23 | Become a stronger self-advocate with the 7 levels of self-advocacy

Well, hey there and welcome back to the show!

This summer's theme is self-advocacy, so for today's episode, I pulled out a neat bit of training from one of my workshops. In this episode, I'm going to teach you about the seven levels of self-advocacy.

it's really going to help you look at your self-advocacy efforts in a completely new way. You can get so many ahas, so many new ways of looking at how you're showing up.

xo
Liz

When you show up with that powerful energy, like no matter what's happening around you, when you can show up with powerful energy, it shines through and it gets noticed. So I want you to think about that, you know, what would be different if you were self-advocating from one of those higher energy levels what would be different if you're showing up in that way, level four or five, six, even seven, perhaps, but what would be different if you were showing up in that way?

Well hey there, I'm Liz St. Jean and this is unruly leadership podcast where I help subject matter experts like you design a career on your terms. It's where strategy meets intuition to help you break the rules, ignore the rules and make your own damn rules. So let's break free from perfectionism, imposter thoughts, and that inner rule keeper, that's keeping you in your career comfort zone.

It's time to become unapologetically you and step into the life you were meant to live. We're going to talk presence, productivity career, and having it all. Or as my four-year-old would say - we're going to take over the world. So let's get to it

Well, Hey there and welcome back to the show. I am so excited because I have something to tell you And that's based on your insights and feedback that I've been getting over the last few weeks. I have decided to spend the next couple of months working on a new free resource. That's going to be so good.

It's called the self advocacy playbook. A guide to speaking up for yourself, your ideas and your career, without feeling gross or joining the old boys club. It's going to be so good. So I'm going to be using a quiz style approach and it's going to be completely free, completely free resource for anyone who wants it, it'll be available on my website.

So do I have your attention yet? The really fun part about it too, is that I'm going to be using a design thinking approach for this. For those of you who aren't as familiar with that terminology design thinking, it's an approach to creating new concepts, new products, new approaches, pretty much anything.

The approach, how you approach that creation. Is by iterating, testing out and getting feedback from people. So for this, for me, for what I'm creating, I'm going to be working with a beta group over the summer to make sure that the playbook is concise. First of all, because we are all super busy, so I want it to be concise and I wanted to be jam packed with value for specific situations, making sure I'm touching on all the different situations that people are actually experiencing.

So it's going to be a super fun beta group with pretty much as much input that people want to give. I'm kind of like that, like there's no minimum expectation for things. Whenever I do something like this, but like I said, I know we're all super busy. Especially summertime, right? Whether, whether you have kids or you have vacation plans, or maybe you're in an industry where you're super busy over summer.

Either way, summer's usually pretty busy. So, why am I telling you this? Well, first of all, I want to let you know, so keep an eye out for it. And for those of you who love the idea of being involved in, in getting early access to something like this. Do you want to join? Do you want to come be part of this? I would love to have you there. It would be so super fun.

So, if you're interested, I'm looking for people and essentially offer themselves up as tribute. So. If you're interested, I would love to get your insights. I'd love to have you part of that creation process. Super simple to join. All you do is you first fill out an insight survey so I can get insight into your situation and get some ideas for the creation process.

And then over the summer, I'll be asking for occasional feedback. Not very much. And again, some people are just going to do the survey and then they won't have the bandwidth to do anything more. And that's totally fine. Other people I can tell, like they're right in there and they're totally willing to, you know, roll up their sleeves and be really involved. They've got the interests, the energy and the time and all of that to be involved.

Wherever you fall, if you're interested at all, please come join us. It's going to be really, really fun. So to do that, all you got to do is head over to themintambition.com/beta. That's themintambition.com/beta. The link is also in the show notes. And that's going to take you directly to the insight survey.

Answer the questions, any nuggets you have put them in there, it can be as long or as short as you like, all good. If there's any questions that you know, you're not really sure of, or you don't have like an easy, quick answer, just skip it, just skip onto the next one. All good. Really? Seriously.

All all good. Okay. Now onto today's episode. So I wanted to stay with that theme of self-advocacy. So what I did for today's episode, I went into one of the workshops I do is a workshop called from second guessing to self-advocating and I pulled out a really neat bit of training in there. You're going to love this. You probably want to listen to this actually a couple of times, for any of you who are new to my world.

If you haven't taken any of my trainings before bookmark this one, you'll probably want to come back a few times. Because in this episode, I'm going to teach you about the seven levels. Of self advocacy. The seven levels of self-advocacy. And this is because for those of you who don't know my background as a coach is that I trained with an organization called iPEC, which is well at the time of this recording, at least it is one of the most rigorous coach training programs out there.

