[00:00:00] Victoria: you don't have to give up your career at all. I think, recognize, stop calling it balance, work life balance. It's not, it's all life. So find a way to integrate it together in a way that works for you, and you can have both, you can have it all, not always at the same time, and it doesn't always come without some trade offs and compromises that you have to make, and you need to be okay with that.
[00:00:22] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath depth and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention, gratitude, and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.
Welcome back to Live The Width of Your Life podcast. My guest this week is Victoria Pelletier and she is someone who does not subscribe to the status quo. She is always ready for any challenge. And she became one of the youngest chief operating officers at the age of 24, president by 35 and CEO at the age of 41.
She was recognized as one of the 100 global outstanding LGBTQ executive role models by involve a 2023 woman of influence by South Florida business journal semi finalists in the 2023, 50-50 women on boards, women to watch a 2022 top 30 most influential business leaders in tech. And many more awards as a prolific motivational and inspirational speaker, Victoria Dilbert keynotes discussing significance of whole human leadership, being an empathetic and authentic leader, as well, the importance of personal branding and its impact on professional growth and the power of DEI and corporate cultures and building a life of resilience.
She has lived such an interesting life accomplishing so much at a young age. So we talked a lot about what drove her, some of her early, leadership wins, overcoming obstacles, the idea of mentorship and this whole human leadership, which she is so passionate about.
We talked a lot about being a champion of DEI in the workplace and why it's such a critical factor in building a successful company culture. Also the importance of personal branding and even the role of women in business. I loved our conversation and I hope you do too. Take a
listen. Victoria, it is such a pleasure to have you here with me today. I was so looking forward to our conversation.
[00:02:40] Victoria: Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
[00:02:42] Aneta: Yeah. When I recorded the intro and just listed all the things that you do, who you are, how you've showed up in this world. It's so amazing. And I thought what would be an interesting way for us to start our conversation? Because this is the first time you and I got to meet and I thought, you know what? What is something that people maybe don't know about you? Something they're not going to find on your speakers reel or on your website necessarily, or on your LinkedIn profile, but something else that maybe you want to share in terms of how you see yourself or how you'd like to people to know you.
[00:03:18] Victoria: That one's hard, Aneta, because I am such an open book and I do so many public talks that I feel like it's all out there. And funny enough, I recently had a poor sort of work experience with a privately owned family office who found out some things about me and I was kind of like, did you not Google me before before bringing me in here?
And so I guess the one thing would be, and hopefully it would be almost apparent or obvious that I made a pretty big shift a number of years ago to focus on legacy and impact. I got positive nicknames in business and that's amazing, and I'm thankful that's been recognized, but I really want it to be around the impact I've had on workplaces, community in the world at large.
So that's where I try and spend more of my time and everything I'm doing is much more of a lens on how can I create that kind of impact and particularly around social justice and equity more broadly.
[00:04:11] Aneta: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And I asked you before you even start, if there's anything that you didn't want me to ask and you're like, I'm an open book and it's true. I did Google you, of course, and there are so many accolades and you were able to accomplish so many things at such a young age.
So where did you get that drive? What would you say really drove you to accomplish as much as you did starting at such a young age and continuing to do the amazing work that you're doing?
[00:04:35] Victoria: I think two things. One is I do believe there's a little bit just innately in my DNA the A type personality that I am, who's exceptionally driven and competitive is just somewhat naturally there. So there's just something in me.
But the other thing is, and I attribute this as like my why I come from very difficult beginnings in that I'm born to a drug addicted teenage mother who is very abusive to me. I thankfully was adopted out of that situation when I was four but to a family that had lower socioeconomic means. I never had to worry about going without food or clothing, but there wasn't money for anything else.
And my mom is the woman that raised me said to me, I think I was maybe 11. She's like Tori, which was my nickname growing up. She's like, you need to do better than us. And she meant by vocation given that my dad was a janitor, my mom a secretary and so pursued the education but I'll tell you she didn't have to say that because I think somehow I was determined I'm going to be better than biology or the circumstance. And so that's also propelled me to do more, to do better, to be a better version of myself every day than I was the day prior.
