08 The Power of Energy Leadership for Black Women with Dr. Lynise Green

Energy Leadership for Black Women

Sis, it’s time to talk about the power of energy leadership. As Black women, our journey to success and liberation isn’t about pushing through with another cup of coffee. It’s about intentionally building a career by centering our relationship with energy. In this episode of The Career Love Podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Lynise Green, founder of Well with L, wellness strategist, naturopath, and leadership expert to talk about the power of energy leadership and holistic wellness. From engineering to naturopathy, Dr. Green shares her incredible journey of burnout, balance, and building a career rooted in holistic wellness. 

Together we explore:

✨ Why burnout is not your fault (and what’s really causing it)

✨ The four buckets of energy every Black woman must protect

✨ How energy and leadership are deeply connected to success

✨ What it looks like to reclaim joy, rest, and alignment in your career

✨ Real career paths in wellness and how to turn your passion into a profession

🍵 About Dr. Lynise Green

Dr. Lynise Green is an Integrated Leadership Development Consultant, wellness strategist, and award-winning expert who helps high-achieving women shift from burnout to balance by leading with greater clarity, energy, and impact. With 25+ years of experience in engineering, strategic planning, and organizational transformation, and more than 14 years as a traditional naturopath, certified nutritional consultant, and master herbalist, she brings a rare blend of analytical precision and holistic insight to her work.

Named WELCOA’s Top Wellness Professional in America, Dr. Green empowers individuals and organizations to optimize personal energy, enhance well-being, and create environments where people thrive. A Doctor of Naturopathy and certified corporate trainer, she guides women to pause with intention, lead with purpose, and create sustainable success from the inside out.

Work with Dr. Green

Explore her one-on-one consulting, online courses, and digital resources for women ready to live well and lead well: https://wellwithl.thinkific.com/collections 

Use code CareerLove20 for 20% off select courses

Learn more about her work at wellwithl.com

📖 Keep an eye out for her upcoming book The Energy to Thrive releasing later this year on her website! 

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Transcripts

Mercedes Swan (01:02)
Hello loves, this is Mercedes Swan, the Career Love Coach and host of the Career Love Podcast. This podcast is my love letter to the 9.8 million black women in the workplace.

Dr. Lynise Green (01:07)
you

Mercedes Swan (01:13)
and a safe space for black women who want to change the world to build a career, business, and lifestyle you love. Today we are diving into the intersection of wellness and professional development with the amazing Dr. Lynise Green. I'm so excited. This is really going to be a good one because honestly, I have so many black women who will reach out to me and they'll say like, I am so passionate about wellness and healthcare and all of those things, but they don't see it as

a real career or real business. They only see it as something that can be a side hustle or a hobby. So today we're talking about all of those things, including how your personal energy and wellness journey can really impact your career, how exploring holistic wellness and naturopathy can help us enter our Black Women Bliss era, and of course, finally, how to pursue a career path in wellness because I think just seeing it in real life out there in the wild is really exciting.

⁓ And so with that, I'm really excited to introduce Dr. Green. So I'll do a little bit of an introduction and then we'll dive right into the questions because I know y'all want to hear all of the things. So ⁓ Dr. Lynise Green is a founder, is the founder of Well with Elle and she is a wellness strategist, leadership expert and award-winning consultant who helps high achieving professionals

shift from burnout to balance. She also brings with her a unique lens as a doctor of naturopathy and over 25 years of, I really love this, engineering, strategic planning, and leadership. I was like, this combination! I'm so excited. So with that, welcome Dr. Green. I'm super excited. I'll just keep saying I'm super excited about this conversation, but to really open us, yes!

Dr. Lynise Green (02:44)
you

Thank you.

Mercedes Swan (02:54)
But to really open this up, like I said, I think your career path is truly amazing. ⁓ Even from just the standpoint of saying you're a black woman in engineering, but now having taken that path and now living out what many would consider a true dream, right? Like I said, so many are like, it's not possible to do this. And so I think it can really speak all of this that you're pursuing and have pursued really speaks to the journey of black women and what's possible.

Tell us a little bit more about your journey and how you became a leadership expert in all that you're doing today.

Dr. Lynise Green (03:30)
Yeah, well thank you first for having me here and allowing me to share with your audience. So yeah, as you mentioned, I started off in engineering. My first degree is in mechanical engineering. So I did that ⁓ for quite a while. ⁓ Large scale DOD contractors, the whole engineering nine yards, ⁓ moved ultimately into program management. So was doing large scale software development program management. ⁓

And then actually ⁓ experience what I'll say is the first of three bouts of burnout that I can really sort of put a timeline on. ⁓ And then during that time, I got introduced to a woman who was or is a naturopath and just really.

really was amazed by what she knew and just her understanding of the body and how it works. And I thought, how come more people don't know this? I need to do that instead of, you know, what was, what was going on in engineering. And I, and I was at a point where, ⁓

the IT, the tech, the engineering world was really not feeding me personally. And I knew I just needed to do something different. And so I went back to school. got the doctorate in naturopathy, ⁓ did postgraduate work in nutrition and stress. And so I lived in that food world for a little while.

