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There's something exciting about finding the name that finally fits. When I first started writing my one-woman show, it was called Chasing Enough. It made sense at the time. So much of what high-achieving women experience comes down to that persistent, uncomfortable feeling that no matter what they accomplish, it's never quite enough. It’s what I hear from clients in my coaching calls and programs, from audiences when I speak and also in my own life.  But the more I wrote, and after doing my read-through, the more I realized: the story was bigger than "enough." What Is My Show Chasing About? Chasing is a one-woman show that I am writing, producing, and performing myself. It explores what happens when a high-achieving woman spends her life running after the things she's been told will make her feel complete. The show asks one central question: What happens when enough is never enough? Through the character of Barbara Overwork, a relatable, funny, and painfully recognizable overachiever, Chasing takes audiences on a journey through the things so many women spend their lives pursuing:
And the question the show ultimately leaves with every audience member: What am I chasing? Why I Changed the Name from Chasing Enough to Chasing
It was about the entire pattern. The relentless pursuit. The next goal, the next achievement, the next version of yourself that will finally feel like enough. It feels simpler. Stronger. More intriguing. It leaves room for every audience member to ask themselves: What am I chasing? And is it worth it? That question resonates across generations of women. Whether you're a corporate professional climbing the ladder, an entrepreneur building a business, a mother trying to do it all, or a woman somewhere in the middle of a life that looks successful on paper but feels quietly unsatisfying. Chasing holds up a mirror. The Journey of Creating Chasing I have no formal theatre background, so it’s like learning from a fire hose. Yes, I am a professional speaker, trainer, emcee, run my own programs, have one stand-up and have been a teacher. And at the same time I am, by my own admission, feeling a bit unqualified to be writing, producing, and starring in a one-woman show. And I'm doing it anyway. The creative journey behind Chasing has been as much a part of the show's story as the script itself:
Every script revision, every reading, every breakthrough reminds me that creating something meaningful takes time. And I'm loving the process. Why This Show Matters for High-Achieving Women The themes at the heart of Chasing aren't just theatre. They're the lived experience of millions of women.
We build the life we were told to want, and then quietly wonder why it doesn't feel like we thought it would. Chasing doesn't just name that experience. It holds space for it, adds humour to it, and ultimately invites every woman in the audience to consider a different way of living. Here's to chasing less and living more. What's Next for Chasing
If you want to follow along on the journey, get invited to upcoming previews, or explore partnership and collaboration opportunities, sign up for updates at the Chasing landing page or reach out to me directly at [email protected]. And if you'd like to bring Chasing to your city, your organization, your conference, or your community of women, I would love to hear from you. Because the question What am I chasing? deserves to be asked out loud.
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How many times have you said, "I'll start that in January," or "I'll wait until I finish something else," or "I'll get to it when I have more time"? If you've ever said something like that, what you're really saying is someday. You're pushing it to a date in the future, but not a specific date. Someday isn't a date.  1. You Can Be Busy Without Moving Forward Most of the women I work with aren't sitting around doing nothing. They're doing so many things: working, taking care of people around them, supporting their clients, managing teams, managing their house, putting out fires. All the responsibilities. Whether you're in a business, a career, or even a stay-at-home mom, there's a lot on the go. But being busy doesn't equal being productive. You've heard of the hamster wheel. You're running fast, working hard. At the end of the day, you feel tired, but you haven't necessarily moved yourself forward. You feel like you're in the same place, and every day is the same. Your biggest goals or your personal passion goals keep getting pushed until tomorrow. Or even worse, you don't even know what your personal goals are. Let me ask you: Are you actually moving forward with the things that matter most to you, or are you moving forward with things that are important to other people? 2. Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time I have been guilty of this. Many of my clients have been guilty of this. Maybe you too. You're waiting for January, or for all the stars to align, or after a vacation, when the kids go back to school, or when business calms down. But then you realize: life never really calms down. Business never really calms down. If you want these things to happen, you just have to choose the time to do them. With my one-woman show read-through, I kept wavering on the date: "Oh, I'm going to do it this time or maybe this date." Then I had to check with the theatre. Then maybe the night after school ends wasn't a great time. It's funny because my connection at the theatre said, "You know, Diane, anytime you pick is going to be a bad time for some people." And I was like, "Wow, you're so right." I just had to pick it. Waiting for the perfect time is just procrastination designed as good planning. We might be waiting because it protects us from:
