Permission to Brag About Yourself and Take Up Space with Katie Radel

Feb 15

You officially have permission to brag about yourself.

SERIOUSLY. Don't cringe!

And it's not like you actually need my permission, for that matter.

In this episode, I’m speaking to Katie Radel, publicist and founder and CEO of Ripple Consulting Group about the important concept of stepping into your brilliance and taking up space. And that starts with asking yourself ONE question.

BE PREPARED TO LEARN:

THE first question you have to answer before increasing your visibility and publicity
The most common block Katie runs into with women when she is working with them to take up more space
Katie’s antidote to imposter syndrome (it’s totally random and totally brilliant)
And, for fun, ways that an extrovert adds more ease into her life. (I'm an introvert, but if you're an extrovert I know you will relate to Katie's perspective!)

Plus, listen in for the holisti-somatic history lesson on Cherry Blossoms 🌸

helpful links:

Follow Katie on instagram here.

Are you a healer or soul-driven coach that needs to get some solid, non-generic contracts in place? Learn more about The Legal Apothecary here.

listen to THE EPISODE ↓

Katie Radel is the Founder and CEO of Ripple Consulting Group, a public relations firm in Nashville. Katie founded Ripple Consulting Group to help organizations and individuals tell their story and have a positive relationship with their audience and community. We believe that stories and relationships can cause long-term, positive ripple effects.
Katie is the former Director of Marketing and Public Relations for an HCA hospital and helped launch Studio Bank as VP of Marketing. She has led public relations and marketing initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, startups, and nonprofits.
Katie is an Ohio native and lives in Nashville with her husband, son, and rescue dog. She is a people connector, dog, and horse lover, and enjoys good food and good conversation. She is fiercely committed to giving back to the community and supporting women in their career journey.

episode transcript:

