00:00:01 Roberto Candelaria
OK. Y’all, listen, we’re back. We’re going to have a conversation with my friend Brig Johnson today. Brig is a master certified coach. She works with high achieving black women. And what she’s really doing there right, is helping them with stress mastery. And we’re going to have a conversation today.

00:00:20 Roberto Candelaria
That I think that.

00:00:22 Roberto Candelaria
If you are a human being, if you are listening, even if you don’t identify as a high achieving black women, which is who most of her audience is.

00:00:32 Roberto Candelaria
This conversation will be able to help you, you know. Now Briggs got a background in anesthesia and one of the things when we talk about stress and we talk about, you know, the nervous system that I really appreciate about our conversations with Brig is it is not just about like.

00:00:51 Roberto Candelaria
Oh, let’s talk about the nerve.

00:00:52 Roberto Candelaria
The system with the background in anesthesia and her lived experience, she’s able to bring science and biology and neuroscience all together to help make you know, a topic such as stress or safety or nervous system regulation, things that could be complicated.

00:01:13 Roberto Candelaria
She helps make them very simple so that we can move forward now outside of all of those amazing professional things, Brig is a dear friend. I love to go out and eat with.

00:01:24 Roberto Candelaria
I love to dance, and if you’re ever having a karaoke party, y’all invite Brig Brig is so much fun to do karaoke with, so join me now for a conversation with my friend Brig Johnson.

00:00:03 Roberto Candelaria
OK, all. So like I said, we have Brig here. You already heard all the awesome things about Brig and you’ve probably heard her on the show before if.

00:00:09 Roberto Candelaria
You.

00:00:09 Roberto Candelaria
Haven’t be sure to go back and listen to that episode, but today y’all we’re going to continue this conversation about marginalized communities. And so I guess the very first question Brig is?

00:00:22 Roberto Candelaria
When the term marginalized communities is used, what do we mean?

00:00:28 Brig Johnson
That’s so good because it could be like.

00:00:34 Brig Johnson
As specific as you want or as broad as you want, but basically what we’re saying is.

00:00:42 Brig Johnson
When we realize what the society and how it is made-up, it’s like what is the status quo and what were all the laws? What were all the?

00:00:52 Brig Johnson
The the tenants made for and who did it benefit and who is outside those margins.

00:01:01 Brig Johnson
Be it from a religious point of view, a sexual orientation point of view, a size point of view, an age point of view, a cultural point of view, a neurodiversity kind of view. And here’s the deal, the more marginalized you are.

00:01:24 Brig Johnson
To the right, the more this type of program or this type of thinking or coaching really comes into play.

00:01:34 Roberto Candelaria
So like when we talk about these different boxes, right or or outside of these different lines and you know whether somebody’s got one of these identities or multiple of them, how does being a part of these identities actually affect or influence somebody’s experience with stress?

00:01:52 Brig Johnson
Yeah. When we really realize that stress is based on two things.

00:01:59 Brig Johnson
Demand and threat. So the demand is too much, too soon or too little for too long. Either one of those is creates a high demand on either the body, the nervous system, whatever, and then the other is threat.

00:02:19 Brig Johnson
Whatever it perceives as threat. Well, guess what, if you live outside the margins, if you speak outside the margins, if you look outside the margins, the more marginalized you are, the more your body sees threat. So any times it sees threat, there is a response.

00:02:39 Brig Johnson
To that which is called stress stress isn’t what happens to us. Stress is our body’s response to it.

00:02:49 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah, I I like that. Like it’s her response to what is happening. And so when you talk about like.

00:02:55 Roberto Candelaria
What’s actually creating stress there?

00:02:58 Roberto Candelaria
How is that?

00:03:02 Roberto Candelaria
I want to say like I don’t wanna say specific to you, but maybe that’s the right word and y’all know, listen, y’all are used to me. I I trip over my words all the time because as I’m trying to find the right question, but I will get there y’all like how is stress significantly.

00:03:18 Roberto Candelaria
I don’t know, maybe different or felt when it comes to.

00:03:21 Roberto Candelaria
Marginalized identities versus people that aren’t as as marginalized per say.