But then the more I tried to talk about food with people, the more ⁓ I was trying to unpack all the other stuff going on in their lives that was stopping them from making good food choices. ⁓ eventually I ended up going back into the corporate world, but I was managing corporate wellness programs. So we'll talk a little bit about that when we talk about career paths. ⁓

And I was just really, as someone who was a leader in the corporate world and working with other leaders. ⁓

just really saw how people were just burning out ⁓ and normalizing what that was all about. And so kind of took the best of those both worlds and merged them together and developed the framework to really help organizations and leaders figure out how to really leverage their wellbeing so that... ⁓

they can be more effective ⁓ at what they're doing as leaders and to help organizations ⁓ build wellness strategies that are really more strategic and operational. So it's been a journey. It's been a journey.

Mercedes Swan (06:15)
And I think we've kind of, there's so much that I could pull from what you've just shared, but I think so many of us, like we go into a career path, it's not quite what we thought. And it doesn't mean that it wasn't like what we loved or that we really wanted to do, but it's just kind of that realization that we all have multiple.

passions, we all go through a journey and like it's okay to be like, okay, you know what? I've seen what I need to see. I've done what I need to do. And also just the discovery part because ⁓ I love that it was like this connection of like, wow, I didn't even know this was a thing or this was something to consider. I know for me until my mom started looking into, you know, working with a holistic doctor that there were so many different avenues of what she was exploring and learning that is just not

out there, like you just don't talk about it. And I think as black women, the space of how we have so the outcomes that we do health care wise and otherwise every area, right, ⁓ because we're not represented ⁓ is just a challenge. So I applaud and just like really admire your journey and the space and like getting more of this information out here and accessible to black women because burnout.

run out is just not the emotions. I'm sure I was preaching to the choir, right? But it's not just the emotions, it's like how it impacts every part of our lives. So I'm excited to learn. ⁓

I'm really excited to learn more about that. And that kind of takes us to our next question, which is really just about like this connection, right? Of, know, it's not just health or wellness. It's how it interacts with our careers and how we ⁓ navigate the world and life. And so our next question is, you know, about this topic that I really talk about a lot, which is what leads to burnout, which is this like toxic environment and how that leads to burnout. ⁓ My personal story is that burnout in the workplace led me to anxiety and depression. That truly is

Dr. Lynise Green (07:43)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mercedes Swan (08:08)
how I experienced this ⁓ and I have an ADHD diagnosis that was caused by that. So I wasn't able to mask anymore. And so was really, really struggling. But also at the same time, I know it's really hard to find like the data that speaks to our experiences. And so often what happens is when I'm talking about this, black women are like, I haven't heard my experience reflected in anybody else. I didn't know that this was something that happens a lot. And so I'm glad that we have that space to have that conversation, but that

Dr. Lynise Green (08:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mercedes Swan (08:38)
it's like hey where's the data where's the information it could just be I don't know ⁓ but that being said I would love to really learn a little bit more about your experience and your perspective of how black women can reclaim this balance and also if there's any information from a scientific or data standpoint that you'd be okay sharing with that or even your experience lived experience is just as important so thank you

Dr. Lynise Green (08:39)
Yeah.

Right? Right.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely

so. yeah, the work environment and burnout. ⁓

you know, there's such a strong tie and for so many reasons it's so interesting. you know, one of those is that a lot of times when we talk about burnout, so I'm so glad you're, I guess I'm glad, I'm glad you're bringing up this whole discussion about the work environment and the toxic work environment because oftentimes when we talk about burnout, we make it seem like it is

the responsibility and I would dare say the fault of the person who can't handle the work environment, right? So it's like my fault that I'm burning out because I'm not strong enough, I'm not resilient enough, I'm not all the things. And we often don't look at the environment that we're in and look at the role that work environment plays on.

you know, leading people to burnout, that toxic environment. So I think in that workspace, there's a couple of things I would say that ⁓ happen, particularly for black women and definitely, you know, my experience and probably yours and some of your journeys as well. So one of those things I think is the weight of being an only or one of few, right? And it's not something that you can really explain.

to people, know, we have all of these, well, know, DEI programs and, you know, allies and all of these things, but it's something that you just have to live and understand what that feels like, you know, what, just what that stirs up in you. ⁓ And oftentimes I find...

⁓ It can lead to these feelings of just kind of feeling invisible because you are really experiencing your work environment in a way that most of the people that you work with don't experience it. ⁓ And sometimes, you know, it's funny that I've learned to pay so much more attention to just the little things, right? So I think about when I'm, you know, I'm in teams, I'm in teams a lot, know, talking to people all day. And I'm one of those.

