December 2, 2024 • 32 mins
What if you could align your business strategies with your true self, creating a life that reflects your core values and desires? Join me as I sit down with the influential Donna Cravotta, founder of Cravotta Media Group and the Be Visible Club Mastermind, to uncover the magic of authentic marketing and connection.
Discover how Donna's transformative journey toward authenticity has reshaped not only her business but also her personal life, allowing her to forge genuine relationships and enhance visibility through meaningful engagement rather than superficial tactics. Together, we explore the parallels between movement and marketing, championing the importance of listening to both clients and ourselves to foster connections that are as real as they are rewarding.
Prioritizing authentic interactions over fleeting trends, we delve into making deliberate choices that resonate with our true selves, urging a focus on meaningful connections, and relationships that align with who we are, and how we want to show up in the world.
About Donna Cravotta
Donna Cravotta, CEO and Founder of Cravotta Media Group, is the creator of BeVisible.club, a mastermind community, and The Real 50 over 50: The Wisdom Revolution, a visibility project that showcases interviews and panels with over 100 remarkable 50+ women.
With decades of experience in PR, marketing strategy, and online platform development, Donna identified a common issue among her clients: gaps in their stories that created gaps in their communications.
Determined to help authors, speakers, and small businesses, she spent two years re-evaluating her 40-year career, listening to small businesses’ needs, and redesigning her approach.
Today, Donna helps clients reconnect to their stories, blending proven strategies with innovative technology to find and engage their perfect audiences. Her clients find it empowering to see through a new lens and are poised for growth as they step into their purpose and become intentionally visible.
Cravotta Media Group website
The Real 50 After 50
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Heart of Motion Podcast host Susannah Steers is a Pilates & Integrated Movement Specialist and owner of Moving Spirit Pilates in North Vancouver, BC. She is passionate about movement, about connections and about life.
Through movement teaching, speaking, and facilitating workshops, she supports people in creating movement practices that promote fitness from the inside out. She loves building community, and participating in multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Along with her friend and colleague Gillian McCormick, Susannah also co-hosts The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast – an interview based podcast dedicated to promoting the kind of conversations about health that can spark positive change in individuals, families, communities and across the globe.
Social Media Links:
Moving Spirit Pilates Instagram
Moving Spirit Pilates Facebook
Susannah Steers Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Susannah Steers (00:00):
Welcome to the Heart of Motion podcast.
I'm Susannah Steers and I'll beyour host as we explore the
heart, soul and science ofmovement as a pathway to more
active, vibrant and connectedliving.
Nothing happens until somethingmoves, so let's get started.
You know, when you meet someoneand somehow something about them
(00:22):
just resonates.
Well, when I met my guest today, I had that feeling.
Donna Cravotta and I work incompletely different fields and
yet I'm continually surprised bythe ways in which our work is
similar.
If you listened to the firstepisode of this podcast, you
would have heard how much thingslike connections and
(00:43):
relationships are meaningful forme in terms of movement, health
and life in general.
I decided I wanted to have aconversation with Donna to
explore how some of those thingsshow up in her world.
Donna Cravotta is the CEO andfounder of Cravotta Media Group
and the creator of Be VisibleClub Mastermind.
(01:04):
She's also the founder, heartand soul of the real 50 over 50,
the Wisdom Revolution, which isa visibility project featuring
over 100 women over the age of50 who are quietly or not so
quietly making a difference.
After 40 years of work, Donnaredesigned her own business to
(01:24):
help authors, speakers and smallbusiness owners combine all of
the parts of their stories andmix tried and true strategies
with technology to be visibleand to connect with their
perfect audiences.
I'm a curious soul and I wasinterested to look at some of
the ways in which our worldscollide and what we might learn
from each other along the way.
(01:45):
Welcome to the podcast, Donna.
Donna Cravotta (01:48):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I'm a curious soul too.
Susannah Steers (01:53):
When I first started exploring the world of
marketing and public relations,especially with respect to
building my own business, I wasmet with all kinds of ideas and
strategies, you know, those tipsand tricks for how to bring
business to my door, and it allfelt super contrived and it
never seemed to kind of resonatewith me or, to be honest, to do
(02:17):
much for me in terms ofimproving how people found me.
People are used to hearing metalk about alignment,
connections and relationships interms of movement.
I'd really love to hear whatthey mean to you.
Donna Cravotta (02:31):
Well those tips and tricks are often hacks and
tactics, so they don't actuallyalign with building
relationships and elegantmovement and connecting the
parts.
So I would say the first thingto do is stay away from the
hacks and the tactics and usethe most underutilized marketing
(02:53):
skill that there is, which islistening.
Susannah Steers (02:55):
Right.
It's a hard thing to find inour world when everybody's sort
of throwing stuff up on socialmedia, quite literally vomiting
it out there and it just seemslike it's a loud, busy
environment and people are doingand being things that maybe
aren't what they're all about.
Donna Cravotta (03:15):
Often with the best of intentions.
People feel and this feeling isencouraged that they need to be
somebody else online than whothey are offline, and that
cannot be further than the truth, because it's uncanny how
people can recognize that you'renot being yourself when they
(03:36):
look at you, just what you'resharing online and this is the
other thing that's a bit on theuncanny side is that when you
just show up as you, people hearyou through all of that noise,
and it's not just people, it'sthe right people, because that
connection is an undercurrent.
It's not an algorithm, it's notan ad, it's not viral because
(03:58):
you can't predict viral.
It's this undercurrent whereyou just find each other.
When you're saying the rightthings, when you care about the
right things, when you value thesame things, you find each
other.
And it's really.
I've been doing this for yearsand it never ceases to amaze me.
It works all the time and itdoesn't matter what you do.
(04:20):
It matters that you just showup as yourself matter what you
do.
It matters that you just show upas yourself.
Susannah Steers (04:31):
Well, you know, you said something there in
terms of showing up as not whoyou are and not getting the
right responses.
I guess not getting yourmessage out.
I find it interesting in termsof movement work, just because
people often have an expectationabout what it looks like.
I teach Pilates for a living.
I teach movement for a living.
People have an expectation whatit looks like, as I'm sure they
do for what they think PR andvisibility is all about.
(04:53):
And when you're not listening towhat the client needs in terms
of a teaching perspective, oreven to what you yourself need
as a client, when you're lookingfor a quick fix, it may seem
like something that isattractive on the surface and
you think, oh, I want that, butit may not be right for where
(05:15):
you are at this time in theworld or resonate with you as a
human being.
I am never going to be asprinter.
It is not going to happen.
I could train all day and nightto get there, but it's not
really what I'm interested in.
It's not really the life I wantto lead and, honestly, I don't
really think I have the bodybuild for it.
(05:37):
You know, the capacity that Ihave as a human being doesn't
really align with that.
So I find it fascinating thatthere are so many similarities.
And why do you think we're soaddicted to the quick fix?
