March 17, 2025 • 31 mins
March 16, 2020. A moment in time when everything changed. The world almost stopped, uncertainty rose, and we were all forced to navigate uncharted territory.
It was also the day I took a big leap into the unknown. I went live on Facebook, not knowing who would show up but knowing that leadership, resilience, and community were needed more than ever.
That was the birth of Warriors At Work.
What started as live conversations—meditations, visualizations, leadership practices, resources, humor, and above all, human connection—became a movement. A space for people to fuel themselves and each other. A place to remind us that even in the hardest times, we are not alone.
Looking back, that risk was one of the best decisions I ever made. Warriors At Work wasn’t just for others—it was for me, too.
To those who were there from the beginning and those who have joined along the way—thank you. Here’s to the power of courage, community, and showing up, even when the world feels uncertain.
It was also the day I took a big leap into the unknown. I went live on Facebook, not knowing who would show up but knowing that leadership, resilience, and community were needed more than ever.
That was the birth of Warriors At Work.
What started as live conversations—meditations, visualizations, leadership practices, resources, humor, and above all, human connection—became a movement. A space for people to fuel themselves and each other. A place to remind us that even in the hardest times, we are not alone.
Looking back, that risk was one of the best decisions I ever made. Warriors At Work wasn’t just for others—it was for me, too.
To those who were there from the beginning and those who have joined along the way—thank you. Here’s to the power of courage, community, and showing up, even when the world feels uncertain.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Warriors at Work Show. This is Genie Coomber,
your guide and host. This is a show for men
and women in the workplace who want to move from
the predictable to the potent. This is your weekly dose
of inspiration with an edge. I talk with CEOs and shaman's,
sports marketing executives and therapists. All of us are like
(00:24):
minded thinkers and doers who tell stories, share wisdom, and
challenge each other to have the best life possible inside
and outside the office. Welcome to your Warrior Conversation. Hey everybody,
it's Genie. Thank you for joining me here for a
very very special recording where I am resharing really one
(00:51):
of the first big experiences I had ever had as
it relates to Warriors at Work, and it's March sixteenth,
twenty twenty day the quote unquote world shutdown. This is
a Facebook live conversation that really was one of the
key ingredients to the beginning of Warriors at Work, and
(01:12):
it was a gigantic leap of faith, one of the
most terrifying things I've ever done. But I wouldn't be
able to celebrate five years at Warriors at Work without
resharing this recording. So what you're about to hear is
me the day that everything really changed. I had lost
(01:34):
a significant portion of my business. All my travel canceled,
lots of contracts canceled, and we just didn't know what
was going to happen next. And I decided to get
into service to the business community and do what I
can to be helpful and be in community more than anything,
(01:54):
because we were having this shared wild ride, and so
I feel really proud of where I started and the
amazing people that joined me on this ride, which you're
going to hear from some of them throughout the month
of March. So here it is enjoy. Okay, I'm going
(02:17):
to get into this. I have been working all weekend
on bringing this conversation to you, and I just want
to share a couple of things which I think are
interesting to set the table. First of all, the reason
why I decided to do this, Like all of you,
I've had tremendous disruption in my business schedule and in
(02:38):
my life. Kids are home, and earlier this week I
started to just watch my entire schedule over the next
eight weeks get completely turned upside down, and my first
reaction was total fear. And anxiety and thinking, oh my gosh,
what's life going to be like? How am I going
to do this over the next couple of months? And
(03:00):
then I stopped myself and I said, I've never been
somebody who comes from a place of scarcity. Hi, Chelsea,
I'm always somebody who looks to the silver lining and
a place of abundance. And how I always get there
is I get into service with other people. And I
started to think about what I do for a living. So,
in an executive coaching business like I have, I'm constantly
(03:23):
in conversations with leaders that there's stress, there's anxiety, there's uncertainty.
So I started thinking, well, wait a second, I actually
can help people on a much burder basis. This is unprecedented.
We're experiencing things we have never ever gone through before.
So the best way to handle that is get in conversation,
create groups of like minded people and talk about this.
(03:46):
We're so much stronger when we are together. So that
was the impetus behind this morning's conversation. Hey, Eliza Michelle,
awesome to have you here. So the very first thing
that I want to do is do a very quick
sixty second calming visualization slash meditation to get us all
(04:10):
in a positive mindset and in a place where we
feel good and calm and focus. And I think that
is going to be like my mantra over the next
couple of weeks is how do I stay calm, how
do I stay focused? And how do I remember the
resiliency of the human spirit. So let's just all take
(04:31):
a moment. I want everybody, if you're hopefully you're seated
watching this, uncross your legs, put your feet firmly on
the ground, and I want you to sit up as
straight as you can in your chair and slide all
the way back. And I want you to close your eyes.
And as you're sitting there, I just want you to
notice your breath. Don't make any judgment on what it
(04:59):
sounds like, just notice it. And then I want you
to take a big, deep breath, a big round belly breath.
Think of like a little Buddha or a newborn baby,
what they look like when they're breathing. And as you're
(05:23):
sitting there, just notice how good it feels to breathe.
