Be a leader and change your world with Alicia Curtis

PASSION: Building a society that is inclusive, kind and where we can all lead social change
PURPOSE: Inspiring people to unlock their leadership potential through her social business Alyceum.
 
Alicia Curtis has led award-winning board diversity programs, experiential millennial leadership programs and social change campaigns.She’s co-written a book and been named as one of Australia’s top 100 women of influence. 

Alicia is the Patron of Girl Guides WA and the co-founder of 100 Women – a philanthropic giving circle which has granted more than a million dollars and impacted women and girls around the world. 

She’s a mum of two energetic kids, loves dancing, theatre, travel and reading books  - and changing the world one person at a time.
 
 Warm thanks to:
 Sponsor: Females Over Forty-five Fitness in Victoria Park
Sound Engineering: Damon Sutton
Music: William A Spence
... and all our generous and inspiring guests around the warm table this season!
 
 

Transcript

Sonia Nolan: 0:00

Welcome to My Warm Table. I'm Sonia Nolan and season two of this podcast about passion and purpose is brought to you by Females Over 45 Fitness, or FOFF in Victoria Park.

Introductory Voice Over of Previous Guests: 0:13

My name is Kate Chaney. My name is Bonnie Davies. My name is Madeleine King. My name is Valerio Fantinelli. My name is Lyn Beazley. My name is Alexandra Helen Flanagan Hi, my name is Sharon Todd. My name is Lucy Cooke and I'm the CEO of SpaceDraft. I'm the first Aboriginal female funeral director. CEO and founder of Motion by the Ocean. I'm a psychologist and a professor in psychology at Curtin University. CEO and founder of Lionheart Camp for Kids. Around My Warm Table. Or listening on Sonia Nolan's My Warm Table. Just sharing a yarn with her.

Sonia Nolan: 0:37

Alicia Curtis is my guest around the Warm Table today. She is one of Western Australia's most inspiring social and business entrepreneurs. She's an award winning speaker and a community change maker focused on igniting women to find their leadership potential, and transform the world for the better. Alicia is passionate about building a society that is inclusive, kind and where we can all have the confidence and skills to make a difference. She is driven by values of being bold and unconventional, and doing good. She has been outstanding and energetic in this purpose since she was 10, and at 12 she was there at the first International Children's Conference organised by the United Nations, and then co founded a children's conference here in Perth. Since then, she's been unstoppable. Alicia has led award winning board diversity programmes, experiential millennial leadership programmes and social change campaigns. She has co written a book and been named as one of Australia's Top 100 Women of Influence. Alicia is the patron of Girl Guides WA and the co founder of 100 Women, a philanthropic giving circle which has granted more than a million dollars and impacted women and girls around the world. She's a mum of two energetic kids, loves dancing, theatre, travel and reading books, oh and changing the world one person at a time. I am so excited about this Warm Table conversation about passion and purpose. Welcome, Alicia. Curtis.

Alicia Curtis: 2:10

Thank you so much for having me, Sonia.

Sonia Nolan: 2:12

It's just an absolute privilege to have you around the table. And there are so many places we could start. But I'm prompted by a TEDx talk I was watching where you gave us some ideas and shared your belief that we can all be philanthropists. So I really want to talk about that as a start.

Alicia Curtis: 2:31

Yeah well, philanthropy is really interesting. It's really interesting word, people really trip up when they even say the word. And it's, it's known as only things that some people can do. Right? So it's always been hijacked, that it's something that not everybody can participate in. And I thought to myself, well, what if we changed up that story? What if anybody could be a philanthropist? And so did some digging and sort of into this topic of philanthropy? And the original meaning of philanthropy is a lover of humanity.

Sonia Nolan: 3:04

Isn't that beautiful?

Alicia Curtis: 3:05

It's gorgeous. And yeah, I think many people would resonate with that, many women would resonate with that, but we don't identify ourselves as philanthropists anymore. So then, you know, we started going well, what is, you know, what are the different types of philanthropy? And just, you know, over the last sort of 10/15 years or so, there's been a new type of philanthropy that's emerged called Collective Giving. And it's really sort of, I think peaked the interest of a lot of women because it's very community based. And it gives anybody access to being a philanthropist.

Sonia Nolan: 3:39

Yeah so tell me more about 100 Women, so you gathered 100 women, everyone gave to the giving - to the community collective giving circle.

