Leading With Authenticity - Meetings In New Spaces (even Outside!)

Happy Monday, everybody. How we doing today? We having a good day. Major is having a great morning. I think you can see him. He's killing it this morning. We've already had our walk. Now he's hanging out on his cute little bed. And it's Monday. And we're back. We're back. We're here in this moment right here, right now. And I couldn't be more excited for Monday. I have my list that I've been curating. Not even a list maker, but I've been curating some lists. Hello, Andy. Hello. Speak Wonder, our trusted supervisor is here.

Hi. Baby is like, oh, oh. Is it my turn to talk? He's here. He's here. It's Monday. I've got my lists. I've got pages of things. Actually, I have buckets for different categories of different things. I'm not even a list maker and somehow I'm kind of excited about my list. So we're here on this beautiful Monday. We have all kinds of great things to look forward to this week. So in the chat right now, if you're not driving, his eyes are dreamy, aren't they? If you're not driving your car, My invitation to you in the chat, please type one thing you are looking forward to, whether you're listening on replay or you are live.

What is one thing this week you are looking forward to? So I'll tell you one thing I'm looking forward to. I'm looking forward to popping into one of Speak Wonder's conversations this week, but I'm also looking forward to knocking off a few of the things on my to do list. So I'm not always a great planner. Andy's looking forward to Friday and it's only Monday. Andy, come on. I appreciate that. I do. So I'm not a huge list person and I'm not a big person that gets excited about crossing things off a list.

That's not usually my jam. But I am excited about all of the things that I'm creating. But if I don't put them into little buckets or categories, then I will get distracted and can't focus. Gotcha. Stress and deadlines fair. So Friday is the reward to making it through this week. That is duly noted. So today we're talking about leading with authenticity and meeting in new spaces. Speak Wonders. Looking forward to a lake visit this week. I love it. I am also looking forward to going out on my paddle board this week.

I haven't been making enough time for that. And I'm going to take Major out there with me. And that is a feat because he has major fomo. So if I'm with anybody, he jumps from one board to the next. So we're going to see how this goes. But meeting in new spaces. Let me ask you this question. If you have to meet with a colleague, where are you most often? Meeting with people or meeting with friends. What does that look like? Now, if you are in a corporate structure of any kind, most often we are jumping onto teams calls or zoom calls, whatever tool your company uses.

Or you might head to a conference room of some kind. True. It's a. It's a thing Speak wonder. You might head into a conference room. So here's something that I've been trying to do with some of my clients and it's starting to catch on slowly but surely. We have a lot of people on our teams that work from home, but oftentimes, you know, even if we're in an office, we kind of get into the mundane, right, of going to the same conference rooms or insert whatever. Insert whatever spaces you have accessible to you.

I might even in my own space have a certain office or a room that I go to to take conference calls. But what I found is we get into these patterns and if we feel like we're getting overwhelmed with conversations or we know that some of the that we're going to have are going to be a little less exciting, maybe there's a certain amount of dread with them. What I've started to discover is I get to choose my energy, right? We are in a hundred percent control of ourselves and that's it. We don't have control over anything else.

We can try to create the best experience, we can put a lot of effort into. If we're meeting in a conference room, we can put a lot of effort into the design of the room. We can put a lot of effort into the treats or the snacks in the room, but we have zero control of how other people choose to experience the effort that we've put in. When I say that out loud, it's a little deflating, right? Because we might design the best meeting, an agenda that we think is rock solid. The best snacks from our favorite donut shop that we're excited to share but we can't control is what happened with people before they came to our meeting that could still be hanging on.

We can't control whether or not somebody is having a great day or a not great day. We can control ourselves. So when I use the conversation of meetings in different spaces, here's what that Looks like for me. And my invitation to you is to consider also making some changes that might work for you. So here's what I know. Mondays, I try not to schedule meetings as much as possible. Because on Mondays, I feel like I'm just starting to get my mojo back from the weekend. And I am really trying to lean into what are all the things that need to get done this week, who do I need to support this week, what new things do I need to design or create?

What might be the highlights of the week that we need to navigate through with my client work or even with my team? And so I try not to have meetings on my day, but that doesn't always work. So my second thing is when I know that there's a meeting that is going to be uncomfortable, then I try to move to a place where I am comfortable. So I can. If I'm meeting remotely, I can choose my environment. So I find that I am more comfortable when I take meetings on the balcony in my apartment. Our apartment.

Right. I might be more comfortable taking meetings out there. So if I know that the meeting I'm going into is going to be a little bit more contentious or maybe the topic is a little more draining for me. The things that I control is my environment. Or maybe I'm plowing away at my desk. On my desk, I have different things. Like I'm a crystals person, so I get a lot of energy from crystals. So maybe I hold a different crystal or I have a couple of different photos that are on my desk that really help me to find some calm.

I have a couple of different sprays. Let's go take a look. Let's go for a walk. I have a couple of different sprays that sit on my desk that I can use and maybe change up the energy. So I'm gonna show you a few things that I have here. So I have like a crystal. I have a rose quartz crystal. Cause when I hold rose quartz, it reminds me to come from a place of love. So if I find that the conversation is becoming a little bit more tense, I can control myself, right? I already said that I can control myself.

