Replenish and Recharge: The Summer Mindset Shift Every Leader Needs

Speaker A: Have you ever gotten to the end of summer and realized that you didn't do any of the things that you said you wanted to do in the winter, like go camping, go to that concert, go paddle boarding, hike with your friends, go on that adventure, take that time off. This week's episode is really a permission slip to play this summer and to become what I like to call the chief energy officer of your life and to give yourself that permission to do those things that replenish you resource, you rejuvenate so that you can lead fully charged in every area of your life. So that's what this week's episode is all about. I can't wait to dive in with you. Let's do this. Hey everyone, what's happening?

Speaker B: I am super stoked to welcome you to the Marley Williams Podcast where we will explore authentic leadership, transformational facilitation, and how to create epic experiences for your audiences every single time. I am your host, Marlee Williams, bringing you thought provoking insights, expert interviews and actionable strategies to unlock your potential as a leader, facilitator and speaker. Thank you for joining me on this journey of growth, transformation and impact. Let's lead together. The Marley Williams Podcast begins now. Let's dive in

Speaker A: where this week we are diving into. Explore how you can make the most of your summer. Make the most of your, your time off, whether it's in the summer or whatever that looks like for you. I think that, you know, I just got back from my first camping trip of the summer with my partner Liz and a bunch of our friends. And there is something so powerful, so profound about getting away from the noise, getting away from the dings, the rings, the distractions, all the stimulation, everything that's coming at us that can drain and deplete our energy. And I know for myself, as someone who is a high achiever, a high performer, those of you listening to this podcast where we value our worth based on our productivity, based on how much we get done in a day, in a week, in a month, and it can be hard to slow down and hit the pause button, as it were. I like to think about it as, you know, to disconnect, to reconnect, to unplug, to plug in, it could be hard to step away from all of that because I think that some of the stories that we tell ourselves is that everything's gonna fall apart. We have, um, maybe a scarcity mindset. If you're an entrepreneur and you have your own business. If I step and I'm not putting myself out there, or making the sales calls or following up, then the opportunities won't. Won't happen. You know, if I'm not constantly in motion, and here's what I know to be true. When we are constantly in motion, when we're going and going and going and taking action and going for it, we don't have any. There's no space for things to come in. And there is this dance, there's this ebb. Um, there's this flow of life where it is about showing up and taking action and doing the thing. And one of the important pieces of the puzzle that we can have a hard time with is the pause, is the slowing down, is the allowing things to come to you, to come through you. And when I'm out in nature and my phone is on airplane mode or there's no cell phone service, it's actually the time when I feel the most connected to myself, to my ideas. It's the time and space where I can replenish and rejuvenate my life force, energy. And as it relates to energy, intelligence, this is the intelligent thing to do. And yet it is not what society encourages, uh, reinforces, right, because of this productivity, mindset, do more, be more, achieve more, then you will be more worthy. So I think it really challenges that narrative when we slow down. And it can bring up a lot for us too. Like, because we don't have. Like when we're in the noise, when we're in the busyness, when we're going through the motions, we also are distracting ourselves from what else is there. Those feelings can go either way. You know, when we're sitting alone with our thoughts in the woods, there might be emotions that come up of, you know, um, am I being true to myself? Am I honoring myself? Am I doing things that are in alignment with my values? One thing that I love about, you know, retreats or, you know, camping in the woods, whatever that looks like for you, is that it gives us an opportunity to step away from our life and look at it from a different vantage point, a different perspective. Looking at your life without actually being in it allows you to reflect on what's working, what's not working. Uh, what do I love about my life? You know, what do I want to shift or change about my life? And it's hard to do that when we're in it. And that's why I think people get stuck going through the motions or living a life that isn't true to who they are. And as I speak about energy, intelligence, and I'm writing This book working title, the Energy Advantage. Really looking at that, your energy is either your greatest asset or your biggest liability. And if you are the leader of a family, a uh, community, a uh, team, an organization, you taking care of you and your energy is the greatest gift that you can give those that you serve, that you lead, that you love, that you support. When you are fully charged, as I like to say, you are going to be more resourced, more ready, more resilient, ready to face whatever life lifes you, whatever life throws your way. And um, the thing