Rise From The Ashes
"Burnout to Brilliance: Great CEOs, No Burnout"
Leadership is tough. Burnout makes it tougher.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Rise From The Ashes is the ultimate podcast for visionary CEOs and executives who refuse to let burnout rob them of their brilliance, legacy, and impact.
Hosted by Baz Porter, this show isn’t just about surviving leadership it’s about transforming it. Each week, we delve deep into the art and science of thriving at the top, combining actionable strategies, spiritual alignment, and raw truths that reignite your purpose and optimize your energy.
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Bold Frameworks: Learn the exact steps to conquer decision fatigue, streamline your mental energy, and reclaim control of your leadership.
- Spiritual Awakenings: Explore the intersection of purpose, alignment, and success to lead with clarity and connection.
- Transformational Insights: Hear unfiltered stories and practical wisdom from world-class leaders who’ve turned their burnout into brilliance.
This isn’t just a podcast it’s a revolution for leaders ready to rise, inspire, and leave a legacy that outlasts them.
Rise From The Ashes
They Told Her to “Tone It Down” She Turned It All the Way Up
Imagine being told your energy is “too much.” Your light, too bright. Your voice, too powerful.
That’s what Laura Brennan Ballet was told in a pivotal meeting and instead of shrinking, she amplified. In this soul-stirring episode of Rise From The Ashes, Laura shares how she transformed that moment into fuel for her mission.
An author, entrepreneur, and empowerment coach, Laura walks us through the raw truth of recovering from a concussion, reimagining her leadership, and writing her groundbreaking book, The Science of Empowerment.
🔥 What you’ll hear inside:
- The exact moment she was told to “tone it down” and her fierce response
- How she leads with energy, soul, and unapologetic alignment
- The spiritual science behind her coaching method
- Why you must protect your light and voice even when it rattles the room
This is not just another personal development conversation. It’s a spiritual activation for women who are done hiding their brilliance.
Was this episode a spark for your own fire? Buy me a coffee for $3 cheaper than Starbucks, richer in impact.
☕ Support here → https://www.buzzsprout.com/2217291/support
If You’ve Been Hooked on These Episodes… This Is for You
If this podcast has been landing deep… if each story feels like it’s peeling back something raw and real in you… then don’t ignore that.
Every guest you’ve heard made the same decision: to stop performing and start healing.
Now it’s your turn.
Take the Silent Collapse Diagnostic. It’s not a quiz. It’s a wake-up tool for women who are done pretending they’re fine.
No fluff. No journaling prompts. Just a straight-up mirror into where you’re silently collapsing behind the mask of success.
If you're serious about reclaiming your energy, your clarity, your life start there.
Because breakthrough doesn’t begin with doing more. It begins with finally seeing what’s been stealing your power.
Learn more about Baz Porter at www.bazporter.com
All right, good day and welcome to another episode of Ryerson Asher's podcast. I'm your host, baskin Robbins, and it's a privilege and an honor to have my next guest here today. Her name is Laura Brennan and she is an amazing entrepreneur, an amazing inspiration for many transformative life-passionate about undertaking of the world. Today, in a very metaphorical state of awareness, I would like to introduce the wonderful Laura Brennan to the stage. Laura, please tell everybody who you are and who you are at your core and what you do. Please.
Speaker 2:Laura says thank you. We've just been talking anyways for a long time, so this is just a continuation, so I'm not going to correct you, but I'm going to add in my full name, which is Laura Brennan Ballet. And the Brennan is a homage to my stepdad who raised me and he has since passed, and Ballet is my lovely husband who insisted I take his name, so I'm the author of the Science of Empowerment. You know, you're reading the book. Wasn't a journey to write the book? Right? We want to get a message out, we want to share knowledge, we want to figure out how we can inspire and uplift, and for me, so much of the material in the book was about really remembering. Oh, that is me.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of people ask me why didn't you really write a book in the sense of like a story, like you know? Oh, this is the tragedy and this is my all of the story. I am a storyteller. We are storytellers right from all the way back in the beginning of time. I wanted this book to be a journey of self-reflection into your personal potential. I wanted it to click in that I can do anything. I can really figure out how to create a new mindset, how I can tap into this awareness, how I can cultivate human potential. So I'm an author, I'm a writer.
