393. “Powerless on the Bathroom Floor” | Reclaim Your Radiance with Becca Powers

 

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Becca Powers:

You deserve to live a life that is alive. You deserve to return to your radiance and experience the gifts that are in it.

 

Dr. RIchard Shuster: 

Hello and welcome to The Daily Helping with Dr. Richard Shuster. Food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, tools to win at life. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. Whoever you are, wherever you're from, and whatever you do, this is the show that is going to help you become the best version of yourself. Each episode, you will hear from some of the most amazing, talented, and successful people on the planet who followed their passions and strive to help others. Join our movement to get a million people each day to commit acts of kindness for others. Together, we're going to make the world a better place. Are you ready? Because it's time for your Daily Helping.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Daily Helping Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. And our guest today is awesome. Her name is Becca Powers. She's the author of A Return to Radiance and Harness Your Inner CEO, a Fortune 500 high-tech sales executive keynote speaker and CEO of Powers Peak Potential. She has worked with industry giants such as Cisco, Dell, Royal Caribbean, and Office Depot, among others. With an impressive record of leading large teams and hitting $500 million in annual revenue, Powers has earned the coveted President's Club Award seven times, a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher and Reiki master. She lives in Florida. She's got a name like a Bond villain. Becca Powers, welcome to the Daily Helping. It is awesome to have you with us today.

 

Becca Powers: 

Yes, thanks for having me, Dr. Richard. I'm super excited. 

 

Dr. RIchard Shuster:

You know, there's a lot we're going to get to talk about. Of course, we're going to talk about A Return to Radiance. But I got caught at the end there because we went from hitting $500 million in revenue to Kundalini and Reiki. So, that's a hell of a shift. So, I want to jump into the Becca Powers time machine. And so, let's talk about your journey. Talk to us about what puts you on the path you're on today.

 

Becca Powers:

Yeah, I'd love to. And I think to say it simply, it was the breakdown from what I like to call societal molding, right? I was following the career. I was a senior sales executive, senior sales leader in an organization, had a large team, had, or still have a husband. We had four kids in middle school at the time. Two his, two mine, so blended family. I mean, it was like pure chaos. I was very busy doing all the things, but on the outside I had the career, the car, the husband, the kids, the fence, the dogs, the whole thing.

 

And while all of that was lovely, something wasn't right because one night after a really bad day at work, I had an emotional collapse on the bathroom floor. And, you know, on the outside, again, I was really considered like a powerful businesswoman. And then, on the inside of my house, I am laying powerless on the bathroom floor, like, hugging my cold tile like, hello. So, that really was a defining moment for me because, you know, here I am, I didn't even have enough strength to stand up. 

 

So, that really was the pivotal point in my journey to start looking at life differently. And just to kind of wrap up that part of the story, and I'll give it back to you and we can go back and forth a little bit but, you know, I had nowhere to go but up. Like, that's what I say that this started my journey, is on the bathroom floor, I can't stand, so I kind of do, like,  a thing to God universe, like "Hey, I might not have prayed to you or reached out for a while, but I need some help here. I can't do tomorrow the same way I'm doing today. So, I only know how to do that. So, if I can get some help."

 

Long story short, I received what I call my instant miracle. And I heard a whisper from within say "Becca, you're the CEO of your life." And that message, and even for the listeners, that message is so powerful because we are the CEOs of our life. And that message resonated so deeply in my body and in my spirit that I rose off the bathroom floor a different woman than the one that went down. And so that is what started my journey and I'll give it to you before I say more. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

You know, a lot of this resonates with me. Mine was probably when I was in a car accident and broke my spine and really kind of recalibrated my life but it took a couple of years for me to get there. It was this, "Now, what do I do? Who am I supposed to be? How do we tell people I don't want to do what I said I was going to do?" right? And walking away from a business. But you got this instantaneous hit, this instant download that said you're the CEO of your life. And so, when you got that message and you, you know, sprung up off the tile like Rocky Balboa from the mat, what happened next? 

