How One Question Can Change Your LIfe

In this powerful episode of the Bella Grace Podcast, Teresa sits down with Jess Steele—a heart-led leader, former high school principal, and visionary coach—to explore how soulful pivots, community service, and deep inner trust can redefine leadership. Jess shares her journey from the education system to launching the Dear Jess app and Empowered Educator series, highlighting the blend of strategy and soul that guides her mission. Get ready for an inspiring conversation about resilience, authenticity, and conscious leadership that starts from within.

Connect with Jess:

Instagram: @dear_jess_lead_with_love

www.dearjessapp.com

jess@dearjessapp.com

www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-steele-01038b274

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Jessica Steele
• 6:11 From Education to Energy Coaching
• 13:09 Finding Alignment and Peace in Chaos
• 19:26 Values as Your Inner Compass
• 25:54 EFT Tapping Session for Energy Reset
• 34:32 Small Daily Rituals for Transformation
• 41:23 Connect with Jessica and Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

All right, welcome to another episode of the Bella Grace podcast, where we are helping high achievers break free from mindsets, behaviors and substances that are holding them back from unlocking their true potential. And this week we are doing that by talking to my new friend, jessica Steele. She is a heart-led leader, educator and visionary coach who's spent nearly two decades transforming lives through purpose-driven leadership. With a background in psychology, secondary education and instructional design Sorry she served as a high school principal and helped various and held various leadership roles, all while staying rooted in her mission to empower others.

Speaker 1: 0:58

Her journey has hasn't been linear or any. I mean like yeah, any of them, yeah, we. I feel like my journey has gone like this, in a million different directions. It's been guided by intuition, soulful pivots and a deep trust in her inner knowing. From organizing community drives and pouring into underserved populations to launching the Dear Jess app and the Empowered Educator series, jess continues to merge strategy with soul to elevate leaders from the inside out. A published author, creative and devoted student of energy, jess brings empathy, alignment and authenticity into every space she enters, whether she's coaching, hiking in nature or creating tools for conscious leadership. She leads with love and lives with intention.

Speaker 2: 1:55

Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Thank you, I'm so excited to be here, teresa. We have so much in common.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Good, this should be an amazing dialogue, then I love to like get into the nitty gritty of it all with someone who understands the power of energetics and how it can impact and shift our lives.

Speaker 1: 2:13

So yeah, for sure, for sure. And I'm excited to take a deep dive into that with you, because I think when people hear the word energy, like they, your brain goes in one of a million different directions, right Like there's a lot of baggage associated with the word energy and it can have several different meanings. But I'm excited to dive into it with you. So tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got to where you are today in this non-linear journey of yours.

Speaker 2: 2:46

So I will tell you that I feel like my journey has been shaped by a series of very uncalculated yet intentional decisions, and I know that kind of seems like an oxymoron, but because I do very much live from my gut, like when I feel something I will know whether it is my truth for me or whether it is not, pretty instantaneously. And so, while I've always been a very high achieving individual with a very, you know, strategic path forward, most of the decisions that have really empowered me to grow and evolve into the person that I'm becoming have come from these random moments where the universe like smacks me in the face and forces me to go a different direction than where I was previously headed. So that makes my life really fun, but it also makes it a little chaotic and probably difficult for some people to understand around me, because what I have traditionally shown to this world is this really well put together, strategic, thoughtful character, and then she'll just like blow it all up and continue on her path. So it's been a journey for sure. But I guess I'll start and just share a little bit about my background in education as an educational leader.

