Your Presence IS Your Impact

In this unscripted, solo episode, Anese ditches the intro music and talks straight to you from her home office. Prompted by a client conversation about the chaos of scaling a business while integrating AI, she breaks down why tending to your Intentions, Energy, and Presence (IEP) isn't a soft extra — it's the thing that saves you time, not costs you time. If you've ever told yourself you're "too busy" to check in with how you're showing up, this one's for you.

AI Transparency Note: These show notes were made with the support of AI.

• Why IEP works like food coloring in water — it colors everything you do, regardless of industry, role, or how good your other skills are
• The real cost of skipping presence — why the best frameworks, AI tools, and leadership skills only get you so far if your energy is scattered or exhausted
• A simple 3-part in-the-moment check-in you can run during any meeting, conversation, or hard moment:
• Intention — What do I actually want to happen here? What's the outcome and emotional impact I'm going for?
• Energy — What am I bringing into this room, and what do I need to take care of myself so I have the stamina to follow through?
• Presence — Am I actually here right now, or am I in my head? What am I not letting myself see?
• Why there's no finish line with this work — even after 24+ years building this methodology, Anese still finds new edges where her own intentions, energy, or presence slip
• The IEP Sheet — a daily 10-minute practice for setting up your day with more clarity and resilience, even when things don't go as planned
• A shift in why this work matters — from performance and results to something more foundational: feeling steady, connected, and equipped to make good decisions, especially as AI reshapes how teams work

• The IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®) — Anese's core framework
• The IEP Sheet — a daily practice tool referenced in this episode
• The Presence and Impact Leadership Community — Anese's membership circle, with live sessions three times a month

• Learn more about the IEP Method, programs, and books: activechoices.com or anesecavanaugh.com
• Join the Presence and Impact Leadership Community
• Subscribe, rate, and share the show — it helps more people find this work

Picking up where Part 1 left off, Anese goes deeper into why AI adoption raises — rather than lowers — the bar for leadership presence. Sparked by a recent interview for an upcoming publication on credibility and trust in organizations, she unpacks what credibility actually is, why it's harder to hold onto right now than ever, and why a leader's credibility isn't just about them and their brand or reputation — it's a leadership skill and a gift to the nervous systems of the people around them. She closes with a practical, four-part framework for rolling out AI in a way that builds trust instead of eroding it.

(AI Transparency: Show notes supported by AI)

• What credibility really is: the trust that you'll get the job done, have people's best interests at heart, and follow through — built through expertise and results, but even more through presence, the ability to read a room, and intentional decision-making
• Why trust is at a low point right now: the collision of fake news, AI-generated content, "AI workslop," and people moving too fast to stay present is creating one of the lowest-trust environments Anese has seen in 24 years in business
• The "sneaky energy" problem: well-intentioned leaders are quietly rolling out AI without full transparency, which spikes anxiety and job-security fears in their workforce and erodes credibility — even when the leader's intentions are good
• Credibility as service, not ego: when a leader is trustworthy, it lets the people around them relax their nervous systems and focus their energy on customers, collaboration, and growth — credibility isn't self-focused; it's generous
• Workforce trust and the impact on AI adoption: How workforces who trust their leaders are more likely to adopt and be excited about AI
• A story of AI gone wrong with a brand: even with the best of intentions
• A four-part framework for rolling out AI with integrity: whether for yourself or with your team, here are some things to consider

• Part 1 of this series — "AI Will Require More, Not Less, From Leaders" (originally recorded in July)
• Intro to IEP course and 30 Days to IEP — activechoices.com
• The full IEP Method (Intentional Energetic Presence®) — 22 examples of the Five Steps to Intentional Impact applied across scenarios
• anesecavanaugh.com — for speaking, consulting, and bringing Anese into your organization
• activechoices.com — for online programs, membership, and self-serve products

Episode Summary

AI isn't going to let leaders off the hook — it's going to demand more from them, not less. In this episode, Anese unpacks why the rise of AI in the workplace makes presence, connection, and "being" skills more essential than ever, not less. Prompted by a conversation with a leader who was excited about AI taking the pressure off having to engage with people, Anese makes the case that while AI can help us do things better, it can't help us be better in the ways that will matter most now — that's still on us as leaders. She shares ever-changing data on how AI is landing with the workforce emotionally, walks through a real example of "AI workslop" happening on her own team, and offers a simple operating principle: use AI for the doing, and let leaders excel at the being.