 

Becca Powers:

So… Well, I mean, fortunately and unfortunately, I had to go back to work the next day. So, I didn't have the liberty of going on a backpacking sabbatical in Tibet to figure out my life. I had literally just had to go back to the same place that caused me to fall on the bathroom floor. So, you know, I just took baby steps. LIke you, it did take me multiple years to fully heal. By the time I hit the bathroom floor, I just wanna kinda share my state of affairs was my divorce, like I was on the verge of divorce. I had disconnected relationships with my kids. I had accumulated a large amount of debt, even though I was making six figures. Like life was really messy. 

 

So not only did I have to put myself back together, which I didn't know at the time, I had formed autoimmune disease by really ignoring all the red flags going on and staying in the stressed out levels that I was for a very long time. So, there was a lot to clean up. And I did start the journey of becoming a Kundalini Yoga teacher and a Reiki master just to get really up my spiritual side because I was really low at that moment in time. But the next day, I would say what helped me get on my path was better choices and boundaries. 

 

Dr. RIchard Shuster:

So, boundaries professionally, boundaries personally, or just boundaries everywhere?

 

Becca Powers: 

Boundaries everywhere because I had none. I was like, yes, yes to my kids, yes to my husband, yes to my bosses, yes to my team. Yes. Let me do something, yes. I'm the queen of yes. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

And it's hard to learn how to say no, so I imagine that that was an adjustment. So, now you've got your boundaries, you're upping your spiritual game, but you're still doing the same work, right? 

 

Becca Powers:

Yes. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

So what…  but adding those elements to your life, what changes did you notice when she started doing that? 

 

Becca Powers:

Well, again, it took some time, but what I noticed is within the first 30… well, within the first 30 days, I finally told some friends that, "Hey, I don't have this figured out. I'm not… I don't think I'm in the right role with the right company. Like, there's, like, something's not aligned and I'm not well," right? And just me saying that out loud within the next couple weeks, I was offered two or three different jobs. 

 

And so within 90 days of my bathroom floor moment, I was in a different role, which was completely prosperous, if I'm being honest. Like all this realignment I had, I took those 90 days to really consider what I wanted, what I needed, what I wanted to feel, what I wanted life to look like, which I hadn't done in years. And as a result, life started looking more like the intention I wanted it to.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

And so now we're on the journey, I can kind of see where it's going, but I'm curious. So, now, you've written two books. And I don't want to… you know, obviously Harness Your Inner CEO was dovetailing off that little download we got. 

 

Becca Powers:

Yeah. 

 

Dr. RIchard Shuster:

But I want to spend the rest of our time talking about Return to Radiance. So, what made you want to write that book? 

 

Becca Powers:

Life. Life is alive to me. And I will share what that means. So, you know, I already shared, you know, like, my personal story. And then, in addition to that, both my parents are passed away. And as of this moment in time, I'm the sole survivor of my family. My brother passed away during the writing of the book, which also gave me a deeper reflection of this concept of a return to radiance. But I had a really unique childhood. My parents were full-time musicians when I was born. So, I grew up with, like… and I'm from Indiana, which I was telling you about before. And so, my parents back in '78, when I was born, were opening for Johnny Cougar, which is now John Mellencamp, right? So, I grew up with, like, guitars and bongos and singing and dancing and radiance, if I was to say, right? 

 

And then as time went on, my parents got more committed to their career rather than their passions. And their gigs and their music playing got less and less and less. And my mom passed away at 46, my dad passed away around 60, and by the time I was 35, I'd lost both my parents. And in today's version of myself, I was like, I feel like I lost them because of the disconnection they had from their true self, from their radiance.

