Finding Wellness after Burnout with Jenn Bieri
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[00:00:00] Laura Lorentz: Welcome to the Empowered Essence podcast, where we liberate you and empower you to let your soul lead the way in life and business. I am your host, Laura Lawrence, sharing my thoughts and intimate conversations with featured guests on spirituality, business, and making courageous moves in the spirit of following your soul.
[00:00:21] I want to provide you with the tools you need to tap into your highest self. I am here to empower you to walk away, feeling ready to live your most expansive and purposeful life. Let's dive in.
[00:00:34] Welcome, everyone. Welcome to Empowered Essence. I've got a great episode today because we have another guest. I'm so excited to welcome *Jenn Bieri* and what's really cool about Jenn and I is we went to university together.
[00:00:49] We went to Wilfrid Laurier we did business school together and this is actually, a catch up for us almost because, I was following Jenn on social media. I was following her on LinkedIn actually because, when you go to business school that's the social media platform you use. I saw her starting to post about her personal journey, her personal development, her business.
[00:01:12] I kind of creeped her for a few months before I reached out to her. Then finally one day I was like, no, I got to reach out to her. I got to invite her on the podcast and have her share a little bit about her journey and what she is doing, because I think it's just such amazing work. So I'm going to read out her bio for everyone, just so that you get to know Jen a little bit better.
[00:01:31] Jenn is a coach for emerging leaders, guiding high achievers towards happiness, balance, and preventing burnout while they get out there and change the world using coaching, energy work, and yoga. Her unique approach stems from her own personal journey, overcoming panic attacks, chronic migraines, anxiety, imposter syndrome, and burnout, while working over a decade in the corporate space as a global finance and business operations leader living in Toronto.
[00:01:59] She is also a chartered professional accountant. After helping scale a tech startup from 40 to 400 plus people, she decided to pursue her dream of establishing her own business, The Practice Space so welcome Jenn to the show. Yeah,
[00:02:15] Jenn Bieri: thanks, Laura. I'm so excited to be here with you. My favorite part of the whole story, though, is because like you're saying on LinkedIn, we're all like professional, right?
[00:02:23] And like showing and then it was like, I went on Instagram, Oh, my God, we're doing something so similar. I'm like, this is so cool. Anyways, I just love that. It's so fun to reconnect after what, basically over a decade, which is crazy to think that we graduated that long ago now, but It's so good to be here with you and thanks for
[00:02:40] Laura Lorentz: having me.
[00:02:41] Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I think, it's interesting. I haven't talked about my business necessarily on LinkedIn, but, it's definitely something that I want to do because I feel like what we do is really helping those like high achievers really just decondition from, all of the societal conditioning.
[00:02:59] Like you think back to business school and like all of the competition and the stress and the pressure. And like you worked for the big accounting firms too. that in itself is a lot of stress and pressure. I know. Oh my
[00:03:12] Jenn Bieri: gosh. and what you're touching on and the conditioning and all this stuff I don't know about you, but I don't think I fully appreciated or recognized how conditioned I was.
[00:03:21] I was constantly just, and this is how I think I ultimately burnt out, which in all honesty, I'm not even realizing I was burned out until like now, and Because of that, because you're constantly striving for this, perfection and these, unrealistic standards and trying to morph yourself into a box when we're not meant to be like
[00:03:39] that.
[00:03:40] Laura Lorentz: Yeah, I know. everyone was thinking that way. you think about business school,we were brought up a certain way that this is the way it should be, and it wasn't, really encouraged or celebrated to, Really think differently. you think about like we were raised like business school is really to raise corporate leaders, not necessarily entrepreneurs that are like thinking differently and being, innovative, like it's really to create and groom corporate leaders that You know, follow processes and structures and strategies and all of that.
[00:04:14] So like coming into the entrepreneurship world, that alone, you think if you went to business school, Oh yeah. Being an entrepreneur. Yeah. That's easy. No problem. Oh, it's like a rude awakening.
[00:04:26] Jenn Bieri: Tell me about it. Honestly, like the most humbling thing for me has been starting my own business because I don't know about you, but coming out of the corporate space and like I was really successful.
[00:04:37] So I'm like, building a business is going to be easy. Like I know how to do this. I've done this before.
[00:04:42] Laura Lorentz: no.
[00:04:43] Jenn Bieri: And it was like such a humbling awakening to be like, holy shit. This is actually kind of hard. how was it for you?
[00:04:51] Laura Lorentz: so I started my business when I was on maternity leave and I started off as a business coach for moms because it's like I knew [00:05:00] business and I was a new mom and I thought, bridge the two together and it all made sense, right?
[00:05:06] everything made sense. It was logical, it was strategic, it was all of the things, but then you don't take into account, you're a human and you have emotions and, fear and anxiety and all of those things come up. So for someone who's raised very strategic and everything is very much a mental process and your heart doesn't come into play in business school, like your heart.
[00:05:31] Jenn Bieri: No, exactly.
[00:05:32] Laura Lorentz: that was big for me, but so tell us a little bit about your journey and what kind of got you to this point of wanting to start your own business and support others.
