might like this book. He really breaks it down. There’s a particular short story by Chekhov. I think it’s called In the Cart that he breaks down. And it’s a really short little story. So it’s good. But what’s your favorite book?
02:55.64
Lorie Jones
um I liked Anna Karenna.
02:57.94
Meredith Farley
Oh, you put that as your favorite? A Russian?
03:00.86
Lorie Jones
Well, that my favorite in the Russian literature, much like you, i have like as a stack of favorites. Like, you know, um I always think of that ah Brian Regan routine where he’s like grape is favorite, a strawberry is favorite too.
03:15.71
Lorie Jones
I’m not sure if you, he’s like, I have like, I have so many favorites.
03:15.97
Meredith Farley
Thank you.
03:20.37
Lorie Jones
I can hardly tell you, but, but I do. I like um my, my current favorite um is ah the boy, the mole, the fox and the,
03:31.16
Lorie Jones
um I have it over here, but it’s a really little read and it’s got, it it was recommended by someone on my podcast, actually my very first guest on my podcast. And it just is such a a happy feel good book. So that’s my, that’s my current favorite of all time.
03:48.97
Meredith Farley
I’ll look for that. It’s sounding my alley for what it’s worth.
03:50.09
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
03:51.69
Meredith Farley
So yeah.
03:51.99
Lorie Jones
Yeah. So tell me a little bit, Meredith, about your journey. How did you get where you are today? What do you do? kind of tell us, did you always know what you wanted to be? Like, tell us just a little bit about you.
04:04.09
Meredith Farley
Let’s see. i was a writing major in college. So your question about books is up my alley. i was, when I was graduating college, I think I was still really finding my feet, but I had this really lucky experience where the college, I went to Ithaca College and they had started a writing ah sorry they had started a marketing magazine that was like pretty cutting edge content marketing back in the day, this was like 2008.
04:32.16
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
04:34.85
Meredith Farley
I got a job there, like a paid job, hour as a website, like a copywriter and editor. That was amazing because previous to that I’d been waitressing while going to school. This was better money and way better experience. And it was a great experience for me because I got to take my like writing abilities and what I was working on as a writer and apply it to something that had like a clear purpose and a framework of content marketing. And i was like, oh I kind of like this. And in the second year I was promoted and I was managing other writers and videographers. And I realized, I kind of like the act of creative production with a commercial purpose.
05:20.47
Meredith Farley
And so I, when I graduated and was looking for jobs, I was looking for something akin to that. I, my first stop was i moved to Boston because I had a PR, a a PR internship at this agency called, called Lois Paul and Partners. But the,
05:39.99
Meredith Farley
like the internship setup was that you work, you know, you’re a free intern for the summer. And if you hit certain KPIs, mid-September, you’re brought on into like an associate role. And when I got there, it was 2009, the market had just totally crashed.
05:52.95
Meredith Farley
The, like a third of their beautiful office was totally boarded up. Most, a ton of their staff had been laid off. And there was a woman, a young woman who was like one ahead of me in the internship program. And she, on my first day told me she’d been working for free for a year. And I was like, oh man, I just don’t have this. I don’t have the money for that. I i need to a full-time job faster than that.
06:15.12
Meredith Farley
So I got a job on Craigslist as a copywriter at an agency. And it was really akin to the work I’d been doing at the Fuse magazine as an undergrad. And stayed at that agency an absurd amount of time, like 13 and a half years. But when I started, it was the dawn of SEO.
06:33.72
Meredith Farley
The agency was growing. I was like employee number 20 something. And by the time I left, we were global and I had moved up and into different roles.
06:38.06
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
06:43.20
Meredith Farley
I was a chief product officer for a couple of years where I was working on a small SAS product and mostly productization of like this huge fleet of an international creative team, how we, um,
06:58.03
Meredith Farley
internally organized ourselves and externally how we presented our products and services to our our client base, which was mostly B2B marketing. And then I was the COO for the last three and a half years there, but I was never goingnna have any equity org at the organization.
07:12.31
Meredith Farley
i really wanted to kind of try my hand at something of my own. And I started Medberry in like March of 2023.
07:21.38
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
07:21.46
Meredith Farley
So it’s been more than three years. And what we do is we create Strategies and content for executives on LinkedIn, mostly working with enterprise brands in that we’re usually collaborating with the PR, marketing, and comms folks on their teams.
07:39.80
Meredith Farley
We also offer consulting and we’ll go in and do trainings and round tables like a 90-minute session to teach senior leadership about how to use LinkedIn or to teach a sales team about kind the lead gen tools and tactics that one can utilize on LinkedIn. And we also run a cohort, which is kind of one of my favorite offerings right now, quarterly. It’s three 60-minute sessions, one a week, three weeks in a row.
08:05.34
Meredith Farley
And most of the time, it’s marketers, PR, comms folks whose company is paying for them to be there and to learn this. And we’re teaching them everything about thought leadership and visibility on LinkedIn. And that’s really fun.
08:17.06
Meredith Farley
And so that’s what where I’m at.
08:18.91
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
08:19.50
Meredith Farley
I’m like building this thing. And it’s it’s been an awesome experience. And I think it’s a, for me, it’s nice because it’s a lot of the things that I enjoy coming together. It’s really, really craft and good content and thoughtfulness and trying to like really hear and understand our clients to create things that are really something that they feel happy about and it’s in their voice and it’s going to hit their goals. It’s also like deep platform knowledge. Like everyone who works at Medbury, we are such LinkedIn nerds. We are so deep in the platform and I like things like frameworks and data and and figuring out the format.
08:54.36
Meredith Farley
And then we work with a lot of female founders too. And that’s really fun for me because i just, it’s it’s nice to feel like I’m supporting other women who are, you know, in the midst of building something as well.
09:06.97
Lorie Jones
I think that’s interesting. You mentioned like um that coming out of college, you you like had the or even during college, you kind of had the happy accident of landing in a place that was growing.
09:20.31
Lorie Jones
Because if you had landed in something like print media, um it it was it was on its way out.
09:21.23
Meredith Farley
Yeah.
09:26.75
Lorie Jones
It had it was kind of dying. But the the digital side of things was really growing. Was that… Like, how did that happen? Was it an accident or was it like your spidey sense was tingling? Like, hey, this is where I need to go.
