Episode 215: Why Does Your Feminine Energy Need Healing? with Laura Herde
Showing up from a place of overflow versus showing up from a place of depletion...we’ve all experienced both. When it comes to leadership and personal development, how do we flow instead of force?
In today’s episode, Erin and Mindset & Leadership Mentor Laura Herde talk about what it means to find the sweet spot in the dance between your masculine and feminine energies, and how this leads to simultaneous alignment and fulfillment.
If you're looking for a perspective shift in how you show up—this is the episode for you.
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Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
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Episode 215 Transcription
Laura Herde (00:00.974)
Hey! Sorry, I'm two minutes late.
Erin Diehl (00:02.331)
Can you hear me? You are wonderful. How are you? And hey, happy morning to you. Yes, it's six, I'm Eastern time. So I'm 6.30 PM. And I was like, you know, cause I'm also like a morning person. And I was like, I'm gonna put my makeup on again. I'm gonna.
Laura Herde (00:10.326)
Hi, good morning. It's evening for you, right? Okay.
Laura Herde (00:17.41)
Okay.
Laura Herde (00:22.154)
I get that.
Erin Diehl (00:26.683)
I'm gonna show up for Laura. So this is, no, and honestly, I've done this before. I was just thinking about this. Like we had the founder of Laughter Yoga on the show and he lives in India. And I remember being like, it was, yeah, it's just awesome. So I wanna hear like how, it automatically goes into recording. Just know we're not gonna use this part. I don't know why it does that. I don't, okay. So we'll start in just a minute, but I'll tell you.
Laura Herde (00:40.034)
Whoa.
Laura Herde (00:49.454)
That reminded me.
Erin Diehl (00:55.159)
a little bit just about the show and the audience and then just the format, super easy. We'll just start talking. I'm gonna do your bio, all of those things before. And then I have my notes on my phone. I always tell people this, I'm not looking at my phone. I just don't like to have it on my computer because then I go back and forth. So I'll just have my notes if you're seeing me looking down. And then sometimes I take notes because I like to give people homework.
from what you say. So just know I'm not texting. Okay. I always tell people that I'm like, I'm not texting anybody. I'm just, I'm trying to do the most. Okay. And then our audience too is corporate America mostly, but we just have all types of people leaders from all over. So I want to know like how you got to Bali. I'm going to save that for the show, but I'm so excited to chat with you. Yeah.
Laura Herde (01:24.586)
I love that.
Laura Herde (01:50.162)
Yeah, I'm super excited too. Thank you for having me on. I don't even know how you guys found me. I think it was your assistant, Parley, who found me. I'm not sure how that happened.
Erin Diehl (01:56.771)
Yes, yes. Oh my god and my dog. Okay, listen, this is called after hours. Come on in buddy. My dog is coming. Come on Um, i'm in a closet by the way, I created like a little podcast closet. Come on. So my dog Big deal. We'll join it
Laura Herde (02:09.41)
That's cute. Yeah. I just do my office. I actually need to switch the aircon off. I cannot forget that because sometimes you will hear like this, like annoying sound in the background.
Erin Diehl (02:17.287)
Oh, yep, yep. I'm gonna have him in my lap, okay? So he will either be at the door, or just do the most right now, trying to do the least. But yeah, I think you sound fine. Do I sound like, okay, my mic is over here. Do I sound okay to you?
Laura Herde (02:32.898)
Totally normal, yeah.
Erin Diehl (02:34.519)
Okay, well, and how we found you is so crazy because our community manager, we always look for people that just inspire us. And she was like, Laura's awesome. You have to talk with her. And so I looked at all of your stuff. I was like, let's do this. This is amazing. So welcome to the show because.
Your profile, your performance in the world is making waves. So that's so cool.
Laura Herde (03:05.122)
Thank you for saying that. Yeah, I hope so. And I'm excited to be here. I mean, honestly, I love I love that your audience is American because that's kind of I don't want to say that's the kind of people I'm vibing with the most. But I have a lot of people in my audience that are European. I would say it's like a 50 50s place, probably 50 percent American, 50 percent Europe. And I love my Americans, so I'm happy to reach more Americans.
Erin Diehl (03:08.564)
Yeah!
Erin Diehl (03:23.856)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (03:31.643)
yet. Wait, where are you from originally? Like, where are you from? Germany. Okay. And then, and then you got to, and then how did you, okay, I want to hear about that. Like, I have you, how long have you lived in Bali?
Laura Herde (03:36.63)
I'm from Germany. Yeah, it's a Europe.
Laura Herde (03:47.158)
Just over two and a half years. Oh, actually exactly two and a half years. I'm lying, like two and a half years exactly.
Erin Diehl (03:54.575)
This is awesome. I'm like, I'm one of my bucket list items is Bolle. I've been to Europe a couple times, want to go to Germany, have no, I have friends living there right now and they're loving it. Because...
Laura Herde (04:07.294)
In Germany? Oh my gosh, why?
Erin Diehl (04:10.063)
Yes, but my friend, okay, so they live in the States. They live in the US and they live in, I live in Charleston, South Carolina, okay. He is a professional hockey player that travels, like he gets, he was in the US Olympics. He was a hockey team captain, but he gets put on different hockey teams all over the world. He signs a new contract with a new team and him and his family, they have kids, they move every year. And so they were in Russia before all of the craziness started in Russia.
They got out right before, then they were in Sweden, and now they're in Germany. And I'm like, I need to come visit.
Laura Herde (04:47.494)
That is interesting. Yeah, I mean, it's worthwhile in summer, I would say. In summer, it's not bad, especially Munich. It's beautiful, and Hamburg too. Like those two cities, I'm like, yes. All the other ones, I'm like, ah, not sure. But no, these two are beautiful in summer for sure. And yeah, I obviously didn't love it there as much, which is why I left. But we can talk about that. Let me just quickly message one on my next, because I have another podcast interview right after this, and I feel like we...
