Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Before we dive in today's episode, I want to take a moment to share something that's been on my heart, something I've been working on behind the scenes for a while now. I'm officially writing a book. This book is called let's Be A Practical Guide to Leading Through Change. And it's deeply personal to me. It's built from real experiences. The uncertainty, the challenges, the moments where I didn't have the answers but had to lead. This isn't just a leadership book filled with theory. It's about navigating uncertainty when there's no clear direction, building internal clarity when everything around us feels unclear, having courageous conversations, even when they're uncomfortable, and leading with value, especially when it's the hardest to do so. I'm also going into topics that don't get talked about enough, like what it feels like to be challenged, overlooked, and even bullied as an adult in a workplace. And how those moments shape the kind of leader you become. This book is for anyone who's ever thought, how do I lead when I don't feel ready? How do I show up when I don't have all the answers? And how do I stay true to myself in environments that challenge me? If this is you, this book is for you. I'll be sharing more about the journey behind the scenes moments, and opportunities for you to be part of it as we go. So stay tuned, because this is more than just a book. It's a movement around how we lead through change together. All right, let's get to today's episode.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's Be Diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who supported me through this journey. Those who have left us will always be in our hearts and will never be forgotten. Today our topic is holistic leadership during uncertainty. And our guest today is one awesome human.
Her name is Jenna d'. Annunzio. Jenna, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Hi, Andrew. I'm well. I'm well. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: You're very, very welcome. How are things with you? What's energizing you these days? Give us the tea, give us the deets, give us it all. What's going on?
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Okay, well, first, again, thank you so much for having me. Second, I'm really, really excited. About maybe a week and a half ago, I would say I published my gratitude journal that I wrote it's Gratitude within. And so it is now on Amazon. For anybody and everyone who is looking for a morning grounding ritual. This gratitude journal is based in my psychology background, my clinical psychology background. It interweaves neuroscience and neuro linguistic programming to help us really plug into what I call our higher power every morning.
So that is what I'm really excited about and what really has me energized today.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: I love that and I love the idea of a gratitude journal. I was having a conversation about this particular topic last week and how great gratitude journals are, or starting your day with gratitude or saying some good things that you're grateful for is a great start today or a great way to end the day. So I just love that you're doing that. And for all the listeners, I hope you check it out or pick it up.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: You're very welcome. So thanks so much for sharing that with us. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of this exciting conversation that I am super excited about getting involved in, I always have a fun, thought provoking question that I ask all my guests to get things going.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Are you.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Are you ready for yours today?
[00:03:47] Speaker B: I am.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: So if you. My question today is, if you were to start a television show designed about your life, what would it be? And.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Hmm. If I were to start a television show about my life, what would it be and why it would be?
It would be the joys, the battles, the laughs, the tears, the excitement of running a business and being a mom of three very incredibly wild, inspiring and athletic kiddos. I don't know, maybe called something like the parent, like, I don't know, mompreneur or.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Oh, I like that.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Parentrepreneur, like merging the parent entrepreneur word together as a way to connect with others and show them that whereas there is a harmony, it's also can be really chaotic. And it's all about coming back to those. Those rituals, like I said, right. Helping leaders realize that we can't lead from depletion.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: But that we all have those moments and we can't parent from depletion either.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: No, no, no, we can't for sure. Listen, if you're looking for an agent, I am your guy. I think Mompreneur would be a hit show and I think with all the moms out there think they would be, they could be a hit for them and I think would be one that would, that would run for a long time.
We could definitely look into that down the road here.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: All right, thank you.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Thanks for having fun with me. Jenna, to get us started. Who are you and what really drives you to do the work that you do?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Okay, so. Well, I think I've already shared. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm also a mother and a wife, daughter, sister, and I am a co owner of Sole Purpose Institute, which is a holistic business coaching company started by my father. So I am happily, my goal is to carry out his legacy and also to continue to create tremendous value in the world for entrepreneurs and business owners like yourself. Like myself, help them to understand and recognize that our the inner work is in fact a business strategy. And so I've been doing that for over a decade now, which is a really amazing experience.
