Hardwired to Lead – She Leads She Thrives Podcast Episode 14

And now for something different…

Everyone, its Shannon here, I wanted to let you know that this week, we have something extra special and a little bit different for you. Back in November of 2022, so really not that long ago to when you’re going to be listening to this live. I was invited by the fabulous Dr. Carmela Nanton to be a part of her Hardwired to Lead virtual conference series. It was such an honor and a joy to be in a lineup with incredible women part of this global conversation that I go on a lot about here with She Leads She Thrives. And Dr. Carmela was gracious enough and excited at the same time to allow us to share the interview that I had where I was in the hot seat with her for this incredible conference series. So that’s what we’ve got for you this week. Enjoy it reach out, let me know what your big takeaway was. I talk a lot about a lot of cool things to do with self leadership. We definitely talk about the Thrive Factor, and a whole lot of other amazing things. So have great fun listening to it. Let me know what you think. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  02:18

Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to the Hardwired to Lead smart executive, women and entrepreneurs conference series. This is an event that is targeted specifically for smart driven women who are executive leaders, and entrepreneurs, changemakers, who are hardwired to lead. They are looking to accelerate their career, their leadership impact and make an effect on the world in a bigger way. And to do so with confidence. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  02:55

I am Dr. Carmela Nanton and this, this conference was birthed out of the award winning Women’s Leadership Series Hardwired to Lead. And the next challenge that I had, was to create these conversations, serious conversations about women’s leadership and women’s leadership experiences, and to do so globally, and just to verify that the experience is the same, or not, worldwide. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  03:30

And so in this conference, we are engaging 20 plus individuals who are thought leaders, who are experts, who are practitioners and scholars. And we approach this conversation to create a dynamic and actionable resource for all of the listeners, from the stories and from the struggles and the challenges that each presenter will bring to you to understand that no matter what you face, you can still engage the possibilities that are in front of you. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  04:10

That’s the theme of the conference this fall, and to learn what it takes to polish up your leadership to get that dream job or dream business that you may have been thinking about for a while. So I’m asking you to make a deal with me. And the deal is to take a single action that our speaker will provide you with and as you take that action to share it and the results in the Facebook group as you have opportunities so that we can support you and help you and celebrate you as you get that win. So today it is my privilege to introduce to you as a speaker Shannon Dunn. She is a super creator, visionary thinker,  liberation loving, inspiration seeking wisdom woman. and stand up paddle board enthusiast.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  05:31

And so, as a business and leadership coach for two decades, she’s a retreat leader, Best Selling Author, creator of the Thrive Factor Framework. And we’ll talk a chat a little bit about that. And she is also the host of She Leads  She Thrives podcast. Welcome Shannon Dunn with me. 

Shannon  05:53

Thank you so much Dr. Carmela I’m so excited to share with you all today. And maybe we should tell everybody that I’m in Australia. So that’s why I talk about the global conversation, we have a difference.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  06:07

Yeah, and I love that, global interactions and the fascination with  cultures from a variety of countries has always been my sweet spot. And while I haven’t yet been to Australia, I am so glad that you are here with us today. Why don’t you begin by just telling us a little bit about yourself, sharing your story. And any challenges that you want to mention now, that brought you to the place where you are at this present moment.

Shannon  06:47

Thank you so much, and fabulous introduction, it’s always I find that a good thing to sit in the space of listening to somebody else introduce you and go, Oh, well, I’ve done some good stuff here. This is amazing.

Shannon  07:01

I could just say my story, I feel like my whole life, I’ve been a curious soul, really interested in people like the people watcher from childhood. And, you know, I was in my teens, and being the teenager that went to the library to research, not to be out with their friends and that, you know the yard or, you know, catching up over lunch breaks and things. Because I was just so curious about or the way the world worked and the way people fitted into the world, not knowing where that would lead me necessarily. But my curiosity has served me well, because of this fascination I have with human dynamic and human behavior. 