[00:05:45] Aneta: Yeah. You can tell by what you've been able to accomplish. And I'm curious, what do you take from your upbringing with your mom and your dad and what they were able to teach you? Because as we know, in terms of character, it's not just the titles or the things that we're able to accomplish, but it's who you are as a human. So what are some of those beautiful things that you were so grateful for that they shared with you?
[00:06:08] Victoria: Well, I think the circumstance of not having a lot of money and that if there was something that I wanted I needed to earn it was something that was incredibly valuable. That's why I started working at age 11. And I've tried to instill that in my children who one of them, at least in particular, seems way more entitled. And I'm like, no. I understand the value of hard work and a dollar.
So, I learned that a little bit more by circumstance than something. They certainly didn't force me to get a job. But the other thing is my mom, who passed away many years ago, was just an incredible human. I think when she took me on this like broken child who was hardened, even though I was only four those years with Julie, my biological mother were rough.
And so I was this tough little kid who had built walls around me to protect myself. And, she was the one who worked to bring those down. She was one who taught me a lot about self reflection. I hated it as a teenager. She'd sit me down for hours, trying to understand why I'd done whatever it is I'd done.
But the ability to be really reflective around that has helped. And she was from very early days, just an advocate for humans. We didn't have language as a child, we weren't talking about diversity, equity, inclusion, but she always spoke like that and loved everyone. And so I'm glad I'm able to carry that on as well.
[00:07:26] Aneta: Yeah. And that has been something that you've carried on in your career, really focusing in on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Tell me more about when you started focusing on that. Even before we had the language to talk about it, like we do today it was something that was important to you, but tell me a little bit more about how you started your work in that area.
[00:07:47] Victoria: It's funny. It really goes back as long as I can think. I grew up in a, not a huge city. My mom put me into a Catholic school, even though we weren't religious, because she thought they had a better gifted program. And even in that moment, I remember seeing, so it was very, homogeneous, even the city I grew up in wasn't extremely diverse.
But I remember seeing pockets of groups that hung out together. And I always was like, what, why? I just want us to be more integrated. So it started, I really remember in my teens, and then it became much more personal and something I started to act upon when I took my first executive role, I got promoted at a very young age to become a chief operating officer for private outsourcing company. And one, I was the youngest by leader by at least 2 decades. I was the only woman.
[00:08:37] Aneta: Wow.
[00:08:38] Victoria: I'm also a member of the LGBT community. I came out at 14 as being bisexual. I've used different terms over the years, I was married to a woman for 11 years. I've now been with my husband for 10 but I'm still very openly queer and I have a trans male son.
And at that point I was married to my wife. And so a queer young female as an executive. And so I felt very different. But also the world that I stepped into this world of outsourcing. So you think call center work, technical support, customer service, back in the day when we could do like outbound call, like sales calls. That generally wasn't a destination job.
And so it was in that people think they're growing their careers in. Mine was built off of that for sure. But it's usually people who are underemployed or unemployed who take that or the new immigrants to the country. So I had an incredibly diverse team, but there was massive turnover, given, like I said, that the type of work that it was.
So I wanted to find a way to create a great environment that people would thrive in. They would feel more engaged and potentially I could keep them for a little longer than I might have otherwise. And that's where our focus on recognizing and leaning into this really diverse workplace to create inclusion, to make everyone actually feel like they belong. That's where it all began. And exactly to your point, there was no vernacular. We weren't talking about DEI back then.
[00:09:59] Aneta: It's so interesting. I was in banking for 22 years and I worked in the contact center or call center, as we called it for some time, and, I definitely also saw the diversity in the people that were on taking the calls. And actually that has to be one of the hardest jobs that there is out there.
It was so hard. So many metrics to keep people on the phone, like to their desk doing all the work, going through six, eight different systems at one time, making it seem seamless and not being paid a lot of money to do the work that they were being asked to do.
How did you motivate folks. How did you identify for folks who are different and diverse and came from different places and had different skill sets? How did you identify what would motivate them and want them to stay engaged to feel they mattered? And were there any commonalities? Did you discover that there was just like some human commonalities that was like a thread throughout all of it?