Here's your question: What are you waiting for before you give yourself permission to start? Is it a good excuse, or do you feel like it's a good reason? Sometimes it is a good reason: "I've got this big project, so when that finishes I'll start." But have you given yourself a specific date? Have you put it in your calendar? 3. Your Goals Are Getting the Leftovers Your goals are just getting the leftovers of your time, your energy, your resources, your priorities. They're really low on your list. We often follow through more easily when someone else is depending on us:
Your most important goals can't live in leftover spaces, because there usually aren't any. We find a reason to fill them. Something comes up. Someone asks for something.  If you think of the jar story, if you put all the sand and little pebbles in first, and then try to add the big rocks, there's going to be no room for them. You have to put the big rocks in first. You have to intentionally create space, time, energy, and resources towards what matters most. I sat on my book for probably a year. It wasn't until I pre-sold 350 copies to a women's convention, where I was scheduled as the opening and closing keynote speaker, that it actually had to happen. I also put off doing my podcast until my friend Michelle really pushed me: "Come on, we need to make this happen." These were important to me in my business growth and in my personal growth. I kept putting them off because there was always something that felt more urgent. Can you relate to that? 4. You Don't Need More Discipline When we don't follow through on something, we often blame ourselves. You might start asking yourself, "Why am I procrastinating? Why can't I be more disciplined? Why can't I just get this done?" First of all, in coaching, "why" is the worst question. Instead, ask yourself:
What's missing might be:
5. Don't Add Another Five Goals When you ask yourself really deeply what you want, and you get clear on that answer, it isn't adding five new goals to your plate. It's just maybe the one thing you've been putting off.  Ask yourself:
Then get clarity around: Is it procrastination? Is it perfectionism? Do I not have clarity in the first place? Do I have too many priorities? Do I lack support? Turn that someday into a decision. Someday on one goal that you've been putting off:
Just saying "I need to work on my goal" isn't a plan. A specific action scheduled at a specific time is. Your Goals Deserve More Than Your Leftover Time You don't have to wait till January. January is already busy. We're coming off Christmas. There's too much going on already. You don't have to wait until life calms down. You can have it naturally layer in. And you don't have to figure it all out alone. Someday isn't a date. This week is. Maybe even September. If you want clarity around what you want, a clear plan for moving forward, coaching support, mastermind support from other women, and accountability to follow through, I'm opening applications soon for my She's Goaled Group Coaching Mastermind Program, starting in September. Get on the waitlist today. Listen to the full Dynamic Women podcast episode here. Or watch the full YouTube Video here. Until next time, stay dynamic!
At the Dynamic Women Podcast's seventh anniversary celebration, listener and coaching client Jill Kelly asked me: How do you organize your podcast among everything else you have going on? Do you record multiple episodes in one day? How far in advance do you book guests? And how do you find your podcast guests? It's a great behind-the-scenes question, because when you turn on the podcast and listen, it all looks smooth and put together. But there's a lot more to it than that.  Before I dive in, I want to mention that Jill and I were recently interviewed together for the Can Care Podcast, an organization that connects current cancer patients with survivors for mentorship and connection. The podcast is called Hope in the Face of Cancer, and Jill so graciously shared her story and her journey with her husband through cancer. I am so proud of you, Jill. It is not easy to be interviewed on a podcast, especially about such a personal experience. Now, onto the questions. How Many Episodes Do I Record in a Day? In an ideal world, I would probably record four to eight episodes in a day, covering the next month or two. That would make some of my team members very happy. But the reality is, I usually record one per week. Here's why: the topic is related to whatever I'm offering at that time. Why would I talk about time management and then pitch a confidence program? It makes no sense. If we're going to attract people based on a current offering, we want the content to be relevant. Otherwise it feels disconnected. I don't always have my marketing calendar locked in because other things come up, so recording one a week gives me the flexibility.  