A permission, slip to brag about yourself and take up more space. This is don't rush me.
Hey, I'm Maria Spear Ollis, and I hate. It never yields good things to rush. Whether it's rushing to finish a client project, or rushing to put on eyeliner. But when we have 10, 000 things on our minds at any given moment, it's hard not to fall into that habit. I've had a lot of very specific, technical training in my life.
Hello, music school. school and law school, but none of that training prepared me for being a business owner, a lawyer, a wife, a mom, or really just a functional adult woman with a huge to do list. I'm no guru, but I created Don't Rush Me as a way to talk more about the slow, simple tools you can start using today to make your life and business life a little easier.
So whether you're a healer, a coach, or a business owner or professional craving that slow down, come with me as we learn about the Small, easy things that can make a huge difference in your mind, body, or business. I'm an introvert. So it's very easy for me to go inward and isolate and be just me and my own thoughts. I can relate to the thought of having a hard time slowing down because work is busy and I have a lot of things to get done, but extroverting is not my battle. So it was interesting to me to talk to my guest today about obstacles that an extrovert might have to overcome to get quiet and to carve out that space to slow down. But aside from talking about ways that an extrovert might add a little ease into her life. I'm speaking to today's guest. Katie Raydell. About. The important concept of stepping into your brilliance and taking up space. And that starts with asking yourself one question. And we'll get to that question.
I promise. But first I want to tell you about my friend, Katie. Katie. Rachel is the founder and CEO of ripple consulting group, a public relations firm in Nashville, Tennessee, Katie founded ripple consulting group to help organizations and individuals tell their story and have a positive relationship with their audience and community. She believes that stories and relationships can cause longterm positive ripple effects.
Katie has led public relations and marketing initiatives for fortune 500 companies, small businesses, startups and nonprofits. Katie is an Ohio native and lives in Nashville with her husband, her son and her rescue dog. She's a people connector, and I know you will immediately connect with Katie. But before we get into my conversation with Katie here is your holistic somatic history lesson on the cherry blossom. 📍 Despite what might be your immediate association with Washington DC, cherry blossoms carry strong symbolism and Japanese culture. Also known as Sakara in Japanese culture. Cherry blossoms are said to represent beauty, mortality and love. Cherry blossoms are very short-lived and can only bloom for a couple of weeks out of the entire calendar year. Fun facts.
It is actually illegal to pick cherry blossoms from public trees in Washington, DC. And Trevor city, Michigan produces 40% of the total us tart cherry crop. And they hold a cherry festival every single year. Cherry blossoms are edible. Here's my official disclaimer that this history lesson is not medical advice.
And you should consume at your own risk. According to one study, LinkedIn, the show notes, cherry blossom extract shows anti-inflammatory effects even in vitro. It can also be an ingredient in skincare products that reduces skin inflammation. Hope you enjoyed that history lesson. Now here's my conversation with my favorite publicist, Katie Raydell.
Hi, Katie. Hi, it's so good to see you. It's so good to see you and so good to have you on the podcast. Thank you. Well the listeners have heard your bio, but if you will tell us just the work that you do, the people that you serve and kind of your journey to doing the work that you do. Sure. Well, I am the founder and CEO of Ripple Consulting Group.
And I help women leaders increase their visibility and take up more space. I work with, I work primarily with women, but it's, it's in all industries. My background is in healthcare and financial services, but I've realized throughout the journey of my business, and we'll get to that in a minute, that.
Really the, the, the women that I work with, it doesn't matter what industry they're in, what, what the women I work with, they all have in common is they need to be more seen, more visible, take up more space. And through my work, I have realized that unfortunately women. tend to hide more than men and I love I am so fulfilled when I'm able to help a woman work on her messaging which in turn works on her, you know, helps with her confidence and just kind of getting out into the world with who they are what they're doing.
And, you know, helping them be more authentic as well. My journey, I have, I'm one of those people, I went to school for communications and public relations, and I'm, I'm doing that still. I've always been in some form of marketing, communications, event planning, throughout, throughout my entire career. And what I'm doing now, the iteration I'm doing now, is You know, based on many, many years of experience just working in the corporate world, really.
And what I say is I've been in industries that are very serious. So banking and healthcare, very kind of serious, very corporate industries but I dominated maybe. Oh, very, very, very male dominated. And I. I feel so lucky and fortunate that I learned so much through those experiences. And I have been in and out of the corporate world throughout my entire career.
So you know, way back in 2010 during the financial crisis, I was working in a bank, not a great time to work in a bank at all. And I remember I had just been hired. I was only there for a few years, or I'm sorry, for a few months. And I remember the President's office called me. I can see it today. It was like, it popped up on caller ID.
And I said that the president, the president's calling. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, what have I done? Right. So I get on the call and they're like you know, Mr. Sonza would like to have a meeting with you. And I was terrified. So I go to this meeting and he was so kind. And he's like, you know, basically we're going to do away entirely with the marketing department.
Because that's, you know, where we are in the world right now in banking and the financial crisis. However, we would love for you to stay on and continue to do marketing, you know, some advertising, some event planning, and also be my executive assistant. Are you interested? Yes. And I'm kind of like, huh. So I had to think about it.
And I didn't have to think long because I'm like, well, I have no other prospects at this time. And why not? You know, you can try anything. And it was such a great decision because I was relatively new in Nashville at the time and I had exposure to this. You know, this huge bank and working directly with the president who was amazing and I had access to all of these leaders and bankers who I was, I remember looking around and looking, especially at the women bankers who were very, very involved in the community.
They were serving on boards, they were volunteering, they were doing all these wonderful things. And I remember thinking. That's how you do it. And, you know, I was, I was just so fortunate to be surrounded in, in, in that environment, relatively new to Nashville. It taught me how to really do business in Nashville.
And I, I met a lot of people I networked. I really got involved with a few different women's organizations at the time. So really good experience. But a few years after doing that, I'm like, well, I'm not going to. Move anywhere soon, especially in, you know, marketing and in the field I was in just because of the environment we were in at the time.
And so I decided to start my own event planning business. Oh, event planning. I didn't know that that was your journey. Yeah, maybe I knew and forgot, but well, it was my first. You know, it was my first introduction to being an entrepreneur and frankly, I didn't know what I was doing, which was probably a good thing because I just kind of left the bank and had a laptop and had a little logo designed and that was it.
And I figured out how to start a business. And it wasn't again, the greatest time to start a business, but I use what I learned throughout my time at the bank networking and whatnot to. And I grew pretty quickly and I absolutely loved being my own boss and creating my own you know, work life. So I did that for a few years and then I was hired by a client of mine that was a hospital.
And they're like, you know, we have this great opportunity. It's for the director of marketing and PR for this hospital. I had zero healthcare experience, but it just aligned with my life at the time. And I'm like, you know, why not learn about this cool industry, healthcare? I had the skill set, but I didn't know the healthcare piece, but they're like, yeah, you can figure that out.
So I left my first business to go work for corporate again. And again, that was such an amazing opportunity because I worked in a hospital and it was really cool to be surrounded by so many different leaders. I mean, you know, one minute you're talking to a doctor, the next minute you're talking to an administrator or a nurse or someone from housekeeping.
I mean, it was, it was so much fun. I learned so much during my time there, but you know, after several years of, of doing that, my life changed a lot.