Erin Diehl (04:55.192)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (05:00.889)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (05:08.594)
Yeah!
Laura Herde (05:17.134)
It could be a little bit tight time wise. I'm just going to message her to maybe start 15 minutes.
Erin Diehl (05:19.299)
Yep. And I'll get, yep, message and the no two, it'll be like a 40 minute max interview and then, or maybe 30, 30. Yes. You can be okay.
Laura Herde (05:27.406)
Oh, 40 minutes, then it's actually fine. Okay. I was like, maybe it's an hour. Then it could be a little bit tight, but let me see. No, that's, oh yeah. Eight. Okay. No, I need to message her. Hold on. Cause, uh, yeah, I do want to message her so that she knows that it's maybe 40 minutes is fine, but yeah, I'll still say 10 minutes later.
Erin Diehl (05:45.719)
So awesome. I love that like you're doing the pot you're doing back to back. I do that too because it's just so much easier to like Not have to sit up Yes, I love it
Laura Herde (05:52.302)
I love batching, it's just, it makes me more efficient. Can we start 10 minutes later than planned? Planned, let me know.
Laura Herde (06:09.806)
Okay.
Erin Diehl (06:11.255)
I got my dog. All right, we're doing it. We're doing the most. Okay, and then other thoughts for you? Yeah, it's mostly people leaders, people who lead teams in corporate places. So they have global offices. It doesn't have to be corporate America, but it's literally all over. We've charted in different country. Like we're literally charting right now in Ireland. We're like number.
like 12 in Ireland.
Laura Herde (06:39.054)
It is so funny, right? For me too, in like the weirdest country, so I'm like, I have audience there?
Erin Diehl (06:43.967)
right? I know I'm like, it's probably three people, but like, it's awesome. You know, I'm like, it's, it's so crazy. So we're, we're just gonna, we're just gonna go and here's the thing too. I always have a theme for the month that so the theme you're gonna be in the month of December. So this is recording now, but we're gonna put you in December. And that's month's theme is gonna be all about selfless leadership. So I love just your vibe. I want to just
Laura Herde (07:04.718)
Mm-hmm.
Erin Diehl (07:11.899)
hear where this goes. And I have planned questions, but sometimes I just let the conversation go. So we'll just see. Is that sound good? Okay, are you ready? And Laura, what would make this the best podcast you've ever done?
Laura Herde (07:18.798)
For sure.
Laura Herde (07:27.054)
love that you're asking that. That's a great question to ask. I'm gonna remember that for myself, my guess. Honestly, just like honest, deep conversations, fun conversations. I mean, I have a feeling this is gonna be fun anyway, so I have no doubt there. But no, I'm in for anything, honestly. There's nothing I'm not happy to talk about. I'm an open book. I don't know. Like, no, it's like anything. Like, bring your energy, bring whatever you want to say, and I'm happy.
Erin Diehl (07:55.939)
Let's do it. Okay. I'm feeling it. All right. And my dog's on my lap for the, I don't know, it just happened. All right. Well, and we'll start, we'll start right now. I'm just going to, it's already recording, but we'll start and we'll go in three, two.
Laura, oh my God, welcome to the Improvement Podcast. This is a journey, I'm so excited you are here. Welcome, welcome.
Laura Herde (08:18.894)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm super stoked for today's interview. I'm so, so excited.
Erin Diehl (08:23.523)
Me too. And guess what, everyone, Laura is in Bali. And it is what 640 am in Bali. And it is 640pm where I am in South Carolina in Eastern Time. We're across we're in different days right now. So happy Thursday, you know, happy, happy Wednesday to myself. So okay, we found you. I have the best team in the whole world. So they
Laura Herde (08:42.477)
True.
Erin Diehl (08:52.095)
dig, dig for interesting people and guess who we found? Laura. So I want to know just if you could set an intention for this show, what's one word that you want to give our audience and also give yourself today?
Laura Herde (08:57.934)
Hehehe
Laura Herde (09:12.494)
Yeah, I feel like there's two that just immediately came to mind when you asked. And those were raw. Like I love Ana's raw conversations and deep. I love to go deep. It's just, I don't like service level. I like the rawness, the honesty. So I want to give people that today.
Erin Diehl (09:24.655)
Yes.
Erin Diehl (09:29.423)
me to. I love it. You know what? I'm so over the like small chat in life. I love that so much. It's I would rather you talk to me about the pages of your diary, then tell me about what you have for breakfast because literally or the weather, you know, it's I'm over it. It's time. We're here. We're doing it. We're going to. Okay. So you are
Laura Herde (09:47.278)
Weather is the worst!
Erin Diehl (09:54.779)
entrepreneur, you are a leader in your own right, you're doing the most and you have such a presence. That's how we found you. You have such a social and wonderful online presence. Yeah. So this month, we're talking all about selfless leadership, what it means, because in my I have an opinion of what selfless leadership means, but I want to hear from you. What does selfless leadership mean to you?
Laura Herde (10:02.83)
Thank you.
Laura Herde (10:20.142)
Yeah, for me, so I want to start with leadership in the first place, because I feel like for a lot of people, it's like, okay, what is leadership in the first place before we get into the selfless leadership? So I want to say leadership for me is the ability to really show up for yourself from your heart with truth. And so when this actually goes for more than like just business, whether you're working in corporate or whether you're having your own business.
Erin Diehl (10:38.029)
Mmm.
