Cultivating Playful Leadership Mindset for Thriving Teams with One Vision, One Voice. A Conversation with Kirsten Johnson. (Epi. # 192)

Guest Bio:
Kirsten Johnson is an International Fitness Expert with over 35 years of experience managing high-end fitness clubs in California and Europe. She is currently a senior manager at The Bay Club and specializes in Group Fitness Management. Kirsten is known for her creativity in developing new and trendsetting classes and was awarded as NIKE Elite Trainer Germany and received the Equinox ‘Haute Couture’ award.

She loves teaching classes herself, and she currently teaches Yoga, Pilates, Barre, and Dance at the Bay Club.

Guest Site: http://www.kirstenjohnsonfit.com/

Are you ready to elevate your leadership game and create a team that thrives on positivity and creativity? In this episode, I'm joined by the incredible Kirsten Johnson, a psychologist-turned-fitness leader with over 40 years of experience in management and team building.

Kirsten shares her journey from Hamburg, Germany to Silicon Valley, where she's now a senior leader managing a team of 70 instructors. She reveals how her background in psychology, martial arts, and yoga has shaped her unique approach to leadership.

Here's what you'll discover in this inspiring conversation:

• The power of cultivating a playful work environment to boost creativity and productivity
• How meditation and yoga can enhance your leadership skills and decision-making
• Strategies for creating a unified team voice while nurturing individual talents
• The importance of listening and adapting your leadership style based on feedback
• Tips f

✨ Feeling the pull to pivot from corporate, but unsure where to start? ✨

 I help high-achieving women create the runway to pivot in the next 6 to 9 months from corporate to a profitable, aligned business in the wellness or creative space using my Amplify Authentically™ process

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Transcript

• 00:00:03
   Kirsten, thank you so much for joining today. I absolutely adore you and I'm so excited to have this conversation.
• 00:00:14
   Thank you so much for inviting me. It's so excited to be back on your podcast. I'm always listening to your podcast. And to me, it's so inspiring to hear all the different women who are on different journeys in their lives who inspire me from all different corners. And I love the positivity that comes out of your podcast.
• 00:00:36
   Thank you. Well, I take a holistic approach and one of my pillars is mindset. And today we are diving deep at the beginning of the year, kicking it off with mindset from you, who I think you are the prime example of someone who not only has a great mindset, but you also have a very centered heart and you recognize the value of coming from that space. So without further ado, maybe you could share a little bit of a background. Clearly people will pick up. You have a subtle accent.
• 00:01:14
   Yeah, I still have it. Yes. I originally was born in Germany. I come from Hamburg, Germany, and I've been there. I've been in the states since 2000, so almost 25 years. But I started, for me, my career really started in Hamburg, Germany. I am a psychologist, a trait. And beside this, I was always, I had this affinity to sports. I studied dance, I studied martial arts, which to me is the yin and yang of fitness. The dance is the creativity. Martial arts is the focus. And then I also did yoga. And I started with yoga and meditation when I was about 24. Meditation helped me to focus, helped me to stay calm, you know, going through university and going through what we go through in growth in life and state centered. And then the yoga helped me to work with people during my university. I started teaching classes pretty early on. I think I was in my early twenties when I started teaching martial arts. When I started doing self defense myself, I always believed in women being strong. And for me, being able to defend myself, being able to be confident, walking on the streets wherever I could, and teach that to other women was a big deal. And. Yeah, and then I worked as a psychologist for five years, part time in school. And at the same time I worked at a club. It was a given fitness in Hamburg. And they talked me into taking over management of this club. And I thought, well, I'm going to do it. And I promised my mom I'm not going to do it over 30 because she thought fitness is not a real job. And, you know, then you do the serious psychology career. And I said, okay, I'm just going to play a little bit with fitness and managing and the play. And it ended up being my career that I still have over 40 years later. And I know time flies. We've known each other for over 20 years. So one of the things for people always ask me how I got into leadership. And honestly, on one part, I don't know. What I know is, when I was in school in Germany, we always, the class chooses a leader of the class or a leader of the grade, you know, grade six, seven, eight. And I was always chosen as being the leader. And I think part of it is I was never shy speaking out. I always believed in things have to be injustice, have to be fair. And if somebody is not fair, I had no fear going to the principal or to the teacher and speaking out. And. And I had parents who were very open to supporting me in no matter what I did. I have a very, very. A wonderful dad who is. Was always very positive, who was a leader himself, and who taught me leadership just on a very basic level. But he also taught me to be positive, to be inspiring. And I think people are attracted to people who are inspiring, who they feel like, I want what you have. And I think I got this from my dad. I wanted what he had, and he taught me that. And I carried that tradition on, so to speak, and brought it into my way of leading with joy, with passion, with fun, but also with standing up and not being shy, too, especially if I felt somebody was treated unfair.