I like to use the little emoji things or whatever they are, but it's like Who thinks about maybe just me but who thinks about the fault the idea that the default color of an emoji so like if you're doing a thumbs up or My thing, you know, this one is a great one for me and this one is a great but the default color is not brown

So I have to either go, I mean like, why not? Right? Like nobody else thinks about that maybe, but I think so. I have to go search for the little brown one cause I'm not putting up a beige one cause I'm not beige. You know what I mean? So just little things like that really, you know, really start to make you think about your space ⁓ and your place in those kinds of spaces. I think also,

One of the things, again, as Black women that we are expected to do in these spaces is to do a lot of code switching, right? So we've always, you know, we have to be kind of the easygoing. We're always, you know, on board with the team. We're big team players because when we do assert ourselves, it's often viewed as aggression and not assertion. And so having the kind of code switch to make sure that we fit in.

into those environments, it can really start to slowly chip away at our sense of psychological safety ⁓ and our sense of identity, right? It makes it a little challenging to really bring myself and my passion to my work because I don't want to be, you know, the angry black woman, you know, right behind closed doors. So, ⁓ yeah, that, you know, a lot of times, again, when we think of toxic work environment, we think about what's really bold and

in your face, but I find that it's those more implicit, quiet nuances that really can just kinda chip, slowly chip away at you. And I think you talk about how can we start to reclaim some of that balance. I think it's important that we have a circle of support, whether that is at work, whether that is outside of work, ⁓ that we have.

other people who have similar lived experiences, other women in corporate spaces who can identify with what we're doing. I think it's important that we learn to establish boundaries and hold to them, which is a whole conversation unto itself. And then I think it's really important ⁓ that we check in with ourselves, check in with our energy. Like what's...

what is draining for me, what is restoring for me, and being mindful of when I need some restoration or to create some boundaries from what's draining me. yeah, those work environments can be a doozy to deal with, that's for sure.

Mercedes Swan (14:23)
I was I'm very thankful for in a very ironic way like the experience that I had because it's like, okay ⁓

It wasn't fun, but I learned so much about myself and I think that discovery for me of my ADHD diagnosis actually in an odd way allowed me to give myself so much grace. Now did I deserve that grace before? Absolutely! So that's something I'm still unpacking, right? And how we normalize and how we accept ourselves. ⁓

Dr. Lynise Green (14:53)
Yes.

Mercedes Swan (15:01)
But it's just this idea of that I became much more mindful of my energy because I didn't blame myself for that. And I think that should have been the norm for me the whole time. But.

Dr. Lynise Green (15:10)
Yeah.

Mercedes Swan (15:12)
right now really understanding like hey how do I really check in with my energy and feel okay with saying hey my energy is not there or this you know I noticed this impacted my energy xyz way so that probably is not serving me and things like that and but I would love to know like

Dr. Lynise Green (15:26)
Mm-hmm.

Mercedes Swan (15:31)
If I'm not really there, like I haven't gone through some type of journey of recognizing like, okay, energy and thinking about your energy is so important. You know, what would you kind of say to people who might need to check that a little bit? What are some of the signs? How can they get better at that?

Dr. Lynise Green (15:48)
Yeah, absolutely. So I think ⁓ for me, I sort of... ⁓

put it in four buckets, right? I put my energy in four buckets. So I've got my physical energy, which I think is the one that most of us relate to most readily. So, you know, I look at ⁓ my sleep. Am I getting enough sleep? Am I getting quality sleep? Am I moving my body? Right? Cause we're very sedentary right now. So am I moving in a way that feels good? And am I doing that consistently? ⁓ Am I eating well? ⁓ Or am I, you know, living off of

coffee and energy bars and five hour energy. So how am I physically feeding my body? ⁓ So I think really paying attention to that. Am I making time to eat or am I just like go, go, go, I'll grab something or I'll skip it over. Really kind of paying attention to those aspects of physical energy.

Mercedes Swan (16:30)
you

Dr. Lynise Green (16:49)
Spiritual energy, so another bucket, I don't mean religion, I mean more, ⁓ am I in tune with my values? Am I in tune with what's important to me? And not just like, do I know them? Can I write them out on a piece of paper? But am I able to live them through my work ⁓ and through the things that I do? Because I really feel like when we get disconnected from that,

⁓ Is one of those places where burnout really starts to happen, right? So kind of checking in and making sure that you know, you're able to Make decisions, ⁓ you know from those places and behaviors from those places that represent the things that you value ⁓ Mentally I look at just you know mental fatigue ⁓

Decision fatigue, know, just we're faced with so many decisions and again as women You know, we have a lot of invisible mental labor that we carry and so just really knowing when

you know, what, trying to figure out what's for dinner, trying to figure out, you know, what am I going to wear tomorrow morning just becomes a lot, you know, like I have no more answers in my head. Like when you feel that you want to say that, like that's, that's the trigger. That's a, that's a sign. and then that emotional energy, are you, are you having moments where you are joyful?

Are you happy? know, are you, are you, I know it's so funny, my grandfather who's passed now, but as a kid, always used to ask me, what do you do for yourself that makes you happy? And I'm an avid reader, so I really love to read. But that always stuck with me because in one of those moments of burnout that I had, ⁓

I've you know looking back I really realized I was I was so disconnected in so many of those areas like I Couldn't even tell you what I wanted to do for myself just to me. I was just so Disconnected from my own life, you know, I I didn't make time for me And so I think that's another another one of those places where you can check in. Are you are you doing things for yourself? Are you? Genuinely happy are you finding joy moments?

of joy ⁓ and making time to do those kinds of things. And I think when we can start answering no to some of those things or realizing the space that we're moving and grooving from, ⁓ those are those energy checks to go, what's draining me and what do I need to nurture, nurture that energy so I can get back to good.