09:43.29
Meredith Farley
There was no intentionality on my part. It was very lucky. I feel like I lucked out in a couple ways. I lucked out. I mean, it’s funny. I feel like so many things in my life are because I needed the money and then I did something and then ended up being really lucky. So I just, it was a cool opportunity for, you know, good hourly pay.
10:04.28
Meredith Farley
um I was make i would’t i and was going to make more money doing that than I was waitressing. And yeah,
10:10.15
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
10:10.94
Meredith Farley
and seemed like a good thing to try. So I i did it. And there there wasn’t like a lot of vision or foresight on my end where I felt like, oh, digital is the future. um i was interested interested in print. It’s funny you say that because I think I felt kind of down on myself the first few years. I was like, oh, like print media, that’s the real journalism. Like that’s the really good writing. And I’m over here as a hack doing like content marketing work for, you know, small brands at this agency. But in reality, it actually was like the absolute best place to be. And now like all writing is digital. So it’s not, it doesn’t mean that if you’re online, you’re not good. that’s it It is funny. I do feel like
10:56.60
Meredith Farley
Sometimes around spidey sense, I’m curious for your thoughts on that. I do feel like I have a spidey sense and I feel like I have ah some, I have had some good luck around timing. And I feel like a lot of my instinct and intuition is deeply unconscious. Like in hindsight, I look back and I’m like, oh, it was really good. I did that. But at the time it wasn’t very consciously intentional.
11:16.54
Meredith Farley
i don’t know. Do you feel like you have a spidey sense? How to, what’s your experience with that?
11:19.86
Lorie Jones
yeah Yeah, I i actually, i read a book um called Don’t Trust Your Gut. And, um and it talks about very specifically about the fact that your, your gut can’t tell you anything. But as in my empirical, um you know, I’ve, I’ve noticed that, yeah, like, when you when you have an alignment of what you’ve learned, and what you know, and what your gut is telling you, um then you kind of can trust your gut. like i think that I think that maybe the book is is is when you don’t… and like i don’t know anything about um engineering.
11:59.29
Lorie Jones
like The idea of putting buildings together, if I were trying to trust my gut, the building would fall down. like
12:05.35
Meredith Farley
Yeah.
12:07.10
Lorie Jones
But I know a whole lot about finance. And if I’m trusting my gut in that area, like it makes sense. So I think that i think the Spidey sense… combined with education and experience, that’s where you’re getting the the the true direction.
12:22.12
Lorie Jones
Whereas if you’re trying to, i think if you’re trying to um trust your gut ands in an area you really don’t have any knowledge, experience, or or know how, maybe you shouldn’t be.
12:34.14
Meredith Farley
no
12:35.72
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
12:36.41
Meredith Farley
Yeah, totally. Yeah.
12:38.42
Lorie Jones
So what, ah Meredith, as you kind of have gone through this, this journey, is there a really good thing that you could say, Oh, that investment, I made that investment in myself. That was so pivotal. It was really important that I did that. It made me who I am today. Is there something you can think of that would fill that box?
13:02.46
Meredith Farley
It’s a good question. I think I really have struggled to make investments in myself because I’ve struggled to on an unconscious level, like,
13:11.42
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
13:13.88
Meredith Farley
believe that I was worth it, if that makes sense. Like um even things like I love clothes and if I buy an expensive sweater, even if I can afford it and I’m like, I’m gonna wear this on so many client calls.
13:26.13
Meredith Farley
I’m like, ah I don’t know. So it’s such a great question, but i do think, but there are, it’s like intuitive, like it’s actually not my gut, but there are things where I did it and I look back and I’m like, I’m really glad I did that.
13:36.73
Meredith Farley
And I would say the things that come to mind for me, obviously college, like I was 18. I don’t know, I took out a a ton of student loans and to get a writing degree, like what was I thinking?
13:50.13
Meredith Farley
But it worked out for me and it actually was a good investment.
13:52.07
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
13:55.41
Meredith Farley
I would say i lived alone for a stretch a long stretch in my 20s from 23 until I moved in with my now husband when I was 30 31. thirty or thirty one That was a lot. You know, it was a lot of, I didn’t own, it was rent. And I’m so grateful that I had that space and I had that time. And that was an investment that sometimes I felt guilty about at the time and unsure of, but now I think that was so important and I’m so glad I did that.
14:23.35
Meredith Farley
I, when I look back, I actually wish I’d spent more on things like clothes when I was in my twenties and my career, because I actually think it really, really matters how you present. And I at times really just felt like I didn’t deserve the expensive thing. But I, even though I don’t love this about people, I now believe that unconsciously things like an expensive bag or a nice blazer go a long way, especially for women. So I wish I’d invested more in things like that when I was younger.
14:54.58
Lorie Jones
Yeah, it’s it’s actually a struggle of mine. i um a I can’t match clothes. I don’t care about shoes and bags are are beyond my understanding.
15:07.77
Lorie Jones
So I have a sister-in-law who is into all of those things and I just give her my credit card and I’m like, can you please make me look professional and put together because i am miserable at this on my own.
15:11.31
Meredith Farley
Oh, Jack. Yeah.
15:21.90
Lorie Jones
But it it does make a difference. And I i remember sitting down with a um a young lady that I was kind of mentoring. And well, actually, we were driving between one place and another. And I spent probably 30 minutes just talking about clothes and shoes and jewelry and how to um present yourself with a presence and like what kind of, you know, like when you start out, you may not have to have the labels. um But as you grow in your career, you also need to grow in the, like you said, the kind of the expensive items you need
15:56.34
Lorie Jones
ah Like a label on your purse.
15:56.39
Meredith Farley
Yeah.
15:58.34
Lorie Jones
and And it’s just it it just shows that you’re paying attention and that you’re very intentional about your presence and your brand and your look.
16:08.50
Meredith Farley
Yeah. And it can feel weird, right? Like it’s like, don’t know, it feels shallow and like, I don’t care that much about, there’s something about the status element of it that I’d rather recuse myself from, but there was an interesting article or like blog post by, oh my gosh, what is his name?
