Angela Gargano (00:00)
Hello there and welcome back to another episode of What If It All Goes Right? The podcast where we dive into the messy, challenging, and empowering parts of life. I'm your host Angela Gargano and today we're going to talk about something that is close to my heart, which is leadership. Leadership is totally a privilege. It's about guiding, inspiring, and lifting others up. But let's be real. It can be so lonely, so overwhelming, and full of moments where
you're shown just how much you still have to learn. So no matter how good of a leader you are, life has a way of humbling you. And here's the truth, in order to build your team, you need to build yourself. It's easy to focus so much on the work, the responsibilities, the people who rely on you, that you forget to take care of the foundation, which is literally you. So today I want to talk about manageable, actionable things that you can do as a leader.
to show up better for yourself and for your team. So let's dive in. So leadership is one of the greatest privileges we can have. Whether you're leading a team at work, running a household or mentoring others, it's a role that carries weight. People look to you for guidance, strength and direction, but leadership can also be incredibly lonely. It's easy to feel like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.
You're making decisions, managing personalities and balancing responsibilities, all trying to keep yourself grounded. And no matter how much experience you have, life will always remind you that there's still so much to learn. So leadership isn't about being perfect. It's about willing to grow, adapt and show up even when it's hard. But here's the thing. You literally cannot pour into an empty cup. And if you're not taking care of yourself,
it's gonna show up in how you lead. And let me tell you, I have been there. There have been times when I focused so much on my work, my team, my goals that I completely neglected myself. And what happens, you literally burn out. You lose clarity, you start to feel like you're running on fumes. That's why building yourself is the most important thing you can do as a leader. It's not selfish, it's necessary. Because when you show up as the best version of you, you can guide, support your team so much.
So I want to dive into a little bit of that right now as well, little uncandidly. You know, I've been in this leadership position for a very long time, but I didn't even know that that's literally what I was until maybe the past couple years, right? Because at first when I owned my gym, I just kind of looked at myself as like, okay, cool. I'm just trying to train these people.
I didn't really look at myself as a leader. I didn't realize what I was doing was actually like leading people to be better in the community. I didn't realize I was leading, you know, the people that I employ to be better trainers. I didn't honestly know what I was doing, but I knew that I was in that. Now that I realized that's what I was doing, was literally, I was a leader. So why I'm saying that is because, yeah, I feel like sometimes you don't even know that's like the position that you're in. That's how you're seen.
It can be really tough when things are getting very hard and very tough and you don't feel like you're showing up as the best, you don't feel like you're showing up as the best version of yourself because you're literally just completely burnt out. Like you're completely drained. And the last thing sometimes you want to do is take a pause and start doing something for yourself, right? What you want to do a lot of times is like fix, fix, fix the problem and just literally dive into the weeds even more. But
What I've been realizing is that that is definitely not the way, right? Sometimes by clinging on super tight and trying to do all the things and be everything for everybody, you're just going to start to lose yourself and lose your passion and lose what you want to do. And that's not what you want, right? You can show up so much better when you actually take some time to reflect and to do something for yourself. But I just want to let you know, like it's easily it's so easily lost.
Right? So just reminding yourselves like that we can come back to this place of taking care of ourselves and not like nothing's going to burn down. It's going to be okay if you take like that hour or that 45 minutes to yourself. While my dog is sitting here crying, she's like, you cannot have, she's like, Pepper's like, you can't have this time to yourself right now. You can't be podcasting. You need to keep giving me belly rubs. You want belly rubs? Okay. So I just think, just wanted to share again, some of that.
Reflection with you also that you can maybe maybe you relate to some of the feelings that I've had there as well But yeah, it can be hard to dig yourself out of the hole once you're in it. So what can we do to you know? Balance building and so wild like it says I wrote balance here, but I Think you might have heard this on other podcasts before if you've listened to my other podcast. It's not about the balance It's about integrating it into your life because you are a leader. That's inevitable, right?
no matter what kind of leadership that means for you. So it's not really fully about a balance, it's about integrating it into your life and making it as just a part of it. Like this is just a part of what you do. As my dog sits here and eats the ground. So how do we do it? How do we balance? How do we integrate ourselves with the demands of leadership? So I wanna go through some manageable actual steps that literally have helped me, so hopefully they can help you as well.
