High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 474: Shift Your Energy Now with Kristen Brown, International Speaker and Author

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

Kristen Brown is an energy mastery expert who helps you get charged up even during change and stress. She works with companies around the world and has appeared in media like Live with Kelly, Forbes, Working Mother, Psychology Today, and more. Her biggest faults – she is an occasional know-it-all and frequent wine aficionado. She lives in Minneapolis and loves hiking, anything on, in, or near water, and hanging with her dog and daughter. In this episode, Kristen and Cindra discuss: Her life changing experience lead her to starting her business Why reducing our stress is ever more important How our energy is connected to our emotions Her 5 P’s to help you reduce your stress The Happy Hour Effect and why we love it And how to organize a Work/Life Map HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/474 FB COMMUNITY FOR THE HPM PODCAST: https://www.facebook.com/groups/highperformancemindsetcommunity FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong TO FIND MORE ABOUT KRISTEN: www.KristenBrownPresents.com Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901

Hey, my name is Cindra Campoff and I'm a small-town Minnesota gal, Minnesota nice as we like to say it, who followed her big dreams. I spent the last four years working as a mental coach for the Minnesota Vikings, working one-on-one with the players. I wrote a best-selling book about the mindset of the world's best and I'm a keynote speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with showing you exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best. So you can accomplish all your goals and dreams.

So I'm over here following my big dreams. And I'm here to inspire you and practically show you how to do the same. And you know, when I'm not working, you'll find me playing Miss Pac-Man. Yes, the 1980s game Miss Pac-Man. So take your notepad out, buckle up, and let's go. This is the high performance mindset. Emra Bombach said, worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but never gets you anywhere. Lou Holtz once said, it's not the load that breaks you, it's the way you carry it. Welcome to episode 474 about shifting your energy now. This is Dr. Cinder Kampoff, and I'm so grateful that you're here, ready to listen to an

episode with Kristen Brown, international speaker and author. And I know Kristen personally, we are in the same chapter of the National Speakers Association, and I've And I know Kristen personally, we are in the same chapter of the National Speakers Association, and I've heard so many times, so many incredible things about her speaking that I wanted to have her on today. And so Kristen Brown is an energy mastery expert who helps you get charged up even during change and stress. She works with companies around the world and has appeared in media like Live with Kelly, Forbes, Working Mother, and Psychology Today. Her biggest faults is she's an occasional know-it-all. I don't think you hear that in this interview, however.

And she is a frequent wine aficionado. She lives in Minneapolis and loves hiking anything in or near and on the water and hanging with her daughter and dog. In this episode, Kristen and I talk about her life-changing experience that led her to starting her own business, why reducing our stress is ever more important right now, how our energy is connected to our emotions, her five Ps to help you reduce your stress, what the happy hour effect is and why we love it, and how you can organize a life work map.

If you enjoyed today's episode, we love a rating and a review. This just helps us reach more and more people each and every week. So you can, for example, wherever you're listening, you can find a rating and review button. If you are on your iPhone, you can just scroll up and that is how you leave us a rating and a review. And if you'd like to see the full show notes along with a transcript of this interview, you can head over to syndracampoff.com slash 474 for episode 474. All right, without further ado, let's bring on Kristen. What's up, Kristen Brown? Thank you so much for joining us here on the High Performance Mindset Podcast. How is your day going?

I'm better now that I'm here. I'm so happy to be here with you. I can't wait to chat. I can't wait either. I have been following your work for some time and it's going to be really fun just to learn more about what you've been doing and your books and your speaking. So maybe just to get started, tell us a little bit about what you're passionate about and what you're doing right now. Yeah, well, you know, we've known each other for many years. We're both keynote speakers and trainers and all that good stuff. And so that's what I do. I'm a motivational speaker. It makes it more understandable when you say motivational speaker. I also do lots of events where it's content-based, not necessarily just motivational, even though I like to think that I encourage people to feel motivated and take action.

