Authority Magazine Interview: Authenticity

You learn about yourself when you spend more time being yourself.

Being vulnerable and authentic are some of today’s popular buzzwords. It may seem counterintuitive to be vulnerable, as many of us have been taught to project an air of confidence, be a boss, and act like we know everything. In Brene Brown’s words, “vulnerability takes courage.” So is vulnerability a strength or a weakness? Can someone be authentic without being vulnerable? How can being authentic and vulnerable help someone grow both personally and professionally? In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders, mental health professionals and business and life coaches who can share stories and examples of “How Authenticity and Vulnerability Pay Off and Help You Win Personally and Professionally.” As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tracy McHugh.

Tracy is from a super tiny town in northern New Jersey where she has had the luxury of seeing too many Broadway shows and has had her fair share of Italian food. She has spent the last 12 years working in the tour & travel industry. In 2020 Tracy created and maintained a travel blog called Chasing Wonderful.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

Oh wow, we are going that far back. I grew up in a suburb of New York City. It was a relatively easy childhood. My parents are still together 50 years later. I am the youngest of 2 children. My parents were present at every parent teacher conferences, softball game, and even to see me perform some weird character my 1st grade teacher created for me in the Heights Elementary School production of Peter Pan. So, there wasn’t a whole lot of change or shakeup in my first 18 years. Naturally, when I went away to college (only an hour north of my hometown might I add), it was a pretty big change. I eventually flourished. Made friends, tried new things, spread my wings a bit. Now I live in a constant state of change and love it.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I think my favorite quote about a life lesson would be from the movie A League of Their Own. I am such a Cinephile and have been from an early age so I was obsessed with this movie from when I first saw it in the 1990’s. At one point Tom Hanks’ character says to Geena Davis’ character when she told him baseball just got too hard: It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard…is what makes it great.

Like I said above, I had a relatively easy and mellow childhood so I think it took me a little longer in life to realize that not everything will come so easy and that the things worth fighting for and working towards, are usually the most challenging.

Also, a few years ago I was at an event, and I got to meet Tom Hanks’s wife, Rita Wilson. Little Tracy was so stoked to meet her because of my affinity for the movies A League of Their Own and Now & Then from my childhood. She was super friendly and pleasant to speak with, which was an added bonus.

More from the recent interview with Authority Magazine can be found by following this link.