The thing I did the other day, which was super wild, is I actually audited my day. So one of the things I do when I feel out of alignment is I simply just like sit down and actually audit the day. So I look at how I'm spending my time and I ask myself, what is working? What is draining me? Where am I spending time on things that don't align with my goals? And it isn't about being perfect. It's just about getting that awareness and really see like, like really trying to understand and zoom out, like what is happening? What is happening each day? And why does this keep happening?
And when you know where your time and energy are going, you can make adjustments and prioritize what is happening most. So it's so tough to do these audits sometimes, right? So what I sat down and did is I went through my entire day. I wrote down exactly what I was doing, the times I was doing it, and just sitting down and getting that awareness of like, wow, like one, I'm, you know, I was doing things that
weren't necessarily going to help me personally or leadership wise. It was just kind of like this habits that I accidentally have built, which weren't great habits. For example, noticing that when I posted content on my page, I wind up like somehow being on Instagram for like another 45 minutes, like scrolling and doing all this stuff that isn't actually necessary or helping in any kind of way. So it...
If I didn't do that audit and I take that moment, I wouldn't have had the awareness that I was doing that. So I'm like, okay, cool. What can I do that it's going to help me not do that anymore? That it's going to allow me to get some time back and not be like on there all of a sudden with my time. So my solution for that was like, okay, cool. There's a way to schedule out your content. You can literally do it on Meta business. So I'm just going to schedule it and it's going to help me stay off of it and only go on it at particular times against something that can be super, super hard.
Um, or I realized from my audit that I started when I get like bored, started doing random tasks that I shouldn't be doing that my, my team should be doing and other people should be doing. Um, so I'm not really utilizing my time in the best way. I'm like, okay, cool. Let me zoom out. Let me, before I do a task, say to myself, is this something that I can do or is this something that I should delegate out and that someone else is to do a better job at? And I'm not going to later on have to have them fix it or things along those lines. So again, it really allows you to sit back and zoom out. So.
just audit like a day, a full day. And then you can also see like, wait, actually do, like you see the gaps, wait, I do have an hour to get some movement in and go for a walk. Especially if I stop scrolling and actually utilize my time better. I actually do have time to eat my breakfast and drink my water, right? It can seem super overwhelming when you have all these things floating in your head that you're wanting to do to optimize your day. And then you have this leadership stuff, but then you're not really looking at it and really creating.
it so that you can be successful. It's almost as if like you're setting yourself up to fail. So yeah, looking at the audit and then really figuring out is there any decisions that can just be pre-made for me so that you know that you can win. Like eliminating any high decision fatigue you have to make, you know you're going to get your workout in, you know you're going to drink your water then. It's tough sometimes to have that structure, especially as someone myself. Like I'm a Gemini, I definitely have some ADHD in me, so I'm like blah, structure. But it's going to help so much. It's going to really...
help your brain and allow you to lead better in all areas. Number two, I want you to get curious with yourself. So sometimes we know what we need to do. Actually, most of the time we do already know what we need to do, but we're just not doing it. So instead of beating yourself up, I want you to get curious. Ask yourself, literally, why am I not doing it? Why? What's holding me back? What story am I telling myself about why this is impossible? Leadership starts with that self-awareness and the more...
honest and curious you are with yourself, the more you can grow. So I love saying get curious with yourself. The past couple of weeks, I've been doing something where I've actually been having conversations with myself. This sounds so weird, but I'm going to just say that I've been doing it in my car or when I'm walking around. I'm like, Angela, like, what are you doing out loud? Like, Angela, why are you not doing this? Like, what is it? Like, I literally start to ask myself and have that conversation because you know that if someone asks you,
advice on their life, you're able to give it to them. So like, why can't you do it to yourself? Like, why can't you give that advice to yourself? So I've really been trying to get curious as to like, why am I not waking up before, you know, why am I snoozing my alarm? Like, what was the reason really diving in and asking yourself those questions so you can figure out why you're not showing up for yourself? Why am I not drinking the water throughout the day? It's like, hmm.
I don't think I have time. Is that true? Do I not have time? You actually have time. Like you can drink the water. You can put a thing in there. It's not going to be that exhausting if you have it pre-planned out. So I really had to have these conversations with myself and hopefully that's helpful for you. Literally sit down and have a conversation yourself like you would with somebody else. Three, prioritizing that self-care. I know self-care is a buzzword, but like hear me out. Like taking care of your physical mental health is not optional. It's essential. So for me, that means
Making sure that I'm starting training a few times a week, already putting it in my schedule so that I can feel strong and clear headed, taking walks to clear my mind and reflect, journaling to process my thoughts and emotions. When you make self-care a priority, you're not just taking care of yourself, you're modeling healthy habits for your team, right? You want your team to be able to do these things as well so that they can show up better and feel good about what it is that they're doing. Number four, lead with vulnerability.
