Carolyn Schnare:
Welcome to Convenience Matters. I’m Carolyn Schnare with NACS and I’m joined by my cohost

Rose Johnson:
Rose Johnson, and I’m also with NACS. Hey folks!

Carolyn Schnare:
So a quote from our guest from her book: “words give you power and control. You’re given a blank canvas each day, and your words are your paint.” I just absolutely love that since we’re on a podcast, I’m breaking out the canvas and we’re going to start painting. We’re going to make a mess and it’s going to be a fun time. It’s gonna be a fun mess. So I promised you a life-changing episode today and while Rose and I are very engaging people. We’re not the ones that are going to change your ways. Today our guest is Jennifer Powers, who is a speaker, an author, and a Master Certified Coach at Powerhouse. And I had the pleasure of introducing her a few years ago at one of our NACS events and she’s going to join us again shortly at our upcoming event and I’m happy to welcome her to our show. Welcome, Jennifer.

Jennifer Powers:
Thanks, Carolyn. Glad to be here! Hey, Rose!

Rose Johnson:
Hi Jennifer, welcome!

Carolyn Schnare:
So you have authored several books and I’m going to have to enunciate those because I don’t want to get slapped with a fine or something. One is Oh, shift! and Good shift!. And a good place to start is by asking, what’s the ‘f’ in those books about?

Jennifer Powers:
That’s so great. Yeah, it is a really fun play on words, Carolyn, right? But the ‘f’ also tells you to do something. You can say, oh, shift, for example, with the ‘f’ or without the ‘f’. Without the ‘f’, it’s going to give us one feeling, one vibe, one energy. And if we say with the ‘f’, it changes everything and it tells you to do something and hopefully makes you giggle just a little bit.

Carolyn Schnare:
[laughter] It doesn’t make you accidentally swear when your mom is listening to this podcast.

Jennifer Powers:
Old people can say it, you and say it in front of the priest, you can say, ‘oh, shift’ wherever and people will get a big kick out of it.

Carolyn Schnare:
We’ll say it together…Ready? Oh, shift! {laughter} So you have taught us a lot in the past. And also now you’re teaching us a little bit more with Good shift! which is dealing with change, which is something we’ve all had to deal with just a teeny bit in the last couple of months, I’d say. Yeah, I think so. So, it’s a very big question: how should we deal with change?

Jennifer Powers:
So I think the first thing to realize, and I talked about this in the book, of course, is that we are not really well programmed to deal with change as humans change feels threatening, change is frightening, change actually – I don’t knew this – is a threat to our survival, historically speaking.

Jennifer Powers:
And that’s because it asks us to do things differently and doing things differently makes us expend energy, like calories, brain calories, and we need calories. We need to conserve those calories and energy to survive, fight off opposing tribes and kill antelope. Right? So that’s why a lot of people don’t realize that we kind of get to take ourselves off the hook for not doing well with change. So that’s first, right? As a coach, I want everyone to know you’re totally human and you’re having a human experience. If you are challenged with the last year and a half of change or any change that comes down the pike. Do you know what I mean?

Carolyn Schnare:
Oh, for sure. I mean, if you’re not…like you said, if you haven’t had some sort of existential life shift of some sort or another, and I’m fortunate that I have not had any bad change in my circle, but it’s, it’s like, you know, everybody’s looking at your life, your job, your, your pets, your kids, you know, like how do I fix things? And you can’t always necessarily fix them. Right? You can’t fix school being closed, or all the things that have hit us recently, but you can change yourself a little, I think. I think you’ve helped me see in your books and in your talks.

Jennifer Powers:
Yes. There’s a lot that we have more control over than we even realize. And that is what the books are about. And, and, and as a coach, I want to make sure that everyone knows that the what behind the reactions that we’re having, because there is a really good reason why we react negatively to change. And there’s a really good way out of that reaction so that we can have more control. And that’s really what Oh, shift! is about. And of course, Good shift! talks about those tools too. So, the first thing to deal with change is to recognize that it’s completely normal to struggle with it. That’s one. Accepting ourselves as humans, as evolved Neanderthals that are just trying to get through this thing called life change is challenging. So accepting and acknowledging that as a challenge is first and foremost, I know a lot of people are like, ‘oh, here’s how you do a change.’ And then they give you this set of tools or whatever, without really recognizing that it’s normal to resist and to take yourself off the hook for that. So that would be the first two things that I think are really important, acknowledging and accepting.

