SUPER EXCITED to share my first ever podcast interview that just went live yesterday!

I had the honour of talking about productivity, energy, alignment and more with the lovely Charlotte Thibault from Finland.

She has a great podcast all about how to be ALIGNED in life and work: The Spiritually ALIGNED Human!

We had a great chat where I shared a bunch of tips that I have developed over the years of personal growth and coaching leaders across the globe.

Our focus of the chat was on: How to Avoid Burnout as a High-Achieving Leader. 

Would you like to know how to 10x your productivity with ease?

I'm excited to show you my secret steps to turn your scheduling INSIDE-OUT!

Download the free Inside-Out Scheduling guide and you'll walk away with:

• a new approach to scheduling that will 10x your productivity
• less time working, more time recharging = better results + more ease
• how to connect to your intuition to tap into this powerful resource daily

WHY: I created this system to help you to work from a place of THRIVING... where you're totally inspired, creative, confident, energized, and excited for life!

Then the energy you bring to your work, biz, organization and leadership role can uplift others, your biz results and your overall impact and fulfillment in everything you do!

Check out one of these options to listen to the interview: 

• Listen on Charlotte's Podcast website
• Listen on SPOTIFY
• Listen on ANCHOR fm
• Listen on Apple Podcast

A big thanks to Charlotte Thibault for being such a joy to chat with and making it easy to share with all of you <3

If you haven't already downloaded the free Inside-Out Scheduling Guide we talk about in the podcast, you can get it here :) 

Here are some of my notes from my preparation for the interview... we ended up covering other topics as well in the actual conversation so you'll want to listen to the recording to get even more tips & tricks & inspiration on how to avoid burnout & THRIVE!

Leadership & Spirituality, friends or foes?

Leadership and spirituality do they go together or do they negate each other?   I've been preparing for my first podcast interview (yaaaay!!! so excited!!!!) and we are going to be talking about how someone chooses a spiritual life or their more regular daily life activities and why can't someone have both.   

The theme of the podcast is all about how someone can live life connected to their soul purpose on a daily basis. So I figured I'd share some of my brainstormed responses to the questions with you since I don't think I've ever pulled all these pieces together in one place before now! :D   

And so I'm excited to share what I like to call "The Art of Conscious Leadership and Mindful Living" and it's all about being an empowered leader working with ease, flow and joy... THRIVING! The difference is:  

• Alignment vs hustle
• Awareness vs overwhelm 
• Presence vs busyness
• Intentional vs rushed
• Self-aware, conscious and intentional vs disconnected

I totally believe that leadership and spiritual alignment is SO important and is the backbone behind everything that I coach and I teach and the way I lead!   

I believe we need a highly self-aware and empowered leaders to truly heal and uplift the world. 

• In Bohrs model he calls it self-actualized.
• In the Good to Great book they call it Level 5 Leadership where the leaders are humble yet, super inspiring.
• And in the Tribal Leadership model, these kinds of leaders are at the top of the tribal perspective because they lead from a place of life is great!

These are the kind of leaders that I am here to support and create by empowering my clients so that they can then create empowered leaders themselves and the ripple affect can be massive!  

Q: So when I was asked  the question when did I become awake spiritually or I've always been that way?  

While I've always been a positive person and believed that thinking positively would make people happier which eventually was has been shown in brain science neuroscience, my big awakening didn't really happen until my mid 20s over a period of a few years.  

One of the first big a-ha moments that I recall was recognizing how my words  weren't having the impact I had intended them to have in my head. So my behavior wasn't aligned with my intentions and this was a big slap in the face when the mirror of the world was showing me how I actually was a coming across.  

This was super hard and emotionally painful when I was thinking how nice of a person I was but it didn't actually come across that way. And at first, I didn't know how to do anything differently.   

Through years of meditation and yoga and self awareness and reflection studying Zen and Buddhism and spirituality in general, I gradually became more and more self-aware and deeply empowered!  

Q: Then when I was asked when did I decide add it to my business and how did I do that?  

At first I kept meditation and my executive coaching and business/management professional self separate.   

But one day I was at the University of British Columbia doing a week-long program with some executives and business colleagues. We were talking casually about meditation and it's impact on stress and performance and all of that and my fellow students were so interested they asked me to do a meditation with them.   

So we had about 15 to 20 executives that wanted to come and try it and within just 10 minutes for a very short guided meditation, for some of the executives in the room it was the first time they ever had experienced a moment of a quiet mind!  

