Listen to the Full Episode:

In this empowering episode of "The Make Room Show," join host Jennifer Ford Berry as she engages in a compelling conversation with Leanne Jamison, a Women's Empowerment Coach and founder of Essentially Zenful. If you're a female business owner seeking inspiration and practical insights, this episode is a must.

 Leanne is a guru in energy and mindset radiating a beautiful spirit while successfully running her own business. She shares her journey of leaving corporate America to pursue coaching, emphasizing the importance of finding fulfillment and purpose, after a pivotal moment in her life. Talking Points: 

• Leanne's journey from corporate America to becoming a women's empowerment coach
• The importance of finding fulfillment and purpose in business
• The impact of energy and mindset on achieving success
• Shedding limiting beliefs and cultivating an expansive mindset
• How stepping into purpose positively influences children's outlook on success
• Tips and insights for female business owners
• Becoming aware of internal blocks and limiting money beliefs
• Embracing a growth-oriented mindset
• Achieving abundance and building purpose-driven businesses.

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Leanne Jamison is a Women’s Empowerment Coach and Licensed Professional Counselor.  In 2020, Leanne launched her business Essentially Zenful, which focuses on Women’s Empowerment.  Through her Coaching Programs, events, and retreats, women are empowered to release long standing limiting beliefs that have held them back in life and kept them playing small.  They are given the roadmap to identify and embrace their most Authentic Self so they are able to align with their Personal Power and live in their Highest Life Vision and Purpose. She has spoken at local, national, and global conferences on topics that include Mindfulness in Recovery, Mindfulness, and Women Empowerment and Leadership.  She has also hosted retreats and workshops focused on Authentic Living and Aligning with your Highest Life Purpose. In short, she helps amazing, world changing, trailblazing women who are feeling stuck and stagnant, gain clarity of their next steps to their most Expansive Life and empowers them to align with their Highest Potential and Purpose! Find Leanne: ⁠Website⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠

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About your host, Jennifer Ford Berry: Jennifer is the host of the Make Room podcast and the founder of the⁠ Created Order Neighborhood⁠, an online community of women who want to live a life of order and purpose. She is the author of five books, including the Organize Now! series and her latest, Make Room. Jennifer was previously the regular organizing expert on the TV show Winging It, Buffalo Style. , and has appeared as a guest expert on several television and radio shows, as well as in national magazines and newspapers. Jennifer lives in western New York with her husband and two children. She works both hands-on and virtually with her clients to help them eliminate clutter and live their dreams.

Where to find Jennifer:

⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Pinterest⁠ 

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Full Transcript:

Jennifer:

Welcome back to the Make Room Show. I am so excited for today's conversation. If you are a female business owner, you're really going to want to tune in to this episode, I'm excited to announce that my guest today is Leanne Jameson. She is a Women's Empowerment coach. She is the founder of Essentially Zenful. She is the host of the podcast, Sit Crooked and Talk Straight. And she's my friend! So welcome to the show, girlfriend.

Leanne:

Ah, Jen, it's so good to be here with you. I'm super excited to have this conversation to just be able to be in the space with you. So thanks.

Jennifer:

I'm super pumped too so we have become friends through a women's networking group here in Buffalo, New York. And we are part of a mastermind together. And so what I want to jump in today is we're both owners of businesses, and we're both female coaches. So you are like the guru of all things, energy and mindset. And you just have a most beautiful, radiant spirit. And you're also like a badass business owner. Okay, so I want all of those things to come through today to this audience, because they are going to love you as much as I do. And I want to just kind of start off by saying, I know you were in corporate America, and you left that to go into coaching. So just give us like a brief backstory of how you got to where you are today?

