139. Powering Up Your Leadership: Exploring Energy Levels with Brandy Mabra

[00:00:10] Brandy, thank you so much for joining us on Girl, Take the Lead. I am so excited for this conversation about energy. I feel like it's been something I've always been interested

[00:00:23] in and now I can kind of see from someone who's in that and an expert in that field like things we can learn from that. So thank you for joining us. Yeah, thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I was trying not to interrupt you because

[00:00:39] you can't see me but I'm all like, yay. So thank you. Thank you. Definitely. And why don't we start with you just kind of introducing yourself to the listeners so that they know a little bit about your background?

[00:00:53] Yeah, absolutely. So hello, listeners. My name is Brandy Mabra. I am the CEO of Savvy Clover Coaching and Consulting and a CEO coach for private practice owners. I'm also an energy leadership master practitioner. And so I'm excited about today's conversation with energy. You know, my experience comes from

[00:01:10] the healthcare side of things, the business side of things. It's truly where I am able to show up but in that it's business management leadership. So I've managed a lot of teams. I've been in the corporate side, the small business side, the private practice side.

[00:01:26] And so it's just really, really great to be able to share my knowledge every day with the folks that I get to work with. I'm a full-time business owner and entrepreneur

[00:01:34] and I love every single day of my life. And so I'm also to a burnout survivor, I say, and a mama of two boys. One of them is getting ready to ship off to college and the other one

[00:01:47] is starting to drive. He calls my significant other's car his car and you know he doesn't make car payment or anything else but that's his car. So if he sees me doing something wrong with his car then he's very quick to correct me. So that's my life.

[00:02:02] And I know in our conversation we talked about transparency and authenticity and you know the different ways that we lead. Maybe we can start there and then work our way with more energy to talk about it. Yeah absolutely, absolutely. I think when it comes to leadership

[00:02:22] it's a very broad topic right and how we lead is different for everybody or even their definition of leadership and how we come from different backgrounds, different experiences, different ways of thinking. And so when we're talking about leadership or managing a team or

[00:02:40] even putting ourselves in different spaces where we now have to be in a place of influence there's a lot of different things that can come up for us whether if it's a mindset, if it's where we're now limiting beliefs or interpretations or assumptions or imposter syndrome

[00:02:54] like there's so many things that can get put into that at different stages of career, at different stages of life. I know even for me and all the many years that I've been in leadership

[00:03:05] it was a journey and so when I first started out I wasn't confident and I think I felt like I got tossed to job because there was no one else. I've been you know some of

[00:03:15] some of my experience where I've been the youngest in the room. I've been the only black woman in the room. I've you know had to really try to try to fit in in different ways and

[00:03:24] or felt like I needed to fit in when necessarily that might not have been the case and so through it all it's been a journey and just trying to make sure that I'm set up for the best

[00:03:33] success but it's the mindset piece and it's the energy piece that's always been the magic for me and when I learned it it was like a game changer for me and even with my practice

[00:03:43] or my business today and with the practice owners that I work with it's a lot of it is just mindset and how we're viewing and our perceptions of the world that can allow for

[00:03:52] us to be really strong leaders or or even hide as leaders too so I love the conversation. And I think you said something too to me about you know we go in with our perceptions

[00:04:05] our own perceptions about how we we don't realize sometimes that we're viewing our leader through our own lens and what what what else can we see about that about our own perceptions there?

[00:04:21] Yeah yeah like I always like the money because I think that's like the best way when we think about our own perception so if you have someone who's like a billionaire and you tell them like oh

[00:04:32] you know we just made $10,000 today they were going to be like oh okay great you know they're a billionaire if you tell somebody who is maybe six figures and less like oh we made $10,000 today

[00:04:42] they're gonna be like oh my gosh like that's amazing and it's the exact the same amount of money it's both $10,000 but that perception is going to be so different so when we're thinking about ourselves

[00:04:52] from a leadership perspective it's the exact same thing like we could have a certain situation to somebody else be like just amazing and then to someone else it could be just like the

[00:05:03] worst thing ever so we have to pay attention to how are we perceiving things how are we filtering things what experience are we experiencing things through because a lot of times this is where a lot of like our differences or our experiences or what we've gone through our

