Practical career advice from an unexpected icon
My husband loves to see movies and I like to see them slightly (or a lot less). He pulled at my heart strings by suggesting his latest pick - The Sound of My Voice - was “about a really powerful woman.” He had me hooked.
Over the course of an hour and a half, my heart pounded. Watching the chronology of Linda Ronstadt - one of the most powerful women in pop music - inspired me. As an addict of classic rock radio, I am familiar with Linda Ronstadt’s music. Yet I had no idea how wide the trail Linda blazed actually was.
One theme of the film (my favorite) was how the breadth of genres she stepped into sign made no sense to people. Her choices dumbfounded others. And to her, it made perfect sense. She was repeatedly advised against following her heart to certain songs. Experts warned that it would kill her career. She proceeded anyway and did so with sas. #bosslady
“I am going to do this just for me.”
When she could see herself in each song, there was nothing that could pull her away. The craft with which she approached each song created a sense of honor for many of the song’s original artists. They wanted Linda to sing their songs.
Her accolades rolled in across many genres - rock, opera, country, mariachi, and more. All at a time where the entire music industry was hostile towards women. She banded together (literally forming a trio) with a few other women of notoriety at that time - Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Within their small trio they found comfort in hostile times. That support kept them pushing forward.
There is part of me that is heartbroken. That so much of those times almost 50 years ago feel alive today. And I stand proud of another woman who reminds me of our ability to be resourceful. To be persistent. And to find an unapologetic place that makes us come alive.
We design our programs to inspire women to have more access to their own voice and the power to use that. We don’t ignore that many of the systems we work and live within need to change. And we want women to feel resourced to blaze their own trail starting right now. If we wait, the progress will unfold at a snail’s pace and our contribution to the world requires more urgency.
“There is this spirit of freedom, inhibition, and vulnerability that is experienced when women gather in a room with Inside Out.”
Shine On,
Alicia