AI Transparency Note: This summary is AI-generated and has been reviewed by Anese.

Key Topics Covered

• Why bringing AI into a company increases the demand on leaders' presence and connection skills, rather than decreasing it
• The temptation to use AI as a way to avoid human dynamics — and why that's a risk to culture
• The difference between what AI can do (task support) and what it can't do (be present, read nuance, build trust)
• "AI workslop": what it is and a real example from Anese's own team, including the time and cleanup cost involved
• Current statistics (as of April 2026) on AI adoption, emotional impact, and leadership trust
• How Anese's team uses AI in practice — and where they draw a hard line at "human to human only"
• The re-release of Contagious You, including a new bonus chapter on the human advantage of AI

Stats Mentioned (as of April 2026, from a combination of sources)

• Adoption & ROI: Nearly two-thirds of Americans have adopted AI into their daily routines
• Only 10–12% of companies report seeing revenue or cost benefits from AI use so far
• Emotional Impact: 41% of workers have encountered "AI workslop"; average time to fix an incident is about two hours
• When working with AI: 53% report feeling annoyed, 38% confused, 22% offended
• 85% of top AI users are more polite to AI than to people
• 64% of top users say they have a better relationship with AI than with human teammates
• Daily heavy AI use is linked with greater loneliness and reduced real-world socializing
• Leadership Impact: 64% of workers are "job hugging" amid automation fear
• 71% of employees trust their employers to develop AI ethically
• Leaders who trust senior executives are 2.2x more likely to feel excited (versus anxious) about AI

Notable Moment

Anese shares a personal example: a team social post she'd written was run through AI to tighten it before publishing, and it came back not sounding like her at all — an example of workslop in action. Fixing it took about 90 minutes of her time plus team coordination, and prompted the team to build a new filter step to catch tone drift before anything goes out.

How Anese's Team Uses AI Now:

• Spelling, editing, and grammar passes on writing (with instructions never to change her voice)
• Transcribing calls and teaching sessions, then pulling bullet points for show notes
• Drafts, first-pass copy, summarizing, synthesizing, and pattern-spotting
• Data analysis and SOP refinement, document synthesis, and checking for redundancies
• A hard rule: anything involving real human interaction — customers, members, students, feedback, important conversations — stays human to human

Resources Mentioned

• Contagious You — recently re-released, now including a downloadable bonus kit with a new chapter on the human advantage of AI -- available on Amazon now. (Check out the bonus kit that is provided in the book)
• Presence and Impact Community — ongoing engagement, tools, and training with other leaders
• See www.ActiveChoices.com for self-paced programs and membership.
• See www.AneseCavanaugh.com to hire Anese for private work, consulting, and speaking to your group.

#iepmethod #humanadvantageinAI #presence #leadership

Throughout her extensive career, spanning three decades, Anese has consistently observed that an individual's presence is intricately linked to various dimensions of life, including business efficacy, personal relationships, and team dynamics. In this podcast, she explores the complexities of navigating endings—both those we choose and those thrust upon us—and emphasizes the need to understand and honor these transitions.

This episode picks up where Excellent Endings (Episode 3) left off, prompted by two things that happened on the same day: a listener asking what to do when an ending isn't your choice, and a conversation on the Untangled podcast with Patricia Karpus that surfaced new angles on the topic (that episode will go live at the end of September).

Anese shares seven steps for navigating endings that are imposed on you rather than chosen — divorce, layoffs, business fallout, even anticipatory grief — drawing on her own experiences of navigating and staying present through challenging endings, as well as supporting clients in their processes (both business and personal). The throughline: how you end something shapes how you begin the next thing, and the presence you build while sitting in the mess is one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself.

In this episode, Anese covers seven steps for moving through an unchosen ending:

1. Be in it and fully honor where you're at — let yourself feel it without self-medicating or spiritually bypassing the grief.
2. Take excellent care of yourself — watch your self-talk, mindset, and rumination; confidence is an inside game.
3. Find your people — the ones who hold space and tell you the truth, without hit-and-run feedback, judgment, or directions.
4. Get curious — look for the red flags you may have overridden, and the wisdom in "how is this happening for me?"
5. Decide who you want to become now — what standards, boundaries, or wisdom you're carrying forward.
6. Tell yourself the truth about your becoming — who you were leading up to the ending, and who you want to be next.
7. Give yourself a minute — resist rushing into something new before you've let the lesson (and your nervous system) land.

