Elizabeth Wangugi: ALC ChangeMakers Podcast Interview
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[00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome to the ALC Changemakers Podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Sconyers, president and founder of Abundance Leadership Consulting, where we support mission-driven leaders in building healthier organizations through justice centered sustainable leadership. In today's episode, I'm joined by the incredible Elizabeth Wangugi, a burnout consultant and yoga specialist, and all around change agent based in Columbus, Ohio.
Elizabeth's story is powerful, vulnerable, and deeply relevant for managing million dollar portfolios while quietly burning out to radically transforming her health and career path. Elizabeth shares how she reclaimed her wellbeing and how she's now helping others do the same. We talk about how COVID became the turning point for her healing, why rest, support and community are essential to leadership.
Her journey from [00:01:00] corporate life to wellness entrepreneur and the exciting public event. She's launching a NAP concert for Real Collective restoration. This is a conversation about unlearning hustle culture, listening to your body and designing leadership bru and wholeness. It's honest, heartfelt, and packed with wisdom, especially for those of you navigating burnout or seeking a new way forward.
Let's dive in.
Audio Only - All Participants: Hi everybody. We're so excited to have her. Elizabeth Wangugi, she's amazing. I met her through a mutual connection the owner of video story here in Columbus, Ohio. And I always think that when people say, you must meet this person, then I should follow suit and do so.
So with that, Elizabeth, tell us who you are and what you're up to. Hello, my friends. I'm Elizabeth Wangugi. I am, uh, I like to call myself now a free agent. I am moving in a grooving. I'm a [00:02:00] yoga teacher and specifically a yin yoga specialist. I am a burnout consultant, uh, particularly concentrating on reducing attrition and churn and turnover in companies.
I'm also like a cool girl. I'm just a cool girl hanging out. I am. Hugely passionate about health, fitness, and wellbeing. It's great. We're excited to talk to you today. So tell us a bit about your leadership journey and how you got to this place of a burnout consultant and why health and wellbeing is so important to you.
Yeah. So I was working at a company and in fact I'll just go ahead and shout 'em out 'cause they're a great company. It's called Mead and Associates. I worked for them for nine years as a portfolio manager for medical debt [00:03:00] collections. And I managed a portfolio that brought in a little less than about a million dollars a year.
Total of a little over $7 million in the nine years that I was there. I felt very stuck physically and emotionally. I was at a desk for eight to nine hours a day. I was 325 pounds at the time. I was just really stuck. Really stuck. And the same thing had been happening every year since I was like a young girl.
So, every year on New Year's, I would make my like New Year's resolution that I was gonna drop weight and I would for approximately 60 ish days, and then my birthday would come in March, and Cake is my best friend.
And then that would be that. And it was just like, no more consistency. No more nothing. I would just sort of give in and [00:04:00] give up. And then all of a sudden, COVID happened. And every excuse that I'd ever had for my personal health journey, quite literally was taken away from me. Every bar closed, every bakery, closed cafe.
There was nothing. There was nothing to do but have the time to deal with myself. I was lucky enough to have kept my job over Covid. I was working from home and I was, you know, it was for the very first time that I didn't have to have multiple jobs. So for my primary career, I'd worked like three jobs for three years to buy my first house as a single black woman.
And it felt like such an accomplishment, like it felt huge. 29 under 30 bought my first house. I was on the SCE success track. Yeah. And I was incredibly tired. I was short with everyone. [00:05:00] I had a bad attitude most of the time. I was just really deeply unwell and unhappy. And so over covid, I really got a chance to have the time to deal with myself.
And it manifested in a way where I had, uh, lost over 120 pounds. Oh, wow. I have kept it off, like to this. Wow. Actually, it's a little closer to 130 almost. Woo. Congrats. Wow. That's a whole person. I knew that in order to, 'cause I've done this before, like I'm, yeah, my whole life I've been fully Oprah.
Lose weight. Gain weight. Lose weight. Gain weight. Yeah. Professional career of yo-yoing and I. Yeah. Like, I can't keep doing this anymore. I've finally gotten a weight loss coach. Shout out to Corinne Crabtree. No. BS with Corinne Crab. If you, anybody out there [00:06:00] is looking for sustainable weight loss without drugs or surgery.
