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Lets Just Talk About It Podcast with Chuck
This Podcast is geared toward giving people a platform to share their personal story because so many people have a story, but they have nowhere to share it, but they do now, it's called Let's just talk about it Podcast because I believe every voice matters!
Lets Just Talk About It Podcast with Chuck
EP.96 Working Woman Selah with Guest Katrina Garrett
Have you ever peered beyond the titles and roles defining your daily life to rediscover the dreams you once cherished? Join us as Katrina Garrett, the trailblazing founder of Working Woman Selah, invites us to do just that. In an episode that celebrates the multifaceted identities of women, Katrina sheds light on the importance of personal fulfillment beyond our societal functions. With the creation of nurturing environments like Working Woman Meetups and the Working Woman Selah, she engineers havens for women to connect and uplift each other, fostering a culture where personal passions and intrinsic values are not just recognized, but revered.
This heart-to-heart isn't your typical empowerment talk; it's a deep, genuine discourse on the pivotal role of community and sisterhood in personal growth. As we navigate the treacherous waters of social media's highlight reels, Katrina and I unravel the authentic threads that truly weave our lives together. She's building communities and crafting events that are not about outshining each other but about sharing, supporting, and celebrating the whole spectrum of what it means to be a working woman. So, lend us your ears, and let's embark on a journey to empower one another through the strength of our shared experiences and the collective wisdom of our stories.
Hey, welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, I have Katrina Garrett on with me today. Well, we have a great conversation about her passion for a community of women called the Working Women, where they gather together to communicate, have fun and encourage one another in love. So, hey, you don't want to miss this amazing conversation today. As a matter of fact, do me a favor Go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and gather around to listen to my conversation with Katrina on let's Just Talk About it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in. Welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast, and today I have Miss Katrina Garrett on with me. How's it going today, katrina?
Katrina Garrett:It's going wonderful. I'm so excited to be back.
Chuck:Yeah, thank you for coming back, katrina. I love to jump right into my interviews to have those genuine conversations with genuine people just like yourself, and so, with that being said, you were on with me for episode 17, overcoming the pain of rejection, and you were also on episode 24, what women need with Carla Turner and Tamara Matthews, but now you're back to talk about your passion for the working females, better known as the working woman, sel.
Katrina Garrett:Let's talk about that yes, so after I got over rejection right okay um, but there was.
Katrina Garrett:There was this push where we were. I was seeing a lot of things on social media that was marketing towards the entrepreneur and and while I do entrepreneur things, I'm still a working woman and I just felt this push or pull to celebrate, acknowledge and value working women. Because there are women that go to work every day, or they're working in their families, or they're working in ministry every day, and their life of work may not be glamorous, it may not be something that will give them air time and on social media, but they're still putting in the work and they still matter. And so I started, hey Working Woman, to really just celebrate and pour into those women.
Chuck:Wow. So basically, you want to pull to the front the woman who's not seen, who's doing the work, putting in the work but nobody sees them. You want to make them see notice.
Katrina Garrett:Ooh, you said it. You said it, sir. I love it. Yes, that's exactly what we're about. We are about acknowledging and valuing that woman, because what I realize is that oftentimes, when you ask a woman, you know what she likes or what does she do. We always talk about the job we have, our profession, or how many kids we have, or whether we're married. We never talk about what we like. We never talk about what makes us us as women. So when we come together, we never talk about our titles. We literally take time to simply be women that's deep yeah.
Katrina Garrett:So last year I did my first like major event. It was the working woman sila. Okay, um, and I chose sila because I didn't want to say conference, because I feel like, yeah, I didn't want to be a regular women's conference, got you. But, um, I came up with the word sila through the holy spirit's prompting and I learned that sila means to pause to praise and uplift. So it was a time to take for the women to pause to praise and to be uplifted, and so we started with that first and it was a major success.
