Lee Allison - Connection Requested

This is the last episode of season one! We'll be back in January 2022 (I promise🤞) 

This week we connect with Lee's stories. Check out her LinkedIn profile either before or after listening to this episode.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-allison-7983aa6/

And have a read of her blog: https://grayhorsediaries.com

Let me know if there’s someone or something that you’d like to hear next season.

Data is great, but humans connect with storytelling.

Here’s the caption video and transcript:

Transcript:

Welcome to Connection Requested, the podcast about making better connections with other humans, one guest at a time. I'm your host, Mark Tweddle co-founder of You Tell Yours, providing online events to create stronger connections in your group, community, or team. I started this podcast because I rarely know the people who request to connect with me on LinkedIn.

But whether it's Facebook Friends, LinkedIn Connections, or Followers as they're called everywhere else on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, wherever, social media doesn't easily provide the kind of meaningful connections that I seek in my life.

This is episode 16 and it's the beginning of December 2021.

This part of the year, the trifecta of stress events, is all about connecting with family, both conventional and chosen, and of course our friends.

So I think this is a good time to end this first season of the podcast, while we focus on those connections that we've already made.

This year, I've met a lot of wonderful people and I've learned a lot about podcasting as well as connecting.

For season two, I think we'll change things a little when I come back in January. I say January, just so that I can hold myself accountable. Next season, maybe I'll do some longer episodes with interviews, maybe even a few stories of my own.

If there's something that you'd like to hear do, let me know.

But first, let's hear this week's guest.

I've known Lee, Allison for a while. And this episode was recorded the day after we had Thanksgiving together, where I beat everyone at Scrabble. Yes. This lowly engineer beat his professional writer wife at Scrabble.

And Lee is my witness!

Let's get started.

Two minutes to tell the story of your name with no preparation.

No one else can tell that story better than you.

You are the subject matter expert after all.

I'm not positive of the origins. I recall my mother saying that her father, liked the name. Maybe it had something to do with the name, Leanne or Lee. And actually, my family calls me Leeann and when I was born, my mother tells me her intention was that would be my full first name - Leeanne.

But she spelled it, because I come from a family of simple folk, phonetically, L E E N A N N. And so when my birth certificate was typed up, it was Lee, middle name- Ann, Allison and my mom was like that's not what I meant. And I was like, why didn't you give it a cool French spelling or something? But no, no. Simple Midwest people. We don't do fancy.

My family called me Leanne forever and it wasn't a bad name to grow up with. There's not a whole lot derogatory you can make out of it. I got Lee Ann PeeAnn, you know I got stuff like that. Really not a whole lot you can do with it. My older brother used to call me Leander, which was an old Roman name.

I don't even know where that came from. It was good. When I left home at an awfully early age I kept it. It was Lee, Ann, Allison, which by the way, are three first names. Throws people off all the time.

If I had a nickel for every time I was called Allison, I would be wealthy and retired somewhere right now. But when I went into the military, I ultimately was running out of money for college. I was, I was by myself. I was very young and I had grown up a military brat. I decided to go in the military and then it became Lee, middle initial- A, Allison, and I became someone else.

It became a new persona and somebody completely different. but still LeeAnn to my family.

Thanks Lee.

I wonder if, in this digital age, there'll be fewer stories of birth certificates or registration errors in people's name stories.

My family name Tweddle was Tweedale only a few generations ago. And then probably my ancestor couldn't write. And the registrar couldn't hear the mumbled last name. Or of course, maybe they had an accent?

Anyhow, you're getting to know Lee, the lady of many first names.

Let's hear Lee's two-minute story, starting with the words, " My first job."

My first job as with many things in my life came about because I was ticked off at something. I didn't come from a rich family, but my parents, you know, we did OK. They came from pretty poor backgrounds, but they worked their way up. We didn't really want for things as kids, but we also weren't overindulged generally.

However, when my sister, who was several years older than me, which I like to remind her, was younger. My parents got her horse. She loved horses. My parents got her horse, but she had to pay ultimately for the board and the upkeep. So it was sort of a trade-off.

When I hit the same age, they asked me if I wanted a horse or a car.