16:10.25
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
16:25.54
Meredith Farley
Neil Patel, who runs a digital agency. i don’t know if you saw this, but but he did an experiment where he
16:28.72
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
16:32.92
Meredith Farley
Also, it was not like that into clothes. And he was like, okay, for like, i don’t know if it was a quarter or six months or for however long. He was like, going invest in like designer stuff. going to show up to these meetings with like expensive shoes, a Gucci briefcase.
16:46.49
Meredith Farley
and hey And then i’m gonna he was going track meeting and sales conversions. And it was like a huge difference because it unconsciously and his hypothesis was people presumed he was successful and they wanted to align themselves and be part of that success.
17:02.30
Lorie Jones
Yeah, it it is shocking. It’s interesting how much it matters when, um when yeah you like, if you’re like me, like, I don’t, I just don’t care. But, but that, that sense of presence, I do want people to understand that I am successful and I do know what I’m doing. And sometimes the, the brands or the labels or the way you present yourself does, does kind of convey that with ah ah with a ah nonverbal sort of cue. So I find that really interesting. That’s really, that’s an interesting discussion.
17:35.61
Meredith Farley
yeah i think so too and I would say too if someone’s listening and they’re like i hate labels I think I don’t think it has to necessarily be labels but it has to be like quality and there has to be like taste and aesthetic presented in some way
17:46.07
Lorie Jones
Quality.
17:50.74
Lorie Jones
Or ah an alternative way of doing things is if you if you have a brand that is very uniquely your brand. Like I’ve seen um people uniquely brand as like they’re hippie sort of, you know, go with the flow and tie dye. And they always have on like lines. long coats and flowy shirts and stuff like that, like that is their unique brand. And it comes into every piece of who they are, both online presence and in-person presence. Then having a a coach branded purse or a Gucci shoe or or whatever, I don’t even honestly know what Gucci makes. So that’s how bad I am. But but if they had that, it wouldn’t fit with their with their brand and the people they’re trying to attract and their personality. So you have to be really deliberate about it too, to your point.
18:41.67
Meredith Farley
Yeah. Yeah.
18:43.54
Lorie Jones
So Meredith, tell me, i’ love this question. Have you ever gotten some really bad advice? Like what is the worst advice you can remember getting? And did you take it
18:54.88
Meredith Farley
I’ve gotten so much bad advice from terrible bosses in the past. I had one boss who there was a colleague of mine that he was asking me to manage essentially, but I wasn’t officially his manager.
19:10.81
Meredith Farley
And that was a complex dynamic. And I was very young and the man I was man meant to manage was older than me. And my boss was um a guy who was older than me. And I was going to flag or something that needed to be like adjusted. And my boss at the time told me I need to be very careful not to emasculate this other man saying,
19:37.69
Meredith Farley
being too attentive to the details.
19:41.52
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
19:42.30
Meredith Farley
So basically he was like, he’s messing up and you need to be really really, really careful. You need to do a lot of like verbal gymnastics and how you express that to him and get him to do what we need him to do.
19:52.66
Meredith Farley
So that was complicated. um And I think in general, as a young woman in the workplace in my twenties, I got a lot of bad management advice from, from leaders above me that I’ve had to unlearn both insofar as how I act toward the people I manage and also insofar as how I internally speak to myself.
20:15.28
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
20:16.60
Meredith Farley
Wow, great question, bad advice. Let me think about that advice. When I first started Medbury, I did get a lot of advice from and other people where they’re like, you shouldn’t focus on thought leadership and LinkedIn if you need to be like a full service digital or social agency.
20:31.93
Meredith Farley
And I just really didn’t want to do that. I was like, I want to be an expert with a clear product offering that is scalable and useful in this area that I feel like has a big white space. And I did that.
20:42.17
Meredith Farley
And I’m glad I i didn’t follow that advice to be more expansive because I think when you’re just starting out, it’s generic, but for the most part, choosing a niche and getting really good at it and then slowly building out as feels correct is the right way to go in a service industry.
20:56.66
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like that because um ah i I always struggle. a financial advisor and I work um mostly with women. And so i I talk to women and market to women and that sort of thing. And that, that like I say, I don’t discriminate against men, but I don’t market to 50% of the population. And that always feels a little scary. Yeah.
21:23.19
Lorie Jones
to do it that way. But, but I get really good at helping with women and women’s issues and women’s problems and, and talking about women’s stuff. So I i can see where it would be scary and hard to ignore that. But,
21:40.95
Lorie Jones
um and, and especially right at first when you, when you want to just say yes to everything. um but so important that you stuck to your brand and to your to your guns, basically.
21:54.78
Meredith Farley
Totally. Okay, I have a question for you, because for myself with Medberry, and also we work with a lot of female founders, and this is something I’m noticing, which is that I think that sometimes they end up intuitively focusing on women, because they look at their numbers and they notice that if they start off focusing like equal opportunity service to to men and women, men don’t seem to convert at the same rate. And I think it’s because they don’t respond to or trust female founders, but women trust other women. So I think sometimes it becomes almost like
22:30.90
Meredith Farley
um it it makes good business sense because the men aren’t going to buy from you anyway. But like, what’s been your thoughts or experience with that?
22:40.70
Lorie Jones
Um, I tend to, I’ve got that engineering, that very analytical brain kind of thing.
22:46.89
Meredith Farley
Thank you.
22:48.71
Lorie Jones
So i it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s, it’s men or women. um I connect with that, that type, um, you know, that very analytical, but I do find that, um, that women have that, a greater sense of, of trust in easier with someone.
23:08.70
Lorie Jones
it it just helps that you look like them and act like them and talk like them. And you’re, you have the same concerns. Like that’s why, um you work well with people who are like you.
23:20.57
Lorie Jones
That’s why, that’s why we need more minorities. That’s why we need more women in, in all these different industries, but at the top of their industries and finance in general. So, so I, I do think there is a sense of like,
23:31.05
Meredith Farley
Interesting.
23:33.72
Lorie Jones
you You work better with someone who who you feel like you can um connect with. And you do tend to connect with people who look like and act like you.
23:44.30
Lorie Jones
So women connect better with women a lot of times. It just is.