Shannon  07:43

Like a lot of people entrepreneurship, or being in my own business was something that was definitely on the cards, I feel very grateful to have grown up having grandmothers who were in their own businesses, which was quite novel, you know, I’m 50 now. So you know, this is a long time ago. But being able to see that, that that women in that time, it says we’re talking since 1970s and 1980s and in particularly in Australia, where I am, was kind of what do you mean, you have grandmothers so both of them in businesses, one a serial entrepreneur, the other one had worked in the business with my grandfather, but I know she was the boss, there’s no question at all. So real leaders in their own right. And as such incredible role models for me, I didn’t really understand that at the time, I just thought they were cool. You know, this was great. 

Shannon  08:34

And one of them, that was a serial entrepreneur worked a lot in many retail spaces. So I’d spend a lot of time with her in her businesses, and observing and watching how she interacted with people talking about marketing. I didn’t know that’s where we were having a conversation about, you know, seven, eight year old me didn’t know that. So but at the same time, you know, my curiosity took me traveling around the world. I lived in the UK for years, I spent time in the US and Africa, all across Asia, Asia is close to Australia. So that’s an easy one. And I you know, have just as we talked about just before we started for today, you know are both of us have a fascination with the global interaction. And I am still in this space of excitement many times that I have friends and connections that are literally all over the world from my traveling times, pre the internet. And now new connections.

Shannon  09:28

I got sidetracked, I spent time in my first couple of careers and then in corporate, but there was this bubbling inside of me, an internal leadership that were saying, do something on your own. So there came a time, you know, about 17 years ago, or so where I was like, I can’t do this anymore. In terms of the role that I was in. It was a senior role in a company here that had offices I’m in Australia on the West Coast, in offices across this country in New Zealand. We had connections in the US, and in other parts of Asia, but it was like a it was emptying kind of work, the soul wasn’t being fulfilled at all. 

Shannon  10:09

So it’s like, Okay, now what a serial learner, I should say, Yeah, I’ve studied a lot, I have a lot of qualifications. And it was I actually have positioned myself by my own self leadership, to have a lot of opportunity and choice here. And coaching had been something I’ve been introduced to, in the corporate space, executive coaching, leadership coaching, leadership development, I had qualification as a counselor and an art therapist, and then went and studied some coaching, he was like, you know, this is all just coming together, I meant to work with people in this kind of a way.

Shannon  10:45

 And here we are, all thees years later, you know, having done a whole lot of other things. So, and the challenges along the way, there has been plenty. I think the self belief, while I had those amazing role models, doesn’t mean that having had that, that we have the self belief to go, “I can do this”. So really focusing in my leadership focus in the work that I do, is very much self leadership first. So to be a leader in an external space, in or out in the world, I feel like the quality of that leadership is not as rich, abundant and impactful, unless we also have created a sense of self leadership, you know, leading ourselves, leading our businesses, we say, I lead my life, but do we actually lead our lives or work or anything? Not necessarily.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  11:36

Yeah, so just respond or react to what comes at us, instead of intentionally looking out to what can be done about, you know, the environment and what we would like to do or how we would like to impact it, as well. So when it comes to self leadership, I want you to talk a little bit more about that, and why it is critical for individuals to be able to lead themselves.

Shannon  12:12

Yeah. And there’s so much that I can say here, like when we start when we do the highlights. I feel like there is so many people around the world that feel that they’re in a space of hopelessness or helplessness, perhaps they have had horrendous situations that they have lived through, or, you know, maybe just survived through, or not surviving at all.

Shannon  12:36

 And yet, they can find themselves in a situation where they, it’s almost like they give up on the fact there is a reality that we are the most influential people on our lives, we can make choices about how we respond. And as you said before, how we react to things in every single moment. And we’re not necessarily born with the capacity, the emotional, the spiritual, the intellectual capacity to do that effortlessly. But it is something that can be learned and refined. 