Rose Johnson:
So Jennifer, you also mentioned, um, realizing the power that we have and listening to one of your podcasts yesterday, one of the “Being Better” podcasts, you talked about a story where you didn’t realize that you had a choice and it was about the Portland Powerhouse business. So, could you talk a little bit about how we can realize that power that we have?

Jennifer Powers:
Yes. I love that you brought that up because so many of us – even now, when we absolutely feel like we are restricted in our choice and our ability to move about the cabin as we want – we forget, and I love to remind people, that choice is always ours to exercise. It’s like a superpower that if we forget, we have it, we will feel like a victim of circumstance or a victim of somebody else or an event or a truth or a pandemic. We are never victims because we always have at least two choices. So in the example that I was giving about the…I started a brick-and-mortar Powerhouse because I thought that would have been a really neat thing to do until I got into it. And I hated it. And then I was talking to my coach one day and I realized that this was really causing me a lot of stress.

Jennifer Powers:
And I was withdrawing and I wasn’t being a successful leader. And he said to me, ‘well, what if you just closed it down?’ And my reaction was, ‘wait, what I can do that?’ He’s like, ‘what do you mean?’ You can do anything that you want to do!’ And I was like…it was so simple, but I hadn’t even given myself the bandwidth to consider that as a possibility. There was choice and I wasn’t recognizing it. And so when I did – of course, I shut it down immediately – but when I noticed it that I had the choice, I felt freer. And I think when change happens, we feel like we don’t have a choice. We have to sort of just go along with it and struggle or suffer. And I call bullshit. I think we get to choose otherwise. And that’s the message I want people to know.

Carolyn Schnare:
Yeah, I like that. I mean, there’s just so much coming at us. Whether, especially you mentioned bringing back to the business aspect, we have a lot of retailers listening to this, a lot of vendors that help with retailers and just even the physical changes – or that’s not the right word – the security changes, the structural safety changes like, ‘oh, you wear masks! No, you don’t! Now you do this! Now you don’t! Now you have to do this! Now you’re going to stay six feet apart! Now you gotta get six feet apart! Everybody hug! And, wear your masks! It’s like every day, there’s a different change coming at you. And some of those things you obviously you have to do. Some of those things you really should do. But when, when you’re faced with so much…adversity is not right word…but so much shift coming at you, what do you do? How do you keep up? How do you keep the smile on your face so that the customer knows that you’re just living through this like they are?

Jennifer Powers:
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So, first of all, that’s a great question. And there is an answer. The challenge that we have – again, back to awareness about how we show up as humans – we have a tendency to always look for the negative or the dangerous or the problems. We are hardwired this way. Because again, we were fighting off striving to stay alive always looking for danger. So recognize that when change happens and we have all this shift coming our way, we can tend to react negatively to it. We don’t like the restrictions. We don’t like the changes that are happening day in and day out. So our first tendency is to look at that as a problem. And so, once we acknowledge again and accept that that’s our tendency, then we get to exercise our power of choice and look at it differently. Instead of looking at it as – and I had to go through this, too – all these restrictions that are put on us. That is one way to look at it. That’s a choice we can make. Or we can choose to look at it through an abundance possibility-thinking lens and come at it from a different angle. That’s our choice. You don’t have to do it. You totally don’t have to choose to look at it from an abundance angle, but you get to! And when you do, things change. So, for example, wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, don’t hug, hug, all these changes. We want to get angry and we want to resist. However, we get to ask ourselves a question, and this is the tool I offer in Good shift!

