Carroll Patrizi: Rewriting Your Story Through Accountability, Surrender & Women's Empowerment

Sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington, founders of the Passionistas Project, interview Carol Patrice, host of Conversations with Carol and founder of the Surrender Movement, about courage, authenticity, and women sharing unfiltered stories. Carol describes growing up as one of 11 children, learning through storytelling, and later realizing she is the author of her own story after a painful divorce and a therapist’s insight about “insanity” and accountability; she also stopped drinking and worked through shame by practicing daily surrender. She recounts her family’s faith and prayer, her career path through banking, real estate, and co-founding a construction company with her husband Jeff, and how her view of success shifted to gratitude, presence, and accountability. Carol shares plans for a global Surrender Movement anthology with up to 70 co-authors, plus summits and workshops, and hopes women surrender comparison and collaborate.

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ON THIS EPISODE

[00:00] Welcome to Passionistas

[00:38] Meet Carol Patrice

[01:41] Stories Shape Us

[04:57] Owning Your Story

[06:52] Therapy and Turning Points

[08:29] Choosing Change and Surrender

[11:45] Raised on Stories

[13:28] Middle of Eleven

[15:43] Family Faith and Lessons

[23:32] Career Beginnings

[25:32] Real Estate Spark

[27:10] Banking and Mortgages

[28:24] Jeff Moves to Houston

[29:28] Launching the Construction Firm

[32:34] Semi Retirement and Storytelling

[34:43] Surrender as a Practice

[39:01] Redefining Success Today

[42:32] Surrender Movement and Book

[47:29] Dreams for Women and Self

[52:32] Passionistas Anthology Invite

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Passionistas: Hi, we're sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington, founders of the Passionistas Project, where we believe that every woman deserves to be seen, heard, and celebrated. Our mission is simple but powerful to give women a platform to tell their unfiltered stories, the stories that inspire challenge, and break the silence around what it really means to follow your Passionistas.

And on each episode, we have conversations about courage. Authenticity and the messy, beautiful journey of living life unapologetically. So what happens when you let go of what's holding you back and just surrender? Well, today's guest, Carol, Patrice loves to talk about just that. Carol believes in storytelling as a way to educate.

She's passionate about learning about others, always encouraging them to grow and give their, grow their God-given gifts. She's the host of conversations with Carol Podcast and the founder of the Surrender Movement, and we're so excited to have her here today. So welcome, Carol.

Carroll: Oh my goodness. Thank you Nancy and Amy.

I hope that through this conversation, the audience understands how much I appreciate the two of you individually and together what y'all do, what you stand for. It is such. It's an honor to be here and have a conversation with the two of you, and I just so appreciate being invited.

Passionistas: We love you. We feel, we feel exactly the same way about you.

So, um, so Carol, what are you most passionate about?

Carroll: You know, what? I feel like I'm an, I'm a Marine almost because God really family, country, but loved ones and I, what I'm, I'm passionate about people's stories. I am, uh, I'm covered in chills. Thinking about growing up as one of 11 kiddos. I'm number six and. I was born into a big story. You know, there was already many stories going on and this collective going on and forever I have related and learned from and shared through stories. Um. I have to admit, I was a little bit older. I'm 110 now, but I was a little bit older when I realized that there was an accountability and a responsibility and that I was actually an author of my own story.

You know, it was safe and easy just to be part of their story, and I didn't have to make a lot of. Decisions. 'cause I had all these big, incredibly imperfectly perfect big brothers and sisters and pa. I could just copy them. I mean, seriously. Oh fun. Oh, awesome. I'll do that. I'll go to school here, I'll do this.

You know, and I really, I was much older, much older. When I realized, oh my goodness, I'm. My story is part of their story. And, um, I just feel like I wasn't, uh, a DHD and doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. And I, as I say, untreated and unleashed and I, so school for me, I loved it and I did okay, but I certainly wasn't gonna do any homework because at that point it wasn't fun.

I wasn't doing it with somebody else. And what I realized. Was there is, it's a level playing field when you teach through stories, and there is a way in our stories that is relatable to. All others, regardless of our differences, whether it be faith, the color of our skin, the number of kiddos, if we have kiddos, we don't have kiddos.

If, if it's something that we've overcome, whatever it is, and it brings about this beautiful connection. Regardless of differences, and I just feel that regardless of how you did in school, whether you wanted to go on, how you've done in business, you can learn from. And it's never too late to say, oh gosh, I'm the author of my story and if I listen to enough stories, I'll have pearls and I can make a change in my life and become accountable for that.