Yeah, yeah. So that's what I do. And, you know, I've been doing it for about eight or nine years. I was in corporate America for 15 years before that, working in the retail vendor space, doing corporate espionage. I say that because it sounds cooler than market research. So I did that for many years. And now for the last eight, nine, maybe even 10 now, I've been a full-time professional speaker. Yeah. What made you decide to make the shift, by the way? Well, it's a bittersweet story. So I was in corporate America, like I said, 15 years and about 14 years ago, I was widowed unexpectedly when my young husband had a heart attack in his

sleep. He was 30 years old. He was a tall, skinny, former college athlete. For those of you from Minnesota, you might know the college he went to Gustavus down by you, Sandra. And, um, you know, it was a complete fluke. He hadn't had any birth defects. It was just one of those things that completely is one of those fluky things. And we had a 10 month old baby at the time, our first child. I was in a super high pressure corporate role. Our company was in New York, but I was in Minneapolis managing our company's biggest account. And it was challenging. And so over the course of the next four or five years, I was still in corporate, but things just kept coming at me to figure out how do I get myself out of my stuck place? Because for a couple of years, I was really, really in a rough spot, still functional, like super big air quotes, like going to work, making sure my daughter and I were eating, but I wasn't really doing much to move forward in my grief journey. I was really sucking at work as a leader and as a performer at work. And, you know, a couple of years after I had some things happen that said, you got to get yourself out of this. You have to be a role model for your daughter. And I never wanted her to look back and say, oh, my childhood sucked or my life was missing anything, even though something really big

was missing with her dad not being there. So I went on a couple of your rollercoaster journey of working in corporate, doing some things on the side with a book that I wrote. And long story short, it evolved into a speaking career that now I do full time. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that journey. I mean, I knew that your husband passed away. I didn't know he was super young. And so only 30 years old and having a 10 month old, I could imagine what that was like just trying to survive at that point. It was such a big change in your life. Yeah. And I can talk about it now, 14 years later and not be a big blubbering mess of tears, but boy, at the time it was, it was, it was a journey. And your first book was your memoir. Yep. That was my memoir. It was

called the best worst thing. And it really kind of just outlines the couple of years in between where he died and where I decided I needed to leave corporate and start my own business. And there's some flashbacks and there's some weird stuff in there. Not weird, like, oh, why did you do that? But there's just a lot of the weird rollercoaster journey I took in between. And, you know, it ends with me deciding to leave corporate and a lot's happened since then. But that's what that first book was about. Yeah.

Well, thank you for sharing us with, you know, telling us a little bit more about your journey. So you speak on a few different topics. But one of the things that I think can be really helpful for people right now during the pandemic and, you know, is this idea of energy and how do we manage our own stress and the pressure we feel? And obviously, you've had some experience just being able to deal with that. So why do you think right now, you know, being able to deal with stress and change is really important? Well, you know, during times like this, not, you know, worldwide pandemic, whether you've lost a loved one,

whether you're going through massive, you know, a health crisis of your own, a divorce, whatever it happens to be, when you go through big time stress, you still are forced to be functional. Kind of like earlier when I did the air quotes on the functional, you still have to continue to live your life. You can't get stuck or things just get worse. So it's really important that even when stress and change and unknowns and fear are active in your life, that you're still able to be not just functional, but moving forward and still contributing and still doing things to take care of yourself so that you can, I mean, just to get down to the nitty gritty, because you don't want to feel good. You don't want to feel

like crap every day. You want to feel good. You want to be in a good mood and not have that stress taking you down. Now, does that mean that you're like rah, rah, Mr. or Ms. Positivity all the time? No, it doesn't need to mean that. But how can you still maintain some level of happiness, forward momentum, even when stress and change are hitting us from all directions. Yeah. And they have, it has been hitting us from all directions. You know, I think about all the things that we've dealt with in terms of change in the last year and a half, but I also think like during the holiday season, there's a lot of stress and pressure people might feel. So I think it's really important, like in the immediate to be able to

manage that stress. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, right now, like you said, during the holidays with a new year, you know, our emotions are all over the place and, you know, people hear the word energy and they think it means like that rah, rah, ooh, I'm upbeat, like happy, engaged, but any emotion you can experience is a type of energy. So when I talk about being an energy mastery expert, it's not like getting you to be in this like upbeat, happy, high energy place all the time. It's about being aware of the emotions that you're feeling at any given time so that you can shift those emotions if needed and being aware of the roller coaster that you're going to be taking and saying, Hey, you know, today I'm going into a really important meeting, but I feel I woke up on the wrong side of the bed