Leanne:

Yeah. Oh, my gosh, absolutely. So I Yeah, definitely, I climbed the corporate ladder. I'm a licensed professional counselor. So a licensed psychotherapist, started off just there. And as I grew and expanded, went into management, Executive Director, started creating, you know, programs, clinical programs, from the ground up startup companies, treatment centers, specifically. And just was not happy, you know, and I just knew that there was something more my soul kept on telling me there was something more I kept on going in and out of business ventures, whether it's private practice, group practice, or just creating my own business with, you know, one of my good friends, Katie, that was in 2016-2017. And just things kept… it was my mindset that kept me stuck. And it was at the point where my dad actually passed away, there's always a catalyst, right, that sort of wakes you the f**** up, like wakes you up? You know? And that was my catalyst where, you know, when he passed away, he was 57. And all of a sudden, right? So that really was that that moment where it's like, tomorrow, truly, tomorrow was never ever promised, like, what am I doing with my life, my unhappiness was spreading to my family, right, my discontent with like, you know, not wanting to be in corporate, but not just so much and it was impacting all of my life. So I knew I had to do something different.

And that is where, you know, I came up with this, again, I knew that I was somewhat in the field that I want to be in, because obviously coaches help they guide they inspire they, you know, help to identify what the problem is moving into a solution. So this was the next step. I knew I wanted to work with females, and which is funny, because like, when I was younger, in the field, I was like, never gonna work with females. And then there were other people that saw that within me when I didn't. So yeah, I was able to gain some clarity of like, the direction I wanted to go in. And I'm like, why am I creating all these programs for all these other treatment centers? And especially for men who are like, what are you doing with this money? So I was just like, why am I doing this for other people? Why? Why not do it for myself? And so that's where Essentially Zenful was created.

Jennifer:

I love that. I do great. And there's nothing more rewarding than going out on your own. You know, I thought I wanted to be in corporate America, I did that, you know, for a while, and it was not fulfilling at all. And all of a sudden, you know, I'd pivoted and I think that deep down, we all want to find our purpose and live it out. Yes, you know, it's just a matter of the courage to leave that stable paycheck, right? Where, you know, and then go out onto your own, where it's like, you're starting from the ground up, and you have all these spheres that want to keep you stuck. And it's like, Well, how am I going to do it when we're gonna get clients and how am I going to advertise and I'm gonna have to take a pay, you know, a step back in my pay. And then looking back, I would tell everybody, if you have that push to do it, that later on like, you know, for us, it's been a long time, then your life will never be better if you do it.

Leanne:

Oh, my gosh, I couldn't agree more. Right. And the thing that I think is hard, and this comes into all sorts of different mindsets, and like how like, well, we'll get into the energy of it. But our mindset is that we have these fears already. But guess what, we weren't born with those fears, the people around us, you know, they gave us those fears. So we're saying this in our head, but then other people who are still in that same space, you know, like, I think about my mom, I love her. And she's always supported me. But she was one of the biggest ones. Like, you can't do that. That's too risky. Like, what about health care? What about your paycheck? What about this? What about like, you have a family to think about me and stop being so selfish, right? And again, I know that she meant like, she just wants to make sure that I'm okay. And she wasn't able to see what is possible. When we move into like our dreams, our purpose, our mission, and how your life just explodes with abundance. She's, she's never gotten to that point. 

Jennifer:

I love that. Now, I noticed on your website, that when on your about page, you talk about having a daughter and wanting to be an example to her that dreams can come true. And I obviously completely agree with you. And it's so funny, because now that my daughter is a full adult. Because I took this step, I can see how it's affected her life and her choices and what she thinks is possible. And I didn't even ever, I didn't know that until I saw it. Right? I didn't, I didn't think of all the ways that this could affect her. I just wanted flexibility I want she was a baby. When I started this, I wanted to be available. But I also want her to be like a badass woman that makes her own choices and chooses her own destination. Yeah, talk about that a little bit.

Leanne:

Oh my gosh, yeah, that was one of my biggest why's right, of course, is with the freedom that we you know, receive from that. But being fulfilled, truly, truly fulfilled. And we grew up why I'll just speak for me, I know that I grew up with a lot of limitations, I did have just limiting beliefs. And I think we all do to some extent of what's possible and what's not. So being able to show my daughter but also my boys and all you have, you know a son too. But having my boys see like this really independent but also very connected to other women. You know, there's this independence, but also this, this, this integration with community too. It's just amazing that I want my all my kids to see that. But with my daughter specifically, right? She, yeah, I just wanted her to know, she's so filled with anxiety of like, Should I do this? Should I do that I'm like, you can literally like find what inspires you don't worry about the money, because that's something that I was told, whatever you want to do, like, as a therapist is this, like, you're not going to make money that was ingrained into me, I'm like, don't go for that. Don't think about that. Because people can't tell you what's possible, as financially as long as you're aligned with your purpose. So it was really cool came like, you know, right around last year, she actually came into an event with me, my daughter did one of my events, and she helped and you know, I really, this was one of the purposes of like, I want to create a space a business that if she chooses to, she would be able to come into right, like, so having that possibility to have like building this empire of like, Oh, my family if they want to, they can take this too. But she she was, you know, with me that one day, and she's such a shy person that I saw her come out of her shell. And there was this moment where she was collecting tickets, she was talking to people it was during a festival. And she looked at me and she was like, Mom, this is what you get to do. I said, yeah, baby. This is she's like, This is amazing. I said, You do realize that one of the reasons I created this was to you know, if you want to you can you can have this too, right? I mean, like not in the form that I have, or in the form that I have, but in the form that you want to. And she was she just looked at me with like, odd. She was like, really? And that was like the most the one of the coolest moments that I have had so many cool moments, as you know, as we like, build our business. But yeah, yeah, that power behind that. There's just like so much.

Jennifer:

Oh my gosh, so good. So let's get into let's pivot a little bit towards being in business, and how I mean, it's so exciting and thrilling and challenging and stressful. It's every emotion you could ever, ever imagine. But let's get into the depth of how energy affects whether or not we are successful, whether or not we step fully into our purpose, and whether or not we take our business to the level that we have to meet that vision that we're that we started with, right because we all start started out with this vision. Yeah, but it's usually here. Yeah. And we grow up to it. And then what I found is then all of a sudden we're there and we now have a vision here and we're constantly I'm constantly elevating. So let's talk about some tips on just some things we can share with women, if they're listening as a business owner how they could possibly learn some of this to increase and reach that vision. 

Leanne:

Absolutely. Well, and you know, as we've been talking to, it's it's truly about being aware of the of the, the impact that our energy, which again, our energy is truly it's created from these limiting beliefs, or expansive beliefs. It's really it's created from our thoughts, or behaviors, I mean, all of it, but really, it starts with our thoughts. And our emotions are key, key key, and creating the life that we want. And whatever energy we're carrying for, like we're created of energy. This is this is just something that it's factual, it's scientific. Quantum physics is scientific as well. And that's a manifestation. But that was, I would say, the foundation of me creating my business, to building it to multiple six figures within the second year, like who I don't know, I always, like my husband was like, Don't be ready, because you know, the second year is always the hardest. I'm like, really, because I'm flowing, like, and it's not just about the money. It's like my whole life, like, everything was so abundant. And still, it still is, like you said, it's like we get to a certain level, and then we go to the next. And a lot of times, we can't see past a certain level until we get there, of course, right. And then we see Oh, there's another mountain. 

And some people can take it as like, oh, gosh, like I thought I thought this was it. And like I could relax or whatever, you're doing it wrong, if that's what you're thinking, just so you know. Not to be like, you know, judgy or anything, but like, there's an easier way to do that. And it's all aligned with energy. So if we have this thought of just like life is hard. Business is hard. I'm not going to make it scarcity. Scarcity Mindset is like, Oh, that is like the heaviest weight that we can possibly carry. And most women aren't aware of their beliefs that are so ingrained, because so much is ingrained in that our worth, being able to surpass our family and financial and like, what is our family going to think of us? So I can go into all of that. 

So really being aware, first of all, shining a light on all that, like, I have spoken with so many women that I'm like, I think that you, you know, just in chatting with them. And they're like, I'm really struggling financially, like I don't understand, like this matters, I think you might have some money mindset…. It's like you have some blocks, some internal blocks. They're like, No, I want to make money. I'm like, I'm not saying you don't want to make money. But there's a conflict within you that's not allowing you to get that and your energy is creating this reality. 