Also mentioned:

• The listener question that sparked this episode, and Anese's earlier episode on how endings become beginnings (link in notes)
• Her recent conversation on the Untangled podcast with Patricia Karpus
• A personal reference to a 2023 business situation and a current experience of anticipatory grief with a loved one in hospice
• Her books Excellent Endings, Contagious You, and The Leader You Will Be (all available on Amazon)

To learn more and to get into the conversation of leadership, presence, and impact more deeply:

• Please subscribe, like, share, and review this episode if it was useful to you or you know someone it could serve.
• For Anese's programs designed to support you in building your leadership and presence, or to join her in the Presence & Impact Leadership Circle, please check out ActiveChoices.com.
• And to work with her privately or have her on your stage or with your team, contact her at AneseCavanaugh.com or email direct to Anese @ ActiveChoices.com.

Keywords:

presence, impact, leadership development, organizational health, culture change, excellent endings, personal relationships, team dynamics, navigating endings, emotional well-being, self-care, personal growth, influence, grief and loss, career transitions, support systems, self-reflection, learning from endings, resilience, becoming your best self

We are given advice every day. The majority of it is given with the best of intentions. Even then, people often give advice without the full context, through their own lens and experiences, and based on their personal projections of what they think is possible. Advice and counsel are important in growing a business, leadership, or any kind of growth. But discernment and "staying with yourself"/trusting yourself is even more important.

In this episode, I talk about nine common pieces of advice that trip people up and how to check them for yourself. These pieces of "advice" often sound helpful on the surface but can quietly pull you out of alignment with yourself if you are not PRESENT to what's true for you (and if you're not comfortable with the discomfort of declining that advice!).

From coaches, colleagues, well-meaning friends, and our own inner voice — discernment, stewardship, devotion, and staying present with ourselves are the pathway to making conscious, active choices.

• Why most "dangerous" advice isn't given with bad intentions — and why that doesn't make it right for you
• The difference between healthy discomfort (growth) and unhealthy discomfort (misalignment)
• Why "fake it till you make it" creates burnout — and what to do instead ("faith it till you make it")
• How listening to one's intuition and being present are paramount for effective leadership and decision-making.
• How to tell the difference between hustle and devotion
• Why nobody — not a coach, not an advisor, not a trusted colleague — has the answer for your business but you. They may have essential expertise, but your own "knowingness" is required.
• A behind-the-scenes look at my next move, studio changes, and my new 90-minute team sessions

1. "Act as if you already have the money and resources." Abundance mindset is valuable — but without stewardship, it can lead to overspending and writing checks (literal and figurative) you can't cash.
2. "You're two feet from gold. Just keep going." Sometimes true. Sometimes a story you adopt that keeps you tolerating things you'd otherwise never tolerate. Learn to feel the difference in your body.
3. "You're just outside your comfort zone." Healthy discomfort (nerves before growth) is different from the discomfort of being on the wrong path. Don't let anyone coach you out of a discomfort that's actually valid data.
4. "You have to spend money to make money." Sometimes true — but Anese shares how scaling back "fancy infrastructure" led to more freedom, better-fit clients, and a more accessible membership offer.
5. "You've got to hustle harder." Anese makes the case for grit with grace — human over hustle.
6. "The universe has your back — you can manifest this." A recovering manifestor's take on the difference between magical thinking and staying in devotion to your assignment.
7. "Just walk away." On the year the business hit a real financial pickle, and why walking away — even when others said it was the obvious move — didn't feel true for Anese.
8. "Fake it till you make it." Why faking it creates nervous system dysregulation and imposter syndrome — and the reframe: "faith it till you make it."
9. "I have the answers. I know exactly what you should do." Nobody has the full context of your life, your business, your heart — except you (and God). Take input, but don't abandon yourself in the process.

• "Your presence is your impact."
• "The only people that are aware of your full context... are you, yourself, and God."
• "Nobody knows what you should do. You are the only one that knows what you should do."
• "Instead of faking it till you make it — faith it till you make it. Or better yet, just be real."

• Anese's new 90-minute team sessions — condensed, high-impact sessions designed for busy teams, available locally and virtually.
• A recent Instagram carousel on dangerous things to watch for in business (referenced as the inspiration for this episode).
• The Presence & Impact Leadership Circle is a membership that enables people to workshop the things Anese talks about here, build community, and get live support.