00:03:27 Brig Johnson
Yeah, I think stress is like stress. That threat is a measure of our safety, and that safety is whether or not we perceived our nervous system, our body ourselves, our inner self perceives the world as safe.

00:03:46 Brig Johnson
If you’re not marginalized, you feel you perceive the world as safe. The more you’re like, no, this world ain’t safe. The more marginalized you are like, the more I’ve got to cross every I and dot every T right then that is like.

00:04:05 Brig Johnson
Ohh, the world is.

00:04:07 Brig Johnson
Say how you how you play, how you work, how you love, how you experience life, when you feel like the world is on your side and the world is safe. It’s completely different than how you play, how you take risk, how you love, how you work, when you feel the world is out to get you.

00:04:27 Brig Johnson
Or it’s not safe?

00:04:30 Brig Johnson
And there’s there’s.

00:04:32 Brig Johnson
Degrees to all of this, right? Yeah.

00:04:35 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah. So can you talk a little?

00:04:36 Roberto Candelaria
Bit about like when we.

00:04:39 Roberto Candelaria
No, or have I should say, like an awareness that we’re stressed versus like this, almost like subconscious stress that happens. So I have an oral ring y’all y’all can’t see it. I’m holding it up right now. But something that or a ring?

00:04:54 Roberto Candelaria
Added in the past several months. Or maybe it was there forever and I just started paying.

00:04:58 Roberto Candelaria
Attention to it.

00:04:58 Roberto Candelaria
Y’all was like it. Like starts telling you like.

00:05:02 Roberto Candelaria
Oh, you were engaged. You were stressed, and it’s kind of funny because I can go back and look at it now and I just look and be like I see when it was stressed. And I can look back and be like.

00:05:14 Roberto Candelaria
Oh, I was doing that there. That’s interesting, because I remember like.

00:05:19 Roberto Candelaria
I I was kind of resistant to it and I didn’t want to do it and it it’s just so fascinating with this little ring can catch and then I can go back and look at my day and look at my calendar and be like.

00:05:29 Roberto Candelaria
Ohh yeah, my body didn’t like that. So can you talk more about kind of like?

00:05:34 Roberto Candelaria
An awareness or subconscious stress? I don’t know. Those are the.

00:05:37 Brig Johnson
Right words. Yeah. Yeah. I like to look at it as like, especially the, especially if you’re marginalized. Identity, like, understanding, there’s needed stress. There’s times where we need to be stress. And then there’s needless.

00:05:52 Brig Johnson
Yes. And so I’m never one of those who was like, Oh my God. Like, we’re our goal isn’t to be stress free. If we were completely stress free, we would be weak as ****, like.

00:06:03 Roberto Candelaria
I’m like, how does that happen? I don’t think it can.

00:06:05 Brig Johnson
Yeah, right, like.

00:06:07 Brig Johnson
Like, yeah, but like some permanents are like, Oh my God, like when they’re like, they’re starting to look at the ordering or whatever. It’s like I was stressed, like, as if I wasn’t supposed to. Like, I would have clients that would be like, oh, my God, my HRV is low. I was like, well, if you were, if you’re doing a launch or if you’re doing a presentation.

00:06:27 Brig Johnson
It’s like expecting yourself to run a marathon and not and your heart rate don’t go up like, right? Like, no, like, you’re in the middle of a marathon. You’re not supposed to be, like, ohh, everything is fine. Not if you’re trying to win it. Right. So.

00:06:42 Brig Johnson
Understanding there’s needed stress. And then there’s needless stress and our body is supposed to vacillate. If you’re doing something that is engaging, that is signaling. Ohh do do something with this. This is this is important.

00:06:57 Brig Johnson
And then our body releases a neurochemical one of those little signals, a little signal thing called norepinephrine, and that tells your brain pay attention. This is important. So it literally reduces the cognitive load of your brain. So you’re not hearing the car. The dog itching, like you’re focused.

00:07:18 Brig Johnson
On what it is you want to focus on, that’s when you want to be stressed. So it’s like that’s actually helping you, right. Like if your body is like, this is important. I’m doing a presentation, I’m doing this.