Shannon  13:12

And I know for me, it was a joyful experience. Realizing and recognizing, wait a second, I actually have more influence, like I have all the influence over my life and my experiences than I had realized. And this is something that every single one of us can have this recognition. And when I look at self leadership, it is around as I said before, we often talk about or use the phrase, the way I lead my life, or I lead my life this way, or I lead this or a lead that, but we don’t actually consider what the word lead or leadership actually means. For me, from a self leader, or a personal leader, my leadership perspective, it is really about remembering that we are in the driver’s seat of our lives. And in every moment, we do have a choice about how we respond or react, or interact with whatever the situation is. Yeah.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  14:10

And, you know, it links to what currently termed as one of the soft skills, right? Because it’s not easily quantifiable, but it most certainly it has its ROI, if you’re gonna stay with the financial terms, and the impact is evident. Can you speak to that whole issue of self awareness, in terms of leadership and so on?

Shannon  14:45

Yeah. Self awareness is such a superpower in many regards. In my podcast, just recently, one of the episodes that I actually shared I think it was episode three, like really early on, was around self awareness and the fact that it is an untapped superpower. Being able to have awareness of who we are, how we do and don’t respond to things, our beliefs, our mindset, our actions and behaviors. 

Shannon  15:15

When we have that awareness, it stands in a different position in the world in terms of how we react and interact with others, we can see ourselves and again, choose how we want to be, as opposed to being disengaged, or, you know, kind of giving over to any to others or to another power or whatever, whatever language someone wants to use, believing they have no say, they have no influence, that they just have to, you know, give up and see what happens. You know, it’s a very disempowering space when you don’t have self awareness. But when you have self awareness, it’s giving you an opportunity to reflect on who you are, and co-create, if you like, in an influential way, who you desire to be, to influence what do you want to do, what do you want to become? What do you want to have in every moment. 

Shannon  16:16

And it doesn’t mean that we get it right all the time. There will still be times where our emotional regulation might not work, where we have legitimate stresses, where we may have illness in our physical body that are influencing our ability to be as aware. But what I find is that those that I’ve worked with, and my own experiences is that the more aware I am, and the more I celebrate my awareness, and use it as a superpower that it is, the more that I can shift and change my thoughts, my beliefs, my behaviors, to the ones that I’ve said I want, not the the ones that have actually just kind of automatically come through. It is all a psychology behind this, but you’re right self awareness, or self leadership is often looked at, and judged as a soft skill not judged in a welcoming manner,  judged as this is not something we need to focus on.

Shannon  16:32

 I think looking after our people, if we’re talking about leadership in an environment of an organization, is essential. And that’s not just making sure they have good leave entitlement. And you know, if they’re paid well. It’s their mental health and well being their, you know, their social interaction, their emotional well being, those things are equally as important as say, the entitlements that we may have in a role. And from a personal leadership perspective, as an entrepreneur or business owner, we’re often on our own, or we have a small team that works with us as we you know, if we’re not someone who wants to go and work in or own a bigger company or organization. So we’re it. We are the ones who are making all the decisions, leaving the literally leading the way. And as I said, right at the beginning, I truly believe that the quality value richness of our leadership, from an external perspective, the way we lead others, the way we lead, hopefully, by example, is better when we understand self leadership and have self awareness.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  18:14

Absolutely. I agree with that. The key in terms of self awareness is the fact that it allows us to trust the intuition and the ideas that we have in that given situation at any given time. And it allows us to shift and adjust as a leader, when we have situations where we see individuals and certain problems. And we can pivot if you will, or just shift direction a little bit and begin to make the environment one that is inclusive and welcoming to those individuals. And that increases the trust factor between the leader and the follower as well.

Shannon  19:03

Cetainly does.  I feel like if we think about that, self leadership, and acting with self awareness is being more intentional and considered about how we respond rather than being reactive which tends to be coming from a different part of us, rather than our considered intentional part. Yeah.

Shannon  19:48

Yeah, so the Thrive Factor is a psychological framework, made up of 12 individual Archetypes. I created this, May 2009 – 2010 was when I first started recognizing the patterns, behaviors, language, mindset, challenges, so many things in the women that I was working with in coaching at that time. And having studied counselling, extensively, having therapy qualifications at that time, and having studied archetypes a lot. I was like, oh, wait a second, there are archetypes playing out here in front of me in the women that I am working with. 

Shannon  20:04

So tell me a little bit about your Thrive Factor, then how that plays into all of what we have been talking about in terms of that leadership and self awareness. How does Thriving play a role in that? 

