“Conquer the stress of Live and Life Events”

Did you know that event production is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the top five most stressful professions? It’s true! Year after year, event producers are listed right under military, emergency responders, and airline pilots and while they may not literally put out fires, they must be quick to respond as issues arise.

Susan Koziak is the owner of Koziak Productions, an award-winning event production company that specializes in fashion shows, live events, and transforming what could be dull corporate presentations, fundraisers and award shows into exciting multimedia presentations.

Susan has traveled the world directing banquet productions for IRONMAN World Championships and faced challenges like transforming the backlot of a Hollywood Studio into a tour around the world for a Global Sales event with less than six weeks from concept to installation.

She approaches each event with the intention of creating an experience to remember, trying to avoid doing the obvious, and realizing it is the simple things that make the biggest impression, regardless of the size of your budget.

As a result of producing thousands of successful, transformational events for notable corporations and nonprofit organizations, Susan experienced firsthand the effects of stress, worry, tension, anxiety and intense pressure. She knew there had to be an easier way.

Stress can cause a spike in adrenaline and cortisol levels, resulting in overwhelm, loss of focus, trouble concentrating, and feelings of anxiety, depression, and irritability? All of this can affect your ability to function which can make it difficult for your mind to process everything and to remain calm, centered and grounded.

As a self-proclaimed “student of life,” Susan spent many years acquiring tools to help transform stress and its effects in a way that empowers her to take action. She has truly earned her reputation as the "Stress Less" Event Producer.

In her quest for these tools, Susan found Energy Mastery®, which is a system of tools to do exactly that—help you master your energy. These tools that help Susan navigate whatever happens during live events are also extremely helpful in managing stressful LIFE events with more ease and grace. With the pandemic and everything that has happened the past few years, we have all had more than our fair share of those.

Master Your Energy

Susan strongly believes that we should be at the top of our own priority list. She came to realize that the more consistent her self-care routine is, the better equipped she is to handle any challenge in both work and life. Self-care, which for her includes energy work, leads to being more in tune with one’s own intuition, the ability to disconnect from draining energy, and staying more centered and grounded—all of which leads to getting more done in less time!

Speaking of being centered and grounded, at the end of the article, Susan shares a link for three essential tools vital for overcoming overwhelm: grounding, cord cutting and a breathing exercise (read on to learn more about cord cutting!). When you have too much on your plate, it can be hard for your mind to process everything, remain calm and effectively problem solve. If your emotions have the best of you and you don’t know where to start, use these tools to stop spinning and calm the chaos in your head so that you can effectively get more done in less time.

Whether you are looking for ways to become a more effective leader, create an event with less stress, or embark on a self-improvement journey, the tools that Susan shares will empower you.

Become Your Best You

It begins with self-awareness. To become the best version of yourself, first examine your strengths and weaknesses and find your “zone of genius,” where you have the highest energy in doing what you do best. Once you know your zone of genius and are operating at your highest vibrational energy, take notice of how you treat those you work with. Are you kind and respectful? When you treat others with high regard, you empower them to become the best version of themselves.

Second, it is vital to place yourself at the top of your own priority list. This was touched on already, and it bears repeating because it is that important! As we have all heard on every flight, in the event of an emergency, “secure your mask before assisting others.” One of the things Susan believes most is that you cannot fill from an empty cup.

Susan had a recent success with this concept of prioritizing her needs. In the midst of several stressful life events, including caring for aging parents and mourning the death of a family member, Susan was working crazy hours to catch up on work when her husband landed in the emergency room.

The next day, as her husband was being taken in for surgery, Susan was orchestrating a model fitting for a university fashion show and had over 50 models, designers and crew relying on her.

She walked into the chaos, taught everyone how to “cut their cords” (a tool from Energy Mastery®), and told them all that she did not need their stress, fear, or even sympathy. What she needed was for everyone to do their work quietly so her brain could function at its best. They finished the fitting in record time and the end result was amazing.

The lesson from this example is that when you prioritize your own needs first, you are able to be more clear and focused and can actually get more done in less time and generally it will be a better end result or product.

Effective Leadership

Susan said that Koziak Productions’s greatest strength is the amazing team she has built. She quotes Einstein: "But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid."

She advises leaders: take a look around at everyone working with you and identify their greatest strengths and weaknesses. Empower those you work with to become their best selves by tasking them with jobs that play to their strengths, giving them opportunity to shine and encouraging them to grow. Treat everyone on your team with kindness and respect, and watch how you and your team flourish!

Develop a collaborative approach to everything you do. When you are effectively allowing everyone on your team to operate in their individual zone of genius, you are creating an environment where every person can shine and grow along with you.

When things don’t go as planned, refrain from blaming others. Take responsibility for what is happening, stay in your lane, and work on improving yourself.

You will be a more effective leader, calmer event planner, and better version of you when you focus on your strengths, work on your weaknesses, treat others with kindness and respect, allow those you work with to work in their own zone of genius, and work collaboratively.

How Energy Mastery® Applies in Business and Life

No matter what sector your business is in, learning effective tools to master your energy is beneficial. The network of Energy Mastery®—the practitioners and instructors—includes people from all walks of life: a criminal defense attorney, emergency room doctor, chiropractor, firefighter and more.

As a live event producer and director, using these tools has helped Susan in ways that she never would have imagined. One tool that Susan teaches and employs often is the Energy Mastery® concept of “cutting cords.” Fear, anxiety, stress, even anger and bitterness, all energies attach to us like solid cords, slowing us down, distracting, and even creating a sense of frustration and confusion. Cutting those cords frees you up to move about with more focus, clarity, certainty, ease and grace. Even joy. Note: you can never cut chords to love.