Which of these nine hit closest to home for you? Where might you be tolerating something because you were told you're "two feet from gold" — or hustling instead of staying in devotion?

Share your answer in the comments or in a review — Anese reads them all.

• Subscribe, rate, and review Your Presence IS Your Impact
• Interested in a 90-minute team session? Reach out to me directly.
• Join me in the Presence & Impact Leadership Circle (more at www.ActiveChoices.com)

Keywords:

presence in leadership, impact of presence, leadership development, organizational health, team dynamics, business advice, dangerous business advice, discernment in leadership, financial health, abundance mindset, personal presence, overcoming imposter syndrome, listening to yourself, effective leadership, cultural change, coaching insights, business performance, mindful leadership, self-awareness in business, leadership presence

In this stripped-down, no-bells-and-whistles episode, Anese records straight from bed — no makeup, no script, not even brushed teeth yet — to test a simpler way of showing up for this podcast. Inspired by a real conversation with a former client who was stuck on a creative project, she breaks down what actually creates accountability: not outside pressure, deadlines, or a coach cracking a whip, but getting radically honest about what's important and why you're doing the thing in the first place. Anese shares a story of doing deep clarity work with a client before the "official" engagement even started — and how that alone was enough to get them unstuck. She also opens up about the difference between projects fueled by pure purpose versus projects fueled by ego, outside approval, or hustle-culture urgency, drawing on lessons from 24+ years in business.

1. Cold Open / Intro (0:00–~1:30)

• Standard podcast intro: presence as the throughline for performance, people, and peace
• Pivot: "This is gonna be totally different" — Anese announces a new, rawer format
• Naming the shift: less big organizational consulting energy, more simple, accessible tools for nervous-system peace and presence
• Framed as a test episode — first of an experimental run

2. The Behind-the-Scenes Plan (~1:30–3:00)

• The rollout model for this content: podcast episode → personal Substack article → downloadable guide
• Guide access: free for Substack members, paid in the ACI store for everyone else
• Reminder that she's giving herself full permission to experiment through the "first 10 episodes" (acknowledges she's recorded more than 10 already, still editing before release)

3. The Client Story That Inspired This Episode (~3:00–6:30)

• A former-life friend reached out wanting support finishing a stalled creative project
• Structure offered: a few live sessions + Voxer access in between for real-time support (instead of only scheduled sessions)
• Why Anese "gives a little extra" up front with clients she already knows, and tests fit before diving in
• Core principle: "How you do one thing is how you do everything" — early patterns in an engagement predict the whole engagement
• Pre-work: had the client answer clarifying questions before the official kickoff even happened
• The surprise ending: the client woke up clear and said they didn't need the engagement after all — the exploration itself did the work
• Why this is part of why Anese now charges for consults: the value often happens in the first real conversation

4. Reframing "Why" vs. "What's Important" (~6:30–8:00)

• Anese's take: asking "why" tends to narrow people and trigger defensiveness/justification
• Asking "what's important about this" opens the field and invites more creative thinking
• This becomes the real diagnostic tool for the rest of the episode

5. The Core Teaching: Who You're Actually Accountable To (~8:00–10:00)

• First offer: the only accountability that matters is to yourself and God (or your higher power/Spirit/Universe — however that lands for the listener)
• Sitting with that idea quiets a lot of the noise around "shoulds"
• Second offer: get honest about what's important about the project — real fuel comes from that clarity, not external pressure

6. The Ego Check (~10:00–13:00)

• Pro tip: if you dig into "what's important" and find ego, money, image, or inherited expectations underneath — that's a sign you'll need more external accountability, and the work will be harder
• Anese's personal reflection on 24+ years in business:
• The most easeful, impactful work came from joy, service, and honoring her gifts
• The hardest work came from outside "shoulds" — following advisors' plans that didn't feel aligned, even when those advisors were smart and well-paid
• A candid story about getting swept into a "scale, scale, scale/hustle, hustle, baller" business circle — and how that urgency-driven energy wasn't sustainable or hers to carry
• "Watch your circles." — the people around you shape the energy you're pushing through
• When she was in that misaligned energy, she needed more external accountability because she couldn't sustain it herself

7. From Clarity to Action (~13:00–15:00)

• Once "what's important" and "why" are honest and clear, the next steps get simple:
• What actually needs to be done (vs. what's being made up/imagined)
• Realistic deadlines (not arbitrary ones)
• Who needs to be involved, what resources are needed
• Build the map from there
• The clearer the "why," the less external accountability is needed — internal alignment does the heavy lifting