about energy, intelligence, you know, we know it's working when it's not just when we have energy and we are fully charged, when everything is going well, it's how am I showing up for myself, how am I resourcing myself on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly basis so that when those things happen as they inevitably will, how can it make me more resourced to meet that challenge or to meet that moment? And so I think that that's really the uh, key piece here isn't like, again, it's not about being a 10 out of 10 every day, all the time. It's really understanding what you need in each season of your life. And you know, just, just the more that I, I talk to people, they're living in this state of, of constant depletion, of constant overwhelm, of all of this noise. And I know that it's like when you're in that state of overwhelm, going on vacation, going on a camping trip, even taking a walk or a hike or stepping away from the screen and into the green, as I like to say, that can feel overwhelming. And I remember hearing a quote that says that, said something along the lines of if you're too busy to meditate for 20 minutes a day, you should meditate for two hours a day. And maybe that's a little extreme, but I think the point that it was trying to make was it's like if you don't feel like you have time to step away, that's exactly why you need it. And uh, to build a life. And you know, whether that's a company, systems, structures, your family, how can you build a life that doesn't require you to be constantly depleted? And I know again, there's, there's different seasons of our life where we have to, you know, put out more. There's like, I think about this energy feedback loop, but I think what's happening for a lot of people is there's a lot of output of energy, but there's not A lot of input of energy. The input is the things that nourish you, resource you, replenish you, fill you back up. There's all of this energy going out, but there isn't the energy that's coming back in. To be able to like sustain that level of output, it's unsustainable. And so this wearing the badge of burnout and the badge of being busy and you know, to the point of adrenal fatigue and exhaustion and feeling depleted and overwhelmed. My invitation for you is to give yourself the gift of stepping away, whether that's for five minutes, maybe it's a couple hours, maybe it's early in the morning on a walk or in the evening now that it's light out until, you know, almost 10 o' clock at night here it doesn't need to be a week long vacation, it doesn't need to be even a whole weekend. Maybe it's a day, maybe it's an afternoon. And really asking yourself, like, what will fill me up, what will nourish me, what will replenish me? And you know, when you choose you, when you show up for you, when you resource yourself, you can be the best version of yourself for others, for your kids, for your partner, for your friends, for your, your family, for your work, for your business, for your career. We cannot run on empty. And in a world that is constantly pulling us to do more, to be more, to achieve more, it is counter culture, counterintuitive sometimes. And what I love the most is when I step away, when I go camping or when I go paddleboarding for the morning or the afternoon, and I come back to an email that says, hey, Marley, do you want to speak at this event or can I talk to you about your speaker coaching program? Right. Like there is something energetic when you like fill yourself up, there is a different energetic frequency that you are putting out there. So often our energy is, it's scattered, it's, it's overwhelmed. We have this scarcity mindset. We're all over the place, we're unfocused. And um, I think that there's something really powerful when you give yourself that gift of really resourcing yourself and filling yourself up so that the energy comes from the overflow, right? This input, output, loop. I'm putting that energy into myself. I'm, um, resourcing myself so that I can share, so that I can serve, so that I can give from the overflow, not from the place that is energetically draining and depleting my life force. I really invite you and Encourage you to make a list of all of the things that you love to do, let's say, in the season of your life, in the summer, right? Is it swimming? Is it paddleboarding? Is it walking in the morning early before everybody gets up? Is it going to the farmer's market? Is it spending time with friends? Is it spending time in solitude? You know, part of energy intelligence is really understanding how to resource yourself when you are feeling energetically drained and depleted. It's the greatest gift that you can give to you and those around you. When I think about that question that I love so much, which is, what shows up when you show up, right? When you walk into a room, whether that's you walk into a meeting room, a conference room, an event, an organization, a team, or when you walk into your house into a, um, barbecue with your friends, what shows up when you show up? Are you bringing negativity? Are you bringing, you know, complaining? Or are you bringing a sense of positivity or hope or curiosity? The idea behind energy intelligence, again, it's not about being the loudest person in the room. It's really about being the most intentional. Are you being intentional with your life force energy? And again, seeing that as like your greatest resource is your energy, and it is a renewable resource. We