Donna Cravotta (05:52):
I think life is hard, business is hard, and a
quick fix is very enticing andwe want to believe it.
We want to believe it's thereand this is human nature.
I mean, like, think of PTBarnum, you know.
I mean it's appealing and ifyou've done this and you've kind
of made some wrong choices, andit doesn't matter what business
(06:15):
you're in, because you know,businesses are like bodies.
There are no two that are thesame.
There is no one solution that'sgoing to work for everyone.
It just, it's just not true,you know.
But we're, you know we, we havea lot on our plates and we've
got a lot going on.
And you know you layer in otherthings kids and family and
traveling and illnesses andresponsibilities and pets, and
(06:39):
you know weather, I mean justlike all the things.
Just layer it all on and we allhave a lot on our plates.
And you know, when somebodycomes with a very well crafted
message and they're really goodat selling and they make it, you
know, they know your painpoints and now there are tools
that actually will identify yourpain points and find you and
(07:01):
add on to the words that you'reusing.
And you know there's two waysthat you can have that
conversation.
So you can have thatconversation from a place of I'm
going to sell you what I have,not what you need, which is you
know often where we're buyinginto the quick fix and the shiny
object and all of those thingsthat never really you know it
(07:22):
works for enough people to makeother people attracted to it.
But on the flip side, when youlisten I mean just like when you
work with a client you'relistening to their body.
You know what they need beforethey know what they need right.
I do the same thing.
(07:42):
I listen, I ask a lot ofquestions, I get curious.
I get that same informationthat the swarmy salesperson is
going to get, but I use it in avery different way.
And what does that look like?
Well, I communicate with myclients and find out what they
need.
I listen to how they respond tothings and how they feel about
(08:07):
certain things, because noteverybody needs the same things
in their businesses.
You're not going to be asprinter, but for somebody else
that could be the solution toeverything in their business by
listening and having theconversation and watching the
reactions, because often thereaction isn't going to be what
the words are, and I'm sure thathappens in your line of work
(08:29):
too.
Yeah, and then you know, I dosome research and I do some
poking around and I take theknowledge that I have and I mix
it all together and I come upwith solutions that are right,
fit, that feel good when you putthem on, that feel attainable
Most of the time, they're notexpensive and they're
sustainable.
(08:50):
What I really try to strive foris coming up with marketing
solutions that are built on thethings that don't change, and
those are the building of therelationships, the creation of
elegant systems, the creation ofcontent that you can use in a
multitude of ways, so it's not awaste of time to create, and
(09:14):
that it's in a format that youenjoy.
If you love doing videos, don'tsit down and churn out 2000 word
blog posts because you're goingto hate every minute of it and
that is going to come through inwhat you're writing and that's
not going to attract people,because what you're writing and
that's I mean, that's not goingto attract people, because what
they're feeling is, oh my God,this is terrible.
And using it in a way thatfeels good to you, because if it
(09:36):
feels good to you and you enjoyit, that's what you're going to
put through and thatundercurrent with your content
and whether it be written oraudio or video or whatever other
format we're going to have inthe future, who knows, I'm
kidding.
I'm kidding that it feels rightto you and the rest of it just
doesn't matter.
Susannah Steers (09:56):
What's coming up for me as I listen to you
there is that it's got to beright for you, and Pilates is a
system that works really welland it works really well for a
lot of people.
Some people love it justbecause it's Pilates and a
system that works really well,and it works really well for a
lot of people.
Some people love it justbecause it's Pilates and they
love it in and of itself.
For me, despite the fact that Irun a Pilates studio, I'm not
(10:16):
in love with fitness.
What I'm in love with is theability to move well in the
world, to do the things that Ilove to do, and that is what I
really love to see in my clientsis seeing what becomes possible
when you create the rightconditions in the body for those
things to happen, and it seemsto me that that's a lot like
(10:38):
what you're doing with people.
Donna Cravotta (10:41):
I've had a past client called me the Pilates of
social media because I focusedon the little things.
I didn't.
I never did Facebook ads oranything like that.
Even when everyone was going inthat direction, I was, like it
feels so contrived.
I don't like I listen and youknow I can connect with those
people I need to connect withwithout doing that.
(11:02):
I would use the tools of theFacebook ads to do research and
then I would go off on my merryway and connect with the people
and yeah, I mean it has to feelgood.
It has to feel good Like if youwere doing a form of exercise
that you were injured every timeyou did it, would you keep
doing it?
Not a chance.
It's got to be in accordancewith everything else that you're
(11:25):
doing.
It should be a compliment, notsomething that takes you in a
sharp alternate direction.
It shouldn't be something thatyou have to like stop what
you're doing in your regular dayto the point where it's
detrimental to your schedule, toyour time, to your wellbeing,
and a lot of people just createsystems like that and they
(11:49):
create strategies that justdon't work in the rhythm of your
life, you know.
Susannah Steers (11:55):
And you can't keep doing that.
Donna Cravotta (11:57):
It's not sustainable and you'll never get
the results you want becauseyou're really not going to like
it.
I mean, the magic to all ofthis is showing who you are, and
if you're showing who you arewhen you're frustrated and
pissed off, you're not comingwith your best self.
Attract the right people.
Susannah Steers (12:18):
It seems like there's a lot of putting
together the fundamentals, thesmall pieces, the little things
that hold things together inyour work.
Is that true?
Donna Cravotta (12:29):
yes, very much so.
Um, and and that's the partthat people overlook when they
are looking to move fast and 10xthings and you know, automate
over automate things where youlose the human connection.
I've had clients that the onlystrategy I gave them was to
(12:51):
comment on other people's posts.
You know, go figure out yourvoice, figure out your audience,
connect with people.
And you know, by commenting onother people's posts, you really
kind of get into the groove ofthe conversation and you start
(13:12):
to, you know, see what peoplecare about.
Without it being a strategy,you're just there in a
conversation, you know, andyou're connecting with people
and you're meeting new peopleand you're seeing what other
people care about.
They're sharing books that theyread or podcasts that they
listened to, or an event thatthey went to or a hike that they
went on, whatever it may be,but you're learning in real time
, in real life experience, aboutpeople that you might want to
(13:33):
connect with.
And once you have that, I meaneverything else kind of falls
away.
And when I start to work withpeople, they get defensive and
they're like well, I'm alreadydoing this and this and this and
this and this, I can't doanother thing.
And my next question is andhow's it working for you?
Yes, because if you stop doingthis and this and this and this
(13:54):
and this, you'll have 15, 20minutes a day to go comment on
somebody's posts.
Susannah Steers (13:59):
Well.
I guess, then, when you're inalignment and you've listened
and you're finding people thatyou actually genuinely want to
work with and I find that thesame with exercise, right you
start to feel into your own bodyand to understand what feels
really good and what is feelingnot so good.