Katrina Garrett:There were so many different women that came that connected. They didn't know each other. There were women that came alone. They didn't know anyone there and they bonded with the women there. So it was kind of like a sisterhood that again was created with no titles, no pretense, just women coming together, right. And we had such an amazing time that I mean women were crying and they were like you've got to do this again. So from that was birthed Working Woman Meetups, where we come together quarterly and we just have like little mini things that we do on like a Friday night together with like-minded women, and then I still have that C-Law annually for us to come together and truly like I have the DJ. It's that's really like I really take time to pull them away and to make them feel like they got away. It's like a mini staycation, so what?
Katrina Garrett:is one of the major battles that you see women go through today I think that we wear so many hats that we become the hats that we wear talk about you know, like you're a mom, so all you talk about is being a mom, or you might have that nine-to five job, or whatever the thing is for the hats that you wear. That's the image that you become, and it, it consumes our life wow, so that when we look at ourselves.
Katrina Garrett:We see ourselves as a teacher, not a woman. Or you see yourself as a mother, not a woman. You know not that you're not. You're not your identity of who you are like losing touch with who we are as women. It's like we have to find time once a year to let our hair down, as opposed to being intentional about taking that me time just to simply be.
Chuck:Wow, just breaking through the layers of trying to be yourself, because it seemed like we live in a time that you had to prove yourself all the time. So it's just like breaking through those barriers just to say I'm all right with who I am, I'm good. You know what I'm saying. I don't need a title to find value, but you know. Yeah, talk about that it's like I'm enough.
Katrina Garrett:It's like I am enough. My bank account does not determine my worth. My status does not determine my worth. My degree does not determine my worth. I am who I am. I'm fiercely and wonderfully made. Just simply put my name, with nothing behind it. Katrina is enough. You know, and I tell, that's what. I'm there. I'm there to remind them that we don't have to prove who we are. We don't have to fight to be something. All we have to do is be who god created us to be, because we are enough.
Chuck:I love that. We are enough. We need that. We need, you know, people to speak into us or, you know, pour into one another, because it's hard to believe that, because so many people have gone through trauma, whether it be molestation or, you know, rejection and so many things we got to come through that we need to constantly hear positive things. You know what I'm saying exactly, yeah, yeah, I love this quote by Maya Angelou, katrina. She says I am a woman, phenomenally, phenomenal woman. That's me that she believed in who she was. So she called herself a phenomenal woman and I believe that's absolutely.
Katrina Garrett:Yeah, you just got to believe, yes, you got to believe that you're great on the inside so I have a new, I have my own segment for that, um piggybacking off of Maya Angelou. I tell people you're not a limited edition, you're an only edition.
Chuck:Also say that one more time because a limited.
Katrina Garrett:You're not a limited edition, you're an only edition, because limited means that there's more than one person like you. It may not be a lot, but there's more than there's someone else like you or similar to you. But when you're an only addition, you acknowledge the uniqueness and the value that you bring to whatever role you enter, because no one can be and do what you do like you do it wow, I love it.
Chuck:So what would you say what? What would you say to a woman right now If you was to run into her, whether she's older or younger, who's in that fight? You know, just to be. What would you say to her if you was to run into her at the grocery store and you saw her? You know she really wanted to, but she just didn't know how. What would you say to her?
Katrina Garrett:I would first ask what was her passion Like? Does she remember her dreams? Cause I sometimes think we were so busy supporting the dreams of others that's so good that we don't go after ours and I would say remember your dreams, like what were your dreams when you were growing up? Because sometimes, like you said, trauma happens and we forget that or we say that can never happen for me and it's kind of like taking hold of that and saying why, why can't it? There are people today that are in their 40s and 50s that are going back to school.
Katrina Garrett:Yeah it's hard, but they still did it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so it's kind of like what are your passions? What do you like? Because we always say what everybody else likes, but what do you like? Yeah, you like, because we always say what everybody else likes, but what do you like? Yeah, what do you like to do? Yeah, and let's pursue that, pursue that, pursue that with everything that's within you, because you're worth it. Wow, I feel like sometimes we don't pursue because we there's something in us that makes us feel like we're not worth it, but we put, we put so much and invest so much time in everything else and to be intentional about investing the same amount of energy and time and encouragement in ourselves as we do those around us.