8. Resolution of the Opening Story (~15:00–16:00)

• Anese's follow-up message to the client: "I don't think you need to think about this — I think we got what needed to be done"
• The client cleared the hurdles they needed to before the "real" work even began, and moved forward on their own

9. Call to Action / Close (~16:00–17:25)

• Invitation for listeners to share in the comments what they're working on and where they've felt stuck — health, business, a creative project, a relationship, anything
• Mention of a past Learning Lab in her community on accountability, and the idea that "nobody really wants to be held accountable" — the real goal is inspiring accountability in leadership (teased as a future topic)
• Sign-off: gratitude, invitation to like/share, see you next episode

• "How you do one thing is how you do everything."
• "The only person you need accountability with is yourself and God."
• "If you really do the work to look at why this thing is important for you, you will find the energy to hold yourself accountable."
• "Watch your circles, man. Watch your circles."
• "The more clear you are on what's important about this... the easier it is going to be to eliminate all that noise, all that external need for external accountability."

What's something you've been telling yourself you need "accountability" for — and if you got radically honest, is the block really about clarity (what's important) or is it ego/outside approval? What would change if you got honest about which one it is?

AI Transparency Note:

These show notes were compiled with the assistance of AI. The content, the podcast, the voice, me -- it is all me (Anese). Thanks for being here.

Want to learn more and make this work real in your life?

• Join me in community in the Presence & Impact Leadership Circle (ActiveChoices.com/Presence),
• Read one of my books (I recommend Contagious You for this topic -- new version available on Amazon),
• Take Intro to IEP Method Training (self-paced and in our store at ActiveChoices.com/Store),
• Book me privately to work with you or speak with your team. (ActiveChoices.com/Contact)
• Follow me on socials: IG, LI, and Substack -- all @anesecavanaugh (Note: I'll be writing more about this on my Substack)

Please like, share, subscribe, and do all the things that help more people access this work (and that allow me to keep doing it)! Thank you!

Keywords:

presence, impact, leadership development, organizational health, culture change, accountability, personal growth, project management, self-improvement, influence, team dynamics, creative projects, coaching, business results, mindset, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, goal setting, clarity, spiritual alignment

The salient point of this podcast episode is the profound assertion that one's presence significantly influences their overall impact, both personally and professionally. Anese Cavanaugh delves into the intricate relationship between presence and performance, exploring how various aspects of one's presence affect business outcomes, interpersonal relationships, and team dynamics. Drawing from her extensive experience in leadership development and organizational health, she presents the seven distinct types of presence that have emerged from her research and practice. Each type serves as a critical component in understanding and enhancing the effectiveness of leaders and their interactions. She invites listeners to engage deeply with these concepts, as they hold the potential to transform not only individual leadership styles but also the broader organizational culture.

Takeaways:

• The essence of one's presence significantly influences business outcomes, personal relationships, and overall health.
• Understanding the seven types of presence can enhance a leader's effectiveness and interpersonal interactions.
• The seven types of presence are Internal, External, Relational, Leadership, Situational, Congruence, and Impact (she talks about an eighth at the end).
• Internal presence involves self-awareness and the ability to manage one's emotions during challenging situations.
• Leadership presence is determined by what others perceive they can rely on you for, particularly in your absence.
• Impact presence is not only how you impact others and the impact you intend to have, but your awareness of how others impact you and how you protect yourself.

Links referenced in this episode:

• ActiveChoices.com
• Presence Protocol Program
• Contagious You: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want (Rideout Press, 2026)

Out and About:

• @anesecavanaugh on Instagram and LinkedIn
• https://substack.com/@anesecavanaugh

Anese Cavanaugh introduces the IEP Method®, which stands for Intentional Energetic Presence®, a framework she has cultivated since the age of 14, albeit unconsciously at first, and that she has built a business and a body of work around. This methodology emphasizes the importance of being intentional about the energy and presence one brings to various aspects of life, whether in leadership, personal interactions, or everyday tasks. Cavanaugh elucidates that the essence of IEP lies in three fundamental components: intention, energy, and presence. She explains that cultivating a conscious awareness of these elements fosters a more impactful and fulfilling experience, builds resilience, and makes users more likely to create the impact they want without burnout. Ultimately, she invites listeners to explore their own intentionality and the profound impact it can have on their effectiveness and well-being.