Carolyn Schnare:
And in Oh, shift! actually, I offer the ‘flip, fine, freak’ chart. That’s what the ‘F’ stands for. It’s basically asking yourself coaching questions. Open-ended, positive-leaning questions that help you shift. That’s where the ‘f’ in shift comes from. When you ask yourself a question, you’re literally redirecting the energy, oxygen and blood flow away from that amygdala – that fight or flight, that Neanderthal reptilian brain, into the thinking part of your brain, where you’re going to be less reactive. And when you do that, you can be more rational and think more positively. So for example, you might say, ‘well, this is garbage that they’re always changing the mask mandate.’ And then you say, ‘well, what is the opportunity here, right?’ Or ‘what is good about the mandate’ or ‘how will clarity around this mandate benefit me?’ So asking yourself, what or how questions that are positive in nature, can move the energy out of the negative reptilian, reactive brain, into the logical thinking part of our brain, very powerful. And that’s what coaches do, right? I mean, that’s what I do as a coach. I use open-ended, positive questions to help people shift their perspective.

Rose Johnson:
So, I think that that’s great. And that you talk about a lot about being in the flow. And, can you talk a little bit about how being in the flow can help you drop the resistance and what it even means to be in the flow?

Jennifer Powers:
Yeah. Yeah. Good, good. So there are two choices, always, like I mentioned earlier. When change happens or when any kind of shift happens, good or bad or ugly, we have an opportunity and a choice to be in resistance to that change that’s going on outside of us. We can resist on the inside and have one experience, or we can choose to be in flow with that change. That is a choice. A lot of people feel like they don’t have a choice. That the change stinks, and so does their reality. But that is not true. It comes down to how you choose to react or respond to that change or that shift that will determine your reality thereafter. I always say, things don’t happen to you or against you. Things just happen. And it’s how you react to those things that gives you control of your life. And that reaction comes down to a choice. Am I going to resist this, push against it and then it wish it wasn’t there? Or am I going to choose to be in flow with it? Am I going to find the benefit? Am I going to see the opportunity? Am I going to find appreciation for it? That’s how we get in flow. And let me just say this, cause I know it sounds all airy-fairy. We don’t do this, this isn’t our natural tendency to do this right away. Like I said, our tendency is to negate, resist. But at any given time in your day, in your week, in your month and your year, you can step out of resistance and in the flow. Do it when you’re ready, because there are so many benefits to it, but you don’t have to do it, you get to do it.

Carolyn Schnare:
So not the salmon swimming upstream. That’s the resistance.

Jennifer Powers:
Good! Yeah! That’s a great analogy. And I talk about that in the presentation. It’s the difference between being like a salmon that swims upstream against the current of what is, versus choosing to be more like a leaf that’s floating downstream with the current.

Carolyn Schnare:
Oh this is just so peaceful. I wish you could see the video of us talking. It’s just like…my head’s going like, oh, I’m going to be a leaf! {laughter}

Rose Johnson:
You know, what I find fascinating is that I would say before,last year, when people would say, you have to struggle in life, like struggle helps you grow and this type of thing. And it was hard for me to kind of wrap my mind around that. Like, why do you have to struggle? I don’t understand why can’t…why can’t life just be easy? You can still grow from an easy life. And, then last year hit. And, I understood that more. So what was hard for me sometimes was, how do you know when to push through or want to just say, ‘you know what, this is not working and I’m going to find something else.’ Like in light of like Naomi Osaka. You know, she ended up making a choice that some people found they would never do that as an athlete and other people thought it was the most amazing thing. How do you know which option to take?

Jennifer Powers:
Hmm. Hmm. That’s a good question. I would love to ask you that question. I would love to ask you what you think the answer to that is. How does one know?

Rose Johnson:
Well, so I guess for me, what worked for me was, when things just…I had a lot of anxieties last year. And so I tended to lean more into the things that help to ease the anxiety. So I’ll just give a simple example. You know, we were working from home and it was not something that I was used to. And so it was hard to find the balance in the beginning. And sometimes I’m up working. I was like, ‘oh, I have to get all of this done. I’ve got to make sure that they know I’m doing all this work.’ And other times I’m like, you know what? I need a nap and I’m going to take this nap because I deserve it!’ And so I guess I kind of just went with that. I went with what I was feeling on the inside, bringing that to the outside and being authentic to myself, you know? And also I want to do a good job for work. I’m not a slacker. I wanna do a good job. And so I was able to, in that example, be able to either decide to push through or opt out based on that.

