Summary:
In this reflective and energizing solo episode, I explore the transformative power of saying yes—not as people-pleasing or overcommitment, but as a grounded, intentional choice aligned with joy, growth, and purpose.

Through personal stories (including a yes that almost slipped away), I share how fear-driven default no’s can quietly limit our lives—and how conscious yeses can create real momentum in both business and life.

This episode is an invitation to examine what you might be saying no to out of habit, and what could be waiting for you on the other side of a brave, aligned yes.

If you’re craving expansion without burnout, and success that actually feels good—this episode is for you.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Saying Yes Isn’t About Doing More—It’s About Choosing Better
A powerful yes should energize you, not drain you. Lori reframes yes as discernment, not obligation.
Audience follow-up → Ask yourself: Does this opportunity expand me—or exhaust me?

Notice Your Default No’s
Many of our no’s are rooted in fear, doubt, or old stories—not truth. Awareness is the first step to change.
Audience follow-up → Where do you automatically say no without pausing to check in with yourself?

The Yes That Almost Got Away
Lori shares a vulnerable moment where hesitation nearly cost her a meaningful opportunity—and what it taught her about trust and timing.
Audience follow-up → Is there a yes you’ve been postponing because it feels uncomfortable?

Saying Yes Sometimes Requires Saying No
Aligned yeses require boundaries. Not every opportunity deserves your energy.
Audience follow-up → What do you need to say no to so you can fully say yes to what matters?

Support Makes the Yes Sustainable
Growth doesn’t happen alone. Coaching, community, and accountability turn yes into lasting momentum.
Audience follow-up → Who supports you when you step into something new?

🔎 Mentioned in the Episode:
Saying Yes to Being Seen – Choosing visibility even when it feels vulnerable
Support Systems & Coaching – Why expansion requires partnership
Focused Commitments – Fewer yeses, deeper impact
Joy as a Business Strategy – Aligning growth with fulfillment

✨ Reflection Prompts:
Where in your life are you playing small by saying no?
What would change if you trusted yourself to handle the yes?
How does joy show up when you choose courage over comfort?

🧠 Who This Episode Is For:
Entrepreneurs and leaders at a growth crossroads
High-achievers tired of saying yes out of obligation
Women ready to be seen, heard, and expanded
Anyone craving momentum, clarity, and joy in 2025

📩 Want to Go Deeper?

Follow Lori on LinkedIn to continue the conversation

• Book a Leadership Strategy Call with Lori: loripine.com

🎧 Subscribe to The Joy CEO Podcast

⭐️ Leave a review to help other heart-centered leaders find the show

📲 Share this episode with someone who’s navigating pressure and wants to do it with more grace

Transcript

Hi, I'm Lori Pine and welcome to the Joy CEO podcast. I'm so glad you're here. I mean, truly glad that you are here. Whether this is your first time listening in, or you are a regular, it means the world to me that you choose to spend this time with me. I do not take it lightly, so thank you so very much. Today we are talking about something that might sound simple, but has the power to completely transform how you move through your life.

The power of saying yes, and here's what you're gonna walk away with. First, you're going to learn why saying yes doesn't mean saying yes to everything. No, no, no, no, no. We are going to talk about how to choose opportunities that actually. Energize you. Second, I'm going to share three real stories from my own personal life in 2025, including the yes, [00:01:00] I almost botched, and how that one, yes.

Ended up changing almost everything, and so you could actually see what it looks like in full practice. And then third, you're going to get a framework for identifying where you might be defaulting to a no out fear, self-doubt, or just plain habit. How that shift with one small, grounded yes, can really transform some things for you.

This episode is for you, if you've been playing it safe, if you've been waiting to feel ready or if you're just plain curious about what might open you up to trust yourself. For a little bit more, and if this resonates with you, I'd be so grateful if you'd share it with a friend who might need to hear it too.

You [00:02:00] know, we never leave a bestie behind if we have a good lipstick or great new pair of shoes. We always share it with our one beloved friend. And sometimes we all need permission to say yes to what's calling us. And you might be the one who just gives your friend that nudge. All right, let's dive in. So I spent the first half of my career perfecting the art of saying no.

And it was no to the things that felt risky. No. To opportunities that weren't exactly right. No to anything that might expose me before I felt ready. But the truth is I thought I was being strategic by doing that. I was protecting my energy and. Most importantly, I was staying in control. I wanted to control narratives.

I wanted to control outcomes, but here's what I've since learned. Sometimes the most strategic thing that you can actually do is to let go [00:03:00] of this need to have it all figured out and just simply say yes. That decision to simply say yes. Can be the freedom that you need to actually start to change things, change the energy, change the trajectory, and then change the outcomes.

And then this is exactly the attitude I took for 2025. It's what I did. And I'll tell you, it changed everything and I now talk about it with my private clients and in my group coaching circle. So here's what happened. I really needed yes, to become my mantra, and we are gonna talk about this today because I think that it's something that most high achieving, ambitious women forget about because we're so busy in the day-to dayness of our to-do list, getting things done, the responsibilities, and [00:04:00] really the burdens that we carry.

