Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Evoke
Greatness.
We are officially entering yearthree of this podcast and I am
filled with so much gratitudefor each and every one of you
who've joined me on thisincredible journey of growth and
self-discovery.
I'm Sunny, your host and fellowtraveler on this path of
personal evolution.
This podcast is a sanctuary forthe curious, the ambitious and
(00:28):
the introspective.
It's for those of you who, likeme, are captivated by the
champion mindset and driven byan insatiable hunger for growth
and knowledge.
Whether you're just beginningyour journey or you're well
along your path, you're going tofind stories here that resonate
with your experiences andaspirations.
Over the last two years, we'veshared countless stories of
triumph and challenge, ofresilience and transformation.
(00:51):
We've laughed, we've reflectedand we've grown together.
And as we've evolved, so toohas this podcast.
Remember, no matter whatchapter you're on in your own
story, you belong here.
This community we've builttogether is a place of support,
inspiration and shared growth.
Where intention goes, energyflows, and the energy you bring
(01:13):
to this space elevates us all.
So, whether you're listeningwhile commuting, working out or
enjoying your morning coffee,perhaps from one of those
motivational mugs I'm so fond of, know that you're a part of
something special.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for your curiosity,your openness and your
commitment to personal growth.
As we embark on year three, Iinvite you to lean in, to listen
(01:36):
deeply and to let these storiesresonate with your soul.
I believe that a rising tideraises all ships and I invite
you along in this journey toevoke greatness.
(01:57):
Welcome back to part two of Mind, body and Leadership with my
guest, bryn Scarborough.
If you haven't yet, make sureto go back to last week's
episode, which is part one, andtake a listen.
We explore the revolutionarybenefits of red light therapy
for cell turnover and recovery,the importance of creating
psychological safety for teamsduring rapid change, the
(02:20):
critical lack of female rolemodels in leadership positions
and the power of incrementalchanges in building sustainable
wellness habits.
We cover all those topics andso much more.
So if you haven't yet remember,go back to last week's episode,
take a listen.
Otherwise let's hop into parttwo.
And I think you've been takingthat a step further, and
oftentimes we're trying to dothis in our own minds, but
(02:42):
taking that and putting thatdown on paper, I remember.
I forget who it was that had,early on, suggested, years ago,
gratitude journaling and I'mlike oh, okay, I'm going to do
this, and so I get thisgratitude journal and for the
first probably 15 days, it waslike I'm grateful for my health,
I'm grateful, and it feels so,you know, it feels like you're
(03:04):
just trying to find something.
All of a sudden, somewherearound two weeks, I was like
gosh, I'm really grateful that Igot to be up at this quiet time
and see the sunrise, and itbecomes a little bit you're
looking a little deeper into it.
And laid on top of that wasthis gratitude journaling and
then these kind of goals, right?
(03:24):
And so, instead of goals andsetting them for future, I will
I, you know projecting thesethings that aren't in existence
today.
It was reframing that to be Iam, I have, and what's so
amazing is I looked back overthe course of probably two years
of that and the number ofthings that I wrote down that
actually had life breathed intothem was phenomenal, and so I
(03:49):
love to share that with othersthat, yes, we can say it in our,
in our own mind, right, that islike first step.
But when we're doing it andwe're and we're putting this out
in several different ways,right, sometimes we need like
seven things to be said sevendifferent ways, seven different
times, and it's thismemorization and where you're
injecting it into, almost likeat a cellular level, to say okay
(04:11):
, I'm stepping into this futureself that maybe isn't even in
existence yet, but I am steppinginto it.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
That's absolutely
right and the scientific term is
subliminal priming For all thepeople who want to go find the
research.
There's plenty out there andyou can use that strategically
or you can use that from apersonal development perspective
I'm an avid journaler as well.
It's fine.
I guess it's just the time ofyear where we're reflecting.
(04:39):
Probably if you are a journalerand so I have the last 20 years
and some of like wow, that's awild journal.