Solo episodes are so much easier to batch. I'll plan the next four topics, show up and record one, stop the recording, go change my shirt and earrings (guys just wear the same thing and say we can too, but we can't. It doesn't work that way), come back, and record another. I can knock out a few solo episodes in one sitting. Guest episodes are more work. My team does all the back-and-forth coordination, and then I have to prepare, reading their guest sheet and then show up and interview them rather than just talking myself. Guest episodes are also longer, up to 30 minutes, where I try to keep solo episodes to 15 minutes. The latest I can record an episode is Monday afternoon, because it has to be edited Monday night to go out Tuesday morning. Do I Stay Ahead? I'd love to be a few weeks to a few months ahead, but that doesn't always allow for real-time experiences I want to talk about. If I coach someone and something comes up I want to discuss, I want that flexibility. It also doesn't allow for timely topics. Sometimes we push episodes back. When I interview guests whose book, program or show is coming out in a few weeks, I'll push my own episode to fit theirs in. If I want to put something of mine in, I'll push other people's out. The main thing is being consistent and ideally always having a show prerecorded because things happen. I've had to record episodes when I had food poisoning, when I almost lost my voice, and when my father was dying. If I didn’t have them ready to go, my team has gone back through old Facebook Lives, pieced something together, and published it. If you have batched episodes in reserve, it's such a relief to use them in a pinch. Pre-travel and pre-busy seasons, I always batch weeks in advance. The goal is to stay ahead, even if the reality is often just recording one episode per week. How Far in Advance Do I Schedule Episodes? You can only schedule them if you record them. A lot of times they are scheduled the night before they're supposed to go out because my team works in my evenings and then the episodes go out in the morning. I have heard of some podcasters record a whole season at once, so maybe 3 months at one time. This would be great, but since I like to leave room for timely topics, rather than be scheduled that's the trade-off I choose. How Do I Find Podcast Guests? In the beginning, it was a lot of my clients and guests who were on my summits, those interviews went on to the podcast. Then it was women I met where I‘d say, "You have a cool story, I want to interview you." Then it evolved. Because of how long I've been running this podcast, we're in the top 2.5% of all podcasts, five awards, and almost 380 episodes, I get pitched to a lot. I say "pitched" because most people don't come in to serve. They come in to take. The Napkin vs. The Bib One of my coaches, James Malinchak, taught me this: come in with a napkin on your arm (like a server at a nice restaurant) and say, "How can I serve you?" What serving looks like:
What I actually hear most of the time:
You'd be happy? You're pitching me. The truth is, and this might sound conceited, but I don't need guests. I have my own solo episodes. They're shorter, faster, and easier. If I bring on a guest, now I have to figure out the rest of my content for the week, a YouTube video, social posts. It's all centered on the guest, not me. If you're going to try to be a guest on somebody's podcast, come with the napkin on. Don't have the bib on. How I Approach It Differently When I was at the Web Summit, I was brought in as media because of the podcast. They wanted me to interview CEOs of major tech companies and government ministers. But I went down to the convention floor, read people's name badges and business signs, started conversations, and said: "I have this podcast. If you'd like, I'd love to give you some air time."  Their responses were things like: "Me? You want to interview me? Oh yes! Wow, it's so nice meeting you! What should I do?" I love that energy. It's very different from "I’m awesome. Your people would love what I offer." I also recently chatted with a woman who had sold her business for an amount I only found out after Googling and I'm glad I didn't Google it before, because I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to approach her. She doesn't need me to promote her business. So I said: "I hear you have this mission and this passion around this topic. I'd love to give a voice to that." That's the approach: Can I give your mission a platform? Would that be helpful to you? Sometimes they take me up on it. Sometimes they don't. And that's fine. Other Ways I Find Guests
But so many of them come back and say, "We don't pay for PR," and I'm like, "Who pays my team to do all the work?" They want it for free, and that's fine, but that's also not how it works. Why the Unknown Voices Matter Most Sometimes the greatest episodes are the people who are not widely known, because now their voice has a platform. Just like with Jill's story: she has a voice out there now. That's how I want to use my platform, my YouTube, my podcast, my books, to give a voice, to amplify the voices of women who don't always get their story told. This is the final post in our four-part series featuring burning questions from our seventh anniversary celebration guests. If you missed the previous three, check out Jennifer Kanyumwa’s question on what I love most about podcasting, Paula Kent's question on how to monetize your expertise when you're just starting out, and Ashley Komary’s question on the top five most impactful actions for building a speaking and coaching business. Until next time, stay dynamic!