really quickly. I want it to take a quick second to tell you about something that I created. And I'm so proud of called the legal apothecary library. Now, if you are a healer, a soul driven coach or business owner, and you need some contracts in place, I hope you'll head to the legal apothecary.com/library. And that will tell you all about the legal apothecary library, which is my contract template library that I created specifically for you. Again, that's the legal apothecary.com/library. 📍 Life happened for me and I got married. And soon after that I had my little boy. And I remember going back after maternity leave and thinking, Hmm, this is not exactly where I want to be right now in my life.
And really for me, it was the way I was showing up in the corporate world. I try now not to blame the corporate world. It's not the corporate world's fault, but for me, it was how I was showing up. As an employee and a person, I was a chronic overachiever. I was, you know, checking things off my list and trying to, you know, do these things and get all this publicity and check things off the list and, and just overachieve, overachieve.
And after a while, I was like, I don't really love who I am right now. And I need and want to show up as a different human for my son and for my family. And no one's going to do it but me. So I decided to leave, spent some time after that as the VP of marketing at a bank. So I'm back in the banking world, helped launch a bank, which was so much fun, but I kept having this nagging feeling.
And now I recognize that it was my intuition, just like getting louder and louder and louder every day saying, you know what, You're not getting any younger. It is time for you to go back to being an entrepreneur. So I left the corporate world again, and I started ripple consulting group in 2019, about six months before the pandemic.
So I kind of have this track record of starting businesses, not at the best time to do that, but here I am four years later and. I have loved every minute of being able to design who I want to work with, who I want to show up as, who I want to be. And I've evolved over the years and I know we'll probably get to that, but where I am now, I'm, I'm just so fulfilled helping women specifically just kick up more space.
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Oh my goodness. What a journey. I, I. And I love hearing that, you know, we're not blaming corporate for, for shift in perspective or shift in what you need as, you know, a new mom, but, but it's because sometimes that corporate environment, which is more like traditionally masculine. Is the right environment for you.
It's aligned at the time, but then life changes and you, you know, you, you, you pivot, you change. Sure. And I think too, I mean, it's so interesting, you know, the timing of your, of your, of your professional career with the banks and then with COVID. I mean, I don't, I forget all of the examples, but it's like Airbnb was started, I think at some point.
During the financial crisis. And it's like, there are these amazing things that came out of some of these, you know, moments of crises and Ripple consulting is one of them. Thank you. Well, and I will say, you know, I, I appreciate now it wasn't so fun at the time, but I can appreciate that journey because COVID for so many people made us stop.
Made us and really dig deep and really find out what is important again. Who do I want to be? How do I want to feel? , It made me rest and it made me heal and do a lot of work. And it, it definitely took some time, but I feel like within the last year or so. It's taken me that long. I've been in business for four years this time, to really kind of get into that flow and, and like step into my brilliance, if you will.
Yeah. To take up space. Yes. And I know, that you, that you are an extrovert, and so I bet that that was especially hard, that forced, you know, kind of slow down that, that the pandemic brought. Yes, I am. I've taken tests. I am off the charts, extrovert. You know me, I, you know, I, I, Arrive and, and just love and crave being around people and, and I get energy from being around other people.
And so yes, the pandemic was hard for all of us, but you know, I I, It was, it was definitely a struggle because just those feelings of isolation and it was, it was hard. And also, you know, I noticed that in the corporate world and those jobs that I had being such an extrovert, I had this built in community of people who I could say hi to and go to lunch with and have coffee with and just, you know, people that you would keep up with.
I loved that piece and I didn't know how much I, I missed that. During the pandemic, and even to this day, I have to be very intentional about people time. Yeah. Having my own business, and I, you know, I work from home. And I just, I need to be very intentional about that. But yeah, it was, it was, it was very difficult.
However, Again, it was forced time of like, you need to slow down. You need to listen. You need to go for walks. You need to really, really clear some space. I, I think I was listening to a podcast.