23:48.76
Meredith Farley
interesting
23:51.58
Lorie Jones
so what about, ah I’m not going to say regrets, but what about a do-over? If you could go back kind of along your journey and you’re like, oh my goodness,
24:01.94
Lorie Jones
Now i know how to do that situation. I didn’t at the time. i did it you know I did it all wrong or I did a piece of it wrong. But if I could go back and do it again, i would do it. I would kill that situation this time. I would do great at it.
24:17.89
Meredith Farley
Um, I don’t know. really, i know it’s an annoying answer, but I really feel like I’m a perfectionist. And one thing I’ve had to get comfortable with is that I learned by doing and through experience and to not go back and beat myself up for something I would have done differently if I had. But, you know, like the experience I have at 39 is so different than the experience I had at 23 or 24.
24:43.26
Meredith Farley
um So I’ll, I’ll couch it all with that. I think probably i i look at my college. I think that’s one thing I think about a bit. I had amazing grades and good test scores, but i didn’t have like neither of my parents went to a four year college and we just didn’t totally I don’t think have the.
25:05.27
Meredith Farley
it I think I could have have gone I could have like shot higher i could have had bigger goals for myself insofar as the schools I applied to and went to sometimes I think back on that and I’m like I could have done a little better in that in that way but I just didn’t come from a context where we had a ton of knowledge and experience around that so you know in the end too I’m like It worked out fine.
25:13.30
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
25:27.42
Meredith Farley
i ended up, if I look at it, I’m like, it really set me on the trajectory for my career. just like the magazine and then where I went the internship and eventually I have met my husband and we live in Boston.
25:39.63
Meredith Farley
So I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t truly change that if, you know, cause like, oh I don’t want to mess with, I don’t want my life as it is currently in the journey I had.
25:43.17
Lorie Jones
Right.
25:48.92
Meredith Farley
And I also think too, when I look back at that and I think probably so like, um, I grew so much through so many of the really difficult experiences I had in college or professionally in the past. And so I, it’s a bad answer, but I wouldn’t change a The only thing I would do is be more compassionate to my younger self and less hard on myself in the moment if I wasn’t like being perfect at something.
26:12.80
Lorie Jones
Yeah. As a fellow perfectionist, I have that same exact problem where you i learn i learn i think you just do learn more from failures or learning experiences.
26:29.37
Lorie Jones
i don’t know what you want to call them, but for not doing everything perfect, do you learn more in those situations than you do when you’re doing everything right.
26:34.72
Meredith Farley
Yes.
26:36.73
Lorie Jones
But it’s so hard for us perfectionists to to have that. i i You beat yourself up. You are like, I just had a situation yesterday where I i dealt with a client um um and and i was I felt like I had disappointed them in not you know being 100% perfect in every way and in the way that they thought I should be perfect.
26:59.62
Lorie Jones
And I thought, i i thought you don’t really ever… ah If you’re a perfectionist, you don’t really ever get over that. But I love the idea of like going back and showing yourself compassion. Is there a way that you do that? Is there a way that you can like taking my situation, the fact that it happened yesterday, can you go back and and help yourself feel that compassion?
27:25.82
Meredith Farley
Okay, wait what you’re bringing what you’re saying brings up for me so many experiences of how like that I can think of one where I was really not feeling well I was under the weather. our head of exec content had drafted an email to send to. It was kind of an important email, um but it wasn’t a big deal email. And it was like, it was to come from me. She helped me. She drafted it. It was like just a little more formal. And there was like, the messaging wasn’t exactly what I would have put together. And I was like, you know what? She made this really easy for me.
27:58.81
Meredith Farley
um I’m going to just send it. And Actually, sorry, could we edit this? Because I realized I don’t want Juliet to hear it and feel bad. Can I like phrase that again?
28:09.12
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
28:10.26
Meredith Farley
Sorry.
28:10.52
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s fine. No, that’s fine. I’ll um um just give me just a second and I’ll make notes for my podcast person.
28:22.77
Meredith Farley
Tell me when you’re done. I’ll start again. I’m sorry. I hate to do that and cause you more work. I won’t do it again. I promise.
28:27.10
Lorie Jones
No, no problem. No problem.
28:31.61
Meredith Farley
So let’s see. So time What you’re talking about, I’m thinking of so many instances I’ve had where I’ll be under the weather and there’ll be like a little nuance in an email that I mess up.
28:41.86
Meredith Farley
And I, at times, will, it sounds crazy, but I’ll like rage about it myself for days at at myself. I’ll be like, what an idiot, I’m going to tank this business.
28:52.26
Meredith Farley
And then, you know, when I’m in that spot, I think the the ways I can show myself compassion are to one, notice it and be like, it doesn’t, but noticing it doesn’t stop it, you know, noticing and being like, I’m in a weird loop here.
29:03.91
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
29:06.20
Meredith Farley
This is actually really not about this thing. It’s probably about something else consciously or unconsciously happening for me. And I think what, I don’t know if you feel this too, but it sucks like in your body. Like you’re like, I feel this and I’m just like,
29:19.96
Meredith Farley
And I think you kind of just have to feel it and accept that like, all right, for a ridiculous amount of time, this tiny mistake I made is going to like really be like a bee in my bonnet.
29:33.08
Meredith Farley
And then I will get over it. And I journal a lot. That’s one thing I do every morning, i morning pages.
29:38.69
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
29:40.12
Meredith Farley
And I feel like it it really helps me. Like one thing I focus on is where moments where I’ve kind of undercut myself verbally throughout the day.
29:50.82
Meredith Farley
Like I, no matter what, I just have a tendency to say, maybe I’m, I’m not exactly a verbal processor, but if I’m talking out loud to the team, I kind of, but I have little tics where I’ll be like, well, I’m just babbling.
30:03.58
Meredith Farley
Sorry guys. And it’s like, ah I don’t really have to do that. Like, it’s my process. Like, I talk out loud to the folks I’m collaborating with. I don’t need to denigrate myself. But that apologizing for things that are not my fault, ceding authority to make other people feel better.
30:23.31
Meredith Farley
i do all these little things.