 

And then, I was following the same pattern. I got disconnected from mine and almost ended up hospitalized. So, it really dawned on me that there's this part of us, I call it our radiance that contains our gifts, our talents, our strengths, our potential, and we're meant to express it. And I do believe that when we're not expressing it, it leads to not so good things. And so, that was really… when it dawned on me that had my parents stayed in the radiance that they might stay alive, it became… Even though the book is very, very positive in the way I approach it, it's a very serious message of, like, live life alive, right? So…

 

Dr. RIchard Shuster:

I love this. So, somebody picks up your book, let's go through it, right? Live life alive. You kind of defined radiance already and I love the John Cougar story. Yes, he was John Cougar Mullencamp. So--

 

Becca Powers:

Yes.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

… that's how that all came to be. But so, you know, somebody's listened to this and they're thinking, "Yeah, you know, Becca, I'm you, right? Or I'm the old you. Like, there's things that I loved or maybe I feel like I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, but I know it's not this." So what would you say to that listener?

 

Becca Powers:

You know, it's funny that you asked that. I've been asked that before, and it always brings me back to asking a question in return, which would be, what did you used to do, maybe as a kid? Or what was that thing that used to light you up? Because it's present in all of us. When I was going through my healing journey, and I'll just say this to the listeners, you know, yes, I've written books and my latest book became a USA Today bestseller, which was a huge accomplishment, but not because I needed the accomplishment, it was because it's an extension of my radiance. It's part of who I am.

 

And so, if I go back to my childhood, when I was six, seven, eight, like in early grade school, I was writing song lyrics, poems. As soon as I knew how to write and start putting things together, I was writing. And then, I was delivering whatever I wrote to my stuffed animals, right? So, there's this if I go back to little Becca, there's a part of me that was writing and speaking before I even knew that writing and speaking could be a career for me. It was just part of what I expressed. 

 

And bringing that back into my life after I hit the bathroom floor, I didn't necessarily hit the bathroom floor and be like, "Oh my God, I'm going to write about it," I just started journaling and then I started writing poems again, like stuff I hadn't done in 10 to 15 years. And that became part of my healing process and the reassurance of my energy. Like I started feeling like me again. And so if someone is in the old me, I invite you to explore what used to light you up. What did you used to do? And is there room in your life as it is today that you can start carving out some time for it? 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

A lot of people might say, because you kind of mentioned it, right, the kids, the fence, the dogs, the work, the husband, the this, the that. A lot of people look at their lives and just say, "Look, I'm barely getting by. I work. I work two jobs," or, you know, "My partner has to work. Like, the kids. Like, there's no time." I hear people tell me, "Oh, I'm so busy. I'm overwhelmed." I hear people tell me that all the time. What's your response to every person who says that? 

 

Becca Powers:

Well, I can just say from a statistics point of view, because I'm a little bit of a nerd and I like statistics, but I think the average person spends over three… well, more than this, but minimally, at least three hours a week on social media, and some people are three hours a day. And so, that tells me, like there's another framework out there that's like doing anything for 18 minutes a day, once you get to 100 days of doing it for 18 minutes a day, you can become an expert in it or at least move the needle on something. So I think that time is just very much an excuse. 

 

And I understand that it feels very, very real. I get it. However, what I can tell you is that I have worked full time even during this whole writing process, still been a mom to kids, and I've woken up every day at 5.30-6 a.m., sat my butt down in the chair, and I write for an hour, hour and a half every day. That's a choice I get to make. So, you get to choose sleep or you get to choose a passion sometimes, and I chose passion. But I do think time is an excuse, even though it feels real. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I wanted you to say it, but I felt the same. No, I agree with you. I think it's magical what happens when we put things on our calendar, and they're just part of the schedule, whether it's self-care or whether it's a business call, right? 

 

Becca Powers:

Yes. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

But you're right on there. So, I want to address something in the book. We're gonna… it becomes a little more spiritual in the conversation. As you talk about radiance in the book, you've got this equation. So talk to us about that.

 

Becca Powers: 

Yeah, I believe our radiance is made up of three parts. And that would be one part ourselves. So, that would be, you know, one part Becca or one part Dr. Richard. And then, one part is our soul. It's the part of us that may have lived multiple lifetimes but is still intertwined with the Becca. And then, there's the third part, which is infinite intelligence, the part of us that is forever and expansive and way bigger than my mind can probably even comprehend, right? But we are a mixture of all of that. 