Carolyn Schnare:
Yeah. I think to me and you didn’t ask, but I’m going to offer mine too. I think it’s the self-awareness too. It’s like Rose, exactly what you said. Like, you know what? I’m burnt out, I’m tired, I’ve been up, I’ve been staring at this computer, I can’t do it anymore. I’m going…literally I laid on my floor of my office, well, my house office, and I mean, one of my kids walks in and they’re like, ‘are you okay?’ And I’m literally laying on the floor. I’m like, ‘yup, I just need a minute.’ Now, what do we do when we go back into office spaces? We have glass windows, glass walls, we don’t have doors at our office space, Rose. So when we do have to go in there, I know you and I are right down the hall from each other, so when we do see each other, again, if I’m laying on the floor, I’m okay. I’m just taking a minute because that’s just what I need at that minute. Jennifer that’s okay, right?

Jennifer Powers:
Well, I think this is the beauty of what COVID and the pandemic has offered us. It’s given us the opportunity to see how we can do things differently and what Rose and Carolyn you’re both talking about is asking yourself, what do I very much need right now? That is an amazing coaching question. You can ask yourself, what do I very much need? Sometimes it’s that I need to finish the report. But sometimes what I very much need is, before I finish the report is to lay down on the floor, right? I mean, that is such a brilliant takeaway. We have been exhausted, challenged, stressed, stretched to many, many limits that we didn’t think were possible in this last year and a half. And it has given us an opportunity to be creative, to be resourceful, and to be kind to ourselves and to really go after what we very much need. And I think that’s going to be a good carry over, guys. I think that we get to bring that into the post pandemic life and make it part of our regular practice. What do I need?

Rose Johnson:
That’s what I think is also good about your book and your podcasts. You know, this year and last year, the word pivot was really big for a lot of us, but, there are things like you’re saying that we can carry over and people are looking at things through a brand new lens, now. The needs are slightly different. They’re not like they were before. So, how can organizations and companies also be innovative with these shifts and pivots?

Jennifer Powers:
Well, I think the first thing is to not get stuck on one old way or traditional way of doing things. I think that is the first pivot, a mental shift that needs to happen because if we get stuck in it – and I do, I get stuck in it! And, think about it, you guys, 2020…I was on the road in 2019, 3, 4 times a month, and then it all came to a screeching halt. I wasn’t speaking anymore. We couldn’t do live events in 2020, what am I supposed to do? So the pivot came with delivering virtual presentations. And let me tell you something. I didn’t think I was going to like that half as much as I did being in front of big audiences, but I think I liked it even as much as – maybe even more – sometimes! I didn’t feel getting on a plane. So we have to be open to new ways of doing things as possibly being even better than the old ways. Because if we get stuck in our old ways, we’re not going to have the open mind to think of what else is possible. So think of COVID as the gift that keeps on giving, because it is challenging you to reinvent, reorganize, review. And, what’s another “re” word?

Carolyn Schnare:
Renovate {inaudible}!

Jennifer Powers:
Renovate your way of doing things. I mean, we could all use a software update, right? Now’s the time, people!

Carolyn Schnare:
Reboot!

Rose Johnson:
Yeah. And one of the podcasts that I listened to yesterday about the secret to life, that was my favorite one. I fell asleep listening to that one. And then I woke up and I was like I didn’t hear it!

Carolyn Schnare:
{laughter} I guess it’s probably a good thing.

Rose Johnson:
It was pretty late and I wanted to hear what was going on, so yes, that was a good thing. I woke up this morning and I listened to it again. And it just, it resonated because, as I was telling, Carolyn, being invited to speak with you today is almost a part of that for me. Because these are the types of topics that I really like to talk about. And I was just like, wow, look at this. It just ended up right here in my lap.

Jennifer Powers:
I love that synchronicity. I love when you can recognize that. You can recognize that the universe is conspiring to give you more of what you want. Not less. It’s it’s in your favor. I love that. So what was the secret to life that you took away?