When I went through training, Lisa had the most number of training hours, and I believe that is still true at the time of this recording. So that was actually one of the main reasons that I chose it. I'm kind of nerdy like that. I really wanted a coach training program that was rigorous. But another key reason I chose it is because they offer a very unique framework a very special framework that they teach. And it's only people who have gone through their full training program have access to it and to their assessment methodologies. And that framework is called the seven energy levels, the seven energy levels. So they teach this framework to us as coaches.

And a lot of us coaches and what I did is, and we apply it to our specific niches, our specialties. And mine is around self-advocacy. So what I did is I took that seven energy levels framework and I adapted it to the concept of self-advocacy the action and the the approach and how we show up for self-advocacy.

So in this episode, but I've done it. Like I said, I've taken out that training for my workshop and I've put it right in here for you to listen to. And even if you've taken that workshop , I still recommend you listening to this because like I said, this is the type of training you're going to want to listen to a few times because it's, it's really good, these concepts and really embracing and, um, Uh, really understand these concepts can be so, so helpful. So with this episode, I'm going to be walking you through the seven energy levels, which is adapted to self-advocacy. So the seven levels of self-advocacy and it's really going to help you look at your self-advocacy efforts in a completely new way.

You can get so many ahas, so many new ways of looking at it. You're going to love it. And again, if you want to improve your self-advocacy yourself, you 1000% should be signing up for the beta group. Oh, it'll be so fun. You really, really have to do it. I would love to see you there and be so fun. So as a reminder for that, you can get the link in the show notes or wherever you're listening to this, scroll down, click on it. You'll get a link right to the insight survey. And that link is themintambition.com/beta. So with that, enjoy this week's episode.

When you show up with that powerful energy, like no matter what's happening around you, when you can show up with powerful energy, it shines through and it gets noticed.

And I would actually say in a, in a, if you're in spaces where there isn't trust and generally people don't feel safe when you can show up with that energy, it gets noticed in a way that it spreads warmth to others. So it really gets noticed and it really gets appreciated. And it gets appreciated by the people who matter the ones who need that, the ones who are looking for that light.

So this is part of that being that starving, that shining star. Now I always love this expression or this quote from Albert Einstein about energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be changed from one form to another. And I always bring this up because when it comes to emotions, we have almost at a societal level have been conditioned to think that negative emotions are bad, right?

Sad is bad. Angry is bad, those are bad emotions. And so we just try to not have them. We just, we don't, we just try to flip a switch and just not feel sad or not feel angry or, or even get into this like Metta kind of spiral of beating ourselves up for having negative emotions. This quote, kind of points out when it comes to energy, we can't just sort of wish it away and wish it wasn't.

There, there is a process and it needs to happen. And part of this is even like a compassion piece for ourselves to experience emotion and to be okay with it. And the main reason I mentioned it is because I'm going to talk now about these seven energy levels. This is the energy leadership framework, and there are seven energy levels in it.

And there is no good or bad energy level. There is no good or bad energy level. They just grow progressively more powerful. So for you go from level one to level seven, I'm going to go through them with you. They, there there's nothing wrong. Inherently level one is just not as powerful as the higher energy level.

So, huh, there we go. A slide saying just that. No good or bad energy level. And then the other side, I guess I got ahead of myself a little bit. It's just more powerful to process and experience the energy levels. And part of the reason is, and actually this goes back to that, you know, off the cuff and advanced training I gave, the more you process it, the more you let yourself experience it and just observe yourself the easier it is for you to be able to choose the energy level that you want to show up in that one that you is going to best serve you in the moment.

Okay. So seven energy levels. Can we go through them somewhat quickly here? And then I'm going through each of them one at a time. So level one is we call her a victim energy level two is our fighter energy. Three is manager energy. For his caretaker, five is Explorer. Six is intuitive and seven is Zen.

So let's look at each of these. So energy level one is the victim energy. Like I said, there's no good or bad, but as I also said, the lower energies are less powerful. So victim energy, those are any time you've ever felt like I just can't do this anymore. I just, I can't adult anymore. Have you ever said that thought you said like, I just, I just need a, I just need a break or I'm going to pull the covers up.

I just want to stay in bed all day. We've all been there. We've all had it. Absolutely part of the human experience. And at this energy level, when it comes to self-advocacy. It's all about avoidance. We don't, we don't self-advocate at this level, there's almost, there's almost zero power, especially when it comes to self-advocacy here.

And this is also we're second guessing and beating ourselves up. That's where this lives as well. And this energy level one and the difficulty is that we just try to pretend we don't like it. We try to pretend it. And we want to get used to is under, is processing it and understanding it and getting used to what it feels like so that you can choose how to shift into another energy level.

And the second energy level that you might want to shift to, and let's explore is what's called the fighter energy level. Sometimes it's called warrior energy. And this is when there's any conflict. When you feel conflict, when you resist, when you argue any time that you've truly in your bones known that you're right.