Speaker 2: 4:08

I grew up in a very small town in Indiana. So when I graduated I knew I was going to be a teacher. But there, you know, I was driving a pretty long way just to get to a school and one night I was with my girlfriend and some of her friends and the funny thing is we were in this little like trailer, like bar in my hometown because there's nothing where I live and we're just chit chatting and this guy is like, hey, they really need teachers in Phoenix. Like you should get in touch with my friend. He's a superintendent for a school out there and I think we did a shot of tequila and then I booked a flight to Phoenix and then I spent the next 18 years there, like that's just that's where it happened. So, not intentional, I wasn't planning on leaving Indiana, I was really content with where I was working. But for that like young point in my career I knew that I needed to like branch out and really see what was out there. Branch out and really see what was out there. So ended up in Phoenix very randomly but spent 18 years of my career there and was a classroom teacher as well as a curriculum and instruction coach and then moved on to multiple principalships in the area. So right before I left Arizona I was a principal at a startup school, so I helped with the groundbreaking of that school and the initial hiring and enrollment of that first class of students.

Speaker 2: 5:35

But in that process I realized that perhaps what I was doing was not in alignment with my true purpose. Doing was not in alignment with my true purpose and that was very difficult for me because I was so passionate about the work I was doing. I loved my job but at the expense of my own well-being, and I ended up at a leadership retreat that was a Deepak Chopra retreat at a beautiful sanctuary in the Phoenix area and I remember the physician that was there. We each got like a little 45-minute consult with a holistic practitioner and she said do you think that you are in the right career for you? Do you really know other individuals who perform their roles like you?

Speaker 2: 6:32

And I just kind of had this epiphany that it did not matter how much I loved what I was doing, it was making me unwell to the point where I was no longer in alignment with my authenticity and I was never going to be well unless I left that environment and people were going to suffer because of that Like I was not going to be able to build what I wanted to with my students and with my staff if I did not get myself into alignment. So, by not living my truth, I was not going to allow for them to be in their power either, and so that is what led me now to the leadership and energetic coaching that I am doing.

Speaker 1: 7:17

Wow yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:26

I told you we have so much in common.

Speaker 1: 7:30

I was like that is either going to resonate or you are going to be like I don't really even know what you're talking about. No, I, so my story very similar. I have had to do a lot of pivots because life slapped me upside the head, yeah, yeah, slapped me upside the head, yeah. And so when I I got sober in 2005 from meth, so I it's in rural West Texas, and what part of Texas are you?

Speaker 2: 8:11

from.

Speaker 1: 8:12

The Lubbock area. Okay, yeah, yeah. And so I grew up in a. I grew up in Lubbock, but I kind of flip-flopped back and forth between Lubbock and a tiny, tiny town called Ropesville and forth between Lubbock and a tiny, tiny town called Ropesville.

Speaker 1: 8:28

Okay, it sounds tiny that sounds like the name of a tiny town, but I was. When I graduated. I was a daily meth user, like, I was very addicted to meth as a senior in high school and I got sober two years later, when I was 20 and decided to go back to school for to be a substance use counselor because substance abuse counselor and so I set out on that journey. I was what? Six months sober and had just found out that I was pregnant and yeah, and so I'm like and that's why I went back to school, cause I was like I can't be a waitress for the rest of my life If I'm going to have a kid.

Speaker 2: 9:11

Yeah, you're like universe give me all the hard things at the same time, like just rain them down upon me. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Well, I had my daughter nine months after she was born. Her dad was sentenced to 15 years in prison. So I was a single mom in college, working as a part-time waitress Like I had a lot of decisions to make. I stayed in school. I kept down that path because I knew it was what was for me. Like I had done a lot of praying and like reflecting and just digging in, like what am I supposed to do with my life? And I knew this was the path for me. So I stayed on it come hell or high water, Right. But then I graduated and I got offered a job and I took it and I spent the next 12 years in a field where I enjoyed what I did. I had some purpose, like I knew at the root of what I was doing. I was really helping people, even though my position wasn't in a place of helping people. I was a records and information management supervisor A far cry from a substance use counselor.