can generate more of it. And I love this, the, um, metaphor of you stepping into being the CEO of your life. You have been promoted. As of today, you're officially promoted to CEO of your life. And what I mean by CEO is the Chief Energy Officer that you are in charge of your energy. You are in charge of how you show up. We are not in control of the things that life throws our way and the circumstances that come our way that we did not choose. But when we have this idea of energy intelligence, we can meet those moments with so much more grace, so much more compassion for ourselves and the people around us. I think I love this idea that sometimes we're waiting for someone to give us a title of, like being a leader or being a CEO, you are the, uh, CEO. The corner office is ready, the benefits package is generous, and all you have to do is accept the position. Will you accept the position of becoming the CEO of your life? The chief Energy officer, knowing that you are in charge of resourcing yourself in small little moments throughout the day, and not necessarily waiting for the big grand moments of, like that one week or two weeks of vacation that you get a year, but every single day asking yourself that question, what would nourish me, what would replenish me? Is It a little dance party in the kitchen or in the car on your way to the office? Is it a little Flash 15 workout with Jess Sims on the Peloton app? If you don't have time to go to the gym, is it a conversation with a good friend? Is, uh, it going out for ice cream with your kiddos? Like, I think about. I've heard this before, but, you know, if you have kids, you only have so many summers with them. It's like. And if you don't have kids, it's like, we only have so many summers in our life. Like, how are we? I really. I think when I think about what my purpose is in the world, it's really like, how can I help people enjoy their life more to get to the end of their life and say, like, I showed up and I played full out. So it's like this idea of, I'm making a, um, positive impact in the world, and I'm not doing it to the point of depleting myself or my values or the things that I love, the things that I care about. It's like, you can do both. Make an impact, make a difference, be in action, be in the world, build a business, have a career, have a family. And I think this weaving in this, um, philosophy, this mindset, like, um, where am, um, I making things harder than they have to be? And where can I add more joy, more play, more fun, more aliveness to my life and this permission to play in a world that I think wants us to be mad, angry, pissed off, and, uh, to just continue to grind away our life, to work harder, more hours. I understand that. We gotta work, we gotta make money, we gotta. We have families or mortgages or things that we have to take care of. I get it. I'm with you. And I just think this perspective of what am I doing to be the chief energy officer of my life and to nourish myself. So as you enter into, you know, we just had the summer solstice, we have the warmest days of the year. I would encourage you to write down, whether you call it your summer bucket list, your energy. You know, like the things that give you energy, the things that resource you. What are the things that you want to do for yourself with your friends, with your family this summer that will fill you up again. And thinking about it on. On a daily basis, on a weekly basis and a monthly basis, and the summer as a whole, looking at your weekends, looking at your calendar and actually putting those things on your calendar as, like, the most important meetings that you have. It's you showing up for you. And that's what I want to give you permission to do today. You have permission to show up for yourself in a world that asks you to constantly show up for everyone else. Be everything to everyone else. Say yes to everyone. The invitation is to say to say yes to you. And what will light you up, what will fill you up, what will fuel you forward so that you can sustain the output of being the caring, giving leader, change maker, parent and person that you want to be in this world. So I would love to hear what landed for you, what resonated with you. If you love this like this, share it with a friend. And my hope for you is that you use your energy to your advantage and really seeing it as your greatest asset. So my friends, thank you for tuning in to the let's Lead Together podcast. I am so grateful that you are along for the ride. If you are looking for a speaker for an event that you have coming up, a conference, a uh, training and you want to help your team lead, fully charged, feel free to reach out, go to my website, marleywilliams.com and I would love to connect with you and I'm just so grateful that you're all here. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time. Thank you for joining us, uh, on

Speaker B: another inspiring episode of the Marley Williams Podcast.

Speaker A: We hope you're leaving here with renewed

Speaker B: energy and valuable insights to fuel your leadership, coaching and speaking endeavors. I'd love to invite you to subscribe, rate and review this podcast to help us reach out more aspiring leaders and speakers like you. We have more exciting episodes and remarkable guests lined up, so make sure to tune in next time. Until then, keep leading with purpose, coaching with heart and speaking with conviction. This is Marley Williams signing off. See you next week.