And they are very wrong. That is level two. And there's no good or bad energy level though. This can be real. This is more powerful, right? This will actually spring into action versus level one. Don't have much action. It'll get you pushing back against ideas or decisions that you know are really bad ideas.

It can spur you to it. And so self-advocacy at this energy level is when you feel like you're going to roll up your sleeves and fight for yourself, you're going to fight for yourself. You might even be fighting for others for general advocacy, right? You think it was social justice movements, but for self-advocacy, this is when you're willing to fight for yourself.

Okay. The challenge with both of these energy levels actually is that they're called what's their what's called catabolic energy levels. And catabolic means breaking down energy, the energy that breaks down. And so even this energy level, too, even though it can get you into action, the challenge is if you spend a lot of time here, it can be really hard on your system, both your mental, emotional, even your physical system, essentially the sends off different chemicals into your body.

That over time can actually physically start breaking things down. There's some fantastic, some phenomenal research happening these days about the mind body connection and what can happen. And that's the challenge with level two. You know, if you think about kind of like a stereotypical manager, you know, like the, the old white guy who's yelling all the time and then has a heart attack.

That's the, what? That's like the extreme version of a level two challenge. And then the other piece too, is that even though showing up with this energy a little can be kind of momentarily motivating to others, right? This can actually fire people up, right? Think about like smash the patriarchy, right?

Those kinds of languaging, that can be motivating, but it can be so draining over time. It is very difficult on your psyche, on your body to stay in level two energy level. So that's why some people often end up here at energy level three, which I have, which I call the manager energy level. This is the energy level where you're making things work.

You're managing. You can handle the things you are, you know, when there's a problem, you can solve it and you don't let any, you don't let things get you down. You're able to make it. You're able to make it work. You don't need to fight anymore. You can just, you can make it work. But this is also an energy level of denial and tolerating and rationalizing.

So this like this, oops, got a little bit too far there. You know, think about it. Have, are you in a situation that you've been tolerating for too long? You know, a lot of us can get kind of stuck here in level three tolerating situations. And so what this looks like for self-advocacy is, is two things actually in one way, it's that you just kind of rationalize why you didn't get something that you maybe should have fought for, maybe could have fought for.

Okay. You kind of rationalize it and you let it go. You can imagine you're not going to let it get you down. Okay. Level three self-advocacy though also looks like this is actually where that kind of a little bit of a gross tinge comes in because level three is all about, I w I'm going to win. I'm going to get what I want.

And I don't, I don't kind of care what happens to anyone else. Like, I don't mind if you win as well. That's great. That's totally great. I'm not going to take away from you, but I'm not focused on that. I'm going to get what I want. So level three self-advocacy is not focused on others. And so that's why for a lot of us, we actually ended up bouncing them back to level one and not doing anything, or just bouncing into sell into rationalizing, because it feels uncomfortable to do something purely for our.

Okay. So why don't you to think about it or drop in the chat? Because what I see is often people getting stuck in either of those three. So I'd love to hear for you in the chat, where do you get stuck when it comes to self-advocacy? Do you get stuck at the victim level? Do you get stuck at the fighter level or do you get stuck more, maybe more at the manager level?

So let me know in the chat, which, which one really resonates for you in terms of getting stuck? And I said, wait for those to come through, it's also talk about some more powerful energy levels. So energy level four is when we start moving into what's called anabolic energy, anabolic energy, and what anabolic energy is anabolic means to build, to grow, to build up.

And so with this energy there's things become as we go into these ones, four or five, six, and seven things become easier. They become lighter and it, because we're growing and we're growing for many different things in level four in particular, we're often growing for others as that caregiver energy.

It's when we're showing up with empathy, when we show up for compassion, when we're showing up for service and we often do it for others, right? If you're here because you often do these, this for others, you probably have a lot of level for advocating for others. Now self-advocacy at level four. What that would look like is self-love self-compassion you advocate out of love for yourself and it can almost feel like it's very easy here to slip into fighter mode for yourself.

Like, well, I deserve it kind of fighter energy, but the love energy. If you're, if you're fault, if you're with me here, you can feel the difference of like I'm doing this because I, I just serve it from a loving place, from a compassionate place. And it feels very different and it's experienced very differently by other people.

Now what's interesting. You might also show up for self-advocacy and level four out of gratitude for yourself. You could do it out of gratitude for others or out of service for others, but from that place of love again, so level two and level four, they are heart kind of energies. And so they will come from the heart.

And so sometimes you can even like flip flop between them just to remember four is from the heart. Two is from like the gut, the fire for us from the heart. Okay. Now level five. And I'm hearing in the chat here. Totally always do this for others a hundred percent and that's, and then it's a, it's a real skill then to do it for yourself out of.

There's a level of five, you know, I said two and four were from the heart, but we'll five going back to the head three and five are in your head, not in your head, but they're, they're kind of head-based energies or mental model energies. This is an Explorer energy often it's also referred to as innovative energy.