30:23.65
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
30:24.83
Meredith Farley
And I feel like journaling helps me notice when I’m doing it, get like tiny, tiny, incrementally over time better things. not doing that, like noticing when I did it in the last week, writing about it and trying to be mindful as I go throughout my day about about not making those things. And I feel like there’s something about the act of journaling that brings compassion for me to bring it back to your question where I can, I just know I’m in a process. I know I have flaws that I’m working on and I try to be compassionate with myself about it. and
30:57.90
Meredith Farley
But I think a part of it is actually acceptance because i don’t know if you feel this way, but as a perfectionist, what you can be trying to do is to make yourself feel good all the time. And just being like, I’m not going to feel good all the time.
31:10.42
Meredith Farley
Some part of my brain is going to feel upset or mad at myself and scared.
31:10.54
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
31:16.32
Meredith Farley
And I need to like accept that and not try to get put one more thing on my to-do list is like create a perfect Zen and i mean experience all the time for myself and for everyone around me.
31:30.46
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I like that. I love the idea of of journaling and i’m kind of consciously going through. i do ah coaching with my team and I’ll ask, what did you do well and what would you do differently? Not bad, not, you know, but just how would you change it? And that and that seems like the question that you’re asking is like, how how would I do this differently next time? And then you just incrementally
31:56.25
Meredith Farley
Yeah.
31:56.54
Lorie Jones
get better and better. and And maybe if you’re journaling, you could go back and look at a year ago and say, hey, I’m i’m actually improving because you don’t notice it little teeny tiny bits at a time. But if you look back a year or two years, you you kind of do notice. You’re like, I’m getting better at this. i I should give myself an extra piece of chocolate today for doing so well.
32:19.38
Meredith Farley
Yeah, totally, totally.
32:22.50
Lorie Jones
I like that.
32:23.29
Meredith Farley
And I feel like if you like zoom out even further, there’s a version maybe where you’re like, maybe that’s just me and I can accept it and I don’t even need to get better at it. Maybe I don’t need to be perfect to do the work I want to do.
32:33.85
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
32:34.84
Meredith Farley
Like, I feel like that’s a whole other like angle or aspect of it because, ah you know, like where it’s like, the balance of where do I really try to get better and improve and evolve and where actually is the work to just accept them a flawed human and do the ego work of being like, I guess I’m not perfect and that’s okay.
32:50.52
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
32:54.66
Meredith Farley
And I still deserve success and love, you know,
32:57.66
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. I have to talk with myself and I’m like, Lori, not everybody has to like you. Like, it’s okay if you if some people just don’t get along with you. That is, that there are, there’s not going to be, not everybody is going to like you. And that’s, that’s kind of what you’re talking about, accepting that there are things that, that are just who you are and it’s, it’s okay.
33:20.30
Lorie Jones
That’s an okay way to be.
33:22.71
Meredith Farley
Okay, two books come up for me. Have you read, have you heard of The Vital Spark?
33:28.02
Lorie Jones
um I know I’ve read Spark, but I have the vital spark.
33:30.81
Meredith Farley
It is Lisa Marciano. She is one of the co-hosts of This Young Eon Life, which is one of my top favorite podcasts. And i actually interviewed her on Midbury’s podcast, Content People. She’s written a couple books.
33:41.65
Meredith Farley
This one book, The Vital Spark, I would recommend to every woman. it is, it’s about women. and how we often struggle to integrate some of the more helpful traits of like aggression, shrewdness, and being able to tolerate being disliked because it’s actually serving us.
34:00.61
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
34:05.65
Meredith Farley
And we spend a lot of energy getting bad people who want to take advantage of us to to like us. Like it’s such an incredible read.
34:12.51
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
34:14.09
Meredith Farley
I feel like I i should be reading it ah monthly and probably, but that’s great. And then there’s another book called The Likeability Trap that I think is fantastic for women in the workplace, especially.
34:28.46
Meredith Farley
And it’s really not offering solutions. It’s talking about the complexity of likeability for women, which I’m sure you’re familiar with, which is that if people don’t like you, they don’t want to work with you.
34:34.83
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
34:38.76
Meredith Farley
They don’t want to be managed by you. They don’t want to collaborate. and if they do like you, that doesn’t always help either because you need to keep earning that affection by being helpful, by being agreeable. And that she taught, you know, like it it’s a kind of a, it’s a double bind. And there’s ah a lot of interesting stats about helpfulness that I think of a lot as it relates to female founders where, and and women in general in the workplace where women are expected to be helpful. So when you go above and beyond or provide help or support in some way,
35:15.13
Meredith Farley
you don’t like get bonus points for it. It’s just like, as you should, but if a man is not expected to be helpful, so if he does something a little above and beyond, he gets a lot of unconscious bonus points from us because we think, wow, he really didn’t have to do that. What a great guy.
35:29.91
Meredith Farley
And so it’s tricky because it’s just really hard for wip like for women to catch.
35:36.79
Lorie Jones
To navigate that.
35:36.87
Meredith Farley
Yeah.
35:37.71
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s so interesting.
35:37.88
Meredith Farley
Yeah.
35:39.35
Lorie Jones
i’ll have to but I’ll have to put those at the top of the pile.
35:42.87
Meredith Farley
Yeah, they’re great.
35:42.90
Lorie Jones
um ah That sounds interesting.
35:44.69
Meredith Farley
Kind of a bummer, that one, I would say. that the really cha up I’m nodding along as I read it.
35:46.58
Lorie Jones
yeah
35:49.13
Meredith Farley
I’m like, oh yeah, but you know she doesn’t offer a lot of solutions. It’s just a lot of challenges and it’s helpful to have them articulated, but it’s not easy to navigate, I don’t think, some of those some of those complexities for women.
36:01.05
Lorie Jones
Those of us who are doers might find it a little challenging to get through that book because we want to solve the problem and she maybe doesn’t give solutions.
36:08.63
Meredith Farley
Yeah. was like, well, what do we do?
36:09.90
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
36:11.10
Meredith Farley
what does one do?
36:11.32
Lorie Jones
ah
36:13.05
Meredith Farley
really
36:14.20
Lorie Jones
So what about, ah what scared you the most when you kind of started down your career path or at some point during that journey? Is there something that scared you and did does it still scare you today or did you learn how to navigate that?