[00:05:22] backgrounds can definitely start to play into how we lead or how we're perceiving how we're being led when it comes to you know just every day whether if it's in your career in your business

[00:05:34] you know we're at home like all the things too because we can definitely wear different types of leadership hats and different types of situations so how we're perceiving it is definitely a powerful

[00:05:44] way and then taking a minute to stop and ask the question how am I perceiving this or why am I perceiving this this way you know is there something that's filtering into this

[00:05:53] that maybe is deeper that I need to go through and so that was my journey as I started to recognize there was a lot of things I was perceiving in my career because of just past experiences you know

[00:06:04] whether good or bad or indifferent or how it was raised and compared to is the truth you know so really really identifying what is true about this situation and what I love too is once you

[00:06:16] recognize like how am I perceiving this and why am I perceiving it this way then that's where you get back your control because you can always control how you respond right you can

[00:06:26] control how you react you can control different things that you can do for yourself in order to make you a stronger leader I like what you're saying there because it puts the responsibility

[00:06:38] kind of on ourselves and not be looking externally for that you know like the blame or the you know whatever is going on how what we're responsible for is how we react and how we see it yeah

[00:06:57] yeah absolutely absolutely we always have control we always have control and it's really it's our choice and it's our birthright to have control you know and so I know for me I'm faith-based

[00:07:08] and I know that God has a plan for me and he's going to make sure I'm set up for success but he always gives me the choice for how I what path I could choose to go down or

[00:07:18] where the actions that I choose to take or some of the things I decide to do or don't do you know that's the power that we have and so because someone does something to you

[00:07:29] whether if it is if it's a partner a spouse a friend a co-worker wanted someone who is maybe reporting to you you always always have that choice on how do I want to respond to this

[00:07:40] you know what's my choice here what path do I want to go down and really owning that power is very powerful and then how does energy play into that yeah so when it comes to energy leadership

[00:07:53] it's all about you leading yourself right and paying attention to how am I perceiving this right and so there's two types of energy there's anabolic energy that can feel very light and airy and very expansive and then there's catabolic energy that can feel very heavy and

[00:08:10] very draining and so when you hear that saying oh I feel like a wait's been lifted off on my shoulders especially if you've gone through something that might be stressful or something that might be hard

[00:08:20] it's true you literally do have a weight that's being lifted off of you and it's that energy that you feel and I think the best way that you can explain it is if you walk into a room

[00:08:29] and you feel fine you know day's going great and everything and then you come up with to talk to somebody and they're having the worst day ever and they tell you like oh you know I spoke coffee on

[00:08:39] myself this morning and I got stuck in traffic and you know me and my husband got into an argument and it's just awful just that right and then that energy when you leave that conversation

[00:08:50] how do you feel like you almost feel like man did I get into an argument with my husband did I spoke coffee on myself you know like it was I in traffic this morning you feel that way and

[00:08:59] it's because of that energy so it's energy is always interesting to me because it's something that you can't necessarily see but you feel it and you feel it in so many different types

[00:09:08] of situations and so what I love about the energy leadership is again it goes back to that decision of you can always decide what kind of mindset I'm going to have what kind of way

[00:09:19] I'm going to respond to this how am I going to receive this when it comes to the situations that you're going through yeah I think one of the things you're telling us too is that energy can

[00:09:32] be contagious yes like a cold in the flu right and it I can remember early in my marriage there would be like this back and forth with my husband about if he was in a bad mood

[00:09:48] I couldn't be in a bad mood and then if I got in the bad mood because he's in a bad mood he wouldn't be in the bad mood anymore he would be just like and it seemed like there was almost

[00:09:58] a volleyball going on of of energy between us and how does it how does it operate in teams because I can imagine in a team situation or a company even right absolutely that energy is contagious yeah yeah and this is actually because there's a whole assessment behind it

[00:10:21] and so there are teams who do this assessment so that way you can see like how is my full team resonating when it comes to how they're perceiving situations so there's two types of ways that we

[00:10:32] always respond there's under stress right and then there's under normal conditions so if you have a team that under when everything is flowing everything is good you know everyone everyone showing up doing the normal day-to-day then there's a certain energy that that team carries not saying