00:07:30 Brig Johnson
Then there’s times where I am stressing out because I’m afraid or I’m worried about people.

00:07:37 Brig Johnson
Responds to something that I’m doing and it’s constant. It’s like or like the microaggressions at work. It’s constant. That’s what I call needless stress. And I believe that as marginalized identities, because of that, the world is not safe for us. We are more hyper vigilant.

00:07:56 Brig Johnson
Do those things, and therefore we have higher amounts of needless stress. The needed stress is fine, but we have a higher amounts of needless than I answer.

00:08:06 Roberto Candelaria
OK.

00:08:07 Roberto Candelaria
I mean, I understand it right? And so y’all have I don’t understand it just you know, shoot brick DM or you know something like that because she will answer it, I promise. Like if you have a question, she will answer it. And so that’s one way to be able to do that. And I think that like.

00:08:23 Roberto Candelaria
I I love the way you did it because.

00:08:25 Roberto Candelaria
It’s.

00:08:25 Roberto Candelaria
Like what you addressed kind of was that?

00:08:30 Roberto Candelaria
You can manage stress effectively.

00:08:33 Brig Johnson
Hmm.

00:08:34 Roberto Candelaria
But that’s the key is managing like you know this this isn’t the.

00:08:40 Roberto Candelaria
You know, just lay out at the pool and and everything’s fine. But it’s so funny actually. Now that I even said that I’m like, people could lay out at the pool and be stressed and be like, did I get sunburned? Dad didn’t bring. The thing is the kid.

00:08:51 Roberto Candelaria
Gonna jump in the pool and splash.

00:08:53 Brig Johnson
Because, remember, stress is not what we’re doing. It’s our reaction to what we’re doing. So if we’re taking that conversation with our coworker to the, to the pool or that conversation we have with our spouse or significant other to the.

00:09:07 Brig Johnson
Pool or I’m not a good mother or parent or whatever to the pool, or if I’m at the pool, worried about what my role looks, I got back fat at the pool, right?

00:09:18 Brig Johnson
You’re not stressed at the pool.

00:09:22 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah. So.

00:09:23 Roberto Candelaria
Like, let’s let’s.

00:09:24 Roberto Candelaria
Switch this a little bit to talk about like how this kind of comes into to coaches to business owners to high achieving.

00:09:33 Roberto Candelaria
And you know, when they look at either themselves or their businesses, their clients, you know, what are some of the things that people should be looking at maybe in terms of, I don’t know what kind of like stress mastery or, you know, kind of learning to manage their own stress? How can people bring that?

00:09:53 Roberto Candelaria
Into.

00:09:54 Roberto Candelaria
To their practice, either as a coach or maybe as a manager, as a leader in the workforce.

00:10:00 Brig Johnson
Yeah. You kind of said it and you and I don’t know if you realize it.

00:10:04 Brig Johnson
But like there’s.

00:10:05 Brig Johnson
Stress management, which is what a lot of people teach, manage your stress, which is To Do List logging happen, habit tracking, do your meditation. Like all of that like and I teach all of those like getting a good night’s sleep.

00:10:21 Brig Johnson
Eating, eating foods that don’t.

00:10:23 Brig Johnson
You know trigger and inflammatory responsiveness limiting the alcohol for special occasions because I know the effect that it has on the body and all of that. So that is stress management.

00:10:36 Brig Johnson
What I think and what I believe stress mastery is, is when we combine that with root causes of some of our things like it’s not I’m drinking or I’m over eating or I’m eating the Dong Dong or the Twinkies. But mastery is why is it that?

00:10:55 Brig Johnson
After I have gone to work all day long and I’ve come home and I relax, that I go to the pantry.

00:11:03 Brig Johnson
Right, like what is it that is saying I’m stressed and the cortisol level is so high in my body that my body is saying please go counteract this with something that feels good because this cortisol level is too high.

00:11:18 Brig Johnson
So when we look at it from a biological point of view, we don’t even have to shame ourselves for taking care of ourselves because we realize, like, ohh, I’m sitting up here vegging in front of Netflix because my cortisol level is so high and my body is saying too much.