Speaker 2: 10:26

But I don't think what people and this is just an aside I don't think that we always realize the value that we bring to any of those roles. It doesn't actually matter what your title is. When you have the energy of serving others and supporting others, you can be, you know, you can call yourself whatever it doesn't matter. At that point, the impact potential is still there.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Yeah, and that's what I tried to hold on to Right, but then, I got to a place where I'd been in this career field for 12 years and I felt like I was drowning, because I had that longing in my soul for what I knew I was made for Right, and I knew it wasn't this, and for me, you weren't in alignment.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Yet I was exactly. I was so far out of alignment that, yeah, I couldn't even see the line anymore, like it had disappeared into the sunset long ago. And so I really had to, like, sit down and say, how do I make my way back to my authentic self? And for me it was leaving my job. I had to leave that job. I had to leave that job, I had to leave that space. And it has been scary, it has been rocky, yeah, but I've never been more in a line with who I am.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Yes, I think sometimes, when and for me, there have been situations where I feel like life has just ripped away that which is no longer serving me, so that I have no other choice, because it's always going to be scary, it is always going to be uncomfortable, it is never going to come with just this sense of certainty, I can know that something is right for me and still be scared to death to actually pull it off and pull the trigger right. Like that. Those dichotomies are both true. Like that, those dichotomies are both true.

Speaker 2: 12:24

But I think that the universe will gently shake you, it'll give you a little nudge, it'll, like you know, keep you up a couple nights, but if you don't take initiative, like if you just ignore all of the signals that it's giving you, eventually it's just going to rip it away and say you actually can't have this any longer because you're not freaking, listening to me. I need you to pay attention, because what you are doing doesn't feel good, because you can't find peace in an environment that isn't meant for you. So you can keep gripping and trying to control and doing things differently, but if it's not right for you, you're never going to know peace there. You have to choose different on the path back to you, and I think that's exactly what you're describing Like that job, wasn't it for?

Speaker 1: 13:12

you and I was never going to have peace there. And I like I sat and I reflected and I'm like cause my husband says that I just don't like working for people. He's like you just don't like having a boss. And I tell him I'm like that's not true. I've had bosses that I love, I've had jobs that I love, I've had you know like.

Speaker 1: 13:36

But the thing was it was not where I was supposed to be. I was forcing this job because it was good money, it was prestige, it was. I work for a fancy company, I make big bucks, I have a fancy title, like those things is why I was holding onto it. But me personally, none of that matters. No, I don't care about cars, I can drive a hoopty and give no cares. But I had gotten misaligned with myself, so much so that I was changing my values, and your values are your core. Yeah, I was not living my values and I wasn't doing what I knew I was supposed to. And I think you said if that situation is not for you, you're never going to have peace with it, and I think that's a huge lesson for someone to, or to hear to, grab. I think that's a huge nugget that you just shared.

Speaker 2: 14:43

Yeah, I remember chatting with an educator this was towards the end of last year Someone that I had a close personal relationship with, and it was like every other day, like this is going wrong. This is what's wrong. My school is doing this, and I finally said I'm wondering if you are in an environment that is not meant for you, because if you are doing all of the things to shift your energy and to approach situations differently and to lead with a, with an aspect of love, and it still feels this chaotic, maybe that environment just isn't meant for you, and I think the universe is going to keep creating chaos in those environments until we learn that lesson right. Like the universe is crafty, like it knows all of the games to play. So if it is trying to nudge us and we aren't listening, eventually it's going to up its game. It's not playing around. So, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:45

Yeah, and if we just listen, but it's not easy to listen because we think we know everything, like we have been so ingrained, I think, culturally, to like, especially as Americans, right, like, take control, control your destiny, go, live the American dream. And you know, get the degree and pursue the job and climb the ladder. And I realized just recently, maybe I never wanted to climb the ladder, I just didn't even give it a second thought. It's like get married, build a house, have the kids, build your career, and none of it was serving me. Like inside I mean externally I was living a beautiful life and I wasn't miserable. I don't want to paint a picture that I was unhappy, but I just knew that something wasn't right and I couldn't figure out what it was because on paper it looked like I was doing all of the right things.