But the last few years, man,it's been beautiful to see, even
year over year, the change.
Right, because we get lost init, we get lost in the sauce.
On a day-to-day basis you can'treally see the evolution, but
(05:00):
then when you zoom out and ajournal is a great way to be
able to do that then you canappreciate what kind of the
magnitude of the past a littlebit more clearly, as opposed to
just that.
You mentor how do you helpguide them?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
through this
challenge and what has been your
personal approach to managingmultiple expectations when it
comes to that?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Like we mentioned, I
think, before we started
recording earlier on, I just ranthe tank till it was destroyed,
right, I would run till I wassick.
I would run till I had mono.
I would run until I was justlike run down, fever, flu,
whatever it was Happened acouple of times a year.
But as I got older I didn'tcome to this through some sort
(05:53):
of high-level enlightenment.
I realized I don't have theability to keep doing this.
I'm going to get sick enoughthat I'm not going to be able to
bounce back or I just can'tliterally drag myself through
these days because I don't havethe right kind of practices to
be able to raise that baselineto a sustainable level of health
, happiness and longevity.
(06:14):
And as much as I coach peopleabout strategy and their careers
and how to position themselvesand I also coach this idea of
let's put together some habitsnow, whether you feel like
you're at the end of your ropeor not, whether you realize that
10 years from now you're notgoing to have the bounce back
that you have today, it's whatare those things that not only
(06:36):
you know you can't give with anempty bucket and making that
okay.
We say that so much but wedon't internalize how important
that is and that if you want toshow up with quality, if I want
(06:56):
to show up in my best possiblestate, I have to do these things
because, energetically, ittakes an investment for you to
show up for another person yourteam, your job, your family and
this doesn't happen by chance.
This doesn't happen passively.
It is an energetic exchange andso, unless you are feeding the
(07:19):
energetic reserves that you needto be able to do that.
And the cool thing is is we haveall this technology.
I don't want to say to hack itI haven't found a hack that if
you just sit in red light, youcan still live like an animal
and it's not going to catch upto you but we do have all of
these supporting technologiesthat are helping us to continue
(07:41):
incredibly high output probablyhigher output than has ever been
seen since the beginning ofhuman civilization and also then
be able to, you know, continueto be happy and healthy and
enjoy our lives, and that's ahuge, huge piece of adjustment.
So hack is not the right word,but we do have these tools and
the tools are evolving.
(08:02):
The tools are getting betterand better, but we do have these
tools and the tools areevolving.
The tools are getting betterand better, as we can see, but
it's finding that balancebetween habits Maybe it's some
technology, maybe it's some tooland really growing that from a
personalized perspective,because it is different for
everyone and it can beintimidating to say I don't know
where to start, I don't know.
You know what to do, or youthink you've got to have this
(08:24):
complex protocol, you don't.
It's really about just takingthe first step, and that can be
many, many different simplethings that can be incorporated
into lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
If you have a much
different like you have an in in
all of the kind of wellness andtechnology space, right, you
probably know so much more aboutit and what's available than
most do.
What, for you, are those topcouple of products that you feel
like really help you focus froma personal and professional
perspective in aligning thatlongevity and wellness overall
(08:59):
in your life?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, I so personally
, and you are right, I always
like to recognize my own biasand access right.
This is what I've dedicated mylife to and so I've got a lot of
access to the space.
But I have my own wellness areathat I've built out and I've
got three staples.
I've got red light and I've gotcontrast.
So cold, plunge and heat.
(09:20):
I also, you know, do massagequite often because I find that
if I'm pushing my body, not onlyfrom an inflammation or travel
perspective, but also in the gym, you know, it's just a part of
what I do on a regular basis andthen meditation or relaxation.
Those are really my staples andyou know you can incorporate
(09:42):
those things differently.