It was a while ago, but the podcast, they were talking about, you know, what is your prescription for. Mental health or, you know, slowing down, listening, getting quiet. And they said, number one is go for a walk before anything else, before you react, before you get upset, before you call your friend, go for a walk.
And there's nothing that a walk can't cure in 30 minutes or an hour. So I remember hearing that and I'm like, okay, okay, I'll do that. Well, then I started getting into the practice throughout COVID and, and I still do it to this day. I try every single morning after I dropped my son off in the morning to block an hour.
So I'm trying not to have any meetings from eight to nine. That is my sacred time. And I usually take my dog or I go by myself and I go for a walk for an hour. And sometimes I might listen to a podcast, but I'm trying even more. Now to just take those, you know, take my headphones out of my ears and listen to nature and the leaves and the birds and just be in nature or even just in my neighborhood, just listening to the sounds.
I'm trying to do that more and not feel like I need to learn or grow from a podcast. Podcasts are wonderful, of course, but I'm realizing now that the moments that I take my ears out, I'm more healed and more present and more myself. And if I'm sick or if something happens where things, life gets busy and I can't walk.
For a day or two or three I notice it. I feel it. I, that's so interesting that you say that, because I, we live on kind of a blind hill, so I don't, I, especially with my little ones, but even by myself, I, I, I'm nervous about venturing out, but I do have, we do have a treadmill, and so I'll hop on there. And yesterday I was like, I'm just gonna not listen to anything, and I'm just gonna walk and see how that feels.
And it feels wonderful, because. I feel like we have that tendency to intake, intake, intake, and like learn, which can be a wonderful thing, but also affects the effects of the walk. Yes. It's, I mean, there's, you know, I don't, I don't have the numbers, but there's a lot of research out there that says walking with movement.
And feeling the movement is, is just so good for your, for your wellness and your mind, your body. And so did you, I mean, what were some of the, some of the, either the mindsets or the, you know, the obstacles you had to overcome being an extrovert to get quiet and to carve out that space? Was it difficult?
Absolutely. Because it, I mean, I'm still tempted almost every morning to, okay, who can I call? Who can I talk to during this hour walk? What can I do? Who can I surround myself with? Or what podcast can I listen to? Like I said I, I have to be very, very intentional about being slow, being quiet. But what is also helpful for me, too, is going to places that.
Have bad reception. So Radner Lake in Nashville is, is close to where I live and there is no great reception there. So when I go there it is. Sure. Fire. You are not gonna have anything in your ears. Yes, I do. Stop and talk to the photographer people, , and usually it ends up like, you know, the photographer is, is, is letting me see through their lens this eagle and it's amazing.
And I end up crying. I mean, it's so funny, but. Mostly I just, I go on a hike and I get lost in the woods by myself with no ears in. And that to me is my happy place and where I do my best work on me and really for my clients and for my business. Yep. Oh, that's awesome. I really love that. I have a few publicity related questions.
If we can take that, take it, turn the conversation towards publicity. Sure. Because I think, probably thanks to pop culture and television shows, I mean, just the same way that people have misconceptions about the lawyer's role. I think there's a lot of, you know, okay, PR is damage control, right? Right.
Right. Like, like Olivia Pope, right? Yes, exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking of in my head. Yeah. Olivia Pope. And I know that you, you know, you talk about women taking up space, but I'd love to hear in your words, you know, the, the, the. The maybe the mindset shift that we can, we can take home with us on the purpose of public relations and P.
R. Sure, first and foremost, I think P. R. Is relationships. And when I say that, I mean, from a P. R. practitioner standpoint, you have to have a really great relationship with your clients. First, it starts there. So, you know, my best practice with all of my clients is. I get to know them as a business owner or a leader of the organization they're at, but I also get to know them as a human being and as a person.
And one of the things that, that I always challenge my clients with is. What are you the authority on? So we really dig deep and figure out what is that one thing and seems easy, but it's not because it's very hard to pick one thing, right? Because that's, that's the basis of what you're putting out into the world to be seen more, right?