Speaker 2: 16:46

But we don't take time and we don't get still enough in this noisy world that we live in to even stop to consider is this what I want? Is this in alignment with my values and what the heck are my values Like? Sometimes we get so entrenched in the day-to-day minutia of our lives that we don't even remember what our values actually are. So now we've lost our inner compass. We don't have a guidepost for making those important life decisions. And now we're just floating along and 10 years have passed and we realize this is not the life I wanted to build, this is not who I truly am. And now I'm a shell of my authentic self. And now I'm just disrupting, I'm blowing it all up because I don't know what else to do. You know?

Speaker 1: 17:39

Yeah, yeah, no, that I was. It's so funny that you bring up values because I was just like randomly scrolling through my old TikTok videos and and I met I. Years ago I made a video about knowing what your values are and how. That's the core, that is the very beginning of creating transformation in your life. Like you can't do anything unless you know what your values are. They are guardrails that are going to keep you in alignment, because it becomes easier to say no to things or yes to things when you know whether or not it aligns with your values.

Speaker 2: 18:22

Absolutely. And you know something that I tell leaders that I work with all the time is there's a lot of stress on Sundays, right, Like your weekend's not quite done. You're starting to feel like, oh, there's this to-do list of things I wanted to accomplish to set myself up for the week and I'm not there and this is what's coming up on my calendar. And we just get really worked up. And what I say is first, get all of that garbage out of your head, like clear the cobwebs. Like sit down and just for five minutes, with pen and paper or on a blank page on your laptop, just clear the clutter.

Speaker 2: 18:58

Whatever it is, it doesn't have to be organized, it doesn't have to make sense. Whatever thought is in your brain, get it out. And then go back to your seven to 10 core values Like you should have them posted somewhere very visible, and I want you to go through what those values are, if you value consistency, if it's trust, if it's transparency, whatever it happens to be. And now I am starting to plan my week based on my moral compass, and I can very quickly start to see where some things can be delegated, where some things may just be able to fall away, and I can start to really prioritize where I need to put my focus, based on my values and my beliefs, and if I let those start to guide me at the beginning of every week, they're fresh in my head and when I have to start having those critical conversations or make those high stakes decisions, my compass is right there, at the forefront of everything I'm about to do.

Speaker 1: 20:03

Yeah, I like that Because I think I saw your post and I need to go. I'm telling you, I got a million notifications yesterday, I am sure you did, and I was like, okay, I gotta go back to all these and like check them. But I did see, did you have a post about Sunday Scaries? Yes, yeah, okay, okay, I thought that was you. I was like I got a notification and I clicked it and I saw Sunday Scaries, but I was like, again, I told you before we started, recording yesterday was insane.

Speaker 1: 20:37

Yeah, I'm doing a lot of research right now and so, yeah, but it's so true, I think, for for everyone out there, leaving their job tomorrow may not be an option. Right, it may not be an option like for me as a single mom, it was not an option to just quit my job because I needed that. I literally needed to feed my child and that job fed my child. But there is a way to use your values to start to create some peace in the chaos, even if it's just a little bit, to carry you through the week until you are able to make the changes, and it makes space for the things that you do need to change in your brain because you're clearing out the clutter, like you said. Yeah, because if you can get your calendar to look less overwhelming, have your day feel less overwhelming, then that gives you little pockets of space to try to find your exit plan so that you can get back into alignment with who you are and start to find that peace.

Speaker 2: 21:54

And I think that's an important distinction to make, because there are definitely times in all of our lives when we might want to exit a situation, a circumstance, whatever it is, whether that be a relationship, a career, a geographic location when it just isn't possible yet or it's not the right time yet.

Speaker 2: 22:15

So then, what do we do from an energetic perspective to really self-govern, to lead ourselves well through that transition period until we get to the point where we're ready to take that next leap and that's a lot of the work that I do with individuals is how do I get right with my soul right now?