Relax your shoulders, relax your jaw, relax anything in your
body where you're noticing some tension. Don't judge it, just
(05:46):
notice it. And as you're sitting here breathing, I want
you to really feel the words I'm about to say.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You are happy, you are healthy, you are safe.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
All is well.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You are happy, you are healthy, you are safe.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
All is well. And as you're sitting there with your
eyes closed, focus on the point right around your belly
button and just fuel blood flow and warmth going to
that space and see yourself totally protected by the energy
(07:01):
that's coming from that space. Take another big round breath
this one. Make it loud on the exhale, nobody's watching
(07:23):
you while you're all watching me, and open your eyes
to take a moment and wave to some of you
that are out there. So that was a short, little
sixty second meditation, just getting yourself into a calm, focused,
(07:45):
relaxed space. So that is a quick little trick and
tip right out of the gate, something that you can
do on your own. There is a great book that
I make reference to a lot called Meditations in a
New York Minute. You can buy it on Amazon, And
(08:07):
before I leave here, i'll tell you the name of
the steps me right now. But he has one minute,
two minute meditations that are very, very really for business people.
He is a meditation coach for C suite executives, and
he's often being asked to go into very high stress,
high stake situations, and he offers these very quick little
(08:30):
tips and tricks on grounding the energy and getting you
back to right here, because right here is your executive
thinking mind. This is where you want to be. Because
this process is slower. It also where is where logic
and reasoning reside. So just doing a quick little meditation
like that calms a lot of the energy and takes
(08:52):
you right back here. So I have with me now.
We were hoping to do both Anne and I live
today as I'd meant in the kickoff video and all
of the things that you're seeing relating to this, but
obviously with social distancing, we opted to do this separately.
So Anne is on here with me and Meil. She
is a very dear friend and executive coaching colleague. And
(09:16):
what we wanted to do today is talk more about
navigating the new normal we see ourselves being a regular
resources Maybe it's doing this every single morning for the
next six weeks. Thank you Gully for making that suggestion.
We don't know, but Ultimately, today was a place for
let's get in a discussion and talk about yourself. Because
(09:37):
as a leader, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur,
it all starts right here. This person, this mind, this
soul has to be calm. All of your wisdom and
all of your capabilities are coming from this place. So
going with that theme of it that it all starts
with you, I want to share two things things that happened. One,
(10:01):
I'm already pivoting to a whole new way of being.
I have never done Facebook Live before. Like all of you,
I love Zoom, I love go to meeting, I love
all those virtual platforms that we use every day in business.
Obviously this is not that, but because I wanted to
create some repository so that we could share and discuss,
(10:22):
and that's why the Facebook page came to be. But
I had a lot of technological issues yesterday with Facebook
Live and again this morning, so I'm pivoting already doing
this on my phone. The second thing is when I
was thinking about preparing for this as an executive coach,
I'm used to being in conversation. I'm used to asking
a question and being quiet, asking a question, being quiet.
(10:46):
This is all me talking, and all I can see
is you commenting and typing in things. So it's going
to be very, very different for me to be in
this space. So I'm already confronting one level of discomfort,
if you will. So that is an example of how
it all starts with ourselves. So I wanted to share
(11:07):
some tips and tricks that are just coming out of
Genie Koomber's playbook Things that I'm doing right now to
keep myself calm, focused and very focused on the fact
that I have a tremendous amount of resilience and I
believe in the power of the human spirit. So let
me share a couple of tips and tricks right out
(11:27):
of the gate. One thing that I do is I
label Oh, by the way, Lynn Shaper just posted the
author of that meditations in a New York Minute. Thank
you so much. Lynn. One of the very first things
that I do is when I'm feeling any kind of
emotion that I know is taking me off of my
productivity self or my ability to execute or move things forward.
(11:49):
And if I start to hear chatter and nervousness and anxiety,
which of course is happening a lot lately, I name it,
I say it out load. Boy, I'm feeling a lot
of anxiety. I'm feeling a lot of worry. And what
that does is interrepts the nerve impulse and again gets
you back here. If I've labeled it, chances are very
high I'll become curious, I'll start asking more questions, and
(12:12):
I'll slow down the response time. The second thing that
I like to do is breathe. I know it seems
so obvious, right, but breathing when we're in a state
of stress or higher anxiety, we typically breathe from this
parts of the body, which is primarily the chest. What
we just demonstrated in a quick sixty second meditation is
(12:35):
what happens when you're doing big, deep diaframatic breath, which
is right underneath your rib cage. It just allows for
more oxygen. It also brings in the parasympathetic system, which
is the calming system that you want in a conversation
with yourself. For sure. The second thing I do is
I just say to myself, find my feet. Find my feet.
(12:58):
I'm not sure if I got that in a yoga
clas or some brilliant person shared it with me, but
I can't tell you how helpful that is, so labeling
it and finding your feet. Who else out there does
any quick short meditations? I'd love to see some chatter
on the Q and A here. Does anybody do any
kind of short powerful meditations or mindfulness techniques that are
(13:23):
really helping you ground your energy? Lynn? I know you
do a lot of meditation. There's some great apps out there.
The one that I'm seeing a lot of is, of course,
the Calm Meditation app, as well as sink Tuition, sinc
(13:44):
Tuition and I Believe com both have a subscription, but
powerful stuff. Anything again to calm the storm? Are there
any other apps or go to places that anybody out
there wants to mention for mindfulness? Insight Timer? Oh that's
(14:06):
a great one, Mary, Anne Headspace, Yep, love those two.
Anybody else have any quick tips and tricks in terms
of mindfulness positive visualization? Dan, I see myself crushing my day. Oh.
I love that breathe app. Love that, Anne? And you
(14:28):
have an alarm on your phone twice a day that
goes off to remind me to be present. Wow? Really yep?
Gullyat the calm app, I pray for all over the world. Okay,
So you pray out loud, Michelle, that's a terrific idea.
You know, there's a technique that somebody I was doing
(14:49):
some coaching with about a week ago that had something
very similar. Whenever you're going to bed and you know
you're ruminating on something that's top of mind, say it
out loud before you go to bed. Your brain will
integrate and will do work when you're sleeping, and what
you can say is language like I would really like
(15:11):
for this particular situation to resolve itself, genie brain mind.