Mercedes Swan (19:36)
Yes, my gosh. I kind of love that gut check thing that you were saying because ⁓ being in human resources, I think one of the things that I tried to train away from myself is acting on gut, right? Because you want to be able to treat people fairly and you don't want to have gut reactions in the workplace, right? That's how we have... Well, yeah, I was like, maybe it's not...

me a little safe maybe I do need to listen to that. ⁓ But I think in some ways like as a practice for a good human resource professional to not rely too much on bias it was something that ⁓ I really tried really hard to

not act on. And so then when it came to really re-inspecting that for myself, like wait, it doesn't mean that the gut check, the intuition just like goes away in general. Like girl, there's a balance here. And so like re-integrating that and normalizing that for myself, I think, was really hard to kind of actually pull back and be like, yeah, trust yourself. It's okay. You're feeling that way. You're...

Dr. Lynise Green (20:19)
Mm-hmm.

Right?

Yeah.

Mercedes Swan (20:43)
⁓ You're thinking about things this way. You're opposed to something for a particular reason, like listen to it. And not necessarily like have assumptions with why that is. I think a lot of times for me it's been like, please explore more and then proceed accordingly. So I love that you pulled that piece into there because I think sometimes we don't listen enough to our intuition and to ourselves. ⁓ And then we get to that stage of burnout or being really frustrated or being, you

Dr. Lynise Green (20:49)
Exactly.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right.

Mercedes Swan (21:13)
in my case depressed and anxious. ⁓ So thank you for sharing that. Which takes us to our next question, which is all about this idea of energy management, which we've talked to. I think it'll help to set us up for this conversation a little bit more. But this idea that we don't have a split, we don't leave ourselves when we walk into the workplace. It would be nice to say that.

Dr. Lynise Green (21:15)
Right.

Absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Right. Yeah,

Mercedes Swan (21:40)
But we don't.

Dr. Lynise Green (21:40)
that would be... Yep.

Mercedes Swan (21:42)
I wish we could just shut it off, right? Maybe, maybe not. Like it maybe make things easier, toxic environments easier, but that doesn't happen, which means our energy and our ability to manage our energy is connected to how we develop ourselves professionally, who we are as leaders. That was definitely true for me being in management and really having to have.

Dr. Lynise Green (21:59)
Mm-hmm.

Mercedes Swan (22:04)
conversations with my team and say hey I am going through these things by working with a psychiatrist and my therapist because I did notice these things and like I just want to have that conversation be open with you but if I hadn't have done that work on my own like they might have been having a real hard time okay with like what's going on with Mercedes and ⁓

And that self-awareness, I think, really set me up to being a better leader, but we often don't see those things as connected and we're not, and furthermore, we're not taught about a lot of those things, right? It's like, ⁓ you leave that out.

the door. Nobody leaves it outside the door as much as people would love to say that. And so I'd love to get a little bit more of your perspective of you know what's the connection between energy and success and you know even going a step further with like leadership and how we can really see those as integrated things. Yeah.

Dr. Lynise Green (22:40)
Right. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you made so many wonderful points. as leaders in organizations, we get a lot of.

that training, that development that centers around what I call the hard skills. So time management and how to color code your calendar so you know where you're going and who you're talking to. We are good at that. We are really good at that. But for me, it's managing that energy where the real transformation, personally and professionally, can happen. And one of those things you talk about, self-awareness as a leader,

is just something that we really aren't taught or we aren't taught to lean into. It might show up here and there maybe, you know, because we're talking about emotional intelligence now. And I think even that's become a little catchphrase-y, a little buzzword-y. You know, I'm using my emotional intelligence. It's like, are you really? Are you really though?

Mercedes Swan (23:54)
It's kind of a little

frustrating like as an HR professional when they're like we want to like evaluate emotional intelligence. Do you? Because that's probably not an interview question. I'm just putting that out there like

Dr. Lynise Green (24:01)
Do you?

Exactly,

you know, learning about self-awareness as a leader and that self-awareness again, how it relates back to your energy. So I think for so many, ⁓ we've tried to have ⁓ success, right, without energy. ⁓

Without the energy or the capacity to really sustain it so success has really become something more that looks like survival, right? You know, we're hustling we're grinding. We're always on the go. We're exhausted, but we dare not tell anybody that You know because I don't want to get I don't want to be seen as not capable I don't want to you know, my god

Maybe there's a promotion coming and I don't want them to think I can't handle the promotion or the next project. And so we suffer in silence and we're suffering. you ⁓ know, and we've been living that life. We have normalized this thing that.

