Uncover Me: The Secret Story I Finally Tell (Part I)

Issue 2859— September 23, 2025

Life is layered. Some layers are easier to unearth than others.

Last week, I spoke at my friend Sharon Jackson’s “We Mean Business” conference. She scheduled 15 minutes in the packed agenda for me to talk about my 9 Leadership Power Tools.

So, not one to follow impossible rules,  I used my 15 minutes on the stage to impart just one of the Leadership Power Tools. I chose #9, “Tell Your Story.”

That’s because storytelling is an essential leadership skill to build trust, impart knowledge, and connect emotionally with people. I told a personal story to illustrate storytelling as metaphor for the three elements of intention: vision, courage, action.

One of my mentors used to say, “A good storyteller tells a good story; a great storyteller lets you see yourself in the story.” So I took the audience with me on a relatable journey from youth to making a key career decision.

I knew by their reaction and subsequent unsolicited praise that I had connected with the audience.

Still, I felt like a hypocrite because I was covering the real, raw essence of my story, as I have done most of my life.

Why didn’t I tell the part hidden deep inside that I have only recently started alluding to but still never fully shared? Why is that part of the story only now pushing to be born into the world when it has defined me for all my years?

Now I know that you don’t have to tell all when sharing your story. We’ve all been subjected to over-sharers who can make our eyes glaze over with irrelevant details. And I couldn’t drop my entire data base in a 15-minute speech even if I wanted to.  

But the truth is that when I tell my story, I have deliberately left out the deepest part, the central driver that made me who I am. Why? Because to uncover myself fully and share it was terrifying. To share the real reason that propelled me into a life of pursuing social justice and movement leadership causes me to excavate a layer that I have kept hidden to avoid vulnerability.   

Oh, I routinely share that I grew up in small Texas towns where women weren’t encouraged to have career aspirations. That I had no intention of my own, for my culturally learned aspirations were what I thought others wanted of me. I wanted more than anything to be “normal,” to be liked, to fit in. That I married my high school sweetheart and we had three children by the time I was 20 years old, in the land of “Friday Night Lights.”

That I woke up then, realizing I had no employable skills but I did like to learn. I started community college intending to become a teacher, an acceptable profession for a woman. That it took me 12 years to finish my degree, but I learned that it doesn’t matter where you start. Just start. Heads always nod when I share that truth. Because haven’t we all taken wrong turns in life and had to course correct?

But I never shared the real reason I so wanted to be like all my friends, and why I felt different from them in a fundamental way even though I strived to look and act the same.

Come back next week for the rest of the story.

 GLORIA FELDT is the Co-founder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker, and a global expert in women’s leadership development and DEI for individuals and companies that want to build gender balance. She is a bestselling author of five books, most recently Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. Honored as Forbes 50 Over 50, and Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Find her @GloriaFeldt on all social media.