00:11:34 Brig Johnson
Remember, demand too much, too soon. That work level was, uh, too much. Too soon. My cortisol levels are high and so my body is now like, please sit here and veg out because we need to chill.

00:11:48 Brig Johnson
Right. And So what what I think mastery is and for coaches is to like, understand, especially for marginalized. What’s behind that? Is there a safety issue? Is there authority issue? Is there a focus or a distraction issue? Is there a a execution issue?

00:11:48 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah.

00:12:09 Brig Johnson
Or is there a recovery issue?

00:12:12 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah.

00:12:13 Roberto Candelaria
So when you bring those up, right, like understanding what the issue is. And I know that there’s different areas which people need to feel safe in, what would you say are a few of those areas that people need to feel safe and and why?

00:12:23 Roberto Candelaria
Why?

00:12:31 Brig Johnson
UMI put it in five categories. We need to feel safe in our identity and if you’re marginalized, your identity alone brings up stress or safety.

00:12:43 Brig Johnson
I need to feel safe as a middle age 60 slightly overweight black woman with locked hair who speaks loud, who has a big *** right? Like all of those things like right, locked hair, marginalized, right, speaks loud over 60. So now I’m old.

00:13:02 Brig Johnson
Right. Black woman, like all of it. I have to feel safe in all. Like not married, right? I have to feel safe in my identity. And you’ll know you’re not safe in your identity. If you’re like, what’s wrong with me?

00:13:17 Brig Johnson
Or you have constant feelings of worth or inadequacy or whatever. That’s safety in. That’s not safety in my identity.

00:13:26 Brig Johnson
There’s another way we need to feel safe, and that is in our intimate relationships because those intimate relationships can be our fuel source and so can I have the difficult conversations with my significant other. Am I safe in my intimate relationship, right?

00:13:44 Brig Johnson
And am I safe in my friendships and family? Can I be myself around my family? Is there a place where I can exhale, or do I have to always be on? Or do I have to worry about things, right? Because.

00:13:58 Brig Johnson
That intimate relationship in those friendships and family that gives us that beautiful other hormone called oxytocin and oxytocin Trump’s cortisol. So when we’re stressed, right?

00:14:11 Brig Johnson
We get a little oxytocin when we go over eat, but we also get a little oxytocin when we hug our significant other our doggy, even right. And so when you understand the biology, it’s like ohh I know how to manipulate some of the neurotransmitters or whatever and this you’re bringing that in. But we also need to feel safe.

00:14:31 Brig Johnson
In our work in our contribution, we need to know that we can contribute and that’s big for us as marginalized identity because we always feel like there’s someone else that is out there that is blocking my ability to put out what I wanna put out.

00:14:46 Brig Johnson
So we need to feel safe in that and the 5th area we need to feel safe in is in our bodies, meaning I can walk. I can walk up a flight of stairs. My body feels safe. Like it’s getting the nutrition it’s need. It’s not like overworked. It’s not not getting enough sleep. I’m not eating a bunch of ********.

00:15:07 Brig Johnson
Like all of it, so those are the five areas of safety. I know it was a mouthful.

00:15:14 Roberto Candelaria
Well, no. And and I think it’s good to be able to stop and be able to look and like.

00:15:19 Roberto Candelaria
Oh, like if these are the five areas I’m doing really good over here, but I didn’t even realize that this over here was something that I should pay attention to. Now I know one of the things that I’ve dealt with in my life and we’re going to use these five things right here.

00:15:37
MHM.

00:15:39 Roberto Candelaria
Is I have to do them all right? Because people are watching. And if I don’t do them, all right, we’ll ****. I just may. Just not not do anything at all. So.

00:15:48 Roberto Candelaria
If people are listening right, whether it be as a coach or a business owner for the people that they lead for, the people they guide, or even individuals in their own lives as they look at these.

00:15:59 Roberto Candelaria
How can they decide like, OK, I’m aware of all five, but this is where I want to focus right now. And is there one that you say is maybe?

00:16:05 Brig Johnson
Yeah.

00:16:09 Roberto Candelaria
I don’t know more important to the right word, but but one that kind of triggers stress more or less than the others that they should begin to look.

00:16:17 Brig Johnson
At I think that I think it’s too I.

