Collective Energy Conversations

In this episode, I sit down with Brittany Fountain, Chief Humanity Officer of Britt Joy & Co. Brittany openly shares her story of growing up with a single mom, working her way through college, and spending 15 years in diverse corporate roles before courageously launching her own culture consulting business. We dive into the challenges and opportunities around workplace culture, preparing for the future of work, and the power of intuition in decision making. Brittany's candid and insightful perspective will leave you inspired to approach your own career with more curiosity, authenticity and intentionality. Don't miss this thought-provoking conversation! Episode Quote: "Curiosity is the engine of achievement." - Ken Robinson Collective Challenge: This week, make a conscious effort to cultivate curiosity in your daily life. Each day, identify one situation where you can pause and ask deeper questions – whether it's about your own thoughts, ideas, and actions, or those of others. Embrace the opportunity to lean in and learn more. Notice how this curiosity impacts your interactions, decisions, and overall perspective. At the end of the week, reflect on your experiences and consider how you can continue to integrate curiosity into your personal and professional life. Share your insights with others and encourage them to join you in this curiosity challenge! Show Notes: 00:00 - Anna introduces Brittany Fountain and the episode theme of curiosity 04:36 - Brittany shares her childhood background and lessons learned from her single mom 09:46 - College experience as a first-gen student and entering the workforce during 2008 recession 17:33 - Overview of Brittany's 15 year corporate career across various industries and roles 25:01 - The launch of Britt Joy & Co in 2021 and identifying the need for culture consulting 32:13 - Challenges in getting leadership buy-in for prioritizing workplace culture 38:52 - Brittany's experience giving a keynote speech with her baby strapped to her 45:05 - The importance of staying curious and experimenting to identify gaps and solutions 51:50 - How organizations need to prepare for Gen Z and the future of work 58:16 - Balancing customer experience with employee experience and engagement 1:04:30 - Navigating ambiguity as a consultant and establishing metrics for success 1:09:59 - Learning to trust your intuition when making decisions about opportunities 1:12:07 - The value of reflective thinking and being the last to speak in a room 1:15:10 - Anna's closing thoughts on Brittany's openness and insights Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

In this inspiring conversation, Dr. Anna Stumpf sits down with Josh Brammer, an entrepreneur, growth strategist, Storybrand Guide, and founder of Hello Lantern. Josh shares his profound journey of self-discovery, navigating the turbulent waters of entrepreneurship and finding his true "sweet spot." From his beginnings in youth ministry to building a successful marketing agency, Josh's career has been marked by a relentless pursuit of clarity and impact. He vulnerably recounts the identity crisis that led him to question his passion for marketing and embark on a transformative path of exploration. Through candid insights and hard-won wisdom, Josh offers invaluable guidance for professionals at any stage seeking to unlock their potential, reignite their joy, and align their work with their deepest values. His story serves as a powerful reminder that true fulfillment often requires courage, self-awareness, and a willingness to pivot – even when it means walking away from apparent success. Whether you're an entrepreneur, creative professional, or simply seeking greater meaning in your work, this episode will inspire you to embrace your unique gifts and forge a path that sparks genuine joy and unlocks your full potential. Episode Quote: "The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." - Steve Jobs Collective Challenge: Reflect on your current professional role or business. Identify one aspect that aligns with your strengths, interests, and passion – your "sweet spot." Commit to focusing your energy on nurturing and expanding that aspect over the next week. Notice how it impacts your overall sense of fulfillment and joy. OR identify one aspect of your professional life where you may feel stuck or unfulfilled. Take one small, actionable step towards addressing this area. This could be as simple as scheduling a conversation with a mentor, enrolling in a short online course to develop a skill you're passionate about, or dedicating time to reflect on your career goals and writing them down. This challenge encourages you to take proactive steps towards personal and professional development, fostering a sense of progress and self-awareness. Show Notes: 0:00 - 3:35: Introduction, quote from Steve Jobs 3:35 - 13:55: Josh's background and pivot from agency to consulting business 13:55 - 22:45: Discovering his "sweet spot" and mission of unlocking potential and sparking joy 22:45 - 30:10: Balancing work with personal life, managing scope creep 30:10 - 37:20: Biggest career challenge - starting his own business 37:20 - 41:25: The importance of narrowing focus for creatives 41:25 - 47:45: Keeping a narrow focus, avoiding shiny objects 47:45 - 54:10: Collaborating with a collective group, importance of trust 54:10 - 59:02: Josh's family life, final thoughts Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