Alicia Curtis: 3:48

Yeah, it started I you know, it's actually started in, if you saw that TEDx talk, you know that it started in the car, a car drive, a couple of, you know, a friend of mine, we were going out into the country and running a regional workshop for some young people. And we were on the way home, in the car, and we said, you know, we had the type of conversation, what are the ideas? What's your latest ideas to change the world?

Sonia Nolan: 4:15

As you do. That's wonderful.

Alicia Curtis: 4:17

Yeah as you do. We just like - you're creative people, you can see the problems in your community. And you're starting to talk about what can you do around these things? Because I think so many people will see the problems, but don't actually see that they can actually play a role in taking - we don't have to wait for government. We don't have to wait for corporate. We don't have to wait for world leaders to make a change in our local area. And you know, that's where you can start. And so yeah, I was talking to my good friend, Megan Anderson. And we had done a lot of volunteering through Millennium Kids, another youth environment organisation that we were both involved with. And I shared with her this idea of 100 Women and so like any good, you know, millennial or Gen Y, we sort of put this idea out onto social media and we said, look, we've got this idea, we need a committee, we need other people to come together. And we just got an amazing response from that social media post, everybody was like, Where do I sign up, you know, they we're ready to go, there was something that really connected to people from this idea. And so we got together, you know, a group of about 10 women, they were all mostly really young women, as well, there was this real need, I think, or I think there was a need for young women in particular, to say, look, you know, this is where we can join together, and we can be powerful together. And then it just, you know, resonated with a whole range of women from there. And, you know, for us diversity in philanthropy is really important, you know, making sure that, you know, we give a lot to different women's projects that benefit different types of women, but I want those women to also feel like they can be the philanthropist as well. And I think actually, our philanthropy or our grant making becomes more successful or more effective, when we have people, you know, diverse range of people around the table. And, and that's what collective giving, you know, facilitates because you bring together you know, all these different types of women, and we have a different life experiences that we can share. So yeah, it's been a couple of, you know, 10 years has gone like that, we're still so young, really, as a grant maker, and as an organisation. But it's been something that's just resonated with people. And people love the community aspect of it, because I think we're, as a society, we're looking for different communities, to engage with to belong to. And since the very beginning with 100 Women, it was an inclusive community that people could join together to make a difference.

Sonia Nolan: 7:00

Oh, definitely. Now, you've mentioned the word

Alicia Curtis: 7:01

Yeah, so I think it came, because when I started diversity a few times in there. And I just want to just take us back a bit, because you and I have been in each other's orbits my business, I was really young. And it was all about how do we for quite a few years, Alicia, and I actually remember when 100 Women was up and running, so really, you know, congratulations on that. But our paths crossed again, really purposefully, just last year, didn't they? When you were running your diverse women in leadership programme, and you asked me to come on board as a mentor. And it was such a great experience getting to know smart, inspiring women from different countries, different faith traditions, and different professions as well. And I wasn't really sure why it asked me to mentor them. I think it was actually reciprocal, like really, totally. Honestly, Alicia, I feel that I definitely got more out of that experience than I could have given to those ignite youth leadership? How do we ignite or tap into the amazing women. So, you know, thank you for that opportunity. But I want you to tell me about your passion for unlocking that diversity and leadership in WA. potential of young people being leaders, I'd always sort of explored diversity from that perspective, like, what does youth leadership look like? What does leadership look like for the generation that, you know, when I was growing up? Because we were doing things very differently. You know, we were known as these Gen Y's. And we were very different in the workplace.

Sonia Nolan: 8:31

Books written about you, what do we do with Gen Y's? What do they mean? How do we really relate to them?

Alicia Curtis: 8:37

It's so funny when you, you know, when they sort of talk about the differences, it's like, oh, we want purpose and meaning in the workplace. And it's like nowadays, it's like everybody wants that. It was this natural evolution, I think with where we were at in society, but I got to work with - so I started my business really young. And I got to work with, you know, really amazing groups of young people that sometimes weren't seen as the leaders. So one of my first longer leadership programmes was working with the Aboriginal boarders at a private high school. And we would meet every week, and talk about what leadership meant to them what their goals and aspirations were. And so I was brought on to run sort of like a 10 week programme. And at the end, we decided together that we'd run this forum, community forum so they could share their passions and their interests. And the school had never done anything like this before.