She's a girl. And together we really did it. And it was really one of those things where I realized that I was. Eating because I really just couldn't reconcile my life. Nobody had ever taught me how to recover. Nobody had ever taught me how to cope. And nobody had ever taught me the philosophy that when life gets hard, you don't quit, you just rest.
Okay. And so after that I knew that the only way to keep the weight off was to become athletic, like to develop an active and athletic lifestyle. And so I started training like an actual athlete. I went to core powers to. If there are any yogis out there, you'll know in terms of yoga, power, yoga is like the rogue fitness of yoga, and core power is [00:07:00] at the top of the mountains.
I was just like I want to be, oh, no, I lost you. Oh, no. Oh no. You're back. You're back. Yay. Okay, you're back. So core power was my vision and I ended up training there and I, you know, the whole time I was in yoga teacher training, I just kept feeling like I was introduced to the, idea of restorative yoga and the idea of rest.
And I immediately, like, it changed everything about me. It changed everything about me, my mindset and my life, and so cut to about three years later now. Yeah. I have gone all the way down the rabbit hole. I tailored my yoga certification for yin yoga for burnout, and for those that are really into the yoga space.
Uh, yin yoga is the exact opposite of the kind of yoga you would [00:08:00] normally see if you walk into any studio. So instead of. Lots of movement, lots of breath, lots of sort of tangling in and out of your body. Yin yoga is barely any movement. Using your breath to activate or relax the nervous system instead of your muscles and allowing gravity and time to work for you instead of against you.
And that was a new concept for me. Like things that had always weighed me down are now working to my benefit. Interesting. Interesting. I started, uh, in burnout because of the physical aspects of burnout because I gotten so many people in my yoga class. An hour was never enough. And yeah, hours worth of yoga is just not enough.
Yeah. To combat an unsustainable lifestyle. This is correct. Well, I know, [00:09:00] you know, when we first met, we met, maybe it was last fall, I think is when we had our probably first one-on-one conversation, and you were talking about your journey, right? You had a corporate job. The burnout the weight gain, the burnout you were experiencing.
I have to say, you know, at A LCB work with so many people, really, women who are in their careers, who were high achievers, high performers, they're doing. Cause driven work, right? So it's purpose-driven work. And so many, you know, they come to us in coaching 'cause they're, burned out and they need a career change or career shift.
They dunno where to start. Like, those are some of my very first clients. Like, what do I do? And so it sounds like you've taken, I. Your journey for you, you know, as like you ended up, you were like this athlete, right? And then you turned to yoga. Tell us about like how you're transforming that. 'cause I know there's a community component for you too, right?
As you've been on this journey, you want others to also experience this in the own way. Can you tell us a bit about that? Yeah. So, [00:10:00] uh, I, I guess in terms of my own journey and yeah, where this comes from, uh. I know that I'm not the only one who's experienced this and you know yeah. Your clients come to you because something has to change, right.
Their work, their life, their family relationships, their own body it seems like might be betraying them. But what's really happening is after so long of ignoring the inner voice, like the inner nervous system, what your body needs, what your mind needs, what your soul means, the spiritual component.
After so long of ignoring all of that, you're just sort of operating on empty, no matter. Where you are in your life, how much of an achiever you are, you're just gonna end up operating on empty. And so the for me, what started out as something that was almost completely physical, it was just like, I just want to, me and my [00:11:00] body gotta get with each other.
Yeah. Turned into this huge mission to learn how to cope and recover. Learn what rest can really do. And the more I began to talk about it, and the more I began to share my own story, the more I began to I, you know, I came I, went on my very first sabbatical, so I had never, I'd never like yeah, just had been accruing, all of these vacation days.
And by luck and by God's grace, I was given the opportunity to take 28 days off of work. Oh wow. Wow. We just don't, I just wanna just acknowledge that we just don't see that a lot, especially in corporate spaces. There's different spaces. I've seen the nonprofit space, you know, that's built in with the acknowledgement of just what it takes to do the work.
But, [00:12:00] you know, it's so rare we see in corporate spaces here in the States at least. 28 days. Other countries, you see that, but we just don't see that here in, in the us we don't, and it's unfortunate that's really something you only ever see in education. Somebody goes on sabbatical, professor. But that is, uh, for me at least, it was so required.