Speaker 2:One of my very dear friends, roger, a long time ago, gave me the title of Ambassador of Life Empowerment and I had to take it. So it's all over. When you see me, and I really have grown into this role People always ask are you this positive, are you this happy? Is life really this, you know, sparkly and fabulous? And I say yes, it is Not every moment.
Speaker 2:We all have challenges. We all you and I were just talking about this moving through the different tiers of entrepreneurship and starting in a level where you're down in the basement doing everything yourself and then putting a team together, and then, all of a sudden, you start really meeting these wonderful, incredible, brilliant people such as you and you and I enjoy many conversations off the sidelines, which I love. So I love coaching, I love speaking, I love conversing with others. How can you and I together create a movement that empowers other people, whether that's bringing light and love, whether it's bringing compassion and curiosity, whether that's uplifting, uplighting? We all have our own lexicon. There's beautiful words in the language right to express how we're feeling, but it's really about how can you and I contribute positive energy into the human condition so collectively we all can elevate from where we are to something that is more peaceful, more activated and certainly tapping into more of the potential than it feels like we're doing at the present time. So, thank you.
Speaker 1:Hopefully that gives someone. That's that'll do. First of all, before we go into the questions here, what is your idea or definition of transformational coaching? I know the listeners who hear a lot of explanations for this, but everybody has their own different take on it. What's?
Speaker 2:yours. Yeah, for me it is facilitating an experience for someone else. However, they arrive at that transformation on their own, so it is not a directive. It is a guidance system, an internal navigation system that maybe you might switch on for them, but it's always been there. Maybe it was just stuck in the off position. It really is about facilitating someone else's arrival to just their own absolute beauty and brilliance.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thank you, you're welcome. Just gives you an idea of where Laura's coming from here. So how we're gonna progress with this is the adversities that you've been through. Can you share a story from your past that is unique to you, that you've overcome but it's left a lasting impression in a positive way, so that you've moved over and overcome and moved from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a few years ago, when I started to sit down to write the science of empowerment, I was at my brother's neuromuscular training facility. I always give a shout out to my brother, chris Brennan. He is the creator of the J3 equals E formula. He was the inspiration for me to really create the tapping into what I've always loved and what I've always wanted to do, and he knew this since we were kids. So talk about transformation and someone facilitating that. Even my own authentic experience happened to be my brother, which is super cool.
Speaker 2:I was at our facility practicing back flips over an octagon and I passed out. My left elbow kind of gave away and I suffered a concussion for about 436 days, to be exact, totally turned me inside out. I've always been an athlete. I have, I just move my energy, I just move, I jump, I still. I was up in a tree the other day. I'm not gonna tell you how old I am, but I moved, I just keep going and this took me down bad, and I still kept trying to move with. It didn't go anywhere. I just I was actually throwing up in my car. I was shaking when I was walking. It was bad. I won't get into all the details. And then, finally, my husband and then my brother saw me about three days in and they're like something is wrong. And my brother, because of gymnastics, he's like you need to go to the emergency room now. I'm like oh, I'm fine. And he was like no, and a very good friend of ours, who's a doctor, came over and saw me and he brought me to the emergency room. I was okay. Thank God I was already past the point anyways, if something was terribly wrong.
Speaker 2:The point of the story is I had just started to really tap into that level of my own personal brilliance, and I'm not saying that in an egoic way, I'm meaning it in the way of I finally decided to live my dream, tap into it and to fulfill that. And I created this very challenging experience where I subluxated right up under the brain and I should have been paralyzed and I wasn't. But I couldn't walk. Well, I had to. Really. Oh boy, if I think about it, I will actually start to cry.
Speaker 2:It was something that no one ever thought would have ever happened to me and I was so determined to use the power of my mind to get through it, but the physicality was saying, oh no, you don't, and it really what it did. What it transformed for me was this ability to begin to honor and look at myself not in a limitation but in a realistic way of being human, and challenges will come that we all can't necessarily just bulldoze through at the very moment. So it was this lesson of pause and reflect what was happening before, what was the hurriedness, what was the rush, what was pushing on me, that I still moved through that momentum, even when my body said, oh no, you don't. So it took a few months and I started to go deep and deep and deeper and then I came out into what changed really the whole structure of my writing journey, what came out of it, what still comes out of it.