Sonia Nolan: 9:38

Sounds amazing.

Alicia Curtis: 9:40

And I remember even one of the teachers ringing me out the night before going, Oh, what's going to happen when the girls don't get up and speak because they weren't known as the ones to speak in front of others. They weren't known as the ones to take the microphone at this, you know, at the front of the room. And I said, Okay, well, that's a really interesting observation. We've gone through all the you know, the preparation, I think they're ready. And we sat I remember, I still remember this, this forum, this little community forum that we ran. And there were about 25 Girls, and they were from all around Western Australia. Some of them were from communities of 50 people or less. So you can imagine how daunting it is coming down to Perth, which is cold, living in a, you know, a boarding school, which is huge, you know, you might have a couple of 100 kids and then being involved in a bigger school. Every single one of those kids got up and spoke and shared their passions, they wanted to speak for their communities. They wanted to be all sorts of different professions. They had goals and aspirations that wanted to be fostered. And they needed somebody to believe in them, and and say, Look, you know, what's, what do you think? You know, that's just one example of, you know, one of the projects that are around, I got to run, you know, a lot of projects with newly arrived migrants, and through that, I got connected with an organisation called the Muslim Women's Support Centre. They've been around, I think, for about 20 years now. And they do incredible work in the community supporting Muslim women who are newly arrived into Perth settling them in, when there's language barriers, when there's challenges in the family. They do food drives, they do eat support, they just do an amazing work. And I just connected with some of the volunteers there. And we started talking, we started talking about what are the opportunities, like maybe their work wasn't just about doing the stuff that they were currently doing? What is the potential for them to look at these women as leaders in our communities. And so many years ago, about 10, or 11 years ago, we ran a Young Women's Leadership Programme. And we ran some Newly Arrived Migrants leadership programmes at some of the Islamic colleges. So working with children that had just sort of come over to Australia, and just letting them know about the different community opportunities that they could get involved with, getting them to talk about their ideas and aspirations in this new environment that they were in. Because it can be so disconcerting when you're coming to a new country.

Sonia Nolan: 12:23

Of course, I can only imagine what the experience is with people who are totally dislocated. From everything they know.

Alicia Curtis: 12:32

Yeah. And sometimes in traumatic circumstances as well. Right. And, you know, most of the time we expect them just to integrate.

Sonia Nolan: 12:40

Yeah, exactly. Don't you love that word? Just get over it and integrate.

Alicia Curtis: 12:45

Yeah just forget about everything. And just, you know, this is your new environment, instead of going, you know, what passions and interests and gifts do you want to sort of bring about in this new environment that you're in? How do you create community? How do you create this as your new home? And how do we work together around that? So I've had a long sort of relationship with Muslim Women's Support Centre, they just, they really inspire me with the work that they do, they continue to do. And, you know, we a couple of years ago, some funding that came up was just perfect for running this type of Young Women's Leadership Programme, again, like we had done, you know, about 10 years ago. So we put into the funding, and we were lucky enough to get the funding for the Diverse Women's Leadership Programme. And this was different in one way, we had the younger cohort. But what we remembered when we first ran that programme was that there was a need for older women to connect as well. And in fact, I still remember some of the mums of the participants in that Young Women's Leadership Programme, who I got to meet so many of their moms and their families. They sort of said,"well, where's our programme? We want a programme just like this" and so I remembered that, it stuck in my my mind. And so when we put in for the funding for the Diverse Women's Leadership programme, we wanted two different cohorts and it's really been beautiful, that connection between the cohorts, it's like big sisters and little sisters. And then we've been able to, you know, invite a whole range of mentors from different backgrounds, different communities, you know, some that you know, really reflect the backgrounds of the participants, and then others don't, you know, some of them are very different. They might have different skills and expertise that they share, maybe in the corporate sector, or in the community sector. So it's been - and what we do is we just create community, we create connections and as you say, like the women coming through these programmes are just exceptional. And you know, the participants have gone on to create just the most amazing projects and initiatives. They've stepped up in different ways. So it's just been wonderful to create community where they feel like they can give their greatest gifts to the world.

Sonia Nolan: 15:09

And you've worked with about... probably more than 20,000 people haven't you? Since you started.