36:28.87
Meredith Farley
um yes I think starting your own business forces you to really confront anything around how you think about yourself or talk to yourself um that you haven’t dealt with. Like somehow it, for me, and I think for so many other business owners I’ve talked to, so I think there’s a theme here. It like ratchets up your self-beliefs times a hundred, whether they’re good or bad.
36:58.46
Meredith Farley
And for me, I realized I had a lot of work to do around believing in myself. Like I achieved so many things at that agency over the like 13 plus years I was there.
37:06.79
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
37:09.39
Meredith Farley
And I, you know, was promoted up into these C-level roles over time. And I think I, you know, I was, felt deeply competent and was very helpful.
37:20.73
Meredith Farley
And then suddenly when it was for myself, I was like, well, I’m an idiot who doesn’t know how to do anything. Like, and how dare I charge people money for this? So I think for me, it was,
37:35.03
Meredith Farley
the fear probably most manifested around money, which I didn’t really have to have any fears around. Like we had purchased a house, we had our mortgage set.
37:45.38
Meredith Farley
I had a few hundred K in savings as a cushion. i was on my husband’s health insurance and he has is a great job. Like there was no world in which I was going to like wind up homeless on the street in the next 10 years.
37:57.74
Meredith Farley
And yet I would wake up with like my heart pounding for the first year of starting Medberry, just like absolutely panicked that I was headed for ruin and would, you know, so I had, and really had to do a lot of, it just really put in front of my face, like, okay, you have a lot of, um,
37:59.44
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
38:21.17
Meredith Farley
you have a lot of money fears and you have a lot of worry that you’re gonna be able to like support yourself when it’s just you as opposed to being an employee of an organization. so those are those, i have the money is, this is a babbling answer, but money is probably the thing i had the biggest fear around that first year. and it was really intense, like waking up at 3 a.m. m almost every night, like um just with like really intense thoughts around how I was ruining my life essentially.
38:50.90
Lorie Jones
That’s so interesting. I do find that a lot in a lot of clients that come with me and specifically in women clients where um there’s a bigger fear, it feels like, of what if I i don’t make it?
39:02.99
Lorie Jones
What if I’m not okay? What if i um you know what if i get sick and don’t have enough money to pay for long-term care, like those questions come out in women in different ways than they do in men.
39:09.49
Meredith Farley
OK.
39:18.95
Lorie Jones
And I find it most in like, you know, the retirement planning space, but the entrepreneurial space, I can see how that, that same fear would show up in entrepreneurial space as well.
39:30.64
Lorie Jones
Like you’ve planned well for this, but you just want to know you’re going to be okay.
39:36.86
Meredith Farley
Yeah, yeah, totally. and take I don’t know, it took me like a year to like release some of that. That’s interesting. I hadn’t like in my head equated it to retirement, but I could totally see that.
39:47.93
Lorie Jones
Yeah, interesting. um Did you face any unique challenges along your path because you were a woman?
39:57.25
Meredith Farley
Yes, every step of the way, in a lot of ways that I didn’t even realize till later. I think that
40:09.58
Meredith Farley
and it’s, I don’t know how you feel like I’m, I think we’re maybe around the same age. don’t know. I’m like 39. And I, it’s funny to look back at what the work environment was when I was 22 coming out of college, eight um you know, 17, 18 years ago.
40:26.91
Meredith Farley
And I almost don’t even know how to start to answer that question because the fact that I’m a woman, um, you know, from the time I was a little kid, changed how people perceived and talked to me, changed how I learned to think about myself, changed how I had to
40:46.33
Meredith Farley
present and comport myself in in socially. When I think back to like my college, like my college experience, it was just, I was such a unempowered version of myself. I am, you know, really just took a lot of like dealt with a lot of misogynistic stuff and relationships that I would never even think about. Like it just would be so alien to encounter now.
41:12.12
Meredith Farley
um And it’s funny and you talking about it, it’s almost making me feel a little emotional. It’s like, yeah, every aspect of my being has been impacted because we live in a misogynistic patriarchy.
41:25.50
Lorie Jones
um How did you, did you find a way to, it it you don’t deal with some of those same challenges today that you did then.
41:36.15
Lorie Jones
Did you find a way to deal with them or has the environment just changed?
41:40.48
Meredith Farley
You know, I think we still deal with it. Like, I think you just got to deal with it and move on. Like, I love being a woman. I love the things about myself that I think are like feminine intuition. And, and it’s just, you know, it comes with things and,
41:55.06
Meredith Farley
ah I think now like starting a business for me has been harder than it would be if I were a man with my experience because I do think a lot of men just don’t trust women in the same way they don’t see value or expertise they’re more suspicious they’re less I think probably with some of our earlier clients had to work a lot harder to like just get them to trust me and I’d be like why did you work with us if you didn’t value my deep expertise in this area so I think still it’s harder um much much harder because I’m a woman to to grow this business and um but i you know I don’t know it’s it’s so hard to say I almost feel like it’s an impossible question to answer because I could be a different I could be a man with different skill sets who would have different challenges um
42:44.69
Meredith Farley
a you know, but I don’t know. it’s like It’s a great question. It’s it’s a hard one. And it’s also funny too, because I’m realizing I’m saying like, yeah, we live in a misogynistic patriarchy, which I believe, but I’m also not like, um
42:59.27
Meredith Farley
I’m not, I wouldn’t describe myself as like a woke feminist. Like I’m not out there preaching around that.
43:02.58
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
43:03.78
Meredith Farley
I’m just like, this is the water we’re swimming in and there’s pros and cons and you gotta just keep moving forward. But I am more now than ever mindful of the way that the way I was treated and learned to think about myself was deeply influenced by the fact that I was a woman, especially when I was younger.
43:24.98
Meredith Farley
It’s an, and I don’t know, what do people usually say to that question? And like, what’s your experience there?
43:29.59
Lorie Jones
Yeah, i I’ve had very few, but some say no that it didn’t. They didn’t face any unique challenges. In fact, um i I remember one specifically who walked around the world, Polly LaFontaine.
43:46.78
Lorie Jones
towski I believe was the name that I interviewed. And she said, because she was a woman, she got invited into places. They never would have let her in. If she was a man, she was non-threatening and she was walking around the world, you know?