[00:10:56] Victoria: I think a lot of it has to do with what you just called it human commonalities. I mean, we all want to feel valued and appreciated. And so this is where the world of like, just recognition was so important as a leader to say thank you. And that was amazing. And then also acknowledgement. I know it's tough, or they just came off a really difficult call with a customer complaining. It's that kind of rapport and relationship.
And I actually think the worst job ever is the call center supervisor. That right above those, I remember the first time I was in that role before I got pro, I'm like, it's brutal. but I think a lot just has to do with the human connection. And in that environment, it was about the recognition and appreciation for the work they were doing. And then outside of the fact that yes, it's a tough role, you want them to adhere to their schedule, you need them to talk time a certain amount, all those kinds of things.
When they're not at their desks doing that, how do you make them have fun? So it was like rotating, potlucks bring something, not some food item from the culture you come from that you want to share the rest with us. Even when we had had like holiday parties playing music from all of different cultural backgrounds.
So I remember someone joking once he's like, you're the least white person I know, he joked with me because I was like dancing to some reggae song. And it's that just this real human connection.
And then beyond when you start to maybe not just at the frontline call center agent level, but beyond, I started to think about how do you learn more? How do you listen about what's important to them, where they want to go with their career, what's happening to them outside of the office?
[00:12:34] Aneta: Yeah. And you were promoted to that role at 24, is that correct?
[00:12:38] Victoria: Yes.
[00:12:39] Aneta: Yeah. That's amazing. How did you chart your career course? Was it really intentional or did you just show up, do a great job and allow yourself to be open to maybe some new opportunities that you didn't even have planned?
[00:12:53] Victoria: I have always operated with great strategic intentionality meaning I do have a plan. However, I've always given myself the flexibility to go with the flow a little bit. So if an opportunity has presented itself to me that wasn't exactly part of the plan, but I think it's great, I'm going to take it.
And so when I think about that first role where I became Chief Operating Officer of this private company. I think we had about 6, 000 employees. I had come out of funny enough Aneta, banking call center operations. And so they gave me that chance. I had experience running large call centers and they also had banking clients and I had worked for two of Canada's largest banks at the time.
So there was some ticks in the boxes I met, but there was a lot of other areas where I didn't, but I have all the skills. I was leading everything except for finance. So I just surround myself with great people. I've also been a really voracious learner to help myself be better.
And in some of those places where opportunities have presented themselves. So if your listeners are going to go and check out my LinkedIn profile, I've been in the workforce so long now I don't put all of the early stuff on there, but even the stuff since they won't totally think that it's linear. There's absolutely thread throughout all of it. It's business to business, professional service. That's the same. But when I had the opportunity to go out of the world of finance and banking into that first role, I was also a brand new mother.
I'd just given birth to my first child. So that was a massive risk, but I was like. I can do this and I knew I wanted to go down a very different path, leaving the safety of a large Canadian bank that I'd worked at for many years as a brand new mother was scary. But again, it was intentional for me from where I wanted to go from a career perspective and I've taken a few other of those leaps throughout my career, which for the most part, I'd say I've actually paid off.
[00:14:42] Aneta: Yeah. Do you have any advice for working moms who are struggling trying to keep it all together? They want to be great moms, but don't want to give up their career?
[00:14:50] Victoria: Well, the biggest piece of advice is you don't have to give up your career at all. I think, recognize, stop calling it balance, work life balance. It's not, it's all life. So find a way to integrate it together in a way that works for you, and you can have both, you can have it all, not always at the same time, and it doesn't always come without some trade offs and compromises that you have to make, and you need to be okay with that.
Do not let other people put guilt on you. I have my own mom guilt. I don't need other people giving it to me. And then learn how to create boundaries. And it's a lot easier as I got older, certainly earlier in my life and career, harder to say no to things. But now the things that don't bring me personal or professional, joy or value, or for my family, I don't do them or I outsource them or delegate to someone else that's been incredibly helpful.
And for those who have partners, like it's a team here. And so often the women are more traditionally the ones expected to do more of the child care duties. Push that back to your partner. You're a team here. And if it's a dual career household, then again, find some help so that you're not having to be the one who has to compromise your own career for the sake of children and partner.