So when I say yes, I don't mean that you're gonna say yes to everything. We're not gonna be reckless. We're not going to be scattered. We are definitely not doing people pleasing because pleasing people pleases nobody. But what we are gonna do is we're gonna say yes as an act of trust, as a doorway, if you will, as a way of letting life surprise you.

Wondering what's behind the door. So this year I made a conscious decision I was going to say yes to opportunities with openness instead of fear. I was going to let the universe conspire in my favor instead of assuming, well, that it might be working against me. And here's what caught me off guard saying yes didn't exhaust me.

In fact, it actually energized me because. It took on this momentum of its own, [00:05:00] and let me show you how that happened. So story number one, saying yes to being truly seen at the start of the year. Back at the end of 2024, I hired a new coach and I was instantly drawn to her. I went to her website. I knew that she could solve the problem that I was having, and you know.

If I'm honest, I was a little bit kind of tired of having a coach. I felt a little bit, maybe even jaded in the experience that I had been having, and so I, I wasn't a hundred percent sure at first and I dragged my feet a little bit, but once I had a conversation with her, she really understood what I was going through and what I was experiencing.

And. She saw through my situation so clearly and I needed [00:06:00] that. Hiring a coach when you are a coach, kind of feels a little bit vulnerable, like admitting you don't have like all your stuff together. But I didn't in this one area, in this, this marketing of my business, of this clarifying my messaging and.

I really needed her to help me solve this because my goal was to have an impact. My goal was to reach these women who I knew. I could help and so, but my frustration was getting in my way. And you might have a frustration that's getting in your way and finding that right person who can clearly identify what it is in you, then articulate it, and then help you solve it, is such a game changer.

And so I said yes to Theresa. And when I said yes to [00:07:00] Theresa, so many things started to unfold for me. She gave me her resources, she gave me her insights, and sometimes she gave me permission. And that permission came with a confidence that in moments, I, I needed to borrow. I needed to borrow her confidence.

Until I was really fortified in my own confidence, and that's a question I have for you. Like, who does that for you? Do you have a coach? Do you have a person who, when you're a little bit uncertain, when your boss is yelling and screaming, KPIs haven't been hit. We're off track. We're missing our mark. Do you have a person that you can go to that helps get you grounded, that helps you with your narrative, that reminds you of really what you're [00:08:00] made of and what it is that you're actually doing and why you're doing it.

So it's not just someone who manages you, it's it's not your manager. It's really more than that. You don't want. A critique. You don't want somebody on the sidelines. You want somebody like in the arena with you, somebody who's getting mud on their face with you. Theresa gets mud on her face with me. She takes my, you know, Voxer message.

She's. She's in the uk so she's a six hour time difference. Like she's, you know, messaging me back at midnight. She's like, she's in it with me. Do you have somebody who's in it with you, who's genuinely cheering you on, not threatened by you, not jealous of you, but like, hell yes. Let's F go LFG energy, let's [00:09:00] go.

And they're cheering you on. Sometimes saying yes isn't about an opportunity at all. It's just about being supported and allowing yourself to be known and seen, and that your vision matters, and so somebody can hold you up when you might get a little bit tired and a little weary. Okay. Story number two, saying yes by saying no.

This one might sound backwards, but just hang with me here for a second. Saying yes, also meant saying no a lot. Like I had to clear the deck and so that I could actually get to what mattered. And here's some things that. I really, really did. I got clear about what organization I wanted to really double down on.

For me, that was next up New York. I joined the board and I made sure that I was really, really up. A part of that, I show [00:10:00] up every time there's a board meeting. I rarely ever miss. I'm part of the mentoring group. I have been mentoring for over 10 years with the next step organization. I feel like that organization really does contribute to making allies for women in big business.

The other way I really narrowed down was I narrowed down on Joy. And I really had to let go of what anybody, anybody might have thought about joy, like it is not fluff. I have done the research. There are true metrics that show what happens to a business when the leaders are joyful. 31% more productive, 37% increase in sales.

There's 50% less likely to have burnout. Turnover rates decrease. I mean, on and on and on. Business is greatly impacted by the people [00:11:00] who fill the org charts and humans deserve joy, and I am so happy to be teaching about joy. And then the last place that I really decided to double down was. Staying committed to ambitious women who are building lives that don't just look good on paper, but they actually feel good, and having that be really my purpose and my focus.

I know what it's like to have things look good on paper, but feel horrible. I walked those shoes for a long time and I've committed. To my own personal life that I won't walk in those shoes again, and I'm now committing to helping other women not have that same experience. And then the rest I let go of, it's not mine anymore, it's outta my hula hoop.

But those three things are in my hula [00:12:00] hoop. So it creates less noise, less dilution. I don't have to perform for audience that are no longer mine. I know who my audience is today, and here's the leadership lesson that's just tucked inside of all of this. Saying yes, doesn't mean I'm doing more. It's about choosing the things that really deserve my energy and putting my energy.

Where it matters. Joy doesn't come from scattering yourself all over the place. We know that. I teach that, and if you're new here, here we go. Joy does not come from scattering yourself all over the place. It comes from focus. It comes from within you. It comes from knowing yourself and having that alignment.