It was so required. And what happened is, so I went on sabbatical. I took, I had accrued 28 days of vacation time. And I had. Gone to Nairobi, Kenya. My family, I come from an immigrant family. My family is still in Kenya on my father's side, so I went to go spend some time with them and the goal was to let life happen to me.
No hands, no like predestined any, I just was like, I'm just gonna let life happen. Like I have to be. Durable enough to allow life to happen to me [00:13:00] and be able to pivot or act or recover and just be okay with it, like mentally okay with it. And over the course of that sabbatical, I had many nervous breakdowns.
Like, wow. I had many moments where even family members were like, are you okay? Like, one of my cousins came out and I was like, why are you so convinced you're unloved? Oh wow. Yeah, like that is a huge revelation. Okay. Why are you so worried about money? Is that doing anything for you? Oh, wow. And so sabbatical was where the mind mindset shift happened.
Yeah. The nanosecond. I came home, I was like, I have to get this out, whatever this is. That happened to me. Yeah. I have to create the space for other people to experience this. 'cause it was life changing. It changed something about me. Yeah. So it sounds like you, you literally took yourself out of your current [00:14:00] situation, current context of, how you're living and being.
And you put yourself with family. So I just wanna name like you were surrounded by you. It was a caring surround. You had family, you had support, you had people, and you were able to be, I'm hearing you say, you let life happen to you. Right? So instead of having like a plan for everything, which we do here in the states, right?
Very scheduled here. You just let life happen to you. And it also sounds like you were leading your relationships because you're, getting feedback from your, from those primary relationships you've got. I. Your cousin who's asking you these important questions like, you know, why do you think you're not loved?
You know, why are you focused on money? Like all of these inquiries, if you will, that were coming from the people who love you. So I just wanna name that was a part of your A away, you didn't do it in isolation. You actually had some support that was built in. To me, those are the three keys to any thriving environment.
You [00:15:00] must have rest, like you must be able to still the body, still the mind, so you can hear it. Yeah. To slow down so you can see it. Uh, you must have support. None of us can do all the things. Yeah. We do need help. We have to be willing to, number one, ask for help, put ourself in a situation where we're gonna receive help and then be willing to receive it and accept it.
Yeah. Yeah. Lastly we just need people like Yes. In America, we're very individualistic, we're very driven, we're very time sensitive. Those are all things that I was too, yes. When I came back, I started to care less and less about all of those things. And like, don't get me wrong, I still have bills to pay.
Like I got a mortgage and all the things. Yeah. And I, run a, serious, both family and business budget. The people that I have, the [00:16:00] supports that I have the mindset and the lifestyle holds so much more value than they ever did before. I just wanna acknowledge that.
'cause I think that's, that ends up being. A missing piece, and I think one of the reasons why we are values aligned is that this whole notion of community and support are just. Important. And you name this, you know, I think here in the US we are taught, it's a part of our greater environment to be very individualistic.
And if we're hyper-focused on like being individuals, we lose some threads. We lose support, we lose community, we lose connection. And our idea of what's most important can ship. So I am hearing you say like, you still have bills, you know what I mean? You're still, you have a budget. You have to tend to like, let's keep it real.
I. And for you it's not this either. Or thinking like you, you can [00:17:00] ha you have a budget of bills, your responsibilities and the acknowledgement. We need support, we need people, we need rest. Like that shouldn't be a thing. It shouldn't be a trade off. That's what I, that's what I'm hearing you say, Elizabeth.
In terms of my leadership arc, it went so far as for me to now, and now my mission is to make rest financially for, profitable. Yeah. 'cause you know, in, in our society, we grade ourselves by how little rest we've gotten. How many sleepless nights, how many cups of coffee, how, yeah. Hard. The struggle is, you know I found myself, especially as a black woman participating in the struggle Olympics and like winning.
Yeah. And being proud. Can you imagine? Right. Like, being proud of how hard life was for me, you know? Now it is one of my sole purposes to make rest and in as many ways as I [00:18:00] can make rest. Accessible, make rest, profitable it. Only we can only take the time to invest in it if it's gonna be for our benefit and also mutual benefit for many.
And so that's where, you know, my business got started and originally I had just wanted to create the space. So I was a yoga teacher. I was creating the space for women to come get rest. My tagline was, get your rest. Yeah, would open up all of these workshops and classes and events, retreats, specifically designed for mostly women, but all people.