It's funny that to me that somany of us think that contrast
has to do with, like brand newtechnology, and the reality is
it's like this truly ancient artform and community art form
that's now just beginning toproliferate, you know, in other
societies around the world,especially in the US, because we
don't have a sauna culture here, societies around the world,
(10:04):
especially in the US, because wedon't have a sauna culture here
.
So yeah, I think you know, someof it is revisiting some fairly
ancient practices and some ofit is then being able to have,
like the beauty of technologyintegration, to make some of
those ancient practices moreaccessible and more repeatable
and easier to do in your regularlifestyle.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And then being female
in the role that you're in in
this big space.
We talked a little bit earlierabout being kind of this alpha
female, right?
What are some of yournon-negotiable routines or
habits every single day thathelp you stay at the top of your
game?
They may have to do with theproducts.
(10:43):
They may have to do with justhabits and routines that you do
in your own life.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, one is sleep
Earlier in life.
I would have stayed up later atdinner.
I would have sacrificed sleepfirst.
Now I sacrifice sleep last,even if that means missing a
workout on the road.
I'm gonna get if I've been uplater than I normally would be.
If I'm gonna get less than sixhours of sleep, I'm going to
(11:10):
sleep instead of workout.
Not everybody feels that way,but I know for myself, just from
an inflammation perspective,that when I get overly tired
there's no sleep bank.
That's not reality doesn't workthat way.
So sleep is one of them.
Hydration is an absolute,non-negotiable If you are moving
around a lot, and hydration notjust with water.
(11:32):
So I'm talking electrolytes,I'm talking structured water.
I am no endorser of products,but once I found certain
electrolyte mixes, it was reallya game changer for me from a
hydration perspective.
I have headaches and it reallyhelps with that.
So hydration is one of them.
Supplementation so trying, atleast when I'm traveling and
(11:54):
when I'm at home, to get afairly consistent.
You know whether that's greens,whether that is collagen or
colostrum, and you know peoplehave lots of opinions about
these things, but these are thethings that I can usually make
happen, regardless of what'sgoing on there right, it's
moving my body somehow, some way.
(12:15):
The workout may not look perfect, and I've had to let go of that
over time.
That's been a very evolvingview is that 20 minutes of
movement is better than nomovement, because I used to say
if I can't get my whole workoutin, I wouldn't even go right, or
the hotel gym's horrible orwhatever.
Now I don't care.
I don't even care if I haveworkout clothes.
(12:35):
If I can put my sneakers on andgo walk through the airport for
20 minutes, I'm going to do it.
It's just about raising thebaseline and keeping the body
moving and having a lot of grace, realizing that our type A
personalities that want thingsto come off and be executed
perfectly, be done without ahitch check the box.
(12:57):
Our bodies don't necessarilywork that way.
You know, especially women'sbodies.
Our body is different everysingle day, every day.
So one of the things that makesit so complex and why we're so
good at handling change isbecause our body is different
every single day, and so thisidea that either energetically,
every single day is going tolook the same is a complete myth
(13:18):
.
So making space for the dayswhen you don't have as much
energy and you need to recharge,or when you do, and get the
most of it out of it that youcan, whether the situation is
perfect or not.
It's probably different toolsthan I would have imagined
explaining five or six years ago, because it looks a lot more
like flexibility than it doesabout rigid routine.
(13:40):
But you know, adding a littlebit wherever I can.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You also emphasized
the power of asking for help,
which I think is a big one forpeople.
From a professional context,how can women overcome that
hesitation to seek out help?
And then, from your perspective, from really kind of mentoring
women along that space, whatbenefits have you seen from that
(14:05):
practice of being able to gofrom this place of being
reserved and apprehensive toactually being able to step in
and ask for help?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
able to step in and
ask that.
Yeah, I've been on both sidesof this coin so anyone who knows
me well knows I don't thrive ina networking space.
It's not my favorite place tobe.
I make like one-on-oneintentional connections well,
and I enjoy that.
So I've done this both ways andI had to get over the idea that
A asking for people's timethat's really the first step.
