Since we were little girls, women have been surrounded by messages that we need to minimize ourselves. We follow the rules, go along with the program, strive for good grades. We don’t speak up for fear we may make waves or offend someone. But while following the script may serve us well in school, it doesn’t set us up for success as a leader, let alone a business owner. To realize our full potential, we need to “play bigger.” This is exactly what Tara Mohr challenges us to do in her book, Playing Big, which we’re reviewing in this episode.
↓↓↓ Listen to the episode below as we share what we liked about Playing Big, what we didn’t, and how we feel it could help women who struggle with minimizing themselves.
Our Takeaways from Tara Mohr’s Playing Big
If you have run in entrepreneurial circles for a while, some of the concepts in the book may sound familiar to you. For us, some of the explanations felt repetitive. We quickly grasped the concepts and were ready to move on. However, someone who is new to these concepts or who really enjoys analyzing all the small details may find more benefit from the repetition.
Other than that, we really liked Playing Big and gained a few useful insights. A real strength of this book is that Tara gives us language to describe how we give away our power by the way we speak. When we apologize or sugarcoat things, we lose the impact of our words. Sometimes a fact is just a fact. We need to learn to express ourselves more directly, without all of the “fluff.” And that comes from being secure in who we are and what we know.
And being secure also plays into taking action. Sometimes we hesitate to speak up or take action until we’ve perfected ourselves. Tara encourages us to just take that leap! Be confident in what you already know, realizing that you know more than the people that you’re talking to. That’s a message we all need to be reminded of from time to time.
Overall, this book would be valuable for any woman who needs to find her voice, learn to speak up, follow her callings, and grow into leadership. She uses simple language and gives women the tools they need to empower themselves, which can pay off big in life and business.