[00:05:42] Jenn Bieri: so as I reflect a lot on my journey. So we graduated in 2011 and September 2011 was really interesting for me because I started my first job as an auditor at Grant Thornton.
[00:05:53] It was also when I went to my first yoga class. And I don't think I fully appreciated how pivotal that was, but for me, it was almost like I started seeing myself as two different people. I was the super calm yoga person that like, loved hot yoga. And I just loved who I was when I was in class, because it was a first time that I could turn my brain off. I don't know about you, but man, like business school, going through all that stuff. I was high, strung and stressed all the time. I was like, very tightly knit, always trying to be perfect. Then at Grand Thornton, it's they're grooming you to be a corporate leader.
[00:06:30] So there's a certain prescribed way to do things. I started seeing myself as like this, super corporate ambitious person was one of me. And then this other version was this like hippie that just wanted to travel the world and do yoga and I didn't really care about money. And I was like, I understand this and I didn't want anyone to know because I'm like, this is so embarrassing.
[00:06:50] I have these two polar opposite versions of me. But obviously they're still me. so, corporate Jenn took over for a really long time. And, throughout that time, it was just, I kept getting these nudges, whether it was these panic attacks or what ended up turning into migraines.
[00:07:08] I was like tired all the time. I remember weekends where I would wake up at 4 p. m. on a Saturday. Because I was so tired and it was because I was constantly pushing my limits. I was doing 7am meetings, 10pm meetings. I was in a global role, when I was working at the tech company. So it was just like nonstop, I was doing all nighters there and I loved it.
[00:07:29] It was amazing. I love the energy of being in the corporate space, but in the corporate space and now I'll also say I was very lucky. So you know, I worked in, at EF for a long time. they're a company that is really culturally focused. So they do try to emphasize your uniqueness to a point and same with the tech company, they did the same thing.
[00:07:48] However, there's like a prescribed way to be successful and it's, you work your ass off, you have no life and you just basically burn yourself out as you keep progressing to that next role and more money. so when the company was sold, I had always thought I wanted to start my own business because.
[00:08:08] luckily, my dad's an entrepreneur, runs in the blood a little bit. And, I wanted more freedom over my schedule because I was so tired of feeling like, in a way, I was someone's property because they were telling me when my meetings were, they were telling me where I had to be all the time.
[00:08:25] And I was like, Isn't this my life? Shouldn't I get to choose a little bit about like where I spend my time and where I go. And if I want to travel, I should be able to do that. that's what led me here.
[00:08:36] Laura Lorentz: I feel like we have a lot of parallels, in our lives. I'm very similar for me.
[00:08:42] Like I was living downtown Toronto. I was working crazy hours. Like my job became my identity. It really did. And I prided myself on that. I totally soaked that up and it wasn't until I went on mat leave. So instead of leaving my job I went on mat leave and it was a break. It was like that time to give myself space to realize and like detangle all of those webs, which is what I talk about in my energy weaving, but all of those webs of like Cords that I had connected myself with my job and with my identity and how I was making it so much of my life That it's like you have that break or that pause where you start realizing like, huh?
[00:09:26] well, maybe I could do this differently or maybe I should do this differently for my health and you know My mindset and my well being and all of that, but when you're in it, you don't realize it It's like a tunnel or a vacuum and you really don't realize it until you start giving yourself a little bit of that space and then the purview opens. I think some people, the reason why they, maybe hesitant about even opening up those like blinders is because It's really uncomfortable and it's really unsettling when you realize that you've been in a vacuum for so [00:10:00] long and you haven't realized that, there is a life outside of your job and your identity is more than what your job is.
[00:10:08] I've since gone back to my corporate job and I feel like I've really redefined my relationship with my job I don't think corporate is inherently bad. I do not believe that, but I do think that we can easily get sucked into the vortex, the patterns. sometimes it's a tough pill to swallow that were the problem, but it's like literally the most freeing when you can move past that for
[00:10:32] Jenn Bieri: sure.
[00:10:33] Totally. And I think also, when you're in that space and, like very similar, and I didn't realize it either. It's I was so tightly woven to the identity I had created being, working in tech, working in finance, all these things. When I would tell people I would see the look on their face or damn, you do that.
[00:10:52] it wasn't until I left that I was like, holy crap, who am I now? I don't even know how to like, hold up a conversation because I knew how much merit and status and all those things that held. then when you take those away, Whether it's through a break, like you're saying, like matt leave or like me when I, fully left, it's like you start to just realize how interwoven those stories are and how we totally define success based on that status, based on that promotion, based on that thing.
[00:11:21] And again, it's not necessarily that those things are inherently bad. It's just when we're going through it on autopilot and not realizing it, that's where. I don't know about you, but for me, the scariest thing was I didn't want to wake up midlife and being like, how did I end up like this?
[00:11:37] Laura Lorentz: Yeah.
[00:11:38] Yeah, I know. It's like one of those things. It's either waking up midlife or, getting to the end of your life and realizing that like you didn't live it fully. That was always my thing. It's like this not necessarily like a fear of dying, but like this fear of dying before I find my purpose.