Alicia Curtis: 15:14

Well, this is my 21st year in business. So I started when - Yeah, well I'm giving away my age now - but I started around 19. I was in my second year of uni. And I was reading a book called Business as Unusual. I never sort of thought of running my own business. My dad was an entrepreneur all these life, he had a window cleaning business, but I'd never thought of myself as a business owner. But I read this book called Business as Unusual while I was sitting at university, probably should have been studying.

Sonia Nolan: 15:47

I'd say that you've made the most of your degree.

Alicia Curtis: 15:51

I read this book called Business as Unusual by Anita Roddick. Now, she was the founder of The Body Shop.

Sonia Nolan: 15:58

I thought I knew that name, right.

Alicia Curtis: 16:00

And this was such an incredible book, because this book said, you know, business could be used as a vehicle for social change. And I've been a great volunteer, you know, through my, throughout my teen years, I was very involved in community, but I thought, well, this, this is a way of actually using business for good. And I really liked that idea. And I was being asked to speak a lot about my experiences as a sort of a team leader, you know, very early on, I got an amazing opportunity to go to one of the UN's International Children's Conferences, it was one of - I think, the first time they'd run out children's conference on the environment. And so I was being asked to share that story and how we came back. You know, the people that went from Perth to that international conference, we came back, and we co founded a kid's conference here in Perth.

Sonia Nolan: 16:52

Was that Millennial Kids?

Alicia Curtis: 16:54

Yeah, it was the first Kids Helping Kids conferences that we ran, which ended up turning into the organisation, which is now Millennium Kids, which has been around for 25 years or so.

Sonia Nolan: 17:04

Did you know that we've got an even further link then because at that time, I was working at Alcoa.

Alicia Curtis: 17:09

Oh, and you sponsered.

Sonia Nolan: 17:11

I was a sponsor, and I came along to those sessions.

Alicia Curtis: 17:14

Oh, my gosh, Sonia.

Sonia Nolan: 17:15

Can you believe that? Incredible, incredible. And I was, yeah, because it was down at Warnbro High School as well, there's a lot going on there. And that was my patch. And so I was intimately involved in that. And I remember the beautiful students from Uganda that came. Incredible, I still remember that experience, and how crazy that you are the one that founded that, and here we are sitting around the Warm Table reminiscing about it. Perth is small.

Alicia Curtis: 17:40

It is. It was incredible movement, because it was probably one of the first examples of this youth led movement in Perth, and maybe even Australia, really, because at that stage, you know, it wasn't really the done thing that young people would sort of direct and organise their own projects. So you know, I just feel so incredibly grateful to be involved in that. And it gave me so many opportunities to develop my knowledge and networks and confidence. And look, you know, volunteering gets really addictive, because you realise the power that each and every one of us has to create change in our communities. And, you know, whatever it is, whatever you're passionate about, I think you go to, you know, link that passion with what's your skills and expertise, you know, so really understanding what can you give to the world and then being able to draw that into a purpose that's beyond you. And I think that's, you know, for me, that's

Sonia Nolan: 18:36

You do this through your business? And I love the the type of leadership that I love sort of exploring with, with teams and groups, is how do we facilitate change through giving our best gifts to the world? name of your business. And I love the fact that you have got a clear link back to Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. So can you just explain that one for us?

Alicia Curtis: 19:02

I really love that you picked that up. Because it's, you know, it's a different- it's a very old theory or, you know, notion of, of education, which is the old lyceum. So, back in Greece, you know, the thinkers would run their own lyceums their own schools, and it would be education for a broader purpose. And they'd actually take their classes and they go walk around their cities, and they'd go talk about these ideas, and then they'd go put them into action. And so these were the old lyceums that happened in Greece. And then there was sort of a movement that sort of happened around the world where people would create these lyceum movements where they would come together and through creativity and ideas, they would come together and think about how they could make their community a better place. And so Alyceum is sort of just a mix on my name and the word lyceum.

Sonia Nolan: 19:56

I love that. I think it's very clever and it's exactly how you frame your business. So it's great, which doesn't feel I mean, I guess it is a business, you've got to run it as a business but it just, it just feels like it does so much good that it can't possibly be a business.