So yes, it's, it's one thing. I say it's one thing. Of course, there's. You know, a million things that go into that to tell your story of who you are, but truly at the end of the day, it's what are you the authority on? And it's really digging deep. And I find so often with my clients, especially with females, that it ends up being more of a friendship relationship and you go deep and you get vulnerable.
And, you know, I really. I've gotten great at asking those questions that uncover a lot, and, and, you know, some of that is fear. What are you afraid of? What has been holding you back from being more visible in the past? So, yes, so I say relationships, but it's also relationships with your stakeholders, and that is not just.
You know, the newspaper it is, as you know, there are so many different media outlets and stakeholders out there in the world. And when I say stakeholders, it could be a podcast. It could be a business publication, a train publication, but it could also be potential investors or your employees. It's, it's having a relationship with them.
It always starts with the client, but you know, it's I feel that PR practitioners are relationship people with their clients and with the stakeholders. That's so interesting. I haven't thought of it that way. And I can speak from personal experience, just the care that you take in. You know, and with your clients and okay, like, let's get down to what you feel like you're the expert on, what you're afraid of, what you want, you know, out of this, whatever it is.
And it's a really good, but sometimes difficult exercise to, to have that kind of blank page and like, okay, what do, what, what is my goal here? And what am I the expert on? What do I, what can I confidently say I'm the expert on? You know, recently I, I read this great book and something I pulled out of it is, ask the question, and it's so helpful, what Do you want to be known for that?
I think reframes. What are you the authority on? Where do you want to show up? Where do you want to take up more space? All of that. But I, I think asking the question of what do you want to be known for is typically not 20 things it's usually just one big thing. Yep. Yep. And so what are some common, you know, not pushback, but some, some common blocks that you see working with women and trying to get them to take up that space.
What are the blocks that you see? The biggest roadblock is fear. And, and again, that sounds so simple, but I think fear is the underlying feeling of, and I hear this all the time, and I've said this before, too. These are the things that I hear from my clients and myself and my colleagues and friends. But I don't know what to talk about, but people don't want to listen to me.
I don't want to be that person who humble brags, eye roll, that's gross, right? Like I, I've, I've had these conversations so many times and yes, some people can be a little braggadocious and that is, that is eye roll inducing and I completely understand that. However, there are ways to be visible and be the expert.
And you can do that through being grateful and telling the story about your company and sharing industry knowledge. I mean, there's, there's so many different avenues for you to be the authority and for it not to feel gross. Yeah. So I hear that a lot, but you know, I feel that the underlying theme here is fear, fear of failure, fear of success.
You know, imposter syndrome, I hate to even give. I hate to even say that out loud because I don't want to spend any more time on imposter syndrome because I've struggled with it my whole life, really. And I, I mean, there are still days where I struggle with imposter syndrome, but I, I, I want to change that narrative for a lot of women.
I'm tired of it. I'm tired of imposter syndrome. And what I would say a big revelation I've had within the last few years after working with so many women is. This underlying fear and my antidote to that fear is data. Ooh, yes. I am not a data person. I do not love math, right? Like this is just not who I am, but I have learned to be friend data for myself, for my business and for my own publicity and visibility, but for my clients as well.
So data doesn't lie. And data tells stories. So a best practice for, I started doing this years ago when I was in the corporate world we had these quarterly self evaluations that were awful and I never knew what to say. And I was always scrambling at the last minute, trying to figure out what, you know, what I was gonna, what I was going to put down, how wonderful I was for the quarter.
And. I realized that it would be a good practice to just start a running list of my accomplishments and achievements. And to take that even further, have very solid numbers in there about the outcome. So increase whatever by whatever percentage manage a budget of XYZ, increase employee engagement by whatever earned media story.
So all of those things I started adding to this running list. That was years ago, and I still do it to today because when that fear and that imposter syndrome kicks in and creeps in as it does, I go back to my list and I'm like, you know, no, that's not true, Katie, you, you have done X, Y, D. And I do it for my clients too, because the data doesn't lie and it tells us stories and it's, you know, I use a lot of data and foundational messaging when we're going out and telling the world about how awesome this person or this company is.
