What no one’s ever told you before about how to be better at work. Advice for all my female listeners. How your cycle influences your work output. Advice for how to structure your months. Tune into your body, with expert advice from Hormone Coach, Leah Brueggemann.
THIS EPISODE AT-A-GLANCE
- Why your menstrual cycle is a superpower
- How your menstrual cycle affects your work output (it's actually really great empowering news!)
- Should insights be discussed in the workplace?
- Hormone programs offered by Leah
Links mentioned in episode
Full Podcast Transcription
Leah Brueggemann:
This is most people's favorite face. So when you're thinking about this in terms of work, this is when you brainstorm and you dream because you are more creative during this time.
Sarah Panus:
Hi, my name is Sarah Panus. I have spent the last two decades driving digital content for billion dollar brands. Now I help content marketers build winning brand storytelling strategies and reduce feelings of overwhelm and confusion. Join me as we discuss strategy, creativity, confidence, and building a better connection with your audience. Think of this as a creative content marketing jam session mixed with chicken soup for the soul. This is the Marketing With Empathy podcast.
Sarah Panus:
Hey, Hey, Kindred Speakers. Today's episode is for my female listeners. So guys, I'm not trying to leave you out, but if you work with a lot of women or you have a female partner, I definitely recommend sharing this episode with them. Or if you're curious, keep listening to better understand the women in your life. Why? Well today we're sharing advice for female corporate marketers and how our menstrual cycles influence our work output.
Sarah Panus:
So see, this is why I'm thinking this more for my female audience than my males, but stick around if you're interested for sure. Because we're gonna talk about how to better tune into your body advice for structuring your work projects and more. And I will say that in my 40 some years on this earth and more than 20 plus years working, no one has ever talked to me about the relationship between my menstrual cycle and work. Like never, right? I'm gonna make a statement and say, I bet a lot of you listening are in the same boat. It's just not something we talk about, right? But that's gonna change today because by tuning into ourselves, by understanding ourselves better, we're gonna be better equipped. You're gonna be better equipped to do your best at work, right? And so that's where I really wanna help us all on this podcast.
Sarah Panus:
We talk about brand storytelling and marketing with empathy, but we also get into the introspection, the things within us that make us the best in our jobs in our life as possible too. So this is gonna be one of those episodes where we get into those things about us that will help us thrive more in our careers. And I'm not gonna be the one sharing the tips because I don't know any of those. And we're gonna, I'm gonna learn right alongside with you. So I brought on an expert named Leah Brueggemann. Leah is a functional diagnostic nutritional practitioner. She specializes in hormonal balance for women. She helps women balance their hormones naturally with nutrition, lifestyle, and finally getting to the root issue. She's helped over 300 women get painless periods, stabilize their moods and scale to six figures in their business using their cycle.
Sarah Panus:
Leah has a passion for helping women connect to their cycle, which she says is their superpower, which I've never, ever thought of my period being my superpower. Really excited to dig into that with Leah. Aside from all of this, Leah's also a TikTok influencer. She has 335,000 followers, more than 3 million likes on that platform. She's large on Instagram as well. So if your brand targets women, this is also a great chance to learn more about Leah. And maybe she'll be someone that you wanna partner with. When Leah's not chatting about hormones, you'll probably find her hanging out with her son and her husband in the outdoors. What no one's ever told you before about how to be better at work, after a word from our sponsors. All right, Leah, welcome to the show.