I'd love for you to do the work while I'm sleeping.
And what to do is it'll take it off your plate.
I tried it out the other day. I actually gave
three things, and two things I woke up and I
felt better about. So I guess it's just another form
of meditation. Okay, So let's talk about some other ones,
(15:33):
and then this is more of some personal perspective on
things that I'm doing in my daily routine. I'm a
routine person. It gives me tremendous comfort, and I think
it also gives me like a sense of control. If
I have some what I'll call anchors in my day.
It's things that I know are predictable and reliable. But
(15:53):
it also will allow for me to move from place
to place, particularly right now. Right because the schedule we
knew a week ago, thus apply everything is sort of
up in the air. So anything I can do to
get back into anchors is really helpful. So let me
share a few. As soon as I wake up in
the morning, the very first thing I do is say
(16:16):
thank you. Now, I say thank you to God for
waking me up today. Secondly, I might give gratitude for
just the simple fact that I have a comfortable bed,
that I have a bed, that I'm going to get
to go downstairs and grab my journal and grab my coffee.
Simple two or three things before I get out of bed.
(16:36):
To acknowledge some gratitude, you would not believe how powerful
it is in terms of how you're going to think
with all of your subsequent thoughts. So just notice, as
soon as you wake up in the morning, what are
your first thoughts and how can you recondition them to
just stay very simply focused on something that is gratitude oriented.
(16:58):
So I go down I grab my journal, my coffee.
I do what's called a holy trinity. Every day. If
anybody's ever heard of Mama Gina g e Na. I
have never been to any of her workshops. She's all
about feminism and teaching pleasure to women. She has this
process called the Holy Trinity, where you talk about three
brags or three prouds, as my friend Emily likes to
(17:21):
talk about it, three gratitudes and three desires, and desires
could just be things that you want to have happened
that day, that hour, that week, something that really will
trigger your your manifestation power. I'm laughing because Dan Cronin
just put the occasional wine is also good too. I
(17:43):
totally appreciate. I appreciate that one for sure. So three brags,
three gratitudes, and three desires, and you can add more.
But just that is my way of getting focused on
where are my things? Where are my thoughts? How am
I processing that? And I get to see even the
pattern of my thinking, What words am I using as
(18:05):
I'm writing this down? How is it making me feel?
And it's interesting just to get to a place of
acknowledging places where you have a lot of pride or
things that you've accomplished. I think also that will help
keep you more of a positive mindset, so that Holy
Trinity is particularly powerful. The other thing that I do
(18:29):
every single morning is I'm a vitamin maniac. Particularly now
up your vitamin C. Everybody up your vitamin C. And
I take my vitamins and I try to work out
five or six days a week. I have my workout
clothes underneath this. Although this doesn't look like I'm going
to the gym.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
But I am, and I believe that right now. Again,
more than anything is it's incredibly helpful to have that
detoxifying sweat calms my system, clears my mind.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It also just gets me off of my own thoughts.
If I'm working out and doing something that's very physical,
I tend to come out of those experience with a
sense of like euphoria and calm, and it allows for
me to be a lot more productive. Obviously, I'm doing
work emails like everybody else, but I try not to
grab my phone and do that first thing. I do
something prior to that, because I find that if I
(19:23):
grab my phone, I'm doing the work email that sets
the tone for the day, and a lot of times
is stress and anxiety out there. I am drinking NonStop
water with lemon people all day long, all day long.
That's extra vitamin C in there. And obviously the whole
notion of stanhydrated is really really important. I try to
(19:46):
limit my sugar and chardonnay every single night, sometimes two glasses.
Last night was two glasses, and I'm okay with that.
I try to log off not do any work past
eight o'clock. I mean, last sunight, I was doing some
work up until ten, trying to get this in motion.
But the other little trick and tip from my own
(20:07):
playbook is I have a huge sense of humor. I
like to laugh. So the videos I've been watching is
old Ellen DeGeneres, Graham Norton shows. I like to watch
the voice snippets, anything to get me into a place
where I feel good and happy. And the other thing
(20:27):
is I'm a big music person. My whole family, my
husband and my kids, we like to listen to music
every night during dinner. The sonos is rocking and rolling,
and I've been noticing some of the best moments of
my day is when the music is rocking and people
are dancing in the house. The other night, Queen came
on don't stop Me Now. That might actually be my
(20:47):
mantra for the next eight weeks, myself and my two
daughters just started jamming out or Bohemian Rhapsody or for
the North Jersey people in this conversation, and Dan, I
know you're one of them. I was inn irock Z
club music, Marbie Red Smokin' high hair girl. So I
(21:10):
love me some old freestyle club music. If you looked
at my playlist, that's the kind of stuff that will
help me shake it all out. So can't say enough
about that. And Maria and I see some of your
ideas here hibiscus tea, no sugar needed. Ooh, that's a
good one. That's a really good one. Okay, So I
(21:30):
would love to see some chatter here. What else are
you doing to stay calm and focus? What are some
of your daily anchors? What are some of the practices
you have right now that you're noticing is really making
a great difference in your day. So Melanie Noble love you,
(21:52):
she said, I've seen you dance. I do like to
dance my kids. I like to think have inherited my
skills in that way. So what is everybody thinking right now?
What's the general vibe? How are you doing? How's everybody
(22:16):
doing out there? What's top of mind for you? Finding
the upside of more time, Yes, Mary, and I love that.