43:57.17
Meredith Farley
Yeah.
43:59.78
Lorie Jones
So, so she found a lot of value in, in being a woman. She’s like, if I was a six foot four, you know, 250 pound man, like they would not have invited me into their house.
44:12.34
Lorie Jones
So I had some warm place to stay and eat. So I find it interesting the different experiences through the, through the, you know, through our different careers and our different lives that we’ve lived.
44:23.91
Lorie Jones
Um, some do face unique challenges because they’re a woman. And I, I find it, I actually, I’ve said this before, um is that I just kind of throw that question out there and let my interviewee kind of interpret it because I’m not asking if you, um,
44:42.42
Lorie Jones
you know, you faced hardship or anything like that. And it’s so interesting that a lot of times that’s the way the question will be interpreted is, is did I, did I face any discrimination or something like that? That’s that, that isn’t actually, you know, the question is, is unique challenges. And of course the answer is yes, we do have unique challenges, but I find it interesting the women that, that like you, you know, that kind of talk about just unique challenges, like, because we are a woman, um We have things that are different for us in the workplace than they are for men.
45:18.01
Meredith Farley
Yeah. And it’s interesting as you’re talking, like one thing I’m thinking about it in particular is how it was harder when I was younger because I was less conscious of it and I didn’t understand it quite so much.
45:29.24
Meredith Farley
So I think if you’re young woman in leadership, especially in the 2010s, early 2000s, I think there was a lot of like projection that I dealt with. And I just didn’t, I was just, i didn’t really understand psychology as well at the time.
45:38.74
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
45:42.45
Meredith Farley
I didn’t even know what projection was probably. i didn’t, And I’d just be so confused after interactions. I’d be like, I don’t understand. Like, I mean i am, yeah, like what just happened here?
45:52.15
Lorie Jones
What just happened?
45:55.85
Meredith Farley
um And when I look back now, i’m like, oh yeah, like they had a lot of biases because I was a young woman in a leadership role, like pretty straightforward stuff.
46:05.55
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
46:06.01
Meredith Farley
And so I think it’s it’s helpful to to learn and grow and understand that, to try and understand interactions now with a little, you know, have more context and also to look back with more context.
46:21.71
Meredith Farley
And just because in the time, i think there were a lot of like, you know, just people, it was, uh, acting really weird when I, to me as a manager and, um, at the time it felt so terrible because I didn’t understand it.
46:37.46
Meredith Farley
And I just internalized it as like, it must be something weird about me or something really weird I’m doing.
46:39.82
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
46:43.54
Meredith Farley
Or some way in which I’m deeply unlikable and like now i you know I have so much. It’s like, it wasn’t you, girl. It’s kind of a nice aspect of it The more context you have, the more understanding and compassion you can have for your younger self who dealt with that, I think.
47:01.18
Lorie Jones
Yeah. And I think that too is a great message to pass on to those younger women that are kind of coming up through the ranks is like, sometimes it isn’t about you.
47:12.09
Lorie Jones
and Sometimes this is societal. Sometimes it’s, it’s, it’s just this, ah the norms of the society that we’re living in. And, and like, you’ve got to be like, you know, some of the things you have to just let go. um But I think that giving them a heads up, hey, you might deal with this.
47:31.48
Lorie Jones
Like, we’ve dealt with this. These are some of the ways we handled it. You might, you could try that. This worked really well for me. This didn’t work at all for me. Like, giving them a heads up.
47:43.61
Meredith Farley
Yeah. And I think like preparing that, like, there’s no version that doesn’t have consequences. This is like a small thing, but sometimes with like the Medbury team or yeah women I’ve managed or mentored, I’ll give advice around how they like how they write an email or text or show up verbally.
48:04.73
Meredith Farley
And with emails, for example, It’s cliche, but women love exclamation points. They love being really warm. And sometimes I’ll do that. I’ll do that with our internal team. I’ll do it with clients who have it where it’s really genuine and I feel that way.
48:17.56
Meredith Farley
But if it’s a little more straightforward, I might be like, you really don’t need those exclamation points. Just like, ch you can be more direct. You don’t need to over-explain. And you can kind of own your authority in this situation.
48:29.90
Meredith Farley
It’s good for them overall, but there are going to be times where people aren’t used to that. And they’re like, I’m expecting someone to kind of like unconsciously lower their status here with like a lot of warmth, a lot of um helpful, warm exclamation points. Yeah.
48:52.63
Meredith Farley
self-diminishing language. And when you don’t do that, they get weird back. They don’t know how to handle it. And it almost can be like, um you’re going to get less friendly responses back, which that is like a whole thing where it’s like, okay, you got to deal with the fact that like, you’ve just ah asserted your status and they don’t like you right now.
49:03.68
Lorie Jones
Bye.
49:12.98
Meredith Farley
And it’s not because you did anything wrong. It’s just that It has nothing to do with you. And the alternative is to lower your status and be like super friendly, smiley face, anything I can do to help, just let us know, hit us up anytime.
49:26.97
Meredith Farley
And then you’re going to be thought of as lower status and you’re going to miss out on opportunities and you’re going to be given a ton of work that is of no benefit to you. So like there’s, it’s just so much, there’s so many things to navigate. And I think something is that, um,
49:42.52
Meredith Farley
One thing I’ve noticed is that the the advice around for women, you know, around how they show up and and don’t use exclamation points. Don’t up speak.
49:53.14
Meredith Farley
Be really decisive and direct in these conversations with your boss or people you manage. It doesn’t always give the other side of it, which is like sometimes people have a bad reaction to that going to have to sit with that too and it’s going to feel bad.
50:07.71
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s always navigating the the balance there.
50:14.71
Meredith Farley
I don’t even know if there is a balance. I think it’s just kind of like you either deal with, you have to sit with the discomfort of people’s reaction to you, or you can make them feel more comfortable with you, but think less of you.
50:16.18
Lorie Jones
yeah
50:26.33
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. That’s, I, I actually have that question a lot of times. I’m like, you, you either come across, um, harsh authoritarian, you you know, the, you know, the words you use there, or you have to come across as super friendly. Like, where’s the, where’s the middle ground where you just get to be you? It’s the, it feels like you have to choose one role or the other.
