Elicia Calhoun ODMM

Hello. Hello. Hello. So I'm super excited to be here. Thank you so much, Chad and John, for having me. I want to share a little bit about Shake it Off, the resilient reset, and it's something that I learned the hard way. So the interesting thing is that the difference between those who rise and keep rising and those who stall out and get stuck, it's resilience. And oftentimes, it really has to do with more. Not how hard you fall, but how quickly you rise back up, you bounce back up. Evidence. Visual A. Okay. Paying attention to something other than where I was going, and somehow I got mangled up in the hardware there. And really, the. The interesting thing about resilience is that it is based on patterns. It's actually biological, and it's rooted, as you can see here, in the way our nervous system is wired to respond to high pressure situations. So who here likes dogs? Yay. All right. The cool thing about dogs is they have been my world for the past 35 years. And I fell into the sport of dog agility by trying to get on a TV show to win a year's worth of dog food, right? To show how amazing my dog was. And, like, dude, I want to win a year's worth of dog food. Miss the auditions. But I found this really cool sport that the show is based on. It's like, all right, well, my goal was to be the best and compete with the best because my dogs were awesome. So you can see I've been able to accomplish that. However, I learned something along the way. Come here, Deuce. This is Deuce. And I don't know if you can see him or not, but this is someone who's going to show us exactly how to do that. Deuce. Ready? Shake, shake, shake. Can you shake, shake, shake. Hi. Where's your toy? Have you ready? I don't know. Where's the tire? Can you go find your tire? Not there, Papa Bear. Where's the tire? Can you get it? There you go. All right, good. Bring it here. Here, Deuce. Get it, get it, get it. Right here. All right. Well, he's obviously tired of carrying it around. Okay. It's a big old tire. I don't know if you guys can see it from back there. And it's. He basically shows us something that we naturally do within our actual nervous systems. You guys ever seen when dogs get muddy, they go through the water or they maybe get into a scuffle and they're completely doused. What do they do? They shake it off. Exactly. And Taylor Swift even wrote a song about it. Guys, you want to stand up for a sec? Because this actually help. There you go. We have to get. All right. Five, four, three, two, and one. Thank you, John. So this single shake sends a signal through the dog's entire nervous system that says, we're safe now. Let it go. We're good to keep going. Okay. And if we actually take this concept back to you and I, as business leaders, as business owners, high performers, we experience a lot of pressure, right? It's constant. We experience a lot of uncertainty daily, right? We experience client curveballs regularly. And when it comes to team dynamics, it's a lot more complicated than we actually give it credit for. Right? So the problem is, as business owners and with our clients, we're carrying all of our clients, expectations, decisions, their emotions, their unspoken messages, and we're supposed to be able to deliver. And if we get an untimely email or a poorly, a missed opportunity, something like that, we may get set off, off track. And that's not just going to stay with us in the moment somehow. We tend to relive that, right? We're brushing our teeth, we keep replaying that, and it starts to trigger into our system in a way where the nervous system actually starts to get a little frazzled. Okay. Taking care of our nervous system is not a luxury. It's a requirement. It's a necessity. And I want you to realize that when you learn how to come back to center quickly, you stop reacting, you start being intentional, and you start coming from a place of clarity, calm, and control. That's how a true leader is able to really get the job done. So today I'd like to present three little simple tasks. How to reset instantly. How to release hidden pressure, and how to lead from that calm confidence, even when life is throwing things at you. Does that sound good? Awesome. This was the moment in 2015 that I had been working my entire career for. Toby and I compete as part of Team usa. We had won two of the three spots to earn our position on the USA team. We won our first individual gold medal. And it was like, amazing. I so much blood, sweat and tears and hard work and determination and sacrifices to get to this point. And then life started to show its little head and say, when you're not paying attention to taking care of me, things are going to happen. And our stress starts to take its toll because it puts our system constantly on high alert, right? It's stored in our body whether we mean to or not. It just does. And it's going to show up in things as simple as our shoulders being tight, our jaws being, you know, TMJ nice and locked, shortness of breath. And it's going to start to take a toll on us because your body is constantly saying something's wrong, right? We, you can't relax, you're in survival mode. As a result, we overreact, we snap at people. And in emails, I mean in emails or I guess on AI, we respond with is it AI? Rage is now the term, right? So we forget how many of you have walked into a room and forgotten what you went into the room for. That might be one of those whispering things, right? What you have to keep in mind is you have to realize that this is biology and that your stress is going to start triggering your sympathetic nervous system. It can't live there for long without having major consequences. It's going to start to rebel, you're going to start to experience fatigue, brain fog, chronic pain, poor sleep, anxiety. Well, you guys remember this moment had won the gold medal. This was me three weeks later. I couldn't go anywhere, anywhere without assistance. I would have anything. You see the sunglasses, you see the sound cancelling