As female entrepreneurs, we’ve been cultured to play along, stay quiet, and constantly accommodate other people’s feelings. Those cultural messages can lead us to “playing small” in our businesses and prevent us from realizing our true potential. A powerful book by Tara Mohr, Playing Big, challenges those cultural messages and encourages women to find their voices, regain their power, and take action to improve their lives and businesses.
I would recommend it to anybody who recognizes in themselves that you’re playing small—you put yourself at a lower level of power than the people around you, that you’re telling yourself you’re not enough, that you’re not using your voice in a way that’s powerful, you’re not stepping into your calling—all of those things. If you recognize those in yourself, I think this would be a really good book to help you, help challenge you in those areas, and give you some resources to then start taking action to overcome that and change those behaviors.
– Pamela Grice, Business Coach
In this episode, we’re getting back to the “books” part of Business Besties & Books Podcast. We share our thoughts about the book—what we liked, what we didn’t, and what we took away from it. While we thought some parts were repetitive, we agreed that the concepts it introduces are valuable and could be helpful for women who need to step into their power.
Have you read Playing Big? If so, what did you think of it? If not, do you think you could benefit from its message?
What We Talked About
- [00:00] Empowering women to have a voice: Tara Mohr’s Playing Big
- [01:14] Our overall thoughts about Playing Big
- [04:45] How culture sets women up not to play small
- [07:41] The way women use langauge to minimize themselves
- [12:20] Being secure in who we are and what we know
- [14:10] Why criticism hurts and how to get past it
- [15:08] Creating a business environment around how you authentically work as a woman
- [16:31] How your business can support your callings, even personal ones
- [20:34] The importance of accountability and having champions around you
- [21:23] Our experience of audio versus print books
- [22:39] What we read/watched/bought recently
Key Insights from Tara Mohr’s Playing Big
- “I really liked it. In fact, I’m taking some of the principles from the book and and using it for lessons inside of one of my programs because I think the the conversations were really important in helping women shift their mindset, become more growth-minded, more action-taking, and more confident in themselves.” – Pam
- “I think traditional education really sets you up to be an employee, and it doesn’t set you up to be a leader, typically, or particularly a business owner. It’s not about, ‘How can you innovate?’ It’s more about, ‘Here are my ideas. Regurgitate them back to me, and I’ll tell you how well you regurgitated them.’ So unless you find that rare gem of a teacher or school system that really values innovation and free thinking and all of that, then you really have to overcome those ingrained patterns that you get from the schools.” – Pam
- “Instead of just saying something, we couch it in pretty words. We don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, and we totally minimize our own power with our language.” – Pam
- “I’ve also gone down this rabbit trail of like, ‘Well, I don’t know enough to do that.’ So how many times have I looked online like, ‘Well, maybe I’ll get a different degree. Maybe I’ll do this. Maybe I’ll do that.’ I think women do that too.” – Teri
Changing the Business World to Leverage Your Strengths
- “Maybe part of this is changing the business world and how the business world works. We don’t need to be cutthroat … But creating your business environment around how you work—authentically how you work, not the ways you’ve been broken in the world and soothing those broken pieces. But really owning your authentic who you are, and building your business around that so it feels good for you.” – Pam
- “Sometimes your business can support that calling in a different way. Maybe you’re not boots on the ground, feeding the orphans in a third world country. But your business can support that by providing you disposable income to then support people who are boots on the ground. So you can support your calling in many different ways, but just doing that feels really powerful.” – Pam
- “It’s easy to isolate ourselves or give in to shame about like, ‘I don’t want to share that I did this wrong thing,’ or, ‘I’m struggling with something.’ or whatever. But having safe people in your life—having ‘champions’ in your life is really important.” – Pam
Additional Resources
- Find the book here: Tara Mohr – Playing Big
- Favorite Pam’s White Winter Hat Company on Etsy!
Become a BBB Biz Bestie!
Subscribe to gain access to our growing library of freebies including “5 Strategies for Getting Unstuck”, get updates on weekly episode drops, plus events, giveaways, and more!