(14:19):
And what about that is just acapacity issue, like you say,
like you know, maybe it'sphysical capacity in the body,
maybe it's time you knowwhatever that capacity is, or
maybe it's a misalignment andmaybe it's figuring out.
Donna Cravotta (14:33):
Okay, this is not what I wanted to be doing
and this is not where I want tobe, or I spoke to somebody the
other day and she's got a smallpublishing company and she was
trying to get me to bother withher to do social media for her
clients who were not even myclients and I just said no, and
(14:54):
she goes what do you mean?
No, I said no, she goes.
Why?
I said because it's it's not avaluable use of my time.
And she said but you have to dosocial media.
I said you don't have to doanything.
There's no have to here.
I love that.
And I said how's it working?
And she goes it's not.
I said then why do you have todo it?
(15:14):
Like whose edict was that?
Susannah Steers (15:18):
Well, we seem to get a lot of those edicts,
though.
I mean, it's the same thing, Ithink, with health and exercise.
Right, it's like you got to dothis, you got to do that, you
got to do the other thing, andif you look at all the things
that you're supposed to do, doyou have time to actually live
your life?
Donna Cravotta (15:31):
no.
Susannah Steers (15:33):
So I think, finding the things that feel the
best for you, that are going tomake an impact and, yes, you
can look at, as you say, sort ofwhat are the tried and true,
what are the things that we knowwork, and let's skip the trends
, let's skip all the fancy stuffyou know
Donna Cravotta (15:51):
Make it boring! Do the things that work yeah,
and the thing that here's theother thing that happens too,
because we are listening to thegurus and falling in the pool of
bright and shiny, we tend toemulate a business model that is
totally unrelated to what weneed, and we're trying to do
(16:15):
something that somebody that haslike a team of 10 people and
affiliates, you know, likeaffiliate partners that will
sell thousands of dollars worthof stuff on the on your behalf,
and there's very few people thatactually have that.
So why are we buildingbusinesses to support that when
it's not what we need?
So like maybe the second thingI ask people is well, what do
(16:39):
you actually want, like, what doyou need?
What will make you happy?
How much money do you need tomake?
How much time do you have?
What do you hate doing?
What do you love doing?
And much money do you need tomake?
How much time do you have?
What do you hate doing?
What do you love doing?
And from there we start to kindof craft things because build
what's going to move the needlefor you.
I mean most of the people thatI work with.
They need 20 clients a year.
Why are you building all of it?
(17:01):
You can spend - I mean, if youconnect with five new people a
week on a social media platformof your choice, at the end of
the year there will be 241people that are real people that
are aligned with who you areand what you do, and that's a
(17:22):
significant addition to yourcommunity.
You can't do that with Facebookads.
You can't do that with Facebookads, you can't do that with
automation.
You can only do that by showingup.
Susannah Steers (17:33):
And, as you say , listening and talking to
people, you know it's not aboutthe bots creating stuff for you.
Donna Cravotta (17:40):
And it's totally free and you can spend 15
minutes a day doing it Rightfree and you can spend 15
minutes a day doing it Right sothat you can cut out.
Now I have to write 2,000 wordarticles and break them up and
schedule them and upload themand that's not going to get you
what you want.
That is contributing to all ofthe noise.
That's not what people hear.
(18:02):
They hear Charlie Brown'steacher, right Wah wah.
But spend that.
I mean just amuse yourself,amuse me.
Go spend 15 minutes this week,every day, and just find people
that you like and say hello Sayhello Say oh, I love this post.
(18:22):
This is what I learned fromreading the article you shared.
Oh, I like that podcast too.
What was your favorite episode?
I've read that book five times.
What's your favorite chapter toyou?
And I love that?
I mean.
Susannah Steers (18:46):
I can see it super clearly with the Real 50
Over 50 Project and in all ofyour work.
What's important for you in thestories that people tell?
Donna Cravotta (18:59):
I'm going to just talk about the 50 Over 50
Project now and um.
Earlier today we did the 88thinterview and we've done 11
panels so far and every time Ido an interview I learn
something.
I have a deeper connection withsomeone.
There's always an introductioneither I'm introducing them to
(19:22):
people, they're introducing meto people.
So my audience has grown veryintentionally.
I know people in the communityand I've kept it very, very
fluid.
People in the community haveconnected with each other.
I mean, like I'm in New Yorkand you're in Vancouver and I
connected you with two people inthe last week.
(19:43):
That's so crazy In Vancouver.
I mean, like what are thechances?
And it's just from having theseconversations, sharing our
stories, sharing our hearts, youknow, sharing our experiences
and when you do that there's aconnection and that connection
becomes part of thatundercurrent.
So now they're going to go seekme out on social media.
(20:05):
I'm going to follow them.
We're going to say you know,one of the things I love is
going into LinkedIn when I meetsomebody and seeing, oh my God,
we have 74 common connections.
How have we never met before?
Susannah Steers (20:17):
And that happens a lot.
It's amazing.
Donna Cravotta (20:20):
And you can see, like the avenues of people and
like you know where we wereprobably in the same room at the
same time, and and that's aconversation in itself, yeah,
like then you could starttalking about these common
connections and you've had thisexperience with this person and
this experience with this personand you feel like you know
somebody now because of thecommon connections that you have
(20:43):
.
And when you build a communitylike that, I mean you don't need
a lot of people, becauseeveryone means something, even
if you've never met them in reallife.
I haven't met most of thepeople I know in real life.
Susannah Steers (20:57):
There's something in the stories too,
and maybe this is just megetting excited about it as a
woman who's over 50 and lookingat this third act of my life and
trying to figure out what thatmeans.
There is really somethingpowerful in the wisdom that
women in particular share witheach other at this stage.
(21:19):
And I love what you're doingwith this.
Donna Cravotta (21:23):
This is another alignment with our different
fields of work.
People often call thisreinvention.
You know, as you're in your 50s, your 60s, you know it's the
second act, it's the third act.
Whatever you want to call it,call it what you like.
What it actually is isremembering, because we don't
need to be reinvented.
(21:44):
We're already perfectly finethe way we are and we're
remembering the parts that weput down, that we gave away,
that we forgot about, and partof what I help people do is pull
those things together throughtheir stories, through their
content, finding those thingsLike.
I'm working with a client nowwho, through going through this
(22:06):
process that I used to call acontent audit which nobody wants
to do a content audit I call ittried and new now, because you
take the things that are triedand true and you edit them and
you mix them with things thatare new and then you create
something.
It's like you're upcycling yourlife, you're upcycling your
story, and she remembered a bookthat she wrote in Paris.
(22:29):
She spent a month in Paris 14years ago and wrote like three
quarters of a book that'ssitting on an online folder
somewhere that is now beingrepurposed into the foundation
of the work that she does.
These are the principles of thework that she does.
Wow, it's such a hard timetalking about what she does
(22:50):
because it's very specific.
And now it all fell into placebecause this book that she wrote
.