[00:11:54] that's a big thing for me and Yeah, it's not that those things are inherently bad. Exactly what you said. it's when you're, when it's operating unconsciously and you get that adrenaline or that ego boost and it feels good. So what was that? Yeah. So what was that like when you left and you had a bit of that period where who am I like, what, who am I without my job? Tell us a little bit about that process.
[00:12:23] Jenn Bieri: It was terrible. Honestly, it was so terrifying because, I guess it's, we were talking about going to school and stuff and you go through school and I guess it's like you have purpose, you're like trying to get a job and you're trying to work up your career and stuff and then you build that career. Then when I didn't have it anymore, it was. It was weird because it was like, for the first time in my life, I didn't know how to explain to people who I was or what I did. And what I noticed was like, when I went to school, I could, talk about it with a proud chest.
[00:12:51] When I was an auditor, I could talk about it with a proud chest. When I, moved into tech, I could do the same thing. And then all of a sudden it was like, So I'm Jenn and, I have my business and I don't really know what it is. And, yep. I quit that really high paying job that I know you thought was so good.
[00:13:08] And it was just so awkward because, the people that I could hold really great conversations with before, I just, I felt really small. Mm hmm. I felt really small.
[00:13:19] Laura Lorentz: I remember having a conversation with someone that we went to business school with actually explaining my side business, what I do, and he says to me, he's do you really think you can make money doing that?
[00:13:31] my stomach dropped when he said that, literally felt my whole body freeze, but it was like a really good, shining light for me in terms of my self confidence. It made me realize, okay, maybe he doesn't understand what I'm doing, but this is like an opportunity for me to yeah, dial up like my confidence behind this, because I know like similar to you, burnt out, exhausted.
[00:13:58] Found, energy work and healing and really healed myself and it works it changed my life. It literally changed my life. And I know that it works for other people, but I just wasn't, I still wasn't confident in myself because it's not the quote unquote corporate job with the, the title or the paycheck at this point.
[00:14:21] it's definitely a very humbling experience for sure. When you go through that.
[00:14:26] Jenn Bieri: Totally. Especially when it's someone that you respect and someone that you don't expect to have that reaction from also you're right. I think that's something to so celebrate,
[00:14:34] That instead of taking that as a gut wrenching moment to say shit, maybe I should reconsider this. You took that as no, this is going to empower me because the world needs more of this. Even if this person doesn't fully understand that right now.
[00:14:46] Laura Lorentz: Yeah. Oh my gosh. That was very profound. I love that.
[00:14:50] I love that. Thank you for a little bit of that reminder too. Yeah. so tell us a little bit about the work that you do, who you work with and how you support
[00:14:59] Jenn Bieri: them.[00:15:00] I've reemerged into this to be honest, because the last couple of years has been, from being completely transparent, a lot of floundering, it's been a lot of trial and error, figuring out what works and doesn't work.
[00:15:12] I'm a really firm believer in aligning our life to the work that we do and things like that. So there was a lot of personal growth for me to actually figure out, what is it that I want out of this? Not just what everybody else seems to want out of me, but what is it that I also want out of this?
[00:15:29] And that was a really hard question for me to answer because for most of my life, I was always doing what everybody else expected or wanted of me. All of a sudden it was like, holy, like I get to make decisions on when I work and when I don't work. And what does that look like?
[00:15:45] Now where it's come to is I want to support emerging leaders, and I'm really passionate about redefining what leadership is because I do think that leadership is a topic where I don't know about you, but I have never really ever seen myself as a leader, even if I've been referred to as one and I think because there's a lot of stigmas and conditioning around what a leader is and what it isn't and so I want to redefine what that is. So, to me, I'm starting with emerging leadership, which is really, about someone who cares about this growth cycle. They know that the learning doesn't stop. And so it's this constant evolution of growing and learning and unlearning and redefining and this curiosity, but it's also paired with this drive to want to change the world. I know that sounds kind of crazy because none of us want to admit that when that feels like a purpose for us, because so many people can believe in that.
[00:16:41] Like you feel that it's such a deep core and if you think that you can have a positive impact on the world and you have this, natural Curiosity to drive change and to grow, then to me, you're an emerging leader, regardless of what your status is, what your title is, what your role is, anything like that.
[00:17:00] It's more just a mindset.
[00:17:02] Laura Lorentz: Yeah, I love that. I think, I think leadership is a really hot topic because I, I truly believe that you are the leader of your life, first and foremost. So everyone is a leader in some capacity because you lead your own life. You make your decisions, you dictate what you do, how you do it, and whether you have been in your life to this point or not, you are a leader of your life.
[00:17:27] If you're a parent, you're a leader, if you are a corporate leader or a business leader, yes, those were the traditional senses, but there's so much you could be a leader in the community.There's so many different avenues. I think this emerging leadership or, this new paradigm leadership, this change in how leadership is done, instead of the traditional, what people think of is that corporate hierarchy when they think of leadership, like, how can we do leadership differently?