She has taught breathing techniques to anxious clients and designers, as well as nervous presenters about to take the stage, to help them calm down.

She even did a little of her “magic”—which she teaches in the two-day Energy Mastery® Foundations Class—on an emcee who came to the tech booth to pick up his script and expressed concern that he wouldn’t be able to get through the show because he “had a bad back and it was out.” Four hours later he exclaimed he felt amazing and two weeks later when they met for the next event he proclaimed that his back still felt great!

Susan will often teach people how to “cut their cords” when they are facing what seems like impossible situations. At one event, there were 20 people trying to install a synthetic ice rink on an uneven tent floor in a parking lot.

After hours of struggling to put the pieces in place, they were exclaiming it would never work. Susan knew that the energy of “this is not working” was more of a challenge than the logistics, so she calmly guided them (without explanation) through an exercise then walked away. Within minutes the floor was complete.

A similar situation happened during sound check at another event when the audio system crashed. Electronics, especially audio equipment, can respond to different energies or frequencies and the entire crew was running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying desperately to solve the situation. This time, Susan explained that everything is truly just energy and as she guided them to use the “cord cutting” tool, within seconds the system was fully functional and she was able to capture their astonished reactions on camera.

The most impactful way that Susan uses the tools is to keep herself and her team calm so they can think clearly and respond quickly during live performances where anything can and often does go wrong.

The Entrepreneur Journey

Running a full time business while writing, speaking and developing essentially a second business can be daunting at times. Post pandemic, most of Susan’s team is freelance and she does admit that sometimes it feels more like she is a solopreneur than a business owner.

So how does she motivate herself when she does not have a boss to report to or when she is not on deadline for a client?

Consistency is key! Create a routine that includes everything you need to set you up for success. Susan swears that structure—with positive and healthy habits—creates vitality emotionally and physically, which in turn will help boost your immune system.

To ensure you have plenty of energy, she recommends that you should be at the top of your list. Choose a morning routine that will set you up for a day of success. Avoid waking up and immediately checking email, news or catching up on the latest posts on social media. You want to consciously create your day rather than starting in reaction to chaos or anyone else’s sense of urgency.

How does Susan start her day? Secret energy hack . . . with a salt bath. Not epsom salt but just good ‘ole regular table salt. It helps draw out toxins and negative energies. Then if possible she recommends either quick, light exercise to get the energy flowing or a meditation before sitting down at the computer.

Stress comes in many forms. There is the stress she has when directing a live show in front of an audience of 5000 attendees and then there is the kind of stress that most executives get just sitting at their computer all day. It has been said that sitting is the new smoking and stress can be linked to numerous health concerns and dis-eases.

As a live event producer, Susan thrives under pressure and is used to working with tight deadlines but when she is sitting at the keyboard, a sense of urgency can help her be more focused and directed.

She recommends that to be most effective, plan ahead and be intentional about what you want to accomplish. Pick the top things you want to focus on then set small, tangible, realistic and easy-to-accomplish goals and do your best to complete them within the self-imposed deadline you set.

To avoid distraction, Susan recommends turning off notifications and minimizing any windows that do not support what you are actively working on. Time chunking helps her to be more laser focused on what she is trying to accomplish.

Susan emphasized how important it is to take breaks throughout the day and recommends that every 60–90 minutes, a quick stretch, a walk or a few jumping jacks will keep your energy more consistent throughout the day without the need for caffeine or artificial stimulants. Movement helps get you out of your head so that you can allow your conative (intuitive) mind to step in. Then don’t forget to get grounded before you jump back in.

What’s Next

Abraham Lincoln said “The best way to predict the future is to create it!” Susan knows this may sound a little “woo woo” but strongly believes we are all capable of so much more than we think.

Our thoughts, words and beliefs create our reality and what we create is not always necessarily what we want, but where we are putting our attention. It’s been phrased that worries are prayers for what we do not want and often, our fears—not our hopes and desires—can be creating our reality.

The biggest challenge when doing personal development and growth work can be that we can WANT something but there can be subconscious programs, patterns and behaviors that suggest to us that we are not capable or worthy.

This is where Energy Mastery® is most amazing. When 95% of all our thoughts are subconscious, the tools help to resolve issues that we are not even aware are running our lives.

As the live event industry continues to recover post pandemic, Susan is working on ways to continue to expand Koziak Productions and develop more opportunities for her team. Koziak Productions’s ideal client is heart-centered, philanthropic, for-profit or non-profit organizations that are making a difference. Susan is open to attracting new exciting projects, creating something innovative and different, taking things to the next level, helping clients step out of the survival mode many have been in for the past few years, and getting back to bringing people together to create experiences and lasting memories.

In the meantime, Susan continues to work on becoming the next best version of herself. She wants to empower her team to take on more of the preproduction and planning, giving her more time to teach, coach, and share her knowledge. She is seeking more heart-centered, soul-driven and like-minded individuals ready to learn how to master their own energy, let go of what no longer serves them, be able to get more done in less time and connect with the next best version of themselves.

Your Best Life

Susan is emphatic that self-care is not selfish, but rather, it is essential. Placing yourself at the top of your priority list will ensure that you have more energy, clarity and focus to be able to get more done in less time, with better results.

She offers three simple, effective and powerful tools to help you navigate the most stressful work and LIFE events with more ease.

Each tool takes just a few minutes, but when you prioritize yourself and fill your cup first, you will have more clarity to process whatever happens, respond instead of react to unexpected life occurrences, make better decisions, and at the end of each day, have more sustainable energy for the people and things you love.

Navigate stressful LIFE events with more ease using Susan's free tools. Grab your free trainings here: takecare.koziakproductions.com