Speaker 2: 22:39

Because if I am chaotic internally, my external environment doesn't have any option but to mirror that chaos back to me. So my number one objective, regardless of what is going on in my external environment, is to make it right with my soul and peace. You're not just born a peaceful person. You don't just like come into the world and you're like I am just beloved and peaceful and I'm just going to float through the world. You know that's not a thing. Peace is very intentional and it has to be worked toward every single day, and that is a lot of the work that I do with my clients is really helping them. See, you have the power to shift your energy. That is the one thing that we can be certain of in a world where everything is uncertain.

Speaker 1: 23:33

Yeah, for sure. And I like to tell people you can't control other people. You can only control how you react to people, places, things, situations, whatever. Yeah, if you don't know yourself, love yourself and respect yourself, then your emotions and your actions are going to be swayed by outside forces constantly.

Speaker 2: 24:10

Absolutely. And I think, if you consider how a lot of us go through our days, you're waking up to an alarm. You are immediately jumping into work mode. So if you are a parent, you are immediately focused on getting those kids out the door, preparing for the school day, getting yourself in the car, then you're dealing with a commute on the way to work, then you're in work mode, then you're picking up kids, then you're making dinner, then you're binge watching something before you go to sleep. Like where in that schedule is there any time to know yourself, let alone love yourself? Like I don't see anything in that type of schedule that allows space to consider. Is this what I need in this moment?

Speaker 2: 24:58

And I think that sometimes we think that shifting our energetics is like this big overhaul, like if that is my day to day. There are several things that you can do to still build space and hold space with yourself during your routine. You just have to make some small tweaks to get there. And sometimes we need someone to show us that it doesn't have to be this big to do, because it doesn't necessarily mean you have to go to the gym for an hour. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to spend 30 minutes in meditation, but we get really caught up with this concept of time and how much time it's going to take for these shifts to happen and how much time it's going to take for these shifts to happen. But what I have been really hyper-focused on in my work recently is how can I shift my energy quickly? How can I do it on the go? How can I do it on the move? How can I do it in the middle of a meeting, so that I am putting my best self forward at all times? Yeah, so how do you do that? So I think that there's a few things.

Speaker 2: 26:03

One of the strategies that I love the most right now is EFT. That stands for emotional freedom technique. It's commonly known as tapping and it's really like acupuncture without the needles, like you're just doing it to yourself using your hands, and it's all about tapping on various energetic meridians throughout the body to release any stale, stagnant, stuck energy that might exist, and you can literally use it for any situation. If you are feeling super lethargic on a Friday because it's been a long week and you can't get yourself in go mode, and you can't get yourself in go mode you can do a quick, energetic reset by tapping.

Speaker 2: 26:46

I have used this with educators who have unexpectedly had to relive a trauma event for training purposes. So they had to actually reenact a school shooting event, like there wasn't an actual shooting but there was a student who had a gun. And they had to reenact that to learn how to respond differently. But for some of those teachers to relive that who had children on that campus, that was a very traumatic experience. But we learned that we can tap our way through it.

Speaker 2: 27:20

We can create internal safety prior to that training to set ourselves up to still feel safe even though we were being re-exposed to a trauma. So I just think it can be something as simple. As you know, I'm cranky this morning and I need to get my attitude in check. Or it could be hey, I have a counseling appointment today and I know that we have to talk about some really heavy stuff from my past and I need to be, I need to walk into that room feeling safe and that I'm going to be okay, um. So I think that we can utilize it in a lot of ways and I'd be happy to go through a little tapping session if you would like.

Speaker 1: 27:59

Yes, please, because I told you I did a tapping podcast by myself, I think years ago years ago.

Speaker 1: 28:07

I don't even know if it's still on my YouTube channel. So I'd love for you to go through it, because I know tapping is super powerful and I know that I have used it when I am what I call in my dark space, yeah, where I literally just like shut down the computer. I, my office, is in my living room, and so I will just go lay on the floor in front of my computer, like in front of my desk, and just do some tapping, and it is night and day difference. Like it is, it can change your energy so quick. You can do it in the bathroom before a meeting that you know is going to be stressful, yep. So, yeah, I'd love it if you would share that.