Alicia Curtis: 20:11

Well thats really where Anita Roddick really inspired me because this book was all about how she set up The Body Shop to be this vehicle for social change, she could use this, you know, the structure of a business to create change. And look, you know, I think this is the future of business. You know, I've been working with community organisations and, and corporates for so many years. And, you know, often times it's like, how can the community organisations learn from the corporate, right? Run a business effectively, because every community organisation effectively runs as a business. They've got to be profitable, right? But there's this one thing that community organisations have had for so many years that the corporates haven't really tapped into, which is this purpose, purpose in business, and how that attracts people or retains people, connects people and inspires people to, you know, stay connected, and to work really hard towards this common goal, which is bigger than us all. And it's more than just about the money, right? Yes, your business needs profit and income to, to run successfully, but it's not the purpose of your business. So it's about tapping into what's that broader, deeper purpose that you have in business, that's really going to connect people to want to, you know, stay and be involved in whatever you're doing.

Sonia Nolan: 21:35

I'm just sort of drawing from so many different things that you've talked about this morning, you talked about the United Nations, you talk about purpose, you talk about everybody being able to tap into their own inner being and their own aspirations to be a leader in the community. So all of that speaks to me of something else that you and I had a quick conversation about not so long ago, which is the internal development goals, or the inner, the inner development goals. And just sort of a quick 101 there, we've got these Sustainable Development Goals, which is something that United Nations has led with all the countries wanting to achieve, hopefully, by 2030, probably by a little bit longer than that. But there are 17 goals, about sustainable development in communities and in regards to women and children, ending poverty, in regards to environmental issues, lots of things to make sure that our world is a sustainable and better place into the future. The new talk now is what I'm hearing is the Inner Development Goals, which is something that you are actively working on and have been working on for so long, but maybe not called that. So what are the inner development goals, do you remember what they called - what they are?

Alicia Curtis: 22:45

They focus around five different areas, they include being, thinking, relating, collaborating, and acting. And for me, you know, those are really sort of the skills of being a change maker and being a leader in our communities. And, and it's not just for our community sector as well, you know, what I'm saying around purpose in business, you know, the businesses that are going to most thrive into our future are going to be the ones that bring in these human leadership skills and this ability to, you know, really be able to connect in with ourselves, their own purpose and values, what we're passionate about what we see in the world, our own abilities to think clearly, logically, rationally, through these different challenges that we're facing, how we relate to our world, how do we collaborate with each

Sonia Nolan: 23:34

One of the things I've noticed is that you co other? How do we work as a collective to solve the challenges that we face in the world? How, and then how do we create change? You know, how do these skills allow us to create the change that we want to see in the world? And, you know, I think there's so many wonderful possibilities into the future. And, you know, we don't have to be scared or worried about, you know, how our world changes or how we're going to deal with, you know, the challenges that we have, I think, sometimes these challenges can just seem so overwhelming. These sorts of development skills allow us to tap into our flow, our focus. So we're actually able to deal with the challenges in the world. found, you co work, you co write, you're doing everything with other people as well. So you're not taking you know, one idea and just making it all your own. So that collaborative, collective effort really permeates in everything that you Yeah that already exist there. do.

Alicia Curtis: 24:35

Well, I think co, you know, the collective leadership in our societies for me, I've been passionate about how do we bring about change through community led initiatives. And you realise that no one person can do anything all by themselves, right? We're born into families you know, we're born in you know, we connect with and volunteer in communities or community organisations, everything's done collaboratively. And I think what I hopefully am able to offer is my facilitation skills in different ways to bring about the values and the gifts and the strengths that, you know, all the groups that I'm a part of Exactly. So we have great power when we come can bring in and sort of join together to make a difference in our society. So you know, I think if you're not tapping into, you know, your friends, your family, to be able to come

Sonia Nolan: 25:29

Yes, the collective Warm Table of Western Australia. together and share your expertise and skills , then were together. And I love working with other people because it you missing out, I think very much into the future, we don't need hero leaders anymore. We need people who can facilitate, you know, whole communities to understand what they need in know, it inspires the extrovert in me to sort of, you know, get their community, and how can they bring that about through the skills and the passions and strengths are all of their communities. excited about ideas and to use their creativity to be able to solve challenges together, I feel like there's, there's like an extra group flow that can come about when we can share and connect together around what the challenges are and what we can do. So yeah, there's so many things that we can do together. And if we bring the right people around the table, the Warm Table.

Alicia Curtis: 26:41

We can be unstoppable.