Shannon  20:28

And one of the big things that I got to really understand Dr. Carmela, is that so many of these women felt lost, uncertain, stuck in what they were doing frustrated, knowing that they had potential or desire to do things differently, better, whatever that was, but kind of feeling like they didn’t know what to do. So the self awareness, self understanding was lacking for a lot of them.

Shannon  20:56

 Yeah, they knew something kind of in there, like their landscape wasn’t working, how they designed it to, but like, but what you know, why don’t know what’s happening, or I don’t know why I keep doing this. I don’t know why that thought keeps coming up. Or I don’t know why I keep feeling like this. So there was all of this lack of understanding and lack of awareness that I feel comes before understanding. 

Shannon  21:17

I began as I do, I love to ascribe, I just began documenting what I was observing. And then also reflecting on the other Archetypal frameworks that I had learnt, that I had used that had been so valuable to me to expand my own self awareness and self understanding, and to spark that self leadership in me, because you and I have had both had similar kind of experiences in working in a corporate environment in bigger organizations, and their leadership is so externally focus, as we said, the self doesn’t get considered is that you are a leader and you lead people, but what about leading me? So I kind of thought why something’s not kind of right, what observing in that corporate space that there was something missing there. 

Shannon  22:03

Anyway, I came to very quickly have 12 Archetypes. And so I started to talk about the individual archetypes that I could recognize were coming up in the women that I was working with as clients Understanding that we would have like, I very much honor a lot of traditional archetypal psychology and I do believe we as women have aspects of all 12 archetypes within us. But our Thrive Factor, our  Thrive Factor profile is a combination of a number of those, those archetypes not all 12. And what we’ve come to establish over time is that you as an individual may have anywhere between three and six of those 12 archetypes that make up your individual Thrive Factor. 

Shannon  22:46

Because we’re not one dimensional, we are not one linear, this is all you are labeled individual, we are a multi dimensional combination of different experiences, beliefs, patterns, all those different things. So I found that the conversations that we were having in our coaching changed dramatically for the better. There was a lot of almost like, you know, the light bulb going off kind of metaphor, the a-ha moments that are now I get why I’ve been doing that not okay, how do we change it? Because I don’t want any more. I don’t want to do that anymore. 

Shannon  23:21

You know, being mindful of the as I said, particularly it was the behavioral patterns, and the fact that and the mindset or the belief patterns that they’re like, that’s not working for me, I don’t like that. I’m not don’t want to do that, or I don’t like where that leads me or how it makes me feel, I want to have this, do this, be this, you know, become this? How do we do that? How do we use that? And so in defining the archetypes, I had understood that very clearly that there were strengths within each and what we call in the Thrive Factor community, potential challenges. So if you know much about archetypal psychology and archetypes, traditionally, but a lot of people do these days, thank goodness when I first used that word, people would look at me and you know, with a questioning mark, or a roll the eyes of confusion or a blank stare and what a strange word you’re talking, you’re using.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  24:14

Yeah, usually it showed up in, in comics, right? The comic books and so on, they would put out clear archetypes. It’s only like recently as we have begun in terms of scholarship, to really pay attention to neuroscience and behavioral sciences and how they interact and intersect. Then we began to say, Oh, we have archetypes too.

Shannon  24:48

Everywhere, you know they used to guide the creation of books of stories of movies, the whole Star Wars series. That’s all based on a set of very specific archetypes. So it’s fascinating but, but traditionally archetypes have been taught that we have a light within us and we have a shadow within us. And having studied this a lot from in the landscape of psychology, I found that so often people decided that the shadow was a negative, it was the bad parts of us. And it’s not that at all. 

Shannon  25:23

In fact, when we can integrate the wisdom, the lessons, the magic, if you like, in our from that comes within our shadow, and use that with our light, we become more of a whole individual. But because I was focusing on working with women in leadership, from a self leadership perspective, but recognize that many of those interested in self leadership would also be in leadership roles, either for themselves in their own businesses or in corporate, I wanted to adapt the language if you like, which is how we came up with the light became strengths, shadow became potential challenges. 