Leah Brueggemann:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Sarah Panus:
Thank you. I am too. So Leah, backstory folks. So Leah and I actually first met, we were both in the same business coaching group. We both had the same coach and we were in this mastermind group together and we got paired up as buddies, along with a couple other women. And so we like regularly were connecting with each other and messaging on Voxer and weekly calls and all the things. And so I've learned a ton and respect a ton of what Leah does and how much she helps women. But it's also really opened my eyes, honestly, Leah, to a whole different way of thinking just about myself as a woman. And like how to think about that process and then how it also translates into work. So it's just been really, really fascinating. So that's why I wanted you to come on this show today because one, we've never talked about this topic on the show before two, like I said in the beginning, most women never even have this conversation at work. Definitely not at work. And so I wanted this to be like a safe space where we can learn more about ourselves, but in the vein of thinking of as you know, corporate marketers as marketing professionals, communication professionals, there's this aspect of us like how do we embrace that to be our best? And so that's what I'm so excited to learn from you today.
Leah Brueggemann:
I think the menstrual cycle is so cool, but I didn't always think that way so I can understand where you're coming from. I think that so many times part of it is how we have been just indoctrinated growing up, you know, like we never talk about our periods. You know, you're scared to tell your mom when you first get your period and you're too scared to tell your dad, you ran out of tampons or pads. So we just don't talk about it and I think though, if we take away that stigma and actually look at our menstrual cycle, the way it's designed to be. Which is this beautiful thing that actually can serve you so well if you tap into it, it really just changes the whole topic.
Why your menstrual cycle is a superpower
Sarah Panus:
Yeah. And I looked up the stats and in the US. 42% of us marketers are women and for PR pros, 70% of PR pros are women. And I know a lot of people listening, you fall into one of these categories. And I know a lot of women listen to Marketing With Empathy. And I know a lot of men who work with women listen to this podcast. So I think it's just a great topic to kind of remove that stigma and just actually understand the connection of our menstrual cycle and how that influences our work output. I think it's just a fascinating discussion, cuz you're right. There is like the stigma, like you just don't talk about it. It's a secret. So I wanna get right to it because this is the business advice we didn't learn in college. Yeah. And we're definitely not discussing in our performance reviews at work. Are we folks, so why do you think connecting to your menstrual cycle is a superpower? I think that's a really interesting statement when I read you think that. So tell us more, I wanna hear about that.
Leah Brueggemann:
So I think it really comes down to understanding the ebbs and flows of your menstrual cycle. And then when you understand that and you can work with it is when you can truly break your glass ceiling because instead of trying to drive on the other side of the highway, you can drive in your lane more efficiently. And I think so many times as women, where the ones that have to go on maternity leave when we have a baby. Right? And I feel like we're constantly trying to prove ourselves in the workplace and we feel like we have to go, go, go, go, go. Right? And that was designed around a man's 24 hour cycle. So men do have a cycle, but it resets every single day. And we do not have that ours fluctuate week to week, depending on where we are in our cycle. Our hormones are going to rise and fall.
Leah Brueggemann:
And so when you can understand what your body's natural energy levels, what your natural inclinations are going to be week to week, you can plan out your work week better. You can kinda plan out your projects better. And then each week you can live in whatever superpower you have for that phase, because some hormones are gonna make you a little bit more ballsy. So, you gotta have hard conversations. Wanna ask for a raise? There's some phases that you're gonna have more empathy. You're gonna be better at communication. So if you have to give any presentations is a great time to do it. So just really knowing when you can nail something, gives you so much more confidence. Cause you all know when you start something you're like, okay, I truly hope that today's gonna be a good day and I'm not gonna get twisted over my words. You all know when you give a really good presentation. And so when you can really understand why that day went really well in terms of the fluctuation of hormones with your cycle, I feel like that's when you get to unlock the secrets, because then you can really set yourself up for success.
Sarah Panus:
Hmm. I love that. Okay. So let's unpack that more then. Tell me more, tell us more about how our menstrual cycles affect our work output. How should we be thinking, can you outline that for us?