It really is what I'm passionate about. Yeah,

Passionistas: That's beautiful. What was the moment when you finally realized that your story mattered? It wasn't just being the sister,

Carroll: you know, I'm going to just go ahead and throw, surrender the information. I rocking along. Things were great. I mean, and let's just call it a grand slam life.

Not really one that I was running. I was just part of it. And I was married before I'm married now to, we call him MVP. I don't know how he puts up with me, but he does. We're great partners and for 30 years and previously I was married to a wonderful, very charismatic, incredibly successful on many, on all the levels, gentlemen.

And we had these two. Incredible children that we were gifted, um, Houston and Alice Carroll, and all of a sudden we're separated. We're s it's so confusing. We're separated for three and a half years prior to just saying, okay. I think somebody said, it's just time y'all. What are y'all doing? And once again. I went with that, so I hope the audience hears this. It's never too late. I'll bet I was. It's incredible.

I can't think how old I was then, but I was plenty old. I had two kiddos and um, I woke up one day and said, what in the world there's nothing about a divorce that. Has anything to do with me. It's not on the radar. I don't believe in it. What has happened? Where did this conflicted life come from? And I went to see this incredible lady.

I had not been to a therapist before and I sat down with her. First of all, I walked in. This will kind of tell you how out of touch I was. That I could be in charge of this. I go to see this brilliant woman. She is a quadriplegic. I can't even imagine what she has surrendered and done to. She's this brilliant woman helping other people.

And I walk in there like, you know. Whatever. It's embarrassing. But anyway, I go in, I sit down and I tell her, and she said, well Carol, this is so easy. And I said, it is. She said, you continued to try harder and do more of what you had been doing. You literally were living in insanity. I was so out of touch.

I didn't know that was the. You know, definition of insanity doing the same thing, but more and more and more and more and more of it thinking it was gonna change and it was just getting worse and worse and worse and worse. So there was that, and I was like, oh God, this is embarrassing. So I thank her and I move about my life and I then Mary again to MVP, to Jeff, and about seven or eight years in.

I recognized the exact situation and I said, well, this is disappointing. The only common denominator is mo, so what do I need to do? So I said, okay, well here we go. So I, I started doing everything I could. I thought, what can I change that will make the biggest impact? Well. What I changed was I immediately got off the booze.

I thought, this is foggy. The booze is not my friend, a dear friend of me, a friend of mine said one time, an older gentleman, God rested his soul. He said, Carol, or baby Carol, there's a certain amount of alcohol that's a lot of everybody in their lives, and you and I have had our share. I said, okay. So anyway, I thought, okay, that'll do it.

And what I realized was. That maybe who I had tried to get away from before was myself, was the part of myself that didn't, I didn't know myself 'cause I was just this part of this fabulous story. All these incredible people that I loved and admired and did all these things. And I did not take responsibility as an author.

And we are all authors. Our stories matter. Y'all know, I believe this, you know, God loves us. We're important and it's okay to not have realized it. You know? 'cause then you have the challenge of there's this shame spiral. They, let me tell you, it was big. It was just amazing. I'm used to, you know, to thunderstorms where I'm from and hurricanes, but I'm not big on a tornado.

And that's what I felt like I was in this shame spiral that was a tornado. And then that was okay too. And I want, I hope the audience hears this now. I take this story, my old story in front of me, not. Out of shame, but I do surrender that each day. But in order to remember that I can make different choices.

Yeah. And, and that's really when it happened. And, and there's, there was such great cost to that lesson. Literally, I was just enjoying. Life. It wasn't that I didn't believe God loved me, but I thought, okay, well this is good. I don't have any responsibility even to where I'm standing in my faith.

Passionistas: Yeah.

Carroll: I mean, I was taking it all. I was enjoying it. I was appreciative of it, but I took no responsibility for it. And that's what happened. And I'm so, and I'm grateful. Yeah. But I was old. Just so you know, you know, somebody said, oh, so and so is, you know, 31 years old, they ought to be doing this. And I said, seriously, when are we gonna allow the freedom that maturity does not, ma, there's not an age, not for 20% of us at least.

I hope that answers that question. That's when I realized it.

Passionistas: Absolutely. It absolutely does. Um, so were you always someone who loved connection and conversation, or did that develop over time?

Carroll: Oh, from birth, I mean from birth I listen in my family and, and so I was born and there were these five precious.