Speaker 2:It really was that personal story of I absolutely could have given up in that moment. It really, like I said, it took me for a loop, put me in the darkness, which I don't hang in there very long for any reason, for anyone. It's just something I don't do. And this said, no, you're gonna stay here for a little bit. So I personally went through something that was a physical injury, but it really affected me on an emotional, mental and spiritual way even more and allowed me to come out the other side. I feel very empowered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, and that's a beautiful story of diversity. There's something you said in there was key that keeps coming up with anybody that I ever encounter, not just in the podcast, but in my coaching or successful entrepreneurs and that is you made a decision. Yeah, you made a choice, and it was a conscious choice of I must do this and how can I do it? Not, I must do it, but I don't know how it was that switch. People say that a lot in mindset, and mindset simply means where your mind is, where your mind is focused, where your focus goes, energy flows, et cetera. Out of what transpired with that journey, was there any habits or routines that you picked up that you still use today, whether that a nighttime routine or, like it's popular and it is a buzz thing, a morning routine we talked about earlier about people not getting up in the mornings. Do you do anything as a ritual that sets your day up or in your life that has that positive effect to make you feel good?
Speaker 2:yeah, I do. I do many things in different phases, like many of us. If I'm waking up and I meditate and then I do hatha yoga in the morning and I listen to Gagorian chants right to put me in that space it's one of my favorite things to do. I'm up very early now on podcasts and interviews around the globe, so I don't have time unless I get up at 5 am, which I've been trying to do but cannot fit my morning in. I have taken myself off that hook and I have found a piece and almost a joy now to fit it in when I can and not pressure myself, because then I lose the fun in it and I want to have fun in my life. So now, if it's a 20 minute power walk and then it's a 15 minute before you hop in the shower meditation. If the next day it's full-on yoga and I go to the gym and I do a powerhouse of a workout, every day I allow myself to find moments of connecting to some style of discipline that keeps my mindset wired into mastery what that means to me, I believe when we are physically disciplined, when we eat proper nutrients, I believe, when we don't abuse anything on any level, it really does start to create this momentum of a mindset that benefits entrepreneurial design and living a life that is more fulfilling.
Speaker 2:But I do love. My favorite, favorite thing to do every morning and I've done it for decades and I will probably do it till I take my last breath is the moment I wake up. I have trained my mind to find something to be grateful for, and I do it every single day, even if I went to bed exhausted or tired or even stressed with a lot of what's going on on the creative end of things. Always and sometimes it's the simplest things. I just it's a warm blanket, it's hearing the heat click on in the winter or seeing the sun come up through the blinds. It really is that simple and I find that it puts me in a space of just humanness and connecting to all, which is very important to me.
Speaker 1:I love that. I mean gratitude is so much, so often overlooked in today's world because we get busy being busy and we forget just pause in the morning or at any point. I do it multiple points of the day and go. Actually I need to pause and just have a moment to myself and go outside, get my head of shape or whatever it is, to refocus and be grateful. So that's, that's beautiful. I love that, thank you. Is there anybody in your life? People say that have they've had five people they surround themselves with that.
Speaker 1:Elevate them is anybody that you model or there has been a mentor for you that has been contributing to your overall success.
Speaker 2:That doesn't doesn't have to be just in one thing, but your overall success yeah, I, you and I have something in common when we look back into ancient knowledge and I won't go too deep into it, but there was leadership in Egypt way back in the day and it's someone that I have gravitated towards since I was a kid. My family doesn't even know why and I still do so, without again getting too deep into that, but I love ancient stories. I love ancient history. I believe in the writings of every again, every style, whether you're looking at the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Bible or you're looking at, you know, the mystery schools and all the writing in Egypt.
Speaker 2:I love ancient knowledge. I think there's such a beautiful thread in the long ago stories and how humanity moved through it and merging it in now with some very unique mentors. But I have again trained my mind to be open to that on more of a daily basis than one specific person. But honestly, I'm going to give a shout out to my brother. He's a very cool dude. He's younger than I am, he's been through a lot in his life and he just has this inner strength and it is so beautifully merged with kindness that you know and believe me, we're not without brother, sister, sibling energy, but he really does teach me to pay it forward a lot and on the simple things, on the simple way of life and the everyday life. So I would say my brother Chris has been a very special beacon of mentorship on a lot of levels for me that's beautiful.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna have to reach out to him now and get him on the podcast just for you guys.
