Megan Swan On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love and Life As A Powerful Woman

Our Founder Megan Swan was recently interviewed by Ming Zhao for Authority Magazine for the article “Power Women: Megan Swan On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love and Life As A Powerful Woman”

Here is an excerpt:

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I think the three most important character traits to leadership are authenticity, transparency and loving discipline. Let me see what is the best story to demonstrate each one.

First off, my clients seek me out because I am authentic and therefore relatable, trustworthy and therefore it seems less intimidating to share all your self-judgment, dark secrets and biggest fears with me. I’m an open book about almost all aspects of my life and the story that I think has resonated with so many other women is my relationship with alcohol and motherhood. For me personally wine and conscious parenting don’t mix, they never did. I’m coming up on 4 years sober, and I am what the recovery community calls a ‘spontaneous sobriety’ case. That is to say I didn’t go to AA or any other ‘program’. Instead, albeit it took me decades, I finally came around to the fact that not drinking was actually a possibility and a fun, healthier one at that. So authenticity is a big part of who I am, how I coach and in turn a key part of my brand. If we want real change in life, we have to start being really real with ourselves and build out from there. There is so much power in owning all aspects of yourself; your darkness, your fears, your mistakes, your (im)possible dreams, your weaknesses, and your tenderness. When you bring all aspects of who you are closer in and fully accept them, no one can use it against you, it is in fact an endless source of your own power.

Secondly, transparency in life and in business is huge now and moving forward. I mean we live in a culture, and especially in the virtual world that is so easily faked that those of us that are still showing up without the smoke and mirrors are going to find our own powerful tribe. At the end of the day it comes down to energy, and those of us who are connected enough with our own sources of energy and power are able to spot a lack of transparency from a mile away - even virtually. You know when someone is ‘oversharing’ something really intimate with you to manipulate you in some way versus when someone is sharing something with you because they care about you and the greater good and they don’t want you to have to go through what they went through. There is so much power in storytelling and that is the principle way we as humans learn and grow. In business, and especially in the online coaching space there is a lot of throwing around of numbers, which is fine, but you have to take a step back and tease out the investments, costs, time and profit from the sales. It is essential to me and my business to help women see what is possible but to be realistic and appreciate that there are unicorn businesses but the majority require sustainable and integrated work, strategies and energy over years, which requires optimal wellness to avoid burnout.

Third falls right into place after the first two, so once you know, accept and love yourself on a whole other level and derive consistent energy and power from that self-love and you stay transparent with yourself and the world, it requires loving discipline to keep at it. Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. This is why taking care of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellness is so key, it allows us to keep at it, lovingly but consistently chipping away at the work and showing up for ourselves and our business or clients. The most powerful women I look up to and respect all have stories of how their first business or idea failed and how they kept going. As a Wellness and Mindset Coach I know you have to be kind to yourself, you have to work on your mindset to stay in a growth and abundance mentality and you have to look at your own self-care as an investment in your business. When I started looking at spa days, or the huge investment I made in a conscious relationship coach to help me resolve some of the wounds I knew were holding me back, as essential investments in my business it was a game changer.

You can read the full interview here