Takeaways:

• The IEP Method emphasizes the importance of Intentional Energetic Presence in all aspects of life, enhancing both personal and professional interactions.
• Being present and intentional in daily activities, such as mundane tasks or high-stakes meetings, significantly influences one’s overall experience and impact.
• Managing one's energy is crucial for maintaining stamina, protecting oneself from negativity, and ensuring effective leadership.
• Practicing the ability to pause in conversations fosters deeper connections and encourages a thoughtful response rather than a reactive one.
• Self-care is a fundamental leadership skill that empowers individuals to project positive energy (authentically) and maintain their presence in challenging situations.
• The IEP Method consists of three components: intentions, energy, and presence, which collectively enhance one’s effectiveness and impact.
• There are 70 different frameworks and modules one can use to integrate IEP into their life, leadership, and organization depending on context.
• The foundational next step in all of this is to know that your presence IS your impact, and there is a method for that.

To learn more: www.ActiveChoices.com

• Join our Presence & Impact Leadership Community to get live training, access to previous events, and community with other leaders who care about showing up AND taking great care of themselves. (Learn more at: https://activechoices.com/presence)
• Take the Introduction to IEP Method Self-Study Course with 5 hours of content, examples, and tools to learn and apply the method on your own time. https://activechoices.com/iep-course/
• Take additional courses to meet you where you're at now. All online, on-demand courses are at https://activechoices.com/store/
• Interested in private work? Learn more at https://activechoices.com/iep-course/

Books:

• Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives (McGraw-Hill, 2015 original release) --> Re-releasing with Rideout Press, November 2026
• Contagious You: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want (McGraw-Hill, 2019 original release) --> Re-released with Rideout Press, June 2026 (make sure you get the updated version!)
• Excellent Endings: The IEP Survival Guide for Divorce AND Navigating Any Kind of Meaningful Ending (Rideout Press, 2026)

Socials:

@AneseCavanaugh on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube

Let's talk about why the most powerful leadership move you have isn't doing more — it's getting quiet enough to hear yourself again.

We are still in the first 10 episodes of Your Presence Is Your Impact, and this one goes deep. Anese introduces "the Quiet Tour" — a listening tour she fell into last fall, not toward the rest of the world, but toward herself and God.

After 24 years running her company, Anese hit a level of burnout last November unlike any she'd experienced before. Not the kind she knew how to reset from with a nap and an intention check-in — a deeper misalignment kind she'd been overriding for close to two years. In this episode, she walks through what that looked like, and the four phases that emerged from it, now shaping both her upcoming handbook and cohort, The Quiet Tour, launching live August 3rd.

This isn't a "quit your life and meditate on a mountain" story. Anese was still running payroll, delivering client work, giving talks — all while doing this internal work in parallel. The invitation here is for anyone who is fully booked, fully needed, and still needs to hear themselves think.

1. Noticing / Awareness & Inventory: Taking honest stock — with compassion, grace, and curiosity, not judgment — of where noise had crept in: business noise, financial noise, relationship noise, advisor noise. Where was she saying yes when she meant no? Where had she stopped being able to hear herself, and God, underneath everyone else's input and the very richly scheduled business and life she was running?

2. Emptying Out: Removing anything out of alignment with her assignment — relationships, obligations, expenses, even business partnerships that looked good on paper but didn't feel right. Includes her literal story of packing up 70% of her house to sell it, then keeping almost none of what she'd packed once she decided to stay.

3. Pouring Back In: Intentionally reintroducing only what's truly life-giving and in alignment — a much clearer, more discerning "yes." This is the phase where her definition of self-care changed, her company's offerings and team roles were refined, relationships were redesigned rather than just cut, and a "yes" from her now means she's all in.

4. Impact: Creating what's to come, and from what's been rebuilt — quietly, one aligned step at a time. This podcast, her book Excellent Endings released in May, and the June re-release of Contagious You, were all born directly out of this phase.