I wanted to talk about that next. A fun website
to visit home but not alone. Idea is to stay
sane and some humor. I love it, limit TV and
(22:41):
hiking outside. Yeah and yeah, I want to talk about
that for a minute. There are only two places where
I'm going for information right now, and that's the CDC
website and the World Health Organization. I am focused on
the facts. I'm staying away from conjecture and opinion right
(23:02):
now because what I'm finding is it's very slanted towards
high emotion, fear and anxiety, and I'm super susceptible to that.
So for me, I find that going to a place
where it's facts. I think about it. When you're making
business decisions right, particularly higher stakes business decisions. You may
(23:24):
do some consensus with your teams, but ultimately you're going
to make decisions based on fact or strategy, something that
is more anchored in logic and reasoning. So I like
the CDC website, thank you, Anne, and the World Health
Organization as the two dominant forces in my life, and
that's the only place I'm going for information. I've in
(23:47):
effect stopped watching the news because I am having a
difficult time, but with some of the discussion that's going
on there. So those are the two things that make
the most sense for me. I love the silver Linings idea, Michelle,
and I want to go back to something you just said, Marianne,
in that there is huge upside and opportunity for all
(24:09):
of us. And I'm going to say more about that.
When I think about the time now that we're going
to be allotted in our homes is the first thing
that strikes me is when I'm very busy and I'm
traveling and I'm working, and I'm doing all the things
that I'm doing, the same would be true for you.
We don't have a lot of time to explore other ideas.
(24:32):
Maybe it's like seeing yourself in a more expanded role,
expanding your own business model, or maybe it's bringing more
into your life that you've never had the time to do. Visioning,
really trying to design the life you really want. Read
those books, put some things into your space that you've
(24:55):
never ever had the time to do before. That's what
I'm going to be doing. I did a I cast
about a month ago with a dear colleague, Sharon Lapowski,
who spreads a lot of time helping people vision for
the life that they want. I'm gonna pull out those
notes and by the way, her website is Point Road Studios.
(25:16):
I'm gonna pull out the session that I did with
her and start working on what is the life I
want to create? What are the things that I've said
I want to have that I haven't given time to.
I'm gonna do more of the journaling. I'm gonna do
more of the meditation again, all things that I just
haven't had the time to do. So there's some other resources. Oh,
(25:36):
Rosetta Stone for Italian, I love it all great learning
a language okay, and Ghali is mentioning JOHNS Hopkins Home
but not alone. Thanks Brenda for putting that website out there,
and the John Hopkins Center for Health Security site that's
great one. Again, these are resources that are factually based,
(25:57):
and the Point Row Studios would also be again a
great resource if you want to use this time to
be more reflective and really start to envision where am
I in my business, where am I in my life?
What do I want more of less of? Not only that,
but what's it going to look like when this time
(26:18):
and this experience has passed. Where am I going to
be in my organization? Where? What is my business going
to look like? How could I start playing with that?
Thanks Sam for putting that out there. I love it.
What else is everybody thinking about with this time, this
opportunity or Marianne you said this upside Yes, I'll put
(26:39):
those Michelle for sure. What is everybody seeing as the
opportunity here? We've got Italian, We've got some visioning and
personal strategic planning, checking in with my loved ones. Ah, yes,
(27:05):
definitely important. I think that's interesting too is I've been
noticing I'm in different kinds of conversations, conversations that I
might not have been in before with colleagues and clients.
It's a time for just a lot of love and understanding.
And I'm noticing the people. The influencers I should say
(27:28):
that I'm really starting to follow are people like Gabrielle Bernstein.
And if you haven't heard of her, you go on Instagram.
She is all over Instagram. She has a new book
called Super Attractor. But what I love about her brand
right now is every single day she is out on Instagram,
and she is doing meditations, and her meditations are really
(27:49):
targeted to how we're all feeling. She had one the
other day which was just a simple meditation to comer anxiety.
The one she had out there today is all about
cutting the chords from negativity. Cannot say enough about her again,
It's Gabrielle Bernstein. If you go out on Instagram, you'll
see her her meditations and on Instagram she's known as
(28:13):
Gabby Bernstein. And here's an interesting fact, and this is
just an indication I think of where the world is
right now. When I went out onto her Instagram page,
this was about three days ago. She had about eleven
thousand views on her meditation this morning, who is one
hundred and fifty thousand, So people like that are really
(28:35):
getting out in front. Also Elizabeth Gilbert putting some very
kind messages. She's the author of many books, but also
my favorite, E Pray Love. Also Glennon Doyle, who is
launching a book right now called Untamed. But she's putting
a lot of positivity and a lot of calm out
into the world. Thank you Anne for putting her website
(28:56):
out there. All right, here's what we're gonna do. I'm
going to continue to put resources out there as I
come across them. I'm going to be here tomorrow eight
thirty to continue the discussion because I'm sure a lot's
going to happen today, right because I think for a
lot of us, today's the first official day that we're
working from home, and we're in this new normal. So
(29:19):
we're going to keep this fluid. I'm going to continue
to just provide you the things that are most meaningful
to you. I see a couple of comments out there
hearing the new ways people are coping while being housebound. Yes,
I would love to see that. Having the opportunity to
connect and talk about this stuff is great. Great. Oh,
(29:39):
I'm so happy, Kathleen. This is a great way to
start the day. Okay, all right, So then I'm going
to be out here tomorrow morning, eight thirty. We'll do
this again again. I will update the Facebook group with
anything that I hear and see that I think would
be helpful for today, and we're going to just keep
this conversation going. Thank you, everybody. Stay safe, stay strong,
(30:03):
stay focused, and remember the resilience of the human spirit. Here.
