Andrea Owen on How to Be Taken Seriously Even When You're Not a Serious Person

This week on the show, Andrea Owen returns for a second visit and this conversation is, hands down, the hardest I’ve laughed in quite some time. Andrea is a coach, author of two books (52 Ways to Live a Kick Ass Life and How to Stop Feeling Like Shit), and she’s the host of the amazing “Your Kick Ass Life” podcast. She and I talk about how to be taken seriously even when you’re not a serious person.

As an entrepreneur, and a woman out doing business in the world, I am betting that this episode will resonate with you strongly. It’s getting at the heart of some deep seated conditioning, and calling into question something my own personal inner critic is pretty tied to: as a person who does serious work (life coaching, business coaching and project management all require an understanding of deep emotional or business acumen), I often worry that if I present my light heartedness in front of others, my ability to be serious and taken as a credible intelligent person will be dismissed.

What I love is that in this chat, Andrea calls bullshit on this, for both of us. She says it’s “inner critic bullshit” that’s just getting in the way of our being our true selves. And, I agree with her.

I also love that this discussion goes meta and self-reflective on itself, as we start out talking about how we’re both silly people at heart, and how as humorous people we both worry that we can’t ALSO be serious. After laughing our butts off (you’ll have to listen because it is funny, I laughed out loud when I was editing this episode), we then dive into deep and serious territory. We talk about the death of her father, about numbing out, about PTSD, about the serious shit.

In other words, the conversation itself shows us that yes, you can be funny, and serious all in the same 45 minutes.

Inspiration and Intention:

Where are you undermining or downplaying your own natural way of being because you feel like they are not “acceptable” to others?

How can you look at those traits as a gift, using a different lens? Who are some other people you can identify (and maybe even look up to) that share those traits with the world?

In this episode, Andrea Owen and I talk about:

Body suits and blazers (and we have a good laugh about this)
How humor can be a way of connecting with others
That humor can be healing
Rumbling with your emotions
What happens when we label emotions as good or bad, instead of just letting them be
Surrendering to emotions
When it’s time to find help with emotions that are overwhelming
How to interact with unusual relatives at a holiday party
Body suits and blazers (yes, again)