00:16:19 Brig Johnson
Think.

00:16:20 Brig Johnson
It’s both sides. It’s our identity.

00:16:23 Brig Johnson
Because if we’re not safe in our identity, if we don’t feel our we’re we’re our worth, our significant other other could bring us flowers every day, make our bath and everything and we still wouldn’t, we still wouldn’t be able to receive it, right? So our identity.

00:16:41 Brig Johnson
Is, is, is paramount and also safety in our body. If we’re not getting this enough sleep, if we’re only getting 4 hours of sleep like our lower brain is so irritated that it will literally see what is harmless as threading threatening because.

00:17:01 Brig Johnson
Is it filters that way it is it will be filtered towards more threats, so therefore you may show up to work and you may think I’m. I’m fine. I didn’t look that way, but everybody else is like, what is wrong with you? Because.

00:17:17 Brig Johnson
Like you’re just seeing everything as a threat. And so you’re acting that way and it’s because the brain is filtering everything through that. So those are the two areas that I think if we can get those, the other two automatically, if I’m getting enough sleep, I’m getting eaten, right. I’m not.

00:17:36 Brig Johnson
I’m not up regulated in my lower brain and I feel good and I feel loved I’m gonna bring.

00:17:44 Brig Johnson
That part of me, to my intimate relationships and my friendships and family.

00:17:48 Roberto Candelaria
That’s good.

00:17:50 Brig Johnson
Yes.

00:17:51 Roberto Candelaria
OK, all I’m going to need to like.

00:17:53 Roberto Candelaria
I got we need to pull that segment somewhere. I know, I know. We’re just keep that in the recording. But that was a whole word for somebody that they need to hear. So I know that like marginalized communities, we do so well.

00:18:09 Roberto Candelaria
In community.

00:18:11 Roberto Candelaria
And you know, whether it’s, you know, months that celebrate our our I I like to say are the things that make us unique. You know whether it’s things like women’s, women’s, you know or Black History Month or Pride Month or Asian American Pacific Islander months or the Latin months like.

00:18:31 Roberto Candelaria
We have all these ways that celebrate each other and.

00:18:35 Roberto Candelaria
It’s interesting to watch us form communities.

00:18:39
MM.

00:18:40 Roberto Candelaria
And So what role, if any, do you think that community plays in stress management when it comes to marginalized communities and what can people be looking for?

00:18:49 Brig Johnson
It.

00:18:50 Brig Johnson
Huge when we really realize like that sense of safety that I said that that do we get the message that this safe, this world is safe, that literally that literally happens in the first zero to six months and then it solidified.

00:19:07 Brig Johnson
From zero to like two years old, four years old, and then it just keeps getting reinforced. Right. And so that part right there is when I’m crying as a little three month old.

00:19:22 Brig Johnson
It’s someone saying I see you. Oh, I don’t know what it is, but let me let me venture. Oh, it’s your diaper. Right. I understand. You don’t like this diaper on you?

00:19:33 Brig Johnson
Right, right. And like and so that’s what community, that’s what that is. It’s like when you feel seen, heard and understood like ohh they guide me like my momma figured it out and she figured out it was my diaper. I didn’t even know what it was like. You’re three months old, right? I didn’t even know what it was. And so it’s like.

00:19:53 Brig Johnson
Ohh she understood.

00:19:55 Brig Johnson
And that gets parent carried on. If you’re 4 and you drop the milk.

00:20:00 Brig Johnson
Is it? Yeah. You’re for. You’re kind of clumsy. Or is it? You should have known better. I told you such. Such like, like, are you met when you were? When you make your mistakes. Are you met with compassion doesn’t mean we’re accepted or condoned. But are you met with compassion? Is there when you tell your story? Is there someone when I’ve been hurt?

00:20:21 Brig Johnson
Is there someone that says I see you, I hear you and I understand. Right? That’s how we get that sense of safety. And so that’s why those communities are so important for us. Because nine times out of 10, if we’re marginalized, we didn’t get that background because.

00:20:39 Brig Johnson
Culturally, our kids weren’t allowed to or aren’t allowed to be like full kids because we have to be harder on them, right or whatever, like so.