What if the thing keeping you stuck isn't a lack of talent, but the belief that you have to be ready before anyone sees your work?  After doing a read-through of my one-woman show, Chasing Enough, people kept telling me I was courageous for inviting an audience to see the play before it was finished. The truth is, I wasn't trying to be courageous. I was just trying to make it better. What I realized after reflecting on it was that the biggest lessons had nothing to do with theatre, they can be applied to all areas of life. Why We Wait We all wait. We wait to launch, we wait to speak, we wait to write, we wait to lead, we wait to ask, we wait to publish books and podcasts. But courage isn't the absence of fear. It's creating anyway. Why do we wait then? We tell ourselves:
Then we don't do it. What if perfection is actually preventing your progress? The read-through forced me to test that belief. If I bring it perfect, I'm married to what I've said. I don't want to change it, and I've gone so far down the "this is how it is" line that I'm maybe not as open to making changes. Bringing it imperfect kept me open. The Five Lessons Lesson 1: You Can't Improve When Nobody Experiences What You're Putting Together This was one of the biggest realizations. In theatre, it's already built in. There are read-throughs and workshops where you bring the content and get feedback. The script looked good on paper, but until people experienced it, I didn't know:
This can apply to your business, books, workshops, podcasts, and even relationships. One example is the cover of my Dynamic You book. I had two cover options and showed them to a group of people I trusted. The one I liked best got feedback I never would have seen on my own. They said, "You look confident, but not approachable. You look like someone I'd be intimidated to talk to, not someone I'd want to learn from." That feedback completely changed my decision. So I picked the more relaxed cover with my hands in my pockets and a genuine smile. I wouldn't have made that choice if I'd waited until I thought it was perfect. Showing people the work before it was finished made it better. If you're trying to keep things isolated and secret and do it all yourself, it's not going to improve as much as if you have the intended audience see it before you launch. Lesson 2: People Want You to Succeed Before an event, or before you publish something, or before you let it out, you might worry that people are going to say, "This isn’t funny,” It’s too long," "This is boring,” “Why did she invite us?” and even “This is terrible." But instead, people were so supportive, encouraging, and invested in my success. People were offering great help. In your true network, people aren't waiting for you to fail. They're hoping that you'll succeed, and they want to be there to cheer you on. We are often harsher critics in our own heads than exist in reality. I'm not talking about keyboard warriors who don't know you; when you invite your trusted people, they're not going to criticize you. They're going to support you. Lesson 3: Feedback Isn't Failure If I just took the script, rehearsed it, and then presented it without feedback, the show could fail. But feedback, especially if it's constructive, or even if it points out things they didn't like, that's just feedback. Every note I received in the survey, every comment after the read-through, it wasn't proof that I'd failed. Because I wasn't going there expecting it to be perfect. It was just proof of the next step.  Feedback isn't a report card. It's just information. I knew I wouldn't get 100%. That's the point. I had to separate myself from my work, and that makes me a better creator. Instead of thinking "they didn't like me because they didn't like the play," we have to think: "Ah, this piece needs work. This scene can be edited. This piece of my book needs a rewrite. This cover can be redesigned." That's all it's telling us. Lesson 4: The Things We Obsess Over Usually Aren't What Others Notice I worried about Whether this scene would work: Will me falling on the floor when I acted this piece work? Really, no one mentioned a lot of it. Instead, they pointed out a lot of things I wasn't even concerned about at the beginning and hadn't even considered.  I was telling people that the main character feels pushed by society to be more, do more, have more. But what I actually showed was more so the pressure of people growing up: parents, teachers, coaches, and her own saboteurs in her mind. I totally forgot to show more of society's role, and they were like, "Oh, it'd be nice to see how else society does this for her now as an adult." I was like, "Duh. That was one of the biggest things I wanted to show." But it's that Les Brown quote: "You can't see the picture when you're in the frame." You can't see it, when you’re in it. Something could be right in front of you, and you're going to miss it. We are often terrible judges of our own work. A lot of the stuff I thought, "I'm not sure they'll like it," they actually liked, and some parts I chose to keep that I really should have cut. I only realized that by reading it out loud. Lesson 5: Progress Happens in Public I'm not saying everything has to be shown to people, but the people you show it to have to be trusted, know your intention, and be there to be supportive and constructive. But this is where this becomes bigger than the play. Progress happens in public.