Rose Johnson:
Well, I feel like I’ve been already doing that over the past few months. I’m just trying to be more open to possibilities, I think before, like you said, I didn’t realize the choices that I had and I waited a lot for permission to do things, and now it’s different. I feel like I don’t need to wait for permission anymore. I’m going to be open and these things are going to come to me and I’m just going to continue to speak about them. I think that’s the other thing too. I wasn’t very open to talking and talking about what’s going on and what I want to do and how I want to get there, because in my mind, I had to have a plan and I had to have it all worked out and they’re going to ask me questions and I won’t know. But I don’t feel like that anymore. If I start speaking about it, then people are going to help me get there. They’re gonna share what they know and this is what you can do and talk to this person and that type of thing. So yeah.

Carolyn Schnare:
You only live once, scenario, right?

Rose Johnson:
Exactly. Exactly.

Jennifer Powers:
There’s a great book that I love to recommend. It has a cult following for decades. It’s called The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield, maybe I’m not getting author right. But the The Celestine Prophecy is all about that. Following the flow of what life is offering you, because sometimes, life is offering you things that you don’t even know will benefit you. Like, you might meet someone on the street and it feels like a frivolous meeting or something that didn’t have any reason for happening. But man, if you really start to look at everything that happens to you, you can start to see how things are happening FOR you in your favor. And I just love, when I can plug into that, that theory or reality, it is just so magical. That’s cool.

Rose Johnson:
And that’s exactly what I call it. I call it…that’s the magic, right? That’s where the magic happens.

Carolyn Schnare:
So one of the things I think I learned about myself, and I’m not good at always practicing it but I try, is to realize that other people…understanding that other people have shift going on too. That there’s something going on there. And you know, someone comes at me and I think this is something that will help some of our listeners, especially those on the front lines at convenience stores. There’s a reason they’re in a bad mood. Well, I mean, I guess you would also say they could just be a very bad human, but for the most part, there’s probably a reason something might have happened to them. And it’s giving everybody a little more grace, a little more understanding. And, I think it was last year about this time we talked to Corrine Hancock, who also spoke at one of our events. And her, her discussion was all about surviving chaos and, God if we have survived as we’re trying our best, but I think that’s something that I try to do is, is not judge, I guess isn’t the right word. But understand that there’s a reason they’re giving me that. That they’re putting off those vibes towards me and I can react or I can just let it go. And so I do my best to either just let it go or understand a little bit or take a breath, maybe shift, like you said. So that’s something that I think that I’ve done try to help myself psychologically with a little bit,

Jennifer Powers:
It’s such a gift. I read something somewhere that said, and I’m going to paraphrase, that any person in any given moment that you run into may be two seconds away from losing their shift. And I mean, shift without the ‘f’. That is so true because I have been that person. I have been, in any given moment, two minutes away from just losing it. Especially in this last year and a half, we’re all on edge. And I think we can forget that everyone is going through the same thing we are and that we can’t…I had to lower my expectations of what I have for people. Like when I go out and I’m at a restaurant and the waitress is crabby, I’m like, ‘yeah, she gets to be crabby all the time.’ I lower my expectations. I think that’s really, really gracious and a great point. Carolyn, thank you.

Carolyn Schnare:
Yeah. I like how you said that, just lowering your expectations.Though, we want to have great expectations. It’s the patience and that’s something. Here we are a little bit later down in 2021, but you know, when we stood in line, it didn’t seem to matter. Did you find yourself apologizing when you had to slam the door in the face of the person behind you because you weren’t supposed to get six feet close to them, so you just kind of shoved it and walked further ahead. You’re like, ‘sorry!’ And I always felt bad, but I’m kind of missing the graciousness that people exhibited back in March of 2020, or in middle 2020 when we all emerged from our cocoons for a little bit. And, yeah, I kinda wish everybody could go back to there and not get right back into the hustle and bustle and crazy. I didn’t really have a question there. I was just…