I also have, like I said, married, three beautiful children. And so we have very, very busy lives over here. All three are. We're in the thick of SP sports. It's what I call. This is what I call mayhem. See what I did there? Maybe that's the name of my show. It's just watching me, following me along for a month, the month of May. And yes. And so I'm just really working towards as a holistic leadership and business coach, supporting others and building my own business while also helping them to build and scale theirs.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: I love that and I. I love how you do your twist there.
Mayhem is soup. That's awesome. And when you talk about the inner works of strategy, I do agree with you on that, that there is a lot of inner work that we have to do in order to strategize whether you are a business owner, whether you are a leader in an organization, whether or whether you're a leader of yourself. There is a lot of inner work that I think that we need to do. It's something that I've been looking at myself the last year or so. I wouldn't say I'm a professional at it, but it's something that look at and work on or try to work on as best as I can.
We're never going to be perfect, but it's something that we definitely have to look at and consider.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Well, I think the really important thing to understand for entrepreneurs and business owners to understand is that when you're building your business, it is not necessarily all about exactly what you're selling, about your product, about your processes, about that strategy. And it's also an internal concept that who you are anywhere is who you are everywhere. So how you're showing up in your business, how you're showing up with your team, how you're showing up every day in the nitty gritty Has a direct impact on the results that you're getting. So there's many different avenues to succeed and to run a successful practice or run a successful business. And one of them gets to be working on our internal world, because our internal world creates our external.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: I love that. I love that. So when we hear the term holistic leadership, what does that mean to you, personally and professionally?
[00:08:35] Speaker B: So this concept of, of being holistic has, has kind of become trendy. And I think it's in. It's a good thing, right? Because holistic leadership really means leading from the whole of who you are. Your mind, your body, your soul, your values, your visions, and that ability to be able to do that yourself so that you bring that out the whole in those that you serve as a coach. All of my guys and all of my girls, they know that I show up the whole version of me. I show up as Jenna the coach, there to hold space for them and co create value for them. And I also show up as the wife and the neighbor and the mom and the sister and the daughter and the woman in the world. Because I work, I collectively work and intentionally work from a place of coherence. I know that if I'm aligned in who I am, I open up the door for them to do the same. Right. Like Gandhi said, we want to be the change we wish to see. That level of holistic leadership allows me to align with others and then bring them into the space where they can bring out their whole selves as well.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Showing up the whole version of me. That is pretty telling there. And I think in our lives, personally, professionally, we try to be there or show up our whole version of ourselves.
Sometimes it's, it's. It's hard to get it, but, but you try to be there. And I think it's. If I'm going to talk in a, in a leadership realm, it's so important for us to show up as ourselves at a whole version of ourselves so that everybody that is on our team sees the version of us and the version that we want to portray for others that are with us on our team.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, that's an excellent point. Think about it, Andrew. How many times have you been. You have a lot of conversations, right? You. And you are intentional with those conversations and you are fun and witty and you bring your whole self to them, right? But how many times have you seen someone, somebody that you know love and trust, and you can almost feel the energy shift within them when they talk to one person versus when they talk to another? We feel like we have to almost put on these Personas of ourselves, and that is not really living in to the very best version of you. That. That's not holism. That is. That is feeling like we have to compartmentalize depending on who we talk to. And that compartmentalization very often leads to a misalignment, and that misalignment leads to burnout. So being able to show up the version of you. Right. Like I said, who we are anywhere is who we are everywhere. And so if I'm showing up, the greatest expression of who I can be in every room, that's all I can really do, right?
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. I love that. So, Jenna, uncertainty can create fear, stress, emotional fatigue within teams. How can leaders stay grounded while still supporting others through difficult seasons?