Laura Herde (10:46.446)
Leadership is so relevant for every single person, especially for us women, what I always like to talk about is feminine leadership. And I think it's very similar to selfless leadership, I want to say. And it really for me is leading from your heart, your intuition from a pure place, from an authentic place, rather than buying into the shoulds and the have to's and like wanting to be a certain way. For me, the feminine and like being selfless to it's like it's it's
being so raw and true and real. And I feel like obviously on social media that can be so tough because everyone is just showing less than 1% of their daily lives and people are making assumptions. And for me being a leader means showing people as much as possible, of course the full picture and the full spectrum. And it means leading yourself in all areas of life. It means showing up in a certain way in your relationships for yourself, the relationship you have with yourself.
your daily life, your habits, how you're showing up, how you're co-creating life. And then also obviously that translates into business, whether you again, work a corporate job or you have your own passion-based business, it is so important to be able to show up from this soft place, from this true place, because it's so, so easy to lead yourself in a way where...
Like you let other people's expectations or projections like impact how you're showing up. And it's so important to not do that. And to rather lead from this place of, I wanna be of service. I'm leading from a place of wholeness and I'm showing up fully. And so that's always my kind of mantra that's guiding me through my days as I'm leading my friendships and myself and my relationship and my business and my team and my clients. For me, the most important is to show up from this place of overflow and inner wholeness.
and truth. And yes, if you're me, selfless leadership is really that. It's like it's so intertwined with feminine leadership.
Erin Diehl (12:40.599)
Yeah. I know. And that is honestly what I was drawn to the most. We've never talked about feminine leadership on this show. I want to talk to you about it. Yes. And I want to bring that up. And also, I want to just like touch on what you said, because I love you said, co creating like I'm such a huge comp. I am such I'm pretty woo woo. Okay. And I am so into the co creation. I know that's why I was like, Laura, this is what's up. This is happening. We're here.
Laura Herde (12:50.542)
Ooh, okay, I love that! First time!
Laura Herde (13:05.614)
Me too.
Erin Diehl (13:10.075)
We're doing it. Yeah, I truly believe that when you're co-creating, you are in your feminine energy. You're creating from this selfless place and you're of service. And that's just what you said in a nutshell. How, okay, so you have a team. How many people do you lead right now?
Laura Herde (13:32.59)
Right now we're five. I used to be at seven at some point. And honestly, I think people always think like the bigger, the better. And honestly, what I've learned those past seven years of being in this industry and having a business is that sometimes less is more. So I actually scaled back down because we just essentially simplified a lot of processes. We automated a lot. We clean up the backend. Um, we streamlined the positions that we have too. And, um,
Erin Diehl (13:34.509)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (14:00.75)
Yeah, just honestly, it's so much better. So yeah, right now, we're five people. Two are working almost, I want to say, full time. But then there is three that are not full time. So yeah, that's working really, really well for me.
Erin Diehl (14:03.107)
Yeah, no, I hear that.
Erin Diehl (14:15.971)
Awesome. That's great. Okay. So I wanted to ask that because I want to know what guided you to, and I say guided because I'm sure there was some guiding, what guided you to this theme of feminine leadership in your life? How did you lean into it? Was there some type of discovery or self-discovery that you had to go through to get here? Tell me about that.
Laura Herde (14:37.646)
Mm.
Laura Herde (14:42.862)
Hmm.
Wow. I love that you're asking that because honestly, yes, I feel like the universe, God, life, whatever you're believing in has been guiding me to this. And I feel like it's been a long time coming for anyone who actually listens to me from my audience who already knows me. I used to primarily coach on confidence, mindset and manifestation for the first couple of years of my business. And it was only like about around about two years ago.
maybe one and a half to two years ago, that I started like almost like shifting my niche, not really, because I believe it's just an expansion. Like I've just expanded into something more. It's not that I'm no longer considering what I used to coach on, which is again, mindset, confidence, manifestation and magnetism. It's more so just that last year was a really interesting year for me. And I feel like it started at the end of 2021, where
I realized from it. So I was really burned out at the end of 2021. I was struggling a lot. I just built another company. And so I was technically running two businesses. My team was at seven people at that time. And I was like, I love what I do, not even a question. But like, it just feels like a lot right now. And like, how can I bring more softness and ease back into my
Um, because I could really notice how my body was responding to it. And it was, it wasn't an alignment and my, one of my core values is alignment. And so I naturally had to take a step back and question how it was operating in my business, because clearly there was something that I was doing that was not working that well for me. And so, um, I had started like looking into feminine energy and like healing my feminine, healing my relationship with a masculine as well.
Erin Diehl (16:19.951)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (16:38.926)
over the course of 2020 and 2021. And so I was familiar with feminine energy, but I felt like I wasn't quite embodying it, at least not in all aspects of life, one of them being my relationship and one of them being my business. And I was like, I really want that though, because that could make a huge difference. And so then going into 2022, I was like, I needed a friend approach. I needed a friend approach.
Erin Diehl (16:55.758)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (17:03.182)
there were a lot of challenges that were happening in the first quarter of 2022 that really made me realize, okay, now's the time. This is a wake up call. We got to change things up here. And so then I really stepped into that and I really started, um, shedding layers within myself, but also just stripping things away externally. Um, during that time, I let go of friendships of people that were no longer in alignment. Um.
Again, also to team members, not because they weren't great people, but because it was just like, it was too much to manage. Because as a CEO, you're not just a coach, you're not just a leader, you're also a manager to a certain degree, if you don't hire someone to manage for you, which I didn't at that time. So, yeah, I let go of a lot of things, a lot of paradigms too around success and what success looked like for me, what it meant, how it was supposed to feel to be successful. And really started
softening into my feminine during that time and stopping to be in this go, go, go mode and the hustle mode, which also beautifully translated into my relationship and how I was showing up in my relationship and how I was no longer being so wanting to like wear the pants essentially. I know this podcast episode is not on love, but I feel like love and business are, it's just like so intertwined and it's such a mirror and it just translates into all of it, right? Like leadership translates into all of it.