We are in this together, and we are better and
smarter and stronger as a group. Thank you for joining
me for another episode of the Warriors at Work Show.
If you are interested in learning more about what we
do at the Warriors at Work Show and platform, be
(30:24):
sure to go over to my website, Genie Coomber and
subscribe to my monthly Warrior Playbook newsletter. I share everything
that I'm up to month by month, as well as
some lessons and insights that I've learned. I'm also interested
in hearing any feedback you have about this conversation or
future topics, so reach out to me directly on JC
(30:45):
at geniecoomber dot com or on LinkedIn. Be sure to
tell your friends and your colleagues about this Warriors at
Work conversation, Subscribe, review and rate us. It's the best
way to get this message out into the world. Be well,
Welcome to the Warriors at Work Show. This is Genie Coomber,
your guide and host. This is a show for men
and women in the workplace who want to move from
the predictable to the potent. This is your weekly dose
of inspiration with an edge. I talk with CEOs and shaman's,
sports marketing executives and therapists. All of us are like
(00:24):
minded thinkers and doers who tell stories, share wisdom, and
challenge each other to have the best life possible inside
and outside the office. Welcome to your Warrior Conversation. Hey everybody,
it's Genie. Thank you for joining me here for a
very very special recording where I am resharing really one
(00:51):
of the first big experiences I had ever had as
it relates to Warriors at Work, and it's March sixteenth,
twenty twenty day the quote unquote world shutdown. This is
a Facebook live conversation that really was one of the
key ingredients to the beginning of Warriors at Work, and
(01:12):
it was a gigantic leap of faith, one of the
most terrifying things I've ever done. But I wouldn't be
able to celebrate five years at Warriors at Work without
resharing this recording. So what you're about to hear is
me the day that everything really changed. I had lost
(01:34):
a significant portion of my business. All my travel canceled,
lots of contracts canceled, and we just didn't know what
was going to happen next. And I decided to get
into service to the business community and do what I
can to be helpful and be in community more than anything,
(01:54):
because we were having this shared wild ride, and so
I feel really proud of where I started and the
amazing people that joined me on this ride, which you're
going to hear from some of them throughout the month
of March. So here it is enjoy. Okay, I'm going
(02:17):
to get into this. I have been working all weekend
on bringing this conversation to you, and I just want
to share a couple of things which I think are
interesting to set the table. First of all, the reason
why I decided to do this, Like all of you,
I've had tremendous disruption in my business schedule and in
(02:38):
my life. Kids are home, and earlier this week I
started to just watch my entire schedule over the next
eight weeks get completely turned upside down, and my first
reaction was total fear. And anxiety and thinking, oh my gosh,
what's life going to be like? How am I going
to do this over the next couple of months? And
(03:00):
then I stopped myself and I said, I've never been
somebody who comes from a place of scarcity. Hi, Chelsea,
I'm always somebody who looks to the silver lining and
a place of abundance. And how I always get there
is I get into service with other people. And I
started to think about what I do for a living. So,
in an executive coaching business like I have, I'm constantly
(03:23):
in conversations with leaders that there's stress, there's anxiety, there's uncertainty.
So I started thinking, well, wait a second, I actually
can help people on a much burder basis. This is unprecedented.
We're experiencing things we have never ever gone through before.
So the best way to handle that is get in conversation,
create groups of like minded people and talk about this.
(03:46):
We're so much stronger when we are together. So that
was the impetus behind this morning's conversation. Hey, Eliza Michelle,
awesome to have you here. So the very first thing
that I want to do is do a very quick
sixty second calming visualization slash meditation to get us all
(04:10):
in a positive mindset and in a place where we
feel good and calm and focus. And I think that
is going to be like my mantra over the next
couple of weeks is how do I stay calm, how
do I stay focused? And how do I remember the
resiliency of the human spirit. So let's just all take
(04:31):
a moment. I want everybody, if you're hopefully you're seated
watching this, uncross your legs, put your feet firmly on
the ground, and I want you to sit up as
straight as you can in your chair and slide all
the way back. And I want you to close your eyes.
And as you're sitting there, I just want you to
notice your breath. Don't make any judgment on what it
(04:59):
sounds like, just notice it. And then I want you
to take a big, deep breath, a big round belly breath.
Think of like a little Buddha or a newborn baby,
what they look like when they're breathing. And as you're
(05:23):
sitting there, just notice how good it feels to breathe.
Relax your shoulders, relax your jaw, relax anything in your
body where you're noticing some tension. Don't judge it, just
(05:46):
notice it. And as you're sitting here breathing, I want
you to really feel the words I'm about to say.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You are happy, you are healthy, you are safe.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
All is well.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You are happy, you are healthy, you are safe.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
All is well. And as you're sitting there with your
eyes closed, focus on the point right around your belly
button and just fuel blood flow and warmth going to
that space and see yourself totally protected by the energy
(07:01):
that's coming from that space. Take another big round breath
this one. Make it loud on the exhale, nobody's watching
(07:23):
you while you're all watching me, and open your eyes
to take a moment and wave to some of you
that are out there. So that was a short, little
sixty second meditation, just getting yourself into a calm, focused,
(07:45):
relaxed space. So that is a quick little trick and
tip right out of the gate, something that you can
do on your own. There is a great book that
I make reference to a lot called Meditations in a
New York Minute. You can buy it on Amazon, And
(08:07):
before I leave here, i'll tell you the name of
the steps me right now. But he has one minute,
two minute meditations that are very, very really for business people.