00:20:50 Brig Johnson
If that’s the case, for whatever reason, if there is this sense of, like the world is not safe, community is where you recalibrate that and you realize ohh the world is safe. Maybe my job isn’t, but there is a safe place for.

00:21:06 Brig Johnson
For me, right, and that’s what community and you cannot do this work alone. It has to be witnessed, like someone has to share in that because that’s that sense of belonging.

00:21:20 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah. So Speaking of belonging and being seen and heard and understood, let’s go with the question that.

00:21:29 Roberto Candelaria
Maybe isn’t talked about quite enough and it’s this and it’s, you know, when we look at traditional coaching spaces.

00:21:38 Brig Johnson
Yeah.

00:21:40 Roberto Candelaria
You know, online and offline, what are the gaps right now that you see in the work that you do kind of leading this work and how we you know?

00:21:50 Roberto Candelaria
Unmistakably at all.

00:21:52 Brig Johnson
Right.

00:21:53 Roberto Candelaria
What are the gaps that you’re seeing?

00:21:55 Brig Johnson
I’m seeing like.

00:21:57 Brig Johnson
And I love coaching and I absolutely love coaching, but I’m like there’s two steps sometimes for marginalized identity. There’s two steps before you start going well. What were you thinking? Right. It’s where is the safety issue in this, like? And just understanding that and letting them.

00:22:18 Brig Johnson
Say their piece, like sometimes it’s like.

00:22:21 Brig Johnson
It may, we may be the only person that they can say, and this happened and this happened and this happened. And yeah right, like we need to be able to to, to protest. Because if you’re marginalized, we like, we’ve been talked. The last thing you need to do is protest because that draws attention to you.

00:22:41 Brig Johnson
But actually, our bodies need to know that we hear that something wrong happened, and that wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t.

00:22:48 Brig Johnson
Right. And we get to say that, right, so there’s that sense of safety. And then the other gap is the authority to say what we want to say without any receipts, I’m going to create a million dollar business and you’ve been homeless and whatever like everybody else is like, who the hell are you? But.

00:23:08 Brig Johnson
Someone who’s never right taken anything can say I’m gonna put a man on Mars just because right like and so.

00:23:17 Brig Johnson
Our ability to instead of validate someone from someone else if I know my experience as a black woman, as a black woman.

00:23:26 Brig Johnson
It’s the pastors, right? The the mama’s right. Daddy’s right. Siblings. Right, friends. Right. Professors. Right, teacher. Right. Everybody. Right. But I can’t just say out of thin air. I have to Fact Check and check it, and then my background has to prove that it’s possible too.

00:23:46 Brig Johnson
Before I think I have the authority and I actually borrow. I never really believe I have the authority to say this is what I’m going to do. That’s a huge gap that I don’t think.

00:23:57 Brig Johnson
Coaching actually understands that when we’re like, you just have to believe there’s this visceral, like, I can’t. Like, I can’t just say I’m gonna do this like that. Don’t make no sense to us. Like, what are you talking about? Like, you don’t know my background or whatever, and it’s so it’s like, ohh, because.

00:24:14 Brig Johnson
As you’re marginalized, what has been taken from us is our authority, our ability to say what we’re going to do and do it.

00:24:25 Brig Johnson
And have it not make sense to anybody and own that.

00:24:30 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah. So how else if there was one or two more ways that?

00:24:36 Roberto Candelaria
The the coaching industry as a whole.

00:24:38
MHM.

00:24:38 Roberto Candelaria
Could show up for marginalized communities.

00:24:41 Roberto Candelaria
What would that look like?

00:24:43 Brig Johnson
I think if they understood like.

00:24:47 Brig Johnson
That there is a level of stress and I think of understanding the that there are. There are some things that they just don’t know instead of arguing.

00:24:59 Brig Johnson
And.

00:25:00 Brig Johnson
Like giving, giving people their experiences instead of dismissing their experiences because it’s like, well, did you know that they were racist, or did they say that like, we’re like, like we get real clear on, like, like, what did they actually say? But what we’re saying is, no, like, my body told me.