Everything we think, is a projection, like our reality is a projection of everything that we think and everything that we feel. So yeah, when you're looking at your life or your business, and you're saying what the, you know, this is not going the way that I wanted to. It's always like that internal reflection of like, well, where's my energy at? Because if it's at a low level of restriction, constriction, where you're always fearful, or, you know, there's this underlying fear of just like, am I gonna make it or like the busyness and just like scarcity of time, scarcity of energy, scarcity of money, those are all like areas of scarcity. If that is the underlying current of your energy, you're not going to be able to expand to that next level, you are going to hold yourself back. So So yeah, really tapping into that and being aware of it, shining a light on it, knowing that like we all have it, we all have these limiting beliefs. So there's nothing wrong with you or bad if you're recognizing these are one you're recognizing them. But that's the first step at truly. And I know for me, there have been so many tools and techniques that I've used. I have been in teaching mindfulness, engaging in mindfulness for over 15 years, teaching it for over 10 years. And all the energy alignment and energy work that I have done. Whether it's through my shaman, my energy worker, like my energy, I have an energy psychotherapist breathwork has been hit that tool, pivotal in my ability to really release and expand because we do whenever we release something, we expand it to something more. 

Jennifer:

So how do you do your breath work when you start to feel like something creeping in like a limiting belief or a negative thought or something? How do you pivot with your mind with your breath?

Leanne:

Yeah, so really centering myself, I always think of my mouth, my soul is my anchor, but like also my breath, my breath is my anchor. A lot of times when we're ready, we don't even recognize when we're holding our breath. Right, right. We you know, until we're until again, we bring it to awareness, but I know there were times where when I was in corporate right like my shoulders would go up up I'm like, like I can literally feel myself going smaller or like more restricted. So being able to just, I always put my feet on the ground because sometimes I sit you know Indian style or whatever, like my feet are not in the ground some like get your feet on the ground just just feel Mother Earth feel feel the earth beneath your feet and just take a breath. 

I will say though so I'm Soma Certified -  it's a different kind of breathing technique where there are breath holds, there's so much science behind it as beautiful. My go to when I know, because I can feel the heaviness I feel that it can show up is is like a feeling in your body a sensation in your body, which I think it's so important to tap into. Because we spend most of our time from our neck up. We our body tells us so much and we create so much with our body. So being able to write just like connect with that, but the my go to breath work is holotropic and it's very, very fast. And it's very, like it just creates so many different experiences of just like releasing, and some people do not like it some people like more of the like, let me relax. This is not a relaxing breath. It is meant to move energy. Because we can feel when we're stuck. We know our soul knows when we're stuck when you know, you just check in with it your different chakras your different levels. Yeah, so I will lay either like just lay on my floor in my office and put on some like really great breathwork music and go into that. Or I'll be sitting up or I'll go outside wherever I can go. 

But just being super intentional with and you don't even have to know what the block is. That's the thing, right? That's, that's the beauty of it with breathwork it's like, I don't know what it is, I know that there's something stuck within me but I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna, you know, utilize this this technique dancing, shaking, there's so many different somatic experiences that we can have that will help us move that energy through. Because yeah, if energy is stuck anywhere, it you're gonna feel heavy, you're gonna feel frustrated, you're there's so many different feelings that, again, we can we can expand into joy. These are the higher emotions. Courage is actually the tipping point that the emotion of courage is the tipping point into expansion. 

Jennifer:

I love that because I remember so many things in business where I had no idea how I was going to do it. But at least I just decided just literally a simple decision to make the choice to figure it out. And in order to make the choice, you have to have the courage.

Leanne:

Exactly. You have to have the courage to possibly fail or fall on your face or to even expand. Yeah, I mean, that's what I have found with myself with other women is like, it's this double edged sword, sort of where it's like we're afraid of failure. But we're also afraid of like, like expanding into our holistic success.

Jennifer:

Yeah. So yes, so true. Let's go a little bit deeper on the money mindset part, because I know that we've had this conversation several times. And I know that a lot of it comes from limiting beliefs from our past, and that with every new level of success, you are going to have to expand your mindset about money in order to keep on progressing. Right. And so I don't think a lot of people realize that if you've been stagnant for a while, if you kind of plateaued in your business, that this could be one of the things keeping you stuck.