and I feel kind of down. I feel stressed out, but I need to be my best and shift my energy for that meeting. And so really being aware of the emotions and the energy that that brings to your work in life so that you can show up how you want when you need to, whether it's a high stakes situation like a sales presentation, whether you're trying to be a better leader or whether you're trying to deal with a crabby kid in the morning, which I did this morning. Well, I think that's so important because, you know, much of our energy I think is, is default instead of really being like a conscious choice. And that's what I'm hearing you say is like, how can you shift your, your energy based on what you need

in the moment to be able to perform on demand is, is like something I'm thinking about how the listeners will really want, right, to be able to be at their best in the moments that matter most to them. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Nailed it. So you have a great podcast called Energy Now podcast where you provide some tools and strategies for people to shift their energy. So why don't you just kind of get us started? Where do you want to start with that conversation about how do we actually do this? Yeah, well, a lot of what I teach has really been based on experimentation I've done on myself over the years as I've gone through my own grief journey, starting a business, leaving corporate. So anything that I ever teach is either super well-researched because I'm a major nerd. Like I

love reading. And I know you're like this too, you know, like I just love data. And I was in corporate America for 15 years, analyzing data, you know, going all over the world and gathering data, doing focus groups, all kinds of things. So I'm really a believer in trying things out until you find the thing that works for you. And most of the things that I teach are just that things that I've tried over the years that I've researched, or I've had clients try over the years that I have seen that work. And a lot of it, you know, I say that I'm a biohacker because a lot of the energy that we were talking about earlier is a cocktail of different hormones, different stress chemicals, different feel good chemicals, but in different ratios. So when you biohack yourself, it's saying, okay, right now I feel

stressed out. I'm flooded with cortisol and adrenaline. And those things aren't necessarily bad. They're just in the wrong ratios for how you want to show up. And I don't go this nerdy when I'm, you know, speaking on stage, but the background is I give people then little tips and tricks to help shift their energy so that they can give themselves if they're in that stressed out state, a jolt of endorphins or a jolt of serotonin. And it's little things, you know, as adults, we often forget that, you know, we can step back and have fun and we can experience joy. And even one minute of laughter floods your body with endorphins and serotonin and oxytocin and all of those feel good chemicals that lasts for a while. They create a buzz in your body. Like you just had a cocktail, but it's a naturally occurring buzz. So I teach

little things like that, that people can use in that awareness journey of the emotions throughout the day. Like, okay, I have to go into a high stakes meeting. I got to show up as my best. So what do I need to do right now beforehand to do that, depending on where you're at? And so sometimes it is like, okay, I need to laugh for a minute, or I need to call my spouse, or I need to go outside and be out in nature because not being out in nature changes the physicality of your body, which then changes your brain and how you're able to show up. So it's little things like that, little biohacks, little energy mastery tips that really can make an instant impact on how you're showing up in your day. Yeah, I think that it starts with awareness, you know, awareness of where your energy is. And then

where do you want to shift it? Last night, Kristen, my son was making pizza rolls. He's 14. So he likes food like that. Anyway, he was putting it in the oven and I said, Hey, make sure you know you put it in the when you're dressed and when you're done in the freezer. And then he takes the box and he makes like a hat. And so he had eyes and a mouth. And all of a sudden I walk around in the turn around in the kitchen and he's got like this big pizza hat. And oh my gosh, I laughed so hard. And it just makes me think about what you're saying is, you know, just being in the moment to be able to do that and find the places where you can enjoy things because it can

be really stressful if you don't. Yeah. I think next time you're making a pizza, you should make a pizza hat and show him your pizza head. I'll do one of those flat pizza hats. You know, it's really funny. So, so far you've kind of suggested or the one minute of laughter or call your spouse or walk around in nature, get some fresh air. What are some of the other tools or strategies you might provide, let's say on stage about how we can kind of hack our energy? Yeah. What are some of the other tools or strategies you might provide, let's say on stage about how we can kind of hack our energy? Yeah. So a couple of them that I love, I'm a big fan of visually doing things that you can keep with you as a reminder. So one thing I

have people do is, especially in the Midwest where we're from, people tend to not want to brag about themselves, but I make people make, I force you, I put a hand over your like, do this. I make people write out their 10 top superpowers and knowing them and using them are different. You know, of course you need to know what they are, but you also then need to use them. So what I'll have people do is write out their, their top 10 superpowers and superpowers being different. I mean, you teach some of this stuff to different than your skills, different than what you're, you know, a superpower, something not only are you good at, but you also enjoy it. So yeah, good. But I'll have people write out their top 10 superpowers. And then we take either their LinkedIn summary or their job description, depends on what type of group it is and how much time we have.