[00:17:56] And it's not this dictatorship or, one person leading a group, there's different forms. And it's really all about, I believe it starts with you, like yourself. And then it all spirals out of that and impacts other people. But I think that I totally agree with you that it's such a hot topic because that's actually what's going to change the world.
[00:18:19] Is how people view leadership that it's not like one person telling you what to do. It's like we are all leaders and how do we want to lead our lives and therefore impact our families, our friends, the society around us.
[00:18:34] Jenn Bieri: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm like getting goosebumps from everything you just said, because I think that's what it is, right?
[00:18:39] I think there's so much power when we all as individuals recognize the leader within and recognize that the change all starts from within, because once we start being empowered in who we are and start seeing those unique, things that make us as strengths versus just being weaknesses or something that we have to hide or, something that we have to change.
[00:19:01] The best teams that I've ever worked on were the ones that we were able to take those strengths from people and work together as a team on that. If we can do that in all the different teams of our lives, whether that's like a family team, or whether that's more traditional team of being like at work or whatever, but just all these different relationships that we have in our life,.
[00:19:21] Things really do start to shift. So it's really cool to hear you say that too.
[00:19:26] Laura Lorentz: Yeah, it starts with like our own perspective, I think. and how we view the world. I believe that even large corporations and business are going to see like a huge evolution over the next few years as because I think especially in the tech industry and some other industries where like companies are starting to really truly see people's individual strengths and what they bring to the table and people are starting to feel so disconnected from the work that they do. People are starting to ask, who am I? what are my strengths? I know, [00:20:00] and I saw you post a little bit about human design, but human design was a big catalyst for me. in what's your design? so I'm a one, three emotional projector. Ooh,
[00:20:10] Jenn Bieri: okay.
[00:20:10] Okay, cool.
[00:20:12] Laura Lorentz: But even in, in my corporate job, I was always doing individual contributor type roles. Those were all based on how much work I could do, the output that I did. Whereas as a director, like I'm here to lead, I'm here to see systems, I'm here to see like how things work.
[00:20:29] Jenn Bieri: You're here to work two to four hours a day because you're just so much more productive than the rest of us.
[00:20:34] Laura Lorentz: Yeah. so when I moved into a leadership role and I could organize a team and you really understand their skills and see who would be best at that and reorganize work. It was like, oh my gosh, like my whole perception of the corporate world changed. It like literally changed because I was better aligning my skills with the job that I had and I actually, to your point of, you're so used to like just doing what everyone else tells you to do, like people would say, Laura, you're a great organizer. you're really productive. Let's put you in this role. I would just blindly follow. I would be like, Oh, someone recognized me.
[00:21:13] So as a projector, I was like, Oh, someone recognized me, even though that job just drained me completely. I just followed because I felt so seen and felt so recognized, but when I started saying, no, I actually want to peep a leadership role, and I actually want to do X, Y, and Z, it was uncomfortable to say that, it was uncomfortable to say what I wanted, but when I did, I was like, Oh my gosh, why have I not been doing this my entire life?
[00:21:41] Because when you're actually aligning your skills to the roles that you're doing, whether entrepreneurship or corporate or whatever, it actually is easy. It actually is so easy. People have this we all have this commitment to suffering, I believe, we get into the hamster wheel and we don't know how to get off the hamster wheel, but it takes that courage to say, No, I don't want to do that.
[00:22:04] This is what I want to do. This is what makes me happy. This is what aligns with my skill set. this is who I am. and I think that's like a big part of it. So like the leadership piece that you're talking about is like aligning your skills and your natural gifts to what you're doing.
[00:22:20] Yeah,
[00:22:21] Jenn Bieri: but you know what, it's such a funny thing because I feel like you're right, we totally have this thing where we want to Suffer through it. It's like we think that, work has to be hard, right? God forbid that we start aligning our life to things that are easy for us and that naturally flow with us.
[00:22:37] But you're so right. When we start to do that, it's like all of a sudden you get these aha moments where you're like, Oh, this is easy for me. But actually, this isn't necessarily easy for everybody. This is just something that I'm naturally good at. And there's something so powerful about actually aligning our work to doing things that we enjoy, because again, it starts to feed into all these other areas of our life.
[00:22:59] But again, it's working through that. Conditioning that work has to be hard or you have to do something that you hate for, for it to be considered a job.
[00:23:08] Laura Lorentz: I know it's crazy like the mental games that we play with ourselves and how we like rationalize well this is normal because we see everyone else doing it but just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean it's actually the right thing or we shouldn't be doing
[00:23:23] Jenn Bieri: it right.
[00:23:23] Yeah. Did you have so I'm so curious, did you have an aha moment that made you realize actually I want to be a people leader or how did you come to that?
[00:23:32] Laura Lorentz: so this is where the woo comes in. I remember, so I was so burnt out. I was so exhausted and this was
[00:23:39] probably five, six years ago now. I'm so burnt out, so exhausted. And I was just starting to get into the whole spiritual realm and I was playing with crystals and, learning about astrology and the new moons and full moons and stuff. One night, It was a full moon, I remember, and I slept with a moonstone under my pillow, and I remember going to bed and saying, I just need a sign.