For you, be thinking about this: if I put this in the public eye, could I move forward faster? That's why I don't create a program that I haven't sold first. I put it out to the public, sell it, then create it, because that's proof of concept. Everything I've built in the beginning was imperfect. It wasn't the greatest. But I didn't know unless I did it. I didn't become ready first. I became ready because I kept showing up. Imperfect progress created not perfection, but created me actually doing the things I'd put off. I know I've sat on things and put them off and put them off, and then I needed someone else to help me get them going. Your Challenge After these five lessons, what have you been sitting on?
Maybe it is a book, a business, a conversation with someone, a course, a dream, or even just a piece of art. What would happen if you let someone see it, hear it, give you feedback on it? The key thing to remember is: you don't become ready and then share your work. You become ready because you shared your work. I still have a lot to do on Chasing Enough. The script is nowhere near finished, especially after all this amazing feedback. But it's going to be infinitely better moving forward because people have experienced it, and I have experienced people experiencing it. Maybe the thing you're waiting to be perfect doesn't need another month hanging out in your head. Maybe it just needs one courageous moment in the real world. I challenge you to let it out. If you want to get updates, invites to the next read-through or workshop, or at least the September preview, sign up using this link to follow along on the Chasing Enough journey. Until next time, stay dynamic!
If you've been following me, you know that I am currently writing a one-woman show. Last week, I did the read-through of it, and today I'm sharing what happened the first time my play, Chasing Enough, met an audience.  This is something that kind of terrified me. My piece is not yet finished; it's not polished. The funny thing is that the character in it, Barbara Overwork, is an overachiever. Being that people are seeing this without it being perfect, finished, or fully developed is a bit of a risk, a bit of a gamble, and very, very vulnerable. I'm going to share why I chose to do it early, what surprised me, and some of the lessons I learned. What Is a Read-Through? A read-through is when you take your script and literally read it aloud. There's no lighting or sound or anything. I was supported by Louisa Fung, who is also in the Creative Hub with me at Presentation House Theatre. She read what act we were in, what scene we were in, any description of the scene, and talked about the things that aren't seen because I'm not acting it. I decided to take an even bigger risk and act out parts of it, just because I felt like those parts would be more fun for my audience to see. At the end of a read-through, you do a feedback session with those in attendance, asking them questions like:
For me, I wanted to know: is it landing where I need it to land? A lot of people actually don't do this stage until maybe a year in, or even further on. I didn’t know this until two days before my read-through. The fact that I'm doing it now was brave, but I wanted to do it. Why I Chose to Do It Early I really just wanted to hear the script out loud. It's just me in this show, as it's a one-woman show. It might change later on once I start working with my director, but as I was talking to Louisa about it, she said, "You have so many characters. Because you're not acting, it's might be confusing for the audience, and it's going to be tiring for you." She had a good point. I read all the characters that came from Barbara, while Louisa read all the characters who were not Barbara Overwork. Barbara has three saboteurs and one supportive character, all internal characters who come out and are personified. While theatre is meant to be experienced, not just read, and yes, I'm going to be acting it later, and I'm going to have a director helping me, to be able to read it at this point gave me so much great feedback from the audience. Who I Invited I did not want to make this a public thing. I just wanted friends and connections in my network who I felt would be supportive. I put it out to a few different communities I'm a part of:
I had a nice assortment of people there. Some from North Vancouver, BC, some from further away. They came for this two-hour event. It was so nice to know they were cheering me on and wanted me to succeed. But rather than just handing them the play to read, I wanted them to experience the intended emotion and then get their feedback. I needed honest feedback before moving forward because I had so many scenes—about 105 pages—that I needed to cut down to about 75. I needed feedback on: did I cut the right things? Are things now confusing because I cut parts? For a one-person show that you want to do from start to finish without any intermission, you really do need it to be tight. 60 to 75 minutes, no more than 90. Because people can't really hold their pee for that long! They can leave and come back, but I don't want that either. Plus, it's me. Do I really want to do 90 minutes by myself without anyone else? That's a lot of work. When I read it with Louisa, it was probably about an hour, but I didn't let anything breathe. It was really quick, literally just reading rather than performing. When I do perform it, there will be space to breathe, more emotive language, and more acting that has no words. I'm guessing we're pushing more toward 90 minutes when fully performed. That honest feedback of "Am I hitting the mark? Is the message I'm intending what they're feeling?"