• On why she's talking about this now: "I think that the most powerful form of leadership that we can bring to the table... is from a quiet, aligned, present space."
• On the difference between noise and true rest: instead of getting quiet when something's not working, "we push harder... we just add more to it, which just adds levels and levels of noise and we can't actually hear our own internal wisdom."
• On what actually broke through in November: two years of quiet whispers she kept overriding, until she finally couldn't anymore — "I need to pay attention to this. And I can't hear myself think right now."
• On alignment as a leadership principle: when you drift from your assignment — your gifts, your calling — "things will start to feel off. They just will."
• On boundaries vs. cutting people off: you often don't need to remove someone entirely — you need to hold your space, limit exposure, give feedback, and redesign the relationship. "You won't find the nuance until you're quiet."
• On what "yes" means now: "Anytime I say yes to somebody... I'm in." Fewer yeses, but every one of them more real.
• On why this matters in the age of AI: with input accelerating from every direction, quiet discernment isn't a luxury — it's the leadership skill that keeps you connected to your own wisdom instead of just managing more tools to cope with more noise.
• On your self-care as a leadership skill, your ability to be present, and the quality of your presence, which is based on your ability to access quiet within yourself — it starts with you, 100%. No one can give it to you or do it for you — what is on the other side is invaluable. And it's not just for you; the people you love and lead benefit too.
• On the ripple effects — quiet is contagious. (Make sure it's the right kind.)

• The Quiet Tour Handbook — a self-guided companion to walk the four phases on your own or with a book club.
• The Quiet Tour Cohort — a 40-day live experience starting August 3rd, taught by Anese, with community touchpoints and live Q&A.
• Anese is considering releasing a more personal, vulnerable follow-up episode on what specifically led her into the Quiet Tour last fall — listeners are invited to weigh in.
• Go to quiettour.lovable.app to learn more and register for your own Quiet Tour
• Go to ActiveChoices.com to learn more about other books, resources, products, and programs to support your alignment, presence, vitality, and leadership.

If this episode resonated, subscribe, leave a rating, and share it with someone who needs permission to get quiet without disappearing. Let Anese know in the comments how this landed and if you'd like the more personal follow-up episode released.

Keywords:

quiet leadership, power of pause, impact of quiet, quiet tour, listening tour, self-awareness in leadership, inner wisdom, managing noise, leadership presence, mindful leadership, discernment in decision making, cultivating quiet, overcoming overwhelm, personal growth podcast, emotional intelligence in leadership, slowing down to lead, authentic leadership, connection with self, enhancing leadership skills, presence in communication

Excellent Endings, Beautiful Beginnings

Why every closed chapter — a marriage, a business, a house, an empty nest — is being used for good.

In this episode of Your Presence Is Your Impact, Anese explores a truth she keeps coming back to: God uses everything for good — even the endings that hurt. She shares the origin story of her book Excellent Endings (born from a 12,000-word PDF she wrote for divorcing girlfriends back in 2018, reworked and released in May 2026), then gets personal about four endings she's living through right now: repurposing "failed" studio equipment into her actual podcast setup, watching her kids become adults and leave home, taking her house off the market after a loved one's terminal diagnosis, and closing the 24-year chapter of running Active Choices, Inc. the way she built it. Her invitation to you: look at your own endings — past or in progress — and start noticing the better beginning they're quietly building.

In this episode:

• Why everything — even our failures and "wrong turns" — gets used for good
• The real story behind Excellent Endings, from a private PDF for friends to a book for anyone navigating any kind of ending
• A real-time example: studio gear bought for one vision, now powering this very podcast
• Why endings take energy — and what happens when we misread that toll as something else
• Four endings Anese is walking through right now: empty nest, taking her house off the market coupled with a terminal illness of a loved one, ending ACI as she built it, and smaller shifts in fitness and commitments
• How the way we end things shapes the way we begin what's next
• "Rejection is God's protection or redirection."

Next and for more...

📖 Get the books Excellent Endings (5/26) and Contagious You (new edition 6/26) (links below)

🌐 Learn more and join the Presence & Impact Community (links below)

💬 Follow and DM @anesecavanaugh on Instagram and LinkedIn (all responses are hers, not AI)

✍️ More writing on Substack @anesecavanaugh (all writing is hers, not AI)

⭐ If this episode landed for you — please subscribe, rate, and share it!

Links referenced in this episode:

• ActiveChoices.com Online Programs & Products to support
• Presence & Impact Leadership Community
• Amazon: Contagious You - the book
• Amazon: Excellent Endings - the book

Keywords: podcast about endings and beginnings, Anese Cavanaugh podcast, excellent endings, personal growth podcast, navigating life transitions, leadership and impact, relationships and endings, resilience in difficult times, spiritual growth and wisdom, intentional living, self-reflection and healing, overcoming failure, career change guidance, emotional well-being, personal development strategies, finding purpose after loss, divorce and life changes, coping with change, self-improvement podcast, storytelling in personal journeys