 

And for me, the moment that I was able to be like, "Oh, I'm all of this," it took a level of relief off me. Like, I don't have to do this all on my own. Like the Becca in me was trying to control everything, but I didn't need it. I ended up on the bathroom floor with that approach. So, once I started bringing in my soul and communicating with cosmic consciousness or evident intelligence, whatever word, the universe, whatever word you wanna put on it, all I know is that it worked, right? Life started working and flowing, and I was like, "Oh my gosh. Why is not everybody doing this? This is great." So, that's kinda how I ended up defining radiance.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

And you mentioned cosmic consciousness, which was defined by renowned psychologist, Carl Jung, really one of the fathers of modern psychology. Although I have to admit in my mind, it was Mufasa telling us we're all part of the great circle of life. So-

 

Becca Powers:

Yes.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

But it is interesting, right? And I think this came out in COVID. So many people said that they felt alone-

 

Becca Powers:

Yeah.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

…because they were so disconnected from people. But when you frame it in this context, and then we're not gonna dip into the science of it really, but there's pretty good science that we're all connected, right? Like we can definitively say this is real, right? So, it's a little less lonely, isn't it, that we're able to know that we're all connected. So, thank you for explaining that. And I wanna-

 

Becca Powers:

Welcome.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

As we're continuing to dig through the book, I like fun chapters. You've got a chapter called Bear Hug Uncomfortable. So, talk to us about that. 

 

Becca Powers:

Well, it's something that one of my… the backstory is my video coach said it to me once 'cause like video was one of the aspects of starting to build my personal brand that I was so uncomfortable with. And I barfed several times to be honest, but she would just be like, "Bear hug uncomfortable, it's gonna hug you back." And, you know, as I started thinking about that outside of my unique situation with the video, relationship to video, I was like, "That's just a really powerful concept in life." 

 

Change is inevitable. We're all going to evolve. We can't control, really, anything. We think we can, but ultimately we can get a phone call five minutes from now and life changes, right? So, the concept for me was that, you know, in relationship to radiance is that we have our soul, we have infinite intelligence, we have ourselves. And what if instead of rejecting change or being so afraid of it, we bear hug it? We bear hug hugged that uncomfortable feeling and we allowed it to hug us back and be like, "I got you."

 

Because what I found is is when that space, when we invite, you know, the universe in, nine times out of 10, I have seen more doors open with a positive outcome than I have seen the bad, you know, fear-predicted stuff that my brain was telling me. So, I've started to learn to bear hug uncomfortable and really kind of feel that embrace back. And I'm like, "You know, back, we can do this."

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

And that ties into a little bit of science as well, because we know from cognitive behavioral therapy, one of the things they ask us to do is this Socratic question, right? There's things that we're afraid of, and we have to challenge them head on. How do we really know that that's something that's terrifying for us? And there's a lot of really good data from the industrial organizational psychology side of things that tells us if you're starting your day and you're planning what it is you need to do, the hardest, hairiest, scariest thing, that's got to be number one. And if you hit that one first, the whole rest of everything you're trying to do goes more smoothly. 

 

Becca Powers:

Yes.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

So I'm loving this. So, let's keep this rolling. And I've highlighted a couple other things that I want to talk to you about. Positive feedback loops. Talk to us about them. 

 

Becca Powers:

So, well, again, it's a science thing. But what really fascinated me about this during my own journey and then helping others through theirs is that as you intentionally start elevating your emotions. So, what I wanna say is sometimes it's intentional and sometimes when you're taking care of yourself, you're gonna naturally increase your emotions too and you're feeling more joy, more creativity, more courage, things like that. 