headphones, you see the hat underneath this, I have compression panty hose. Because anything in the environment would trigger non epileptic seizures and it would literally. I literally shook. So this shake, shake it off theme is actually a very deep rooted. Has a deep rooted meaning to me because I live it and if I don't take care of myself, I get that gentle reminder of shaky, shaky, shaky, right? Which isn't always a nice thing. So if you look though, anytime you see dog, you guys are all dog lovers and you see them shake, that could always be like a little gentle reminder for you, right? Because when you do that, you're literally just giving a quick reset to your nervous system. Okay. One of the ways that we can do it, and I just want you guys to do this with me real quick, okay. Is it's just three simple steps for this first piece, okay. First one is going to be exhaling. And what this allows us to do is to down regulate the nervous system, right? You're just going to exhale with emotion. Oh and I'll take talk you guys through it in a second. Second one is shaking out the tension. It could literally be right. Or you could totally dance, put on some nice music, whatever. But you gotta shake for a good 30 seconds, right? You gotta just like shake it out and you want to smile so that you can let it go. A simple smile is going to change Your physiology. There are more muscles in your face that are going to change your physiology if you actually make use of it. Okay, so you guys ready? We'll try that. Stand up for a second, if you would, please. John, you have that music? Yeah. All right, so we're going to do that for about 30 seconds. Ready? All right, so the first one we're going to do inhale at your. Your leisure. And we're going to exhale with this sound. Ready? 1, 2, 3. Inhale, exhale. Ah. And then shake, shake, shake, and smile while you do it. 30 seconds. Come here, Deuce. Come. Yay. Shake. Yes. Where's your tire? Shake, shake, shake, shake. Keep shaking it, shaking it. Okay. Feel better. All right, have a seat. Thank you. All right, so on to the next piece. So this is after I had my collapse. I went through five years of trying to retrain my nervous system. My body was naturally doing this. Every single time I would walk to the line, I couldn't go without it feeling like my finger was in the electric socket. Right? And there are times if I'm, like, right now, I would say, my adrenaline's kicking. We got a little shit going, baby. This means I'm alive and I'm in the moment, Right? Notice how the dog's paying attention. And I want you to also notice what I do at the beginning of this breath before I start. You'll see a quick breath. I give her a kiss. That was my breath. Did you guys see that? You've got to have that breath. You'll also see I make a. And I smile and I look at her and I leave. That's how you can start to rewire yourself to be able to handle this and not freak out over the fact that, oh, my God, I can't control my body. Right? So finding stillness amongst the chaos is part number two. You saw the dog sitting there. She was basically present. She knew all kinds of stuff was going on, but she's waiting for the release. And then we are connecting and moving in together. This is actually a performance edge for you guys. So both in business as well as in general life, if you can start to. When stuff is going cray cray, do that little shaky shake thing. Take a breath and just focus for a second. Sit. Don't think, don't duel for just 10, 15 seconds. Just get present and connect with what's going on. And again, this is part of my routine. You can see the lovely compression leggings, compression socks, soundproof headphones that you would see on the shooting range. Sunglasses and A hat. Really nice. Look, let me tell you, it takes 10 minutes to get into it, okay? There's science behind all this, because when you intentionally pause, you're going to calm your parasympathetic nervous system. Your system now goes from you can't be safe to now I'm safe. I'm in control, and I can choose. Choosing instead of reacting huge. That's the mindset of a leader. That's the mindset of a coach, right? Because. Because if you don't, you're. You're bouncing between these two things. Here, you're in control here, you're out of control here. You're giving it up because you're not taking the moment to. To pause and connect. So, tools for calming yourself down, right? You've done your shaky shake. Step two, you're now doing some breathing. This is where I have you guys do three cycles of inhale, hold, exhale, hold. Simple box breathing. Amazing results, okay? Going to focus on being present. So typically, closing your eyes helps because you can feel your way. Your oxygen is coming in. Your tummy's expanding. You feel something tense. That's where you want to focus your attention, to find that part in your body that feels that tension, that jaw, the shoulders, wherever you're feeling it, focus on that as you're inhaling and exhaling and just start to say to yourself, what do I know to be true Right now? I'm safe. I'm. I'm present. I'm grateful. Anything along those lines works. Okay? You guys want to try that? Okay, so shall we'll let you pass with the shakes. We've already done that once, so go ahead and just get comfortable. Take everything out of your hands and just close your eyes for a second. And then let me talk you through the. This breath, if I could. And I'm going to invite you to breathe. You're. I want you while you're breathing, to find a place in your body that you feel tension. Maybe it's a color, maybe it's a sensation. Hot, cold, whatever. I just want you to picture it in your mind's eye when you're breathing, and I just want you to imagine bringing that oxygen to that spot. I'll count you through. Everybody ready? All right, so close your eyes, and I'm going to start to invite you to. Inhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four, four. Hold, two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, Three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Now, while