EMPIRE Strikes Back: Thoughts on Our first W.E. (Women Empowering) Women Workshop

First ever W.E. (Women Empowering) Women Workshop | WeWork Gangnam Station, Korea | October 24, 2018

As we danced to the music, I looked out at the women: they may have looked different on the outside, they may have had different experiences in life, but what brought us together last night was our calling to EMPIRE (EMpower + insPIRE).

Allow me to explain.

A few months ago, at one of my Happiness Workshops, I met a fellow Happiness + Success Coach named Dom. She had arrived in Seoul just a few short months ago, but was bursting with energy and excitement to create change in the burgeoning coaching space in Korea.

I thought this could play out one of two ways: 1) I could wish her well and see her as "competition;" or 2) I could collaborate WITH her, EMPIRE her, in the way I wish I had had a mentor in Korea when I first started.

I chose the latter.

On the phone before the workshop, she was her usual effervescent self:

"Kyla!! Are you excited? How are you feeling?"
"Yeah, I am feeling pumped!"
"Hey, let's come up with like a slogan or something we say before we do our workshops!"
"Ok...what did you have in mind?"
"You know...maybe we could combine EMPOWER + INSPIRE"
Silence as we were both in deep thought.
"How about EMPIRE!!" Dom shrieked excitedly.

At our very first W.E. (Women Empowering) Women Workshop last night, we were living and breathing what we had wanted to create for the women who attended the workshop: we trusted each other, we respected each other, we gave each other the space to EMPIRE, and we were ourselves.

After the workshop, two good friends commented, "It was so smooth. You guys worked so well together." Another workshop participant was surprised to learn that Dom and I had met just months ago. She thought we had been friends for years because of our rapport.

Over lamb BBQ dinner, Dom and I talked about the highlights of the workshop:

• One of the participants had brought home-made carrot cake and handed it out to each table
• More introverted participants had stood up and shared their voice WITH everyone
• Participants were open and willing to create change in their lives but also the lives of others
• It flowed organically and didn't feel forced 
• There was no judgment
• Participants felt comfortable to be outside of their comfort zones
• Everyone realized they were not alone in their struggles

A friend who had come even texted me this after the workshop:

"Thank you for an empowering and brilliant workshop. I am so happy I came. It was a really wonderful, insightful, positive, and nurturing workshop. Loved absolutely every minute of it. And you were just so amazing and fantastic. Keep on moving forward!!! You are a superstar and my inspiration."

On the walk from dinner to Starbucks, I felt relieved. It was as if I had been one of the participants. I had struggled alone to create change in Korea. It was as if I had been facing my own judgment within. It was as if I had needed that EMPIREment just as much as they did. And I finally had a partner-in-EMPIREment in Dom.

Waiting for a taxi near some corporate buildings, Dom dropped the last EMPIRE bomb of the night:
"Kyla, what is it that YOU really want to do? I mean, I am grateful that I get to work WITH you, and you EMPIRE the heck out of me, and I wanna be like you in a few years, but what really gets YOU pumped up and how can YOU level up?"

I was stunned. I mean, hadn't we just walked out of an awesome collaborative workshop? You know, like that music video where Taylor Swift has all of her besties star in? Bad Blood? Where they walk out and their hair is blowing, their skin is glowing, and they just blew up a building...

I blinked to buy myself some time. She smiled as she always did, excited about my response.

"Well...I have this thing that I wrote on this long piece of paper covering the desk in my bedroom...it's just three words: travel, speak, inspire->empire..."

"Then do it! Make it happen, Kyla. You can do it. Level up!"

And just like that, when you think you have empired someone, they empire you back.

​EMPIRE strikes back.

Thanks, Dom and all of the amazing women who helped EMPIRE us last night.