[00:10:49] that everyone on that team is productive and does a great job but for the most part that's just like status quo of your team when you are under stress so for example everything that we went through

[00:11:00] maybe with the pandemic or everything that we went through you know with the recession and layoffs and what people are going through even currently now when it comes to under stress there's a different way that your team responds because how people respond under stress is a

[00:11:16] certain pattern and so most times most people respond when they're under stress as they go straight to like a victim mentality right and so with energy leadership there's seven levels to energy the first level which is that catabolic that negative energy is level one

[00:11:32] and level one is victim so that means that you are feeling at the mercy of the situation you're not taking that control that you truly have of how you perceive that situation and you're

[00:11:42] deciding there's nothing I can do about it you know I have no control you know some folks how they respond can be different so if you have people in your team who don't know how to navigate

[00:11:54] that victim mindset they can be in that victim mindset for years they can be in it for minutes they can be in it for seconds they can be in it for months they can be in it for a day they

[00:12:01] can be in it for weeks and so it's as a leader you have to identify okay how are people perceiving this situation how am I communicating the situation especially when it comes to transition now when

[00:12:13] things are like status quo most times people have their normal way if they they show up but for example you do have people who might be just normal state during that victim's mindset so everything they're at the mercy of everything you know and then you have other

[00:12:29] people who might be in a different type of leadership level so for example since they're seven level five leadership is coming from a place of opportunity so for level five when you're thinking about things from an opportunity it's like oh okay well I know we're going through a

[00:12:44] transition right now what's the opportunity here how can we fix something what's the solution to the problem compared to I'm just at the mercy of it right and so when your team is under

[00:12:53] just normal conditions you usually see those folks who are oh you know you talked about this in a meeting and I think that there's a solution here maybe we can fix this this and this and so it's

[00:13:03] really interesting once you start to dive into your team members individually and what their leadership levels are and how they resonate under normal conditions and then under stressful situations and then your team collectively how is your team responding under normal conditions

[00:13:18] and how are they responding you know under under stress or during transition so so is it that we kind of move up the ladder yes you do and we change based on things that happen in our life

[00:13:32] absolutely absolutely so if you have somebody who is going through a really hard time at home and they're struggling right so when they're coming into work then you might see more of that like

[00:13:42] catabolic energy some of that really heavy weight and it could show up as a victim so I'm at the mercy of the situation because of everything I have going on at home so I'm at

[00:13:49] at work or it can come from a place of level two energy which is conflict conflict is anger you know so they can feel conflicted they can be mad at what's going on at home and actually take

[00:13:59] it out when everyone at work potentially you could have folks who are having an amazing time at home you know everything's great and lovely and then be a completely different person when

[00:14:09] they get at work because maybe some the project's not going the way that they need to maybe their stress and so then they can take some of that energy and they can take it

[00:14:17] home but we always like just based on what we're going through what's happening in our life and what's happening to us personally and professionally and even though we try to say oh it's two separate people no it's really one person so what's happening to you at home

[00:14:30] is going to impact your job and how you show up and so it's for you to understand though how you perceive it is the is the magic so if you want to be in a victim state you could

[00:14:41] be in that level one energy and if you decide to come from a place of opportunity whatever you're going through then you can now instantly put yourself into that level five energy because you're perceiving that situation different but that makes sense yeah I well I think you're

[00:14:58] definitely telling us that there isn't just one energy and that when we change and we have things that happen I think we can also like that example you were given giving about a person who is in a really bad mood and they're kind of laying it on you

[00:15:17] you can be observant enough not to take in that energy absolutely and go keep it you could keep the coffee on you yeah that's I think that's what's so important to learn about this is that we're not one fixed energy and your team isn't one

[00:15:40] fixed energy and when you're leading people to be able to I think sometimes intuitives and sensitive people can pick up those energies really easily yeah yeah absolutely yeah and then if you're smart as a leader and you know you've got a person who's picking up the energy

[00:16:05] be good to kind of check in with that person and ask them what do you what do you think is going on like is is everybody kind of getting burned out or because it struck me when you were

[00:16:18] talking about a team I was on pre-covid and then COVID hit and now post-COVID right and I was in a hospital setting so a clinical setting yeah like you and I remember things changed like