You're just supposed to be tired, you know, and that's just part of being a leader. It's part of being successful. You're going to work yourself to the bone, but that's what we do. And I'm not saying it's not what we do. It's just not what we should be doing. Right. So, and we've been taught, yeah, we've been taught to chase success through being exhausted. So keep pushing, you know, do more with less for black women. my goodness. Right.

We work twice as hard to get half as much. So we're already setting ourselves up to believe that this is what we have to do, that we have to exhaust ourselves just to get a seat at the table, that somehow who I am intrinsically is not worthy of that. So we're telling ourselves that, and then we buy into it, and then we go off and we work ourselves to the bone, and we still don't get the seat at the table, and then we're disillusioned, then we're lost.

what

happened, I did all the right things. ⁓ You know, like I said, we have normalized burnout and we call that accomplishment, right? You know, I'm working 70 hours, I'm sleeping for three hours, I'm answering emails on Saturdays, I'm exhausted, but look at me and it's, yeah, no. So, just no, just no, so.

Mercedes Swan (26:34)
back away slowly

because...

Dr. Lynise Green (26:35)
your bag, Just put

it down and walk away, right? So, you know, when I think when we get to a place where we start to really understand, become aware.

and learn that we have to protect and nurture our energy, that's when we can really start to show up with more clarity, more creativity, more power, right? We can then, you know, when we're, when we're nurturing our energy, that's when I can really show up and lead confidently. That's when I can make decisions that align with and really reflect my values that are going to be important to the organization.

you know, that I'm working for and that's when we can learn to embrace the joy in the journey. ⁓

Like I said, time management is great. get that. ⁓ Conflict resolution, all of those things are wonderful and necessary. They're necessary to be a leader. But managing energy and how you bring that to the table is really where the transformation happens. It's really where you separate good leaders from great leaders, without question.

Mercedes Swan (27:49)
And I think it's not talked about enough how from like a leadership development standpoint, I come from a space of being an executive recruiter. And so I would see a wide variety of different types of leaders walk into the room. And you can tell almost,

who that person is or how they're gonna show up almost even before they speak. And I think that's an important thing to layer into that is like as black women.

we go through this process of like working harder and taking all of these steps to move into leadership, but we're taking different steps than what most people take to move into leadership. And it's because we've been taught different values about what it actually takes to get there. ⁓ And I think whenever I have somebody that I'm working with, and you probably have had this happen too, of being a leadership coach is that sometimes it's not always about all of those strategic steps that you took in an organization.

how you've defined yourself as a leader, what your leadership philosophy is, and your energy like just goes into that so much. And so for all the black women listening to this that you feel like you've been snubbed, you haven't got that promotion, you've been working and working and working to move to that next level, but you can't see that happen. Actually take a moment and say, hey, let me really define like what my leadership style is, how I define success. And that does shift how you walk into a room and how people respond to you and your capability

capabilities of moving into leadership and so I really appreciate that you've put that in that way of Prioritizing truly like your awareness of your energy and and how you define success. I think it's all connected and we often don't We don't do it

Dr. Lynise Green (29:35)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like I

said, when you start to nurture and to understand your personal energy and how you bring that into those spaces, that's when you really find, I think, that...

the rungs on the ladder that you're trying to reach for, you don't get there necessarily, you don't get there necessarily just from hard work. It's about impact. And it's hard to make impact when I am...

leading or working from a space of exhaustion and depletion. I'm not impactful for anybody, right? And so when I'm nurturing my energy, I can be more impactful and I will ultimately set myself up to reach those levels because they're seeing the impact that I can bring when I bring in my full and my whole and my healthy energized self to the table.

Mercedes Swan (30:30)
And this just the connection of like full self versus I'm shrinking or I can't like I can't even I don't even have the energy to show up It's like yeah your team when you get there They're gonna need your full self like you got to get it together girl Get it together now before you're responsible for other people It's rough when you're responsible for other people sometimes and then you're just not managing your own energy you manage their energy, too That's another story. We don't have enough time for that That's a whole nother podcast. Okay managing your team's

Dr. Lynise Green (30:44)
Great. Exactly. Exactly.

That's a whole other thing. That's a whole other podcast. ⁓

Mercedes Swan (31:00)
my gosh, you have a discordant

Dr. Lynise Green (31:01)
my goodness.

Mercedes Swan (31:03)
team. Good luck with that sis. You can't you can't manage their energy. You're actually the same time. That's another thing. ⁓ My god, yeah, we're not going there we're going to next question. That's another time ⁓

Dr. Lynise Green (31:06)
Exactly. my goodness. Yes. Yeah, that's a whole thing.

Okay, I know. ⁓

Mercedes Swan (31:19)
But yeah, so I, ⁓ like I mentioned, like we don't have a lot of data. And so I do love taking this like more science based or back approach to like leadership and how this way of centering like holistic wellness and holistic care of self really is connected. And so my next question with you is like, how can black women really leverage the science behind your work and naturopathy and help them to really use that understanding to help them enter what I

call their Black Woman Bliss era of like true alignment and operating in their highest self, right? Because that's what I want to be. I want more Black Women over here with me. So yeah, what would you share for that to help them kind of move through this journey?