How our cycles affect our work output
Leah Brueggemann:
Yeah. So let's start with what the phases of your cycle are, because if you are anything like me back in the day, I thought your cycle was your period and you were done with your period and that was it. And you just kind of sat in no man's land until your period came again. But your menstrual cycle is period to period. It's this whole time. It's not just while you're bleeding. So an easy way to think about it is in terms of the seasons. So when you're on your period, I like to equate it to winter. You know, little bit more time for reflection, slow down a little bit. And when you're done bleeding, you head into spring or what we call the follicular phase, okay. This is when your follicle is getting ready to release that egg. And then you head right into your ovulatory phase.
Leah Brueggemann:
Or I like to think about it as summer when you actually ovulate. And then after ovulation, you head into your luteal phase or fall/autumn, however you like to say that. So if you think about your four phases, now let's think about the ebb and flow of the hormones and how that affects your mood, your energy and your output. So when you're on your period, you are naturally very reflective and you may find typically on your period, you know, that you rethink all of youju8r life choices. You're like, why am I doing this? What am I doing with my life? Where am I going? Why did I decide to do this? This was such a bad idea. And so just understanding that I think can help you slow that spiral and actually, you know, take advantage of that natural inclination to look back on what went well and what didn't go well last month, you know, take some time to like you're naturally gonna be reflective. So tap into that, you know, we all need that time to sit and look back and be like, Hey, where could I make some changes to better things? Or maybe where did things go really well? And we wanna keep doing that. I do highly recommend though, not making any big life decisions on your period.
Sarah Panus:
I love that. That's great. Like in my world, then I could see that being, that's a great time to do, you know, monthly, quarterly analysis of programs and looking back at the data and doing kind of those recaps and insights and things to see and be reflective on them.
Leah Brueggemann:
Yeah, I agree. I think it's important to, you know, be reflective but not make anything really big at that time. Like don't make any decisions. It's just, you're kind of looking at the information being like, Hey, what's it telling us because you will have a natural inclination to be harder on yourself. So it's important to kind of remember. But when you are done bleeding and you head into your vicular phase, your estrogen is rising. And so think about estrogen as your Beyonce hormone. So you are going to literally, whatever you in pick like envisioned right now is exactly what this phase is. You have more energy, you are more creative, you are gonna wanna get out and socialize a little bit more. You, I mean, in terms of nutrition, you actually utilize carbs better. You're more sensitive to insulin. You build muscle easier. So this is most people's favorite face.
Leah Brueggemann:
So when you're thinking about this in terms of work, this is when I, you brainstorm and you dream because you are more creative during this time. You all know when you sit down and you have to like create out content or you have to like get something ready and you all know when you sit down, you're like, this is so hard. You feel like you're hitting a wall, no words are coming to you. You just feel like task takes so much longer. These are the times to do it is in your follicular face. So when you can take these projects and plan them and do them during a time when you're naturally going to be better at that task, how much easier is that gonna make your life? Yeah. So instead of having to take three hours on a project, you can plan it during that week when you know, your creative juices are just gonna be there and it can take you half the time.
Leah Brueggemann:
So now you are not only being less frustrated with yourself, but you're also saving time. So I really just, encourag it just encourage you to kind of like move around things that you can, that you have the flexibility to, to where, you know, each superpower is when you head out of your molecular phase, you head right into ovulatory phase, and this is a spicy phase. Your estrogen is at its peak at this time. And so is testosterone. So literally you guys, you're gonna be more gutsy. It's just, it just comes with the territory. And so I encourage you, like during this time, do you need to ask for a race, do you need to do the sales call? Do you need to do the pitch? Do you need to talk to your boss? Do you need to have a hard conversation? This is a fabulous time to do it.
Leah Brueggemann:
It's fabulous time. Because you're going to find it comes a lot easier. Maybe that conversation isn't gonna scare you just as much as it would at at a different time. You're also you're right. And left brain are firing better together during this time. So your communication skills are much higher. So if you have to do any networking, you have to do a presentation. You have to do a public speaking and you have a choice of when you can schedule that. This is a great time to do it. You have a podcast interview, great time to do it because your, your communication is so much higher words come easier to you. You're gonna be more sociable. Those hormones are at their peak. And then you head into your Lial phase, which is actually one of the longer phases for most people. It can actually be about two weeks-ish.