• 00:04:56
   Those are definitely the traits of leadership that I have seen in you. And I respect. I mean, just for the audience that's listening. Yes. Kristen and I have been friends for close to 20 years at this point. You were at my wedding.
• 00:05:10
   And so beautiful. How can I ever forget?
• 00:05:15
   Thank you. I wish my husband and I, Rich, would have actually been able to enjoy it, because we were so busy with the details. One thing I wanted to share is the influence you had as a leader for me. And there's a very conscious reason I wanted to kick off this new year with your podcast, because sometimes it just takes one person to change the trajectory of your life or influence you, uplift you. And when I met you, I was single, and I was just exploring, you know, fitness. And I was really good at yoga, but I dared not even try anything high intensity. And I was eating healthy, but I really didn't have. I had so many boundaries on what I thought was healthy. And so I explored something at the gym that you were a leader at. And it was a several week program, and I ended up walking away with a different mindset, a shift, a growth mindset, because I went from having somewhat limitations, not against, but limitations. What I thought was a healthy plant based diet and the options that I had available. And I also had a limitation on what I was willing to do at the gym, which was not much beyond yoga.
• 00:06:37
   We kind of set our own boundaries without really knowing it. Right.
• 00:06:41
   Not knowing it. Well, in this program that you were leading, they had you sample different things and become comfortable.
• 00:06:49
   Right.
• 00:06:50
   One of the things in the fitness side, the physical side, was try these different things that you've never tried. One was spinning. Well, you were teaching that class. It was an evening after, and we were supposed to only be in there for like, half an hour, 15 minutes I sat on the bike. I was a little bit awkward. When you're first starting spinning, getting yourself adjusted. Well, within minutes I was thinking, I hope she doesn't notice because I'm going to sneak out.
• 00:07:20
   At least you tried. See, that's always the first step.
• 00:07:23
   Yeah, well, what ended up happening is I fell in love with it immediately. The music was just really invigorating. And then what I got out of it, I loved. So I came running to you saying, what is this? This is fun. I want to become a master in it. I ended up becoming obsessed with spinning it, among many things I learned from you. So that's the influence and that can shift within a few weeks. You can have a completely different mindset just by being open. So I'd love for you to share how you take this I would say characteristic that has inspired me and instill it among those that you lead in your industry and your journey. Even during COVID I think you really were pivotal in helping your organization.
