Meet Superkate Slepicka

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Superkate Slepicka a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

SuperKate, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

As a kid, you’d think I had lots of confidence and self esteem. I was checking all the boxes: good at school, decent ability to play multiple instruments, and excelled at several sports. But I fell into the mess of comparing myself, my body, to how much I didn’t look like the magazines and tv. And because I grew up in a very small town, it was very clear from a young age that you couldn’t risk being different, otherwise you were teased and bullied. I certainly tried to fit in most of my young life, but the other kids clearly saw something different about me. After being bullied for a few years, I put up some really thick walls and decided I was going to show everyone.
I’ve reflected on my past and realized my confidence was mostly built from my ego. And while it served me at certain times of my life, it wasn’t going to be the answer now. Owning and running my own business, I’ve had to build new levels of discipline and awareness. My confidence and self esteem have grown as a result. I still have some leftover bits of wall to dismantle, but I’ve replaced it with a strong foundation, a deep anchor in myself that has been built through keeping promises to myself. Every day I choose to do the task I don’t want to do, every day I choose to examine and hold myself accountable to my thoughts and actions, and every time I stop and give myself grace for not doing all the things I think I should do, my confidence grows.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I spent years supporting, and managing, artists in the entertainment industry. I organized their schedules so they were able to prioritize everything they needed to reach their goals, including strong boundaries around the routines that strengthened their physical and mental health. In the process of taking care of them, I let my own time and boundaries slip away from me. That left me feeling completely overwhelmed and exhausted.
I took a break from that life and dove into pilates, personal training, and wellness. As I looked around at all the amazing people in my life, I noticed many of them were putting everyone else’s needs first. They were sacrificing their happiness and goals.
As a high performance and scheduling coach, I love supporting people to get back to prioritizing their needs so they have more energy and capacity to make the change they want to see in the world. I help them find clarity, remove distractions, and create a schedule that reach their goals faster while promoting their physical and mental health.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Improving my mindset
I have steadily been boosting my mindset over the past four years. My gratitude and wins journal has been part of my daily routine for about four years. The big shift happened when I began to talk to myself, instead of listen to the subconscious voices that often undercut us, the voices that talk to our fears and try to keep us safe. I started telling myself the messages I needed to hear. “It may not be perfect, but you’re taking a step in the direction you want to go.” “Giving five minutes of your time to this difficult task is better than nothing.” “You have this one incredible life. It would be a shame to make yourself smaller and not go after your dreams.” “You can do it!”
It can be difficult to start talking to yourself, but it’s important to remember it doesn’t have to be positive. You can speak to yourself neutrally. Neutral is better than negative. You can speak to yourself just about finishing a certain task, or taking a small step.

2. Gaining clarity
The more action I took, whether it worked in my favor or not, I got answers around what I did and didn’t want. I asked myself questions which often lead to confusion and frustration, but as I got quiet, my body often knew what my head wasn’t ready to admit. With the help of my coach, and my friends, different parts of my life came into focus.
Find ways to inspire yourself to answer questions about your life and the direction you want to take. It can be through journaling, a coach, or a trusted person who is a few steps ahead of you in the process. Gaining awareness also comes through moving your body, whether it’s a sweaty workout or going for a walk. The more awareness you have, the faster you achieve clarity.

3. Removing distractions
This is almost tied with gaining clarity. Reorganizing my laptop desktop, removing most of the apps from my phone, and developing a system to organize my tasks/to-do lists, all of these combined lead to space and clarity. My mind doesn’t wander as much because I know what I’m supposed to focus on at different times of the day. If I get distracted by a to-do list task, I immediately write it down and deal with it when it’s time for that.
Removing distractions includes spending less time on social media because that’s what other people want you to focus on. Instead choose to focus on the things that will maintain your mindset, your goals, your personal life and relationships.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

My parents had spent many years traveling around the U.S. and the world before they settled down. I grew up listening to the stories of their trips, seeing pictures from different parts of the world on our walls. They fostered community and communication in our small town, while also reminding me there was a big world out there with lots of different people and ideas. That sense of possibility, more opportunity outside of my small town, gave me the strength to deal with the bullies. It inspired me to spend my senior year of high school as an exchange student in Tokyo, Japan. It inevitably saved me from a very dark point in my life and I am forever grateful for that.

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Headshot: Quinton Caster

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