Erin Diehl (18:14.245)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (18:27.31)
And I was starting to release more control my business. I stopped micromanaging my team. I stopped wanting to control my partner. I just really softened because I was starting to trust more, to surrender more, to flow more, to let my intuition lead, which didn't mean I was stitching all my structure and I was like a mess, but I was just taking things, I was just having a different approach to my business.
And that's really how I stepped into it. And I saw how different I felt suddenly and how more useful I felt and how more enjoyable my business became for me. And that's how I really started getting into it. And then I've just been really diving deep into feminine leadership and practicing it, embodying it, and really starting to implement it.
Erin Diehl (19:15.327)
Okay, can I ask you about it? Because I have questions about it. I feel like I'm sorry to cut you off and did not mean to cut you off because I have a serious question that I feel like I so I want to, I want to step back to and think about feminine leadership just as the definition when if somebody listening today saw the podcast title and they're like, okay, feminine leadership and want to explore more like how
Laura Herde (19:22.958)
I'm totally fine.
Erin Diehl (19:44.507)
How would you define feminine leadership? Like the feminine leadership for dummies version. You know what I mean? Like how would you describe that?
Laura Herde (19:53.102)
Yeah, totally. No, you're totally right. Like we need to start at the at the base level. And for me, like very, very, very simplified for me, feminine leadership. And again, this may be just personal, it's maybe just me. But for me, it is leading from a place of wholeness, leading from my heart, rather than the pressure, the should, the old paradigms. I think a lot of corporate people will
be able to relate to this. It's like you have a boss and they're telling you how to do things. And it's like, it's all like, you don't really have autonomy to a certain degree. And oftentimes you feel like you're not in alignment because you're doing things in a way you wouldn't be doing them if you had the choice. And so, I mean, obviously as entrepreneurs, we're so lucky in that sense, because we can choose how we're showing up and how we're leading. And so.
Erin Diehl (20:30.757)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (20:47.63)
For me, from a long, like my business was always hard led, but how it was showing up, it was from this place of, I have to, I have to, rather than I want to, and I get to, and I feel excited to, and it was just, it's this almost subtle shift, because like you're doing things regardless, but like how you feel about it, it's like the intuition, the intention, sorry, the intention behind.
Erin Diehl (20:55.719)
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Laura Herde (21:15.278)
what you're doing and how you're doing it that makes the huge difference. Right. And so for me, it's been shifting my intention from, I need to do this too. I just want to fucking serve. I want to show up fully. I want to pour into myself before I'm showing up for anyone before I'm checking my messages, before I'm managing my team, before I'm showing up for my clients. I want to show up from a place of overflow and wholeness rather than the depletion, the exhaustion, the resentment.
Erin Diehl (21:16.996)
Yeah.
So what?
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (21:26.325)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (21:42.862)
the overwhelm, like whatever it is that's present for you. I just didn't want that anymore. And I think for a lot of people, it's like have to, have to, go, go, go. And I was just no longer having that. And so for me, it was embracing softness as a leader, as an ambitious business owner.
Erin Diehl (21:48.827)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (22:01.411)
Laura, see this is why I love my team, because they just bring the best people into the world, into our orbit, like right when we need it, okay? So Laura, yes, okay? The answer is yes to this because, okay, I don't even have it. I just literally, I'm launching a book in February and I did, let me just tell you something, okay? I'm gonna be honest with you. When I said, give me the feminine,
Laura Herde (22:22.894)
EWWW
Erin Diehl (22:30.539)
Give me like the divine feminine dummies version. I was really doing that for myself. I was like, say that for this dummy right here, okay? Because I did not really, I knew what, I've heard the term, but I also didn't fully grasp it. And the book that I wrote is all about self-love plus selfless leadership. So you got to give to yourself first so you can give to others and that will create this magnetic culture and create people coming back and back to you time again because they feel taken care of.
Laura Herde (22:58.766)
True.
Erin Diehl (22:59.719)
I didn't define that as feminine leadership. I didn't know that's what it was. But the opposite of feminine leadership is masculine leadership. So masculine is the depletion, or tell us a little bit more like what that is so we can see the juxtaposition. But let me just say something. I'm here for this because I feel like I went through that shift myself in the past few years. And I, series of circumstances, but I...
Laura Herde (23:22.382)
Oh well. Yeah.
Erin Diehl (23:32.255)
I don't forgive me if I'm saying this for out of term for me. Like I think as a new business owner and as a leader, the go-to is always what I would assume the masculine is because you're like, I have to show up. I have to put on my big girl pants and walk in the room, be important now. Cause I got, I'm a business owner. I got people to lead. I got clients to serve. And it's actually the most detracting thing to lead that way.
Laura Herde (23:46.094)
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Laura Herde (23:52.142)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Laura Herde (23:59.47)
True.
Erin Diehl (24:01.091)
So, okay, back to my question. I just went 800 years around the world, but what would you say masculine leadership is?
Laura Herde (24:10.254)
is essentially broken down this whole corporate approach that a lot of people are suffering from. I mean, I never really had a corporate job for a long time. I'm not gonna lie. I was like, this is not for me. Get me out of here. So I was almost always like an entrepreneur. Like I wasn't really working for other people for a long time. But the time I did, I was like, holy fuck, this is horrible. Like everything was just so...
Erin Diehl (24:23.747)
Yes, I get it.
Laura Herde (24:38.414)
It was not considering you're human because here's the thing I feel like as a society, it's like our society is perfectly created for men. Men can operate perfectly in this world. It's like you need to fast, you need to do high intensity workouts, you need to get up early. Like even if you just got six hours of sleep, you need to work hard, ideally like 12 hours a day because otherwise you haven't been productive. And it's just this, this actually
Erin Diehl (24:40.806)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (25:06.702)
works for a lot of men, but it just doesn't work for women. And this is why I'm so passionate about feminine leadership is because a lot of women do not realize that the way they've been taught to operate and to show up and to work and to even live their lives, to work out, to nourish themselves, to sleep, to like all the things they're doing on a daily basis, not just like career related. It's like, it's all perfect for men. It's like, like low fat diets and like,
all those things where you just like, no, as women, we need to eat our fats. And we need our eight hours of sleep. We don't like it. It just, our body doesn't just take it as well as a man's body would. It's just, it is like that men have a 24 hour, um, rhythm in their body and women have a 28 day rhythm. So.