Chuck:That's good. So it's like rekindling that fire, that passion you know that you had when you was a little girl, something that you really wanted to do in life. Yeah, rekindling that Wow.
Katrina Garrett:I love it because I've had women like I. Have women reach out to me that I don't know. So working a woman has grown beyond even my sphere of influence, because I have people reaching out saying when is your next event? You know, it was so amazing. Or I have people saying I heard about it, let me know, I want to come, but it's because it's like people are hungry for this and because it's not one thing.
Katrina Garrett:My sister-in-law, she, says it's not a click. So it's not like you come in and only a certain group of people hang and get together. It's not that it's like we've created. One of my friends said it best. She said you created a community. And the awesome thing is is that these women come in and they don't know each other, but when they leave, they made sisterhood, they made a connection that's deeper than what they do for a living, because some of them don't even know what each other do for a living or don't know their status. You know what I'm saying. It's truly about hey, and let's talk about us. You need what we're doing what, and it's always a poor. Each sessions, we always take a moment to pour into that working woman to remind her of who she is, Cause it's all about identity and, um, really taking a moment to simply be. I can't say that enough. It's really to take a moment to simply be.
Chuck:Simply be. But sometimes, when we look at social media and what somebody else has, we feel like they did something greater than we can do and so we feel like we don't have what it takes. But when we really come together and just share you know, one another's pain or whatever we really realize that we are more alike than we really think.
Katrina Garrett:Yeah, when you said that I just saw this visual of. It's easy to read book covers, but it takes time to read a story and I think social media is book covers and you know a book cover looks good and you can flip over in the back and you can catch the highlights. But the journey journey from the, from the start to the end yeah, that's that process that everyone's had disappointment, everybody's had been offended, they've been hurt. You know we've had successes, we've had failures, we've had should have, could have, would have moments. We've all experienced that. But but I feel like sometimes we've used social media to only paint the book cover of our lives as opposed to reflecting the true story of our lives wow, we did a men's, a men's thing like that the the working man, because men do put in work.
Chuck:Right, we do put in work, listen.
Katrina Garrett:Exactly, yeah, Exactly. But I feel like you know sometimes, even if it's a working woman moment, but sometimes I feel like it's the men just taking that time to get together. Sometimes men don't like to get together unless they know the people.
Chuck:Yeah.
Katrina Garrett:I don't know.
Chuck:You got dress issues.
Katrina Garrett:But traumatized, but I do. But I feel like I feel like everybody. Whether you are a man or a woman, you need that connection, you need that reminder, because it serves several purposes. One it reminds you that you're more than what you're going through. And it also, for those that are doing well, it reminds them to share their story, to encourage someone else. So it's like that connection of coming together to get what you need in that moment yeah, so that you can continue your journey, you can continue your story, and you can see that I can make it beyond this moment.
Katrina Garrett:I'm not alone. I'm not alone. I'm not the only one that's going through this. There's other people that feel this way. It's community, and I think that's something that social media, social media doesn't give us community. Social media gives us isolation and it gives us book covers and we mistake book covers for community. But community is. You know my story. There's a lot of beautiful pictures, but we don't know their story. If I don't know your story, that's not really community, if we're not engaging beyond the picture moments.
Chuck:Here's another one. Here's another one that we're not coming together to compete with one another.
Chuck:We're not coming together to pull or to take from each other, but we're here to exchange. You know what I'm saying and I think that's a big issue too, whether it be competition or I'm using you to get what I want, to build what I have, instead of building what we have together, you know and grow it into. So that's what I see. Working woman is as a um, as a building being erected. It's going up, you know, because you're, you're coming together to to exchange Right.
Katrina Garrett:And listen. There are a lot of wonderful women's events that are happening in the area Right and I could have said, and I think sometimes we don't do a thing or we don't step out because we see what everyone else is doing.