Speaker 2:When I thought about it, I think the world might combust in a corner with the two of you together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great energy, yeah so many of our listeners would love to learn about leadership and what it means to the individuals who have overcome so much adversity in their lives. What was one leadership, most of the most important leadership lesson that you actually learned in your experience, through the vast experience, not just writing the book, but overcoming the concussion, overcoming adversity with the feeling less than you were back in the day, and all the rest of it. What was the main leadership lesson you learned within yourself? And also, if you can combine without going into the rabbit hole of the ancient theological stuff or the Egyptians?
Speaker 1:Is there anything you can share?
Speaker 2:I don't have any one particular in present time my grandmother, who, when I was a kid, literally thought she was an angel on earth because she went through so much adversity and never lost her grace, ever, never saw her lose her grace in very difficult situations. She and I used to talk when I was a kid and I didn't quite understand it until I got older, but she used to tell me all things are possible. All things are possible. The other quote that she embedded in me and would always try to teach me the life lesson but of course when you're young. But now I understand it, it's in the book never give a pearl to a swine. I talk about this often. I taught my girls this and they were like thinking the way they did, but really expressing that your inner light, your inner beauty, however, that chooses to come out, is such a gift into the collective stream of humanness that don't ever dim it, don't sidestep it. And I just now I'm thinking as you asked me this question.
Speaker 2:I was in a pretty high-end meeting and I got some feedback from a friend that was a part of this meeting, and one of the gentlemen said something about my energy and my vibrancy and also then added in well, geez, maybe we should tone that down just a little. And so I had a nice conversation with the gentleman and will not do business with him for that reason. So it's always stuck with me that if anyone tries to put a dimmer on you, I want you to take that and recognize that that is the universe calling you to shine even brighter. And so when I think about back in Egypt, I love the God energy of thought. He is the creator and the writer of the emerald tablets. They sit in the Oxford Museum now, and these are these power pillars and principles of really living an empowered life, tapping into your potential and really never sidestepping that journey. And so I carry that with me all the time. So I hope that answers a little bit of the question without going down the rabbit hole.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's perfect, thank you. Favre is often viewed as a negative. Now for the people who are seasoned in the entrepreneurial space, or especially this personal development space failure is not necessarily a negative. Can you share some of the stories or a couple of the stories, if you may where you've had a perceived failure or a challenge that you've eventually overcome and has led to a success in your career?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to offer this for this point of the conversation. Again, growing up with a brother that was in the USA Olympic gymnastics realm of things, no one looks at failure in the same way. In that environment there are people that will do 3,000 right skills to get one moment of correctness on that, and I was, you know, on the balance beam and things when I was a kid, and so we don't look at failure. It wasn't really in our house. I don't know why my acrimonium, and even in the science of empowerment, is always forever empowered and resourceful, and that's how I look at it. We've never and I say we, my family and we just don't look at anything as a failure. It's simply a redirection Anything.
Speaker 2:Personally, I don't have anything that I can look back on and think I failed. Everything that comes into my viewing, if it feels right, if I'm aligned with it, if there's kindness and compassion and opportunity and there's goodness there and we all know we all have that radar I am 100% on board. If it does not move a mountain, it's okay. If it doesn't come out for something big right For me, I don't know. I just don't ever look at anything as a failure, even relationships. We've all been in love and we've lost. Right, we've all had money and some of us have lost. We've, all you know, been in some tiny apartment and we dreamed of being in a bigger home. Whatever it may be, none of it was ever a failure.
Speaker 2:I always, and I still do and I probably will, and I'm a little old lady I'm gonna look at everything like, okay, so what's the universe trying to give me now? How can I recalibrate this? What is the challenge? What is the next step? Right, that warrior plant and the flag on the hill. I, firmly, am a warrior princess on that level. I believe that it is a challenge for my own personal growth. How can I overcome that? Now? There's no begging and scratching and crawling for anything. I don't want anyone to do that. If something isn't working, just redirect, find another way. There's so many opportunities to take whatever that is that seemed in the moment to not work and really redesign it and find a way to make it work somewhere else or with someone else, or some form of it, some variation of it. So no failures ever.
Speaker 1:I love that when I first when I first had a conversation with you and you know, I think you know this, I actually had it I saw you like as the I grew up with her, but is in the mythical princess, warrior princess, and that's how I actually view you, because you're just unstoppable. Yeah, and that's how I see you and it's amazing. You know, you're a creature of light and I love your energy and I love who you, what you stand for, you well, thank you guys, only not a princess, but the same energy.