He is a meditation coach for C suite executives, and
he's often being asked to go into very high stress,
high stake situations, and he offers these very quick little
(08:30):
tips and tricks on grounding the energy and getting you
back to right here, because right here is your executive
thinking mind. This is where you want to be. Because
this process is slower. It also where is where logic
and reasoning reside. So just doing a quick little meditation
like that calms a lot of the energy and takes
(08:52):
you right back here. So I have with me now.
We were hoping to do both Anne and I live
today as I'd meant in the kickoff video and all
of the things that you're seeing relating to this, but
obviously with social distancing, we opted to do this separately.
So Anne is on here with me and Meil. She
is a very dear friend and executive coaching colleague. And
(09:16):
what we wanted to do today is talk more about
navigating the new normal we see ourselves being a regular
resources Maybe it's doing this every single morning for the
next six weeks. Thank you Gully for making that suggestion.
We don't know, but Ultimately, today was a place for
let's get in a discussion and talk about yourself. Because
(09:37):
as a leader, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur,
it all starts right here. This person, this mind, this
soul has to be calm. All of your wisdom and
all of your capabilities are coming from this place. So
going with that theme of it that it all starts
with you, I want to share two things things that happened. One,
(10:01):
I'm already pivoting to a whole new way of being.
I have never done Facebook Live before. Like all of you,
I love Zoom, I love go to meeting, I love
all those virtual platforms that we use every day in business.
Obviously this is not that, but because I wanted to
create some repository so that we could share and discuss,
(10:22):
and that's why the Facebook page came to be. But
I had a lot of technological issues yesterday with Facebook
Live and again this morning, so I'm pivoting already doing
this on my phone. The second thing is when I
was thinking about preparing for this as an executive coach,
I'm used to being in conversation. I'm used to asking
a question and being quiet, asking a question, being quiet.
(10:46):
This is all me talking, and all I can see
is you commenting and typing in things. So it's going
to be very, very different for me to be in
this space. So I'm already confronting one level of discomfort,
if you will. So that is an example of how
it all starts with ourselves. So I wanted to share
(11:07):
some tips and tricks that are just coming out of
Genie Koomber's playbook Things that I'm doing right now to
keep myself calm, focused and very focused on the fact
that I have a tremendous amount of resilience and I
believe in the power of the human spirit. So let
me share a couple of tips and tricks right out
(11:27):
of the gate. One thing that I do is I
label Oh, by the way, Lynn Shaper just posted the
author of that meditations in a New York Minute. Thank
you so much. Lynn. One of the very first things
that I do is when I'm feeling any kind of
emotion that I know is taking me off of my
productivity self or my ability to execute or move things forward.
(11:49):
And if I start to hear chatter and nervousness and anxiety,
which of course is happening a lot lately, I name it,
I say it out load. Boy, I'm feeling a lot
of anxiety. I'm feeling a lot of worry. And what
that does is interrepts the nerve impulse and again gets
you back here. If I've labeled it, chances are very
high I'll become curious, I'll start asking more questions, and
(12:12):
I'll slow down the response time. The second thing that
I like to do is breathe. I know it seems
so obvious, right, but breathing when we're in a state
of stress or higher anxiety, we typically breathe from this
parts of the body, which is primarily the chest. What
we just demonstrated in a quick sixty second meditation is
(12:35):
what happens when you're doing big, deep diaframatic breath, which
is right underneath your rib cage. It just allows for
more oxygen. It also brings in the parasympathetic system, which
is the calming system that you want in a conversation
with yourself. For sure. The second thing I do is
I just say to myself, find my feet. Find my feet.
(12:58):
I'm not sure if I got that in a yoga
clas or some brilliant person shared it with me, but
I can't tell you how helpful that is, so labeling
it and finding your feet. Who else out there does
any quick short meditations? I'd love to see some chatter
on the Q and A here. Does anybody do any
kind of short powerful meditations or mindfulness techniques that are
(13:23):
really helping you ground your energy? Lynn? I know you
do a lot of meditation. There's some great apps out there.
The one that I'm seeing a lot of is, of course,
the Calm Meditation app, as well as sink Tuition, sinc
(13:44):
Tuition and I Believe com both have a subscription, but
powerful stuff. Anything again to calm the storm? Are there
any other apps or go to places that anybody out
there wants to mention for mindfulness? Insight Timer? Oh that's
(14:06):
a great one, Mary, Anne Headspace, Yep, love those two.
Anybody else have any quick tips and tricks in terms
of mindfulness positive visualization? Dan, I see myself crushing my day. Oh.
I love that breathe app. Love that, Anne? And you
(14:28):
have an alarm on your phone twice a day that
goes off to remind me to be present. Wow? Really yep?
Gullyat the calm app, I pray for all over the world. Okay,
So you pray out loud, Michelle, that's a terrific idea.
You know, there's a technique that somebody I was doing
(14:49):
some coaching with about a week ago that had something
very similar. Whenever you're going to bed and you know
you're ruminating on something that's top of mind, say it
out loud before you go to bed. Your brain will
integrate and will do work when you're sleeping, and what
you can say is language like I would really like
(15:11):
for this particular situation to resolve itself, genie brain mind.
I'd love for you to do the work while I'm sleeping.
And what to do is it'll take it off your plate.
I tried it out the other day. I actually gave
three things, and two things I woke up and I
felt better about. So I guess it's just another form
of meditation. Okay, So let's talk about some other ones,
(15:33):
and then this is more of some personal perspective on
things that I'm doing in my daily routine. I'm a
routine person. It gives me tremendous comfort, and I think
it also gives me like a sense of control. If
I have some what I'll call anchors in my day.