Katrina Garrett:Right, that's true, but it's kind of like but the fingerprints, remember, we're not limited editions, we're only editions Blueprint. There's something that working woman was needed, and the response came from the women that said need this right? So for me, I think that working woman was a mandate on my life that was called forth to create this type of community for those that need it, and I could have sat down on it. I could have said no, everyone else is doing these awesome women's events, but they weren't doing. What I was doing was in your heart and I'm not doing what they're doing. And I think sometimes we don't step out, sometimes because of everybody's doing it or every. So that's why you can't get caught up in book covers, because you got to walk your own story out, and for me, working woman is me walking out the story to help empower and value other women.
Chuck:I love that. Coming together and empower, you're setting a blueprint, you're creating your own avenue, and that's what I love about creativity you create your own lane in what you're doing. I love that.
Katrina Garrett:Exactly. It gives me life. And I don't do it for the blessing, like working woman, is not for me to make a profit. I really so into it. Oftentimes I create these extravagant moments and I try to charge just enough to cover the bulk of the expenses, but oftentimes I'm adding to it because I want that moment to be special. I want that woman to come in and feel like they actually got away, that they could actually simply be.
Katrina Garrett:I remember the very first event that I had. It was in Norfolk, and my second event is going to be in Norfolk as well, at the assembly, and it was on the rooftop. And on the rooftop they said I said God is in Norfolk and it's just it's in October. Like you know, it's not special enough and the Lord was like no Trina. I want them to know that they can come up from amongst the noise, that they don't have to wait until the special vacation or that time of the year, but they can take a moment and come up from the noise and simply be. And so that's what I was like. Wow, I never thought about it that way and I've been doing it ever since.
Katrina Garrett:Wow, wow, I never thought about it that way and I've been doing it ever since. Wow. So anybody can come, anybody, anybody, no matter what, whether you serve in ministry. You can be an entrepreneur, you can come. You can be a stay-at-home mom, you can come, you can be. You can work a job, you can come. It's any way you work.
Katrina Garrett:Because I feel like we should classify work Like a stay at home mom. We feel like, oh, she doesn't have a regular day to five. Well, if she's taking out kettles, kids, that's still work, that's still a job that she's doing and giving up her life for. So for me, it's like what? If you're someone who's always working or always serving others and you never take a time to celebrate and serve yourself, then working woman is for you. Because I don't want to define what work is Absolutely, because I feel like sometimes we try to make work that's how we isolate it and they say, oh, I work and you don't. Well, who's to say that? Because if you're putting in your time, if you're putting in your talent and your treasure, that's work.
Chuck:That's working.
Katrina Garrett:Yeah, absolutely that's why, when you come in, it's not about what you do got you okay. So therefore no one knows when they come in, no one knows what anybody does, no one's calling out titles and none of that.
Katrina Garrett:We don't talk about titles, we don't even talk about what the whole purpose is, literally focusing on the woman, because we don't want you to think about your kids in that moment, we don't want you to think about your job or, you know, your bills, we don't want you to think about the pressures that you have to, that you undergo in life. We want you to take a moment to take off all those hats and simply be. And I, the last working woman event that I had, the meetup that I had, I gave them a challenge, I gave them sticky notes and I said write down all the hats you wear.
Chuck:Okay.
Katrina Garrett:And I had them write down all the hats that they wore as women. I said, and I had a big hat and I went around the room and I said, now take those hats that you wore and put them in this hat, because we're taking our hats off and so that we can simply be and I said and say your name.
Katrina Garrett:And they had to say their name and I said when was the last time you were say your name? Wow, and you know that moment they were like oh my gosh, it was like setting the atmosphere for and it was like I didn't ask them, I didn't go, and the thing about it was when I looked at what they wore, I read some of the things. Some of them said the same exact words. They had said some of the same things decision maker and things like that and they had the same words. Wow, but they took off those hats and they enjoyed themselves, wow.