Join Dr. Anna Stumpf as she talks with Coach Julie Downey about living an energized and purpose-driven life. Julie shares her journey from real estate to coaching entrepreneurs, prioritizing self-care and wellness, empowering women, and embracing change and new opportunities. Gain insights on discovering your unique abilities, achieving mastery, and finding alignment between your passion and purpose. The books mentioned in the podcast episode are: "Unique Ability" by Dan Sullivan This concept and book have been adapted by a new author who offers this book and workbook. You can google Dan Sullivan and his many appearances and coaching business. "Happy Money" by Jason Vitug "The Gap and The Gain" by Dan Sullivan Quote of the show: " Asking the right questions takes as much skill as having the right answers"- Robert Half The Collective Challenge: Our collective challenge for this show is to figure out some of your mastery in your innate talents, unlock some new levels, maybe of your confidence and some exploration. Show Notes with Timestamps: 00:07 - Introduction by Anna Stumpf and overview of the episode 01:21 - Julie Downey shares her background and initial career choices 05:09 - The shift from real estate to personal coaching 10:42 - Julie discusses the challenges and breakthroughs in her journey 16:12 - The evolution of Julie's career and her move towards coaching 21:27 - Discovering coaching as a calling through self-awareness exercises 26:39 - Julie talks about the impact of coaching and her approach 32:28 - Strategies for work-life balance and personal well-being 39:09 - Future aspirations and the importance of community and connection 44:27 - Mastery and the power of saying no 48:01 - Julie's recommendations for personal development and resources

Have you heard about the Energy Coin? Learn about it here or in this previous episode. Today's episode gives four examples of energy coin impact just to give you a boost of energy! Enjoy! Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

Collective Insights Newsletter: Because you are a collective of your roles, this newsletter serves to off you boosts of energy in your leadership of self, work, home, and connections. If you would like this content delivered via email to your inbox every week, sign up on our website, at the bottom of the home page. Learn more about the EQ-i 2.0 here. The Hidden Costs of Not Showing Emotions Navigating Emotions in the Workplace: Responding to Crying with Empathy Emotional Intelligence: Bridging Work and Home Life Beyond Transactions: Cultivating Meaningful Connections for Extended Influence Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

Justin Demaree seemed to have it all - a successful corporate career, loving family, and active social life. But when the pandemic hit, it sparked an existential crisis that led Justin and his wife to ask themselves "are we living our best lives?" The conclusion that the answer was no launched Justin on a journey to pivot careers entirely, start creating YouTube videos, move his family to Florida, and ultimately leave corporate America behind to become "Bearded Tesla Guy." Justin shares his incredible story of change, risk-taking, fearlessness, and what he learned about finding career fulfillment along the way. "There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living". Nelson Mandela Show Notes/Timestamps: 2:38 - Justin and Dr. Anna's memories from his MBA program 4:09 - How Justin's passion for Teslas started 8:00 - The conversation with his wife that sparked major life changes 10:38 - Taking the leap and moving from Indiana to Florida 15:14 - Learning to balance being excellent at work with not sacrificing family time 21:18 - What prompted Justin to start a YouTube channel 25:22 - When the YouTube channel began making real money 27:25 - The best parts of Justin's life now 33:13 - Tuning out the news and negativity 37:14 - The supportive community among YouTube content creators 42:19 - Examples of Justin's leadership style and mentorship 43:53 - The difficulty of an individual contributor role vs. leading teams 45:56 - Prioritizing community service 47:55 - Justin's favorite podcasts and people to learn from 55:40 - Justin's future plans and new channels 58:39 - Justin's key pieces of advice for others 1:07 - Anna's Collective Challenge Now that we've heard from Justin, your collective challenge this week, is to set aside as much time as you possibly can, maybe 30 minutes every day, try it for a week, figure out whatever passion project, new hobby, something you've been wanting to explore, don't put any judgments and no expectations on yourself. This is just an experimentation phase, your do not have to be perfect. As we talked about multiple times in the episode, you could just be doing research online, maybe starting a mini project, maybe a tiny piece of content, whatever it is that you've been wondering, and think about like atomic habits, that great book, little small pockets of time just to build on. So just start something that's all Justin said for us to do. Let's make that our collective challenge this week. Bearded Tesla Guy on LinkedIn Bearded Tesla Guy You Tube Channel BTG Instagram BTG Twitter All Things BTG Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