It's things that I know are predictable and reliable. But
(15:53):
it also will allow for me to move from place
to place, particularly right now. Right because the schedule we
knew a week ago, thus apply everything is sort of
up in the air. So anything I can do to
get back into anchors is really helpful. So let me
share a few. As soon as I wake up in
the morning, the very first thing I do is say
(16:16):
thank you. Now, I say thank you to God for
waking me up today. Secondly, I might give gratitude for
just the simple fact that I have a comfortable bed,
that I have a bed, that I'm going to get
to go downstairs and grab my journal and grab my coffee.
Simple two or three things before I get out of bed.
(16:36):
To acknowledge some gratitude, you would not believe how powerful
it is in terms of how you're going to think
with all of your subsequent thoughts. So just notice, as
soon as you wake up in the morning, what are
your first thoughts and how can you recondition them to
just stay very simply focused on something that is gratitude oriented.
(16:58):
So I go down I grab my journal, my coffee.
I do what's called a holy trinity. Every day. If
anybody's ever heard of Mama Gina g e Na. I
have never been to any of her workshops. She's all
about feminism and teaching pleasure to women. She has this
process called the Holy Trinity, where you talk about three
brags or three prouds, as my friend Emily likes to
(17:21):
talk about it, three gratitudes and three desires, and desires
could just be things that you want to have happened
that day, that hour, that week, something that really will
trigger your your manifestation power. I'm laughing because Dan Cronin
just put the occasional wine is also good too. I
(17:43):
totally appreciate. I appreciate that one for sure. So three brags,
three gratitudes, and three desires, and you can add more.
But just that is my way of getting focused on
where are my things? Where are my thoughts? How am
I processing that? And I get to see even the
pattern of my thinking, What words am I using as
(18:05):
I'm writing this down? How is it making me feel?
And it's interesting just to get to a place of
acknowledging places where you have a lot of pride or
things that you've accomplished. I think also that will help
keep you more of a positive mindset, so that Holy
Trinity is particularly powerful. The other thing that I do
(18:29):
every single morning is I'm a vitamin maniac. Particularly now
up your vitamin C. Everybody up your vitamin C. And
I take my vitamins and I try to work out
five or six days a week. I have my workout
clothes underneath this. Although this doesn't look like I'm going
to the gym.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
But I am, and I believe that right now. Again,
more than anything is it's incredibly helpful to have that
detoxifying sweat calms my system, clears my mind.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It also just gets me off of my own thoughts.
If I'm working out and doing something that's very physical,
I tend to come out of those experience with a
sense of like euphoria and calm, and it allows for
me to be a lot more productive. Obviously, I'm doing
work emails like everybody else, but I try not to
grab my phone and do that first thing. I do
something prior to that, because I find that if I
(19:23):
grab my phone, I'm doing the work email that sets
the tone for the day, and a lot of times
is stress and anxiety out there. I am drinking NonStop
water with lemon people all day long, all day long.
That's extra vitamin C in there. And obviously the whole
notion of stanhydrated is really really important. I try to
(19:46):
limit my sugar and chardonnay every single night, sometimes two glasses.
Last night was two glasses, and I'm okay with that.
I try to log off not do any work past
eight o'clock. I mean, last sunight, I was doing some
work up until ten, trying to get this in motion.
But the other little trick and tip from my own
(20:07):
playbook is I have a huge sense of humor. I
like to laugh. So the videos I've been watching is
old Ellen DeGeneres, Graham Norton shows. I like to watch
the voice snippets, anything to get me into a place
where I feel good and happy. And the other thing
(20:27):
is I'm a big music person. My whole family, my
husband and my kids, we like to listen to music
every night during dinner. The sonos is rocking and rolling,
and I've been noticing some of the best moments of
my day is when the music is rocking and people
are dancing in the house. The other night, Queen came
on don't stop Me Now. That might actually be my
(20:47):
mantra for the next eight weeks, myself and my two
daughters just started jamming out or Bohemian Rhapsody or for
the North Jersey people in this conversation, and Dan, I
know you're one of them. I was inn irock Z
club music, Marbie Red Smokin' high hair girl. So I
(21:10):
love me some old freestyle club music. If you looked
at my playlist, that's the kind of stuff that will
help me shake it all out. So can't say enough
about that. And Maria and I see some of your
ideas here hibiscus tea, no sugar needed. Ooh, that's a
good one. That's a really good one. Okay, So I
(21:30):
would love to see some chatter here. What else are
you doing to stay calm and focus? What are some
of your daily anchors? What are some of the practices
you have right now that you're noticing is really making
a great difference in your day. So Melanie Noble love you,
(21:52):
she said, I've seen you dance. I do like to
dance my kids. I like to think have inherited my
skills in that way. So what is everybody thinking right now?
What's the general vibe? How are you doing? How's everybody
(22:16):
doing out there? What's top of mind for you? Finding
the upside of more time, Yes, Mary, and I love that.
I wanted to talk about that next. A fun website
to visit home but not alone. Idea is to stay
sane and some humor. I love it, limit TV and
(22:41):
hiking outside. Yeah and yeah, I want to talk about
that for a minute. There are only two places where
I'm going for information right now, and that's the CDC
website and the World Health Organization. I am focused on
the facts. I'm staying away from conjecture and opinion right
(23:02):
now because what I'm finding is it's very slanted towards
high emotion, fear and anxiety, and I'm super susceptible to that.