Speaker 2: 28:51

Perfect. So what we're going to do is we're going to take on the theme of a little Monday afternoon reset. So we're going to. Sometimes we feel, you know, mondays are not the most exciting energetic days for a lot of us, right? Especially as we're like begrudging the start of the week. So this is all about realigning our energy for the start of a new week. So what I suggest that we do first is we're just going to close our eyes and we're going to start by taking a big eyes, and we're going to start by taking a big, deep, centering breath. So go ahead and inhale and let it out, and inhale one more time and let it out, and I want you to just think for a moment, and you can feel free to keep your eyes closed On a scale of one to 10,. I want you to just think for a moment. You can feel free to keep your eyes closed On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your current level of stress, 10 being the most? 0 being? There is none. So think about where you are, don't overthink it. There's no right or wrong answer. And what we're going to do is we're going to start tapping and we're going to start with the karate chop point of our hand. So you're just going to lightly tap and you can either repeat out loud or just using your mind's eye.

Speaker 2: 30:22

Even though I'm feeling a little off, tired or scattered, I deeply love and accept myself. Even though this Monday, energy is heavier than I expected, I choose to reset and realign. I honor my energy and give myself permission to pause and regroup. And now we're going to go ahead and we're going to move on to the eyebrow. All of this tension I've been holding side of the eye, all of the thoughts and the pressure and the noise Under the eye. I feel it trying to weigh me down Under the nose, but I know my peace is more powerful.

Speaker 2: 31:29

Chin, I'm allowed to reset and restart anytime I need Collarbone, I release this stagnant energy and come back to center. Under the arm, it's safe to let go of the chaos and give myself time to breathe. And, top of the head, I choose calm, I choose clarity and I choose alignment. Now you're gonna go ahead and squeeze your wrist, take a deep breath in, let it out, shake it out if you need to and give yourself just a second to think about where you're at right now. So, whatever your first number was has that number shifted in some way? And you can actually repeat that round of tapping several times until you get that number to a reduction of where you start to feel more grounded, more centered and safer in your body. So what was that like for?

Speaker 1: 32:38

you. I love it. I actually needed that this morning. You're like you should have found me earlier. Yeah, this morning I told you I stayed up late writing and reading, and so I intentionally slept in. I intentionally was like, okay, I'm not, I'm not going to rush myself, I am going to get a full eight hours of sleep, even though it means I'm going to start my day late, don't care. Late, don't care. But then, as soon as I opened my eyes, my brain immediately went into chaos mode, because it was 10 o'clock and I normally wake up at six in the morning, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:22

And I think those little shifts in our schedules can make us feel a lot of guilt and we can carry that feeling of chaos with us all day. It's like when you wake up late and then you spill your coffee on the way out the door and you hit all of the red lights, like that's because you're projecting that energy into your day If we do not consciously say okay, I've had two or three little like mishaps here. I'm the one that is chaotic. I need to fix this because if I don't put myself out energetically into the world differently, my day is going to match my energy and I cannot have that. So I do think that there, you know, if we can learn that the second that our hearts start to beat a little bit quicker or our palms get sweaty or our stomach starts to clench, if we can learn like, hey, my body is signaling that it no longer feels safe, I need to take a moment, that moment can change the course of our entire day. You know, and who are you to project that on somebody else?

Speaker 1: 34:29

you know, yeah because it ends up being projected on our co-workers. Our people report to us our husbands, our wives, our children, our friends. If you're single, like that is then projected onto the people you love the most, and I know nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants to be projecting crap on the people that they love and care for, and it is about finding understanding your body's signals to you that something is not okay.