Susannah Steers (22:56):
She already had the foundations.
Donna Cravotta (22:58):
She had it.
It's been there for 14 years.
She forgot about it.
Susannah Steers (23:03):
We don't have to remake ourselves.
We are already enough as we are.
We just need to remember andpolish things a little bit.
Donna Cravotta (23:13):
It's a little reorganization.
When I was in the middle offiguring this out because I took
myself through this process Itook myself through what I was
calling a content audit and Iwas like, wow, I'm really
missing the boat on this one.
But I was able to see what Iwas actually doing with clients
(23:36):
and it was so much more valuablethan I was giving it credit for
, because I was going from atactical perspective.
I was not going from aperspective where I was looking
at the full picture.
You know and it is also anemotional piece to it that I was
not healed enough from thingsthat happened in my life to put
myself in the middle of thatemotional place.
(23:58):
So it really takes an act ofbravery to go and do this and
courage to look through thesedifferent parts of your life and
literally decide what stays,what goes, what could be turned
into something else, what couldbe recycled, what could be given
away and what could be sold.
Susannah Steers (24:20):
I mean it's inspiring to me when I think
about it in the context of alife, in the context of a body
having a life, you know, aperson living in a body living a
life and all the things thatthat might mean.
It's pretty powerful stuff.
Donna Cravotta (24:38):
It really is, because when you start to
remember, oh my God, I did thatand I stopped because my mother
died, that's emotional and youhave to go through that.
And you have to go throughthose feelings again and
recognize, well, do I need that,or was that a trauma response?
And it could be withrelationships too.
(25:00):
It could be like oh, I've gotthis business partner that I
worked with and this is nolonger healthy for me and having
to let that go and endingcertain relationships so there
can be new relationships.
So it's not a checklist, it'sreally a rite of passage.
Susannah Steers (25:19):
It requires us, I think, to give ourselves a
little bit of grace and a littlebit of compassion, for you know
what might've been going on forus over the years.
Donna Cravotta (25:31):
and a little bit of.
I don't give a shit anymore.
Susannah Steers (25:33):
Well, yes, that too.
Yeah, I'm not going to take itanymore, I'm not doing it that
way anymore.
Screw that, yeah, I would agreewith you there for sure.
Donna Cravotta (25:53):
And that's why this really resonates for women
in the 50, 60, 70 age range,Because we're at that point
where we've done the things,we've made the mistakes, we've
had the successes, we know whatwe like, we know what we don't
like, and you know we've gotmore years behind us than in
front of us.
Yeah, we're not willing towaste the time, and it's a
really beautiful time of life ifyou embrace it and you and you
(26:14):
courageously step in to makingthe choices that are right for
you.
Yeah, and that's how I approachmy marketing as well, Because
if you're going to be doing thatin your life, why are you not
doing that in your business?
I?
Susannah Steers (26:26):
love it.
Donna Cravotta (26:27):
Why are you not doing that in your body?
There needs to be an alignmentbetween those three things as
well.
Susannah Steers (26:33):
Well, I think there's a saying that I love.
That is a physiotherapist thatI've worked with in the past.
This was one of her sayings,and it's every movement is a
whole body movement.
Donna Cravotta (26:47):
And.
Susannah Steers (26:48):
I believe that's true on a larger scale.
You know, it's that butterflyeffect thing Everything we do
has an effect and it might notseem like a big deal, but all of
the little things that we doadd up and they create the whole
of who we are and how we liveand breathe in the world.
I'm curious to bring you intomy world for a minute, because I
(27:13):
ask everybody this questionwhat does movement mean to you?
Donna Cravotta (27:20):
It means freedom .
Susannah Steers (27:22):
Oh, I love that .
Tell me more.
Donna Cravotta (27:27):
If you can't move, you're stuck.
You have to rely on somebodyelse or something to be able to
move.
If you're in a wheelchair, youcan't move without that
wheelchair.
If you need a cane, you can'tmove without that cane.
Susannah Steers (27:41):
A layer of independence.
Donna Cravotta (27:43):
Yeah, it's more than independence.
It's freedom.
Susannah Steers (27:52):
It's freedom to be able to go where you want,
do what you want, you know, befree of pain.
Are there things that you liketo do, to play or to?
How do you like to move aroundin the world?
Donna Cravotta (28:11):
You know, I've had a significant health issue
for the last couple of years, soit really impacted my, my
emotion and my movement and, um,you know, I'm starting to feel
better than I have in a longtime and I'm starting really
slow and it's very frustratingfor me.
I was like let's go ride 70miles on my bicycle.
Now I could barely get on mybicycle and it's been an
adjustment and it's been alesson in acceptance that maybe
I will never be able to ride 70miles on my bicycle.
Susannah Steers (28:34):
Maybe I can.
Donna Cravotta (28:35):
I don't know, I'm not saying that I can't, I'm
just saying, you know, maybe Ican't and I might need to accept
that and like Pilates, I wasdoing Pilates four times a week
and I had to stop because Icouldn't lay down and exercise
because my heart would go intopalpitations.
Oh wow, yeah.
So you know, I, I have.
(28:56):
I, that was like four years ago.
I had to stop and I still don'tfeel comfortable doing it.
Susannah Steers (29:03):
Lying down?
Yeah.
Again, it comes back to theelements, the capacities, the
pieces, and I find that's whereeven the small things, you know,
the small fundamental pieces,the little things we can do,
even the three minutes a day, asyou say, or the five minutes a
week, or you know, however thatshows up.
(29:25):
It's frustrating when you'reyou've had the capacity and
you've had the, you have a brainmemory and a body memory of
riding 70 miles and you want todo that, and that's a
frustrating thing when you haveto readjust that, that
perspective, and and find a newpath thing when you have to
(29:47):
readjust that, that perspectiveand and find a new path.
Donna Cravotta (29:48):
Um, so then I just say, okay, well, I'll walk
up and down the steps five times, see what happens, yeah, and
I'm just you know, but it was,it was.
I had to learn to accept it andI fought that.
It was hard, but it wasn't inmy best interest not to.
I didn't take it from theperspective of failure or that
(30:09):
it will never happen, just thatit might not.
And if it doesn't, there willbe something else and it'll be
okay.
Susannah Steers (30:16):
Yeah, and I think sometimes that level of
acceptance shows the doorway todifferent ways of doing things,
if you've been used toapproaching it in a particular
way.
Donna Cravotta (30:28):
It also made it feel more possible because I
wasn't digging in my heels, youknow.
Yeah, All these things theconnections, the alignments, the
acceptance, the relationshipsit's all different kinds of
relationships with ourselves andwith the world and it's pretty
exciting and like when you dobuild these relationships, with
(30:50):
these different aspects of yourlife, with things that you never
really thought you would have arelationship with, you know it
really does align everythingelse, because then these pieces
now come together in a differentway and they complement each
other, they're not butting upagainst each other.