[00:16:40] everybody wanted to help no it was like oh you know the energy just shifted from kind of status quo emergency emergency everybody's got to pitch in and help and that energy shift was really amazing

[00:16:57] to see yeah yeah it's it's really really interesting just because there's different motivators and so for each type of energy there's a different like trigger you know for what's going to put us into

[00:17:08] there so it could be situational it could be what's currently happening it could be something that's happened from the past and it's you're bringing it into the present situation for how you're responding and so it's definitely interesting to watch it's it's always fun like even with the

[00:17:24] clients that I work with to see when they come to calls or even within our group you know who's showing up with different energies and sometimes what they'll do is they'll shame actually the

[00:17:33] strength in their energy so for example as an entrepreneur I'm a level five and that showed up in my career by I was always going after the next promotion you know so for me I ended up in

[00:17:47] the C-suite right and so when I got to the C-suite I was like oh this is great and lovely but I want something different you know why did I want something different and so throughout my career I

[00:17:56] even though I have a very tenured career a lot of amazing experience part of it was I always wanted something new what's the opportunity what can I learn you know what's the problem I like

[00:18:07] problems I like so finding solutions to problems and so a lot of the feedback that I got as a leader well you job hop or you need to um you know stay in a certain career for a longer period of time or

[00:18:21] you need to be like am I going to hire you then you're going to leave maybe like a year or two later like there was a lot of shame but actually as an entrepreneur that's my superpower right

[00:18:31] and so one of the things too even with level five energy if you can come up with creative ideas if you're able to really step into the opportunity of things if you're a problem

[00:18:40] solver compared to just always bringing in the problem then that is actually a really great skill set to have um same thing but even with the victim mindset that we're talking about there's

[00:18:52] actually on the other side of that there's gold in that because if you are in a place where you're able to say hey I'm going through a hard time then sometimes folks the reason why they

[00:19:03] stay in it for such a long period of time is because people are like oh are you okay how are you doing you know how's this how this house this and so you have to be able to shift out of

[00:19:10] out of it for that level two conflict energy the other side of it is you can be very productive in that with that energy so for example if you know that you're angry at a certain situation

[00:19:19] or maybe someone doubted you or um you're in a place of like I just really have to get this done because I'm running at home by five o'clock and I'm mad then you can get a lot done in

[00:19:28] that energy so there's gold in every single energy and how we choose to use that energy and in what situation we choose to use it it becomes really really powerful so are there energies that are that you've seen to be kind of consistently present for women

[00:19:48] yeah level four level four is the caretaker um energy so that is like where a lot of health care professionals a lot of teachers you know our service people are all heavy with level four

[00:20:01] energy because we're fixers that's level four so I'm a four five or a five four so my second level of energy is because there's like a profile that everyone gets with this assessment but for level four it's all about being compassionate right and so really thinking about others

[00:20:17] and making sure that everyone else has set up for success on the other side of that though is burnout right and so if you are always thinking about the other person and especially as a leader

[00:20:28] and you want to make sure your team is good you want to make sure that they have everything that they need sometimes it's really easy to forget about yourself even as a mom for me

[00:20:37] and my family they're great you know oh you want a new pair of shoes absolutely let me get you a new pair of shoes me if I need a new pair of shoes oh I don't know if I should do I

[00:20:45] do I deserve that new pair of shoes should I buy that new pair of shoes I don't know and so that's where some of that level four energy can definitely come into play and that's where I find

[00:20:54] most of my clients you know because I work with mostly women they have that level four energy healthcare definitely comes that level four energy comes across and so that's probably four or five

[00:21:06] is probably the for the clientele that I work with I can say. So what about our younger generations do you see any common energies for our millennials and Gen Z years out there? Yeah that's a really good

[00:21:20] one because my son so you know with this it's six and seven so six is visionary and so with that particular level it's all about being creative and really thinking outside the box and I think

[00:21:34] because of even with social media being able to see you know just what is like the possibility of different things and so I think that the millennials definitely tap into that even the

[00:21:46] way that some of the work culture has changed where I'm not going to go into a job and burn myself out I want more of a work-life balance I want to be able to set myself up I want to set my own pace

[00:21:55] I want to you know definitely chart my own course and that is all in that level six energy level seven is where it is the beautiful thing is that it's kind of where everything is what it is