Speaker 2: 35:06

Yeah, and to your point. If we don't build in space in our day to be still enough to be able to ask our bodies what we need, it is going to be more difficult to quelch that chaotic feeling. So we have got to, and I am such a strong believer. I am not a morning person, I just don't. That's not how I am wired as a human. But when I know that I have an you know, an appointment or something that has to start at a specific time in the morning, I know I have to work backwards and I need a couple of hours before that appointment because I need to wake up and I need to meditate. I pull an energy card for the day, I listen to an uplifting podcast as I have my morning coffee. If there is something weighing on my mind, I might need to audio journal for a minute just to get those thoughts out of my head. I know that I cannot show up as my best self unless I take a moment to energetically align. That's not possible for everyone.

Speaker 2: 36:09

I have a lot of freedom in my schedule right now, but even as a high school principal, I started getting to work just 10 minutes before everyone else. I would take a minute. I wrote down my goals for the day. I put my diffuser on, I turned on a soft light and that shifted everyone else's energy. When they came in too Like they might come in hot with a problem that I needed to solve, but they would sit down and be like, oh, it's really soothing in here this morning, you know. Or a kid who was getting in trouble would come in and instead of like spouting off whatever had made him or her upset, they would say, oh, what are you diffusing? That smells really good, miss. Oh, what are you diffusing? That smells really good, miss.

Speaker 2: 36:55

You know, I think we get so caught up and we don't have time. But how do we not have time for that 10 minutes? That was just like not going through the drive-thru for a cup of coffee and making it myself. That was shifting my alarm ever so slightly. That was meal prepping the night before instead of trying to grab stuff sporadically in the morning. We do have the time. It's just an exchange of how we're choosing to utilize it and I think when we realize the power that just a few minutes can hold for us, it really does start to shift all areas of our life and suddenly I don't have time not to meditate, because the chaos that it creates when I don't, I am like, well, this was not worth it, you know.

Speaker 1: 37:41

Yeah, yeah, no, and it is. I think people get hung up on because I, too, have a lot of freedom in my schedule. And then I look at my Instagram stories and my Facebook and they're like, oh well, you just have all the time in the world and I still have a nine to five. I work for a nonprofit. That is my nine to five job and I. So people are always asking me like, how do you do all this, how do you do this, how do you do that and not lose your mind? And it is because I am very intentional with my time.

Speaker 1: 38:18

I am not a morning person either, neither is my daughter. My daughter is not a morning person, but she and I have made it made a very strong intention and goal to wake up every morning at six o'clock in the morning and go for a walk. So we wake up at six, we leave the house at six 30. We go for a walk until seven. We come home, I make breakfast, she showers, I eat, then she gets out of the shower and she eats. I eat, then she gets out of the shower and she eats. You know we, and we're ready to go.

Speaker 1: 38:56

Our day is ready to start by 8am, like you know what I mean. Like by eight I am getting in the shower for myself and then I'm ready to do my nonprofit job at nine. And from that eight to nine, when I'm between like breakfast and all that, I'll record a couple of videos. I will meditate, I will do my reading for the day, like little pockets, whatever feels good, yeah, whatever feels good that day.

Speaker 1: 39:22

However, throughout the day, I also carve out two or three minute activities, like the simple act, like you were saying, of turning on your diffuser. So for me, it's walking around my house and lighting my candles that makes my day feel so much more. It feels fancy, I feel like I, you know, like I'm owning my space. My house smells good. I've got a lavender candle right here. It's soothing, it sets the tone for my space. My house smells good. I've got a lavender candle right here. It's soothing, it sets the tone for my day, right, yeah, and it's not a big action. It takes me two minutes to light all the candles, but the mere act of like no music, no podcast, no, nothing, just me walking around my house, lighting my candles, is a moment of quiet, doing something that I like, that feels good for me, and it has the power to change the trajectory of your day.

Speaker 2: 40:20

Yeah, it does. I think that we really overlook the importance and the value of those little rituals that we establish. I think that nighttime shutdown routine is incredibly empowering too. Like I will go through the same thing, I will set my diffuser about an hour before I'm ready to start settling down, so my room is nice and calm. I will start dimming the light so that when I go upstairs I'm not getting blasted with, like you know, bright lights in my face. You know I'm pretty.