To just come and experience what I had experienced, and I would try to like recreate the environment as much as I could, although it's of course not the same. And then lately in the last two years, uh, I, we as a company have pivoted more [00:19:00] towards something that can be easily digestible. 'cause this is a foreign concept.
It's quite literally a foreign concept. I had to leave the country to get a dose of this. Yeah. And so when I came back and in the last couple of years, what I'm finding is it's not just employees. In fact, the more. Privilege you may have on the outside the more it often feels like responsibility on the internet.
And so I began formulating these restorative programs. Okay. That would take the mindset and the philosophy and even some of the movement because wherever we go, our body is there with us. And so we I am a psychologist friend of mine and in fact, I wanna shout her out a little bit.
Her name is Primrose. She is incredible at what she does and has lots and lots of credentials to show how intelligent she is. Get people around you who [00:20:00] are smarter than like leadership 1 0 1. Yeah. People around you who are smarter than you. Yeah. Like completely. Which is why I love hanging out with you, Jennifer.
Seriously. That's sweet. But yeah, and so we began developing this eight week restorative program. It brings some of those same principles. It makes it more easily digestible and something that a corporation would want to use. And so we're like, right now I'm back in education, getting my program manager certifications.
So that like, this isn't just a. Woo thing that I dreamed up and launched. This is a legitimate program with the credentials behind it and the expertise and the data. That's great. And I know, you know, we're in a such a strange time here in the US there's a lot going on. And I know the last couple of years we've been noticing like corporate wellness, leadership development [00:21:00] types of programs, those dollars.
You know we've seen them wane. So tell me like what's your strategy? 'cause this is so important. Like, do you have a strategy in play just to ensure that the folks who need your programming most can get it? Ooh, that's a good question. I'll be completely honest. My strategy right now is networking.
The need is there. The money is there too. Like our. Dollars for wellness may be waning in a recession, but that doesn't mean the need isn't there. And people often pay for what they value. And so I guess in terms of getting my platform to as many as I can, yeah. I inject as much value, you know, KPI and OKR driven value for the corporations, but also like. Movement, mindset, consulting, work. Action [00:22:00] based work. Yeah. Or the employees For the managers, supervisors, leadership. I inject as much value into what I do as I can. And networking. You really don't know who needs you until you get out.
Like put yourself out. Yeah. Yeah, the nanosecond, you're out in the community helping the community. More and more people are just like, oh, I'm gonna call you. Or, oh, my company actually has been looking for the, a program like this, or, yeah. Uh, we've gotten really tired of just outsourcing it to an app. This needs to be, to have more of a personal touch.
Yeah. That is my strategy. Yeah. No, that makes total sense. Well, I know, you know, one of the things that we connected on is there's a public facing event that you're putting on together in collaboration. Do you wanna speak about that? 'cause it's putting all these things together and putting into the public.
Yes. So I come from an event planning background. I spent, you know, before I was at Meet and [00:23:00] Associates, I spent about five or so years simultaneously, uh, working my way up with Cameron Mitchell, premier events. And I love event planning and I love event facilitating and coordination. I don't know why, but that's my sweet spot.
And so I've been designing for the last little less than a year a nap concert. Okay, so this is something that they have a bit on the East coast, west coast, I know in New York, they've had like a full eight hour sleep concert. I cannot wait to bring that to Ohio, especially because the city is becoming a metropolis.
And so the same way that New York never sleeps, it's coming like, get ready. So the pro thought process behind this is we are often under slept. And specifically those in high stress and high energy fields. So like, say for example [00:24:00] doctors with Ohio Health, it and tech professionals have a big stress coming.
Especially with ai. Those who have labor heavy jobs, so logistics those are exactly the kind of people who this was designed for. The science behind it, NASA says that there is such a thing as a perfect nap. It's about 26 to 30 minutes long. And it takes approximately 35 minutes to achieve.
So like the first five or six minutes are like, sort of getting the body ready to enter that stage. And then you actually do get some rest in. The like 26 to 30 minute nap is the perfect amount of time for your brain and your consciousness to reach stage one or maybe the beginning of stage two sleep, which is right before you enter REM sleep.