Dr. Anna Stumpf is launching an initiative called "Collective Energy Coins" to spread positivity. She sent individually numbered wooden coins to 100 people who have inspired her. The coins have unique QR codes linking to stories of their impact. Recipients will pass their coin on to someone who energized them, sharing why that person mattered. Anna will track these encounters on her website to chronicle how connections and good energy are spreading in the world. Today's episode is the explanation. Starting next week will be a weekly podcast of the stories from the coin encounters to give us all inspiration to share our contagious energy!

A conversation with O'Brien McMahon, host of the acclaimed People Business podcast. We explored themes of self-awareness, lifelong learning, finding your passion, and continually working to become the best version of yourself. O'Brien shared fascinating insights from his own personal growth journey as well as from the wide array of guests he's interviewed on his show. Whether you're an ambitious professional, curious explorer, or someone seeking inspiration, I think you'll get a lot out this episode! Find O'Brien's book, "How You Become You" here. Follow him on LinkedIn here. "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." – Ralph Waldo Emerson Show Notes with Timestamps: 00:00-03:35:03:36-06:24:06:25-08:04:08:05-10:40:10:41-22:06:22:07-24:06:24:07-30:39:30:40-33:17:33:18-37:31:37:32-41:35:41:36-48:56:48:57-58:10:Collective Challenge: Think about how you can communicate better with yourself, to learn more about yourself and where you could make explorative decisions, better conversations, enhance your relationships; just more in depth knowledge of yourself. One of the things we talked about on the podcast was journaling. So there are journaling apps, some of you may already very good at journaling, very good habits around that. For those of you aren't just take one small step towards this goal and take some of the advice that O'Brien gave about challenging yourself with questions and prompts and different things. Take some dedicated time this week for self reflection. And if it's not through journaling, maybe it's through more intentional conversations with someone close to you or spend some time in your own thoughts. We're very bad at that sometimes with our phones and our feeds and all of the commitments that we have. But if you can challenge yourself to have some progress in this area, I think it will give you greater clarity and appreciation for your unique story and the journey that you're on becoming who you are meant to be. Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

New name! New graphic! New Format! The episode is a significant pivot point for the podcast, transitioning from "Conversations with Anna" to "Collective Energy Conversations." Dr. Anna Stumpf discusses her journey through the pandemic, personal and professional challenges, and the evolution into starting a growth coaching business. The podcast's new direction aims to explore growth, connectivity, and self-awareness through collective challenges and guest conversations. New website: www.collectiveenergycoach.com Show Notes with Timestamps: 00:1201:0003:2004:4506:3007:5008:40Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

After almost two years, here I am! I have had quite a bit of personal and professional change since I last recorded an episode (haven't we all?! It's the 2020's after all!). My good friend and colleague Dr. Ray Sylvester, who you will recall from Episode 9 and Episode 28, is teaching a course on personal brand management and suggested the best way to have me as a guest speaker on digital identity, story telling, and LinkedIn for his students was to record a podcast. This is Part I of the conversation where we lay the foundation of a WHY Ray and I find this to be critical for young people, how it fits into our own research, life experiences, and journey, and more. Join us for Part II where we discuss the more practical application and approach to LinkedIn and an assignment of an informational interview that the students are about to embark on for this amazing course!

This is Part II of the conversation with Dr. Ray Sylvester where we discuss the more practical application of digital identity for college students. With so many mixed messages and nuances to this arena people at all ages and stages are confused about the idea of authentically participating in professional networking, especially on a platform. However, we believe this is incredibly important for a college student. This conversation covers all of that and concepts for an approach to LinkedIn as well as an assignment of an informational interview that the students are about to embark on for this amazing course that Ray is teaching this year. If you missed Part I, we laid the foundation of WHY Ray and I find this to be critical for young people, how it fits into our own research, life experiences, and journey, and more.

