Welcome to the TRUE NORTH COLLECTIVE PODCAST: SEASON 3! With co-hosts Rachel Bellotti and Jenell Riesner, this is a gathering of un-sugar-coated conversations celebrating the untold stories of everyday people fearlessly finding and living their true north.
In our own search to discover and live from our TRUE NORTH, we continue to meet many interesting, courageous people from all walks of life, doing all sorts of amazing things to live life in their own unique way. Stories from all over the world. Stories with heart. Stories with grit. Stories with plot twists. Stories going untold - until now. This season, we celebrate these untold stories of everyday people who are fearlessly living their true north and inspiring each of us to do the same.
Today, we’re talking to our dear friend, former co-worker, and Ragnar team member, Courtney Nikolay, aka Scout Lacroix. Courtney has had 29 jobs since graduating from college, currently working in biotech and recently launched a blog called Tiny Steps - a journey of how to improve your choices to make better behaviors that lead to better habits. She is FULL ON firecracker, hilarious story-teller, genuine human on a mission to figure out who she is on this journey called life. We talk periods, music, leadership styles, getting debt-free, choice, regrets, and a whole bunch of other down-to-earth, real stuff. The conversation was so good, we had to break it into two episodes - this is PART 1.
*note: this episode includes explicit language appropriate for those ages 16+
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
- Elf
- Ricki Martin
- Simple Plan: Addicted
- Head + the Heart
- Need to Breathe
- Ayokay band
- Arizona band
- Chainsmokers
- Quinn XCII
- Jeremy Zucker
- Mallrat
- Patrick Watson: Adventures in Your Own Back Yard
- Lucius
- Shakey Graves
- Fruit Bats
- Henry Jamison
- THINX period underwear: Boys have periods
- DIVA cup
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- TikTok: Jenell’s crocodile video
- Idiocracy
- Kickapoo Coffee
- The Fireside Dinner Theater
- REI
- Americorp Vista
- Borrowed Future podcast
- Music from: https://www.jukedeck.com/
3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Sometimes we stop being ourselves in our jobs (and in life) because we think we are supposed to act a certain way or show a certain set of qualities that fit the situation. But, when we cannot be ourselves, it stops people from being able to truly trust us and connect with us because people can feel the wall, even if we think they cannot. And worse, over time we stop being able to trust and connect with ourselves, slowly losing the magic that lives in our genuineness. It’s a slippery slope becoming disconnected and not being able to trust your authentic way of being and it absolutely has an impact on the businesses and communities and relationships we are a part of.
- Anger is actually the emotion that gets us the most motivated to make a change, for ourselves and in the world. It can be an uncomfortable emotion to experience at times, however, it can also be seen for what it is and then harnessed for good if we allow ourselves the space to process it and then follow the energy into creating something that can evolve a broken system (either within us, individually, or even globally).
- Your life is a series of experiences that you choose to participate in. Whether you deem them good, bad, ugly, beautiful, they are actually all equally viable options of experiences to have in this life. And we cannot experience them all - if you want to know what it’s like to have kids, then you will never know what it’s like to NOT have kids, and visa Versa. So, invite yourself to slow down from time to time and check in to make sure that you are having the experiences that YOU want to have. And if you aren’t, then make a different choice and know that even the process of noticing that you are choosing experiences you actually don’t want is also a very valuable experience to have. Every experience is valid and valuable; just make sure they are yours.
TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:
- [1:15] Debating Elf the movie
- [1:50] NOT being able to burp
- [4:00] First concerts + Top Songs of 2019 on Spotify
- [10:00] VERY REAL period talk
- [20:00] Introducing Courtney, aka Scout Lacroix!
- [28:00] When your job makes you NOT who you actually are
- [31:30] Acknowledging different types of leadership
- [35:30] Becoming debt-free
- [44:30] Student Loan Forgiveness Program realities
- [50:00] Being qualified for loans that you actually cannot afford
- [53:30] Do you regret your education?
- To be continued…check out PART 2 of our interview with Courtney soon!
- Contact Courtney via IG @scoutlacroix or follower her blog Tiny Steps and learn new ways to build better habits, behaviors, and choices + find ways to laugh at yourself when you don’t!