But then we rewrite all of that. And, you know, sometimes we just start because we don't have time and we only have an hour on stage. But we rewrite the job description or the LinkedIn summary with those words from the superpowers. Because even though the bullet points of, you know, send out the weekly report, have a weekly touch base with your team, whatever those things are that are sort of generic descriptors are still the tasks of your job. If you change the language, you'll feel much more engaged with your work. You'll feel like it's more customized and personalized to you. So those superpowers, it's not. You'll feel like it's more customized and personalized to you. So those superpowers, it's not just knowing them, but it's actually putting them to work for you in your day-to-day life. Yeah, I like the idea of like pulling up your job description or your LinkedIn profile.

And Kristen, when I was looking at your website just recently, I saw that actually where you had a lot of your superpowers even written in your bio or your description. So I can see that you're practicing what you preach. What do you think the impact of, you know, I'm sort of thinking the people who are listening, why should they do that too? You know, write out their superpowers and, and, you know, then go back to their LinkedIn profile. Like, what do you see the power of doing something like that? Well, it's really about, remember at the beginning, I said, you just want to feel good. You want to feel excited about your day. You want to be in a better mood.

And when you're doing a job that is aligned with what you truly love, even though we all have things we hate in our jobs, of course, right? Even us as business owners, like we've decided to be business owners because there was something we were passionate about there, but there's stuff that you're always not going to enjoy. But when you can tip the balance of the flow moments where your energy is just flowing, where time just gets away from you and you can customize that job description so it truly feels like you designed that job. It just it changes your engagement levels. It changes your happiness at work. And you go from cranky resting face to happy resting face in meetings and people relate to you differently. They, you really become that role model. That's that positive force

in the workplace because you are, you're creating the job that you want to be living for eight hours or more every single day and every single week. Yeah, you're right. Like as business owners, we get to create what we want, but you know, not everybody necessarily gets to do that necessarily, you know, in their like job as an accountant. So I like that, you know, just putting that in there can help them really be able to like personalize their job to them and their superpowers. Yes. And I always recommend to managers, to team leaders that they actually do like a lunch and learn with their team or a happy hour where they have their whole team do their superpowers. And then they just take an hour to go and spiff up their LinkedIn, to go and rewrite

their job description. That doesn't mean their job tasks change because of course you still have to get the job done based on what your company or organization needs, but you're changing the way those individuals relate to their job so that they show up more productive, so that they're more excited about being there, so that they do better work, so that they're interacting with clients in a more positive way because they're in that positive state of energy that ties to what they love to do most, even though they're still going to have things that they don't love. It's tipping that balance of energy versus drains. Yeah, great, great. So Kristen, can you give us an example of how you tap into your energy every day?

Well, it's a non-negotiable for me. I take my dog out to the woods every day, usually in the morning before I really am doing much anything else. I tend to be one of those people that's very visionary, like I want to do the next thing and there's a new project and I love data and I love looking at data and saying, well, what could we do next? So I'm very, I call these more like head focused energies where you're, you're, you're thinking outside of you. But sometimes I forget that I need to be grounded in the present moment and that I need to allow my body to be out in nature because we are human animals and to, and there's

physical benefits of being outside too, of course, with oxygen, with sunlight, with wind, you know, stimulating the hair follicles in your skin, being grounded, you can actually release free electrons back into the ground so that you're all of the electromagnetic frequencies aren't impacting your thinking and your different body systems. So it's non-negotiable for me to go out to the woods with my dog every single morning, even I've lived in Minnesota, even when it's cold, as you know, what? Yes. Yes. Or when it's snowing, we go even when it's snowing, freezing rain. We don't get any of that here. Love hate, right? Love hate. Exactly. Love hate. Right now we hardly have any snow on the ground, so I'm happy about that. Ours all melted too.