One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is admit when you don't have all the answers and vulnerability isn't weakness, it's strength. It shows your team that it's okay to be human and ask for help and to grow together as a team. So when I tore my ACL in American Ninja Warrior, it could have been a moment of defeat. Instead, I use it as an opportunity to show my team that setbacks don't define us. It's how we respond to them that matters. Okay. Now I'm not saying obviously with this, like with being vulnerable, like have a
insane moment where you're just like crying in the office or stuff like that. you know, admitting to the team like, Hey, you know what? And this is what I've been doing lately with my, my, I want to call her my integrator, I guess. I'm like, Hey, I'm having a hard time with all these different tasks. And for some reason, I just cannot get my brain to figure out like how to do them and to, really see clarity in the next piece. And she, and I said, can we sit down? Can we, would you sit down with me and, and help me walk through this? And we walked through it together.
And that vulnerability really helped bring the team together to really help us get to the next level in the business. And I feel like that's been really important for me to have that vulnerability because sometimes before I would try and just be so strong, be so strong all the time. And I don't want anyone to know that there's like the things like I'm feeling out of sorts, right? But then when I was able to admit that and then lean on everybody and as a team, like really help get that support, it was super, super helpful.
Next piece, celebrate wins, big and small. So leadership isn't just about solving problems, it's about celebrating the progress. So will there be a big win for your team or a small personal milestone? I want you to take the time to acknowledge it, celebrate the win. It's going to build momentum, boost morale. It reminds everyone, including yourself, what is possible? I mean, how many times have we in business or leadership have gotten to a point where like, we did the launch, we did really good, quick, cool. Let's go right to the next thing.
take a moment, breathe. Let's celebrate the wins together. Let's celebrate the awesomeness that we did do. We obviously can reflect on the challenges, but really taking the moment to allow that to sink in. it gets us, it really boosts the morale for what is the next thing that's coming. Like I said, I didn't realize that I was like a leader until the last couple of years. And this past year or two, I have a team now. I have a team of amazing ladies who have been helping me with coaching the women in my Pull Up Revolution program and my Strong Feels Good program so that I can
go off and not only make sure that my programs are taken care of, but now that I'm on the road and I'm speaking, I'm giving these keynote talks. And it's really been a time to sit back and reflect on this leadership portion. And I really want everyone to feel like they're growing together and then we're a part of this together. Because as we all grow, everything grows, right? So just really important to go through that.
So some questions that I would look for you to ask yourself as a leader, right? So I want you to try this this week. I want you to sit down and ask yourself these questions. What does being a great leader mean to me? How am I showing up for myself right now? What's one thing I can do this week to take better care of myself? What's one way I can support my team better this week? How can I celebrate the progress, both mine and my team's?
These questions might seem simple, but they are so powerful and they're really gonna help you reflect, realign and show up as a leader that you really, really want to be. So really taking that moment. And I know I told you I did, I've been doing the daily audits, but another thing I wanna do in the next couple of weeks is do a daily audit, like just go through it each day, kind of ask myself these different questions, a weekly audit and then a monthly audit. Audit sounds so dramatic. I feel like we need to create a different name for audit. Audit reflection.
weekly reflection, don't know. Audit sounds like mean and scary, right? It's not scary. So I'm gonna start doing that to just kind of start, it really allows me to start creating these conversations with myself and gain more awareness as to what's happening instead of just continuing to like go blindly with it. So definitely something to think about. So like I said, leadership isn't easy. It's not supposed to be, it's literally a privilege and it's.
responsibility and it's a journey that is going to push you to grow in ways you literally never ever imagined. remember this, to build your team, you need to build yourself. Prioritize your growth, your health and your mindset because when you lead from a place of strength and alignment, you inspire a team to do exactly the same thing. So a little bit of a shorter episode, but if this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it with someone who's navigating their own leadership journey. And as always, I want you to keep asking yourself.
What if it goes right? What if it's already going right? Until next time, keep growing, keep leading, and keep showing up for yourself and for the people who are counting on you.