Shannon  26:03

And the word potential is incredibly key. Because in my book, The Thrive Factor, for example, I have a chapter for each of the 12 Archetypes, so that you can get know each of them. And in there, I list certain strengths and potential challenges for the Archetype. Because when you’re reading about one Archetype, individually, you’re not taking into account that you have another maybe two or three, like I have four archetypes in my Thrive Factor that are influencing that archetype. So some of the strengths of another archetype we have may counteract the potential challenges and mean that they don’t become actualized. Also didn’t want to so much that the time we focus on the negative and all the bad stuff, then things that are not so good about us from our own judgment, or based on the external judgment or criticism we’ve received. I didn’t want to perpetuate that.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  27:00

Okay, that’s good. That’s good.

Shannon  27:02

Or step away from it and ignore it. Because we do have challenges. Yeah.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  27:11

Sorry, I know we have this little delay going on. I apologize for that. The key, and I’m glad that you don’t call him weaknesses, right. Because you indicate yes, they don’t have to be weaknesses. They can be strengtheners, or expanders of the primary Archetype that we have, is that correct?

Shannon  27:38

Very much, very much. You know, the, the most common feedback I’ve received in the thousands of women’s I’ve personally profiled, I also have a coaching certification. So I teach other women because it’s a female centric framework. It’s only women. I teach others to how to use the Thrive Factor in their work and in their businesses as well. So over time, now, we have amassed a large number of women that know their Thrive Factor archetypes know their Thrive Factor. 

Shannon  28:06

And so commonly Dr. Carmela they will say, Now, I understand why I’ve always done that, thought that. And now I could also see that the parts of me that I thought were wrong, broken, misunderstood, but you know, criticized, often by the external world and then perpetuated within internal criticism and judgment. That actually, they’re not bad things at all. It’s just it’s part of who I am. But when I use these strengths in relation to understanding those challenges, I have that influence I have the self leadership.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  28:48

Is there ever a time that you challenge clients to build the weaker archetypes or you only operate from this is my curiosity question for me now. Or you focus mostly on the strengths that they have, and how to see them in balance. Does that make sense? 

Shannon  29:16

Yes, it does. And great question. We don’t necessarily have archetypes that are weaker in us, but we may not have a strong relationship with an archetype. There’s, in my own personal profile, I have the archetypes of the Mentor Teacher, which I have a suspicion you probably would have too. The Inspirer Believer, which is very much the cheerleader archetype and an archetype we see in a lot of coaches, a lot of people doing mentoring. I also have the Liberator Engineer, which is a very an analytical and systematic archetype, who has a love of everything, all things feeling free. A lot of us talk about having freedom as a value, but the Liberator Engineer has that on another scale.

Shannon  29:58

I also have an Archetype called the Visionary Creator, which is one of the least common archetypes that we see showing up in profiles. It’s the archetype of the being able to see and move in a futuristic kind of a way and connect that back to the here and now, and then a very creative actually take action and bring it to life kind of way. So what I often find is that in my work, my Mentor Teacher archetype and my Inspirer Believer archetype, are active in every moment with a client. You know, it’s a teaching experience, it’s a learning, it’s a sharing of knowledge, it’s a learning from my clients too because Mentor Teachers love to learn, we love we love to receive, we also love to share it, and the Inspirer Believer, the you know, the cheerleader archetype, recognizing, you know, all the great things and helping her celebrate, and all of that kind of energy. 

Shannon  30:51

And so it’s not that I forget the other two, but sometimes they take a little bit of a backseat, say, in my working life. And yet, if we really looked at it, the Visionary Creator is the archetype that a lot of my clients, when they understand what that archetype has the potential to do, that’s why they come and work with me. So I recognize that I don’t ignore her completely, and I don’t consciously and intentionally ignore her. But because of the dynamic in which we’re working in a coaching relationship, whether it’s individually or in a group, or even when I’m on retreats, the Mentor Teacher and the Inspirer Believer come to life faster, right. 