[00:16:06] Aneta: That's such great advice. I remember, and there are things that your partner might love to do that you don't like doing. I hate grocery shopping. I really don't care. I love to cook. I like to eat. I like all that stuff. I like to make a grocery list and I'll do it in the way that the grocery store is designed.
And I remember when at first my husband's like, I'll do the grocery shopping. And I come to find out he loved it. Like I'd be in there so fast and he was like, take his time, read everything. And so it's something I never took back. And so there are ways to divide tasks and it doesn't have to feel bad. It could actually feel good. Like, yeah, I'll take this. I gladly will do that versus something that maybe he doesn't enjoy or she doesn't enjoy.
That's such good advice. And in your career, I know that one of your nicknames is the turnaround queen. So tell me how you got that nickname and what were some ways that you were able to make significant impact for the companies you were working around that maybe were struggling?
[00:17:02] Victoria: I love that nickname. Although it doesn't mean I always want to be given the troubled projects, but it's often and it comes from the fact that I've stepped in on more occasions than I can count to lead business units or teams that were underperforming. And I've been able to successfully turn them around into high performing businesses or business units for maybe some of the larger companies I've worked for.
And I think it comes from the fact that I like a challenge. I am not a status quo. Girl by any stretch of the imaginary, to some extent, I probably just want to break stuff to put it back together again. And so I'm often handed those things. Or I somehow sign up for them and have success with doing it.
And a lot of that comes back actually to leadership. It comes back to communication. I think my ability to be extremely resilient and I've dealt with significant change helps me walk into those situations. And so I proudly wear Turnaround Queen. But like I said, there's moments where I don't want to be firefighting every day of the week. Just on occasion.
[00:18:02] Aneta: What do you feel the strides that we've made in the D and I space? And then where do you think that we maybe have missed the mark or we could do better
[00:18:10] Victoria: I mean there has been significant I don't even know I should say significant. There has been progress.
I'm saddened that here in the U S, I think things have gone backwards over these last few years, everything from affirmative action moving away to, I live in Florida and my governor has chosen to eliminate any DEI positions in government offices and things like that.
So, I'm saddened. That said, I'd rather focus on some of the positive things that have happened. And so the advancement from a gender perspective, you're definitely seeing growth certainly in large corporations. Accenture was the last company that I worked for.
And the Prior CEO, a male stated many years ago before his death that we were going to hit gender parity by 2025. He needed to move the date. Or maybe it was earlier than that. But Julie, the now CEO has been successful at doing that at the executive level. So things like that are great, but there's still so much more to do.
You look at venture capital funding. It was close to 4 percent at one point. It's gone backward as well. Women only get approximately 2 percent of venture capital funding. Black founders. Like a fraction of a percent fortune 500 companies only have 10 percent female CEOs and only six of the 500 companies have black CEOs.
So more progress to do for sure. I do love that. We continue to have the dialogue. What I want though, and I used the phrase earlier, but strategic intentionality, I want us to be strategic and work with intention in terms of how we're going to create not just diversity through the front door, but prevent them from going out the back door by creating that great environment.
[00:19:46] Aneta: Yeah. It's so interesting because looking back several years, we started to make progress as you said, and there were new teams and departments and roles and people who were responsible and programming, and then you did start to see the shift and I wasn't sure if it was because the people that we put in those positions were set up for failure, as in, it was like this huge banner that they had or movement they had to carry forth on their own shoulders or like having a very small team.
But what do you think, even though some areas have gone back, what could every single person who is within an organization do in order to continue to promote diversity and make sure that as we talked about before, that human leadership. And the human motivation beyond all differences, because it can be very organic. It doesn't necessarily have to be coming just from one particular person in an organization.
[00:20:37] Victoria: You're right. And I think the chief diversity officer role is the subject matter expert. They do not own the results. They do not own diversity. They're the one who are the leaders, the experts in how to create inclusive policies, how to look at our recruitment practices, et cetera. We, as leaders, and actually, in fact, when I say leaders, I want your listeners to recognize for me, a leader is anyone who has a voice, your power. You don't need a title and you don't need hierarchy. We can all move that forward. So what we do need to do, and particularly for those who are in leadership positions is when I talk about that with intention, don't expect that you're going to achieve different results by doing the same thing.