Dr. Lynise Green (31:57)
That's what it's all about. It's right.

yeah, yeah, that black woman bliss era, right? So that is for me all about honestly reclaiming our right. I don't want to emphasize that reclaiming our right to joy, to rest, to ease. And like you said, to wholeness and reclaiming it in a world that

often demands our labor but disregards our wellbeing, right? And so I think that those holistic practices, holistic wellness, optimizing your personal energy, I think it supports it in some really interesting ways. So one, I think it helps us make the shift from survival, surviving to thriving, from survival to sovereignty, right? Because again, we have been, as black women, we have been historically

conditioned, I feel like, to operate in survival mode, right? We're always doing, we're fixing, we're giving, we're overperforming, you know? And that bliss era, it says no. No more to that. I'm gonna rewrite the narrative of how I show up. ⁓

And it can be a little uncomfortable rewriting the narrative and how people around you respond, right? Because this is generations that have taught us and conditioned us to operate in this way. But yeah, those holistic practices ⁓ really say no, that we're not doing that anymore. ⁓ It teaches us, I think, that rest and

nourishing ourselves, whether that's physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, ⁓ that having boundaries is really okay. ⁓ And that finding and having joy and happiness and pleasure, it's not indulgent, right? It's...

necessary, you know, and and they're these are again these evidence-based practices that really help us to restore not just our power but our peace, which I think we sacrifice quite a bit of. ⁓ I think it also allows us and centers our bodies as something sacred and not just disposable because those natural approaches really respect your body's natural

And as women, you know, we are very attuned to our natural rhythm, even though when we're in a corporate setting and really, frankly, any kind of setting, we are often taught to dismiss those settings. I mean, let's be honest, for most of our working careers, right, we are going through a monthly cycle where my energy may not always be at its peak or its best. My attitude may not always be.

Mercedes Swan (35:04)
It is rough out here. That's

Dr. Lynise Green (35:06)
That was the secret, it's best. But we

Mercedes Swan (35:07)
right. ⁓

Dr. Lynise Green (35:09)
are taught to, know, medicate it, dumb it down, ignore it. You still have to show up at 110%. Don't really feel, you know, I don't care how you're feeling, how you're cramping, how you're tired, how you're all the things. I still need you to show up and...

you know, we start to lean into those practices and for ourselves, I'm not looking for, you know, some organization to start going, ⁓ it's that time for you. Let me, you know, right?

Mercedes Swan (35:36)
Actually that's too much. That's

too much.

Dr. Lynise Green (35:39)
⁓

And frankly, I don't I don't need them to know all that much about me, right? But for myself, when I begin to pay attention to my own rhythms, if nothing else, it says, I know I'm getting ready to move into this space, maybe of low energy or whatever it may be. I can work my schedule to not either make it so busy or not put like really demanding, ⁓ my goodness, deadlines and big decisions to happen during those times. Right. I can honor myself.

Mercedes Swan (35:42)
No, don't do that.

Dr. Lynise Green (36:09)
in that way. ⁓ And so ultimately I think ⁓

It really, those holistic practices ⁓ really help us to redefine our power on our own terms. Like I said, you learn that you don't have to just hustle and grind nonstop to be effective and that you can lead, ⁓ you can be influential, you can be impactful, and you can be successful even more so when you are...

working out of clarity and alignment and intention and honestly leading with that softness that is what that feminine energy is about. So, yeah.

Mercedes Swan (36:51)
gosh, there were so many yes moments over here when I was trying not to like get in there but I was like yes because one of the things is that I was never really good at like tracking my cycle other than being like girl you better not be pregnant. We're getting into the TMI issue right? And I had just like stumbled upon a video where this lady was really like no I planned my whole month around my cycle and I was like that makes so much sense.

Dr. Lynise Green (37:06)
Right? ⁓

You

Mercedes Swan (37:22)
why have I not done, why aren't we actually teaching other black women this? now I'm much more intentional about my energy and I was talking about this idea of giving yourself grace. ⁓ And now I'm like, no, I know exactly where I am, at what stage and where I am. got.

Dr. Lynise Green (37:26)
Right. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Mercedes Swan (37:41)
my little ring, it is with like in a day of accuracy and that is actually kind of scary. ⁓ But it means that I don't have to gaslight myself into being like, girl, why are you tired? Why are you laying around? You need to get to work and da da da, you know, all those other things and like redefining that. And so it's like all these ways of like giving myself grace, but like really normalizing the grace giving. ⁓ But I was saying that that's been like something that's really, really nice for me of like actually like planning out, OK, I'm going to get all these projects done here because I know this is my energy is going to be up and

Dr. Lynise Green (37:45)
love it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mercedes Swan (38:10)
and all this other kind of stuff. so ⁓ 10 out of 10 guidance with that, just like really honoring our energy levels ⁓ and the cyclical nature of our feminine energy. ⁓

Dr. Lynise Green (38:11)
Great.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

Mercedes Swan (38:26)
So let's switch into this career focus. I know this is probably what the girlies have been hanging around for. I'm just kidding. There's lots of good information. ⁓ But yeah, like I said, I have personally coached black women that they're like, I'm so passionate about wellness. And they will just not go for the career. And they'll be like, I only saw a couple wellness jobs. And I was like, I know there's not a lot of them out there. But if this is really what you want and this is the space that you want to be in every day of really talking about wellness, nine to five, five to nine, whatever you do,

Dr. Lynise Green (38:33)
Good stuff.