 

Also, your habits start to align with those. And as your habits become more, what do I wanna say? When your habits start supporting the best version of yourself and your emotions start increasing to a higher vibrational emotion, this creates a positive feedback loop and starts telling your subconscious and your nervous system that like, "Hey, this stuff is good for me." And instead of bucking at the fact that you might have to… for those people who we might be referring to who say, I don't have any time, instead of bucking at that 10 minutes that you set aside for yourself, five days later, you're seeing that there's positive results, you're feeling better, a breakthrough happens. And then, that's the positive feedback loop. It tells your body and your subconscious that, "Hey, we need to keep doing this because it's good for us." So, I think it was really an important part to include in the book because it really fascinated me anyway. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

And I think too, the data is pretty clear that people can definitely be in impact both positively or negatively in feedback loops. 

 

Becca Powers:

Yes, yes. And I think we… and the reason… I love that you said that, Dr. Richard, because what I have found in just dealing with people is that we find ourselves in negative feedback loops so much. And with the work and all the things that we're saying, which is why I wanted to specifically call out the positive side of it.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

No, it absolutely makes a difference. The brain, the body, our internal workings are trying to move us towards sameness, homeostasis. It's the thermostat on your wall, right? 

 

Becca Powers:

Yes.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

It's trying to keep it 72 degrees no matter what's going on, hot or cold. And so, if we are shifting our internal temperature, if you will, to a new baseline, and we have people in our lives who are supportive of that, who say, "You know what, Becca, you can do this. Like, you're gonna write a book, you're gonna be a bestseller," right? That's a world of difference than a bunch of people telling you, "You know what, Becca, you suck as a writer. Don't waste your time. You know, don't quit your day job, right?" It makes so much difference.  And I think as much as anything, your environment and the positivity that comes from that can really set the stage. 

 

Becca Powers:

Yeah, I agree. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I wanna throw in a bonus one just because we talked about it in your bio. It's so different. You started doing this to kind of level up your spiritual game, but there may be a lot of people out there who don't know what Kundalini Yoga is. So, give us Kundalini 101 before we wrap this up. 

 

Becca Powers:

I'd love to. So, Kundalini Yoga is considered the yoga of self-awareness. And if you've done any yoga, then you kind of have an idea that yoga shifts you and gets you in alignment with things. But what I would say about Kundalini Yoga specifically and why it's considered the yoga of self-awareness is because different than just focusing on the poses, which in all forms of yoga, the poses are very intentional, they work organs and blood flow and circulation and nervous system and all of that, but with Kundalini Yoga, you do so much of it. The poses are just one part, we call them Kriyas. The Kriyas are done before you do your breath work or intentional breath work, kind of like meditation, but there'll be pranayams that are 10 minutes long, and then you do a meditation for 20 minutes. 

 

So, you're really setting yourself up. And the reason I say this is, most of the times, during the Kriyas, our eyes are closed. Our eyes are closed almost the entire 60 to 90 minutes in to full set, which makes it a very inward experience. And depending on the depth of the meditations at the end, I mean, they're pretty cosmic. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. I have loved our conversation today. I don't get to break out Lion King references very often, so bonus points. 

 

Becca Powers:

Like, yes. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Yeah, that can help. But as you know, I wrap up every episode by asking my guests, just this one question that is, what is your biggest helping, Becca, that one most important piece of information you'd like somebody to walk away with after hearing our conversation today?

 

Becca Powers:

That you deserve to live a life that is alive. You deserve to return to your radiance and experience the gifts that are in it.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Beautifully said. 

 

Becca Powers:

Thank you.

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Beautifully said. Becca, I have enjoyed our time thoroughly. Thank you so much for coming on The Daily Helping and sharing your wisdom with us today. 

 

Becca Powers:

Yeah, thank you for having me, Dr. Richard. 

 

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Absolutely. And for each and every one of you who took time out of your day to listen to this, thank you as well. If you liked it, if you're inspired, if you are going to go start carving out time for yourself, even if it's just a little bit each day, give us a follow and a five star review on your podcast app of choice because this is what helps other people find the show. But most importantly, go out there today and do something nice for somebody else, even if you don't know who they are, and post in your feeds using the hashtag, #MyDailyHelping, because the happiest people are those that help others.