• 00:08:20
   Yes, one thing I did, and I want to go back a little bit, I had two amazing mentors myself, besides my dad. In my first job, it was at the Gummen Hamburg. The owner was a real estate Mughal in Germany. And he was the most inspiring person for me. He took me under his wings and he made things playful. We had, like, vip parties. We had the craziest things. And he just said, you got this whole budget. Just make it fun so people will hear from it. From the north to the south, that was my job. And so he allowed me to be creative and we played, and of course, I had a team of people and we're all creative, and we created people of hundred parties with hundreds of people coming from all over. And it was even on tv. And. And so he inspired to do it and he was brave. He said, just do it. Just do something that nobody else does. So this way of going above a mindset and not being within the frames of who we think we are or the boundaries that we create for ourselves, but going out and doing it without fear, making it like a game, just play another game and let's do it. And so I had him to show me to be fearless and do it. And we never thought about failing. We did it and we always had a lot of fun. And then the second one was when I came to the States. I was led by Amy Thompson, who is now the owner of Idea, the biggest fitness convention, fitness organization in the world. And she also made it playful. She felt like, let's just do something where people feel good. And one of the things I learned very early on is if you want to have a team, you want to have something that attracts the team, not just to your club, but to you, because you are the leader and they, you know, and if you ever work for someone, you know that you work not just for a company, you work for people, right? People. Somebody can offer me so much money. If I don't like the people who work there, I'm not going to go there, I'm not going to work there, or I'm not going to stay there, right? So I felt my job was to create a work environment that is, feels like play for people, that feels positive, that feels I'm supported by my, you know, my manager has, has my back and I can do whatever I want. And, you know, and some instructors right now, I've currently have 70 instructors under me. I used to have hundreds of instructors under me in different positions that I had working in the states and high end clubs. And one thing I learned is that you need to have the ability to see who is on your team. What helped me really was my practice of yoga. Yoga helps me to go into this calm place from inside where you simply listen, where you have this open mindset of just observing who is without any preoccupation, without any anything else, but just listen to who is in front of you and then seeing what is the best thing I can do for that person, in that job and help. And some people would like to go far. Some people want to learn more classes, some people want to be presenters, and some people want to do managers. And there's people who say, I'm fine with having one class a week. So for me, it is to find out who is in front of me. What can I do to give them the best place possible on my team and in the company? That I work for, and that's one thing. And then bring a team together. So I work with teams that are very diverse people from, from many, many different countries, especially I work in Silicon Valley. So you have a team of 20 people, and you've got 15 different countries behind you, just like me. We all come from somewhere. So how we bring them together, and then also we are creative people. If you ever work with group for dispatchers, and I'm one of them, we are very creative, and we have our ideas. We can be very loud, we can be very outspoken. So kind of bringing them into the same umbrella without cutting their wings, you know, keeping them being creative, but yet having a vision, having a voice and creating, I call it a vibe, creating an excitement that they can then take on into their class and inspire our members who come in with that vibe that we are creating.
• 00:12:53
   And, Kristen, when you talked about yoga mindset and using that as an approach for how you lead, it really reminds me of the essence of yoga for me, and I'm sure you're aware of this, is that yoga is about awareness. So you're creating not only an awareness of your inner self and helping you navigate life and career, but I think it gives you a lens on the other individuals that you're leading so that you have a greater awareness of who they are, allowing them to be the best version of themselves.
• 00:13:26
   Yes. I create this awareness through my yoga practice. I create a clarity. In yoga, we always create this stillness. And I believe if you're able to go into the stillness that gives you the clarity, you are able to see the person just the way they are in front of you, and you're able to listen without making assumptions. My goal is always to listen and be open. Right. And I like to have personal conversations with my team, and also, then on the next step or at the next step, allow them to see themselves, because sometimes people create a mindset that is limited. And my, I feel sometimes, can I open it up a little bit? Can I. Can I give them different ideas, how I. How they can expand and just help them in a way where they can choose how far and not far they want to go, whatever they want to do. My experience, and like I said, I've done this for 40 years. I've. I've managed thousands, tens of thousands of people in my life. And people always come, like to be on the team because they know they. I got their back, they can grow, they can be creative, they can be themselves. They also know that what I do, on one hand, I have this frame where we work, in fairness. So I am always very aware of how do we talk about each other? Do we respect each other, how do we treat each other? And if I see that there's a lack of something, I'm inviting people to talk and clarify this so that there's always a place where people feel I'm being treated fairly by my leader, but also by my team. And we all have our backs, and with that, we create this team. And then you mentioned Covid. So Covid was very interesting. I went from, I think I had 80 instructors in this one club that I led. I went from a region manager into one club for the first part of COVID and went into, I believe, 20 people. So we were a super small team. We kept our clubs open. I think after a month, we opened again. I worked for a club that has a lot of space, a lot of properties, so we could teach outside. We also did online courses. And then I started overseeing more clubs in my area. But what it meant is we worked very, very closely together, and we were really our own bubble. Very often we were had, like our spouse or our little family as a personal bubble. But otherwise, that was it, right? In Covid, we couldn't really communicate, so we would be there and we would be on Zoom calls, you know, creating our schedule. And there was always this moving piece inside, outside mask. What were we going to do? So we worked together with a concept change, and we did it in such a fun and creative way that we grew, really. We grew together, and it was really nice to see each other, and we all created something different for different people. And to me, it was a wonderful time to really get close to my team. And I think until this day, that core team is so close together, and we're the nucleus of the team that then grow where other people were added on now that we're back to 70. But what it meant is, if you in Covid is a time when also, when it's a little bit like yoga, there is not a lot. There were not a lot of disruptions. You know, you wouldn't go out for dinners, you wouldn't go out for movies, you wouldn't go out. You were just in a space of a small group of people, small group of a team, and we would work together, and that helped us to focus, to focus on what are we doing? How do we motivate members to come back? How do we interact between each other? And we would try to interact and optimize and talk about, how can we optimize it. And to me, a team is basically a progress. You always start to work and grow together. There's no staleness. And as a team leader, my job is to just keep it moving, but inspire people to bring their ideas and bring their creativity in, and then we fly out together.