[00:22:08] there's no problems everything's happening according to a plan everything has a purpose the hard part about that energy is sometimes we can lose touch with things that actually really need

[00:22:18] to be done but the combination of the two is actually really fun and so if you are in a place of wanting to be a CEO then I always say your powerhouse trio is your four five six and then

[00:22:30] you tap into seven when you need to in order to definitely move like an organization or organization forward or even a business forward as well so how can people find out what energies they have yeah so there is you can pay attention to you

[00:22:50] know definitely like going back to victim mindset am I at the mercy of this situation or am I in control of this situation but level two am I you know mad am I feeling conflicted about

[00:23:01] this situation you know with level three it's more of a kind of everything happens for a reason there's a purpose behind things I'll be fine it's okay I got it you know those are level three

[00:23:14] for level four it's compassion you know am I caring for someone else level five it's all about opportunity level six is that creative energy am I being creative right now and then level seven

[00:23:25] is how am I am I just kind of like oh it's just the world is just the world and you know everything like there's trees and money but it doesn't really nothing matters right now and so that that's how

[00:23:37] you can identify it for how you're viewing a situation if you want to know more about this information then there is definitely an assessment that you can take so you could find any you know energy leadership master practitioner index it's literally a whole assessment so

[00:23:51] you'll get like your profile and and what how you resonate when you are under normal conditions and then how you resonate under stress and you get your numbers that you can go through like what puts

[00:24:02] you in each different level um you know for me I'm able to give it to my clients and then I've also taken it for myself and like I said it's been a game changer because I can always

[00:24:11] recognize like oh I could choose to be mad right now but I'm not going to be mad right now I'm going to choose to look at this a different way so yeah we've been telling such a good

[00:24:21] cover is there anything we missed that you'd like to share with leaders or with our listeners about energy yeah I would say control what you have control over and remember always always always

[00:24:37] remember that you are truly truly in control because you can decide how you want to respond and then to definitely take a minute and stop in if something is upsetting you why am I being upset

[00:24:50] you know where's that coming from really digging into that it's easy as a leader to just keep going and mask and not pay attention to why am I feeling this way or just sweep things underneath the

[00:25:00] rug because the team need you um or your family need you so really taking a meet a beat and stopping and asking the question what do I need in this moment and is there a different way that

[00:25:10] I can perceive this situation is there a different way I can respond to this situation because when you do that as a leader it becomes very powerful for you you'll have less burnout less overwhelm

[00:25:21] you'll be able to go home and sleep better um everything else too so I would say control what you have control over that's so great so I guess the last question now could be something like

[00:25:32] what would you tell your younger 20 something I saw that question yeah at the bottom yeah um yeah I can definitely I can definitely dive into that one so what I would tell my younger

[00:25:45] 20 something self today is to stay the course stay the course and so I know before we even got on we were talking about spiritual animals this for me mine is the elephant and so for

[00:25:58] me it's just staying the course and recognizing that everything that's happening to you right now is for you and in my 20s I was like what is happening I was later in my leadership career I was

[00:26:11] trying to start figuring things out and why I wasn't happy in certain positions why I was always wanting to go after more and now to fast forward to where I'm at today as a full-time

[00:26:21] business owner and have been very successful in what what I'm doing um everything that was happening during that time was meant for me now and so just recognizing that there's a plan for you

[00:26:32] there is um a reason why you're going through what you're going through there is a purpose to this is definitely something I would tell my 20 something yourself relax it's going to be okay

[00:26:44] so how can our listeners find you and how can they follow you oh yeah you can find me on instagram so I am at brandy mavera on instagram so b r a n d y m a b r a that's my favorite place to

[00:26:57] hang out i'm also to one lengthen if you want to find me over there but my website is www.savvy.com so right that's where you can find me great well thanks again for joining this brandy

[00:27:13] I mean welcome I think I just really feel like the energy is so good yeah it's so positive and so I appreciate you joining us you're welcome thank you for allowing me to talk this way like I love it

[00:27:27] I love energy leadership and not I don't have the opportunity to talk about it too much so just thank you Adam just so grateful because it's really powerful so appreciate you thanks for being here you're welcome