Business strategist and collborator Anese Cavanaugh at the ZingTrain Speaker Series

We recently caught up with Anese to ask her five questions:

Why are you so certain that everyone has a presence? Don’t some people have “bigger personalities” than others? 
Everyone has a presence and we’re always always always having impact. We’re either contributing to or detracting from the energy of a room/situation/etc. even if that means we’re quiet and just holding space. You can have huge impact in a room, simply by the way you show up and the intention and energy you bring into that room. Yes, there are bigger personalities than others,and I find that’s only a very small part of presence —  what I’m always interested in is how do they use that personality intentionally and so that it is a contributor vs. a detractor. We’ll be talking about this and how you use your presence super powers for good, not evil, no matter how big your personality or presence is.

Why do you think this notion of “presence” or “showing up” is so important? What kind of impact does it have? 
It is the difference between us influencing others and getting the results and relationships we wish for – or not. And it is the difference between creating sustainable joy and fulfilment in our lives for ourselves or not. you have to show up for yourself well first in order to sustain being able to show up for others well too.

How did you come up with the IEP method?
There are 50,000 books out there on leadership and many approaches, I saw in many of them and so many of my clients that the tendency was to put self-care and energy as a last thing to pay attention to because they’re “soft stuff” and not “true leadership” skills. I couldn’t disagree more. To me a leader’s IEP is the difference between being a happy alive leader who people follow because they want to, vs. being burntout and followed because they have to. The latter doesn’t create life giving impact. So I blended my back ground in kinesiology and energy work (I used to work with athletes) into business and leadership practices and a bunch of other stuff over the last 14 years and created a methodology I thought would help create stronger and happier energized leaders.

How did you test the IEP method? 
It’s tested everyday by me personally and it works. But besides myself, we’ve had thousands of people use it and integrate it into their life – in a way that’s authentic to them – and find that it serves beautifully. We’ve also had people who’ve gone through my programs who have their MBAs from Stanford and Harvard and others who’ve said this was the most powerful, meaningful, and effective leadership experience they’d ever had. “More valuable than an MBA.” We’ve integrated this content into schools and organizations around the globe, from Singapore to London to NYC, and everyone finds something from it they can align with and use for good in their leadership/life. The thing I like most about it is that while there is a “method” – it is truly up to each human to use the components of the method in their own authentic way – which is a core part of IEP – authenticity and alignment.

What is one take away that people can expect from your Speaker Series session? 
A new relationship with what presence and showing up really means to them so they can use it to optimize their own impact and joy.

Anese Cavanaugh is the creator of the IEP Method (Intentional Energetic Presence) as well as a leadership and collaboration advisor, strategist, and thinking partner for business leaders in the design, service and innovation spaces. Through her speaking, writing and creative leadership programs, people learn how to optimize their leadership and presence, bringing their best selves to the table for greater collaboration, impact, and cultural success.

Anese Cavanaugh is a dynamic, highly sought after speaker who has been called “transformational.” Anese has appeared on stages across the country – Stanford University, the Inc. Women’s Summit, the Education Equals Partnership Annual Conference, and many others – all in service of Showing Up well and creating positive impact in the world. In addition to appearing in publications like The Huffington Post,CEO.com, and the NY Times, Anese writes regularly for Inc.com in her column “Showing Up”, has just released The IEP Survival Guide: First Aid for Your Presence”, and has a book due to release in late 2015 with McGraw-Hill. Anese will join us for the last ZingTrain Speaker Series of the season on Wednesday, June 24, 8-9am. See you there! 

Reserve your seat here