• 00:17:56
   I imagine another element aside from the yoga mindset is the fact that you meditate and you've had that strong influence from an early part of your life. I would love for the audience to understand that these elements of what meditation perhaps has unconsciously even brought it to your personality. Is that your ability to not only listen to yourself, but then to listen to others?
• 00:18:27
   Yes. I think that is a big, big part of my success, is being able to pull myself back. So give you an example. Often there's a conflict situation. There's a conflict between a member and instructor, for instance. And meditation helps me to pull myself back and look at the situation from a wider perspective, not engaging right away, just to help to find a space to understand what's going on, to listen to the different stories, and then from that perspective, go back and try to help them solve it with my perspective. So being proactive, not reactive, being able to listen, being able to understand, being able to feel and have empathy for both parties, very often it's easy to jump to a conclusion, and especially if something makes you mad, it's easy to do that in meditation. It helps me, actually, the crazier things are, and they can get very crazy. In my job, I get very calm. I go to a place where I'm very, very calm, and I'm getting more quiet. I listen, I observe, and then I can navigate from that point. And that itself often dissolves most of what's going on, because most of the time, people want to be listened to, they want to be understood, and then they want to find a solution that usually ends in a compromise. And for me, it's about fine tuning what the compromise could be and then ask them to find it together. But really, the ability to pull back and be in a calm place when, yeah, the life can get sometimes crazy in those clubs and interaction with a lot of people. And that helps me to navigate, and I do that a lot also in classes, right when members are interacting and everybody wants to get the first, a second spot. And there's stuff when I come in, I come in with a calmness and clarity. Well, I'm just very calmly dissolving it. And that meditation is that mindset that I use and that I've learned over decades. I've done meditation now for 42 years. And it really, really helps me and helps my team and helps the environment around me to stay calm. I think also in Covid, we didn't, we didn't panic. We just right away created a space of calmness. What are we going to do? How we're going to do it? Let's get to work. And that helps. So with the practice of meditation is so helpful to create an example of how to be when there is a conflict, right, when there is of tension and, you know, when with a lot of people around there can be tension, but it can also be dissolved pretty quickly.
• 00:21:30
   One thing that strikes me about my friendship with you and how I feel like you've always been, maybe it's not been explicitly expressed, but like a mentor to me is you do teach by example. You do live your life by an example. We've had multiple opportunities to engage in different ways and whether or not you're aware of it or not, you're teaching. And it may not be a formal opportunity at times, but I've walked away thinking, okay, like, even when I had you on my podcast a couple years ago, we talked about second act and shifting your professional life to something else. You never really lose what you know. You just carry on that innate skills like your leadership, personality, your meditation, yoga, but other skills. But one thing you had said to me was sort of really knowing yourself and then that gave you the inner compass to know that you were better suited as an entrepreneur and a leader. And that was this inner drive, inner not knowing. Could you share a little bit more about your, how you take that inner compass and guide others?