Erin Diehl (25:39.836)
BEST
Laura Herde (25:56.942)
That alone means that women are four different people throughout the month. But is that considered in corporate? Do you get it to take the day of your period off, like the first day of your bleed? Like, no, you're not. It's like, oh, like push through, take a pill, like push through. Right. And I'm just like, so against it. I'm just like, this is not good. Um, so.
Yeah, circling back to your question, I feel like the masculine is this pushing through, forcing, overflowing. There's a lot of times there's a lack of alignment, there's a lack of considering your human and your needs, especially as a woman. I'm not saying men don't have needs, don't get me wrong, but we as women, we have different needs and they need to be considered. Whether we're working corporate or we're like self-employed, I didn't look after my needs for the longest time.
even though I technically could have because I had the freedom because I was self-employed already. And it's just because of the paradigm, the story that when you're taking a day off, you're like lazy and all those things where you're just like, no, it's the first day of your period or the second day, or maybe you're just having an emotional day, take it off or go rest. And that's not being encouraged in corporate. And so the masculine approach I find is very much pushing and forcing and dreading yourself and just...
doing the things and doing them for as long as you can until, until apletion. And that's not sustainable. It works until it doesn't. And for me, I myself had burnout in 2019 when I was building my business from this place of hustle and lack of alignment and depletion and exhaustion and just pushing through because that's all I've ever known. Like I've always been a hard worker in school, at university, when I was working this, luckily very short, like this nine to five.
I was always like working hard, but like, where did it get me? Did it make me happy? Did it make me a more productive human? I would not say so. Um, and so, yeah, this is why I think that oftentimes for, for women specifically, it's just like, it's just creating a lack of excitement, of wholeness, of energy. And so for me, masculine to answer your question, cause I feel like I've been going off. Um,
Erin Diehl (27:46.597)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (28:09.411)
No, I'm here for it. I'm here for it all.
Laura Herde (28:12.91)
Yeah, I feel like it's oftentimes it's not considered that as women we don't operate in the same way as men. It's amazing to be consistent, which is also masculine quality, like consistency and that is beautiful. But there is a lot of masculine qualities that just don't work for women, even our bodies, our hormones, like it's just not made for us. And so it's very, very important to be honest with yourself and check in. How am I showing up?
Erin Diehl (28:31.075)
Yeah, yeah.
Laura Herde (28:39.662)
I'm not showing up from a place of I have to, I should, I must, or from a place of I want to, I get to, I desire to. I would rather show up from a place of desire and devotion rather than having to and shoulding. It just feels so different and it leads to a similar outcome because when we do things our way, it's not that we're less productive. We're actually more productive and we get more done and we live a healthier, happier life.
when we're honoring our feminine.
Erin Diehl (29:10.695)
Ooh! Okay, I got so many things to unpack here. Where do I start? Let's start number one with force versus flow. I'm gonna write that down. Like that is so, that is, that's the perfect definition. And I, you know, that's gonna really stick with me. And I know people listening too, cause we've all been in positions where we felt like we're forcing it and we've all had things, maybe it's not work, but we all have had things in our lives, hobbies.
sports, whatever it might be that we do that we're feeling relationships, we're feeling that flow, like this is flowing Laura, okay, we're feeling that flow, this ain't forced, you know what I mean? And like, that is what I feel most called to connect people to with the work we do, as you know, we use improv comedy to help people be their best selves professionally. And you can want, at first people are terrified, okay, when we walk in the room, because they think we're gonna
Laura Herde (29:42.702)
Relationships, friendships.
Erin Diehl (30:10.011)
force something, but it becomes this beautiful flow state and exchange of ideas. And that's why I use improv as a teaching tool to help people because that flow state comes naturally. We kind of force it at first, but then we get, we have to, we have to force it to get them out of their forced state. You know what I mean? Like we have to say, stop the forcing because there is so much. I also love the rhythm.
Laura Herde (30:28.718)
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Erin Diehl (30:36.839)
28 you said 28 hours from 24 hours for men 28 days for women which is Listen, she's on day 28 right now. I'm taking I'm done with this podcast. I need to rest No, I love this approach because it's so true. It's so true. And I feel like especially in America there is a huge conversation around paid leave for women and parental leave for family and
Laura Herde (31:04.142)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Erin Diehl (31:06.775)
You know, I have a four year old son and I own my own business. I took 12 weeks. And for a small business owner, great. But for somebody who works in a place where they feel forced to do their job, I think it's six to eight weeks. Like America is finally having that conversation about women and families and different types of families and giving people that time and space.
Laura Herde (31:21.006)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Erin Diehl (31:36.571)
but I think that's because we're seeing more feminine leadership come to the table. And I'm really grateful that you gave us this definition. You dumbed it down for this dummy over here and gave that definition for us because it's such a, it's such a wonderful way to lead people. And I want to ask you this, are there any common misconceptions about feminine leadership that people talk about?
Laura Herde (32:05.646)
Yeah, there is a lot and I love that you're asking this because there is a lot and it feels like, especially in the online space, it's like there's a lot of feminine business coaches, a lot of feminine leaders that are like, it has kind of gone like the into like an extreme almost, I want to say, because whilst yes, we want to honor our intuition, we want to honor our needs.