Leanne:

Absolutely. Well, and just like, I'm gonna throw it back to you, like, what have you recognized around like, because we've each hit different plateaus, or, you know, different money goals or like different expansion, it doesn't even have to be a money goal. But it's all it truly is everybody it's tied to money because we know what money brings us, it brings us freedom, it gives us the ability to live the way that we want to, to give to our family, to give to the community, like that's why and money is just an energy, like when we can see it as an energetic frequency. And it's one of the highest forms of energy because of the weight that we put behind it. Okay, right. So like, can you identify some of like the those those points where you're like, oh, right, and yeah, where Yeah, you were maybe afraid and didn't even realize it until of course we have that light bulb like oh shit, this is something that I've created.

Jennifer:

Yes. And it's so funny because, um, I remember last year, the beginning of the year, upping my prices, and I thought, oh, gosh, you know, am I gonna lose any clients? And I did it Leanne and nobody even like, commented, like they didn't even I don't even know if they're paying attention, like they just did not care. I know that I'm really, really, really good at my job. And I also know I've have a ton of experience. And so you have to get to a point though, that if somebody does not agree with you, like does not agree with your worth, then you're willing to let them go in order to open up. 

Like, for me, I, I look at everything that is, you know, I tell this to people all the time, clutter sucks the energy out of you. And it doesn't matter if it's clutter in your space, clutter, in your mind, clutter in your spirit in your relationships, it's an energy suck. And so once you realize that you have this mindset that you need to go the next level, or you need to pay your bills, and it's not cutting, I mean, the world is getting more and more expensive, if it's just simply that. But the clutter comes in where it's like, I have to let somebody go, that maybe doesn't see my worth in order to make room for the new clients rights. Right. I think also, an important thing to remember in business is, if you have a fee, the people that are going to pay the fee are the ones that you really want to work with, because they're going to be committed.

Leanne:

It's an investment in themselves, they are investing in themselves, their time, their money, their energy, like everything. Yeah, there have been studies around this, you know, when the difference of motivation, you know, this is a psychologist with me, right? The difference in motivation between somebody who does pay or gets free services, there is a higher level of motivation when somebody has some skin in the game, whatever that is, right. So and typically it is because money is energy. Money is very, we put a lot of importance behind it. That is a huge that is a huge part of that motivation. Yeah. So very interesting.

Jennifer:

And I think that to you, there's still people out there that think that you should just do this to help people like if you're a coach, right, it's an I still sometimes have that belief where if somebody can't afford it, I still want to help them because I'm so committed to transformation. And I know that I can transform their life and their space. I know that about myself, because I see everybody's full potential when I start working with them, but they don't see it. And so it's like, I want them to have that. So it's hard. Because when you're a business owner, if you if you walk walked around as helping people, you wouldn't make any money. It's a it's a nonprofit volunteer position. So it's hard. I mean, but what I've also realized is that I can offer volunteer work and you know, I can gift and give when I want to, but to in order to pay my bills, I have to run it as a business. 

Leanne:

And it's truly stepping into our identity. And this is for all female entrepreneurs is that there are different identities that we go through as we're growing and expanding our business, right, where it's like, efforts were just, we're this professional, and then we go into entrepreneurship, and then we go into CEO, very, they're very different, they're all necessary, all different to, and being able to understand truly understand what gets to happen, when we believe in ourselves, when we believe in our products, when we believe in our services, and we know our worth our internal worth. It creates this huge transformation in our lives and our clients lives. And knowing too, that investment when we made like, you know this too, because we invest in ourselves. And it took me a while to get to that place. Like I remember spending like my first like, $1,000 on this one coaching program. And I was like, This is so scary. Now I'm just like, my coach was like, so do you want to re up and like, it's just part of like, my daily my week? Because I know, like, that was a huge shift for me, when I invested in myself. And that is something again, where I'm like, I believe in myself, I believe in my mission, I believe in, you know, the transformation that this can happen that this can have. And I have the same thing where it's like, I want to I want to help all these amazing women. And I know that my capacity and I know there are organizations out there that can help them so that's what I do. I sort of school myself, I'm like, what area are you in and like, here are some resources for you and keep plugging into you know, whatever. I have some free resources like whatever. And you you know, so I'm still hoping in some way, but I'm also not allowing myself to be like, oh, you know what? Because I did that before I did that before, where I'm like, You know what? Oh, okay, that's all you can pay. Okay, fine. No, no, no, I will not do that again. Because again, I saw that commitment level. And it's just again, that's like the victim mentality of scarcity and, and that and that really rules our life if we are in that space, as female entrepreneurs, or as females in general of just constantly looking at what we're lacking, that is the energy and that is the reality that is a human heavy energy, but it's gonna, it's going to impact you. I always say I'm like, we're always manifesting. Don't you want to choose what you manifest?