So this is where you want to look to the chief diversity officer or others with some more expertise, people who don't even look like you and ask them help, how do we do this? And for me, one of the ways I've done that in terms of hiring and promoting is recognizing potential, and this actually interestingly, women, there's data that proves that women do not typically apply for a promotion or a new job unless they mean nine or 10 out of the 10 skills listed. Men do it at five or six.
But as a leader, I can help with that. I can find the diverse talent who maybe don't have all the skills I'm looking for, but they've got propensity to learn, and they've got potential. And then it's incumbent upon me as the leader to help develop them and coach them and to bridge that gap and give more people opportunities.
And it's also to be an advocate. You can be a white middle aged man and be an incredible ally for others by giving people a voice, by giving them a platform, by speaking their names when they're not in the room.
[00:22:18] Aneta: That's so true. And everyone is a leader and everyone has an opportunity to do that. And I think that in some organizations I've seen that like from the ground up, it was more like,, there's this group and this person that's going to tell us what to do, and that's too much pressure on one person, it's too hard.
And sometimes those folks were put in positions where they were trying to figure out what their role is and creating processes and going at the same time as they were leading. And so maybe it'll shift again. I think that maybe there's an opportunity for it to shift if we change the balance there.
So, you do public speaking is one of the many things you do. And I looked at your website, you have a number of different topics that you do speaking on. And two of those things you actually have turned into books as well. One is on personal branding and the other is on leadership. So tell me a little bit about the book that you have already written and one that's coming out soon.
[00:23:08] Victoria: Yeah, I have three books. The first one was a coauthored one years ago where I shared a little bit of my story. That was the first time I put pen to paper to say, although I'd shared it publicly.
This last one is called Influence Unleashed On Personal Branding. I sort of like DEI didn't have the vernacular 20 something years ago, but when I stepped into the world of business to business and figure out how do we sell? How do we manage these relationships? That was when it was like, well, understand that people do business with people they like and trust and want to do business with.
And how do I create a differentiation for me as the leader of this business? And also with my teams who are out there selling and managing clients. And so I started to build my own brand back then. And I've also been a part of so many mergers and acquisitions of corporate restructure. I've moved around every several years. So I also recognized I am more than one job title or the company I work for.
And I've seen this proliferation of focus on personal brand and social selling, not in the way that we're talking about, like the social media influencers on Instagram and Tik TOK, but particularly from a business perspective, recognizing that we can leverage our employees to help sell because people want to buy from people they like and trust.
So for example when I worked for IBM a number of years ago and LinkedIn had ranked me as IBM's number one social seller worldwide. That's their phrase and it's more than brand. It's a combination. It's a formula around the strength of your brand, the community, and how you engage with them. But then IBM had asked me to develop personal brand training for its other executives.
So there was the like framework for actually putting it on paper and speaking and educating others on it. And now I've seen, there was this coming post COVID, there was a massive hiring over hiring to some extent, particularly in a lot of the world I come from, now heavy tech focused. And so we've seen a bit more of a normalization.
So many people have unfortunately been laid off. And so I'm seeing people trying to build their brand now to help them with their career transition. And I kept seeing people falling down and focusing on one thing which is, your subject matter expertise, like, what did you study? What field are you in? What industry do you know?
Well, that's not why people want to buy from you. So instead you need to focus on the fulsomeness of your brand, which includes that subject matter expertise for sure. But next, who are you as a human? What interests, passions, values do you have that will build some kind of connection or hook with people?
The third one is what makes you different from others who do what you do? What makes you stand head and shoulders above and would want people to buy from you versus someone else or hire you versus someone else. And the last thing is around legacy and impact. As I said earlier, I don't want to be known purely as the turnaround queen for what I've done in business.
I actually want it to be about who I was as a human, the advocacy work, leading workplaces, communities, and a world better place. So that's why I wrote it was to help others on their journey. And then the other one is on leadership. It's called Whole Human Leadership. My phrase around how we need to show up as whole humans at work. And that includes being authentic. And actually, in that book, I talk about horrible mistakes I've made and I've learned from wearing a mask of all business all the time. I wouldn't have told you my backstory. I'm not going to show emotions.