Leah Brueggemann:
And this is if you have hormonal issues, this is gonna be probably your most dreaded face because if you have hormonal imbalances, you'll tend to be more PMSC, you'll get more bloated. You'll get more tired, maybe not all the fun stuff, but if we're balanced and we're living in that cycle the L phase is it's like an organizer's dream. I mean, it's such a great time to get back and work done, finish up projects. You're much more detail oriented. You are a little bit less sociable during this time though. And maybe that's why you're so good at those projects. Cause you can just like zone out the world and be like, I've got this. Sure. so it's a great time to do like your backend or repurposing or all that boring computer work and filing and all that kind of stuff that you didn't wanna do before, because you were sociable and you were getting that those types of projects done before.
Leah Brueggemann:
So just knowing where these phases are, I think is so important. And I don't want you to like jump in right now and change everything. I want you to go one cycle, just being an observer. I want you to just go through a whole cycle period to period and just notice the changes. Right? So the first step is to be aware and then when you're like, okay, okay. I kind of am starting to see this. I always wondered why some weeks I was just so much better at, you know, coming up with ideas. And then other days I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. So first step is to become aware. And then secondly, what I recommend doing is you just looking at your calendar and what do you have the power and the flexibility to change around.
Leah Brueggemann:
So, especially as you can schedule interviews or schedule presentations or any, and all of the above there, just look at where you are in your cycle and try and plan them according to the superpower of that phase. And then the things that you don't have, the power to change, you don't have the flexibility to change. Just being aware that maybe you're gonna need a little bit more prep time, or maybe you have a really big speaking engagement and it's right before your period, just know that maybe you're gonna need to do a little bit more self care afterwards and that's okay. To recover. And I think that a lot of times, when I do say this women are like, so you're telling me I have to slow down. How on earth am I gonna succeed? If I need to slow down and I want you to rephrase that and think about if you slow down for that very small portion of your cycle and really focus on where that superpower is of being more reflective or taking some more time for yourself, or maybe just doing the backend and not scheduling so many speaking engagements.
Leah Brueggemann:
If you take that time, then you can show up 120% the rest of the time. But if you constantly push, push, push, push, push, and don't listen to what your body is telling you and tap into that power, then a you're gonna burn out. But then secondly, you're gonna be showing up 60%, your whole cycle. So would you rather slow down and show up 80%, you know, during your period and then show up 120% the rest of your cycle.
Sarah Panus:
Wow. That was so insightful right there. I just learned so much more about my body. And now I, I can, I understand why you say it's a superpower, cause it is like hormones. You like, I think there's like this thing with women that we look at it like as a negative, but it is like a positive of like all these beautiful aspects of ourself and these like surging of hormones, it can be a negative if the hormones are outta balance, I think that's what it is. Right? Like, so people experience these things and their hormones are outta balance. And then you do experience like side effects yeah. That you don't want but when things are balanced, like you said, and I know what you help. So many women figure out, get them to get their hormones balance. That's super cool.
Sarah Panus:
I like love the I'm like picturing myself, you said superpower. And I'm like picturing myself as like wonder woman. And I'm like pulling the trigger on the hormone. I need to be spicy or I need to be reflective or more creative. I love how you I'm getting my Beyonce hormone. I love that. It's a cool visual way to think about the whole like monthly cycle. Yeah. And how that can translate to our work and what we're able to control. So I know you're right. We're not always able to control, obviously everything that's happening, but just being aware and, and controlling what we can and then being aware of the situation and understanding and having some leniency with ourselves. Yeah. In the moments where we can't is incredibly empowering.
