Remember the first time you held a business card with your name on it? Carley Crose does. She felt like she had made it in life, and she handed one to everyone she met, including the waiter at Chili's. In this episode, Casey and Carley talk about chasing titles, the busyness brag, and knowing your value regardless of what the card says.

Meet Carley Crose

Carley is a lead program manager at Bishop-McCann, an incentive meeting planning agency, where she makes dreams come true for people and travels the world doing it. She is a Nashville resident, a native Texan, a dog mom, and Casey's cousin, which makes her the first family member ever on the podcast. Learn more at bishopmccann.com.

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Carley's Let Me Be Clear Statement

"Let me be clear, you are more than your business card."

Carley described the path so many of us follow: child, student, graduate, first big-kid job, first business card. Then comes the chase for the next title and the next promotion. Her life took a different route than she expected, and at one point she felt like she was failing at everything because she didn't hold the titles she thought she was supposed to have.

"All of This Is Made Up"

Then Carley landed a couple of jobs where she got to create her own title. She googled what sounded impressive and asked herself how powerful she could sound without misspeaking. Somewhere in that process came the revelation: all of this is made up. She is still Carley regardless of what her business card says or what anyone calls her, and she has value innately.

Casey shared her own version of this story, including the times she felt pulled to go after the next title because everyone said it was the natural next step, even when she didn't actually want it.

Since When Did Busy Become the Brag?

Carley named a pattern so many high-achieving women will recognize: defining ourselves by how busy we are. Staying up until midnight, answering a thousand emails, eight hours of calls. The more we chase the title and lose sight of what makes us happy, the more we fill our days with an agenda nobody assigned us except our own brain.

Casey asked herself a hard question about her own busyness: do I really want to show up as someone who doesn't have time and space for the people around me?

How Women Describe Themselves

When Carley's therapist asked her to describe herself, she answered with titles and the roles she plays in other people's lives: daughter, cousin, aunt, dog mom. She has noticed that little boys often describe themselves by their characteristics, like strong or a superhero, while little girls often describe the role they play for someone else.

The Great Aunt Nobody Knew by Title

Casey and Carley close with a story about their great aunt, one of 13 kids from small-town East Texas who built a professional career at the telephone company and once fed three college girls with five casserole dishes of pasta. Neither of them ever knew her titles. What they remember is how special she made them feel. Casey keeps her office nameplate as a reminder of who she wants to be.

How would you describe yourself if you couldn't use a single title?

Connect with Casey at clearisthenewconfident.com, on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. Planning an event? Book Casey to speak.