[00:24:04] I need some sort of sign, I don't know what it is, like I'm feeling so burnt out, so lost, so disconnected, I I don't know what to do. I went to bed that night, and I kid you not, I had a dream that I went into my boss's office, and there was a job posting for this team leader role, which was posted.
[00:24:23] I went into her office and I said I wanted that role. Technically, it was a step down from like a pay grade level, all of that. It was a step down. So my ego was saying, no, why would you I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. Why would I ever do that? I sat with it that morning and I was like, okay, you know what?
[00:24:40] I'm so effing burnt out that like I got nothing to lose. So the next day I went into her office and I told her that I wanted that job. Of course I had to go through like an interview process and everything. but three months later I got the job. That was my first like intuition experience [00:25:00] of having a dream and it made no sense to my logical mind, but I was like, I've got to go with it because I'm, I got nothing else in my mind. I hit rock bottom. Yeah, I was like, anything is better than where I That job was like the most fun. The best. yeah, it was absolutely incredible.
[00:25:18] Then it was a stepping stone. The other jobs that I've had since then, but yeah, I do not regret it at all. It was really a very pivotal time, like really first connecting in with my intuition. so my logical mind didn't say you need a leadership job, but my intuition just spoke loud enough that I had
[00:25:36] Jenn Bieri: sent it.
[00:25:37] Oh, I love that. There's so many good nuggets and everything you just said, right? Because sometimes those signs you're right. Like they make literally no logical sense, like none, and I have actually a similar story when I left auditing, so I left the accounting realm and I wanted to go into industry.
[00:25:53] I took a pay cut. I took a role level down. it was all the things, but I knew the company was really good. I saw that there was a huge opportunity in there and I ended up meeting my next mentor who has been like, a great friend of mine since then and same thing. It like, really catapulted different areas of my career. And so I think, when we start to recognize that success and all these things are really not meant to be linear, but we feel like they are and we feel like we're taking a step back sometimes when actually we need to do that to realign.
[00:26:26] Laura Lorentz: That's like our whole lives are these like cyclical patterns of these like ebbs and flows. What I've come to realize is like life is not linear, you're sold that story in business school that like, okay, you just climb the corporate ladder. There's a reason why they call it a ladder.
[00:26:42] Like you think that it's just like all the way up. Not that you go up a few steps and then down a couple and then over here and then over there and then back up and back down. Like it's like a roller coaster is really what it's like not necessarily a linear ladder like that story of the linear ladder I think would be so boring like now that I've been in that space.
[00:27:04] If I just kept, quote unquote, climbing the ladder, I thought life would be so boring if that's what it actually was. Now that we've experienced it. But, once you get off that hamster wheel, or once you like open up the blinders, take the blinders off, it's like everything just makes so much more sense when you're able to do that.
[00:27:23] Jenn Bieri: Yeah, it's really liberating. yeah.
[00:27:25] Laura Lorentz: Where do you see taking your business? are you working with people one on one now? Are you working with them,
[00:27:31] Jenn Bieri: I work with them two ways. So it's either like more traditional coaching. So just like a zoom. I also do a lot of yoga. So during my exploration phase, I have like a stupid amount of yoga teacher training and I love it.
[00:27:43] I teach a lot of that and blend it all together. Plus the energy work now, like Reiki and all that, and trying to figure out how to bring some more of that stuff into the corporate space, but some of it's going good. I feel like the corporate space is a lot more open for this kind of stuff than they have been in the past.
[00:27:58] I've also started doing wellness workshops, so that's been super fun, and a great way to start introducing some of this stuff. What I'm hoping for is I'm actually looking for a couple of companies right now to build an emerging leaders program with. So let's see how that goes.
[00:28:12] But that's the vision.
[00:28:13] Laura Lorentz: So with your wellness programs, how are you incorporating like the energy work and that sort of thing in, into organizations? Yeah,
[00:28:21] Jenn Bieri: great question. Okay. So for example, last night I was doing a wellness workshop and so they're 90 minutes on zoom.
[00:28:28] One of the reasons why I really love doing these on zoom is because when you can do breakout rooms, so we can make them like super interactive, but what I'm finding is. The energy work comes into it because everybody's looking for tools now because I think words like empath are a little bit more, people are, maybe they're not totally self-identifying, but they know what an empath is and people are starting to understand, oh crap, I'm actually taking on a lot of mental or emotional load at work.
[00:28:53] So like with healthcare workers or service-based providers or people that are really anybody that's dealing with people these days, which is basically everybody.So what I'm noticing is they're like, I need better ways to ground. What do I do if I'm feeling really anxious on the spot or what do I do if I'm really tired?
[00:29:11] I'm really tired. It's like that 3 PM hit and, but I still have a whole evening of meetings or other work to do. What do you do? What I'm doing is having conversations with them about quick tools. So how about energetic boundaries? Have you thought about those, which is like kind of a weird topic to be honest.