So Kristen, one of your books is called The Happy Hour Effect, and you talk about these 12 secrets to minimize stress and to maximize your life. Tell us a little bit about like, what do you mean actually by the happy hour effect? Yeah. So way early in my grief journey, after my husband died, I was, I wasn't, I'd been in an industry where I was going to happy hour a lot and then he died and A, I wasn't very happy. B, I didn't have kid care after work to be going to happy hour. So I wasn't going to happy hour for a few years, two or three years. But as I started coming out of the grief process and doing some of that self-reflective work, I started missing happy hour. And I was like, well, why? Because I know it's not about the alcohol because hint, hint, you can drink at home, right? Yes, this is true. I knew it wasn't about the alcohol and the researcher nerd brain that I have, I'm like, I'm going to figure this out. So I did a whole bunch of research on why

people like happy hour. And so I would do focus groups and I sent out surveys and I compiled reams and reams of data around why people love happy hour. And it isn't because of the alcohol. Like, is that a benefit? Sure. But many people don't drink. And so, and they still enjoy happy hour. So what came out of the data is we love happy hour because of the mental, physical, spiritual shifts that happened during that time, unrelated to the drinking. And those five elements, I'll just really quickly are peace, passion, productivity, people, and presence. And, you know, there's a whole bunch of stuff behind each one of those. But really when we're in that, that time period, whether you're sitting in a bar or a restaurant,

whether it's just your car ride home, whether you're having dinner with your kids and spouse, there is magic in that transition between work and home and really between home and work in the morning too, which hopefully you're not drinking during that time period. So there's so much to happy hour and so much power in that. And that actually became the basis of my second book, The Happy Hour Effect that you already mentioned. And it, you know, that book came out many years ago, but it's still one of my most popular speaking programs because it has really practical and actionable things that you can use, not just that come out of that hour of happy hour, but that you can use 24-7 to be more productive, to be less stressed, and to be more engaged in your day-to-day life. Yeah. And I love the five P's. So very, very sticky. Peace, passion, productivity,

presence, and people, I think is what you said. So give us the insight on how you think these five P's kind of help us deal with stress and anxiety and pressure that we might feel. Well, it really goes back to what we've already talked about earlier, where it's that awareness, that awareness of where you're at, because life and work can get away from us so quickly where it's like, oh, what do I have after this Zoom call? What do I have after this meeting? What do I have after work? What do I have this weekend?

Oh, it's the holidays. What do I have in two weeks? Oh, I got spring break to plan. Then it's next. What do I do when I retire? And we're always thinking about what's next, which is good. Humans need and like to have a little dangly carrot in front of us. And you do much of this research too. And so you understand that, but we often forget that what's going to happen right now in this moment will impact if those

things that you want to happen in the future will come to pass at all. So the happy hour effect really is about getting back into the moment, getting back into the here and now and having that awareness of what you're doing, how you're showing up, how you're connecting with the people around you so that you can really show up as your authentic self so that you're making progress and creating momentum on your goals. Because humans love, humans love progress. That's why we love checking stuff off of a to-do list. But sometimes we misprioritize our to-do list.

Sometimes we misprioritize the things that we have happening in our work and lives and time and life get away from us. So the happy hour effect really is about getting back into the moment, getting really aware of, you know, what is driving you right now? What is filling your time? And I do this exercise called the work life map. literally just like puking on paper to identify all of that so that you have a real photo, a real picture, literal picture in front of you of what you're filling your time with. And then we do a bunch of stuff with it to figure out if you're doing the right stuff or not. But that's in a nutshell, kind of a long winded nutshell that I just shared. That's kind of why the effect is powerful. Well, and I'm thinking about when I have been at my last happy hour, I was very present,

right? I was connected with the people and I wasn't necessarily thinking about what I needed to do next, right? I was just fully in the moment. How does productivity fit with the happy hour? Well, that's funny because people always ask that because that's like the work buzzword that's in there, right? Like productivity at happy hour. Right. The reason that came out of the data is because say you're

at a meeting and you're like, Hey, we should do this, this, and this. There's always the butts that come up like, Oh, but we don't have budget. We don't have headcount. We don't have, what are the customers? There's all these butts when we have a new big idea that we want to take action on at At home, it's the same. Like, oh, honey, we should go on a vacation. Oh yeah, but we don't have the time off or the money or who's going to watch the kids or I get too stressed when I get back from vacation. You know, every excuse, excuses come out at work and at home in our normal day-to-day lives when we're trying to make progress. But at happy hour productivity, like if you say that you want to do something, the whole group comes together and like, Oh my God, you should totally do that. Here's how you could do it. Oh, what if, and then the cocktail napkin comes out and