Susannah Steers (31:05):
It's a beautiful alchemy, yeah Well,
for people who are interested inlearning more about you and
about your work, I will put abunch of links in the show notes
about all the places you Donna,but where is the best place for
people to connect with you?
Donna Cravotta (31:27):
Just go to my website.
You could link to everythingfrom there.
It's cravottamediagroup.
com, and you can find my sociallinks on there and links to the
Real 50 Over 50 and all of myservices and things and whatever
else I happen to be up to.
It's all there.
Susannah Steers (31:44):
You know, I continue to find all these ways
that we resonate or that Iresonate with your work in so
many ways.
Thank you for taking the timewith me today.
It has been an absolutepleasure talking to you.
Donna Cravotta (32:00):
Pleasure has been all mine.
I always enjoy spending timewith you and I really love to
find ways where what I do alignswith different types of work
and different types ofindustries, because it really is
about connection.
It's not about all of the otherthings that people push.
Susannah Steers (32:22):
Well from my heart.
Thank you and bye-bye.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Subscribe and if you love whatyou heard, leave a five-star
review and tell people what youenjoyed most.
Join me here again in a coupleof weeks For now let's get
moving.
Welcome to the Heart of Motion podcast.
I'm Susannah Steers and I'll beyour host as we explore the
heart, soul and science ofmovement as a pathway to more
active, vibrant and connectedliving.
Nothing happens until somethingmoves, so let's get started.
You know, when you meet someoneand somehow something about them
(00:22):
just resonates.
Well, when I met my guest today, I had that feeling.
Donna Cravotta and I work incompletely different fields and
yet I'm continually surprised bythe ways in which our work is
similar.
If you listened to the firstepisode of this podcast, you
would have heard how much thingslike connections and
(00:43):
relationships are meaningful forme in terms of movement, health
and life in general.
I decided I wanted to have aconversation with Donna to
explore how some of those thingsshow up in her world.
Donna Cravotta is the CEO andfounder of Cravotta Media Group
and the creator of Be VisibleClub Mastermind.
(01:04):
She's also the founder, heartand soul of the real 50 over 50,
the Wisdom Revolution, which isa visibility project featuring
over 100 women over the age of50 who are quietly or not so
quietly making a difference.
After 40 years of work, Donnaredesigned her own business to
(01:24):
help authors, speakers and smallbusiness owners combine all of
the parts of their stories andmix tried and true strategies
with technology to be visibleand to connect with their
perfect audiences.
I'm a curious soul and I wasinterested to look at some of
the ways in which our worldscollide and what we might learn
from each other along the way.
(01:45):
Welcome to the podcast, Donna.
Donna Cravotta (01:48):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I'm a curious soul too.
Susannah Steers (01:53):
When I first started exploring the world of
marketing and public relations,especially with respect to
building my own business, I wasmet with all kinds of ideas and
strategies, you know, those tipsand tricks for how to bring
business to my door, and it allfelt super contrived and it
never seemed to kind of resonatewith me or, to be honest, to do
(02:17):
much for me in terms ofimproving how people found me.
People are used to hearing metalk about alignment,
connections and relationships interms of movement.
I'd really love to hear whatthey mean to you.
Donna Cravotta (02:31):
Well those tips and tricks are often hacks and
tactics, so they don't actuallyalign with building
relationships and elegantmovement and connecting the
parts.
So I would say the first thingto do is stay away from the
hacks and the tactics and usethe most underutilized marketing
(02:53):
skill that there is, which islistening.
Susannah Steers (02:55):
Right.
It's a hard thing to find inour world when everybody's sort
of throwing stuff up on socialmedia, quite literally vomiting
it out there and it just seemslike it's a loud, busy
environment and people are doingand being things that maybe
aren't what they're all about.
Donna Cravotta (03:15):
Often with the best of intentions.
People feel and this feeling isencouraged that they need to be
somebody else online than whothey are offline, and that
cannot be further than the truth, because it's uncanny how
people can recognize that you'renot being yourself when they
(03:36):
look at you, just what you'resharing online and this is the
other thing that's a bit on theuncanny side is that when you
just show up as you, people hearyou through all of that noise,
and it's not just people, it'sthe right people, because that
connection is an undercurrent.
It's not an algorithm, it's notan ad, it's not viral because
(03:58):
you can't predict viral.
It's this undercurrent whereyou just find each other.
When you're saying the rightthings, when you care about the
right things, when you value thesame things, you find each
other.
And it's really.
I've been doing this for yearsand it never ceases to amaze me.
It works all the time and itdoesn't matter what you do.
(04:20):
It matters that you just showup as yourself matter what you
do.
It matters that you just show upas yourself.
Susannah Steers (04:31):
Well, you know, you said something there in
terms of showing up as not whoyou are and not getting the
right responses.
I guess not getting yourmessage out.
I find it interesting in termsof movement work, just because
people often have an expectationabout what it looks like.
I teach Pilates for a living.
I teach movement for a living.
People have an expectation whatit looks like, as I'm sure they
do for what they think PR andvisibility is all about.
(04:53):
And when you're not listening towhat the client needs in terms
of a teaching perspective, oreven to what you yourself need
as a client, when you're lookingfor a quick fix, it may seem
like something that isattractive on the surface and
you think, oh, I want that, butit may not be right for where
(05:15):
you are at this time in theworld or resonate with you as a
human being.
I am never going to be asprinter.
It is not going to happen.
I could train all day and nightto get there, but it's not
really what I'm interested in.
It's not really the life I wantto lead and, honestly, I don't
really think I have the bodybuild for it.
(05:37):
You know, the capacity that Ihave as a human being doesn't
really align with that.
So I find it fascinating thatthere are so many similarities.
And why do you think we're soaddicted to the quick fix?
Donna Cravotta (05:52):
I think life is hard, business is hard, and a
quick fix is very enticing andwe want to believe it.
We want to believe it's thereand this is human nature.
I mean, like, think of PTBarnum, you know.
I mean it's appealing and ifyou've done this and you've kind
of made some wrong choices, andit doesn't matter what business
(06:15):
you're in, because you know,businesses are like bodies.
There are no two that are thesame.
There is no one solution that'sgoing to work for everyone.
It just, it's just not true,you know.
But we're, you know we, we havea lot on our plates and we've
got a lot going on.
And you know you layer in otherthings kids and family and
traveling and illnesses andresponsibilities and pets, and
(06:39):
you know weather, I mean justlike all the things.
Just layer it all on and we allhave a lot on our plates.
And you know, when somebodycomes with a very well crafted
message and they're really goodat selling and they make it, you
know, they know your painpoints and now there are tools
that actually will identify yourpain points and find you and
(07:01):
add on to the words that you'reusing.
And you know there's two waysthat you can have that
conversation.
So you can have thatconversation from a place of I'm
going to sell you what I have,not what you need, which is you
know often where we're buyinginto the quick fix and the shiny
object and all of those thingsthat never really you know it
(07:22):
works for enough people to makeother people attracted to it.