[00:29:27] I never thought I would be the one teaching them, but it's been very effective for me. So I'm finding that has been really effective for a lot of my clients and starting to even come to a lot of my corporate clients, even like grounding techniques, so if we think about like a meditation tool of bringing in the shocker system.
[00:29:43] I don't necessarily tell them it's the shocker system. However, I'll say, think about your energy being up here. It's in your head. Now, can you bring that energy down, focus on your feet? can you now feel that heaviness and that supportedness in your feet? How about, next exhale, can you think about roots coming out of your [00:30:00] feet, and just do that in 30 seconds to a minute and notice how you feel. These quick little tools that they can do with their mind, even if they're in a meeting, even if they're in an uncomfortable situation that now they can bring these tools in and actually use them and actually it's energy work and they don't realize
[00:30:16] Laura Lorentz: it.
[00:30:18] That's always the trick is how do you know that someone needs it. But how do you phrase it in a way that either they're receptive of it, or it's common terms, because I do believe like the spiritual energy healing realm can get a little essential and make it complicated, how to make it like really simple for the average person to do energy work like that is like the crux of it, like for you, I feel like that's exactly what you're doing is making it simple for people to ground, protect and clear their energy field.
[00:30:56] Jenn Bieri: That's exactly it. The minute someone hears, and I typically don't use energy when I talk about it so much, because also depends on how open people are. What I'll also say is actually, this is surprised me more because I come into it being everybody's going to think I'm crazy for talking about this stuff, and what I'm finding is actually a lot more people either believe in it or have had some kind of an experience with it. So they're a lot more open to it than Maybe I feel like they would be or maybe there's just like I've heard that the vibrational field is increasing on the earth So maybe that's part of it, too if we want to get super
[00:31:29] Laura Lorentz: We got a lot like you can be all the woo you want on this podcast Yeah, we got it all.
[00:31:36] Okay.
[00:31:37] Jenn Bieri: This is what I find super fascinating is a lot of people and so the other thing that I always say to people is I say, look, take it or leave it, try it, go in with an open mind. Let's just, entertain me. Let's get playful and fun with it. And if you try this and then you're like, Yeah, no, then that's cool, and so what I always say is these tools are not necessarily meant for everybody.
[00:32:00] However, try them, explore them, see what works, take those, and the rest just leave them because if it's not landing or it's not resonating, then maybe it's not the right tool for you either right now or ever. So I think it's also just creating that I don't want to say safe because like we never know if a space is safe for people, but like how do we cultivate more learning environments for people so that they can feel like they can explore some of these things in a non judgmental way while also recognizing that they're going to be unique in how they experience and feel all these things.
[00:32:33] Laura Lorentz: Yeah, that's so powerful. It's true. It's true. some people are uncomfortable in talking about, their feelings like emotions are a big thing. having been a people leader for the last, six years. One of the things I tell my team all the time is be vulnerable with each other and that's uncomfortable. People in the corporate world don't like to be vulnerable because it's like my guard down. It's oh, I'm weak. Oh, I'm like, there's all this like perception and then there's all this like conditioning around. Oh, she's too emotional. It's no.
[00:33:07] The only way you're going to feel good is if we talk about how you're feeling right now. but when people are in group settings like that, sometimes they feel uncomfortable, they feel unsafe. I love how you set that up to make them feel comfortable and safe.
[00:33:24] That it's take it or leave it, but these are tools that are going to help and support you. I think that's what it is too. It's, it is very trial and error for some people. Mhm. Things work for others and some things don't. Some will resonate, some will not, and that's okay. It's just as long as you're open to it, that's all that matters.
[00:33:45] Jenn Bieri: Totally. I think your team is really lucky that they have you saying, Look, I want you to be vulnerable, like for you to be successful in this team, I would like you to be vulnerable because I think what happens is, I'm sure we've all had experiences where, you know, and also I'm an emotional authority as well.
[00:34:02] as emotional authorities, sometimes we do get emotional and it's, sometimes it's our best quality and sometimes it can be our worst. but the best teams that I've ever worked in are the ones where. You could show up as if I was angry that day, like I could just be like, look, guys, I'm not in a good mood.
[00:34:17] So whatever comes out of my mouth, probably not going to be a good day and they're like, okay, cool Jenn and then normally that mood would just shift anyways, but just being able to do that As the people leader, allowing that space for our teams to be able to be themselves too, is so powerful because then again, they're not just sitting there hiding about what they're really feeling or what's Feel empowered to just be them.
[00:34:40] Yeah,
[00:34:40] Laura Lorentz: It really is energy work. leadership is energy work. Because you're sensing and picking up. That's why I think, so empaths. make the best leaders because they feel so deeply. But because they feel so deeply, they have a hard time being a leader, which is so [00:35:00] paradoxical, really, in all of it.
[00:35:02] Because they feel people, they sense like what's off and what's going on. They can extract from those people, and, support them in the way that they need to, but because empaths take on so much, they get bogged down. That's when the anxiety comes up, and then that's when...