And at that point, as much as I loved horses, I was all about school, kids, boys, cars. I wanted a car. So I got my mother's used ' Pinto. Thanks, mom, dad. I got a car so I could drive back and forth from school. It was great. And then at a certain point, I guess I made one too many phone calls to my mother asking for gas money and she was like, " Listen, you're responsible for gas."

So it was a little like, we'll get you a horse, but you have to pay for all this stuff. You got a car and you pay for gas. And I think she really expected me to stop driving or do something else. She worked, so I was on the phone with her when she was telling me this.

And I was pretty ticked off, by the time she got home from work, I had a job. So, in my teenage head, I was flipping her off. Ha Ha! I got a job. Ha!

She totally backed me into that! She absolutely maneuvered me into getting a job and, earning my own money and not calling her and asking her for handouts anymore.

So I think my first job as a cashier in a grocery store came about because I was pissed off at my mother, but she roped me into it.

It was just one of those things, it's kind of funny, cause I don't really remember the specifics of the conversation. I just remember her sort of like, you need to drive less, you can't be driving that all the time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And me, "Oh yeah!?" I don't think I yelled at her, I would have gotten a job like to show her when probably that was what she was trying to get me to do.

All she had to do is tell me I couldn't do something and it'd be like "Hold my beer.".

And it just, just makes me laugh. She worked me, man.

Thanks Lee.

I love that story.

More specifically. I love that parenting method. So much so that I've seen my own sons taking mental calculations, trying to figure out if I'm using negative psychology to get them to do something.

You're too young. There's no way you could load the dishwasher all by yourself.

But I wouldn't use it on you. The listener? No, no.

But why I'm telling you is you really shouldn't listen to Lee's story about connection.

You got that didn't you, you should.

Connection is an interesting topic for me because it's been a struggle for me. Particularly in the last few years I've been really focusing on kind of healing. Really trying to make a connection with myself. Learning to love myself has been one of the hardest challenges I've ever had. And yet now that I'm on the upswing of that, where I can feel that acceptance of myself and that love for myself, it's the best journey I've ever been on.

My life is so much better and it's not that the outside has changed much as the inside has changed and I'm a much happier person. It really came to a head when I realized that I always felt on the outside. I always felt like a third wheel, fifth wheel, always on the outside. Never part of.

Some of that as being a military brat, moving around a lot, all these other things, some disconnection from my family at an early age. But ultimately the way to get past that has been to connect with myself and to find the things that bring me joy and to find the things that satisfy me.

And they have very little to do with anything that I get from other people, it has much more to do with what I do for myself and then what I put out. There's a blog project I've been working on, has been about me writing about my healing and kind of connecting outwards and saying, "Hey, this is my story."

This is what I've learned. It's built around my relationship with my horse, which has also been an incredibly powerful connection for me, not just because of her and that being a childhood dream that's come true, but also because the people that I've met through her and the community that I've been able to build and find around her as well.

It started me on that journey and writing about my healing, writing about that is my way of also connecting outwards to other people to say, "Hey, this is my story. This is what I've discovered." I like the way that Lynn puts it is it's like a service to other people to say, this is something that I've discovered.

This is what it meant to me. This is how I see it. Maybe this helps you too. I know from prior storytelling events, it was amazing to me to find that I was telling something was, you know, an event in my growing up life that was so deeply personal to me, and yet I can't tell you how many people came up and say, you know, in my family too, and my family too, and my family too.

And since then, I've shared a little bit with people. Who'd be like, oh yeah, we never talked about it as a kid, but in my family... and we all have that:

"We never talked about."

"We assumed it was just us. "

"We were weird."

"We were the outliers."

But in reality, we all have this common experience. We all have these common struggles.

None of us are outliers, but I still think that you really have to know yourself and have a connection with yourself so that you can feel like you're always at home, even if it's just you.

Thanks Lee.

What a wonderful story to end the season with. We need to share our stories so that we can discover that, as Lee said, we all have this common experience. We all have these common struggles.

Our stories are the mechanism, the tool for us to connect with others so that we can be seen, feel heard, and be the unique individuals that we are.

So now, you know, Lee is awesome.

You can connect with her on LinkedIn via the link in the show notes. And you should also check out her blog at grayhorsediaries.com.