Speaker 1:I'm not princess, I can't tell you that now away where do you see yourself and it's maybe a loaded question where do you see yourself in three to five years time? And this is this is an open-ended question. So you can say to me, baz, I have no clue I'm doing tomorrow, let alone three years. Yeah, but some people have a vision and they have that set, not necessary a stone, but they have a dream they want to accomplish. And you mentioned earlier of fair, about a certainly charity in Uganda. Yeah, if you will, please be sure about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is something so near and dear both to my husband and myself. Somehow in the universe, you know we, when you're out in the public, even on a small level, people find their way to you and again, you have to be discerning. But this young gentleman something about him and I just connected and we've stayed connected and he runs a very small orphanage, but ever growing now. And really there's orphanages all over the world that have funding and have help, even though there's children that live there and will spend most of their life there. There's clean water, there's beds, there's utensils, there's medical care, there's they have little washboards and fresh water and clothes lines and all of this and they don't have any of that. And we, you know, help them how we can. But my true heart goal is to be in a position to work with other people that can help me do something really amazing for this particular orphanage and, on a personal note, just myself. Right, sell a million books, speak on stages all over the world, create this volume of message that you are in the power seat of choice. Do not settle for less than you can create. And this is such an important message for me, like I have to get that out. Any opportunity, all opportunities where there is receptivity in the audience.
Speaker 2:It is something I talk about no matter where I am. I'm on vacation with my husband. All we went away for three weeks. All I talked about was empowerment. Everywhere I went it was amazing. People are open, they love the energy. They feel it because it is who we are. We're energy beings. We are meant to live empowering lives, and I feel that when we are successful, and monetarily speaking as well, that puts us in the power seat. To now help other people and bringing clean water and medical supplies and clothing is an absolute birthright and it's something that is so dear to my heart. And whatever the karmic or alignment is with this particular gentleman and what he's done for the children is near and dear to my heart. So three years from now, absolutely want their lives to be much different than they are today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I'm very much on the same page as you, laura, with paying forward when we are in a position to. It's about paying forward. It's about changing the future of our generation, the future of our lives. It's not us that can change it. We can't change the next generation without stepping up into that responsibility, and we do have a responsibility to do that for our future. It's just a way I feel very passionate about that, as you know.
Speaker 2:And find a way to have intelligent, mature conversations with one another, without these reactionary algorithms spewing out and going over the same outdated, unnecessary old ways of thinking and being in this world and I'll use that word we really need to modernize our intelligence so that it creates a pathway that creates legacy and lasting change. Because, yes, even if you don't have children or you're not going to have grandchildren or great grandchildren, you have family, you have friends, you have neighbors, you have people that matter to you, and we're all in it together.
Speaker 1:Before we wrap up the rest of the show here, I want to promote your book on here as well, because you're an awesome human being. I actually have the book, it's in my hand, but I can't see it. And how do people get hold of it? How do people connect with you and get in contact with you? Please share.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Well, first of all, I just want to acknowledge you, who you are, what you've been through. If anyone doesn't know your story, please really search out Baz and what he has created for himself. It's just amazing. And all of what you're doing and again it goes way beyond what we've discussed here but truly the reasoning behind everything that you do is just amazing.
Speaker 2:So I'm honored to be in this timeframe with you. I love our ever-growing friendship. I know that collaboration is going to continue and get bigger and better and for greater purpose, so thank you. The book is on Amazon, whether there's a link in here or when I share this Yep, so link in the podcast. You can visit the website wwwTheScienceOfEmpowermentcom. There's articles and just reading it will begin to rewire your own neuronal pathways. You will become smarter and you will become more inspired and more uplifted and more empowered because you will recognize yourself in the reading in the material. Linkedin you know everywhere. I'm there and please reach out to me If you just need someone to talk to someone, to maybe inspire something in you that you quite haven't come across yet. I'll do my best to really help facilitate that feeling and that knowing of truly what it is to tap into your personal potential. And then you just get to create it with someone else and it's amazing.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you know what to do. Please share the message and inspire somebody else. The link for Laura's book will be in the description and also in the blog. If you could listen to this, it's in the bottom. The blog is going out shortly. I don't know a day that's on my head, myself and Laura. Thank you very much for joining us Thank you Remember.
Speaker 1:It's your time to shine. It's your time to leave a statement for the world. So live with purpose and inspire with legacy. My friends, Take care, Be safe.
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