We recently connected with Melissa Crook and have shared our conversation below.
Melissa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
In July 2021 I founded the original portion of The Embracing Layers Network, called The F.E.E.L Podcast (FindingEmpowermentEmbracinglayers). At age 51 I have had a series of experiences that I was learning from, and I knew I wasn’t the only women going through this. I wanted to create a safe space to have conversations about what gets in the way and empowers us to prioritize our wellness and all parts of our health as women. I also wanted younger generations to have a guiding framework to follow so that they could avoid the pitfalls and mistakes so many women in my generation have run into on our journey.
So I reached out to my Mentee and one of my daughters’ college roommates to see if they would be willing to help me launch this podcast. One had experience with the recording and necessary equipment and editing piece, and the other had a marketing and social media background. I knew they could help me with those pieces I didn’t have knowledge or experience in and they were 2020 college grads who needed some work experience to add to their resume in a difficult job market.
None of us fully understood what we were getting into, but I knew that if I didn’t try, I’d regret it. So I got the microphone and pop filter that my mentee suggested, reached out to some women that I knew would have so much to contribute to this conversation, and off we went :), not really sure for how long, but knowing I’d just keep talking to women as long as I could find ones willing to have these conversations with me and invite other women to come along with us.
Melissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As mentioned above, I just wanted to create a place for women to talk freely, safely, and without stigma about the topics that both support and get in our way of living our healthiest, most authentic lives without feeling selfish for prioritizing our wellness. I had not prioritized my overall wellness for much of my life, and it was costing me in ways I had not seen coming. I knew we had to start talking about this and create a better, healthier path for ourselves.
This birthed the F.E.E.L Podcast in July 2021, and since then I have added the book Embracing Layers Unapologetically, which is based on our our guests and blog writer and author Jessica Garrison’s insights from our first 4 seasons of the podcast (along with mine). I spent a year creating content on 360 Talk Radio Network for Women Internet Radio Show that is now archived on our website (embracinglayers.com). I am now (along with the podcast and book) speaking publicly about these tenets that we discuss on the podcast, in the book, on the radio show, and also a panel show on our YouTube channel that drops biweekly with wise, insightful women from my network discussing key topics that impact women’s wellness.
I use the following talking points (that my initial founders and family helped me create out of the collection of our experiences that help us frame our wellness and ensure we’re asking ourselves the right questions) to guide all of these conversations, and can build public speaking presentations around all of them, one of them, a few of them, whatever it is that the group who wants me to speak feels would be beneficial for their group to hear about. We also do book clubs with our book to create communities of women doing this journey together, supporting their own and each other’s authentic wellness as a collective.
Here are the talking points I use:
On the podcast, I introduce guests by their character traits (who they are, not what they do) to reinforce that we are human beings, not human doings. We then address the following topics:
Prioritizing Self Care
Confidently Setting Boundaries
Taking Care of Your Emotional Health as much as Your Physical Health
Supporting Yourself & Other Women Unapologetically
Coming Back to Your WHY and Your VALUES
Living Out of Your Own Expectations
Accepting the Layered Aspects of Yourself
Living out F.E.E.L (FindingEmpowermentEmbracingLayers) – How Does it Affect Your Relationships with yourself as well as others
5 Activities That Nourish You
5 Words for How You Want to Feel in the Next Six Months.
This provides a structured path for self-discovery and empowerment that women can follow and go back to throughout their lives to ensure they’re continuing to care for themselves in the way that they need to.
There is no one out there that is talking about these topics in a collective format like we’re using at The Embracing Layers Network, so I’m really proud of what we’ve created, and get feedback consistently about how insightful these talking points are and how it makes women really stop and think about how they’re interacting (or not) with each of these tenets, and the impact these things have on our overall wellness and health (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, sexual), all the pieces that are part of health and wellness journey.
Again, to learn more about all that myself and my team are up to, visit embracinglayers.com and see all the resources we have available to you, and all the ways you can follow us on social media and partner to support our work.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to learn and really believe that prioritizing myself, my wellness, my self-care was not selfish. It’s actually absolutely necessary if I’m going to be able to show up for myself and others with a full cup, energized, fresh, and whole, where everyone is getting the best version of me.
That’s not the message we get though, especially as girls and women. We hear from an early age that putting yourself before others is selfish. This is actually a really backwards approach because no one wins when we show up tired, depleted, irritable, and feeling like a martyr because we have not allowed ourselves the time to take care of ourselves and fill our own tanks first.
But when you’ve lived with a certain narrative your whole life, it can take some time to really change the voice and belief in your head and nervous system that this new way is actually better and healthier for you and all you are engaged with.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
Taking care of yourself well, so you can show up well for others. When your cup and tank are full, and you’re coming from a rejuvenated place, you have more patience, empathy, better critical thinker, and aren’t envious of others who may be taking care of themselves in a way that you wish you were.
I think this practice is critical for anyone in any field, as a coworker, teammate, and leader.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://embracinglayers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/embracinglayers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084428100763
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/embracinglayers/posts/?feedView=all
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqVVXe8SbTtBuzOyFTMjNFA
- Other: You can see how to order our book here: https://www.embracinglayers.com/book
You can schedule me to come speak to your group here: https://www.embracinglayers.com/ourhost (scroll to bottom for the contact form button)