If you need something, you'regoing to have to ask for
(14:39):
someone's time and that's not asinnate as it used to be.
We're all remote.
That's going to mean a coupleof calls, probably a couple of
interactions, just to getscheduled.
I mean, imagine what it tookfor us to get on a podcast.
But you might have to chasethat conversation.
You have to commit to it andthen be willing to get past the
first obstacle and the secondobstacle.
(15:01):
It's like getting past trueWomen.
Many times will likeoverqualified.
You know highly intelligentwomen will sit on the sidelines
(15:24):
and wait to be asked.
That's more detrimental thanit's ever been, right.
Not only do people know lessabout you in a hybrid
environment, they don't knowwhat you have to offer.
They don't know what it isthat's on your mind that you
might be digging into.
So just being willing to saywhat I'm about on a regular
basis, put it out there into theuniverse and make those
(15:45):
connections has been incrediblyimportant.
And it's hard to do.
We have so many mental blocksabout oh, they don't want to
know, oh, this is inappropriate,oh, I sound we're so worried
about sounding arrogant that wedon't even speak.
I mean truly, words will noteven escape our mouths because
we're like what if we sound fullof ourselves?
God forbid, you know, a womanshow up and be like this is who
(16:08):
I am and accidentally come offas a little bit arrogant.
I would welcome it all day,every day.
But it's really about being ableto pursue what you need.
It's not coming and I've foundthis to be true professionally,
academically, personally.
We do not live in a world wherethings just arrive on your
doorstep, right, the good luckfinds you, where the hard work
(16:29):
kind of meets.
That's exactly how it works.
So it's just being willing topursue and not give up.
And don't give up after arejection, even if that's
someone you wanted to have aconversation with.
Keep asking.
Sometimes you've really got tobe persistent and it doesn't
come naturally.
When we ask for help, we feelvulnerable.
You've got to be willing tokeep asking.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
In your leadership
position, I'm sure probably even
over your career, you'veencountered some sort of unique
challenges in establishingpsychological safety for
yourself as you lead a growingteam.
How do you create anenvironment where you feel
secure enough to be authenticand take risks, and yet extend
that safety to other women inthe organization, as well to
(17:13):
other?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
women in the
organization as well.
Yeah, it's time and trust and,more importantly, as I learned I
look back over my leadership inmy early 20s.
I was a passive, aggressive,insecure, imposter led leader.
God bless the people who workedfor me during that decade of
life.
Right, but we get to strugglethrough it until we get to new
(17:34):
places.
And I have learned through myown leadership journey and also
supporting others is that yourteam doesn't really need to see
you succeed.
They really don't.
They don't really learn verymuch from your success.
What they learn from, as I say,is when it's like you know,
(17:55):
running a race around a track,when they see you get knocked
down like level, knocked to theground.
You're like shell-shocked,bloody knees, bloody elbows,
like kind of getting your witsabout you.
You can't believe you just felldown in front of everyone.
The lesson is in how you getback up and how you teach people
(18:16):
to like brush the rocks out oftheir knees a little bloody, a
little bruised and start thepath again and start the pace
again.
That's the most important thing,in my opinion, that a leader
can do.
And when I'm talking to peopleabout leadership, one of the
first questions I ask is howcomfortable are you failing
publicly leadership one of thefirst questions I ask is how
(18:37):
comfortable are you failingpublicly?
How comfortable are you withyour failures being picked apart
, being reviewed, studied andliterally like autopsied in
front of the group so that wecan all learn from them?
Because leaders are typicallyin a position of more safety to
fail, which means they've alsogot to do it and do it radically
(18:57):
, like openly, which can be verydifficult to do.
That takes time, that takespractice to be able to have
those.
Hey guys, I really screwed itup and I want to talk about how
we got here and making that okay, making the learnings from your
failures as important assharing the wins, because those
(19:18):
learnings are the most importantthing for the team.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I couldn't agree more
.