In my, these incredible human beings, my big brothers and sisters. At that time, there were, uh, two big brothers at that time and three big sisters. Let me tell you what. One of our sisters, she wrote and directed plays. They sold tickets to the plays. Our neighbors would come, we all had parts. She would then, she's a actually a, an award-winning author, Theresa Nelson is her pen name, and she does young adult writing and she.

This is, I don't know how old she was, but not very old. And all of us had parts even, uh, mean, I'm sure I was a baby Jesus at some point at the Christmas play or whatever, but literally, and if we weren't doing a play, she'd say, who wants to go to fairyland? We'd, I do. And she would write a story and we would get in our dirty clothes.

Hampers were enormous. When you have that many children, lemme tell you, they build them. And I mean, it's just, but of course when the wash had been done, so we'd all get in there, she would transform the room and do a new set and do the lights different. And she read to us, we would get at night and you know, mom and dad, they're busy, right?

They couldn't reach. Theresa would say, okay. And she would read stories to us and then, you know, it, it truly. Stories have been the center of my life since birth.

Passionistas: What was it like being in the middle of the 11 kids being the, you know, 'cause there's all that mythology, right? About age order and everything and to be in the middle of 11.

Carroll: Incredible. So I didn't end up as the dead center until, you know, for many years. 'cause every time there would be a new baby, the new the middle person would change, but. As it stands, and after all those things happened, I have to say it's been an incredible gift somehow, some way. I was named for my mother and there were three girls before I was born, so I'm just saying, and when my wonderful siblings listen to this, I know, can y'all believe it? I'm sorry, but I'm so happy. We always talk about who's the favorite, and literally whoever was in the presence, that's who mom and dad would say, well, of course you're the favorite. And then they, they saw another and say, really, you're the favorite.

But, and so that's always, but the middle has been incredible because I saw everybody grow up. I literally was. In the midst and let's just say my dad, one of his nickname nicknames, my incredible father, hurricane Dave. He could, you know, he's this incredible marine lover of life. All the things. My mother's this incredibly brilliant it, they, my parents were clearly saints, but I saw.

Every type of parenting you can have. So you think about that. My dad, my mom was 45 when she had number 11 and. They had one precious little baby go to heaven between number, you know, 10 and 11. So we'd have 12. And my dad always thought that would be so cool. And yes, Catholic. And yet I'll just throw the things obvious out.

And my mother was a convert and as she would tell you, so she was the best Catholic of everybody and it was incredible. I saw it go from where my dad. You think about this, he was born in nine, I think 1920, so that there wasn't a lot of hugging and visiting and talking, you know? It was more like, this is what happens.

He lost his dad when he was 14, and so he was part of helping, and he had a lot of brothers and sisters. But the bottom line is I literally saw my parents change from, well, I mean. I'm gonna say this, it's so unacceptable. But I got belted. I mean, people got spanked, you know, people got in trouble. I'm sure this isn't gonna be a popular thing to say, but I'll be honest with you, I probably deserved it.

I, I, I mean, meaning that they could have tried something else, but I was kind of everywhere. And the thing about that is, and I saw it go from that to where my little brothers who were. As wild as you could be. They didn't get belted. They like, they talked to 'em and I'm like, somebody spanked them. You know?

I mean, I'm old enough to be able to say that. I, I completely, my husband said to me one time, he said, so do, do we spank the kids? I said, no. He said, well, do we squeeze them? And I said, no. I said, it's a new age. Nobody gets spanked. You know, we talk about things. I don't know how great that is. But it was incredible because, and I also saw my parents go from drinking, smoking, playing bridge. Then everybody stopped, you know, 'cause they too needed to, my mom didn't stop. She was always very moderate. Imperfectly perfect mother. It was incredible. You know, my dad, now he would, he was gonna have a lot like I would, but I saw him going from having a bunch of money and starting at very modest means, having a bunch of money, then having no money, having a bunch of help, then having no help.

Seeing how they got through that. And one thing that never changed was prayer. Never. And I remember walking back into my parents' room and you might imagine like I have a brother and sister in love that still live in that house. They now lease the house.

What was the kitchen is now the laundry room. So every two or three kiddos, we might get a bathroom and a bedroom. And you move depending on who was there and who was in school and who was doing what. You might have a room you might be rooming with three people. It was unbelievable. It was so much freaking fun.