Jennifer:

For I love that. Well, I know you have another appointment. And so I so I want to like not cut the short, but I also want people to realize that they can work with you. And they can go to your website, Essentially Zenful. And I just hope this episode encourages anybody that's out there that's ready to go to the next level in their business to start to kind of learn some of this. And you know, do your own research, do your own education. Because the deeper I get into this, the more I realize how powerful it is. And you know, I think it's something that I've always done, but then now that I'm ready for that next level, I want to do more of it. Because you can see that you are just starting your potential, right? Where it's like, when I look back at this business I created over 20 years ago, I'm like, that was like a baby. A little baby. And now I've just realized, like, literally anything is possible if I accept it, and I don't get in my own way. 

Leanne:

And I would say to like knowing your gift, knowing your purpose, right, that's part of it, because that's gonna keep us inspired. And that's our big WHY too is like I know that this is my purpose. Yes, and yeah, definitely. There are so many amazing resources out there about you know, energetic, like manifestation. I mean, that's what people know it as well. Law of Attraction, the secret and everything. But you know, Joe Dispenza is right there. Abraham Hicks is right there. I'm trying to think there's, gosh, there's so many there's so many, Michael singer, too.

Jennifer:

I love him. I love that these people that are talking about energy. Also, a lot of times we'll talk about how this was all stated in the Bible. This was all part of the beginning of creation. And a lot of people listening. Think it's two separate things. No, it's not. It's all combined.

Leanne:

It is so combined. We have been studying this for oh my gosh, yeah, forever. And just being able to, to recognize that like, this is the gift that we've been given. And for us to be able to tap into it is so amazing. Yeah. So I just want all the women out there to know, it's just like check out the energy alignment, checkout, you know how your energy impacts your business. This is what I teach. This is what I teach my women day in and day out of you know how to manage their energy, be aware of it and understand their limiting beliefs so that they can truly reach their fullest potential. Because I know when us women do that, that we spread joy and passion and like there's so many amazing things that come from it. So that is my hope for everyone. 

Jennifer:

When you live in that space, you become less and less bothered by the things that don't matter. I mean, if you want to start somewhere today, just start paying attention to the things that bother you or aggravate you and realize that that is getting in the way of your joy and that you can make a choice in that moment to not be bothered. I love how Michael singer says it's like a one room, one tenant occupancy inside of yourself like you get to decide who comes in that one bedroom apartment and who doesn't and what things come in that bother you but it's like it's only about how you respond and how you act and behave if you have no control over anything else in life but yourself.

Leanne:

Yeah, exactly and I always say you know with this energy alignment where it gets we are in you know tying it back into the Bible and I know that we both have to go but tying it back into like a spiritual sense, right, not even just the Bible, but a spiritual sense a sense yes right is that we are constantly co creating constantly co creating I always call my like my higher power my you know spiritual connection however you want to identify it as like my silent like partner is always there always guiding, always showing me, always opening doors for me. I just have to recognize that and that's moving from victim to empowered and recognizing everything is happening for me. It's not happening to me. It's not trying to hold me back. It's actually creating space for me to really move to that next level. So I love that Yes. 

Jennifer:

Oh, such an amazing thank you so much for being on the Make Room Shout. I love our talks. I appreciate you so much. And all the work that you do for women is exactly what this world needs. So thank you so much.

Leanne:

Oh my gosh, I feel exactly the same about you. So, so happy to be here. So happy we connected and to continue our journey together.

Jennifer:

And thank you to all the women listening today. If you love the show, be sure to leave us a review or comment reach out to Leanne or I would be happy to help you. And until next time, keep making room for what matters the most to has. I love it.