I always say so many peopleperceive success being at that
peak, right at the top of themountain.
When we really step back andyou zoom out and you actually
look at the experience overall,more lessons come from that cold
, dark, lonely valley where, toyour point, you've got bloodied
knees and bloodied elbows,because that's where the hard
(19:41):
stuff happens and you learn todo hard better.
Because that's where the hardstuff happens and you learn to
do hard better.
And that example shows people awhole lot more.
And I think leaders beingwilling to vulnerably and openly
share those types of things,you're framing yourself in a
very different light, when itdoesn't always have to be about
(20:01):
the trophies and the awards andthe wins, Rather like here's
what's shaped me as a leader andforged the way that I view the
world today.
There's a whole lot more valuein that.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I agree, and you know
there is still this kind of
pervasive idea about leadershipthat it is bulletproof, has all
the answers, and even you knowthere have been times where I
didn't have a choice but to bevulnerable.
Life was lifing and I couldeither lie about it or show up
(20:33):
in truth about what washappening in life, but what I
realized over time is that doingthat created the space for
other people to show up as theirwhole selves as well, and we
are really missing, you know.
We know engagement is down aswell and we are really missing.
You know.
We know engagement is down.
We know that buy-in is down,tenure is down, people are
missing the human connectionthat happens in the workplace.
(20:54):
It's happening for a lot ofreasons.
We haven't figured it out as asociety yet how to do this and
do this well, but the mostimportant parts about it are not
, you know, moving frommountaintop to mountaintop.
My team doesn't learn anythingbecause I got an award Looks
great on my LinkedIn, but theydidn't learn anything from that.
(21:14):
And you know they learn when weget to struggle together, and
Brene Brown said it 10 years agolike we will learn to struggle
well together, will learn tostruggle well together and
that's something we repeat inour team all the time is that
you can struggle, you candisagree, and I expect you to
disagree well and consistently,but you will struggle well
together and come to an outcome,as opposed to just, you know,
(21:38):
being in an ego war that wasteseveryone's time.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Right, yeah, I feel
like I'm in the throes of that
now.
I recently stepped back into arole after several years of
entrepreneurship and stepping inas the CEO of a company, a team
that I'm getting to know, andyou almost you get removed a bit
from that Now, after 20 plusyears and leadership and so many
(22:06):
mistakes that helped form meinto the leader that I am today,
I forgot what that was like toreally have to actively work and
I but I'm I'm really enjoyingit because it's.
It is fun to have to actuallywork, to get to know people and
build relationships andrecognize the value and
importance in building.
(22:27):
You know, my goal is to build aworld-class team and a
world-class company.
Well, guess what that startswith really getting to know
what's most fundamentallyimportant to your people.
And so I'm in the part of thatnow where it's like oh, I get to
step back, I get to be in itactively and I get to step back
out of it and zoom out a littlebit back.
I get to be in it actively andI get to step back out of it and
(22:48):
zoom out a little bit like wow,I enjoy the process of this
because I've learned so muchabout it over the years, and
doesn't that process sounddifferent?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
It would be
interesting to kind of balance
this against other profiles.
Let's put it that way, becausedoesn't that process sound
different than what we mighthave heard 15 years ago to like
establish dominance you from thevery beginning, don't let
anyone cross you.
It's got to be very, you know,totalitarian and fear based and
all of this, and you know therecould be some positioning that
you need to deal with, no doubt.
(23:23):
But I think what I'm hearingyou say and what comes to mind
for me is that really now it's achallenge for you to show up in
your most human state and thenset that precedent early on that
we're going to show up when wefail.
We're going to show up when wesucceed.
We're going to show up on gooddays, bad days and everything in
between and make all of thatjust as safe as anything else,
(23:45):
because otherwise people alsodon't have the safety to thrive
and to grow and to take the riskand responsibility that comes
with growth.
You've got to have both right.