I'm sure not for my parents, but the point of that being, when we were younger, we would all kneel down, whether it was around the sofa or around their big giant bed, and we would pray for everybody in the family and everybody else in peace in the world. All the things you know seriously. And I think they had us kneeling down so we wouldn't fall asleep.

'cause the prayers went on and on. I still say long prayers, but then I remember one day I was going to the back and I walked in and I saw my mom kneeling down, praying on the side of her bed. Now I cannot imagine. Who she was praying for, what she was praying for. There was a time there was no money. So a friend and my mother was very, very smart.

And when William was a baby, she went to teaching school again. She had graduated. I had an incredible role model. Mother graduated from the University of Texas in a time when not many, the majority of women didn't go to college. Much less graduate. So we had this incredible example and then I, I'm thinking, wow, okay, they do this when they're by themselves too.

Another time I couldn't find my dad and I went in the back. He was praying not just with us. So just like my story, they were. They had their individual prayer, they were the authors of their stories, and then they were also part of the collective. But I just really it being in the center, I saw them go with money, without money, with struggles, without struggles, parenting these kiddos differently.

And I got to know each one of my siblings. The biggest, the hardest thing for my siblings was that the younger ones, sometimes I was in charge and I should not have been because let's just say I was probably not a very good example. I was example of fun. I mean, I was like, okay, y'all wanna come? Well, just nobody tell mom and Dad what you see my friends do.

I mean, really and truly, I do. There's still, I have to surrender that shame because I tell them, I, I mean there was a lot of that, but can you, I can't even, not even imagine. I have three kids and thank God I was able to thank my mom and dad. We were so gifted. They both lived to almost 93. And I was able to grow up enough to say thank you for making me tuna fish when everybody else had ham and I didn't like it.

I mean,

Passionistas: yeah,

Carroll: it's unbelievable. Um, I, I felt spoiled and, and it's, it's truly unbelievable being the middle child. Incredible gift. In incredible gift. Yeah. There was some hard I wanted to take on, like I could see when my brother, little brothers and sisters were about to get in. Not a little bit of trouble.

A lot of trouble, and I was afraid for them thinking they can't take it. I can't, I don't really care. I mean, really, I was kind of rebellious or whatever you wanna call it. And so I, I wouldn't mind, I'd say, oh, I did it. I did it and then that got a little carried away. 'cause then they would start saying, Carol did it when I didn't wanna be the one.

Anyway, it was Incr. It was absolutely incredible. I used to hide behind the sofa and listen to my sister Francis talk on the phone to voice, and she was insanely popular. I got the voice down. I answered the phone, Hey, this guy said Francis, and I said, yeah, I mean, you acted exactly like her and accepted a date.

Completely forgot about it. That guy showed up and so did her other date. I mean, I'm just telling you, episode of the Brady Bunch. It was one story except for they were kind of good kids. We were pretty wild. Anyway, it was in. Credible and we grew up in a town in Beaumont. All roads lead to Beaumont. I promise y'all, if you ask around, you'll know somebody from Beaumont and, and the community of families and friends.

When you were friends with one person, you were, their whole families were friends. Our parents were all friends. Even if they didn't hang out, everybody knew each other and it was a beautiful. Place to grow up and, uh, being in the middle, I'm gonna say it was the very best.

Passionistas: Yeah,

Carroll: not necessarily the easiest, but the best.

Passionistas: That's fabulous. So let's talk a little bit about your career journey. So you got started in banking and real estate, right? So why did you choose those industries and how did your career path kind of progress?

Carroll: Okay, so that's really fun. Again at 110, you've had a lot of jobs by now. First job wanted to go to cheerleading camp, so excited was a cheerleader, and mom said, okay, that's great, but you're gonna have to help earn the money for all these outfits and for camp.

Perfect. I still, people need to call me if they need a job. I swear to you, I could go get a job any place I wanted right now if you'll work. And you're not just do a good job. You know you might not be your forever job. You can get yourself a job. I said, I'm gonna go to Baskin Robbins and I know they'll gimme a job.

Sure enough, you know, I don't know if y'all know that. It was very hard. I still love it. Very hard. That was my first job and I thought, okay, I'm not doing this much longer 'cause I can't work the MT machine and I'm certainly not gonna learn how to work a credit card. We didn't have credit. I didn't know, our family did not have credit.

We did not have credit cards. So. My mother when she transitioned from being at home, and I don't know how she'd do it. Taking care of all these kiddos. My dad's dearest friend, Edwin Terry, God bless his soul and his precious wife and their family, he owned with this wonderful gentleman, Mack Fulbright.