• 00:22:48
   You know, I think part of it is understanding that when you know yourself, you can do anything you want. And often people don't do it because they have fear. And like so many people who are successful, sometimes we are successful and sometimes we do a thing that is not successful but not taking it as a failure, but taking it as a path, which is great. I feel that for me, having the sense of I can do whatever, and even if there's one thing that I might not be good at, I'm fine. And I think that led me to a place of confidence. And that confidence I like to pass on to others because I know, for instance, being a presenter was the first big deal for me being on a big stage. You know, I was thrown onto it from one day to the next and I just did it and I had fun doing it. And I feel so many people don't do it, even though they are so talented. And I've been encouraging a lot of instructors to be presenters and encouraging them, just do it and you're gonna be fine. And it's this inner compass that if you have this passion for it, if you have the drive for it, you know you can do it. And the only thing that takes you away from it going there is you and yourself. So having this confidence where, you know, you have this inner sense of, or intuition of, I can do it and I will do it. And there are some things, you know, friends, I know I'm just getting into, am I going to open another company or not? So I'm in the mindset, for instance, right now, am I going to do it? I've got an offer to do it. I haven't made up my mind yet, so sometimes I sit on it and meditate on it and this kind of go deeper into the structure of what is the feedback that my body, what my mind gives me? What if I visualize being there? Is it something I want to do or not? And sometimes sitting there from a place of calmness, observing there, that's also the mindset of meditation. I'm not in fear. I could fail. You know, I don't have the fear of failure. I just look into, is this an opportunity I want to take or not? And I think that makes people successful and this way. And I always tell people, you know, if you start, like for me, it's instructors under me, you start a new format. And they said, I don't know if I can teach it. If you don't, first of all, see if that's something you would like to do. If you really, really want to do it, chances are you can. If there's something in you where you feel this is not me, just don't do it. Probably not. So really use the meditation to look inside, get a closer look, get clarity for yourself. And then once your inner self gives you, yes, I can do it, I will be fine. Then you can plan on how you're going to go to the next step.
• 00:25:59
   As a leader. I know that that is probably one of the things that it's such a wonderful thing to observe, that somebody who may not have seen that in themselves and had the confidence, I've seen it with you and me, where I'll tell you, I'm thinking about. I just fill in the blank. And you've always been like, shilpa, do it. Just, you know, do it when it's still early and it's still fresh and go, right. You've often said that, to me, about things that I am considering doing now, one element that you've mentioned throughout our conversation today, which I'd like for you to really tune into, is the playfulness element. And what do you believe makes integration of play the probably the formula to success?
• 00:26:52
   That's what I believe, that people should enjoy what they do. I believe that if people enjoy what they do, they will thrive, they will create. They feel free to go further. They also don't have the fear of failure. They want to grow. They get confident. So playing is a way of enjoying what you do, enjoying it, no matter what it is, playing is the way of connecting with the child within us that say, let's just do it. Let's have fun. Let's go in the sand and build a castle and see what comes out of it. It's this inner, inner joy that versus, oh, God, I have to go to the job and I just hate it, but I have to get this whole pile done and oh, my goodness. And you know, your inner self, you know, your emotional self is not supporting that, right? Psychology wise, we know we only get supported by what our inner selves loves, what we feel joyful, what we feel positive about. So the play makes it positive, it makes it creative, it makes it joyful. And when we enjoy something, then we thrive. So I believe that when we create an environment of joy, wherever you are, people feel more attracted to it. They feel more attracted to the job, to the company, to the people around them, and they will stay, because right now, the issue we have here in Silicon Valley, that a lot of people are in jobs where they work, they don't work in the office anymore, they work at home, and there is no connection to the job. And if they don't like it, okay, I'm going to go to another one. So there is this, there is no more team play there. And that's something we're trying to get back and not just in fitness, in many, many other companies. So one of the things we look into as managers, as leader, and I'm in senior leadership in my company, what can we do to attract people to us, to our company, to our team? Enjoy as one of the teams, people are attracted to joy. They are attracted to something positive, something that allows them to thrive, to be the best. And that has been my philosophy for pretty much all my lifetime and not for the first one. I want to tell you one thing. When I started out, I was very young. I was very more strict. I was very german. I can say this. And my best girlfriend was on my team and said, kirsten, you're too strict. I don't like working for you. And you know what? She was. It was great. She gave me the best feedback ever because everybody else was too afraid because I was their boss. And I said, you know, you're right. And it made me change it immediately and I never looked back.