It's not that in order to create results in our life or in our business, we can just like lay around doing nothing because we want to be magnetic. It's like, sure, you want to be magnetic. You want to perform a place of overflow. Um, but you, you don't receive just by laying around doing nothing and not lifting a finger. And I feel like a lot of, um, what, at least from what I've seen, a lot of feminine, like our female business coaches are just like marketing this concept or idea of.
Like literally putting in minimal effort, like almost doing nothing and still making millions. And I don't agree with that. And I also don't agree with one, not having to put in any effort because like that's literally not true. Like as business owners, we still have to put in effort. We still have to be consistent. We can do it from a feminine place, but we're still being consistent. We're still showing that we're still doing the things.
Another thing is like not doing hard things anymore, because then it's not feminine. That is also not true. I have to face challenges in my business almost on a weekly basis. I have to do hard things sometimes that I don't like, but that I know will move my mission forward. And I'm not doing them all the time and I'm here to receive help. I'm not hyper independent anymore as I used to where I'm like, I don't need a team. Then it's no longer my work. I'm doing it all by myself.
Even if I have to work 80 hours a week, I don't mind. Like, no, I have a team and I get to receive support and I get to be held. And that's beautiful. But I will still as the CEO have to do things that are hard sometimes. And I feel like with this whole feminine energy and leadership, it's like, people portrayed sometimes as if like everything was always effortless and always easy.
Laura Herde (34:09.422)
And that's not realistically what it is. And so I think it's also about like having the intention to lead from your feminine, but also like being willing to do the hard things if needed. Um, another thing is just flowing, just being in this extreme, like rather than like having some structure, just like having no structure, just floating through your days, um, just, yeah, just like really doing whatever you want to do.
Erin Diehl (34:24.518)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (34:33.646)
that works, but it doesn't work for business. And so, and even in a relationship, when you just flow and you don't set boundaries and you don't have standards and you don't have a container where it's clear what expectations are, it's like, I would say in a love life, it would translate into romance, it would translate into a situationship, and in business, it would translate into chaos. Because then we're not getting things done when we're just having, just flow, just flow, just seeing where it takes us.
Like if I didn't have a launch plan, if I didn't have, yeah, my weekly team calls where we're like actually sitting down, looking at things, discussing things. I don't think I would be where I am today. It's just not realistic. And so I think that there's this misconception that it kind of is like this whole extreme or like really in reality, it's, it's not extreme. It's just that you want to find this beautiful.
Erin Diehl (35:13.367)
Yeah, yeah.
Laura Herde (35:29.358)
You want to find that like in this dance between masculine and feminine, you want to like find your sweet spot. And that's essentially what I'm teaching my clients is finding that sweet spot for them, because also with that, that is individual. I'm not going to tell you how to do things to do them my way. Cause what works for me doesn't work like exactly in the same way for someone else. It's like this concept and the framework I created works for everyone, but there's nuances.
Erin Diehl (35:34.523)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (35:53.614)
And everyone is individual and everyone has individual needs. Everyone has an individual body. Everyone has an individual business. Like it's individual still. And so it like the challenge really, like the intention should be to find what works for you and having a beautiful blend of both because healthy masculine energy. Yes, we want that. We need that. In fact, as business owners, not the toxic, not the pressure, the pushing, the forcing, but the structure.
Erin Diehl (36:14.425)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (36:21.838)
the organization having boundaries, healthy boundaries. Yes, we do want that. We need that. So it's about finding the sweet spot.
Erin Diehl (36:26.395)
Yeah, yes, totally. Yeah, and I, yeah, that sort of walking the line between the two, I see that. And I'm thinking if I'm somebody listening here today, how would I know if I'm in the feminine or the masculine? How would I know within myself? Is there a way to know that?
Laura Herde (36:45.166)
Hmm.
Laura Herde (36:48.846)
Mm hmm. Totally. I love that you're asking that great question. I think that's such a good question. No, so for the, for the masculine, you're such a good interview. I love, I love this. Um, so for the masculine, you'll likely feel depleted, exhausted, overwhelmed, maybe even resentful. Like there was a time when I was resentful towards my business, even though I created it and I was making the decisions and I was choosing to operate in the way I was. I was feeling resentful. I was like, this doesn't make any sense. Something's wrong. Um.
Erin Diehl (36:54.823)
Thank you.
Erin Diehl (37:10.018)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (37:19.534)
Because I also had no boundaries at that time. I was like, I was super, super confused about what are my boundaries? Where are my limits? What do I want to tolerate? What do I not want to tolerate? And so when you're feeling depleted, exhausted, overwhelmed, like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, this is also very, this very much also goes for corporate. Like when you feel like you're, like all the pressures on you, all the expectation is on you and you're carrying so much yet, you feel like you can't even breathe.
then you're likely overly in your masculine. When you're just feeling like I'm not even in touch with my body anymore, I don't even know if I need to drink or eat or what I'm craving, you're cut off from your desires, your intuition and even your physical needs. Like when I was hustling, I didn't even notice I was hungry. I was just like so, like my body was just in fight or flight mode. My nervous system was cracked. Like it was shutting down. And so...
Erin Diehl (38:10.705)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (38:17.03)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (38:18.286)
That's how you know is when you're feeling anxious, when you're feeling stressed, and you're having stress symptoms, like your ears feeling like you're up in the air, like in a plane, right? Like all those things. And then on the other side, when you're feminine, you likely feel a lack of clarity. You likely feel super confused. You likely feel like you're just floating around, also feeling overwhelmed because you just don't know where to even start, what is even a priority. You likely feel a little bit lost.
And whilst you will enjoy that there is flow and everything feels easy, it's also frustrating because you feel like you're not getting ahead and you're kind of not reaching your goals. Because again, when you're overly in your feminine, oftentimes there is a lack of structure, there is a lack of clarity, there is a lack of priorities, and you're not really leading yourself in the direction that you wanna go, whether it is in your relationship or whether it is in your career.