And you can contact me on LinkedIn or send me an email to mark@connectionrequested.com.

If you liked this podcast, please share it and review it on your favorite podcast player. But most of all, keep on having fun making the best of connections.

Transcript:

Welcome to Connection Requested, the podcast about making better connections with other humans, one guest at a time. I'm your host, Mark Tweddle co-founder of You Tell Yours, providing online events to create stronger connections in your group, community, or team. I started this podcast because I rarely know the people who request to connect with me on LinkedIn.

But whether it's Facebook Friends, LinkedIn Connections, or Followers as they're called everywhere else on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, wherever, social media doesn't easily provide the kind of meaningful connections that I seek in my life.

This is episode 16 and it's the beginning of December 2021.

This part of the year, the trifecta of stress events, is all about connecting with family, both conventional and chosen, and of course our friends.

So I think this is a good time to end this first season of the podcast, while we focus on those connections that we've already made.

This year, I've met a lot of wonderful people and I've learned a lot about podcasting as well as connecting.

For season two, I think we'll change things a little when I come back in January. I say January, just so that I can hold myself accountable. Next season, maybe I'll do some longer episodes with interviews, maybe even a few stories of my own.

If there's something that you'd like to hear do, let me know.

But first, let's hear this week's guest.

I've known Lee, Allison for a while. And this episode was recorded the day after we had Thanksgiving together, where I beat everyone at Scrabble. Yes. This lowly engineer beat his professional writer wife at Scrabble.

And Lee is my witness!

Let's get started.

Two minutes to tell the story of your name with no preparation.

No one else can tell that story better than you.

You are the subject matter expert after all.

I'm not positive of the origins. I recall my mother saying that her father, liked the name. Maybe it had something to do with the name, Leanne or Lee. And actually, my family calls me Leeann and when I was born, my mother tells me her intention was that would be my full first name - Leeanne.

But she spelled it, because I come from a family of simple folk, phonetically, L E E N A N N. And so when my birth certificate was typed up, it was Lee, middle name- Ann, Allison and my mom was like that's not what I meant. And I was like, why didn't you give it a cool French spelling or something? But no, no. Simple Midwest people. We don't do fancy.

My family called me Leanne forever and it wasn't a bad name to grow up with. There's not a whole lot derogatory you can make out of it. I got Lee Ann PeeAnn, you know I got stuff like that. Really not a whole lot you can do with it. My older brother used to call me Leander, which was an old Roman name.

I don't even know where that came from. It was good. When I left home at an awfully early age I kept it. It was Lee, Ann, Allison, which by the way, are three first names. Throws people off all the time.

If I had a nickel for every time I was called Allison, I would be wealthy and retired somewhere right now. But when I went into the military, I ultimately was running out of money for college. I was, I was by myself. I was very young and I had grown up a military brat. I decided to go in the military and then it became Lee, middle initial- A, Allison, and I became someone else.

It became a new persona and somebody completely different. but still LeeAnn to my family.

Thanks Lee.

I wonder if, in this digital age, there'll be fewer stories of birth certificates or registration errors in people's name stories.

My family name Tweddle was Tweedale only a few generations ago. And then probably my ancestor couldn't write. And the registrar couldn't hear the mumbled last name. Or of course, maybe they had an accent?

Anyhow, you're getting to know Lee, the lady of many first names.

Let's hear Lee's two-minute story, starting with the words, " My first job."

My first job as with many things in my life came about because I was ticked off at something. I didn't come from a rich family, but my parents, you know, we did OK. They came from pretty poor backgrounds, but they worked their way up. We didn't really want for things as kids, but we also weren't overindulged generally.

However, when my sister, who was several years older than me, which I like to remind her, was younger. My parents got her horse. She loved horses. My parents got her horse, but she had to pay ultimately for the board and the upkeep. So it was sort of a trade-off.

When I hit the same age, they asked me if I wanted a horse or a car.

And at that point, as much as I loved horses, I was all about school, kids, boys, cars. I wanted a car. So I got my mother's used ' Pinto. Thanks, mom, dad. I got a car so I could drive back and forth from school. It was great. And then at a certain point, I guess I made one too many phone calls to my mother asking for gas money and she was like, " Listen, you're responsible for gas."