Leah Brueggemann:
Yeah. And I think that when you're kind of looking at it, just from an awareness standpoint, you can give yourself a little bit more grace instead of just getting very frustrated when you're like, why is this taking so long when I was able to do it so fast last week and understanding where you are in your cycle, you can be like, oh, okay. So maybe if you have the flexibility, you'll work on something that is more opportune to that time and your time management is so much better.
Are insights discussed in the workplace?
Sarah Panus:
Yeah. Well, so Leah, since you, obviously this is not something I talk about all the time, but since it's something that you talk about all the time, are you hearing or seeing like these insights being shared more and discussed more in the work environment.
Leah Brueggemann:
A little bit, not a ton, but a little bit. I've been hearing some bigger names actually start to bring on some health consultants that are working with their cycle, which is important. Because I just think that, I mean, there, like you said, there's so many women in PR in marketing, right. And if you can harness that power, like how much, how much better of a company are you gonna be? So it it's slowly trickling in it's it's not like a outpour right now, but I do see it coming in slowly. And I think, you know, you do have to be hesitant or, you know, careful about it too, because obviously this doesn't in any way apply to men so right. I think it really depends on if your work has a ton of male or females in it is really gonna yeah. Kind of change that about.
Sarah Panus:
Yeah. Cuz there's a lot of, I'm familiar with a lot of corporate training programs around like women in leadership yes. And different ways to advance different pockets within companies. And I could see this being incredibly insightful and valuable as a core, it's a very different way of talking about it and I could see it being very uncomfortable in a corporate culture. Yeah. But I also think it's incredibly insightful just how you would just explain the four different phases, the four different seasons and like what those mean and how they relate to how we work. That's awesome. Like, so that, that's wonderful. I'm glad we could share that with my listeners. So you guys can learn more about your bodies or the women in your lives as well. Yeah. and I know Leah, like that's something as well that you, you offer is like, if a company is interested in like a health consultant to come in and help do this training to explain this, or, you know, to the women in, in their work environment, that's something you do too. Right?
Leah Brueggemann:
Yeah. I will come in as a consultant. Cool. It's fun. Just to see, I love watching businesses or women that even just own their own business when they can change, just change some simple things around, you know, become more in harmony with everything that's going on. I've seen them really scale their businesses fast.
Sarah Panus:
Yeah. Okay. Is there anything else I should ask you about that I haven't yet? That would be good to add to this? Or do you think we've covered everything?
Leah Brueggemann:
I think you've, you we've covered everything. I think it's, I think just becoming aware is your first step. If you can just become aware and notice and give yourself grace and kind of see where those fluctuations are happening for you individually that's gonna be your first step.
Sarah Panus:
Okay. Beautiful. All right. So how can people connect with you online to learn more?
Leah Brueggemann:
So you can connect with me on Instagram or TikTok. I feel like I'm on all the platforms. I'm all present now. But yeah, it's just @leah_brueg on pretty much everywhere. So we're on TikTok. We're on Pinterest. We're on Instagram. I would say that I am most active on Instagram.
programs offered by leah
Sarah Panus:
Okay. And you have some really great programs that you offer, you know, as I talked about helping coach women. Yeah. Talk a little bit more about your, your online programs that you have. Yeah.
Leah Brueggemann:
So I do have a group program where I help women in a group setting balance their hormones naturally it's called the Hormone Reset. And it's truly just about understanding your cycle and using nutrition in lifestyle to help get those painless periods, get your energy back get your life back. We actually just kicked off a program last night and that was the common consensus from everybody. You know, they were just sharing their stories and at the end they would just be like, I just want my life back, you know, stop feeling like your hormones are controlling you. And then I do one on one coaching. So I will run functional labs, help you get to the root issue. One-On-One coaching is definitely more for my really busy people, you know, so we can adapt things a little bit more around your schedule, those people that, you know, they're like, okay, I just want you to tell me exactly what I need to do this week and I will do it. And next week we will readjust so you know, it kind of just depends on where you're at and what you're looking for, but I think both containers are really helpful just depending on where you're at in your life.