[00:11:42] Speaker B: So that's a wonderful question. And I had mentioned before, right. We can't lead from a place of depletion. We can't parent well from a place of depletion. We can't support our loved ones from a place of depletion. So what I teach my leaders is a series of things that they get to do in order to support people, not, not just their teams, but themselves. Right. Others, we're all going through a constant change in uncertainty. And so the best way to be able to set ourselves up for success there is to build what I call that nerv system awareness. What does that mean? What does that look like? What does your body look like when you're in fight or flight versus a grounded state? Having a high sense of self awareness when you are triggered, when your nervous system is dysregulated is the number one way in which we as leaders can not only support ourselves, but then our teams. So how are. What, what, what does it look like we're in fight or flight versus when we're grounded and clear? What does it look like when we're triggered? Once we can establish what that looks like, then we can speak to it. Right. Then we get. We get to have some re. We can recalibrate through a series of tools. Breath work, Somatic check ins, Emotional freedom technique. Journaling is an excellent way. Right. So having that self awareness. This is what I call practicing the success arts. Art is an acronym for awareness, recalibration, tools and skills. Once you have that level of awareness, then.
Right. We can recalibrate through a series of tools and build new skills.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Jenna, I smiled when you said the words get to do.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: So when I post some stuff on LinkedIn, for example, and I will say from time to time, who I got to meet during that month, and not I had to meet these people or I thought I was going to meet these people, I got to meet these people and have these conversations. And when you are leading from a place of depletion, when you're looking at it in the realm of I get to do that for me, that awakens me right away as soon as I hear that, because it's like, wow. And I know it's hard because sometimes there's things that we do in our lives and either professionally or personally, that we just don't like doing get worse. But the fact that you could say, I get to do these things just for me, that shines a light on a lot of stuff.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: So from a psychological perspective, what it's doing is it's opening up the door to possibility and opportunity. When we say, I have to send my emails, I have to do the dishes, I have to mow the lawn, I have to pick up the phone and invite people into my offer, what happens, what that triggers in our brain is that it's a need and our ego thinking mind. This little amygdala on the back of our head says, well, wait a second, I don't have to do that. I don't have to invite people into my offer. I don't have to do the dishes right now. I don't have to ask people if they want to be on the podcast. Right. And so that we, we trigger a necessity to an opportunity when we can make that conscious shift to say, wait, I get to invite people into my offer. I get to reach out and ask them. It's triggering something that evokes the wellness hormones. It evokes a more grounded state versus a fight or flight. I want to be on my podcast. Oh, I don't want to have to call them. They're going to reject me if I call them.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: And we, we can't be afraid of rejection. Right? I've gotten over that in the last. I'd say since I started my podcast of the thought of rejection.
I'm not afraid of hearing the word no, because I know I'm gonna. I know I'm gonna hear it. So I'm not afraid to hear it, because if I hear it, that's okay. When I first started doing what I'm doing, I heard the word no. Often when you, when you get used to hearing the word no, after a while, you're kind of like, okay, that's not, that's not good. But after a while you get, you'd be saying, okay, well, that just. That opportunity is just not there. And we just need to move on.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Right. We give everything meaning. So what you did there was you just reframed the meaning. No. Did not mean that you were rejected and that you weren't worthy and that you're not an amazing human being. No. Was just. And whatever you choose to believe in, you know, I tend to say fear is rejection. Same thing. Rejection is God, universe, Source is protection.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Right. So you just reframed the meaning. No. Well, that wasn't meant for me. And that's okay. What's meant for me will come.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And it doesn't mean it's a no right now. It just means that it's a no at that particular time. So.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Which is totally understandable. So, Jenna, this is a great segue, what we've been talking about, what I wanted to talk to you about next, which many leaders feel pressure to always appear strong or to have the answers. How important is vulnerability and authenticity during times of uncertainty?
[00:16:57] Speaker B: That's a beautiful question. Vulnerability is credibility. Vulnerability is credibility.