Shannon  31:32

So it’s, it’s about teaching, every one of us that we have access to all of our archetypes irrelevant of how many we have, at any given moment in time. So it’s expanding our understanding of each of them and the roles that they play. So that in that moment where we have that choice where self leadership comes to life, we can call on those parts of ourselves that are going to support us the most. We can be mindful of the potential challenges that we may experience, be aware of when they’ve become actualized. And maybe having a negative impact that we don’t want to live through or experience and be intentional about consciously using the strengths that we have in our archetypes. 

Shannon  32:16

I often will say to my clients and I know one of the Thrive Factor Coaches does this with such joy every day, she says I wake up in the morning, and I’m literally having a conversation with my archetypes. It’s just the very process of dialoguing, having a conversation. And I will often say to the, you know, the women that I’m working with, look at your archetypes, like a group of your best girlfriends, sometimes you’ll get on and everybody will be in harmony. Sometimes someone might feel on the outer someone, sometimes someone might be having a bit of drama to get more attention, your Archetypes will do the same thing. So build relationships with all of them. Ask them who know who needs support today, and also ask them who’s coming to the party, like who’s coming to, to be with me today, who are we bringing to life in the work we’re doing, the time we’re spending with family or friends, the leisure time that we have, you know, bring them to life.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  33:13

You know, that that is very, very interesting. The and I say that because when I was doing my doctoral research, I touched on what was called multiphrenia, which is the same multiple dimensions that all of us have as individuals. Now, the sub, the interesting thing about that is that you talk about interacting with them, when they when you wake up in the morning. We can get up and be happy and excited and everything on one day, and then get up and be depressed another day. And in the process that may be and this is this is my you can correct me if I got it wrong. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  34:06

But this is my way of of internalizing this knowledge and hoping to help someone that’s listening as well. In the sense that if I got up depressed, I know that’s not who I normally am. Yeah. And rather than sit and listen to the negative chatter in my head, I call it out and say, Okay, so why are you depressed today? I haven’t given it a name. But but the reality is the qualities that are coming and emanating from that particular space, you challenge it directly and then look to mitigate what that might mean for your day. Does that make sense?

Shannon  34:51

Yes, it does. 100% And that in itself is an act of self leadership. Yeah, I’ve been able to again, have that awareness that as you said, This isn’t my normal, this isn’t my regular way of being in the world or feeling of thinking. And if it is, I choose it to be different. I don’t choose to be like this anymore because of, say the negative impact it may be having. And so when we have that dynamic of self leadership within us, we have an opportunity to go okay, I don’t wish to have this as my reality now. So what can I do about that?

Shannon  35:32

 Even just starting to ask the questions, is a huge shift for a lot of people. Recognizing that they have some influence, they often don’t recognize in a space where you’ve come from things are not working so well and you may be having different psychological reactions or emotional responses, depression, anxiety, a variety of different ways that we feeling or where were we how we are. But we being able to just go, Wait a second, I don’t have to have this as my reality. That’s right, that could change someone’s life in a moment. You don’t have to have the answers about how to change it, just of being aware that you can, in a beautiful way, say like a ripple effect of what we refer to in the Thrive Factor community is we “activate thriving” in that moment. And thriving is different for every single person around the world. I truly believe that we are born with a birthright to thrive. But I’m also not ignorant enough to believe that that is effortless for everybody, because it’s not. You and I both mentioned how we’ve traveled I’ve seen parts of the world, that shocked me, that that’s a normal living standard. 

Shannon  36:48

And yet some people that I’ve met in places that I don’t know how I would survive, because I’m very aware that I have grown up as an able bodied, privileged, educated white woman, like I’m very aware of my privilege. But I look at that, and I’m like, how would I survive that and you can talk to people there. And they’ll tell you how enriched their lives are, how grateful they are,

Dr. Carmela Nanton  37:11

That’s so true.  