So for me, I find that going to a place
where it's facts. I think about it. When you're making
business decisions right, particularly higher stakes business decisions. You may
(23:24):
do some consensus with your teams, but ultimately you're going
to make decisions based on fact or strategy, something that
is more anchored in logic and reasoning. So I like
the CDC website, thank you, Anne, and the World Health
Organization as the two dominant forces in my life, and
that's the only place I'm going for information. I've in
(23:47):
effect stopped watching the news because I am having a
difficult time, but with some of the discussion that's going
on there. So those are the two things that make
the most sense for me. I love the silver Linings idea, Michelle,
and I want to go back to something you just said, Marianne,
in that there is huge upside and opportunity for all
(24:09):
of us. And I'm going to say more about that.
When I think about the time now that we're going
to be allotted in our homes is the first thing
that strikes me is when I'm very busy and I'm
traveling and I'm working, and I'm doing all the things
that I'm doing, the same would be true for you.
We don't have a lot of time to explore other ideas.
(24:32):
Maybe it's like seeing yourself in a more expanded role,
expanding your own business model, or maybe it's bringing more
into your life that you've never had the time to do. Visioning,
really trying to design the life you really want. Read
those books, put some things into your space that you've
(24:55):
never ever had the time to do before. That's what
I'm going to be doing. I did a I cast
about a month ago with a dear colleague, Sharon Lapowski,
who spreads a lot of time helping people vision for
the life that they want. I'm gonna pull out those
notes and by the way, her website is Point Road Studios.
(25:16):
I'm gonna pull out the session that I did with
her and start working on what is the life I
want to create? What are the things that I've said
I want to have that I haven't given time to.
I'm gonna do more of the journaling. I'm gonna do
more of the meditation again, all things that I just
haven't had the time to do. So there's some other resources. Oh,
(25:36):
Rosetta Stone for Italian, I love it all great learning
a language okay, and Ghali is mentioning JOHNS Hopkins Home
but not alone. Thanks Brenda for putting that website out there,
and the John Hopkins Center for Health Security site that's
great one. Again, these are resources that are factually based,
(25:57):
and the Point Row Studios would also be again a
great resource if you want to use this time to
be more reflective and really start to envision where am
I in my business, where am I in my life?
What do I want more of less of? Not only that,
but what's it going to look like when this time
(26:18):
and this experience has passed. Where am I going to
be in my organization? Where? What is my business going
to look like? How could I start playing with that?
Thanks Sam for putting that out there. I love it.
What else is everybody thinking about with this time, this
opportunity or Marianne you said this upside Yes, I'll put
(26:39):
those Michelle for sure. What is everybody seeing as the
opportunity here? We've got Italian, We've got some visioning and
personal strategic planning, checking in with my loved ones. Ah, yes,
(27:05):
definitely important. I think that's interesting too is I've been
noticing I'm in different kinds of conversations, conversations that I
might not have been in before with colleagues and clients.
It's a time for just a lot of love and understanding.
And I'm noticing the people. The influencers I should say
(27:28):
that I'm really starting to follow are people like Gabrielle Bernstein.
And if you haven't heard of her, you go on Instagram.
She is all over Instagram. She has a new book
called Super Attractor. But what I love about her brand
right now is every single day she is out on Instagram,
and she is doing meditations, and her meditations are really
(27:49):
targeted to how we're all feeling. She had one the
other day which was just a simple meditation to comer anxiety.
The one she had out there today is all about
cutting the chords from negativity. Cannot say enough about her again,
It's Gabrielle Bernstein. If you go out on Instagram, you'll
see her her meditations and on Instagram she's known as
(28:13):
Gabby Bernstein. And here's an interesting fact, and this is
just an indication I think of where the world is
right now. When I went out onto her Instagram page,
this was about three days ago. She had about eleven
thousand views on her meditation this morning, who is one
hundred and fifty thousand, So people like that are really
(28:35):
getting out in front. Also Elizabeth Gilbert putting some very
kind messages. She's the author of many books, but also
my favorite, E Pray Love. Also Glennon Doyle, who is
launching a book right now called Untamed. But she's putting
a lot of positivity and a lot of calm out
into the world. Thank you Anne for putting her website
(28:56):
out there. All right, here's what we're gonna do. I'm
going to continue to put resources out there as I
come across them. I'm going to be here tomorrow eight
thirty to continue the discussion because I'm sure a lot's
going to happen today, right because I think for a
lot of us, today's the first official day that we're
working from home, and we're in this new normal. So
(29:19):
we're going to keep this fluid. I'm going to continue
to just provide you the things that are most meaningful
to you. I see a couple of comments out there
hearing the new ways people are coping while being housebound. Yes,
I would love to see that. Having the opportunity to
connect and talk about this stuff is great. Great. Oh,
(29:39):
I'm so happy, Kathleen. This is a great way to
start the day. Okay, all right, So then I'm going
to be out here tomorrow morning, eight thirty. We'll do
this again again. I will update the Facebook group with
anything that I hear and see that I think would
be helpful for today, and we're going to just keep
this conversation going. Thank you, everybody. Stay safe, stay strong,
(30:03):
stay focused, and remember the resilience of the human spirit. Here.
We are in this together, and we are better and
smarter and stronger as a group. Thank you for joining
me for another episode of the Warriors at Work Show.
If you are interested in learning more about what we
do at the Warriors at Work Show and platform, be
(30:24):
sure to go over to my website, Genie Coomber and
subscribe to my monthly Warrior Playbook newsletter. I share everything
that I'm up to month by month, as well as
some lessons and insights that I've learned. I'm also interested
in hearing any feedback you have about this conversation or
future topics, so reach out to me directly on JC
(30:45):
at geniecoomber dot com or on LinkedIn. Be sure to
tell your friends and your colleagues about this Warriors at
Work conversation, Subscribe, review and rate us. It's the best
way to get this message out into the world. Be well,
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