• 00:29:44
   And that's a big thing to do. Like, when somebody gives you feedback, but your inner world has always been defined in a certain way. Like, I can say my early years were very defined by, say, indian culture and whatever those characteristics come with. And it carried into my education and my relationships, and it was very much into being precise, being truthful, and holding a very high standard for myself and others. But to get that feedback from others and then take a step back, that is a huge sign of a leader, like an innate leader, because it doesn't happen easily. Our egos can be our worst enemy.
• 00:30:32
   You know, it's true. And I believe that as a leader, you are not the star of the show. And I say that because when I was young, I was a presenter, I was on tv, I did a lot of things and I was. It was more of a mindset of, okay, I have to be that person who is the star. When I'm a leader, I'm not. I'm putting myself into the background and I am there for others. This is, you know, like, you're a mother, you're not the star. You know, you let your son thrive, you pull yourself back in order to let someone else grow. Right. It's a little bit of the same mindset. It's not about you. It's about growing others to be the best they can do in a team. And obviously I get trainings too. I'm a team leader, senior management team leader, where I get feedback myself from outside. But I believe the mindset of a good leader is what can I do for my team. So my team thrives. And part of it, obviously, there is this big part of joy as the core and another one is obviously you have to have a frame of expectations. This is the job expectations. And I try to keep the frame so that there is a lot of space within the frame where my team can grow.
• 00:31:52
   And Kirsten, maybe you can speak to now you just mentioned frame and the framework, maybe the elements of what you believe, aside from the overarching playfulness to really bring in the energy, I would say of getting people to get motivated, but as a leader that able to step aside and say, it's not about me. It's about the team. Can you share how you then echo that as a voice or a unity?
• 00:32:29
   Yeah, there's a couple of things. I meet with my team once a month. We do a Zoom meeting. Ever since COVID it works a lot better because a lot of my instructors, they actually have big jobs and here in Silicon Valley, so they're busy people. And so we came to the conclusions. Meeting on Zoom once a month is great. I have an in person meeting twice a year where we get together, but we also do a social interaction, and I am very much there for them. I also have a lot of one on ones, so. And also when I see somebody struggling or somebody needs some help or I need to remind somebody of something, then I have a one on one. And just again, it's with the same mindset. We have a frame of, this is our business, it's our job, it's what we need to do. Those are the expectations. How can I help you thrive within that? So the combination of personal interaction, once in a month Zoom meetings, where we talk about the business, we talk about creativity, we talk about events. The new things I'm doing is going into zoom rooms. We create different events, we create classes together. So we are creative together and then. Yeah, and then get together for parties. I also create big events in my clubs. We have, like, dance events, we have yoga events where we get together as dance instructors or as yoga instructors. Cycle instructors are going to come up. So the tribes within my, in my team are going to get together, and that's. That's always super, super fun. They love it. They love to team teach. They interact, and that gets them also together as one, that it's a way for them to share the playlist, share the dances, and to create something. My team is very creative, as you know, we are all. That's the creative spirit, that's the nature of who we are. So for them to interact, that's something they thrive on. Interaction is key. Interaction with everyone. And of course, there's some people who are naturally interactive, others not. My goal is to look at that, connect with everyone and get everybody on board.
• 00:34:41
   Yes, yes. And, well, creativity, if you're thinking about it, even spiritually, is energy. And we're all energy. And if you can interact with other people and meet their vibe, so to speak, you know, then you're creating a certain kind of tribe.