Shannon  37:12

They could be, by their definition, thriving. Thriving is a unique experience. So I know we’re not to action yet, but one of the action I would suggest that there’s some of you, the listeners take or consider is to get acquainted with what thriving means for you. Look at thriving from different perspectives. What does it mean for me to thrive as an individual, as a woman in relationship, as a mother, if you’re a mother, as a daughter, as a, you know, for me, I don’t have children, but I am an Aunt. So you know, as an Aunt, what does it mean for me to thrive in relationship with my nieces and nephew, as a businesswoman or a woman in your career? What do those do as a friend? What do those different parts of you, what does it mean to thrive? What does thriving look like, feel like,  sound like.If you’re not happy with your answer, you can change that.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  38:12

And the goal would then be to get to your goal to thrive in all of those aspects. Or is it in balance or what?

Shannon  38:26

Yeah, I think it’s more about being in harmony and in balance within I think harmony is more powerful word there than balance. Yes. Because when something’s out of balance, it doesn’t mean it’s it’s lacking harmony, you know, there’s something here, you might be stronger or feeling more, like you’re thriving in one aspect of your life in a particular time. And another part of your life might not be thriving in that same way. But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s dysfunctional. 

Shannon  38:52

Now, there’s a lot of psychology to unpack there. But you know, and I also want to add here that thriving is not an endpoint, it’s not that we get there and go okay, I’m ticked all my boxes of all my definitions for thriving. It’s an evolution. You know, we are in this space of we’re interacting with a world, we’re learning, we’re engaging with others, we’re meeting new people all the time. And you know, if we think about what has literally happened in the last two and a half years in the world, something that most of us in our physical lifetime never could have imagined. I think the reality is people’s definition of thriving changed because of our external lived experience.. Yes, for some people, they would have felt like they were barely surviving through that and others would have felt like they were thriving because they took the opportunities rather than felt constrained by the challenges. So it’s such a unique experience.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  39:55

Yeah. Wow, this is this is huge in terms of understanding, and I think that as you brought it into the the last couple of years, many people, women in particular, have have begun, have already or are reconsidering what is happening in their environment that is causing them not to thrive, and then intentionally moving to make changes in those particular areas. And I applaud those women, I know I, I kind of operate in the space of individuals who are coming from corporate to start their own jobs, or in startups, or individuals who are looking to be promoted and get their, you know, get the most value out of the skills that they have accumulated. And I think that some of the movement that we’re seeing right now, is a movement towards thriving. In all aspects.

Shannon  41:10

And that, to me, is a movement of self leadership. Because it is a recognition that  this feeling state, this situation, this economic state, this, whatever it is that I find myself in right now, is not something I want to continue to experience. I’m making a choice, I’m doing something to change this. And all of those little things that we do to change that, over time create this incredible, I feel like an inspiring wave of change that it to me it feels like if I take a helicopter, a bigger picture view, can only benefit all of us.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  41:50

 All of us. As a collective. Absolutely.

Shannon  41:53

When one of us makes a decision to change takes that on that role of self leadership, takes ownership, takes responsibility, recognizes our influence on our own selves, we are positively contributing to others, because we’re leading by example. Yes.  How often do we, you you would have had this I’m sure, like I have. So often people would say, I like you, I’m so inspired by what you you’ve done, or you do or how you respond to the world. And I often will say, Well, what’s your thing you want to do? Yeah, because if I can do it, you can too. And you know, people’s excuses. And different things come bubbling forward like, well, you can either let yourself be defined by all of that, or you can make a choice. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  42:38

Or you can make that choice. Wow. Wonderful discussion. Oh, my goodness, I would like to ask you to share, I know you kind of gave an action that they can engage in terms of the thriving and so on, and all of the aspects if there’s anything you wanted to add to that, because that is their challenge.

Shannon  43:03

It wasn’t the action I was originally thinking but in that conversation, it made sense to say work out what thriving means to you and consider it from not just a linear from a different but broader perspective. I think though, what I’d love to challenge the listeners to do is to spend some time over a few days, before responding, give yourself a pause, and think and feel how do I actually want to respond to this? Okay. Yeah. So it’s practicing self leadership, it’s practicing, recognizing that you have a choice. Yeah. So for example, a common one that is a worldwide phenomenon for women, is we say yes, when we want to say no. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  43:54

Or say sorry, when it’s not our fault, right?