50:53.34
Meredith Farley
When I think too, like, I don’t, I think if you’re just kind of neutral state straight down the line, people are going to put you into the authoritarian bucket just by owning a touch of your own authority, even if you’re not.
51:05.05
Meredith Farley
So like, I think it’s other people’s polarized perspectives of women where you’re either like an authoritative witch, or you’re like a doormat. Most of us are neither of those things.
51:15.80
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah.
51:16.44
Meredith Farley
or We’re right here in the middle.
51:16.54
Lorie Jones
We come in somewhere in the middle.
51:18.26
Meredith Farley
um
51:18.26
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
51:18.97
Meredith Farley
But like, yeah, you know, people pick up on little signals one way or the other and put you in a bucket. And I think that most women get put in one of those buckets for sure.
51:25.18
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
51:27.87
Meredith Farley
So you just got to choose which bucket you can live with.
51:31.66
Lorie Jones
that’s ah That’s a really good way of putting it. I’ve been trying to find that middle bucket there where I feel like that’s who I am. and and maybe I just need to choose one the other side and be like, I’m okay with this label, even though I feel like I’m middle bucket.
51:46.26
Meredith Farley
Yeah, yeah.
51:47.54
Lorie Jones
Yeah. What about, um Meredith, what is the thing that you are most proud of?
51:54.74
Meredith Farley
in like in my life overall.
51:56.82
Lorie Jones
Yes, you take that however you want to take that. That’s another question that I just throw out there.
52:08.47
Meredith Farley
don’t know. I am grateful to be on the journey I’m on. I’m proud of myself for the fact that I can be anxious or nervous or scared about things and I still kind of like follow some internal guiding force in me and I i do things that, you know, like I think I’m i’m grateful that i will take risks and I’m proud of the risks I’ve taken and I’m proud of the way that I like try and stick with myself and support myself through them.
52:43.66
Meredith Farley
And think I’m, you know, I’m proud of the way I’ve That’s it. I don’t know. proud i have It’s a such a good question. don’t I’m like, when why do I struggle so much with it? There’s really not much I feel proud of. There’s a lot I feel grateful for.
52:55.67
Meredith Farley
um and I think that, I don’t know, maybe that’s a problem or something for me for me to look at. It’s hard for me to feel proud about things, but I feel grateful for a lot of things.
53:06.84
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
53:07.99
Meredith Farley
And, you know, I i like the journey I’m on and I enjoy my own journey. You know, I love that my little hobbies and things I love and getting to spend time on those things.
53:18.55
Lorie Jones
I love that. I like that. And I think that is something to like, look back on and just be proud of proud that we are a little bit brave, a little bit fearless, where we’re willing to take those chances. And we keep going, we keep, I had one woman who answered that question. And she says, I’m just so proud that women are so resilient. And that’s, and that’s what I think you’re saying, you know, we, we just keep going.
53:43.93
Lorie Jones
We just keep going.
53:44.15
Meredith Farley
Yeah. Yeah. I can get behind that. Yeah. I’m proud of my resilience. 100%. I, I, I co-sign what she said.
53:52.63
Lorie Jones
um any advice for a young lady who’s kind of starting out on the journey that you’re already so successful at that could help her
54:04.86
Meredith Farley
Oh, I, don’t know. I always struggle with this question a bit because I think that. um okay yes I do have an answer and I’d say that
54:22.86
Meredith Farley
um just stick with yourself you know like I don’t know if that’s good it’s hard to give um I feel like everyone’s journey really is so unique and
54:33.72
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
54:34.42
Meredith Farley
And for me, the things that have been really helpful are like following the things that I find really interesting. Like I like to learn about new things. i And when I get really kind of interested or stuck in something, like stuck in and like, so you know, in a good way, that usually is
54:55.35
Meredith Farley
i don’t know, sorry, that’s not a good answer. I have, I don’t know if I have good, ah let me, I,
55:00.91
Lorie Jones
I like that, the the idea that you can like, I i nerd out about finance. i’m I’m seriously weird about that. Like I love it in a way that most normal people shouldn’t. And and it it it drives my passion and makes me really excited about what I’m doing. So i love that that you can identify that, that you’re like, if you find something that you geek out about, you turn into a geek about, like follow that, tug on it just a little.
55:27.80
Meredith Farley
Yeah, I think that there we go. oh And I think it’s too, I don’t know if you’ve had this, but I think there are stretches in my life where like that advice though would make me feel bad because I’d be like, there’s nothing I’m like nerding out or interested in, like that interested in right now. And then I’d feel bad about myself because of that.
55:43.80
Meredith Farley
So ah I think it’s, a i would say in general, like really tune into yourself and learn to trust yourself. And I know it’s so, so cliche. Yeah. And I’m mindful that like other people in different perspectives can give advice and it feels like the internet is just a ton of ah opinions and advice all the time that has no context, has nothing to do with you, your life or your journey, and it can be destabilizing and pull you away from your own voice. So I also think like if you’re able to do it, like I’m someone who likes time alone and someone who likes journaling, I like time to think and meditate and all of that stuff is like, I truly enjoy it.
56:25.11
Meredith Farley
And it’s so helpful to me. And so making time for those things and maybe even sometimes forcing yourself to be alone and to be quiet and to learn how to listen to yourself is really, really, really important. Yeah.
56:41.29
Meredith Farley
But, you it’s not always easy depending on the season of life that you’re in for sure.
56:41.62
Lorie Jones
Yeah, like that.
56:45.43
Lorie Jones
Yeah, but I love that. I think that’s an important reminder to kind of um center in on yourself and make sure that you’re still on your path. You’re still on the right path for you and you’re following your dream and your vision rather than somebody else’s. So I think that’s really important. Well, thank you so much, Meredith, for all of your time and the deep insight that you’ve given. And i really appreciate the time that you spent with us today. If I have a young lady that wants to reach out and ask some questions, how does she get in touch with you?
57:15.99
Meredith Farley
ah You can find me on LinkedIn, Meredith Farley, and or shoot me an email, Meredith at MedBerryAgency.com. And I’d be happy to hear from anyone.
57:26.20
Lorie Jones
Well, perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
57:28.99
Meredith Farley
Thanks.