They owned a real estate company. And they did appraisals and they had real estate agents and they, they were just wonderful. He said to my mother, he said, Carol, you need to get your real estate license. You would be the best real estate agent than everybody's ever known. She said, perfect, very smart.

She's so smart. And teachers, let's just God bless teachers, right? So teacher English, major, all the things. She gets her license and I see a turnaround. My dad is transitioning from the lumber company into other things, and he goes into insurance. Oh, and I had gone to work for my oldest brother in the insurance business.

He said, you can work with Terry Taylor in the pension department. I said, sure. I don't even know what that meant, but I said, sure, I'll learn. I'll figure it out. Anyway, my mother. She becomes, she's just doing it. She's incredible. And I said, this is fun. I'm gonna learn about that. I'm pretty good with numbers.

Not like many of my siblings who are just, you know, crazy intelligent. I said, I'm gonna go work in the bookkeeping department. They said, sure, come in. So I'm learning how to do the books and seeing how it all works and how real estate agents are paid. I loved it. I absolutely loved it, and I said, you know what, I'm gonna get my real estate license and I'm gonna go ahead and do this because I love people.

And you know, I'm sure you all know this, but as a real estate agent, that's a very intimate relationship. You are in the middle of people's lives, their finances, their family situations, the dynamics, who's doing what? The decision making. And I love stories and I, I love families and individuals, so I said, this is perfect.

So I decided I would do real estate well while I was in school, I got a job at the bank. I loved it and I figured out how to, I worked with loan. I said, okay, now we can figure out how to loan money. This is great. So then I thought, you know, I'm gonna learn how to process mortgages. So I started doing that, figuring out how to qualify so I could help the people that were buying homes.

I could help pre-qualify them before that was a thing, but I thought this will be good. So we'll be realistic about what we're looking at, and they'll understand their finances and all the things. Loved it. And of course in the middle of that I was having plenty of fun and plenty of dates and, and I just loving it.

And I loved it more than I loved school. And I could hang at the lake most of the time when I was off. Anyway. Did that, did it forever? Yay. Kept doing that for years and years and years. Incredible company here in Houston, Greenwood King. I keep my license, I renew it every two years and I love knowing how to do the contracts and all the updates and it has been, that was all great.

Well, so Jeff and I, I'm selling real estate back up, not married. Jeff and I, uh. Jeff is in Dallas. We had remained friends and he's in construction. Well, the next thing you know, things are progressing and we're gonna date and all the things, and he's in Dallas, I'm in Houston, and he said, okay, I'm gonna move to Houston.

I said, great. He'd been doing construction for 20 years at that point and gets a job. Construction, real estate's all great. We're gonna have this. Beautiful, thank you father. Another incredible child, just angel on earth. Magical child. Mary Pat Houston and Alice Carol are doing great. Thank you, father.

They're dad and I have very, very, very nice, we both understand the mistakes we had made. I can't speak for him, but I had learned so much that it was more about me, not about, than him. And, um.

I said, Jeff, you gotta start a construction company. I, I watched what he was doing and I, and I love businesses, as you can tell, I love starting businesses. Mm-hmm. And so far it's all been going well. So I said, let's get you going. He said, great. He was also an insurance specialist, so. I keep working. He starts his, the company, well, we found the company together.

I work for them at night and on the weekends to figure it all out. And then thank you father, because we founded the construction company. Starting out with his insurance specialty because insurance is steady, let's say, and God bless everybody, Palisades and all the things in California, just un that's a whole different conversation.

But if you got something happened that wasn't great for your house, your adjuster comes over and says, we're gonna pay you $200,000, whatever. It's well. Then you tell your contractor, well as a contractor, Jeff, 'cause he is an insurance specialist, he can say, you know what? You're getting plenty of money.

Say thank you, yay. Or you know what, we need to do a serious supplemental because for whatever reason, your adjuster, whomever, they've forgotten about this and you really need a hundred, 200,000 more dollars. I. Because he has such a great reputation and he's done it for so long. Insurance companies, let's say 98% of the time, are gonna pay off what he gives to them, if that's a supplemental, and then you as the partner is the homeowner, you can choose to work with him or you can get somebody else.

Well, he's a wonderful person. He's incredibly fair, and so I'll say nine times outta 10, a lot of times 10 outta 10 time, he would be awarded the project. Then the next thing you know he's doing their second homes and their kids' homes and their friends' homes, and so fine. And then it was busy enough that I kept my license, but I started working for them.