Sonia Nolan: 26:43

Absolutely, absolutely. Alicia, you're a Perth girl born and bred here in WA.

Alicia Curtis: 26:48

Yeah absolutely. I mean, my mum was a nurse, my dad, you know, had his own business as a window cleaner. I had a very, you know, normal upbringing, I loved school, I loved getting involved in things, both my parents were sort of belongingers you know, they loved to get involved in community. So when I was younger, my dad had a permaculture club that he used to run. And so you know, it got me involved in community very early on. And I just loved getting involved in things in groups in, you know, challenges to, you know, challenge myself, and also to connect in with community, because I think that's something that we're really lacking now, where, you know, we need to be able to create opportunities for kids, for young people to be able to connect in with their communities. And, and so that led me into, you know, being involved in my little environment club at school, which gave me the opportunity to go to the International Children's Conference on the environment. Yeah, so I think you've got to, you've got to get in, say yes to things, you know, and get involved. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know, give

Sonia Nolan: 27:53

It's a great word, isn't it? things a go, you don't have to be the best at something to give it a go. And it can be any sort of hobby, it doesn't have to be some sort of volunteering, but just get involved in, you know, creative pursuits, because it's all developing skill sets in ourselves that I think can can really benefit, you know, further down the track. And then also, it gives us this great sense of well being I think. You think about ideas all the time, don't you? Like your brain is just always popping, like a little popcorn maker is what I'm imagining your brain to be like pop pop popping all these beautiful ideas of what could, what could be next. So what sort of ideas are you playing with at the moment in your, in your mind?

Alicia Curtis: 28:40

Well, I think it comes back to this creativity, this creativity is really sort of inspiring me at the moment, and sort of heading into my 40's, I have been very, you know, since I was, I don't know, 10-12 years old, I've been very focused in on, you know, the change that I want to see, I've worked, you know, pretty hard on, you know, the community projects and my business projects that I have been able to create this change in society. And I think for me, it's about stepping back, giving myself some time and space. And I think, you know, if I just sort of noticed the different cycles in my life, you know, I have times where you bring about ideas, and then times where you sort of retreat, and you give yourself some time and space, that reflection piece, and you've got to give yourself different inspiration sources. So whether it's reading books, or whether it's going and meeting different people, or going to different conferences, there's this sort of cycle or season in your life where you just need to inspire yourself around the different ideas. And so, I feel like I'm kind of coming into that part again in my life, where I just want to be re inspired and so I've been to connecting in with different creative pursuits. So this year I've been doing different, you know, a whole range of different things like joining a lyrical jazz class, and I've learned how to paint. And I've joined an online book club, which is all about reading fiction novels and fiction stories. So just getting myself a lot of time and space to, to create a little bit that doesn't necessarily have a big goal attached to it, just giving myself some time to be creative. Because then I think that inspires the next a lot of ideas. But really, you know, I've also, I've got two kids as well. And so, for me, the greatest joy is being able to inspire their thinking, and them as human beings and thinking about you know, so I'm just coming into that season of life where they're growing up a little bit and they're starting to get involved in different things, and I'm loving that process.

Sonia Nolan: 30:55

Alicia, there's a great saying from Gandhi. That is "Be the change you want to see in the world." That is absolutely what you do 100% every single day, it's just a pleasure to have had you around the My Warm Table this morning. So thank you.

Alicia Curtis: 31:10

Thank you, Sonia. It's been an absolute pleasure chatting to you.

Sonia Nolan: 31:15

Thanks for joining me, Sonia Nolan around the Warm Table. Let's grow the community. Please follow My Warm Table podcast on socials and like and share this episode with your family and friends. My Warm Table is brought to you by Females Over 45 Fitness. Keep listening now for a health tip from FOFF head coach Kelli Reilly.

Kelli Reilly FOFF: 31:37

Hi, it's Kelli Reilly founder and head coach of Females Over 45 Fitness. Protein intake. This is so important for women that are hitting that menopause and beyond. Okay, when we lose muscle, okay, that impacts on our fat stores. Okay, so we need to really keep up our muscle as we age so the protein goes into helping retain that muscle mass. Muscle burns off more calories than what fat does, muscle actually burn six calories and fat burns two, so the more muscle you have on your body, ladies, the more calories you're going to burn, which is exactly what most of us are after. So remember ladies, it's your time to shine.