Mercedes Swan (38:57)
eat, breathe, and live your passion, right? That's how I feel about it. And so like, go for it. And so I feel like this conversation, I'm gonna use this podcast and I'll be like, here, see, it's proof that you can do this.

Dr. Lynise Green (39:09)
do it.

Mercedes Swan (39:10)
Please

stop saying no to yourself because you just think it's like a unicorn thing where nobody really has this as a job. And I like, I promise I've hired wellness people, but now I have this podcast proof. ⁓ So I would love to hear from you of like, how did you make that switch into wellness? Like what would be your advice to another black woman who really wants to do this full time in their nine to five and help them feel like it's possible to be a wellness professional in corporate America?

Dr. Lynise Green (39:22)
I love it.

Yeah.

Mercedes Swan (39:40)
Nonprofits or wherever so yeah

Dr. Lynise Green (39:42)
Yeah, and I think that's the thing. Like right now, people are organizations, companies, whether it's nonprofit, whether it's higher education. I mean, I have worked in all of those spaces. I've run wellness programs for colleges. I have taught wellness programs for ⁓ churches. I have worked in the corporate space. I have worked in the nonprofit space. So.

well-being of people ⁓ in those spaces is a thing. And it's really because employees are demanding it, right? It's no more, I'm just gonna show up and, you know, like, a lot of people will make a decision about a job based on, you know, what kind of wellness offering do you have? What kind of wellness support do you offer, you know, your employees? I'm giving you eight, nine, 10 hours of my day, you know, every day. How are you supporting me as an individual? ⁓

And a lot of people will actually make a decision on that. So, you know, from a career perspective, there are just so, I feel like there's so many ways ⁓ to get into, ⁓ get into this. you know, there's always ⁓ coaching, right? So there's wellness coaching, there's life coaching, there's all of those types of things that can happen. the sphere of wellness is really big, right? So one, kind of have to figure out like, what are you

passionate about? When I first started it was food, Because one, I'm a foodie and two, I felt like everybody eats so it was a good entry point to get in and to talk to people. Definitely. So, you know, find out where your passion lies, where your interest really lies.

Mercedes Swan (41:19)
That's so funny. Yes, period for the foodies.

Dr. Lynise Green (42:37)
But I think from a career perspective, like I said, there's wellness coaching, there's life coaching, all of the different industries

if you don't wanna do coaching, if program management isn't your thing, because it's not everybody's thing, the strategic part of it, there's the opportunity again to.

dive into what you're passionate about and do ⁓ workshops and training for people. And whether that is training about behavior and lifestyle types of things, whether that's stress management, which is huge stress management, ⁓ and burnout, things like that. it's, what I do is merging the two and talking about wellness as a function of leadership or leadership as a function of wellness. ⁓

You can do that. You can do consulting. There's so many ways to get in if this is really what you want to do. ⁓ You really just have to kind of explore and go learn and to make it happen. Figure out who it is you want to serve.

because there's even, know, there's employees, there's students. ⁓ A lot of colleges right now have huge student wellness programs that are just for the students. Yeah, and forget the faculty and staff, we'll deal with them later. know, they know what to do with themselves, but you know, a lot of colleges have really big...

Mercedes Swan (44:00)
They'll be fine. They already have burnout.

Yeah.

Dr. Lynise Green (44:10)
really large student wellness programs. And so you've got all kinds of populations of people. have community, my goodness, think about that. You have community wellness that you can partner with other community organizations or nonprofits. You have ⁓ municipalities. So.

city governments, state governments have wellness programming. know, again, whether you're managing it or whether you are coming in and doing education ⁓ kinds of things, there are so many ways to really make a career out of wellness. ⁓ Like I said, you really have to figure out what your passion is, who you want to serve and how you want to be of service.

But there's a path, there's definitely a path and there's definitely a need. There's definitely a need for doing. So no shortage. I can't do it all myself. I need people. Yes, come on. Yes.

Mercedes Swan (45:04)
Thank you. Yes, come on, come on girls. Bring it ladies. Thank you. Okay,

so this is my proof, okay? There are people out here doing this. I'm not just telling you what you want to hear about having a wellness career, like, as possible. And like, you listed so many. I could hear it. You're like, all of it in my brain. Like, how do I, which one do I go?

What's direction? Because there are so many paths and like, yeah, I worked in higher education. We had a whole wellness department. They had so many amazing initiatives that they would do. They had like this walking challenge. was like sync with your, you know, your fitness thing. They had different paths around campus. It was connected to the student, you know, health center. And so we could go to the gyms and like they had a really robust program that I think it was like three people like in just in a singular department.

