Contagious You

Ask yourself: “Is the way that I am showing up helping me create the results I want?”

Anese Cavanaugh is devoted to helping people show up and bring their best selves to the table in order to create a significant positive impact on their lives. She is the creator of the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®), an advisor and thinking partner to leaders and organizations around the world, a keynote speaker, and an author. Her work might just be “the secret sauce” and I am honored to have her at my table today.

Back to the Basics…

Shockingly, Anese was incredibly shy growing up. (Turns out she was incredibly empathic, but more on that later!) This led her to want to be a writer with a big window overlooking the city and that’s about the entire 8-year-old vision. Anese’s pivot was when she was scooping ice-cream in a Baskin Robbins while her parents went through a divorce and she had this aha! moment of:

“What if everything that’s happening in your life is actually happening for you instead of to you? What if you actually could create a really awesome thing out of this and come out even better?”

Big thoughts for a 14-year-old. The second pivot came as Anese grew older and realized how we take care of ourselves impacts our ability to lead and impact our overall life.

The Intentional Energetic Presence (IEP) Method

It’s exactly what it sounds like. We bring intentional energy into each and every moment of our lives. The other way of looking at it is taking each word and applying it to your life.

Intention: What do I want to create?
Energetic: How am I taking care of myself so I have the energy and the stamina to create it? Presence: How am I actually showing up?

You might be misaligned if you’re constantly feeling exhausted or the energy feels low in a room. This also might look like tension in interactions with others. We can get in front of it by setting an intention for how we want to show up. You control what you bring and sometimes a little self-care or reboot is required. 

What Are You Bringing To The Table?

By bringing intentionality to a conversation, you invite whoever you’re with to show up in that way as well. We are wildly contagious and we’re also energetically, emotionally, mindset, behaviorally, contagious. The lowest vibration wins (not a good thing) unless someone is really good at holding their state. Once you’re aware of how you affect the room, it’s your job to hold that state. This does NOT mean you have to be happy and perky all the time. High vibration simply means you bring clean energy to the room. Show up in a way that meets people where they’re at. This is one of the attributes of a great leader. The ability to read the room is key.

Self-Care Of The Leader

Being a leader is tough work. So many people looking to you for direction and only so many hours in a day to get things done. As a leader, you have the responsibility to take care of yourself and part of that self-care is not only the physical but the mental and the emotional as well. Take care of your own emotional authenticity, otherwise, you will see it seep out in other ways.

The Leadership Trifecta

You have leaders who have a great impact but are totally burnt out. (Not sustainable!) Add in the self-care component and the leaders who take care of themselves but aren’t creating a big impact. (Also, not sustainable!) The third point of the trifecta are leaders who create a great impact but leaves dead bodies all over the place. (Shocking no one, definitely not sustainable!) You have to make sure each area is taken care of. Often, the self-care piece suffers the most which is, ironically, the one you have the most control over. 

Good Vibrations: Creating a Contagious You!

Whether vibration is your word or not, every person knows the feeling of walking into a room and that room is just “bleh.” The energy is so low in an individual that you feel so drained. Vibrational energy is the energy, good or bad, that we put out into the world. Reboot your presence at the moment. Be clear about the impact you want to have. Create a strong foundation and energetic field to surround yourself with.

The 2020 Takeaway

This pandemic is an opportunity for us to take a BIG timeout. It is an opportunity to stop and look at our lives and how we show up. Anything that is misaligned is showing up right now and it’s time to realign. This pandemic is a time for individuals to contribute to creating a culture that is good for all. The way we take care of ourselves right now is crucial in nourishing ourselves and how we take care of each other.