Origin Story of Lift As You Climb | LAYC11

Hello again!

And welcome, if this is your first time joining me on the

Lift As You Climb podcast.

I'm very glad that you're here today, because I need some help.

I've got some thoughts in my head that are hurting my brain and I need this

opportunity to share them, because I always find that when I share my thoughts

and my feelings out loud with my friends, I get a lot more clarity about you know,

what I'm feeling and what's true, and what's not true, and what is possible.

That's me.

I'm all about possibilities and unlimited potential.

That's the story of my life, it's the cheerleader, the optimist, Ms.

Positivity.

And today I'm feeling a little, Hmm...

I don't know...

verklempt?

Is that the right word to use?

I had a question posed of me a few hours ago, and that's the

catalyst for this podcast episode.

And why I'm asking for your help to talk this through.

I recently reconnected with someone that I've known for about 20 years.

And we haven't talked for a couple of years.

We've both been busy living life, as that happens, particularly with us women.

There's always something to keep us going and doing.

She asked me a question, and I'm, so grateful that, she feels confident

enough in our relationship to be so, right out there and say Isabel, I don't

understand exactly what all you're doing.

I like what I'm seeing and I'm feeling, but I'm confused about

how all of these parts of you and all of these things that you are

doing, how do they all fit together?

Please explain this to me.

She said, I have this email address and that domain and that group on Facebook

and I know that you've been very busy lately creating and delivering the

Global Serial Entrepreneurs Summit.

And you've just launched this podcast, the Lift As You Climb

podcast, and that you have founded the Lift As You Climb Movement.

And you have coaching clients that you work with privately,

and you have a coaching program.

the Y.E.S!

Masterclass.

But how does this all come together?

And WHY, are you continuing to create new things, and start new things?

She went on to say we're, close to the same age, she's just a little

bit older than I am, and she said, I've been thinking these days...

what do I want to do next?

What's MY Encore?...

in Isabel vernacular.

And so I'm really curious to hear...

What's driving you, to do all of this, and how did it come about?

Thank you, my dear friend, for asking me, you take a step back, to slow down just

a moment and get some clarity for myself.

Cause you know, if I'm confusing me, I'm certainly confusing everyone else.

So it goes back, if you rewind in my her-story, it really goes back to

my childhood and explains exactly why I'm in the right place today, and this

is where I was always intended to be.

Although Lord, I would never have guessed that if you'd asked me in my

20s or 30s or 40s, even 50s, what I would be doing now at the age of 66.

I couldn't possibly have imagined or visioned this.

The origins of the Encore Catalyst and the Lift As You Climb Movement, really do

go back to when I was a kid growing up on a farm in Canada, and really thinking...

I don't think I belong here.

I'm not sure who I am, or why I don't feel like I fit in?

And my life has been continued on that theme or perhaps that's

been the catalyst for me.

Always in search of...

What is the next evolution of me?

And why do I always seem to be slightly behind, where I am in my

journey through Womanhood Wonderland.

Now, as I said, there was that farm girl who thought, wow, the world, I think, is

much bigger than where I presently am.

I'm feeling very much like Alice in Wonderland.

That I am expanding and growing too big to fit into the structure,

or the environment, that I'm in.

And yet, there were times that I also felt like I was really shrinking and

that I was too small to live up to, the responsibilities that were in front of me.

So if you know of my story a little bit, I left home at 16 and was a teen Mom

on my own, right out of high school.

And I would never have made it to the next stage of my life if it wasn't

for the people that appeared, that stepped forward, and gave me a hand up.

They gave me a lift, in my life, not with financial donations,

or charity in that respect.

They reached out to point me in the right direction.

To tell me where I could find opportunities, or how to learn

what's the next way to take care of myself and my family.

They gave me opportunities of employment where I had the chance to learn

skills and grow into a mature woman.

To have a business set of skills that were so valuable to me later

when I became an entrepreneur.

And they also taught me that there was a world of opportunity if I

was open to learn and to be open, with a growth mindset, to the

fact that evolution was possible.

If you wanted to do so.

Now at first you might think, that would have been a difficult

transition for me to make.

To accept the help of virtual strangers, to level up, to grow in

my life, and to ensure my success as an independent working Mom.

But in fact, it wasn't all that difficult, because it was very similar to the way I

grew up with farmers helping each other.

You know, there's something in the farming community that is a code

of conduct, a way of living, that you always help your neighbor.

Coming together at the time when crops need to be brought in, or

farm equipment needs to be shared, or if there's a catastrophe or a

crisis, and somebody needs help because they're sick or injured.