Chuck:Amazing Shout out to you again, Katrina. As I stated before, we go through so much trauma in life. People lose loved ones and so much stuff to fight through and that builds that kind of insecurity in all of us, that inadequacy. What would you say to a person that's struggling with that insecurity right now, that they want to go forward, but that voice in their head saying you're not enough keeps pulling them back?
Katrina Garrett:Well, everything I do is rooted and grounded in who God says that we are. So you know, god's word says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made Right.
Chuck:I got you.
Katrina Garrett:And so we know that his word is truth. And so the question I ask is when did that word no longer become applicable for you? Right At what point in your life that you not feel that you were fearfully and wonderfully made? Because that's the place you have to go back to and do the foundation work so that you can know upon who you are and everything that you do. You are fiercely and wonderfully made because when you realize that there's nothing you won't be able to accomplish, and when you realize that you'll know that you're bigger than your mistakes, Got you.
Katrina Garrett:Because we've all had mistakes, we've all done things that we wish we could go back and change. But when we realize that the core of who we are, regardless of our mistakes, regardless of what we've been through, that the core of who we are is fearfully and wonderfully made, when we have that understanding, there's nothing we can't accomplish appreciate this conversation.
Chuck:Where can people find the information on the working woman?
Katrina Garrett:well, I do have a social media. My social media page is katrina garrett. Um. Also hey working woman, hey h-u-i. Hey working woman has. Hey, working Woman has a Facebook page that has our upcoming events. I also have a website. It's Katrina K-A-T-R-I-N-A Garrett G, as in girl A-R-R-E-T-T dot com. So any of those three things. You'll see information about Working Woman If you follow the hey Working Woman page page. I try to do a weekly quote of inspiration just to remind you of who you are, um. So just follow that and, again, follow my website if you want to see any upcoming events.
Katrina Garrett:We have an upcoming working woman meetup on july 12th. The lord has been kind. I have been selling out to tell the lord thank you. Every time I sell out, I tell them thank you. So when I put them tickets on sale, them tickets go quick. I try to make it an intimate setting, but them tickets I normally sell out Like three to four weeks before my event and so I just tell them thank you, I'm grateful. So that is July 12th, so just stay tuned for when I make the announcement about that, as well as my working woman, nita. That's the best for Sheila. I'm sorry, the working on the Sheila is October 4th and 5th. It's a Friday night and a Saturday half day, saturday, and that's the all out, where we're having the DJ, we're having the food, we're having the speakers, we have spa giveaways. It's just an amazing time for any and every working woman, wow.
Chuck:Shout out to the working woman.
Katrina Garrett:Thank you, thank you.
Chuck:As we close, two quick questions.
Katrina Garrett:Two quick questions. The first one is if someone was to ask about you in your own. I enjoy letting people know that they are seen, valued and loved.
Chuck:Wow, wow. Next question. I love that, by the way. Next question I always ask this question this way what would you say to your younger self? But today, I want to ask what would you say to yourself today to prepare you for tomorrow. And we'll close on that.
Katrina Garrett:I would say girl, you did that, and I would remind myself that there is absolutely no box that can tame you, except for the boxes that you place yourself in, and that the journey to your next is always forward and not behind you.
Chuck:Wow, amazing Shout out to you. Thank you so much for being a part of let's Just Talk About it podcast. Until next time. Thanks again, katrina.
Katrina Garrett:Thank you so much for having me.
Chuck:Wow, what an amazing conversation. Shout out to Katrina for having this dialogue with me. You know Katrina shared so many amazing things in our conversation, but one of the things that stuck out to me was when she talked about knowing your value that, with or without a title, you still have worth, that you're not a limited edition, but you're an only edition, who's more than enough. So shout out to you, katrina, for that wisdom. Again, thank you so much for tuning in to let's Just Talk About it Podcast and please check out my website. Just Google let's Just Talk About it Podcast dot com and then hit that subscribe button to receive all the new episodes every Friday. You can also find me on Facebook. Just type in Chuck L-J-T-A-I, which means let's Just Talk About it. So, as always, until next time, don't hold it in, but let's just talk about it. Talk to you soon, you.