Meet Ryan Sawrie who, after a decade in digital content creation has written a fantastic book, one which I am now a super fan of, Build Your Digital Strategy: Every Step From A to F Ryan's book is a concise guidebook that I found to be applicable to many areas of your personal and professional life. True to the purpose of this podcast, I challenge Ryan to take us through this 7 steps as they apply to our personal growth and experience. You can tell from this episode that he's as talented as a spouse and father as he is a digital strategist. Visit the link above to find the book on Amazon. This is the book's website which is full of resources!

So much around quitting is negative, especially with older generations and outdated mindsets. This can be related to a career, a friendship, relationship or even family. In a time when mental and emotional health is finally taking a front seat, quitting is a positive and can actually be the best thing you can do for yourself and your relationships. This conversation focuses on how you know when to quit and why it is so tied to our self worth. Here are the resources mentioned in the episode: NPR article: Setting Boundaries LinkedIn article: Why Quitters Are Often The Real Heroes Behind The Story Annie Duke's Twitter thread on quitting Fast Company article: Ask Yourself These Four Questions Before You Quit Something

Moving toward better self monitoring on a journey toward authenticity, we have to understand that we are natural storytellers and also how we tell those stories internally. This episode is meant to serve as a reminder that your patterns, self-talk, and your inner dialogue are a result of your experiences, your self worth, and often your mindset. You also need to constantly seek the input of other voices in your story. The TED Talk I referenced in this episode can be found here.

Based on questions from Gen Z in college classrooms around the difference between being authentic and being socially aware/politically correct, I started to research this a bit. This episode and these links are what I found to be helpful in explaining true authenticity and also self monitoring: Psychology Today's Self Monitoring Assessment Have We Got Authenticity Wrong? Adam Grant: “Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself’ Is Terrible Advice.” Brené Brown: “My Response to the Adam Grant’s New York Times Op-ed: Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself’ Is Terrible Advice.”

I had the opportunity to hear a professor talk about the dominate type of your Myers Briggs Type (MBTI) recently, how pairing around your type works, and more importantly how different types take on and react to stress. WOW! I was blown away that I didn't realize the power of the information available around the Myers Briggs! Here are the links mentioned in this episode: https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en/Using-Type/Stress-heads-Type-table https://ap.themyersbriggs.com/content/Quick_Tips/VT_Type_stressors_and_reactions.pdf https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2015/08/02/how-each-mbti-type-reacts-to-stress-and-how-to-help/ https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/understanding-mbti-type-dynamics/function-pairs.htm

Transferrable skills are a difficult list to cultivate if you are not living your truth. If you don't believe in YOU and if you aren't doing what fulfills you then it is even more difficult. In this episode I challenge you to think about your transferrable skills, the evidence you can offer to demonstrate these skills, the social proof around them, but more importantly how you can ultimately describe then confidently to someone else so that they know what skills and value you offer. I'm seeing too many people right now still focused on the "what". What does the job title say, what does the job do, what does the job pay, what does the upward mobility look like, what will I tell people about it, how will it look on my resume? Not enough WHY but that's because the why is hard and it is directly related to YOU and your ability to live in your truth. I hope this episode gives you something to think about. I want you to intentionally research and start to list/explain your own transferrable skills!

If you don't know yourself, love yourself and live your authentic life you will often find yourself defining yourself by your career, your to-do-lists, your outcomes and others. You have to find times to constantly sit with yourself and evaluate. This conversation is about helping you identify those times and boundaries. The Brene' Brown Wholehearted Inventory Excellent article from Vox on dealing with the post pandemic pressures

I had the occasion to hear from a Gen Z connection about some confusion and desperation regarding a career path. This was truly too good of a textbook case study on starting with YOU and allowing that to lead your career search, not trying to fit in many boxes and compartments that aren't made for you.

"Manage your energy, not your time". I heard that simple sentence this week and it shook me. Part of it is that this is my first week back from a vacation, but it still shook me in terms of how much the authenticity and truth in your life leads to your energy level. Amazon Affiliate Link to book: The Power of Full Engagement; Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal Harvard Business Review Article Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time Manage Your Energy Assessment Helpful Article on Manage Your Energy Not Your Time Atlantic Article on Pandemic Senioritis Axios Article: 1 in 4 Plan to Bolt from Their Job Post Pandemic