00:25:21 Brig Johnson
I perceived it and we have to understand that if you’re marginalized, there is this thing called nociception, and ours is primed up.

00:25:30 Brig Johnson
We can read a room like no other. When we go into the room, there is an energy that we know like ohh you not safe. We don’t have to understand why or whatever. And are we wrong sometimes? Yeah. But by and large, most times we’re right and we don’t have to understand it. So instead of coaching.

00:25:51 Brig Johnson
With people out of it, it’s like, OK, they were racist. Now what?

00:25:55 Brig Johnson
Right, like that may be the reason why you didn’t get it. Now what? Because there’s so much more power in the now. What than trying?

00:26:04 Brig Johnson
Like, well, maybe you didn’t and didn’t. And now I’m questioning myself. Well, maybe I’m crazy. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m being too sensitive. Maybe something’s wrong with me. The last thing I want. Anybody that is marginalized to is to walk away from this podcast. Thinking is there is another thing that’s wrong with me.

00:26:24 Brig Johnson
There is nothing wrong with you, yeah.

00:26:27 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah, I I love that there is nothing wrong with you. We.

00:26:31 Brig Johnson
Yeah, we’re not broken.

00:26:34 Brig Johnson
We don’t need fixing. Yeah, I don’t care if I go to zero to 103 seconds or less, and my and my head turns around 15 times and my and and I go up an octave. That is an adaptation to a world and experience, and that shows me that actually I’m normal because my nervous system.

00:26:54 Brig Johnson
Adapt it in a way that helps and so only thing I need to do is give it different situations, but I I don’t have to make that wrong.

00:26:56
Hmm.

00:27:04 Roberto Candelaria
Yeah. So as we like get to closing here, can you share with me?

00:27:09 Brig Johnson
MHM.

00:27:11 Roberto Candelaria
Whether it be your story or a client.

00:27:13
MHM.

00:27:14 Roberto Candelaria
What does it look like to actually master stress in your life? And what’s maybe a transformation that was seen?

00:27:22 Brig Johnson
One of my favorite transformations is a client who I observed from far before she became a client.

00:27:30 Brig Johnson
And she was in a coaching community that I was in and.

00:27:35 Brig Johnson
You know when you’re a black woman, a strong black woman like you can hear, you know their voice like, oh, that’s that’s a sister there. Right. And she would ask for coaching and immediately she was she was an attorney. She would immediately start going in and like. But then, no, no, no, no. Like, it would go up a couple of octaves. And she was fighting for it. And I would always go.

00:27:56 Brig Johnson
Oh God, I wanna work with her because I knew I was like, oh, yes, sure enough. A year later, she showed up on a console and we worked together. And not only was she stressed out to the point that.

00:28:13 Brig Johnson
When she came home, she was taking that into her relationship with her kids and her kids were getting ready to leave and go off to college. And so she only had, like, one or two years left with them. And she was like, this isn’t the relationship I want with them. But she didn’t know how to manage the stress, like how to master it right and.

00:28:34 Brig Johnson
She would say like she would get, she would go show up to every fight. She was invited to, as opposed to, you know what? I ain’t fighting that. Like, just because the. Just because the fight comes in and taps you on the shoulder doesn’t mean you have to. Like, ohh yeah, deuces. Let’s go. Right. Like she just.

00:28:51 Brig Johnson
But because of like who she was and she had a passion for helping people, if there was a fight and something tapped her on the shoulder, she was there for it and in. But she never had any relaxation, no recovery. Like I said, for marginalized people. We don’t have a stress problem. We have a poor recovery problem.

00:29:11 Brig Johnson
We don’t recover and.

00:29:14 Brig Johnson
After six months of working with her individually and then she joined one of my group programs, she to this day, every once in a while will send me a letter of thanking you because she experienced another level of presence of being there. She’s enjoying her job more. She used to be there before everybody, she was tenured.

00:29:34 Brig Johnson
He would be there before everybody and leave after everybody else where everybody else who was tenure was coming in at 9 and leaving at one, and she’s like, why am I doing?

00:29:42 Brig Johnson
This right?

00:29:44 Brig Johnson
She spent the whole like months going to and just getting in the hot tub.

