Embracing Your Voice: Megan Moore on Storytelling & Leadership | 004

Hello. Today, on Leading with Purpose, I am honored to welcome Megan Moore, a professional storyteller, gourmet natural food chef and the Director of Client Services at Center for functional nutrition. Megan's journey is one of transformation, self discovery and stepping into leadership with heart and clarity in her chapter of soulful leadership, elevating purpose and empowering change, the chapter is the story of the red belt from our newest anthology, Megan shares deeply personal and symbolic story of the red belt, a gift she received over 40 years ago that continues to shape her journey of empowerment and purpose. I'm excited to explore Megan's story and the lessons that it holds for all of us about embracing our voice, stepping into leadership and living with intention. Hello, Megan, welcome.

Hello Mark. Thank you. I'm

so excited to be on this journey of leading with purpose, with you, and I'm going to have a second call with your husband, Russell. You've been a part of meta mine now for several years, and I've really enjoyed really just watching your journey and learning more about the past. And it was really fun hearing this story of the red belt. Before we dive into that, I'm wondering tell us a little bit about the work that you and Russell do.

Thanks for asking, Mark. We provide products and services in a global community to people that have digestive wellness issues. So we've been doing this for over 40 years, and it's an incredibly satisfying service that we provide, because I think it's because of the people that we work with, because they are always so grateful to have found us and to be working, specifically with Russell as their coach, and then With me is there in the background, but often providing, providing the products, and then providing a a service of support. So that's that's it. In a nutshell, I

love that service of support because I relate a lot of the role that you do with my wife, with Renee, and often call her the wizard behind the curtain, and really how it makes everything work as part of the team, and really being able to stand that you are a team, and how that all plays into it. And again, it's been really fun because I've seen you supporting Russell, and you've done that for many, many years. And same thing with Renee. She was supporting me, but now she's kind of stepping into the forefront, and I see your your own expansion in your business, but I'm curious to hear about the story without having to tell the whole thing. We'd love to have readers check out your chapter, but maybe you can give us kind of a synopsis of what this red belt story was for you. And again, you're such a masterful storyteller. I hope everybody will read the chapter, but kind of give us a taste of what that story meant to you and why you wanted to share that now.

absolutely. And I love that. Again, he was not telling you what the story was, but allowing you to explore and discover it for yourself and to tell the story yourself, which, again, it feels like it is now ready to be told as a professional storyteller, how has the art of storytelling helped you to connect with your purpose and inspire others?

Well, I think, as a storyteller is something that it's, it's an art that came very naturally to me, but I didn't, I wasn't able to connect that and business. It was like the storytelling was in one hand and then business was in the other hand, and I wasn't easily able to connect the two of them. So as a storyteller, I was not shy, because it just the stories would flow out of me, but as a business person, I was afraid to open my mouth, for fear of saying something wrong. I didn't for fear of saying something wrong, really. And so it took me a long time to be able to tie those two strands together and to realize that I have the ability as a storyteller and as a manager of a business, it's one in the same they weave back and forth.

And when you show up in meta mind, you are always in an observation mode and seeing what's going on. And then when you speak, it's like poetry. It's always so very eloquent, and so I'm always at the edge of my seat listening to what you have to say. And I'm just curious again, for you, with the storytelling, done a lot of job with telling other people's stories, especially because of so many people that you and Russell have helped with very serious chronic health issues that nobody else could solve, and every week you have a small gathering of people who share stories, right and some of the things that they've had, I'm just curious How that plays into like the the testimonials and the stories that you hear from other people, how that plays into into your work?

Oh gosh, they're huge. They're always so heartfelt, because I know the beginnings and the middles and the endings of these people who have placed their trust in us and and I'm always amazed at the client's trust that they've given to us, and I'm honored by that, and it's also a tremendous responsibility, and it cannot happen without that person. There's they're like 100% part of it, part of that process of healing. And over a period of time, they begin to trust themselves and in their body's capability to heal. And so when I hear story after story, when I hear so many stories like that, it's quite profound. And it's mostly profound in the humanity of it, in the fact that each person has has this capability, and then in our amazing bodies that want all the sale cells in our body want for our health. And so given the products and the service. US and the caretaking they do their job.

Yeah, I love how you also have a very holistic approach to what health is. Our physical health is one of the most important things. But you also talk about the shift from doing things out of necessity to doing them out of passion and purpose. What inspired this change, and how do you see it as transforming your approach to life and work?

Yeah, so Russell is the health expert, and then, as you know, Mark, there are lots of other parts of the business. And as Renee knows, there's lots of other parts of the business that have to be done. And so I kind of landed there in all those other parts of the business

that have another 80% of the

company. And I did those because I'm, at heart, a very responsible person. I'm the oldest daughter of a in a family of seven, so I think I inherited that, and it came in a very, at a very, in a very early age, when I took care of my brothers and sisters and help my mother and father and all that kind of stuff. So I came into that quite naturally too, but I never owned it. It was always things that I had to do because I was never able to see myself in that role, and it wasn't until I actually began to understand the service and how just me with my heartfelt compassion and listening capabilities, what a difference that that could make for a person. And so in all my conversations now I bring I bring that to them. I bring myself into the conversations I'm no longer divided. There. There. I have an intention now that I did not have before. And I think that that's all part of the journey of the red belt and the maturity and and then that is what makes the job the job, I'll say job rewarding. I mean, it is a job. Practically, it's a job. It's what I do every day. But and now it, it has a whole different sense of landing within me.