And that's the work we do here, knowing what you're meant to do, knowing that purpose, knowing your calling, and then going ahead and doing it with every [00:13:00] single thing you've got. Story number three, the yes, I almost let pass right through my fingertips, so, so this one is brutal honesty. I had been asked to speak at Harvard.

There's a friend that I made and she runs a department at Harvard, and she asked me to come in and speak to her department, and I initially said, yes, yes, yes, of course I would love this. This would be amazing, and here's what we could talk about. And when I hung up the phone, this voice inside of me said.

Who are you kidding? You can't go to Harvard. Those people are so smart. And what would you talk to them about? And, and then I withered, like withered to become so small. And six months went by and I did not call her back. And when I hired Theresa. I said, I have to admit [00:14:00] something to you. I've had this opportunity to speak at Harvard and I've been avoiding it, and Theresa in her full UK accent said, Lori, you need to get Kraken.

We still laugh about that to this day, and she gave me an assignment that I needed to reach out to my friend by the end of the business day. And see if the opportunity still existed. And so I did and I explained my situation and just what an imposter I felt like and who was I to come and speak at Harvard.

And my friend being so gracious said, I believe in you. And I wouldn't have asked you if I didn't think you could contribute something and. From there on out, we mapped out a plan for me to come and speak, and it changed everything. It really changed everything. I had a date. I [00:15:00] planned my talk. I went, and when I was done, my friend said to me, you nailed that out of the ballpark.

That was incredible. And invited me to come back for another talk. So that growth. Rarely. I was gonna say never, but let's say rarely feels comfortable when you're doing it, and I promise you it did not feel comfortable for me. But the second you can step into it, the confidence and the clarity that comes with it, your ability to say, I did that, and nobody can take that from you.

You did it on your own merit, on your own strength, on your own resilience, and there is so much joy in that. So, you know, standing in that room didn't make the fear or the butterflies go away, but [00:16:00] in interacting with her team and the people and what they were going through reminded me that everybody needs joy.

Everybody needs connection and so this work matters and the work that you are doing, it matters. Okay, so what happens when we say yes? We create momentum, and that's the bigger lesson when you start saying yes to the right things, something shifts, it shifts within you. You start to become more curious, more open, more expansive, lighter in your body, less attached to needing certainty and.

More willing to just move and go with your intuition and what's inside of you. And as you start to surround yourself with people who believe in your future, people who see [00:17:00] you and your vision, you, you can move in these healthy ways because you are not constantly around naysayers or people who might not have a vested interest in seeing your success.

So it's really important that you've, that you put yourself in a room or a circle with people who are going to cheer you on, people who have a gift of seeing the best possible version of you. Let's bring it back to Joy. So this is how Yes, connects to Joy. Joy, the way I define it. It's not just like rainbows and unicorns.

It's, and it certainly isn't about things going perfectly. It's not about things being easy. Joy, as I define it, is a profound and holistic sense of wellbeing and contentment that transcends momentary happiness. So [00:18:00] often joy doesn't arrive because life got easier. No joy arrives because you trusted yourself enough to step into the energy and you moved forward with it.

Saying yes is an actual act of self-trust, so long as you're moving in the direction of the yeses that actually matter. It's you telling yourself, I don't need to have it all figured out. It's, I'm just willing to find out. And that's the spirit of it that helps us go from like this closed fist need to control everything to this open palm openness of possibility and hope and wonder and curiosity.

So here's what I'm gonna leave you with. You [00:19:00] might be defaulting to no, out of fear, habit, self-doubt. What's one? Small, grounded, yes, that could open a door. This doesn't have to be like a big thing. We're not reinventing yourself. It doesn't have to be a big career change or a pivot. No. Dramatically just a yes.

A yes that you need. Somebody invites you to a networking event, somebody invites you to do something out of your comfort zone that might feel a little bit risky, but also might feel like the right next thing. So. Try it on. Maybe you're gonna give a talk, maybe you're gonna do a big presentation. Maybe you're gonna step in for your boss when they're out on mat leave.

Maybe you have a situation going on at work [00:20:00] that's a real difficult situation right now, but perhaps this difficult situation is actually showing you how you can become a thought leader. As a consultant to another company, to your own company, just think about other perspectives that will lead to a yes.

Right now, wherever your feet are, because you never know one yes can be all it takes to open a door that could potentially start to change your life. That's the joy. Thanks for being here today. I'll see you next week. I'm Lori Pine, the joy, CEO. Thanks for listening. Have a great week everybody. Thanks for listening to the joy CEO.

I hope today's conversation left you feeling seen. Stretched and a little more grounded in your own joy, if something [00:21:00] resonated, be sure to hit subscribe. Leave a five star review and share this episode with someone walking a similar path. And if you're ready to take this work deeper, connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram at Lori Pine.

Or head over to my website, lori pine.com, to learn more about coaching retreats and how we can work together. Because joy isn't just personal, it's powerful, and when you lead with joy, you don't just rise, you bring others with you. Until next time, keep leading with heart and don't forget to claim your joy.