00:29:49 Brig Johnson
And so for so many people be like hot tub, that’s a miracle for her. It was because she got out and rested. She bought a condo on the beach. She improved her relationship so much with her kids that they could see the difference and feel the difference. She stopped.

00:30:09 Brig Johnson
She stopped showing up for every fight that she was invited to, and in fact the the fight stopped being invited, like stop inviting themselves because she started showing up differently, and she enjoys her work more now.

00:30:24
So.

00:30:24 Brig Johnson
Ohh yeah, that’s what stress mastery is. It’s enjoying the life that we have. It’s being able to be more productive. She was more productive and more effective because she managed stress. She enjoyed her relationships more and she was like we do all this work to do all this stuff and then we don’t.

00:30:45 Brig Johnson
Enjoy it. So she’s finally enjoying the.

00:30:47 Brig Johnson
Fruits of her labor.

00:30:51 Roberto Candelaria
I love that for her. I don’t, girl. I don’t even know who you are. But listen.

00:30:54 Roberto Candelaria
If you listen, I’m happy.

00:30:55 Brig Johnson
For you. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So much.

00:31:00 Roberto Candelaria
What’s next for you?

00:31:02 Brig Johnson
I’m I’m actually considering doing a beta of my demystifying the coaching. The marginalized brain. I’m calling it, demystifying the marginalized brain, using the safer method, which is those five things that I was talking about creating safety auto.

00:31:18 Brig Johnson
Let me focus right because half of our work is because we’re not able to focus execution and there is a way to execute so that work actually we work in flow and work becomes more productive and less angst. And there is a way to be able to get ourselves into a flow state.

00:31:39 Brig Johnson
And recovery, which is what I said was missing. Like when we when we have lots of stress but inadequate recovery, think of an Olympic athlete. If all they did was train hard, hard, hard and they and their and their coach wasn’t saying take a recovery day, what’s your nutrition?

00:32:00 Brig Johnson
Like whatever it wouldn’t, they wouldn’t not make make it to the Olympics because they didn’t work hard.

00:32:07 Brig Johnson
Because they were too stressed, they would not make it to the Olympics or not win because they had inadequate recovery. We’re the same way we put ourselves in in positions because we want to do big ****, that we are stressed and that is supposed to be there, right? But what is? What is happening is we have.

00:32:27 Brig Johnson
Inadequate capacity to handle that stress and for so many of us we have cup size, capacity, but gallon size goals. That’s a mix match and we’ve got to change that.

00:32:42 Roberto Candelaria
Well, thank you, Brig. This has been fun. Oh, my gosh. Like y’all y’all don’t even know. Like, I was taking notes over here. Y’all didn’t see me take notes, but I was because you’re listening on audio. But where do the people find you? How can they connect more with you, too?

00:32:55 Brig Johnson
Yeah, they can work with me. I offer one-on-one coaching for anybody who feels marginalized or those who don’t. But that’s my specialty. And you can book a call with that at brigjohnson.com. You can find out about my podcast.

00:33:14 Brig Johnson
It’s breakthrough with Brig and it’s on all of the podcasts, you know, platforms and what else? Oh, if you want to know about my beta program, then e-mail me because I don’t even have a wait list or anything. I’m. I’m just think it would be fun to because I have definite because I have such a long history.

00:33:33 Brig Johnson
Now of dealing with stress, not just as a coach, but as an anesthesia provider. That’s all you do is deal with.

00:33:40
MHM.

00:33:41 Brig Johnson
Patients who are stressed, family who is stressed, surgeons who are stressed, nurses who are stressed. You who is stressed because you’ve been up all night and they calling you at 2:00 in the morning and a patient who body who is under stress. And so when I combine that with what I know and then adding that to biology, neurobiology, polyvagal and all of that.

00:34:03 Brig Johnson
You have a program that is uniquely geared to what is happening in the marginalized brain, and how can we fill in those gaps so that not only can they succeed, but achieve so much more, and this world can be better.

00:34:21 Roberto Candelaria
We all thank you for joining us, Brig. Thank you. Y’all connect with Brig over at Instagram, her website brigjohnson.com and we’ll chat with you soon. Bye, bye.