Erin Diehl (38:54.619)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (39:11.438)
It's just like, let's just see what happens. And that works until it doesn't. And you're feeling frustrated and you're feeling lost and you're feeling confused. And yeah, you're just not feeling like you're getting ahead to where you want to be. And so, yeah, whether you're identifying with one spectrum or the other, maybe you are somewhere in the middle, but it's always just important to notice that. I had a little period, interestingly enough, where I was actually a little bit overly my feminine.
I was almost, because I was so burned out from the hustle and being overly my masculine, I for a little while swung to the other side of the pendulum where I was just like, I don't want any structure. I just want to do as little as possible. Everything is too much. Let's just see. And I was lucky fulfillment, because I was like, I want to be doing things. I want to be seeing things come to life and I want to be planting seeds and I want to be intentional. And I was just like,
not doing that. And it was almost like a protective self protective mechanism, I guess. But that's why I then realized I have to find my sweet spot. Otherwise, I'm going to be unhappy. Like I'm going to be unhappy when I'm just in my masculine. I'm going to be unhappy when I'm just in my feminine. And so I had to fuse it and I had to find my personal sweet spot, which is so, so possible, so, so possible to find.
Erin Diehl (40:24.272)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (40:31.819)
Okay, okay, this is it. This is where I need y'all to lean in, okay? Cause I'm looking at my microphone, like people are in it. I need everybody to listen in, cause this is the thing. This is where we're gonna go, cause this is what I wanna know. How do we find the sweet spot, Laura?
Laura Herde (40:51.054)
Exactly. That is the million dollar question. So I'm teaching this in depth inside of my mentorship containers. I also have a podcast where I'm speaking a lot about it, but essentially you want to first understand, as you just asked, where am I? Where am I at? When you're not understanding where you're at, it's really hard to like see where you can like come into the, into the healthy middle, if you will. So you need to understand first, am I?
overly my masculine? Am I overly my feminine? Like, what's the tendency here? And that requires like that requires a lot of like self-reflection and honesty with yourself. Because I didn't want to like back then I didn't want to say, oh yeah, I'm like very masculine. Like I didn't want to say that about myself, right? Like, no, I'm good. Like I'm doing everything right. Like, no, don't get at me. And eventually I was like, no, okay, I'm exhausted. I am in my masculine, even in my relationship again, because it kind of, it's kind of this.
Erin Diehl (41:32.387)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (41:40.698)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (41:45.966)
one of those things where it's like how you do one thing is how you do everything. How you show up in one area of life is how you show up in all other areas of life. So I knew there was something to heal. And then again, for a little while, swung over to the other side. And you'll essentially know because you feel that there is a lack of fulfillment or alignment. For me, when I was overly my masculine, I was lacking alignment. I was feeling like I'm going against my body and working. I'm working against my body actively, like I'm shutting it down. I'm just like.
using it as a tool to like achieve. And when I was overly my feminine, I was lacking fulfillment because I was not seeing results that I wanted to see. Right? Like when you don't have a meal plan, when you don't have a workout plan, you won't reach your fitness goals. It's really hard. And the same goes for business. And also the same goes for relationships. When you're not speaking up, when you're not sharing your truth, when you're not setting boundaries, when you're not having high standards for yourself and others, you'll lack fulfillment in your relationships.
Erin Diehl (42:29.798)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (42:41.902)
And so when you're either lacking alignment, meaning you're overly in your masculine, or you're lacking fulfillment, meaning you're overly in your feminine, it's like this indicator of like, okay, I need to balance it out. And I mean, again, it really depends on where you're at in the spectrum. For me, I was like on like this whole side of the spectrum of my masculine, where it was like, I was 110% in my masculine essentially, there was no feminine. Then I was...
swinging to maybe 50% feminine. I was like not 100% feminine, I was still having some structure, but I was definitely not in the sweet spot. And so like, it really is important to understand for yourself, where am I at? Where am I at when it comes to masculine and feminine in my life and in my business, my career? And then really introducing those practices, those tools that help you find the beautiful middle where you feel like, all right. So.
when you're in your feminine, you likely want some structure, right? You likely want to have a plan and know what's going on and like have this vision and have the clarity and all of that have priorities. Um, and then when you're overly in your masculine, you likely want more ease and more flow. You likely want a little bit more time freedom. You likely wanted to be able to relax without feeling guilty. Right? Like for me, what was hugely present was when I was taking time off, I was feeling so guilty. I was like, shit.
Erin Diehl (44:05.519)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (44:06.574)
shouldn't be doing that. I was feeling anxious taking time off, spending time with friends. It was so real. There was so much guilt. Even though I didn't have a boss, I had to justify myself too that I was taking time off. I was the one kind of like pushing myself. And I was like, I can't justify taking time off right now because I have so much to do. To do this is endlessly long. And so
Erin Diehl (44:08.868)
Yeah.
Erin Diehl (44:16.516)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (44:29.07)
Um, yeah, it's really about giving yourself permission to, to find that middle and to understand what you need more of and what you need a little bit less of, maybe you're like me in my past where I needed a little bit more flow and a little bit less structure. I still needed the structure, but I had a little bit too much of it. It was like everything was planted to the T like when I met my partner, he was literally making fun cause he was seeing my daily agenda. So I'm like all my to-dos like 20, 25 to-dos for a day. And he was like,
You're planning things like in like 10 minute chunks. And I was like, yes. That was like crazy.
Erin Diehl (45:00.735)
Yeah, yes, that is I am in the masculine right now. Yeah, you're like, call me, call me Mr. Laura, okay? Because literally you're doing the most. I have been there and I led like that. You know, it's so funny. I feel like I know a lot of business owners who are just starting their careers right now and just start, and I.
I think a lot of times when you first start your business, you leave from the masculine because it's all you know. And if I could redo my own journey over, I would set boundaries. I would have given myself space to feel less guilty for things. And I would have like...