So I pull out my rose quartz crystalline, and by simply holding it, it reminds me that I can control my energy right here and try to find words that I can put into the conversation that come from positive intent. I have some little sprays here that are little essential oil sprays so I can change the scent that's around me. I have one that's for negativity. I have one that's for unconditional love. So I find different people that make essential oils or sprays that I can use in different ways throughout my day because I can't control what my day is going to look like.

I also have a photo of me with my nephews when they were really young and us laughing. So if I need to instill some more joy into how I'm feeling, I can look at that photo, remember a time, and then maybe I can tell a story or bring in some laughter. So I use my desk or I add things to my desk so that it can help me to control my side of the story. Because it's the only side of the story that I have control of. I can experience when someone's upset. I can hold empathy for them on a call. I can do a lot of different things to try to help the situation feel positive, encouraging, exciting, inspiring, all those different things.

But at the end of the day, those are only things that I can, I can gift into that meeting. I also have a little standing desk here. So on my little standing desk you'll see a whole bunch of crystals. But I also have a different scenery, right? So I'm closer to a window. I have a little bit more light. I'm standing versus sitting. And I can stretch my body so I have a little mat that's on the ground here. I'll show you this too that I use to stretch my feet and my legs so that I can. Oh, and Major likes this one too, so that I can change my scenery just slightly.

That allows my body to move and also do something slightly different. But also know that wherever I go, Major has FOMO and he is right there by me. I also, whenever possible, if I get to do an in person meeting, I like to find unique coffee shops. And I don't even drink coffee, but I like to find unique coffee shops to meet people at where we can share a cup of tea, share a cup of coffee. But when we get into a new environment, we have new ideas, we see things with new perspective, we see things slightly different.

And if the coffee shop allows dogs, guaranteed mirror jurors coming with me. Because he always brings a sense of calm to people whenever he enters into a space. He's almost like this uncertified therapy dog. So I can bring him with if I have to be in an office. Almost all office buildings have or office companies have office spaces that have some sort of a coffee shop area or a kitchen area or they have some open space meeting areas and they have the conference rooms. So depending on the type of meeting and what different accessories that I need to have in those meetings, I might choose to pop into one of those little coffee areas instead of a conference room.

Because I find that when I change the space that I meet people, it changes our energy. Now why am I using the word energy? We are energetic beings. So not only do we have the mental part of us, the brain part, the emotional part of us, our hearts, we are energetic beings. Our vibration will raise and it will will lower. We can tell when it's changing because we might feel laughter and joy, high vibration. We might feel anger, frustration, lower vibration. So if I can find a space that allows us to at least meet in the middle, maybe it can shift our vibration just enough.

Mine and the people that I'm with, just enough so that we can reset and we can re engage in our conversation in a slightly different way that allows us to not just be happy, that's not always the goal, but to shift the narrative. When we change our spaces, our narratives shift as well. Which means that maybe in a new space I have new perspectives. Maybe I see a different plant or have a different idea, but when I'm in a different space, it also neutralizes the conversation so that the individuals depending on what the topic is that you're meeting about, maybe I'm just doing simple networking.

If I find a space that is open aired space, it allows for more creativity. If I'm meeting with my client boss, she now asks to me in person and she asks me to find a coffee shop that's in the middle so that we can meet at a new space space. Because she finds that she's less tense and she's more creative in her thought process when we can meet in new spaces. So changing our spaces and understanding how physiologically we feel in those spaces can allow us the opportunity to be different in each space.

And I'm not saying change who we are, I am saying change what we need. I know that when I need to write, I have to sit down, heads down, write a bunch of content. I do it much better sitting in a coffee shop, maybe with headphones in, most likely not. Because that extra buzz in the background helps me to somehow forget about everything and focus in. That's how my energy works. Now I also know if I'm working in a coffee shop that's really dark and dingy, I. I can't think. So I need a space that has light, possibly some plants, and a slight buzzy vibe in the background.

Good light music, but not too loud, not too soft. Just something right there. That's what I know. That works for me. I know that sometimes I need to take conference calls, walking major or going on a walk because I actually have my best ideas when I'm moving. So how many times have you sat at your desk and everybody's been like, stuck, unable to think of a new idea or new concept? Get up and move, walk around, put a different background on and allow yourself to move or go off camera? Because we do our best thinking, we are most creative when we're not sitting at a desk.

How many times have you had the best idea in a shower? Don't take showers while you're in conference calls. That's not what I'm saying. But I am inviting you to simply move and reconsider the spaces that you work in. Reconsider the spaces that you meet in. Identify what is the purpose of the meeting. Identify what are the outcomes. What do you need to support you to have your best outcomes? If you need a whiteboard so you can write things down, go to a conference room and write physically, tactilely, write.

If you're doing a conversation where you need to explore new possibilities or maybe it's a tense conversation, find a space that's a lighter space. So my consideration for you today is to just identify what are the environments and what are the types and environments that are going to support you to be your best self and find those spaces. Find those environments and go there and use those spaces. Allow yourself to move. Give yourself permission to be able to use use spaces differently depending on what the outcomes are.

So let's go from there. I hope you have the best Monday. I'd love to learn about your favorite spaces and we'll talk to you all soon. Have the best day. Get outside and move and find somewhere new.