We started building a team. There's nothing like a team. Nothing like community. And so now I, I think I have on my cam hat actually. So IWI did not sell actively. I kept my license and I could refer, but I started working full-time doing design and space design and working with people before they go to the architects.

Long story short, this, we have this Inc. Beautiful team. And so Jeff and that team now work. Here and in Hill country a little bit, and Galveston and, and, and so it's grown to be this beautiful team. And from then it was time a few years ago, I thought, I can semi-retire. I've kinda, we've built a team that's kind of, they don't need me.

I love to learn. I said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna start telling stories. I'm gonna tell stories about the mistakes I've made, the wins I've had the struggles, finding the light through the struggles and start sharing these stories. And I thought my brothers and sisters were gonna be very excited and all come on and tell their stories.

And they were like, oh God, you're doing it again. What are you doing? Taking us to that? So now they've, they're slowly coming in and cheering their stories, but I said, well, y'all. I'm gonna tell everyone else's stories. I'm gonna invite people in that want to share and help people. Let's say like an AA meeting.

You go to an AA meeting, you don't know anybody, and you're all very different. I mean, enormously different. Maybe you are under a bench and you're lowest and maybe somebody else just, you know, had an act, whatever it can be, and as a listener. You're getting these pearls and you realize how connected you are to all these people that are so very different.

So really, again, another gift from something I experienced and I learned that it was really, it's really about being curious and I'll, I'll do that again. Somebody said, oh, they're not really an alcoholic, you know, I said, what? Because they're not under a bench. Right. Maybe you don't know, but they're just depressed 'cause they drink.

You don't measure people's hurt. You don't measure people's anything. You don't compare. It doesn't mean there's not a pearl that's similar. That helps people. And that's how this conversations with Carol and the surrender, which I love. Everything came from all of that. Beautiful.

Passionistas: So why is that theme of surrender so important to you?

Carroll: You know, all those years of, of not being, taking res accountability or understanding the opportunity of being my, the author of my own story and my incredibly beautiful, original family, n not well. Incredible original family, I'll say, of being one of 11. And my amazing parents, I had no idea that other people did not feel like that about their families.

I did not know that.

Passionistas: Yeah.

Carroll: So I'm out there thinking, oh, that's how we all feel, you know? And then the next, when married for the first time.

Not staying our marriage and that family not surviving, I can promise you if I did not surrender the heartache, the guilt, the disalignment that that is for me, even to this day. As incredible as my life is, and I'm telling you all, I mean, seriously. You know what I'm gonna do right now? I'm gonna hit my knee.

I'm gonna say thank you. I swear to y'all my, my life in spite of myself is incredible. But I to this day have to surrender every day. The things that. I wasn't aware of, or I wish I would've done differently or my part in the reason that that family didn't make it. And the, the examples I, maybe the bad example I was to my children.

When I surrender that to God, I swear this is the truth. In my weakness, I surrender what doesn't serve me and I pick up a. A strength, an understanding, a joy, maybe not always happy, but a joy through surrender that does not exist. It did not exist for me until I realized this practice of surrender. And I do wanna point out it is a practice.

This is not a, oh, I'm gonna surrender that and yay. And God loves me and this is all so good. It is literally a practice. And I think, uh, one of the beautiful gifts of surrender is humility. And, and humility is not, um, thinking less of oneself, but it is thinking of oneself less. I don't know who told me that, but isn't it wonderful?

Passionistas: I like that.

Carroll: That's good. I'd like to give, that's really

Passionistas: Good.

Carroll: But it, because it's the truth, it doesn't mean don't show up actually, you know, any of that. It means thinking of other people when, I mean, every day I surrender and there are many things that come up that are new within a day. At the end of the day, I am like, oh my goodness, I, I'm, I need to.

Correct that, or I wanna surrender that and do this differently. I think surrender, taking accountability, first of all, and I take that all the way back to that incredible therapist that taught me what insanity was. But from awareness to accountability, that's all great. And, and our whole team works under the umbrella of accountability.

Then you add this surrender piece because when you do take accountability, shame is happy to jump in there. Oh, you mean all that was your fault? Well, and then all of a sudden, the shame. So it's this awareness, accountability, and then the power comes from surrendering.

Passionistas: So what does success look like to you now as compared to earlier in your career?