• 00:34:57
   You create a tribe and they feel as one. And I know people want to be part of the team, and I have a very, very successful team, very well known here in the bay area, where we came back after Covid, we are more than 130% right now from where we were before COVID And I think, and people always say, oh, you are so good. I say, no, no, no. This is my team, and I mean that. This is my team that has this fight, and people are attracted to getting in, and I'm also very careful who I add to the team. So I want people to understand what we're doing, to understand the mindset and to fit in. If somebody is who wants to be too much of a superstar or wants to shine, that's not part of what we are as a team. So I'm very, very selective of who I add to my team. And they are also very. They like that I do that and they actually come up to me. And when I know when people interview and they say, you know, they give me their feedback, so I'm very, very mindful of that and listen to them and make sure that, you know, we have one voice and they have a voice, too. I don't just make decisions over them. I really am listening to their voices.
• 00:36:13
   It sounds like there's a good resonance among the different team members. You're vibrating at the same high level, the same voice, and also the tribe in a good way. Tribe mentality could mean different things, but in this case, it's, you guys are looking out for each other and you're looking out for them.
• 00:36:35
   Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. We do and we help each other. Right. So let's say, like, in my job, somebody needs a substitute. Somebody needs to get some more information, needs to learn something. We are all supportive of each other. That's also really important to have to know that it's not somebody who wants to be the best or, I'm a better teacher than you. It's not about that at all. We all are together in it, and. And it worked. It worked that we all lift each other up, and if we lift each other up together as a team, we're stronger.
• 00:37:10
   I love that. And that applies in so many areas beyond the fitness industry. I imagine that if we could apply that as a framework in all niches, we would all be kind of in a more happier, joyful, playful space in life.
• 00:37:27
   Yeah, I think so. It can go to wherever you work. Right. Because you have teams and instead of, you know, fighting against each other or trying to be better, it's very easy to get there, to be competitive that way. But really understanding the dynamic of a team is together. You are so much more than just one. Right. And it's fun. Again, like if you come into company and there's, you're competing. I've been in situations like this and other jobs, you just feel uncomfortable and you kind of retract yourself. Retract into your own self instead of expanding yourself.
• 00:38:04
   Yes, absolutely. I love that analogy. Or the metaphor of expansion and contraction, especially. I've been through it, where you realize that there is a competitive edge that's actually going to bring your energy down. And I found myself contracting. But with the converse that you can expand and it's a win win for both the person that you're working with, multiple people, and all of you are bringing a sense of joy to one another.
• 00:38:36
   Yeah, we do. And then we bring it to members and the members feel it. Members come up. It's like, oh, you guys are so amazing. And you always, and they feel that and they don't. Sometimes they don't know why, but they come because they sense it. It's attractive. They know that people are enjoying what they do. They know that people work together and that attracts them. Right. And like I said, we are a place where people escape from, often from work that is really difficult and very competitive. And I, you know, twelve hour shifts and all of that. And they just feel like this is a little vacation for them in a little bit of a different world. And it's a real world. It's not just Disney, it's real world.
• 00:39:18
   Absolutely. Well, Kirsten, I hope I can bring you back because I have multiple areas where I'd love to go deeper into. And this conversation on mindset, one voice and one vision and bringing in playfulness into all of that has been enlightening for me. I think it just shows that when you have the right mindset, it sends a ripple effect.
• 00:39:48
   Yes, I believe so. It's contagious. Right. And it can go both ways. Right. But it's, and that's why I think it's important as a leader to really know who you are, to know what you sent out, what ripple effect do you send out into your teams and be very aware of it? And meditation helps. Having an awareness of yourself and always looking at yourself. Right. Where am I? And really knowing that, you know, we all have things going on in our lives. How does it affect me? And if it does, what do I do so that it doesn't affect my work, so it doesn't affect my team. Right. To really be that person, the best person you can be with your team.
• 00:40:33
   I love it. Well, thank you. Kristen. Until next time.
• 00:40:37
   You are so welcome. It's so good to see you.
• 00:40:39
   You're so good to see you. And I received so much joy from this conversation. Thank you.
• 00:40:45
   I'm so glad. Well, we're going to have another conversation, so I look forward to it.
• 00:40:50
   Absolutely. And if anyone wants to reach you, your contacts, anything about any endeavors you're working on will be in the show. Notes, Kirsten Johnson, thank you so much. You're such a wonderful friend.
• 00:41:02
   Thank you so much. Take care. Take care.