[00:35:20] those feelings of, this is too much for me, or I don't want to take this on, or whatever. But if you've got those energetic practices, like you were talking about the grounding, it makes leadership so much easier, I feel.
[00:35:34] Jenn Bieri: Totally. And not only just like lead, like leadership from the traditional sense, but just showing up in your life, right?
[00:35:39] Because all of a sudden you can start to notice am I picking up someone's emotions or are these my emotions? Because as an empath, sometimes you don't know the difference because it's all the same. And so I think the more that we can tune into our own energy and recognize what's ours and what's not and have those tools, again, it just allows us to show up in an authentic way where emotion being an empath feels empowering versus it feeling like it's a problem.
[00:36:07] Laura Lorentz: How would you describe an empath to the people that you work with?
[00:36:11] Jenn Bieri: Sometimes what I've noticed is especially if I'm working with people who are in the corporate space, they're like, I don't, I'm not an empath.
[00:36:18] I don't give me these woo terms, I try not to label things as much, but I'll just say do you take on people's emotions? Can you. tell how people are around you, are you someone that's really sensitive or pick up on, on what people are feeling, say stuff like that.
[00:36:31] And then I might say, so you might be an empath and so versus having them lead them into it so that they can see it versus just. Start off with the label because I think first off they're like, I'm not an empath. No, I'm not sensitive. No, I'm not spiritual. No, I'm not those things.
[00:36:47] Laura Lorentz: Maybe you might be well, it's interesting. Like, when I started my journey,I never resonated with the term sensitive. But I did resonate with, when someone said, do you take on other people's emotions? I never understood why would I feel so crappy, so to speak, when I knew other people were upset?
[00:37:08] Why would I hold on to that? Why would I take that with me? I never understood that. When someone brought up the term empath, it was like a light bulb went off. I dove down the Google rabbit hole and, all of those things, six years ago. I feel like, if you're open to it, the term empath, yeah, resonates with the right people and then doesn't for others.
[00:37:31] For me, understanding that sensitivity and understanding that I don't have to hold onto it, that's the most liberating and free thing because for people who are sensitive or people who are emotional authorities as well, sometimes we make our feelings mean stuff about us.
[00:37:50] that's the worst spiral or loop that you can get into because then it's like all this like self shaming and guilt and all of that. how did you experience that?
[00:38:01] Jenn Bieri: Same. I remember because I'm emotional and I have been my whole life and I remember like I was so ashamed of it because I thought having high highs and low lows, it felt like something was wrong with me.
[00:38:11] When you're talking about absorbing people's energies I would watch a sad movie and I would cry for the rest of the day and I'd be sitting there what is wrong with me? Like, why can't I dissociate from these characters? this is fiction, why am I still crying about this?
[00:38:25] Once I started to understand, understand my emotions and instead of identify so heavily with them, it was what is this trying to teach me? what is this information here? So if I get really angry, or I get really upset, or I get really frustrated or something like that, then it's more like I try to get curious with it, okay, did I push past the limit maybe? Or, is one of my needs not being met right now? Or, am I carrying someone else's story right now? That's not even mine. So starting to and get really curious about what was going on helped me so much so that I could, find more ease and flow in my own life and still manage these highs and lows. But instead of them looking at them, like something's wrong with me, it's more like, how do I just support myself so that I can try and find more ease and flow? What about you?
[00:39:09] Laura Lorentz: Yeah, so asking myself, what do I need right now was like a game changer and making it like not mean anything about me. It's okay, what do I need?
[00:39:19] Do I need to ground myself? Do I need movement? whether it's exercise or, like my energy weaving, whatever it is, it was always looking at it from like a mind, body, soul perspective. So do I need to get in my body? That was the other thing that I was going to mention too, is I think, we feel a lot, like it's all in our bodies, but sometimes the best way to do it is like to move it, to move that energy because emotions, I think you made a post like.
[00:39:44] or I saw it somewhere that someone was talking about, emotions are energy in motion. how can we move the emotions in our body? how can we support ourselves? For me, when I stopped making it mean something about me and said, okay, What can I do to shift this? [00:40:00] Or sometimes it was just like, feeling the feels.
[00:40:03] You know what? I'm having a crappy day and you know what? I'm giving myself the permission to feel this and it means nothing about me. But if I've been thinking this for a couple of days, maybe I need to do something about it. I gotta get out. Nature, it becomes a lot more empowering when you know that you have the power.
[00:40:20] To shift it or to change. Yes. And we don't have to sit in it if we don't want to.
[00:40:26] Jenn Bieri: Ah, I love that. And I think you touched on something so important, Which is it's so empowering to know how to support ourselves because I don't know about you, but so many times it's you, we think that we have to rely on somebody else to give that to us and that causes also more conflict sometimes in our relationships because you are trying to get something out of someone that they can't give you. And so by finding that in yourself and being able to support yourself, it's so empowering. And then to add to that, as it's like being able to then say or communicate that to the people around you, Hey, you know what?