It was then that I saw the massive value of sharing meditation, self-awareness & mindful living with business folks Then from there it took a few years to develop my signature Exhale and Thrive strategy and integrate it into my coaching.  

Q: So how did incorporating both worlds go? Was it easy or uncomfortable?   

I was hesitant at first to merge my mediation/spiritual self with my executive/business self.   As an ethics and harassment advisor to senior military at the time, I was very aware of the appropriate versus inappropriate topics at work and sharing and all of that.  

But my coaching clients kept asking me for the mindfulness and meditation piece. One client actually even asked if I could help him become enlightened and it was a bit uncomfortable at first because I was working hard to still keep those pieces of myself separate. But in bringing both pieces together and merging them to give my clients a well-rounded perspective and support.  

Plus it took a while for me to be comfortable talking about spirituality and empowerment and self-awareness in the work type environment.  

But I knew the massive power that self-awareness has on someone's ability to be an amazing leader.  

And then eventually I could see that it actually was a crucial piece that being self-aware and being able to be  intentional and conscious and our leadership is actually crucial to having powerful impact and positive results in business, leadership and life overall!  

Q: What are some practical every day tools to create this alignment on a regular basis actually come up with the whole structure about it and is what I teach in my programs?  

The concept around my Exhale and Thrive System is looking at your energy and whether it is full or empty.  

I know that high-achievers have a tendency to do a lot of things and have a lot on their plate so they can tend to run on empty or almost empty off most of the time.  

And then those that are also super visionary have a lot of passion and drive and purpose and desire to really push for these things that they would want to create in the world.  

But the challenge of high achieving leaders in that  are passionate and visionary is they can tend to burn out or get into overwhelmed easily. Or just running on empty so that their impact or their productivity results are water down significantly.  

So by looking at your YIN/ "ENERGY IN" activities that replenish and recharge by putting energy into the gas tank then that has a positive impact on everything else that you want to do in your life because then when you do the YANG / "ENERGY OUT" activities of out in the world then you have the energy to do it and actually an overflow so it can happen with ease and joy.  

Some of the practical daily approaches I use for this is to fill up my energy gas tanks first before I do anything else in the day. And I've actually created an Inside-Out Scheduling approach that summarizes this in a handy cheet-sheet:) 

My morning mindset/energy routine includes:  

• morning journalling and meditation
• relationship breakfast times with my husband and our dog
•  wealth consciousness work
• morning walk with the dog
• high quality nutrition and sleep
• projects & creativity in the morning
• afternoons for meetings, emails, small tasks 

Q: How do you know when you're disconnected or how to switch gears when you feel like you've lost your alignment?  

I've created a cool tool called the Thrive Matrix that I've used of for many years to help me tune into where I'm at and what I need to get back into THRIVE MODE! You can check out that article here :) 

And then once you know you're disconnected, you also know how to reconnect.  

Sometimes it can be even as easy as just flipping the switch from feeling disconnected to present by taking a big deep belly breath and shifting into awareness again.   

Q: Some examples of clients that have had shifts from these tools and integrating them into their leadership and personal lives :  

• Marie who went friend from frantic to calm and focused in her management position
• Ginestra who found her soul purpose and message as a relationship coach
• Cheryl who went from overwhelmed with challenges in her team to massive strategic shifts with regional outreach and significant increase in funding
• Leona who went from unsure how to manage her business and raise her kids to creating even more space and time for her young family while also working on her photography business
• Stewart who got clear on his values and purpose through encouragement & shifts in perspective
• Sarah (not me, a different Sarah ;) who went from managing her addiction to work to managing her energy and being intentional about her meetings and how she spent her time and energy on a daily basis
• Sam who did one and guided meditation together and then he had the best meetings he'd ever had because he felt clear and focused, fully present and aligned 
• Charna who went from feeling stuck at work with leadership challenges to hopeful and empowered to work through the challenges and find new job opportunities

These kinds of shifts can work for you too, whether you're done being stuck and frustrated with workloads and overwhelm, ready to banish any personnel challenges, absolutely needing to get your business going or re-energized or seeking support from the spiritual side so you can THRIVE! 

PS - And for those of you that LOVE worksheets (like me!) and would like to be able to take this deeper, you can download the Inside-Out Scheduling Training Package which includes a 12 page workbook, audio training that you can listen to anywhere or on the go, plus templates to help you schedule out your own Ideal Schedule to THRIVE! Bonus guided meditation and video training included too!

Get the Training here: Sign up for the Inside-Out Training Package

Or if you'd like more support through a group program or private VIP coaching, you can APPLY HERE and I'll be in touch to schedule a chat!