But on the flip side, when youlisten I mean just like when you
work with a client you'relistening to their body.
You know what they need beforethey know what they need right.
I do the same thing.
(07:42):
I listen, I ask a lot ofquestions, I get curious.
I get that same informationthat the swarmy salesperson is
going to get, but I use it in avery different way.
And what does that look like?
Well, I communicate with myclients and find out what they
need.
I listen to how they respond tothings and how they feel about
(08:07):
certain things, because noteverybody needs the same things
in their businesses.
You're not going to be asprinter, but for somebody else
that could be the solution toeverything in their business by
listening and having theconversation and watching the
reactions, because often thereaction isn't going to be what
the words are, and I'm sure thathappens in your line of work
(08:29):
too.
Yeah, and then you know, I dosome research and I do some
poking around and I take theknowledge that I have and I mix
it all together and I come upwith solutions that are right,
fit, that feel good when you putthem on, that feel attainable
Most of the time, they're notexpensive and they're
sustainable.
(08:50):
What I really try to strive foris coming up with marketing
solutions that are built on thethings that don't change, and
those are the building of therelationships, the creation of
elegant systems, the creation ofcontent that you can use in a
multitude of ways, so it's not awaste of time to create, and
(09:14):
that it's in a format that youenjoy.
If you love doing videos, don'tsit down and churn out 2000 word
blog posts because you're goingto hate every minute of it and
that is going to come through inwhat you're writing and that's
not going to attract people,because what you're writing and
that's I mean, that's not goingto attract people, because what
they're feeling is, oh my God,this is terrible.
And using it in a way thatfeels good to you, because if it
(09:36):
feels good to you and you enjoyit, that's what you're going to
put through and thatundercurrent with your content
and whether it be written oraudio or video or whatever other
format we're going to have inthe future, who knows, I'm
kidding.
I'm kidding that it feels rightto you and the rest of it just
doesn't matter.
Susannah Steers (09:56):
What's coming up for me as I listen to you
there is that it's got to beright for you, and Pilates is a
system that works really welland it works really well for a
lot of people.
Some people love it justbecause it's Pilates and a
system that works really well,and it works really well for a
lot of people.
Some people love it justbecause it's Pilates and they
love it in and of itself.
For me, despite the fact that Irun a Pilates studio, I'm not
(10:16):
in love with fitness.
What I'm in love with is theability to move well in the
world, to do the things that Ilove to do, and that is what I
really love to see in my clientsis seeing what becomes possible
when you create the rightconditions in the body for those
things to happen, and it seemsto me that that's a lot like
(10:38):
what you're doing with people.
Donna Cravotta (10:41):
I've had a past client called me the Pilates of
social media because I focusedon the little things.
I didn't.
I never did Facebook ads oranything like that.
Even when everyone was going inthat direction, I was, like it
feels so contrived.
I don't like I listen and youknow I can connect with those
people I need to connect withwithout doing that.
(11:02):
I would use the tools of theFacebook ads to do research and
then I would go off on my merryway and connect with the people
and yeah, I mean it has to feelgood.
It has to feel good Like if youwere doing a form of exercise
that you were injured every timeyou did it, would you keep
doing it?
Not a chance.
It's got to be in accordancewith everything else that you're
(11:25):
doing.
It should be a compliment, notsomething that takes you in a
sharp alternate direction.
It shouldn't be something thatyou have to like stop what
you're doing in your regular dayto the point where it's
detrimental to your schedule, toyour time, to your wellbeing,
and a lot of people just createsystems like that and they
(11:49):
create strategies that justdon't work in the rhythm of your
life, you know.
Susannah Steers (11:55):
And you can't keep doing that.
Donna Cravotta (11:57):
It's not sustainable and you'll never get
the results you want becauseyou're really not going to like
it.
I mean, the magic to all ofthis is showing who you are, and
if you're showing who you arewhen you're frustrated and
pissed off, you're not comingwith your best self.
Attract the right people.
Susannah Steers (12:18):
It seems like there's a lot of putting
together the fundamentals, thesmall pieces, the little things
that hold things together inyour work.
Is that true?
Donna Cravotta (12:29):
yes, very much so.
Um, and and that's the partthat people overlook when they
are looking to move fast and 10xthings and you know, automate
over automate things where youlose the human connection.
I've had clients that the onlystrategy I gave them was to
(12:51):
comment on other people's posts.
You know, go figure out yourvoice, figure out your audience,
connect with people.
And you know, by commenting onother people's posts, you really
kind of get into the groove ofthe conversation and you start
(13:12):
to, you know, see what peoplecare about.
Without it being a strategy,you're just there in a
conversation, you know, andyou're connecting with people
and you're meeting new peopleand you're seeing what other
people care about.
They're sharing books that theyread or podcasts that they
listened to, or an event thatthey went to or a hike that they
went on, whatever it may be,but you're learning in real time
, in real life experience, aboutpeople that you might want to
(13:33):
connect with.
And once you have that, I meaneverything else kind of falls
away.
And when I start to work withpeople, they get defensive and
they're like well, I'm alreadydoing this and this and this and
this and this, I can't doanother thing.
And my next question is andhow's it working for you?
Yes, because if you stop doingthis and this and this and this
(13:54):
and this, you'll have 15, 20minutes a day to go comment on
somebody's posts.
Susannah Steers (13:59):
Well.
I guess, then, when you're inalignment and you've listened
and you're finding people thatyou actually genuinely want to
work with and I find that thesame with exercise, right you
start to feel into your own bodyand to understand what feels
really good and what is feelingnot so good.
(14:19):
And what about that is just acapacity issue, like you say,
like you know, maybe it'sphysical capacity in the body,
maybe it's time you knowwhatever that capacity is, or
maybe it's a misalignment andmaybe it's figuring out.
Donna Cravotta (14:33):
Okay, this is not what I wanted to be doing
and this is not where I want tobe, or I spoke to somebody the
other day and she's got a smallpublishing company and she was
trying to get me to bother withher to do social media for her
clients who were not even myclients and I just said no, and
(14:54):
she goes what do you mean?
No, I said no, she goes.
Why?
I said because it's it's not avaluable use of my time.
And she said but you have to dosocial media.
I said you don't have to doanything.
There's no have to here.
I love that.
And I said how's it working?
And she goes it's not.
I said then why do you have todo it?
(15:14):
Like whose edict was that?
Susannah Steers (15:18):
Well, we seem to get a lot of those edicts,
though.
I mean, it's the same thing, Ithink, with health and exercise.
Right, it's like you got to dothis, you got to do that, you
got to do the other thing, andif you look at all the things
that you're supposed to do, doyou have time to actually live
your life?
Donna Cravotta (15:31):
no.