Carroll: Ooh. Staying in the present moment and being appreciative, like of this incredible moment. You know, it's, uh, in realizing that is, you know, who knows how many more businesses I'll start my life, right? But whatever I hope to do and want to do tomorrow and the next day and the list that's so long you can't see the top or the bottom of it.

I think success. For me, and I do think it has evolved that definition, but it is, my goodness, I woke up and I'm so grateful. And if I start with God and, and for me, you know, I love that we all come from very different backgrounds. So, you know, Catholic and Jewish, and I always tell everybody, if I wasn't Catholic, I would be Jewish.

I love the Jewish faith. But anyway, and I love so much about. I always went to everybody's churches. It's so funny. My mother said, oh my gosh, what are you doing? But to wake up and to have a moment and say, I get to have this day and I'm gonna do the best I can and who, what am I gonna learn? The minute we think, oh yeah, well it's all good pride before the fall.

Passionistas: Mm-hmm.

Carroll: That's a real thing. Yeah. And so it, for me it's, it's success is, my God, if I'm healthy enough to take on this day, how many people do we know? And maybe it's because I'm 110, I hope not. I hope the youngsters that hear this realize we do not know the failure I had. It is very much part of success.

However, it started with presuming, I hope I'm saying that right, that I had more than that one day. Success for me is doing the very best I can can being accountable, starting with gratitude. I mean, I remember somebody saying, yeah, but what about the money? And I said, you know, that changed too. In the olden days when I would write a check, I'd say, thank you father.

I'm able to write this check. Mm-hmm. And when I people saying, you know, what am I gonna do? I lost my job. I said, oh my God, I know this is. Positively annoying, but this means what do you really want to do? Let's go get a job. That's not your dream job to pay some bills and let's build something. I, I think it's loving other people and being loved and being okay with imperfection and with this long, giant list, but being able to take the next step, my God success is saying you're sorry to somebody.

That's a success. Reno. It's not a fun thing to say. Again, it's success is taking accountability for the day ahead.

Passionistas: That is the most unique and awesome definition we've ever had. Give us for that, that question. That was awesome.

Carroll: Yeah.

Passionistas: Um. So we are so close to the end of our time. Um, but tell everybody about your book and what it's gonna be about and how they can be a part of it.

Carroll: Oh my goodness. I would thank you for asking. Um, surrender the Movement is something that the team and I. Are so excited to get started and take globally, and part of the movement is to educate, educate people through stories about the power of surrender. So we have started. I'm so excited and I'm looking at two of the co-authors.

We are putting together an anthology of stories of surrender the practice. Again, I can't say it enough, it, it's surrender. It's so beautiful. It's so powerful. It takes into, uh, it takes into account becoming aware, finding the strength and surrender. It's a, it's this place that through our book. We are going to take that globally and tell stories of all kinds so that people are able to find a, maybe a string of pearls for themselves that empower them to consider and to understand how important they are regardless of where they are in this moment.

We hope it meets people where they are, no matter when they read it, and it empowers people, but mainly reminds. Every individual, how important they are, how important their stories are, how important what they thought maybe was a failure or something they'd never get through that they made it to, and maybe they're not all the way through it yet, but they're practicing surrender and going to God to this incredible resource that's not of our own power that.

I mean, you can be a co-author. You can come and listen. There are gonna be summits. We are gonna have workshops, but surrender the practice is gonna be this beautiful compilation of stories, individual stories of when people have surrendered in their lives, whether they were. Forced down to the knees like I have been before, or they made a choice to surrender and where they found the power of God working in their weakness so that you can get through another day, but realize you have a community of people that are practicing surrender and that are here to support you and your loved ones that are curious.

It's not comparing, it's not judgmental. It's a group of similar. It is. We are connected. We are so connected, and we hope and pray that through this anthology that we'll spread the word and more and more people will say yes. Oh my gosh, I've needed to hear this. I needed Amy's story. I needed Nancy's story.

I needed that story. So many people. I think that they have this terminal uniqueness. It's not true. And uh, we just hope that everyone it, that we hope to literally make a positive impact globally and we are looking for it to change. This time where so many people focus on how disconnected and how different we are and the different beliefs that we have.

We hope it connects and brings people together with hope and joy and light and love and goodness. And you know, everybody's invited. That's, somebody said, you didn't invite me. I said everybody's invited there. There's not a limit. Our first. This we will go up to if, uh, 70 authors in the first book. And as this conversation is going on, I'm not sure when it is, is airing, but right now we have 11.