—and also creating in public is uncomfortable, but incredibly valuable, especially if you have people that care about you and want you to succeed. They gave me some really great feedback. It wasn't all just fluff and "you're amazing." They gave me some really honest feedback for the development of the script. What Surprised Me Some things were more powerful than I even intended and caused shifts, not just in who they are as a person, but they were starting to see it as who they are as a mother, or who they are as someone at a job, or who they are as a friend. They started to see, in different areas of life, how this show could impact them. It's also interesting to see where people laughed and where people didn't laugh. Thankfully, I had the whole thing recorded. There were also emotional moments. Some people said afterwards that there were moments where they almost wanted to cry because it was so sad. Other moments when they felt anxious due to the intensity of the scene. What I realized is I came out with a big bang at the start, which I might actually soften so that people start to like the character before they see her in full show mode. Also surprising was that the ending didn't land emotionally where I wanted it to. People were kind of wanting more of a change. These are the things that I now get to go and develop. Some things didn't work as well as I had hoped:
I need to cut before I can add, if I want this to work out as my intended ending and impact. It's funny because when I do keynotes, I just do my keynote. I practice it, but I don't have read-throughs. I just do it. But my amazing CAPS community, if you do a talk in front of them, they will give you constructive feedback. They will be honest with you, not just whitewash or boost your ego. To know where my ideal audience felt it hit the mark and where it didn't is massive. The Biggest Lessons Audiences Are Smarter Than We Think In theatre, we need to show them, not tell them. A lot of the stuff I was doing was more TED talky, more workshop sounding. Me telling them what I feel, telling them what they should feel, and the reasons behind it.  Less Explanation, More Experience I attempted to do a lot of stripping back to “show and not tell,” but by stripping it back so much, there wasn't enough explanation, which left them confused in some parts. There needs to be a really nice balance of explanation and experience so that it's really clear to your audience. Granted, other than a few scenes, I'm not acting it; there are no props, no music, no movement, though there was a little bit of voice-changing because, even in a read-through, I wanted to emote a little. Sometimes the Scenes You Love Aren't the Ones People Connect With And that's okay. The tweaks people are saying, "I wanted more of this" or "this felt off." It’s great to know it now, because now I can adapt it. The plan: get it done, do a read-through by the end of June, use the summer to tweak the script, maybe do one more read-through. Then, in September, do rehearsals with a director, and a private preview where I'm now acting in it, with sound, lighting, props, set, and costumes. Again, the audience can give feedback after, so we do some more tweaking before the big grand opening of the show. The Script Became So Much Clearer The last lesson is that the script became so much clearer because people experienced it. While I'm now learning that I really should have filmed from the front to see their faces:
These are the things that are going to help me really to lock in this play.  I'm just extremely grateful. It was such a blessing to have 22 people who care about me come out to support me and give feedback. The show is already elevated, already being fine-tuned. Even the night before I did it, I changed one scene to make it more interactive with the audience, and I heard they liked that interaction and found it very profound. That's part of how the show has become better, because the creative juices of doing it and coming up with last-minute ideas and now new ideas for the next one. It's amazing to have finally read Chasing Enough to an audience. Even though it was a private audience, it still was in public. It felt extremely vulnerable. Some parts felt risky. But because I had my friends there, I knew they wanted me to succeed. What's Next In the next blog, I'm going to talk more about what I learned by letting people see my work before it was ready. If you have perfectionism, that will be a really great blog for you. If you would like to be at another read-through or get an invite to the private preview, sign up on the Chasing Enough landing page to get updates and special invites. Looking at the bigger picture: some workshops and previews for private audiences in September and October (depending on when we've locked it in), and then looking at 2027 to take it on tour across Canada. Stay tuned; maybe I'll be coming to a city near you. If you would like to be a local ambassador connected to the show, or to sponsor, support, partner, or collaborate with me in some way, please reach out: [email protected]. While I can't lock anything in now, it's just good to know who is where and in what city so that you would be the first one I reach out to. Until next time, stay dynamic!
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