So the whole human leadership is recognizing we show up as our whole humans, the lived experiences, the different facets of the diversity that we bring to the table with being our authentic selves, with being transparent with being vulnerable, the way in which we communicate, seeing the unseen employees. Creating a very different kind of cultural outcome while still having great business performance. So, I append that to again, share some of my failures and successes to help others on their leadership journey.
[00:26:42] Aneta: Both sounds so amazing. What is your hope with these books? Who do you hope finds them and how do you hope that they'll make an impact on their lives?
[00:26:49] Victoria: The personal branding book, quite frankly, the audience is far and wide for that. I told my older son as he was coming out of college and starting to look for jobs little over a year or so ago, I'm like, buddy, you need to get, start building your brand. Now it's going to change dramatically. He just turned 24.
So me telling him at this 22 or 23 years old, he's like, come on, mom. But I'm like, build it now so it's there for you at times and when you need it. And again, you'll pivot and change over time. So this is for everyone to help them on their journey. And even if you're not in a traditional business setting, I still think you need a brand. So think about it non traditionally.
And on the leadership side this is aimed for people who have fallen into leadership, who aspire to leadership, who've had feedback that they need to improve their leadership and are just hoping to learn and be better. And I think again, post pandemic, the employee mindset, consumer mindset as well, changed dramatically. People want to buy from or work for companies that align with their own purpose and values, and they want to work for leaders that can help them realize that and invest in them.
And so I still see too much of this like command and control leadership style that my parents generation and when I came into the workforce, I very much saw, I still see it today. I think we're all demanding different, better.
[00:28:12] Aneta: I think so too. And I think that command and control style is just from a very fear based, scarcity based leadership style. And I have daughters who are also in their twenties. I just think this younger generation, they are just not buying it. And I think they're making different decisions and companies probably need to evolve to really engage this younger workforce. And they're talented young adults
[00:28:38] Victoria: Yeah, they are. Although I think there's a dynamic. I think there's a challenge in, for leaders as well, to balance, you asked where I come from and I said, my own, at least one of my two children struggles with this notion of hard work and wants the easy button.
And so it's how do you find that balance of being this great whole human leader who builds real relationships, but at the same time, like kind of shakes them sometimes figuratively to over like you need to learn, you need to put in the effort, those kinds of things.
[00:29:06] Aneta: You know what? I've been thinking about this a lot too, so when you and I grew up, I didn't even have email when I graduated from college and didn't have a personal computer. There were definitely no phones. There was no Google. You had to figure things out. We had to be super resourceful and if my parents didn't have the answer, they'd say, go figure it out.
I don't know, go figure it out. So I feel that was always something that we had to do. And so we had to apply a lot of critical thinking and make mistakes and ask a lot of people and be, I don't know, just much more intentional, like you said, with what we wanted. And we did have to work hard. And there is an easy button for a lot of things.
It's pretty easy. It's pretty easy to figure something out. Now you've got AI that makes things even easier. And I'm not saying we need to go back to the way things were, but I do think that that's contributed a little bit. So it's like, how can you take the benefits and the tools that we have today, but still with that hard work and drive to figure things out on your own too, amazing.
So Victoria, you have just shared all the things that you're doing. You've written these books, you do all these talks, you've had these wonderful accomplishments personally and professionally. How do you set boundaries or create for yourself that integrated life that you talked about? Because it's very easy to get burned out.
It's very easy to over index in one area of life, but I know that this is really important to you. So what are some tips that you have discovered and maybe even some mistakes you made that you've learned from?
[00:30:35] Victoria: As I said earlier that I don't do things that don't bring me personal or professional joy or value. I say, no, I delegate I outsource. So you like with your husband on the grocery shopping when my I first met my husband, I had previously my children were younger.
My ex had passed away, unfortunately. So I was a single mom, but I had some help. At home with cleaners and whatever, who did our laundry and he was like, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. And I'm like, Babe, let's be clear. Doing the laundry doesn't bring me any joy. There's great value in it, but I don't choose to do it. I said, so you can either get comfortable with the cleaners doing it or you can do it. And he still does our laundry today, 10 years later.