So right now there are many, many spots with your names on them on each chapter. So please, carol patrisse.com and join. Let's get on a call. I'm always available.

Passionistas: Oh, you are so absolutely beautiful. I love you. Um, we have one last two part question before we wrap up today.

Carroll: Yes.

Passionistas: So what is your dream for yourself and what is your dream for women?

Carroll: Ooh, that makes me wanna cry. You know, I'm gonna start with women. Start with women. I don't think in this life that I had for many, many years that. I did not know, and this is, you know, don't wanna brag about it 'cause it's, it was horrific, but I learned a lot from it. I thought that I was closer with guys, that I didn't do well with groups of women.

And I don't know how many other people feel like that, but you know, I wanted to. Be outdoors and there were a lot of things that people talked about and whether I couldn't have those things or I didn't care about 'em, I'm not sure which, to be honest, didn't really matter to me what the reason was. I felt safer with guys.

I really did. I felt like their conversations weren't quite as whatever. Comparison, maybe. There was a lot of comparing and, and let me tell you, I am one of six girls and five boys back to that 'cause it's where I always go back and again, thank you father, they were outstanding. If I were to sit here right now and describe to you, you would be like, oh, your sisters were pretty awesome.

You didn't wanna be comparing with that group. I certainly didn't, or comparing to my mother and really I just, I felt safer and I didn't feel like I needed to compare. I was not aware that, I guess culture did it to, I don't know who did it to us, but I do believe it, it did there. Maybe that was just in my world, but it was an energy I felt.

Passionistas: Yeah.

Carroll: And with the guys I could go hunting. I could go fishing, which I don't even like to hunt. I wanna go sit out there with them and take pictures of the animals and the birds and, but I felt like we were outdoors more. I felt like it was easier. And now what I hope for women is that we, can we surrender that?

Hmm. Can we surrender that? Can we just celebrate when somebody does something tiny that they've never done before or they become president? Can we, can we? That's what I hope for women. I hope that through. It's one of the things I hope what happens through this surrender. I hope we see people surrendering comparison and competition and embrace.

Let's connect. And collaborate and help. That's what I really hope for women and, and I think it's one of the reasons I fell in love with y'all, is I think that you all do that. I think that's where you come from with what you've created. So thank you for that. Gosh, what do I hope for myself? Was that the other part?

Passionistas: Mm-hmm.

Carroll: Y'all. If you knew the things in my brain that I'm hoping happens, you, it would be, y'all would say, okay, just don't, let's act like we didn't ask that question. I really, really, really, really hope that by the grace of God that this, um, that what I love to do, which is have these conversations create these, this book.

The beginning of many books that the understanding that although I don't write very well, I am an author as everyone listening to this, is, let's go back to the beginning. You are the author of your story and your story matters, and I hope that it contin that that continues and involves so that I am.

Surrounded by people like y'all and people that are just really like, yeah, let's do it. Let's go. Let's do this. Let's create that. How do we reach more people? I mean, you know, it's so funny, I asked this lady the other day at this Bible study, which y'all would love 'cause it's. 35 to 40 different churches all coming together talking about it.

And I said, would you please pray for me? Because as we move forward with this, it's a lot of face forward, you know, and it's, I wanna make sure that my, and Melissa Heathers would love this, that my ego is out of the way. And that by the grace of God, it's less of me and more of other people, and that I'm doing it from, that I'm following the Holy Spirit's guide, that it's not like, oh, well, I wanna do all and be all this because that those things are true.

That is part of it, but I hope it's a tiny part of it.

Passionistas: Thanks for listening to the Passionistas Project. Everything we do is rooted in one belief. Women's voices matter, and when we share our stories, we create real change. That's why we launched our anthology book series, Awakening Your Power: Real Stories of Women's Empowerment, a collection of raw, inspiring stories from women who are ready to be seen, heard, and make an impact.

And here's the best part. You don't have to be a writer to be a contributing author. Our interview process is how we bring it all to life. We sit down with you. Draw out your story and your authentic voice and shape it into a powerful written chapter. No staring at a blank page. No pressure to get it right.

Just your truth told your way. When you join us, you're not just writing a chapter. You're stepping into a sisterhood built on storytelling, visibility, and support from our membership community to podcast features and other opportunities to share your voice. We are here to help you amplify your message in ways that feel aligned.

If your story is ready to be told, we're ready to help you tell. Head to ThePassionistasProject.com to learn more. Join the sisterhood and apply to be part of Awakening Your Power.

Until next time, stay passionate.