I saw it all the time, neighbors stepped forward to help each other without

expectation of gratitude or payment, it was just expected that when the time came,

that help would be reciprocated for them.

And it really was, without me having a label for it, my first

exposure and education to how Lift As You Climb benefits everyone.

So for me as that young woman, now from the farm, in the big city, having

individuals around me and being open, I think that's the other thing that,

made it possible for me to be successful was that I was open to awareness of

who was a good role model for me, who I could look to, to emulate as an

example, or to ask a question about how.

How to do that, how to be more of myself.

And that went on, that continued on, as I went through my 20s

and then on into my early 30s.

As I promoted from one job or one level in a job to another, always

looking to be with other people that I could grow with, and at the same time,

show my gratitude and appreciation to them, by living up to the commitments

and at the same time, reaching back and sharing what I had, with others.

And there were plenty of opportunities to do that, especially in a

community of young single moms.

We all had to help each other, and have each other's backs.

The universe provided an opportunity at the age of 35

for me to start my own business.

Now, this is a whole new level of growth for me, going from having

relative security, not always security, as, you know, if you're working for

someone else, things can happen.

But then to be fully responsible, not only for my livelihood, but

then within a couple of years, the livelihood of a team of people.

And to feel very responsible for keeping promises, keeping commitments to my

customers, to my suppliers, because I felt strongly that my reputation was

the single most important asset I had at the time of growing a small company.

And again, there were opportunities where people helped me, they reached down and

they gave me a leg up, a hand up, to a new circle of connections and resources.

New opportunities where I could show that I was more than

deserving of those opportunities.

And with my increased success, I was able to help more people.

There are many ways that you can do that.

You can create opportunities, helping people to elevate

their own economic autonomy.

Opportunities to share, to give back in your industry and your

community, with involvement and with charitable contributions.

It all builds on itself.

And it continued to build for me with that, mode of operations,

that philosophy for my life, that I would always do better.

I could do well by doing good, and by reciprocating to others.

I don't believe that it's all the gift of the universe, or opportunity,

or karma or synchronicity.

I also believe that Lift As You Climb, the philosophy, can be addressed successfully

in a strategic manner by looking forward, to the areas that you know that you need

to grow, the relationships that you need to cultivate to be able to achieve the

next level of your own goals and success.

Also to look very strategically around and behind you.

Who needs your help?

Who will benefit that you've already been through that experience?

Or, you can give them an opportunity to be exposed to something

they're not even aware of yet.

Well, Lift As You Climb has just been there, a guiding principle for me, for

a very long time, without me really being aware that's what it was, until

this decade, where I came to a stage now, after having the opportunity to

have great success with one business, and grow multiple other businesses.

Now a more reflective stage of my life, and realized, I want

to have a different impact.

I want to use the influence that I can have...

because of who I am and what I've learned and what resources I have, to

be able to create a bigger impact in the lives of others that is sustainable

and that it's without limits.

And that's where they idea of the Lift As You Climb Movement.

Came to be.

And that I felt that it was a platform, an opportunity to welcome other people

who share those ideas with me and who want to learn more about how we can

collectively come together and magnify the results of that, while we think about

what it is that we want, that's really important to us, so that we are living

our legacy while we are here to influence it and experience it and enjoy it.

And at the same time, that our legacy becomes the catalyst for others

around us, some that we know and some that we don't know, to create

their legacy, so to empower others.

And there's this exponential impact I believe that we can have, when we come

together with like-minded individuals, and put our collective wisdom and desires

together to create what a Movement can.

And how cool is that?

To be part of a movement and to witness it growing and having greater impact.

To my friend who is asking...

So what's the connection?

In the process of moving through my life's journey as an

entrepreneur and selling a business.

I went through, that period that we discussed, of figuring out "Who I Am

Now" which became the Encore methodology, which became the company, The Encore

Catalyst, my business entity...

it is the host for the coaching and the programs that I offer.

The Lift as you Climb Movement is who I am and what I stand for, and

the community that I want to be in.

The Lift As You Climb podcast, is a way that we can share these ideas,

and invite new ideas about how we can increase the results and the influence and

impact of that kind of thinking that...

Pay It Forward, Give A Hand Up...

There is enough pie for everyone...

belief.

I am Isabel Banerjee, I am the Encore Catalyst, I am the Lift As You Climb

Movement, but that doesn't belong exclusively to me, it belongs to

each and every person that wants to be part of that kind of thinking

and attitude and every-day action.

And I invite you to join me in that.

I'm reminded of the African proverb that says that: "If

you want to go fast, go alone.

But if you want to go far, go together.

So please, come, be with me, we will go far.