The more vulnerable you are, believe it or not, the more credible you are to your team, to your family, to society, to life, to anyone. Because what it does is it shows you're a human being. There are no perfect people. It is impossible. There's no such thing. Perfection in and of itself is subjective. What I think is perfect, you could think is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
Right. The more we meet people where they are, it's a very person centered approach to leadership.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Right, right. I love that. Yes, absolutely. Your vulnerability is credibility. And it looks like a lot of leaders actually consider that or think about that because they're very. Have this mindset that they have to be firm and they can't show any vulnerability because if they show that, then it's almost like a weakness and it's not. It actually makes you actually look more human. And people see that you're not a robot. They actually see that you have a heart wrecked.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: It is a very person centered approach. Like I said before, we are, we have been taught in today's society that vulnerability is a weakness. And the more that you open up about your thoughts and feelings, the more that you are opening the door to be manipulated and to not have the strength to be able to take things to the next level. And that honestly, that's just a story that we have been told. It is a strong belief that has carried throughout modern society and business owners and leaders and entrepreneurship. And I, it's one of, one of my goals is to rewrite that story, to tell my male and female business owners and entrepreneurs, you can have find a harmony within that masculine and feminine energy that is within all of us. The more vulnerable you are, the more that you're going to connect to people. People are assets. If you sell a product, your product is great. It's probably. It could be one of the best products in the world. But if you aren't connecting with people to sell that product, it's worth nothing. It's worth nothing. Your vulnerability is going to be able to do that. It's connecting one another.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Well, you just said people are assets. I did a post about a month ago, and I was in a situation where it was at the end of the day, and I can't remember where I was, but I was out somewhere and I was waiting in line and there was this older gentleman that was there, and I was tired. I, like, had a day and I was just tired. And this older gentleman was there and he was talking and he was being very friendly and chatty, and I was just so tired. I just didn't feel like I had the energy to keep a conversation going with him.
And then at some point he mentions to me, says, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I lost my wife in 2014, and I appreciate you listening. And I didn't feel like I was present in that conversation, but to him I was. So I think it kind of woke me up to realize, wow, he thought it was there, but I really wasn't. And then I thought, okay, like, if we're. If I'm in a situation where I'm leading a team and it's the end of the day and someone comes to me with something that they feel important, and I did that, how would they feel? So it was just interesting how he looked at it and how I portrayed it. And it was two different scenarios. But once he said that, you know, I felt bad, but unfortunately, as he said that, then I kind of woke up into the conversation a little bit more. And then I. And then I engaged a little bit more. And it's unfortunate that that's what it took, but I guess I couldn't help that situation any better than I did.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, a few things are dropping in for me there, Andrew. One being, even at 50% battery, you were showing up and creating space and just listening to this gentleman, and he was able to receive it at 100%. So even your 50% is incredibly valuable. So bravo for you. And what woke you up was just perception, right? We don't see the world the way that it is. We see it the way that we are. And so at that moment, you were, first of all, you're a human being. Of course, you, you were tired. You're allowed to be. You're allowed to just be tired and exhausted and need a break. Or in that moment, you perceived the world is just a little bit heavier than normal because you felt heavy. You felt a lot on your shoulders. You felt physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. However, his perception was different because we don't see the world the way it is. We see the world that we are.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: I guess if I was ignoring him and not saying anything, I think it was a bit different. But I was saying stuff like you said, 50, you know, was probably better than nothing. So it's good. But yeah, it's, it's a different way of looking at it, for sure.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: So, Jenna, before we wrap up here, what is one key takeaway do you like our listeners to remember from this episode?
[00:22:19] Speaker B: One key takeaway? Well, we talked about so many good little nuggets, so I think one key takeaway would really be to.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: There's a lot if you have more than one, but we'll take more than one.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I might do. I might do more than one. I might.
A little wrench there. Well, I think the biggest thing for, for folks to realize is that as, as a leader, you are, you are a whole person having a human experience. You are a whole spiritual being having a human experience. And so what that means and what that looks like is finding a way to really come to a place of integration and recognize that who you are being has such a direct impact on everyone that you lead, whether it's yourself, your team, your family, your, Your home, all of, all of the things, all of the above.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: Well put. I couldn't have said it any better. Well, anybody that's listening today, my call to action would be to, like, share and follow this episode. Jen, I want to take the time to thank you for coming on today. What I admire about you is your innovation, your creativity, your compassion, and you're just overall vulnerability. I, I really, I really admire you as an individual and I am so thrilled to be connected with you, to know you and super fortunate to have you on here today. So, so thank you for joining you.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Thank you for having me.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: You're very, very welcome. On behalf of myself and my guest Jenna, I'd like to thank you all for joining us today. And until next time, be safe. And remember, everyone, that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything you
[00:24:03] Speaker B: have been listening to. Let's Be Diverse with Andrew Stout to stay up to date with future content, hit Subscribe.