Laura Herde (45:28.846)
Hmm.
Laura Herde (45:44.078)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Erin Diehl (45:46.639)
Just know, like, it doesn't, this isn't gonna matter. Is it gonna matter in five years, or is it gonna matter in five minutes? Those types of scenarios, and like, the things I've ruminated on, and really gave myself strong guilt about are mindless things that don't matter now. But it's just, you learn so much going through the journey of leadership, and so, I love that you found this.
Laura Herde (45:57.71)
Hmm.
Erin Diehl (46:14.727)
swing over to the feminine side and you're teaching from it and you're teaching others and you're giving space for others to figure out their sweet spot and figure out how to get to that sweet spot because everybody is different. What would you say this is? I can literally talk to you for two hours. We could make this a two hour special, but I know I want to end with a bang because this is so informative.
Is we always say improve it that it is the thing that you bring to the world. It is your, your passion, your purpose. What is Laura's it?
Laura Herde (46:56.878)
Hmm. I would say improve your self-mastering, your self-awareness. Because for me, that's where it all started shifting when I was having the self-awareness to understand things were not working, things were not feeling good, things were not feeling in alignment. And I was not getting to where I wanted to be whilst enjoying the journey and the process. And then on the other hand, also mastering myself as a business owner, meaning my state, my mindset.
Erin Diehl (47:02.531)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (47:24.238)
my emotions becoming so unshakable myself rather than letting external circumstances and things going wrong and challenges, like all the things you're facing in everyday life as a business owner or as a corporate, like there's so many challenges every day, but can you master yourself? Can you stay grounded and rooted in yourself and trust yourself you can figure it out from a calm place rather than going nuts and running around like a headless chicken? For me, the self-awareness piece has been huge.
And so was self mastery, really learning to master myself because what I actually haven't mentioned before, and I think this is so worth mentioning is that in order to become a feminine leader, whether you're in corporate or have your own business, in order to do that, you have to do healing work. Like that is the foundation. It's like having the self-awareness, being able to master yourself and being able to heal yourself, the paradigms of I have to hustle to succeed. I have to work hard to prove myself to be worthy of success in the first place.
Erin Diehl (48:08.945)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (48:22.158)
It's paradigm work, it's working with your body, it's like healing yourself. That's where it all starts because when you're not shifting paradigms and releasing all the emotions of shame, guilt, pressure, you'll still stay stuck in all paradigms. And so this healing work is such a big piece that a lot of people overlook. They just wanna skip from, I'm doing this things this way to I wanna do things another way.
Erin Diehl (48:26.969)
Yeah.
Laura Herde (48:46.254)
but what needs to shift within you so you can naturally show up differently. It's likely the healing work. And so this is why self-awareness and self-mastery and self-healing is just such a huge piece of shifting from hustle and burnout over to alignment and overflow and just wholeness.
Erin Diehl (49:04.647)
I love it so much. I love it. I mean, it, listen, I, we could literally have two hour series on this. I'm not going to let you, I am very here for the healing conversation. I've been through my own several healing journeys in the past couple years and I know I would not be sitting here talking to you today without going through them. I know that. So I believe
Laura Herde (49:25.838)
Hmm. Same here, girl. Same here. Ask me about it.
Erin Diehl (49:31.739)
Snap, snap, snap. Okay, where can the improvement peeps find you if they want to learn more?
Laura Herde (49:39.374)
Yeah, for sure. So I'm on Instagram at Laura.Herd. Herdy, I think you say in like, English.
Erin Diehl (49:45.739)
Okay, okay, but you heard that's good. Okay, cuz I was gonna say her today. So I'm gonna I'm gonna say her that's good
Laura Herde (49:51.758)
No, I think Hurdy is actually correct. I always say heard because one of my friends always said that I think it's Hurdy and like, anyways, let's add Laura dot Hurdy. And I have a podcast, it's called unfuck your life. It's a show I started this year. And I'm, I'm so proud of it. I'm so passionate about it. So that's where you can learn a lot about feminine leadership, self leadership, shifting from hustle to flow and alignment and all of that.
Erin Diehl (49:57.641)
Okay, okay, hurry, okay.
Laura Herde (50:18.51)
And I have a website too, so I can send you the links. So people can just check all of that out and see what they resonate with. But yeah, Instagram and my podcast and also my weekly newsletters is really where it goes super, super deep. So if you're part of my email list, you'll know. But yeah.
Erin Diehl (50:36.835)
Yes, go on your email list. And we'll put it all in the show notes. So give us your website so people can go to your website and get on your email list and follow you on Instagram because that's how we found you and listened to her show. I am so grateful we had you here today. And I will tell you, I feel like we went deep. We went deep. Did we go deep? I feel like we got deep. I feel like we accomplished our intention. And...
Laura Herde (50:42.414)
the same.
Laura Herde (50:48.27)
That's so cool.
Laura Herde (50:55.534)
Thank you, Erin.
Laura Herde (51:03.118)
Totally.
Erin Diehl (51:03.971)
I am so just thrilled to have you in our orbit. And this was a really awesome conversation. We've never talked about feminine leadership and masculine leadership on the show. And I'm so grateful you did a crash course for this dummy and also gave so much insight to our team and our audience. So thank you so much, Laura.
Laura Herde (51:23.31)
Thank you for having me on. It was a pleasure. I love this conversation. Your questions were just so good. I was like, I love this question.
Erin Diehl (51:29.475)
Yeah, guess what? I didn't even use my notes. I didn't even use them. I just was like, listen, she's leading me to the water. I'm going to drink, you know? So, okay, you were awesome. Thank you so much.
Laura Herde (51:33.934)
Way to get it done.
Laura Herde (51:40.718)
Perfect.
Thank you, I really enjoyed this.