Susannah Steers (15:33):
So I think, finding the things that feel the
best for you, that are going tomake an impact and, yes, you
can look at, as you say, sort ofwhat are the tried and true,
what are the things that we knowwork, and let's skip the trends
, let's skip all the fancy stuffyou know
Donna Cravotta (15:51):
Make it boring! Do the things that work yeah,
and the thing that here's theother thing that happens too,
because we are listening to thegurus and falling in the pool of
bright and shiny, we tend toemulate a business model that is
totally unrelated to what weneed, and we're trying to do
(16:15):
something that somebody that haslike a team of 10 people and
affiliates, you know, likeaffiliate partners that will
sell thousands of dollars worthof stuff on the on your behalf,
and there's very few people thatactually have that.
So why are we buildingbusinesses to support that when
it's not what we need?
So like maybe the second thingI ask people is well, what do
(16:39):
you actually want, like, what doyou need?
What will make you happy?
How much money do you need tomake?
How much time do you have?
What do you hate doing?
What do you love doing?
And much money do you need tomake?
How much time do you have?
What do you hate doing?
What do you love doing?
And from there we start to kindof craft things because build
what's going to move the needlefor you.
I mean most of the people thatI work with.
They need 20 clients a year.
Why are you building all of it?
(17:01):
You can spend - I mean, if youconnect with five new people a
week on a social media platformof your choice, at the end of
the year there will be 241people that are real people that
are aligned with who you areand what you do, and that's a
(17:22):
significant addition to yourcommunity.
You can't do that with Facebookads.
You can't do that with Facebookads, you can't do that with
automation.
You can only do that by showingup.
Susannah Steers (17:33):
And, as you say , listening and talking to
people, you know it's not aboutthe bots creating stuff for you.
Donna Cravotta (17:40):
And it's totally free and you can spend 15
minutes a day doing it Rightfree and you can spend 15
minutes a day doing it Right sothat you can cut out.
Now I have to write 2,000 wordarticles and break them up and
schedule them and upload themand that's not going to get you
what you want.
That is contributing to all ofthe noise.
That's not what people hear.
(18:02):
They hear Charlie Brown'steacher, right Wah wah.
But spend that.
I mean just amuse yourself,amuse me.
Go spend 15 minutes this week,every day, and just find people
that you like and say hello Sayhello Say oh, I love this post.
(18:22):
This is what I learned fromreading the article you shared.
Oh, I like that podcast too.
What was your favorite episode?
I've read that book five times.
What's your favorite chapter toyou?
And I love that?
I mean.
Susannah Steers (18:46):
I can see it super clearly with the Real 50
Over 50 Project and in all ofyour work.
What's important for you in thestories that people tell?
Donna Cravotta (18:59):
I'm going to just talk about the 50 Over 50
Project now and um.
Earlier today we did the 88thinterview and we've done 11
panels so far and every time Ido an interview I learn
something.
I have a deeper connection withsomeone.
There's always an introductioneither I'm introducing them to
(19:22):
people, they're introducing meto people.
So my audience has grown veryintentionally.
I know people in the communityand I've kept it very, very
fluid.
People in the community haveconnected with each other.
I mean, like I'm in New Yorkand you're in Vancouver and I
connected you with two people inthe last week.
(19:43):
That's so crazy In Vancouver.
I mean, like what are thechances?
And it's just from having theseconversations, sharing our
stories, sharing our hearts, youknow, sharing our experiences
and when you do that there's aconnection and that connection
becomes part of thatundercurrent.
So now they're going to go seekme out on social media.
(20:05):
I'm going to follow them.
We're going to say you know,one of the things I love is
going into LinkedIn when I meetsomebody and seeing, oh my God,
we have 74 common connections.
How have we never met before?
Susannah Steers (20:17):
And that happens a lot.
It's amazing.
Donna Cravotta (20:20):
And you can see, like the avenues of people and
like you know where we wereprobably in the same room at the
same time, and and that's aconversation in itself, yeah,
like then you could starttalking about these common
connections and you've had thisexperience with this person and
this experience with this personand you feel like you know
somebody now because of thecommon connections that you have
(20:43):
.
And when you build a communitylike that, I mean you don't need
a lot of people, becauseeveryone means something, even
if you've never met them in reallife.
I haven't met most of thepeople I know in real life.
Susannah Steers (20:57):
There's something in the stories too,
and maybe this is just megetting excited about it as a
woman who's over 50 and lookingat this third act of my life and
trying to figure out what thatmeans.
There is really somethingpowerful in the wisdom that
women in particular share witheach other at this stage.
(21:19):
And I love what you're doingwith this.
Donna Cravotta (21:23):
This is another alignment with our different
fields of work.
People often call thisreinvention.
You know, as you're in your 50s, your 60s, you know it's the
second act, it's the third act.
Whatever you want to call it,call it what you like.
What it actually is isremembering, because we don't
need to be reinvented.
(21:44):
We're already perfectly finethe way we are and we're
remembering the parts that weput down, that we gave away,
that we forgot about, and partof what I help people do is pull
those things together throughtheir stories, through their
content, finding those thingsLike.
I'm working with a client nowwho, through going through this
(22:06):
process that I used to call acontent audit which nobody wants
to do a content audit I call ittried and new now, because you
take the things that are triedand true and you edit them and
you mix them with things thatare new and then you create
something.
It's like you're upcycling yourlife, you're upcycling your
story, and she remembered a bookthat she wrote in Paris.
(22:29):
She spent a month in Paris 14years ago and wrote like three
quarters of a book that'ssitting on an online folder
somewhere that is now beingrepurposed into the foundation
of the work that she does.
These are the principles of thework that she does.
Wow, it's such a hard timetalking about what she does
(22:50):
because it's very specific.
And now it all fell into placebecause this book that she wrote
.
Susannah Steers (22:56):
She already had the foundations.
Donna Cravotta (22:58):
She had it.
It's been there for 14 years.
She forgot about it.
Susannah Steers (23:03):
We don't have to remake ourselves.
We are already enough as we are.
We just need to remember andpolish things a little bit.
Donna Cravotta (23:13):
It's a little reorganization.
When I was in the middle offiguring this out because I took
myself through this process Itook myself through what I was
calling a content audit and Iwas like, wow, I'm really
missing the boat on this one.
But I was able to see what Iwas actually doing with clients
(23:36):
and it was so much more valuablethan I was giving it credit for
, because I was going from atactical perspective.
I was not going from aperspective where I was looking
at the full picture.
You know and it is also anemotional piece to it that I was
not healed enough from thingsthat happened in my life to put
myself in the middle of thatemotional place.
(23:58):
So it really takes an act ofbravery to go and do this and
courage to look through thesedifferent parts of your life and
literally decide what stays,what goes, what could be turned
into something else, what couldbe recycled, what could be given
away and what could be sold.
Susannah Steers (24:20):
I mean it's inspiring to me when I think
about it in the context of alife, in the context of a body
having a life, you know, aperson living in a body living a
life and all the things thatthat might mean.