You've got to accept the goodand the bad, and that usually
comes from us being radicallyhuman in ways that even make us
feel uncomfortable andvulnerable sometimes.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Right yeah, as I
reflect back on that very first
kind of level leader that Sunnywas, it was like, oh, I too
cringe Like it was, I would comein guns a blazing because I
thought that again you assertyour dominance.
And now it's like that'scomical to that point and at the
same time my team today isgoing to benefit from me making
(24:25):
all those mistakes over theyears.
They have permission to show upas their whole selves and
exercise vulnerability and, youknow, share those things along
the way, share those experiencesalong the way.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, we spend time
and we've spent time as a team
learning how to have hard talks.
Well, as a young leader, Iwould spend four months in
emotional turmoil to avoid onehard five-minute talk, one hard
talk A because I didn't know howto navigate a hard talk because
it's a muscle and I always I'vesaid within our own leadership
(24:57):
team, we will master this skillin our own leadership team
because it's a trickle-downeffect after that, trickle-down
effect after that, if we cannothave these hard talks and I say
all the time, like the emotionalenergy that we invest in the
avoidance is so much heavierthan just confronting the thing
and honestly, that's a lifeskill that translates across all
(25:18):
areas.
You know, being able to dodifficult things well and with
grace, boy oh boy, it will takeyou far.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
But especially in
teams, Well, last question, as
we wrap up, is one thathopefully makes you think a
little bit.
If it were your last day onearth and you had to take
everything you've learned so farand you can impart one piece of
wisdom to those around you,what would that be?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Oh boy, life is short
.
Do the thing that scares you?
I think about the shortness oflife a lot.
I lost my father very early onin life.
He died at 60 unexpectedly andI just feel like there was so
much life left to live.
And so I think about the end oflife as a barometer pretty
often, and the only thing thatalways comes back is how short
(26:04):
it is and how much we overthinkabout the things that give us
anxiety, fear, imposter syndrome.
You won't care about any ofthose things at the end of your
life.
You won't care about whetheryou felt comfortable in the
boardroom, you won't care aboutthe, let's say, the disagreement
at work.
You're going to be askingyourself like, did I chase the
(26:26):
thing I wanted?
Whether that's family, whetherthat's career, you name it.
That's what's gonna matter, notthese things that we spend so
much energy on or that consumeour energy day in and day out.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Beautiful advice.
Well, I would love for you toshare.
I'll put this in the show notes, but where can people find out
more about JK?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
more about you,
follow you and your content.
Yeah, absolutely so.
Jk is easy to find they're justwellnessjkcom.
You can see all of ourbeautiful equipment portfolio,
as well as new introductions asthey become available over time,
and also where you canintersect with us at a lot of
events where we bring equipmentand try it hands-on.
You can connect with me on myLinkedIn, which is pretty
straightforward it's just BrynScarborough.
I'm probably more active onLinkedIn than I am any other
(27:13):
social media platform.
I'm definitely an eldermillennial in that way doing my
best.
So, yeah, linkedin for me, andthen WellnessJK for JK, is a
great way to connect.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Well, thank you so
much for your time coming on and
sharing more of your story andyour experience.
Really appreciate it Absolutely.
Thank you so much for listeningand for being here on this
journey with me.
I hope you'll stick around.
If you liked this episode.
It would mean the world for meif you would rate and review the
podcast or share it withsomeone you know may need to
(27:47):
hear this message.
I love to hear from you all andwant you to know that you can
leave me a voicemail directly.
If you go to my website,evokegreatnesscom, and go to the
contact me tab, you'll just hitthe big old orange button and
record your message.
I love the feedback andcomments that I've been getting,
so please keep them coming.
I'll leave you with the wisewords of author Robin Sharma
(28:08):
Greatness comes by doing a fewsmall and smart things each and
every day.
It comes from taking littlesteps consistently.
It comes from making a fewsmall chips against everything
in your professional andpersonal life that is ordinary,
so that a day eventually arriveswhen all that's left is the
extraordinary.