you're writing down ideas and like crazy stuff with no boundaries and no barriers comes out at happy hour that pushes you forward and inspires you and motivates you to want to take action. So productivity is driven by that big thinking at happy hour. Whereas in our day-to-day lives, our productivity is often driven by fear and excuses that are made to narrow or whittle our lists down. So it's kind of reversing it so that you're thinking bigger. And that's why productivity and that's how productivity is a little different than the happy hour effect. I love it. And you're right. I'm thinking about how it's just like, there's no boundaries to creativity and people speak their mind. They're not fearful or,

you know, questioning what people are going to say if they throw out a bad idea when it's at happy hour. So, yeah, that makes complete sense. The crazier, the better sometimes at happy hour. So, Kristen, I know you have another book called Work-Life Balance, and you just said something about work and life map, I think you called it. So I'm curious, you know, tell us a bit more about that book and how does that fit with our conversations about stress? Yeah, that book is called The Work-Life Balance Myth. And, you know, the word balance is just not a good word in general, because it makes you feel like everything either needs to fit into this work bucket or this life bucket. And then if something doesn't fit or something's overflowing or something feels air quotes unbalanced, then you feel worse. So I just like to eliminate the word balance right

away. It's like the work-life balance myth. Like there it's, it's not possible. It's all just life. So that book just digs into, you know, a few different ways that you can really step back and say, what are the common things that pull me into that? Like, Oh, work-life balance. Like there's a, I'm not a money expert, but there's a chapter on, you know, how do you think a little bit differently about money? There's a chapter on, um, you know, thinking about your, your relationships with others, where you feel like you have to keep up with the Joneses, which isn't a new topic. You know, we're, we've all been aware of that topic for a long time, but, you know, just thinking differently about just some of those common things that pull you again, it's pulling you from the true awareness of what's happening now.

And that will often set you up for, for feeling like you're not accomplishing that work-life, air quote, balance. So it's crushing some of the myths out there. Yeah, I do think that I don't, you know, there are times where I maybe feel balanced in my work and life and then sometimes where I feel completely not balanced. So I agree that that is not such a great word. Do you have another suggestion of how we should call it instead? Yeah, it's an equally cheesy word, but I do like the term work-life harmony.

And I often, the work-life balance or the work-life map that I have people do, I often equate to that being the sheet music to helping them create this harmony. So is it still a cheesy analogy? Yes, 100%. But I feel like when you think about work-life harmony, it's almost as if everything in your life, you're the conductor of this orchestra and you decide what takes center stage, what's going to solo today. Does that mean if the violins are soloing or the violin section is playing that the percussion isn't important? If they're just quiet for a moment? Of course not. They're still important.

They're just chilling in the background for a while. And so I just like to think of our lives like that, that sometimes things need to chill out in the background for a while. Yeah, that's true. And sometimes we might need to double down on our work just to meet a deadline. So good point about the harmony. So tell us a bit about for people who maybe are interested in this map and how might they do it themselves like at home? And what do you have a copy of it here. I did just do a gig yesterday where I did it. Let me just step away and just see if I have it. Okay, sounds good. If I have it, it's right here. See, I told you, I got it, I got it. I'll show you what it looks like. It looks like this. Can you see it? Yes. Yeah. So for those of you who aren't joining us via video, it's like passion, passions and commitments at the top, core life, work, money on the bottom and dreams and challenges on the side. Cool. All right. Love it. And so basically what it is, it's literally puking on

paper, everything that you juggle day to day, week to week, month to month, and really being truly honest with yourself. Like there's the section on challenges. You know, a lot of times we push down things that have been difficult in our life, whether it's things from our childhood, addiction, health problems, debt, and we pretend or even honestly think that we've dealt with them when really something can trigger us and boom, there it is again, that can take us down, can impact our mood, our productivity, our engagement in work at the time, cause us massive stress, fog our thinking, all that stuff. You know, like for me, I was widowed 14 years ago. So I've long processed the, you know, initial stuff with that goes along with that.