So things like that, but then there's other more simple things. and there are times I've made mistakes. I think of one year I spent almost a hundred percent of my working days on the road traveling and I compromised. I've always been a fitness fanatic, but there was about a year or two where I didn't prioritize that because I was on the road and I was trying to balance with wanting to be home as much as possible. So I'd take the 6 a. m. flight out, which meant no workout in the morning for me. And so I do not do that.
So I put into my calendar or I block my calendar for early morning calls. So no one's going to do it. So they think I'm busy and that's because I go to the gym. I want to come home and get showered and get ready. And if I have to be on camera, put on some makeup before I do that. I'm a very big like networker and connector people.
And so building time in my calendar to do that. And blocks even just so that I'm not back to back to back so that I can even get through emails. So I live and die by the calendar. It's sad sometimes that I have to send my calendar link out to people when you think it could just be a casual pick up the phone, but that's helped dramatically in creating that capacity.
But I also will tell people, there's when they're like, I've got no time for this. I sign a lot of my social media posts with unstoppable is one and the other is no excuses. There's your nine to five. And then there's your 5 to 9. So, if you don't have time to go to the gym, like, were you up Netflixing until 2am? Like streaming something? So I think we make some choices and so there's some discipline that needs to come with it as well.
[00:32:34] Aneta: So good. And the fitness one is huge, isn't it? It's so important. I noticed that when I don't make time for it when I'll get sick, my body will tell me, okay, something has to change. Or you just start to notice that you don't feel good. and then I am like, okay, let me go back and make some adjustments. But I don't know why sometimes the things for ourselves are the first things that we give up.
[00:32:52] Victoria: Yeah. And shouldn't
[00:32:53] Aneta: No, we shouldn't. So what's next, Victoria? What is something that you're working on or something else that you're interested? I know the book is coming out soon, but anything else that you'd want to share?
[00:33:04] Victoria: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm doing a TED Talk.
[00:33:06] Aneta: You are? Where?
[00:33:08] Victoria: In Miami on resilience. Really excited by that. I just found out the organizers are having me open the entire thing after the mayor comes in and does his little talk. So I was asking my husband, I'm like, is that good or bad?
I'm like, I think most people only remember the first and the last. So, I will take it. So I'm really excited about that. And, I've been in career transition. I made a decision to leave my last employer last year. And so looking for what that next like C suite opportunity looks like.
So I'm excited about that. And I joined another board last year. This one's a little bit more personal and connected for me. It's helpusadopt.org being a child that is adopted. So we are an organization that provides grants to both single people as well as couples with no discrimination around faith.
Many of the organizations are faith based or sexuality to give them grants to help with the high cost of adopting.
[00:33:58] Aneta: That is amazing. That is so beautiful. I love how you continue to constantly give back and to leverage everything that you've gone through in your own life to just make a difference in others. Victoria, thank you so much for our time today. I just loved hearing more about your story and I just want to commend you for all the amazing work that you are doing in the world.
I can't wait to read both of your books. They both sound so amazing and we will make sure to include those in the show notes. But if someone were to want to reach out to you to either hire you to speak or maybe to learn more about your story. What is the best place that they can go to?
[00:34:31] Victoria: I have a website which is victoria-pelletier.com. And I'm sure you'll put that in notes don't need to figure out how to spell it. And from there, if they want to link out to me, connect with me on other social platforms, they can, but that's the one stop shop.
[00:34:45] Aneta: Yeah, there's so much there which is wonderful. And the final question that I would love to ask you and I think you've weaved this into our entire discussion today, but what does it mean to you to live the width of your life?
[00:34:56] Victoria: That you are literally the CEO of your career, of your life, of your brand, you are very squarely in the driver's seat and don't give that power to anyone else. And so do the things that bring you joy, that bring you value, and will move you towards whatever that kind of impact you want to have in the world looks like.
[00:35:17] Aneta: Beautiful. Thank you so much, Victoria, continued success to you. And I can't wait for your Ted talk to be available so we can all listen to it on resilience.
[00:35:27] Victoria: Thank you.
[00:35:28] Aneta: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living the life that they always dreamt of living.