I love that the story, again, going back to your childhood and being the oldest of seven, because, again, that relates so much to Renee being the oldest of five and doing the same thing of starting to be a parent at a very young age of your siblings, and how that makes you so responsible and being able to help all of the pieces, and you become a solution based thinker, so you don't have to know everything. You can figure it out on the fly. And again, I love that the partnership about how you two work together the same way that Renee and I do. And I'm interested, because your relationship with Russell is such a key part of your journey. I'm curious, how has your partnership influenced your growth as a leader, but also as an individual,

well, that's a very interesting part. So in a marriage, we have a lot of different roles, and ours is even more because we're in business together, and we so we work together in our business. We raised our children. We are marriage partners. So there's a lot, a lot there. So I've been thinking a lot about this recently, and it it's demanding in the sense, sorry, Mark, you'll have to ask me that question again. Yeah, no,

no. So it's really just how the dynamics in your relationship, and you're spot on exactly all of those things, because I I relate to all of those things and to anybody who might be a duo preneur When you're in business with your spouse. My very first coach said he didn't recommend it. He said, if you're doing a business, you're gonna either your business will fail, your marriage will fail. But something's right, and so there's one is how you lead in your business. There's how you lead in your marriage. I haven't paid a bill in 20 years. That's not my role. I don't take care of those things. I'm not good at spot on it. No bills are late ever. And the same thing with parenting, the different pieces of it, and how you play that back and forth, of where your leadership shows up in each of those roles, but also where your individuality. Plays into that. I guess we could start with how, how the leadership piece fits into that dynamic.

Well, if you don't mind, I think I'll start with the individuality. Oh, good, because there's the individual, individuality within a relationship, and that can get really clouded when there are so many demands, the marriage, the business, the bringing up children, you it's like, who am I? Where am I in this relationship? And where is Russell in this relationship? And I think in order for a relationship to be very successful, there has to be that individuation, and I think that that happens over a long period of time, and it's like, he's here and I'm here. This is me, this is Russell, and then there's how do we relate? And then that's a that's a learning process. And it's learning how to say sorry and really mean it. It's learning how to say sorry without resentment. It's learning how to say okay, this is it's learning how to we have something we call a talking stick. So when somebody is holding the talking stick, it's, it's, we create a sacred space there, and that's a signal that triggers a true listening and a respect for this space, which then, and I think Russell wrote about This in his chapter, which then creates, okay, everything crashed. What are we going to do about it? What do we want to do about it? And that happens a lot.

I love the idea of, again, bringing the talking stick into it. For anybody who may not be familiar with a Talking Stick, what is the role or purpose of a Talking Stick?

Well, it's it is creating a sacred space, and a space that's outside of each person, where you can actually live and communicate, and the respect for that space is has been created ahead of time. This is where we can trust. This is a space that we can trust to be able to speak, honestly, say what we have to say, have the other person listen and respond, rather than have a reactive response, which might just then ignite more commotion.

Well, well, again, this is a great strategy for communicating and especially in leadership as a couple and as parents, this is something that you've also been able to pass on to your boys. So that kind of leads into the big question with our show leading with purpose, given everything that you shared today, what does leading with purpose mean to you, and how do you see it now showing up in your life?

That is so timely, again, that it's been something that's been showing up for you. And again, how it's so timely. Right now to be leading with, with clear intention. And again, I appreciate how conscious you are of of what's happening in the world and your role in it.

Yes, just seems, it seems to be the best thing. That's what that's what i i hear the call as being

repeat that one more time, then what is the call that you're hearing

to lead with, to be a leader and to and to lead with those with honesty, with kindness, with generosity, with service, with strength, with boldness, with consistency, all of those words, our voices are the strongest voices, because I think our voices are what it means to be human.

That's so beautiful. I'm getting a huge break too, just from hearing you and talking about the what we can do most to create the change is just to be leaders and to stay in our lane and to be able to be the leaders in our domain. Appreciate that, Megan, I'm so grateful again to be on this journey with you and Russell and your Hurley the whole family. What would you share as last words of advice or anything that you might want to have as parting words?

Laughter, fun. Seriousness, I mean, all of those things, but I think that laughter is like the antidote. It's really so helpful

and being grateful every day and to acknowledge what is important in your life, every single day, every moment, my goodness. I mean, weather happens all the time, every day, every minute, and it's always how one responds to that. So,

yeah, I like laughter and gratitude. Those are powerful. Lacher is often underrated and gratitude we can never say enough about so right, beautiful. Well, thank you again. Megan, big hug to much love. Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing your story in our book, but also your stories all the time with your clients, and look forward to hearing more from them.

Well, thank you Mark and thank you Renee, because I know that you're there somewhere in Mark's circle there. So thank you both for all that you also bring into this world.

Thank you all for being here. We look forward to hearing your comments. Please comment below. You'll see all of the links for Megan and Russell in the comments below, Bye, for now, bye, bye.