[00:40:59] I need some space right now, not because I don't like you, not because I don't care about you, but because I need some alone time or, and I need to recharge my batteries or, just being able to have conversations like that to, again, support yourself is so powerful.
[00:41:13] Laura Lorentz: Yeah. I think we get in the habit of not choosing ourselves.
[00:41:18] Because, conditioned or people pleasing or whatever it is, we want to make other people happy because, especially as empaths, if we make other people happy, we think it makes us feel good. Yeah. at the end of the day, if we're not choosing ourselves, it's not a win win anyways, but, that's been a big personal lesson of mine is, always coming back to me, okay, have I chosen myself today?
[00:41:41] Have I? spoken my truth. Have I done the things that like my soul or my
[00:41:47] Jenn Bieri: intuition is
[00:41:48] Laura Lorentz: telling me to do? Yeah. So I just realized one of the questions that I usually ask my guests, on this podcast is what does it mean to you to let your soul lead the way in life and business?
[00:42:02] Jenn Bieri: Great question.
[00:42:03] to me, it's really about trying to lead with my heart. It's really about to follow the nudges and it's really about seeking. So I always seek this like feeling, it's like a feeling of alignment. I don't even really know how to explain it, but to me, it feels like, I don't know, it almost feels like a beam of energy in my middle.
[00:42:21] it feels like I'm on the right path,Like the finance person in me, the logical person, the educated, like all of that is what the hell? this makes no sense, but if I feel that alignment feeling, then I know it's the right decision. So for me, it's how do I continue to step into that and try to be more bold and try to be more authentic and, practice really being that person, versus, versus not because like life's worth living.
[00:42:46] Right. Yeah,
[00:42:48] Laura Lorentz: yeah, I love that. I love that. It comes back to the body. It always comes back to the body. That's the biggest thing is like when we're stuck in our heads, it's really hard to listen to the body. It's like a pattern interrupt of some sort for a lot of people.
[00:43:01] It's okay, I'm in my head. Okay, when you catch yourself, okay, how do I get back into my body? What is my body telling me? Do I feel like that twinge of, ugh, or is there excitement, or is there alignment? Like you said, it's coming back to the body. Everyone, I think, underestimates how much the body is communicating to us, and we just don't realize it.
[00:43:24] Totally.
[00:43:24] Jenn Bieri: And I think in a world where we're on our phones all the time, we also live in the age of being knowledge workers. So you know, we're constantly getting educated and learning and doing so much with our minds that most of us aren't connected to our bodies, I'm sure that your audience here, if I told them to pay attention to their toes, they probably would know what that means and feel their toes. But a lot of people are like, where are my toes? I dunno, let me think about that for a second.
[00:43:46] Laura Lorentz: You gotta get that connection. Yeah. Yeah. definitely especially if you're working in like the corporate realm and doing like the wellness stuff
[00:43:53] I see that all the time, people disconnected from their bodies, that was a lot of the work that I had to do. Like the beginning of my journey is getting back into my body, feeling safe in my body. cause you disassociate because you don't want to feel like you don't want to feel the things.
[00:44:09] Because like your brain is saying, keep going, keep doing the work, keep up because that's what you see everyone else doing around you. So then you just, okay, I don't want to feel my body. I don't want to feel the emotion. I don't want to feel that. When you actually come into your body, that's when those natural gifts come through, those aha moments, connecting with your intuition, all of those things, it's very counterintuitive because you think of like your higher self or your intuition is like something above, it's like that, coming from higher dimensions down, but you have to be in your body to actually receive it.
[00:44:43] so for people to really connect and to have those, nudges, they've got to be in their body to get that, to receive that.
[00:44:50] Jenn Bieri: Yeah, totally. So good.
[00:44:53] Laura Lorentz: Awesome. This is such a good conversation. I probably could talk to you for another hour or more. I [00:45:00] know, me too. And I feel like we'll have to do like a coffee date or another zoom call or something just to catch up some more. and maybe there's somewhere that our work could intersect too. I would
[00:45:10] Jenn Bieri: totally love that. Yeah.
[00:45:11] Laura Lorentz: this was so great. How can people connect with you?
[00:45:15] Jenn Bieri: Yeah, so I'm right now. I'm the most active on LinkedIn, so people can follow me on LinkedIn. I've also got a LinkedIn newsletter that I'm starting to publish every other week, which is the Emerging Leaders Toolkit.
[00:45:25] So that's a great place to go. I'm also on Instagram, just not as active as I used to be. And that's at I am Jenn Bieri. So yeah.
[00:45:33] Laura Lorentz: Awesome. Yeah. And everything will be in the show notes. So if anyone's really excited to connect with Jenn, just check out the show notes and thank you so much for being a guest today.
[00:45:43] Jenn Bieri: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks everybody for listening. And yeah, Laura is so good to connect with you again.
[00:45:49] Laura Lorentz: Yeah. So great to reconnect. We'll talk soon.
[00:45:51] Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Empowered Essence. If you loved this episode, don't forget to leave a rating and review on your favorite platform. And until next time, keep shining your light.