But every once in a while, something pops up, triggers me about that situation of being a lone parent, you know, having a single income, like some of that stuff, you know, I've, again, I've dealt with that stuff too and figured it out, but sometimes something triggers me and that will just put me over the edge, either into sadness or anger or general pissiness about, you know, how their life can be or whatever. And it's not often, but when it does happen, it really can take me down. So it's being aware of that kind of stuff, the stuff that kind of is hidden within you. It's being aware of the day-to-day stuff that maybe doesn't seem like a

big deal, but we often have things that I call halo effects that maybe it only is an hour a week, but it sucks your energy or makes you crabby for the day before and the day after, you know, it's, it's those things that seem really small, but they create this massive halo effect of impact around it. And so that work-life map, you can do the same thing by just downloading, puking on paper, everything that you juggle, everything that's on your calendar, all of your commitments, all of the things that you do for fun, your money situation stuff and getting it all down. And then being able to look at that and say, okay, there's the picture of everything that I'm juggling and that I deal with every day. But now here are the top three triggers that suck my energy in a negative way. And here are the top three energizers that lift me up in a positive way. Because when you start to focus on those, that's where you're going to make the biggest impact. If you're trying to minimize stress, if you're trying to make any sort of change, if you're trying to feel better, if you're trying to change your health

is, yeah, there's a million things on there, but you really have to be able to look honestly at what are the top things that have a ripple effect on everything else? And what are the things that make you the happiest? Because those will also have a ripple effect on everything else and then start to reprioritize that way. And there's, there's a whole bunch more we could go into with that. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's whole own thing. So, but you can do that, that puking on paper easily yourself at home and kind of start the prioritizing that way to see what energizes you and what stresses you. Yeah. I really like like circling the top three energizers and then circling the top three triggers, because I think again, helps people grow in their own

awareness of themselves. What, what does give them energy? What drains their energy? And like, what do they need to watch out for in terms of the triggers? Yes. And again, there's that word it's about awareness so that you can head that stuff off before it becomes this huge thing that creates much more damage or drama than it needs to. And, you know, a lot of times when people do the work-life map, they're like, oh my God, that was so easy. But it was just that awareness of the one thing where they're like, oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that that one thing was creating so much stress for me. And they can start to work on it and make really huge strides in how they're feeling every day.

Yeah, that's great. So Kristen, I know you've mentioned just the experience you've gone through 14 years ago and then since then about grief. What have you learned about grief since then? And I want to ask you that question because, you know, I'm sure that there's somebody who's listening that might be going through something really difficult. And I'm just curious, you know, what did you learn about just grief in general? Definitely don't get pulled into other people's expectations of how you should deal with it. You know, there's tons of books, The Five Stages of Grief, and you read

other people's, you know, how they've gotten through it. But man, it's just everybody's so unique. Their bodies, their mental capacity, their jobs, their financial situations, that you can't put a one size fits all on, on the path through grief. And grief isn't always losing someone through death. You know, divorce causes grief, losing a pet causes grief, losing a job causes grief, a worldwide pandemic causes grief. So knowing that it's okay to process your emotions and feel your feelings in a way that feels right to you is, is kind of like the biggest lesson in it. But also because I got stuck for the first couple of years in this place where I was just, I felt like crap, right. And no one would blame me for that. Like,

that's not a bad thing to have happen. It's pretty normal, but you can't get stuck for too long. So feel the feelings, experience the grief, how it feels right. You know, if you need to be in your room, if you need to do whatever, you know, get out into the public, whatever feels right to you, but just don't live in the grief. Don't allow that to define who you are and still be creating forward momentum in your life because you have a full life to live. And that person that you lost or the situation that you lost is a chapter that was super important, but you have many other chapters to write and you can decide what that's going to look like for you. Yeah. Well, you're a walking example of that. And is it a great example? Like, is it a great story? Well, not always, but yeah,

it, it's part of our journeys through life. We're all going to experience grief and that's, you do what you have to do with it. What, what can create that life that will, you'll be proud of for yourself and for the people around you. Yeah, that's wonderful. What a great message. So Kristen, is there anything, um, I know that you have lots of different things you speak on and topics and programs. So, but is there anything else that you really want to make sure that we cover today related to your expertise and how do we deal with our energy and stress right now? Well, you know, one thing that I actually learned this when my daughter was going to a therapist a couple of years ago, because I'm one of those people that used to always say, you know, oh, think positively, you know, things are going bad. I'm like, I'm like, miss positivity.

