5 Ways To Influence The Energy Of A Room

Barfing in a parking lot in Echo Park taught me more about energy than any class ever did.

It was a few years ago, when I was the Global Editorial Director of a well-known wellness website. A lot of my work involved proofreading stories about smoothie bowls, but often I’d get to interview individuals in the wellness space. One time I interviewed Bella Hadid and all she talked about was the restaurant Jitlada — it was great.

On this sunny day in Los Angeles, I was meeting a smoothie bowl influencer on the east side of LA to interview her for a feature on the site. Immediately when she arrived I knew something was off. Although we had an hour booked (and I’d hoofed it from Brentwood in LA traffic to make it to Echo Park on a weekday afternoon), our interview lasted for less than 15 minutes.

The bubbly, vivacious persona from Instagram was nowhere to be found. Instead, I struggled to get more than one-word answers from her. Listen, I know I’m not for everyone, but I’m pretty damn charming when I need to be — especially when it’s my job. So this interaction was an anomaly.

And something else weird happened. During our short time together, I felt the tell-tale ping of a migraine kick in. My stomach churned. Somewhat grateful that our time together ended early, I rushed out to my parked car … and…