Jennifer Powers:
I think there is truly, and I’m recognizing it right now, especially in the second wave. I’m recognizing there is a capacity. There is a limited capacity bandwidth of the human spirit that I think we’re really pushing up against right now. Like the limits of that capacity. The ability to really deal in a way we used to deal. And I would love to see people go…I would love for myself to go back to the way I was. But man, what’s the opportunity here? What, is the opportunity, is this situation, that we’re faced with offering us right now? Like imagine if you gave someone a compliment in 2019, it’d be like, ‘oh, that’s nice, you know, thank you. I like your shoes or like your hair or whatever.’ That’s nice. But if you give it now – mindblowing, right? That you have the bandwidth to say…someone I was in the elevator the other day and someone gave me a compliment on my hair. It wasn’t that anything was special about my hair, but he said, ‘oh, your hair looks nice today’ – it was the maintenance guy – and I was like, ‘oh my God! Thank you so much!’. Literally the door opened on my floor and I didn’t even get out because I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. {indaudible} It is so simple, the opportunities that we have to really make someone’s day with our words, which I’ll talk about in the keynote as well.

Carolyn Schnare:
That canvas!.

Jennifer Powers:
Yeah. It’s that canvas. Yes. What do you want to do with your words today for yourself or for someone else?

Rose Johnson:
Yeah. I love that. I absolutely love that. And Carolyn, what you were saying about offering grace, right? Because I remember I was out and there was a cashier and someone in the store and they were exchanging words. And then it was my turn and I had the same cashier and I was like, ‘oh, how’s this going to go?’ But, I went up to her and I was like, ‘just breathe, you’re doing great, you’re doing a great job, it’s going to be okay’. And she could not stop thanking me because I just didn’t know what to do. And I was just like, I hope she’s okay, because can you imagine having to go through that over and over and over again? And, and so yes, I agree. Having a lot more grace for people, a lot more encouraging words, it can be such a game changer.

Jennifer Powers:
I love that you saw the opportunity, And you took it. That’s a gift. We get to give this gift every day, every minute of every day. Like right now, I can’t wait to cross paths with someone so I can give that gift. This conversation has reminded me that maybe I haven’t given that gift and been as generous as I could with my words. And now I kind of want to do it.

Carolyn Schnare:
That’s a challenge. If you’re standing in front of a human right now, while you’re listening to this podcast, I want you to turn to that person and say something very nice. Well, after we finished talking though, of course, cause we’re gonna hit pause first. Cause we’re going to say some really cool shift soon. So, all right. That’s your challenge for today, listeners, you’re going to say something nice to the person you’re looking at.

Jennifer Powers:
And see how it feels for you because there’s so much that you, the giver gets out of it too! Not just the receiver wins, but the giver. Rose, you probably felt really good giving that grace and space to that cashier.

Rose Johnson:
I did. And I hope that it took her…you know that it went beyond that one transaction between her and I.

Jennifer Powers:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Carolyn Schnare:
So speaking of that, your book is a gift that keeps on giving because I actually read it for a second time just before talking to you today beause I read it about a couple of years ago when we talked. And so let me ask you this. Where can our listeners find you? Find more about you, besides the NACS Show in October where you are going to be talking to all of us and giving us some good shift, but in the meantime, what’s your website, what’s your handle? What’s all that fun stuff?

Jennifer Powers:
Super easy. Jenniferpowers.com. So easy. You’ll find the book there. You’ll find my coaching there. You’ll find speaking information there and you can get the book on Amazon.

Carolyn Schnare:
What about the podcast? We talked a lot about your podcast.

Jennifer Powers:
You can find the podcast there too, the Being Getter With Jennifer Powers podcast. There are a couple of hundred episodes. I don’t know how many, but many, many, many episodes that are evergreen and that will lift you up. And they are only like 10 or 12 minutes by design, quick, little, quick and dirty pieces of information or inspiration that can help you create good shift in your life and be better.

Carolyn Schnare:
Be better. Well, thank you so much, Rose, thank you so much for being with me today and taking us on this ride. And Jennifer, thank you for uplifting all of us and to you listener, you are beautiful. I’m giving you that compliment. You look good today. So, thanks again. And thank you all for listening to Convenience Matters.

Convenience Matters Outro:
[Music] Convenience Matters is brought to you by NACS and produced in partnership with Human Factor. For more information, visit convenience.org.

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