And that wasn't working with my daughter. And it doesn't work with a lot of adults either. And her therapist, so I'm not taking credit for this. Her therapist said, told her, she said, well, you know, if it bugs you that your mom is saying, think positively, how about not think positively? How about just get back to baseline rather than thinking negatively, just get back to neutral. And over the last couple years, since her therapist told her that, you know, she was 12 or 13 at the time, I have started to really think about our energy line and the energy line that we're on every day. And you can choose where you want to be above or below that energy line. And earlier,

when I said, you know, every emotion is a type of energy. Sometimes your energy line is, you know, I do need to, I I'm stressed out today. I'm scared of what's happening in the world, or I'm scared of losing my job or whatever. And I need to feel that today. And sometimes it's okay to live in that energy for a little bit. Remember how earlier I said, you just don't want to live there. You do at some point have to shift and say, okay, I got to move beyond this energy baseline and find my new energy baseline. And where do I want to be? Oh, okay. I want to, I want to be in a productive mindset today. So how do I shift? And so that's really what the awareness is about. And that rollercoaster of energies that we're on and saying, where do I need to be on the line? What's the energy I need to be in right now

to be accomplishing what I want to do today. And sometimes laying on the couch with a glass of wine is a hundred percent fine, but other days you need to step into a meeting and kill it at a sales call. So it again, goes back to that awareness and figuring out how do you stay at the baseline that you want to be for that day? Yeah. I like, I like how you chose something that she learned in therapy, you know, and incorporating that into your work. I was just thinking about ways I shift my energy and I noticed that my energy comes from my focus, like whatever I'm paying attention to. Right. And so if I want to shift my energy. And I noticed that my energy comes from my focus, like whatever I'm paying attention to. Right. And so if I want to shift my energy, I know that I can shift my focus

maybe to things I'm grateful for, or let's say, you know, cause sometimes we can, um, I felt it this way earlier. I had a big deadline last night that I had to finish. And, um, I had way more anxiety like Tuesday and Wednesday than typical. And then I had to be like, okay, I am so focused on the future. I have to get back to the present, right? To be able to reduce that anxiety I was feeling. It was really my focus that determined how I was feeling. Yeah. And I love that because we do absorb energy from the things around us. And if we're focusing on a certain thought, the thoughts have energy too. If you're focusing on a spreadsheet on your computer, you're getting energy from that. If you're focusing on, you know, your dog, you get energy

from that. If you're focusing on your son and his pizza hat, you're getting energy from that. So we absorb, you know, it's reciprocal. We give and we take and being aware of that exchange is important. So I'm glad that you, I love that you said that. Yeah. Excellent, Kristen. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I loved our conversations, our conversation and the thing I took from today, I'll just kind of summarize. I loved the five P's in your happy hour, peace, passion, productivity, presence, and people. I thought the life work map was really smart and helpful as people kind of think about having harmony between their life and their work and maybe identifying what are those three energizers and the three triggers. And then I just appreciate, you know, helping us think about how our energy is really our emotions and being able to

be really deliberate with that, with that energy. And then also you did tell you kind of shared with us your superpower exercise and how we might do that. So thank you so much for joining us here on the High Performance Mindset. Do you have any final advice before we wrap up for people who, well, maybe first tell us about how we can follow you and follow your journey and reach out to you. Let's go there first. Yeah, you can check out my website, Kristen Brown Presents. It's K-R- T E N brown presents.com. I do a lot on Instagram where I share, you know, not only things about energy mastery and biohacks, but you know, fun little stuff from

my life too. And my daily walks in the woods with the dog and whatever, you know, Instagram's fun, but also a powerful place to learn a lot of new things and get inspired. Uh, but yeah, that's where I hang out most. Like you, I'm a speaker, so you can learn all about my topics and everything there and check out Cyndra's too, because she's an awesome speaker and you should check out her website and beyond this podcast. You're so nice. What final advice would you give people who are listening today, Kristen? Well, you know, it all goes back to really, you want to feel good every day. You want to be in a good mood. You want to feel vibrant. You want to feel excited about your life. And sometimes when the world gets hard,

when you get stressed, we get pulled into the mindset of fear and worry. And so really being aware of where you're at in the moment and getting yourself back to the present moment. We've mentioned it over and over again, that awareness is really critical so that you don't get spun off into areas where you're not controlling what chapter you're writing. You want to be the one that's creating the life for you and feeling good every day. And you have everything you need inside of you to do that and to create that life and career for yourself. So really work on becoming aware of what you and your energy are doing in this moment right now. Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us, Kristen. Very powerful and a great topic for today. So thank you from the bottom of my heart

for joining us today on the podcast. Thanks for having me and talk to you soon. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes

and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindhra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.