Data doesn't lie. Year over year growth and, you know, achieved X, Y, Z. I mean, all of these things. I've learned that data is my best friend. You know, what's funny, I have heard, I have heard a similar method for trusting your intuition and like writing down moments where you had this kind of feeling and you followed it as kind of your evidence of your intuition working.
So I love this context of, hey, no, like, People want to hear from me here all the things that I've accomplished, not that it has to be so like accomplished, you know, driven, but I really, really, really like that. Really like that. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I, you know, I, I've, it's been proven to help me and, and those dark days look at it.
It is not easy being an entrepreneur and you do have dark days, hard days where, you know, maybe something didn't work out with a client or you're like, well, I don't know where I'm going to get my next paycheck from. It does happen. And you know, for me, it's arming myself with information to combat those dark days.
Oh, that's excellent. Well, is there anything else that you want to share in terms of, you know, if someone's like, okay, I'm, I'm, I'm ready to kind of do this work and what's step one, and even, even if it's okay, figuring out the one thing you're an authority on, is there, is there some guidance you can give to someone who's listening on how to start that process?
Talk to people. Surround yourself with good, trusted, supportive people that want nothing but good for you. And, I have a personal share of what I did very wrong when I started this business. And I think it's really helpful and I try to share it a lot because I just, I think it's Very helpful. Anyway, when I started my business, I would, I was going to coffees and lunches, like a mad person, I was going to coffees and lunches and networking and telling everybody that I left the corporate world and I'm doing my own thing, well, what would happen at these coffees and lunches is I would sit across the table again, this is right before the pandemic when we could meet.
And I would say, well, I've started a marketing and PR firm. That's what I would say. And I would get blank stares. And very glazed overlooks. And of course people were supportive and excited for me, but it took me a while to figure out that those blank stares and glazed overlooks meant that they had no idea what I did.
And how I could, and most importantly, how I could help them or how I could help my target audience. And I look back on that. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm, I miss so many opportunities. And right. Like I'm giving myself grace because. It takes a minute. It takes a while to figure out what you're the authority on, what niche you're in, what industry, all of that.
It just takes time. And I don't think there's a shortcut for that. But now that I've evolved and I've learned and I've asked for feedback and I've tried a lot of different things. It's, it's about. Being simple and really asking people, you know, having that conversation with someone you, you, you trust and love a mentor, a friend, a colleague, whoever, and say, what do you think I do?
What do you think I do? Well, who do you think, you know, my audiences and you know, what are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? What am I missing? Just being curious. It's so powerful. And so now the conversation at the coffee or the lunch is, I help women leaders increase their visibility and take up more space.
That's a lot more defined and a lot more simple and, and, and very quickly it tells you who my audience is, who I help, what I do. Very simple, very easily. Instead of making person across the table. Figure out what marketing exactly means, especially what PR means. People also took me a minute to figure out people truly don't understand what public relations is.
And that was on me, right? Like that was on me to, to figure that out. And now it's a much easier conversation. So I would say where to get started, be curious, ask, sometimes you got to try things. Oh, that's really good advice, Katie. Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance today. If someone is ready to take that next step, where can we find you on social media?
Yes. Ripple consulting group. It's my website as well. We will link to it in the show notes. Thank you again for, for chatting with me today. Thank you so much. It was so great to spend time with you today.
Oh, that was so good. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Katie. And if you did, I hope you'll rate and review the podcast that helps us so much. It helps these women get more visibility and please share it on social media and tag me if you do at Heysel Maria. I hope you enjoyed that glimpse into astrology and maybe made you think about it a little bit differently. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time.