And what [00:25:00] they've noticed is while you're in this phase, your synapses and your nerve endings in your brain start to relax. And they might shoot off a couple more bits of energy before they relax. And that is creativity. Okay. And so the perfect like power nap for a creative for someone who is making like strategic decisions for somebody who has a lot of stress and just sort of needs to have that little pick me up is this sort of short nap.
So we've partnered with the Tribe for Jazz. Shout out to Stephanie Matthews, who's a dear friend, my big sister and mentor. Who's helping us with venues and the artists and also you for helping us. Yeah. With getting this out here. We are designing the Perfect NEP concert. We will be launching it hopefully in summer, late summer, early fall.
Okay. And come, I encourage you to come and [00:26:00] get your rest. This is gonna be a event that has more than one type of therapy, so it's gonna have some rest therapy. We've partnered with Christopher Kehl studio, so there's also an element of some art therapy and art. Very cool. Yeah. Art museums. Art studios are one of the very last places where you go.
For free in an art museum. And you are just allowed to feel, you are allowed to have a feeling, catch a feeling, express it, and it's completely normal and natural in that space. It's one of the last spaces in America that we have where you can do that. And we're also bringing in, you know, like I said, rest therapy, music, therapy.
So we're collaborating on this event to really bring restoration in a fun and interactive way. But bring restoration to the masses. So you get to come, you get to have a little nap, you listen to the best concert ever with some like, awesome, incredible [00:27:00] jazz artists and the fact that jazz artists are getting into this, like, artists Yeah.
Out there trying to scientifically concoct some of the perfect string of notes together to help. Release GABA in the brain or help reduce cortisol in the body. Like everyone seems to be really in their own way, in their own modality pursuing wellness, and I'm a huge advocate for that.
That's great. So it's bringing art, it's bringing community together here in Columbus, Ohio. I know you're in the search for venues. I just wanna name for people, you know this is a place for people because I think this is important. I just wanna be explicit and you can tell me if I'm wrong. We want this to be a safe space for people to really get their rest.
To be able to like to, get the recovery that they need. So I just wanna say there's a, there's an intention behind this too. And then do you have any other details you wanna name now or should, is there a place we should have people search or [00:28:00] go to for more info when it becomes available? Or is that even live yet?
I know this is early days. Yeah. So they can follow me on LinkedIn. Elizabeth Wangugi, they can follow me on Facebook. Elizabeth Wangugi. I believe everything else is under the Business Witch Doctor or the Biz Witch Doc. So that will be my TikTok and my Instagram. Okay. If they wanna get in touch with me personally, [email protected], I wanna partner with you on this project.
Like I, this is, this has been a dream I've had for. For about a year and I'm watching it develop and come to life and like yeah. You know, working to birth it into the world. And I, you know, I sat here and talked about how I am gonna ask for help and receive it. Well. Great. You are. I like to say for folks who are new to a [00:29:00] LC just short for abundance, we should be consulting.
We have collaborators and we collaborate in so many different spaces that are community spaces that are important. And, you know, I like to be creative about what those collaborations look like. So we're excited to collaborate with you on this. Rest in community is just so important. Bringing that together with music is, also really important and vital.
So for folks who wanna know more. Follow Elizabeth on, uh, LinkedIn, on, uh, TikTok, Instagram, and stay tuned for more details because I know you want this to be approachable, accessible, affordable, all those things for people. Yes, And also just like last thing. I believe that in terms of.
Us as Americans. We are safe with each other again. We need to create those spaces. Nobody will make those spaces for us. We must create those spaces. Sleep is one of those things where you don't get any unless you feel safe, and so [00:30:00] creating the safe space for the body to come lay itself down and be at peace enough to actually get some rest.
I'm so excited. I'm like over the moom about this. Awesome. Well, it's so great talking to you Elizabeth. I know this won't be our last conversation. This is our first conversation, the podcast, so thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much. Love y'all. No, thanks.
Thank you so much for joining us today on the ALC ChangeMakers Podcast. If you found today's conversation inspiring or helpful, we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and leave a review. It helps other changemakers like you find our show at Abundance Leadership Consulting, we believe in building sustainable leadership and connected communities through justice, courage, and care.
If you wanna learn more about our work access leadership resources. Connect with our community. Head over to jennifersconyers.com. Until [00:31:00] next time, keep leading with purpose. Keep building relationships that matter and keep creating change one bold step at a time.