Sarah Panus:
Beautiful. And you have your own podcast too.
Leah Brueggemann:
I do. Yeah. It's called Balancing Hormones Naturally and it's so much fun. Cause I get to talk to the coolest people. You know, I've brought in medical doctors, I've brought in naturopathic doctors and herbalist and just kind of hearing the standpoint and the viewpoint from all of these different fields on, you know, where women's health is and why it's gotten to where it is. And you know, how people can start making changes to better things. It's been a blast.
Sarah Panus:
Oh, awesome. Thank you so much. So I'll make sure that I put all those links in the show notes folks. So if you're out and about just click the player that you're listening to right now, you'll see the link for the show notes and you can check out all those resources that Leah has to help you. So huge thanks again, Leah, for coming on. This was really great.
Leah Brueggemann:
You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me Sarah.
Sarah Panus:
Of course. All right folks. That was hormone coach, extraordinaire Leah Brueggemann. Did you learn something about yourself today? I know, I sure did. And I would love to hear your feedback on the show. Ping me on LinkedIn. Let me know if you have any follow up questions. I'm happy to share those with Leah or reach out to Leah directly. And be sure to check out the show notes for the full transcription of today's show along with the links that I mentioned, and I'll see you back here next week. Until next time, Kindred Speakers.
Closing Remarks
Sarah Panus:
If you're hearing my voice right now, you're likely a corporate content marketer of some kind looking to level up your brand storytelling career. What would it feel to have the skills, confidence, and know how to advance your brand storytelling results and love the work you're doing? In an ideal world you and your content team are high level strategic thinkers that know how to humanize your brand to drive seven X engagements and actions. You have the right creative mindset to attract your ideal audience and build brand trust and loyalty through storytelling. You're viewed as top performers in the company and brand storytelling is valued because it's driving business results and supporting multiple channel teams. But things don't always go our way, right? Maybe your brand lacks, a cohesive content strategy. Maybe you and your team are asked to deliver a lot for your company and it's hard to keep up.
Sarah Panus:
You know you need to invest in figuring out next steps in your company's brand storytelling plans, but haven't had the time to figure out how yet. And you need help integrating it across the organization. You personally want to level up your skills because you know, you need to know how to do these things to advance in your career. You want your work to be valued so that you love coming to work each day, attracting leads, increasing repeat, and referral actions or creating a loved brand. And in this competitive market, you're looking for ways to stay competitive, for yourself or retaining and attracting top talent for your company. That's why I created the Brand Storytelling Academy, a hands on three month group training program designed to help corporate content marketers attract upper funnel leads that drive bottom funnel results through storytelling. For one sixth of the cost to hire a person on the team or onboard a high level brand storytelling strategist, you and up to five people on your team can be developing and accelerating your brand storytelling skills. Think of it like a college certification program for you and your team, but you get the knowledge a lot quicker and your professor, me, has 20 years of hands on experience guiding you along the way. Curious? Fill out the application at kindredspeak.com/apply to learn more and I'll be in touch to answer all your questions and discuss if it's a good fit. Go to kindredspeak.com/apply.
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ABOUT SARAH PANUS
Sarah Panus is a brand storytelling marketing strategist, Minnesota mom, and owner of Kindred Speak, LLC, a remote consultancy that helps corporations attract upper-funnel leads that drive bottom-funnel results through storytelling. Her mission is to add value to the world by humanizing brand+consumer connections. Her online courses teach content professionals inside corporations think like Editorial Directors for their brand to drive stronger results while enjoying their jobs more. She’s spent the last 20 years helping brands including Sleep Number, Starbucks, Nestle Waters, Christos Bridal, Game Crazy, Cone Inc, and others, speak a kindred language with their audiences, driving brand advocacy and millions in revenue and brand engagements. Learn more at www.kindredspeak.com. Follow Sarah on Instagram and LinkedIn.