Shannon  44:00

There’s nothing to apologize for. And that’s an global thing that happens all over the world, which I find it so fascinating that we’ve all grown up in different environments, different cultures, different education, different economic circumstances and yet those patterns. This is the archetypal energy. The archetypes are collective across the world. They are not individual based on your age or your culture or other things but what I would encourage your someone or everyone to do is to be mindful of how you are responding, how you are reacting to what you are asked to do invited to do, feel you have to do. Anything where there’s a I feel I should/must/have to. I would just kind of pause even a bit more on those do I really, is that what I want to do? And particularly  if you do have a situation where you find yourself saying yes, where every part of you wants to say no, be brave and say no. And you don’t need to justify it with a reason.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  45:00

No justification necessary, that’s correct.

Shannon  45:03

Full stop.  “No” is a complete sentence.  And you may feel very awkward, you may feel very challenged. But you also may feel liberated, realizing that you can, in those moments, make a choice. And you can follow what every part of your inner being, your soul, your energy, your intellect, is actually asking you to do. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  45:30

Wow. Share, if you will on what your free gift is, and how people can get in touch with you, if they would like to learn more.

Shannon  45:44

Thank you. The best place to go to find the free gift there’s a number of different things. So rather than just say this is the one thing I want to give today, I felt the best thing would be to send people to a specific page on my website. So thrivefactorco.com/links  will take you to a page where you can see the different options, I’m actually adding more at the moment, there’s some great freebies there and it will be very clear what the freebies are, including access to take the Thrive Factor assessment to meet one of your archetypes. because I tend to find real curious whet the appetite, kind of oh, now I know one  I want to know more. 

Shannon  46:24

On that same page, you’ll be able to see how you could find out more about the Thrive factor if you actually want to go through a Thrive Factor Experience and meet your archetypes and look at the how they interact with your life and or your work or business. And on that page also is all of my social media links. So where to find me online, I spend the most time I would say on Instagram, I love it. It’s my favorite platform. I’m a very visual person, that Visionary Creator archetype coming to life. So Shannon_thethrivefactor is where you can find me on Instagram, Shannon Dunn is easy to find on Facebook, which Shannon Dunn Thrive Factor Co  and I am also on LinkedIn every now and again.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  47:08

Well thank you very much. And by the way, that information will also be accessible, so you don’t have to go very far. It will be accessible on the speaker page in the conference as well. So you have two places to get in touch with Shannon and no excuses, right?

Shannon  47:33

I get such a buzz out of someone reaching out with a message sending me a direct message and say, I heard or I was intrigued or I have a question. I answer all my own messages. I don’t have an assistant who does that for me. Because I love that and I value that. I value the fact that someone took the time to reach out, I’m going to value that and respect that by actually sharing with them. So if you do reach out, please tell us tell me that it was through Dr. Carmela that you’re reaching out. So I know you know, I can reference back to the conversation. But as I said, I truly do love questions. I love to to expand the conversation. So I would be so you know, overjoyed to hear from you wherever , and then tell me where you are in the world too. Yeah, wherever you’re from.

Dr. Carmela Nanton  48:18

Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Shannon, I appreciate the knowledge that you brought to the table, the thought provoking things that you laid out in front of us that helps us to understand who we are, and how we can lead ourselves and be more self aware as we interact with individuals and with ourselves. as well. I want to thank you for sharing your time with us and encourage the listeners, if you didn’t get it all the first time, you can catch it the second time. But make sure that you take notes, that you write down the responses to your actions, put it in the Facebook group so that we are able to support you help you refer you and celebrate you as you are successful in the next steps that you take. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  49:19

Thank you so very much. Were glad to have had you today. And I want to say keep watching the various speakers as they come. And there is a theme evolving and developing that I didn’t really plan because I didn’t know what was going on when you select people, but there is something that is that is building. So I am curious to know what your feedback is as well. Thank you so much, Shannon Dunn. I appreciate you. And I hope that that the listeners have been challenged, in a good way, in a good way. 

Dr. Carmela Nanton  50:10

Yes, it is. All right everyone bye for now, and we will catch up with you later.