Today on the podcast, I've invited two of my closest friends, Hannah Isted and Lois Seco, to chat about another vulnerable topic: dealing with professional jealousy. Last time we spoke, we tackled our fear of success, and this time we are diving into the messy feelings of comparison and envy.
I am sure everyone has experienced professional jealousy at some point, and honestly, I feel it pretty regularly. In this episode, we chat about how to extract useful information from your jealousy, why taking action is the best antidote to comparison, and the danger of letting the social media algorithm dictate your self-worth.
This is the perfect episode for you if you've ever experienced jealousy (which, let's face it, is most of us!)
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Key Takeaways:
Jealousy is information: Jealousy often gives you information about what you actually want. However, sometimes you might realise you don't even want the specific thing someone else has; you are actually just jealous of the confidence with which they are showing up.
Take action to shift the energy: Hannah shares how she felt jealous seeing videos of groups of girls hanging out, so she took action and started her own group, which now has around 200 people. Taking action is a great way to stop yourself from sitting and stewing in jealousy.
The algorithm feeds comparison: Lois discusses how planning her "Creative Kin" events caused the algorithm to feed her content from everyone else doing similar things, which immediately made her feel like her own event wasn't good enough. It is important to remember that the algorithm doesn't know what is actually helpful for your mental health.
A rising tide lifts all boats: Having successful people around you—even if you feel a pang of jealousy—is a good thing. If you choose to cheer your friends on, their success often opens doors for you and helps lift everyone up.
You don't know the whole story: It is so easy to be jealous of someone's end result without realising the sacrifices, late nights, and completely different circumstances that got them there. We often quickly create our own stories around how someone's success came about, which aren't always true.
Episode Highlights:
02:00 – Recapping the last episode on the fear of success and introducing today's topic of professional jealousy.
04:00 – Liz's revelation: sometimes you aren't jealous of the thing, you are just jealous of the confidence.
11:00 – Hannah explains how taking action shifts the energy of jealousy, using her 200-person friendship group as an example.
15:00 – Lois talks about how the algorithm fed her comparison when she started her Creative Kin workshops.
30:00 – Dealing with competitive feelings and reframing them so you can genuinely cheer other people on.
40:00 – Remembering that you rarely see the full story behind someone else's success on social media.
45:00 – Lois breaks down the psychological difference between jealousy and envy.
About The Guests:
Hannah Isted runs HiCommunications and is the author of The Best 90 Days Ever, a book that teaches business owners how to promote what they do in 10 minutes a day. She also runs a membership by the same name; sign up here (aff link) You can find her on Instagram at @hicommunications
Lois Seco is a contemporary abstract artist and the host of the Creative Kin workshops in South Wales. You can find her on Instagram at @loisseco
Mentioned in this episode:
Silver Stag Type Foundry: Get 20% off beautiful, versatile typefaces using the code LizXSLTF at lizmosley.net/sltf
Episode 178: Help, I'm Succeeding! (And Other Rational Fears) with Hannah Isted & Lois Seco
I would love to hear what you think of this episode, so please do let me know on Instagram where I'm @lizmmosley or @buildingyourbrandpodcast and I hope you enjoy the episode!
This episode was written and recorded by me and produced by Lucy Lucraft lucylucraft.co.uk
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