Speaker 2: 40:52

I don't really watch a lot of TV at night. Like I turn on some soft meditation music while I'm reading or whatever it is, because my objective is to create an environment that's peaceful and conducive to me shutting down at the end of the day, and so, whatever that looks like for you, I think those energetic resets midday are super important. Get up and like go take a lap around the building, feel the sun on your skin for five minutes. You know whatever it is. I think we so often feel like we are not in control, but we have a lot more control than we think. We might not be able to control what other people say. Do think, feel how they respond, what the universe chooses to give us, but we can always choose how we respond, and that is where our power lies. Yes, I love that.

Speaker 1: 41:44

I love that. Ah, okay, so you've given them the listeners, so much, so much. Thank you. Good, I'm glad, so thankful, because it is having been someone who was burned out, having been someone who was not in alignment with her purpose but didn't have the option to leave right away. You're talking about a lot of the things that I personally did, that I know work and it is so powerful, like that. Those small changes is what gave me the courage to finally leave and get back in alignment with who I am and my energy, like like that was. It was game changer, but it started with those small, intentional acts that gave me the space to see what my values were, what my purpose was and how I get there.

Speaker 2: 42:43

Yeah, yeah, I think it's so.

Speaker 2: 42:46

You know, and that's the heart of the work that I do right, like we are going to make life altering changes, but it's not going to be because of life altering shifts, like these are going to be so subtle activities that aren't even noticeable to anyone outside of you and maybe a few people that you live with or choose to share with.

Speaker 2: 43:08

Like I'm not talking about a whole new diet plan, I'm not talking about a whole new fitness regime. Are there elements of diet and physical activity that we will probably discuss at some point? Should they be relevant to the dialogue? For sure, but we're not talking about expensive programs and products. We are talking about things that you can do at any moment of the day to shift the way that you feel and to get past the thoughts and just be in alignment with your authenticity. It's weird when you live in alignment, there's a lot less that goes on in your head up here, it's a lot less busy, it's a lot less chaotic and the more present you're able to become with your purpose, with your mission and just with your capacity to lead from that lens of love.

Speaker 1: 43:57

Yeah, yeah, I love it. Yeah, there is. There's a lot less noise up here. Yeah, yep, and you're better able to discern what belongs in there and let go of what doesn't? Yeah, absolutely yeah. So where can people find you?

Speaker 2: 44:15

So, yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. So, jessica Steele, at LinkedIn you should be able to find my profile. I am located out of Lawrenceburg, indiana. That's close to the Cincinnati area for those of you who might not be familiar geographically. And then I am on Instagram as my primary social. So it's Dear Jess, lead With Love, but it's all underscore, so Dear underscore, jess, underscore, et cetera. Dear Jess, lead With Love. I do have a website, it's Dear Jess app dot com, and there is information. I do have an app that has a series of guided meditations, eft tapping exercises, a leadership discussion board, short mini podcast episodes for leaders. It's all about energetic realignment, goal setting and living a purpose-filled life. So I do one-on-one coaching, I do small group coaching, I will do professional development for small groups, I have led women's groups, I have led educators, so I will work with schools. So you can find me a lot of different places and my email is jess at dearjessappcom.

Speaker 1: 45:25

Awesome, and I will have all of those links in the show notes so that everybody can find you there. So if you want to reach out to Jess, please do, please do. I love this. I have a lot of teacher friends, so I will be. Yes, please do.

Speaker 2: 45:42

I love educators. They're like the heart of what I do and I know that they are just so. I mean, everyone is burnt out Like educators. Just I cannot sing their praises enough. So please do like, have them reach out. I would love to connect with them and just share some resources and be a resource in any way that I can support.

Speaker 1: 46:02

Yes, for sure. Well, thank you for being on the show today. It's a great dialogue. Yes, and everyone else, thank you for tuning in this week and until next week. Be well, be kind, and may you find some joy this week. Yes, and everyone else, thank you for tuning in this week and until next week. Be well, be kind, and may you find some joy this week. Bye.