So this energy level in general is anytime you felt really enthusiastic and confident about the opportunities around you, even you can see opportunity where other people are like, or having the level one experience, you can see opportunity like in failure or in problem that you're seeing, you're seeing what can be done.

And you're feeling enthusiastic about. So self oops, that doesn't work jumping ahead. And self-advocacy at level five is often very strategic and it's very collaborative. You're looking for new opportunities where everyone will win. So remember that level three, I was saying kind of feels a bit gross because you're only looking out for yourself.

That's why it feels a bit gross, level five. You are looking out for yourself and you're looking out for others as well. Truly, truly looking out for everyone and seeing opportunity. It's also an energy level for self-advocacy that you would be willing to walk away from something. If everyone doesn't win, if you're not going to, if you're not going to win, if the others people involved, aren't going to win you would walk away and you would walk away truly like not feeling bitter.

You're not going to feel that any anger or victim, you just feel like, oh, that's not going to work. Like for maybe you're going for, I'm asking for a salary increase. And they, they can't really want through who knows what's happening on their side, but you don't get it. And you truly feel a level five, you should really be like, okay.

That I totally understand. And you might go out and look for another position that has a salary you're looking for, not from a place of bitterness, not from a place of anger, just from a place of, well, I can walk away from this. No problem. Absolutely no hard feelings. It's a very much no hard feelings.

Truly no hard feelings, energy. So energy level six is our intuitive energy. And this is where you get into somebody like that, that wou corporate speak of like synergy and buzz. And it is a bit like a little, you know, a little bit rude. Now I have an econ background. I like spreadsheets, but I'm, I'm getting used to the move myself as well, over, over the years of being a coach.

And what I always think about is I always think about those times when you are with a group of people and especially when we were back doing it in person. But you know, when you felt that buzz in the air, because everyone was just feeding off of each other's energy you ever had that, that is level six.

Okay. Level six is about connection with others, complete connection feeding off of each other's energies. So level six, self-advocacy when you're showing up with self-advocacy level six, you're showing up in a way that that also builds connection, that builds connections. You're following your intuition.

You're in a place where you actually see it as everyone winning, we're all going to win and you probably have, and you see me smiling here a bit, right? You have that kind of, that, that, that joy, and that, that love from level four, but elevated to a place of connection. So I I'll even give you one of my own examples in doing, in doing these workshops.

And I had, I was promoting them, right. Self promotion, and, you know, I'm as much part of this community as anyone else. Like, I, I, I struggle with that self promotion. I can get caught into that level of feeling like that level three, feeling like a little bit gross. And for me, how, what I do is I write.

Instead of staying there. I love slipping into levels that can coming at it through a level six place. Oh wow. This is going to build so much connection. We're going to increase connections in the community. I'm going to meet new people in this community and it's going to be so wonderful and it just feels different for yourself.

And it feels different for the people around you when you're showing up at that energy level. Okay. So the final energy level, level seven, we actually don't spend a lot of time here. Most of us, we kind of pop into it or we kind of borrow from it. It's a Zen energy level. And you know, you're having this energy level when you are completely relaxed, nothing phases, you, nothing phases you at all.

You just kind of, you're just, you're experiencing life and you're you're you, you get, you get to be human, right? Those kinds of moments. And you're in the flow of things. And the benefit of it is that you can, from this energy level, you can tap into other energy levels. So that's where this can be really powerful is the ability to slip into level seven, to then choose another energy level without any drama, without any judgment.

Okay. The challenge with level seven, especially from self-advocacy, but for other pieces is because nothing phases you. If you're, if you're in this level seven, you might not actually take any action. And it's very different than the level one or level three non-action this is just like a it's all good.

No, non-action so that's why we just tap into it. Let me show you another story. But one of my students, Amber, and so what she did was she was able to achieve by working together and working, especially on these energy levels, she was able, she was getting clear, but where she wanted her career to go leading herself, she was setting boundaries and she got a promotion out of it and felt good as she was doing it.

So I want you to think about that, you know, what would be different if you were self-advocating from that one of those higher energy levels, maybe even a couple of them, but what would be different if you're showing up in that way, level four or five, six, even seven, perhaps, but what would be different if you were showing up in that way?

thank you so much for listening to this episode. If this podcast helped you or inspired you in any way, I would love for you to leave me a review over on apple podcasts, it takes 20 seconds, if that, and it's, it's honestly the easiest way for you to thank me for this episode. Every time I see a review, it brings me so much joy and it just lights me up.

So if you could do that for me, I would be ever so grateful. Now, the other thing you can do is you can take a screenshot of this episode or even a screenshot of your review and send it to a friend or share it in a Facebook group or even post on your LinkedIn newsfeed to let other people know about this podcast and this episode.

Thanks again. And now get out there and start breaking some rules.