Dr. Lynise Green (45:41)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mercedes Swan (45:56)
So I just I just want this to be the proof of like go for what you want and if that field is in wellness like it's here Do your thing ladies and and join Dr. Green Okay ⁓ in that path, right? Yeah, so ⁓ as we come to a little bit of a close, I just want to thank you This was like a truly amazing conversation. I think it's I hope at least for me, right? It's a journey that I went through without having heard this from anybody else Okay, like I did it the hard way

Dr. Lynise Green (46:04)
It is.

⁓ Yes, come and join me.

That's great.

Mercedes Swan (46:26)
Don't do it the hard way ladies like truly truly take this the information that you're that you're learning here and begin to think like from a different standpoint of like What is your black woman bless era? What is your energy look like in your black woman bliss era? How are you showing up? What are you doing? How are you caring for your full self? And I think Dr. Green is just like put it all on the table for you all to like take Okay, and reflect on it get the journal out. Okay, ⁓ so but but that being said, okay, some of y'all are like I'm not doing this by myself

Dr. Lynise Green (46:51)
Right? Yeah.

Mercedes Swan (46:56)
I want to work with somebody to do that. So Dr. Lynise, would love for you to tell me, excuse me Dr. Green, I would love for you to tell me a little bit more about how a black woman can work with you if they are facing these challenges. What does that look like and how can they get connected with you? Yeah.

Dr. Lynise Green (47:11)
Yeah,

absolutely. So, so again, thank you for letting me come on and share and ramble. ⁓ and, and yeah, if anything that I've shared today resonates with your, your listeners, ⁓ if you are like I am self professed, a high achieving, high performing woman who is really ready to stop running on empty, stop trying to pour from an empty cup. ⁓ and you want to start creating real balance in your life.

Mercedes Swan (47:16)
I see us.

Dr. Lynise Green (47:41)
Absolutely. I would love to support you ⁓ again, know if you're showing up for everybody but yourself You're holding it all together while quietly you're falling apart. ⁓ I you know, like Mercedes said you don't there's another way we don't have to do this so Working with me start certainly visit my website. It's well with L calm So L just L like Lynise well with L calm ⁓

You can find out more information about me. I offer a few ways that I work with people. ⁓ So I do do ⁓ private coaching ⁓ for people who want that more high touch customized support as they're making this shift, this intentional shift ⁓ to really look at their energy and to explore where it is to really develop that self awareness of when it's not doing what it needs to do and it develops

personalized strategies for how to nurture and enhance and maintain it. So I do do you know one-on-one coaching with people. I have online resources because sometimes you know life is busy ⁓ and I just kind of want to like give me the information I'll go read it I can figure it out myself right so I've got ⁓ many courses that are just little you know little short things that will really get you on the right path. ⁓

reset, another the mental reset, and I'm working on the others for the alignment and the emotional reset. So there's many courses out there. ⁓ I do have some what I call signature courses ⁓ that are

Super comprehensive and really do the deep dive into this energy optimization work. All of those are available online ⁓ Any of those can be coupled with the personalized coaching? So if you want to do all the study and and then come back and go, okay Here's what I learned. How do I integrate it? You know kind of thing all of that is available. So I've tried to Create a system and a framework that will meet people where they are ⁓

but really just make the information and the support available. So yeah, go to wellwithelle.com. You can get to my courses. You can get to my online school. You can get to me. ⁓ All the goodness is there. So, you know, I'm here. I'm here to support. I'm here to help. ⁓ And I wanna do it. So like I said, if you're ready, I'm ready for you.

Mercedes Swan (50:13)
Okay, so this is like, okay, so at this point you do not have an excuse if you're listening to this. To not tap in, okay? Because if you've been feeling any of this, ⁓ you know, you have a variety of options to choose from. But what I will say, honestly, from my personal experience is that I would have rather figured this out with a coach rather than show it up at the psychiatrist's office. Okay, that's all I'm gonna say about that. Okay, okay, okay.

Dr. Lynise Green (50:38)
Yeah, yeah.

Mercedes Swan (50:40)
Okay, so all of that being said, I will put everything from Dr. Green in the show notes so that you can get a link. I think we have a special code for our listeners, so they will be able to tap in and get that code in the show notes too. And you know, as I've mentioned, this has just been so truly lovely, Dr. Green. Thank you, thank you, thank you for just feeding into this community or giving to this community and loving on us.

It's been really amazing. So with all of that being said to our lovely listeners, I hope that you take this information to enter your Black Woman Bliss era. ⁓ And again, really think and reflect on what's kind of going on in life and bring this together. Truly implement, not just listen. I want y'all to implement. Okay. And if you really enjoyed this episode, I really encourage you to subscribe, share this with another Black woman in your life who you know, maybe a little bit burnt out. Okay. She needs this too. Okay.

And if you would like you can of course support this podcast on Spotify so love until next time me and Dr. Lynise are wishing you an absolutely amazing next week and much success in building a life that you truly love and hopefully that includes a thriving career and business so we'll see you all next time