keeping your eyes closed, notice what you notice what's changed in the moment. Where do you feel anything's shifted? And ask yourself, what do you know to be true right now? Maybe it's, what are you grateful for? And when you feel ready, go ahead and slowly open your eyes. How do you feel? Yep, we got a yawn. Love it. Awesome. Awesome. Okay, Feeling any more grounded? Awesome. There's so many amazing breathing techniques. I have, like, pages and pages because each one has a different intention behind it in terms of how it impacts our central nervous system. Okay. So it's going to change everything in terms of your moment. It's not going to change long term unless you build consistent habits. Right. And this is actually something that's intentional. So a lot of high performers think that sitting in stillness is laziness. I have something to tell you. It's actually your superpower. And if you can flip and reframe that, you're going to find that to work for you in a big way. So the return anchoring gold as the new version of me. Well, I was able to work my way back after five years to retrain my autonomic nervous system so that I could be in the environment with minimal maintenance tools. Got to be a part of the team and got to be asked to run the anchor leg. Watch this. Ambival Super F3 or a Super FGA Soup Command. About 4, 5 second before the. I just anchored the gold medal for the usa. There was less than a quarter of a second between first place and fourth place. They asked me over three other members in my height division. They asked me, the one with shaky, Shaky, right, and the high maintenance team to get me out of the ring to run that leg because they believed in me. They saw what I've been able to do in terms of retraining my system and having the ability, like, I don't know what's going to happen afterwards, but I know I can get through those obstacles with the dog and the skills that I've trained. I know we can do it. But it was this one of the scariest moments. And it's one of the fewest first times I'd ever really doubted myself out there. And I said, you know what? They asked me. They believe in me. I can do it. It will be done right. So we did. We got the gold medal. You see me celebrating. This is a friend of ours who had literally six months before or just however old the baby is, had just given birth and she was running around with the baby on her shoulder. And they were all part of helping me to get out of the ring because I couldn't manage it on my own. Right? So part three of the reset is the heel. It's not just healing ourselves, but it's aligning and staying true to our path, right? It's identifying what we've drifted away from in the alignment of things. I had been so focused on competing, being out there, doing, pushing, challenging, that I sacrificed my health care. I'd sacrificed so many things that were important to me that I didn't see until I was forced into stuff, stillness and silence, and I had to regroup and figure that out. I then started figuring out what really was important to me, what my values were, and that allowed me to go out there and to do what served me the best. Now, this is still. This is what I looked like after my runs, but I was willing to do this every single time because it allowed me to go out there and do what I needed to with my dog. And this is during the rehab process. This is during the five years retraining everything you could see. I had no dexterity to be able. Yet he recognizes Toby. I had no ability to be able to click the leash, the thing myself. It took me two hands to be able to hold on to a baton because the adrenaline was already kicking in, right? And this is not a look of I'm having fun. This is, I'm on a mission. I'm going to get this done. Right? And so purpose is really your performance multiplier. When you're aligned with a meaningful goal, your brain releases these cool chemicals, dopamine and oxytocin, right? Your system becomes more stable and you stop chasing and you start choosing what you want to do, what you're about to do. So I basically, each week I go down and I list out each week things I want to shake off, things I want to carry forward. Okay, and what you want to do is you want to decide what you want to release. These are examples that you might see in your own business, right? What you want to keep and build on. And one tweak for the week, right? That you're going to focus on that week, something that doesn't align with your priorities. Or finish each day with one sentence of gratitude before you turn off the light in your office. Okay? So when you're aligned, you lead differently, you make clearer decisions, you bounce back faster, and most importantly, you stop chasing what you think success looks like, and you start becoming who you're meant to be. I never thought that you would see me in heels with the dogs doing business coaching when I tried to get on that TV show to win a year's worth of dog food, right? And just remember that success doesn't belong to the most gifted, right? It's the one who knows how to bounce back the fastest. So just a gentle reminder if you know how that you're going to fall, you just know how to pick yourself up. Because resilience is not measured by how hard you fall. It's how fast you bounce back. Don't overthink it, right? Don't get stuck. We reset just like our dogs. We shake it off, we move forward, but we can do it intentionally, right? You have the ability to regulate your nervous system in real time to get back your clarity under pressure, to lead from that grounded state, no matter what life throws at you. So if you're feeling the weight, if you know something needs to change, this is your moment. My great dog, right? Don't wait for burnout. I'm here to say it is not fun. You don't need motivation. You need a reset system that works one shake at a time. Thank you so very much for letting me be my first time with you guys in this context. Schedule a free strategy call and it's just a conversation.