It's pretty powerful stuff.
Donna Cravotta (24:38):
It really is, because when you start to
remember, oh my God, I did thatand I stopped because my mother
died, that's emotional and youhave to go through that.
And you have to go throughthose feelings again and
recognize, well, do I need that,or was that a trauma response?
And it could be withrelationships too.
(25:00):
It could be like oh, I've gotthis business partner that I
worked with and this is nolonger healthy for me and having
to let that go and endingcertain relationships so there
can be new relationships.
So it's not a checklist, it'sreally a rite of passage.
Susannah Steers (25:19):
It requires us, I think, to give ourselves a
little bit of grace and a littlebit of compassion, for you know
what might've been going on forus over the years.
Donna Cravotta (25:31):
and a little bit of.
I don't give a shit anymore.
Susannah Steers (25:33):
Well, yes, that too.
Yeah, I'm not going to take itanymore, I'm not doing it that
way anymore.
Screw that, yeah, I would agreewith you there for sure.
Donna Cravotta (25:53):
And that's why this really resonates for women
in the 50, 60, 70 age range,Because we're at that point
where we've done the things,we've made the mistakes, we've
had the successes, we know whatwe like, we know what we don't
like, and you know we've gotmore years behind us than in
front of us.
Yeah, we're not willing towaste the time, and it's a
really beautiful time of life ifyou embrace it and you and you
(26:14):
courageously step in to makingthe choices that are right for
you.
Yeah, and that's how I approachmy marketing as well, Because
if you're going to be doing thatin your life, why are you not
doing that in your business?
I?
Susannah Steers (26:26):
love it.
Donna Cravotta (26:27):
Why are you not doing that in your body?
There needs to be an alignmentbetween those three things as
well.
Susannah Steers (26:33):
Well, I think there's a saying that I love.
That is a physiotherapist thatI've worked with in the past.
This was one of her sayings,and it's every movement is a
whole body movement.
Donna Cravotta (26:47):
And.
Susannah Steers (26:48):
I believe that's true on a larger scale.
You know, it's that butterflyeffect thing Everything we do
has an effect and it might notseem like a big deal, but all of
the little things that we doadd up and they create the whole
of who we are and how we liveand breathe in the world.
I'm curious to bring you intomy world for a minute, because I
(27:13):
ask everybody this questionwhat does movement mean to you?
Donna Cravotta (27:20):
It means freedom .
Susannah Steers (27:22):
Oh, I love that .
Tell me more.
Donna Cravotta (27:27):
If you can't move, you're stuck.
You have to rely on somebodyelse or something to be able to
move.
If you're in a wheelchair, youcan't move without that
wheelchair.
If you need a cane, you can'tmove without that cane.
Susannah Steers (27:41):
A layer of independence.
Donna Cravotta (27:43):
Yeah, it's more than independence.
It's freedom.
Susannah Steers (27:52):
It's freedom to be able to go where you want,
do what you want, you know, befree of pain.
Are there things that you liketo do, to play or to?
How do you like to move aroundin the world?
Donna Cravotta (28:11):
You know, I've had a significant health issue
for the last couple of years, soit really impacted my, my
emotion and my movement and, um,you know, I'm starting to feel
better than I have in a longtime and I'm starting really
slow and it's very frustratingfor me.
I was like let's go ride 70miles on my bicycle.
Now I could barely get on mybicycle and it's been an
adjustment and it's been alesson in acceptance that maybe
I will never be able to ride 70miles on my bicycle.
Susannah Steers (28:34):
Maybe I can.
Donna Cravotta (28:35):
I don't know, I'm not saying that I can't, I'm
just saying, you know, maybe Ican't and I might need to accept
that and like Pilates, I wasdoing Pilates four times a week
and I had to stop because Icouldn't lay down and exercise
because my heart would go intopalpitations.
Oh wow, yeah.
So you know, I, I have.
(28:56):
I, that was like four years ago.
I had to stop and I still don'tfeel comfortable doing it.
Susannah Steers (29:03):
Lying down?
Yeah.
Again, it comes back to theelements, the capacities, the
pieces, and I find that's whereeven the small things, you know,
the small fundamental pieces,the little things we can do,
even the three minutes a day, asyou say, or the five minutes a
week, or you know, however thatshows up.
(29:25):
It's frustrating when you'reyou've had the capacity and
you've had the, you have a brainmemory and a body memory of
riding 70 miles and you want todo that, and that's a
frustrating thing when you haveto readjust that, that
perspective, and and find a newpath thing when you have to
(29:47):
readjust that, that perspectiveand and find a new path.
Donna Cravotta (29:48):
Um, so then I just say, okay, well, I'll walk
up and down the steps five times, see what happens, yeah, and
I'm just you know, but it was,it was.
I had to learn to accept it andI fought that.
It was hard, but it wasn't inmy best interest not to.
I didn't take it from theperspective of failure or that
(30:09):
it will never happen, just thatit might not.
And if it doesn't, there willbe something else and it'll be
okay.
Susannah Steers (30:16):
Yeah, and I think sometimes that level of
acceptance shows the doorway todifferent ways of doing things,
if you've been used toapproaching it in a particular
way.
Donna Cravotta (30:28):
It also made it feel more possible because I
wasn't digging in my heels, youknow.
Yeah, All these things theconnections, the alignments, the
acceptance, the relationshipsit's all different kinds of
relationships with ourselves andwith the world and it's pretty
exciting and like when you dobuild these relationships, with
(30:50):
these different aspects of yourlife, with things that you never
really thought you would have arelationship with, you know it
really does align everythingelse, because then these pieces
now come together in a differentway and they complement each
other, they're not butting upagainst each other.
Susannah Steers (31:05):
It's a beautiful alchemy, yeah Well,
for people who are interested inlearning more about you and
about your work, I will put abunch of links in the show notes
about all the places you Donna,but where is the best place for
people to connect with you?
Donna Cravotta (31:27):
Just go to my website.
You could link to everythingfrom there.
It's cravottamediagroup.
com, and you can find my sociallinks on there and links to the
Real 50 Over 50 and all of myservices and things and whatever
else I happen to be up to.
It's all there.
Susannah Steers (31:44):
You know, I continue to find all these ways
that we resonate or that Iresonate with your work in so
many ways.
Thank you for taking the timewith me today.
It has been an absolutepleasure talking to you.
Donna Cravotta (32:00):
Pleasure has been all mine.
I always enjoy spending timewith you and I really love to
find ways where what I do alignswith different types of work
and different types ofindustries, because it really is
about connection.
It's not about all of the otherthings that people push.
Susannah Steers (32:22):
Well from my heart.
Thank you and bye-bye.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Subscribe and if you love whatyou heard, leave a five-star
review and tell people what youenjoyed most.
Join me here again in a coupleof weeks For now let's get
moving.
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