So it was a little like, we'll get you a horse, but you have to pay for all this stuff. You got a car and you pay for gas. And I think she really expected me to stop driving or do something else. She worked, so I was on the phone with her when she was telling me this.

And I was pretty ticked off, by the time she got home from work, I had a job. So, in my teenage head, I was flipping her off. Ha Ha! I got a job. Ha!

She totally backed me into that! She absolutely maneuvered me into getting a job and, earning my own money and not calling her and asking her for handouts anymore.

So I think my first job as a cashier in a grocery store came about because I was pissed off at my mother, but she roped me into it.

It was just one of those things, it's kind of funny, cause I don't really remember the specifics of the conversation. I just remember her sort of like, you need to drive less, you can't be driving that all the time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And me, "Oh yeah!?" I don't think I yelled at her, I would have gotten a job like to show her when probably that was what she was trying to get me to do.

All she had to do is tell me I couldn't do something and it'd be like "Hold my beer.".

And it just, just makes me laugh. She worked me, man.

Thanks Lee.

I love that story.

More specifically. I love that parenting method. So much so that I've seen my own sons taking mental calculations, trying to figure out if I'm using negative psychology to get them to do something.

You're too young. There's no way you could load the dishwasher all by yourself.

But I wouldn't use it on you. The listener? No, no.

But why I'm telling you is you really shouldn't listen to Lee's story about connection.

You got that didn't you, you should.

Connection is an interesting topic for me because it's been a struggle for me. Particularly in the last few years I've been really focusing on kind of healing. Really trying to make a connection with myself. Learning to love myself has been one of the hardest challenges I've ever had. And yet now that I'm on the upswing of that, where I can feel that acceptance of myself and that love for myself, it's the best journey I've ever been on.

My life is so much better and it's not that the outside has changed much as the inside has changed and I'm a much happier person. It really came to a head when I realized that I always felt on the outside. I always felt like a third wheel, fifth wheel, always on the outside. Never part of.

Some of that as being a military brat, moving around a lot, all these other things, some disconnection from my family at an early age. But ultimately the way to get past that has been to connect with myself and to find the things that bring me joy and to find the things that satisfy me.

And they have very little to do with anything that I get from other people, it has much more to do with what I do for myself and then what I put out. There's a blog project I've been working on, has been about me writing about my healing and kind of connecting outwards and saying, "Hey, this is my story."

This is what I've learned. It's built around my relationship with my horse, which has also been an incredibly powerful connection for me, not just because of her and that being a childhood dream that's come true, but also because the people that I've met through her and the community that I've been able to build and find around her as well.

It started me on that journey and writing about my healing, writing about that is my way of also connecting outwards to other people to say, "Hey, this is my story. This is what I've discovered." I like the way that Lynn puts it is it's like a service to other people to say, this is something that I've discovered.

This is what it meant to me. This is how I see it. Maybe this helps you too. I know from prior storytelling events, it was amazing to me to find that I was telling something was, you know, an event in my growing up life that was so deeply personal to me, and yet I can't tell you how many people came up and say, you know, in my family too, and my family too, and my family too.

And since then, I've shared a little bit with people. Who'd be like, oh yeah, we never talked about it as a kid, but in my family... and we all have that:

"We never talked about."

"We assumed it was just us. "

"We were weird."

"We were the outliers."

But in reality, we all have this common experience. We all have these common struggles.

None of us are outliers, but I still think that you really have to know yourself and have a connection with yourself so that you can feel like you're always at home, even if it's just you.

Thanks Lee.

What a wonderful story to end the season with. We need to share our stories so that we can discover that, as Lee said, we all have this common experience. We all have these common struggles.

Our stories are the mechanism, the tool for us to connect with others so that we can be seen, feel heard, and be the unique individuals that we are.

So now, you know, Lee is awesome.

You can connect with her on LinkedIn via the link in the show notes. And you should also check out her blog at grayhorsediaries.com.

And you can contact me on LinkedIn or send me an email to mark@connectionrequested.com.

If you liked this podcast, please share it and review it on your favorite podcast player. But most of all, keep on having fun making the best of connections.