Rest your way to business success w/ Laura Dick – She Leads She Thrives Podcast Episode 17

Shannon  01:45

Welcome everybody and thank you for tuning in to another episode of She Leads She Thrives. I’m Shannon Dunn and as a business leadership host I’m also your host here at the podcast, business leadership host, business leadership coach, that would be a better way to start with that, Laura. Okay, so you love the real life of doing. I am so delighted to welcome the beautiful Laura who is my guest today. I will share a bit more about the kind of ins and outs the technical stuff about what Laura does, because there’s lots of cool things to share. And before we do that, though, I want to share how I know her. 

Shannon  02:00

So Laura and I connected online, she’s in another country, I’ll let her share with you if you can’t pick her accent where she is, as we go into the episode. But we met online as I have many of the women that I’m going to have as guests on the podcast, and we’ve done some work together at different times. She knows her Thrive Factor Archetypes, so we’re going to talk about those definitely. She has been profiled. And it’s just been such a joy kind of connecting and staying connected in different ways over the years that we have known each other and, you know, watching your evolution, and seeing all the different things that you’ve kind of evolved into. 

Shannon  03:10

So before I get you to come and chat, because I got lots to share. I do want to just go through and to share, you know what you shared with us as your kind of official bio. 

Shannon  03:20

So Laura is a Cyclical Business Mentor. And that’s a big word for anyone who’s listening, who helps purpose driven high achievers to ditch the hustle – I’m cheering on that one – and run their businesses and launches with intention and in alignment with their cycles. With a blend of cycle thinking systems and planning,  Laura’s approach to business allows a client to focus their time and energy on the things that matter most and get results without burning out. Yes, yes, yes, to more of that, right. Yeah. So that is when I was a guest on your podcast recently, so I’ll put a link in the show notes. (right here in fact) So we can do that. So official welcome to you, Laura. What else do we need to say about you to start before we get into the questions? And do you want to tell everyone where you or let them guess from your accent?

Laura Dick  04:01

Sure. Thank you so much for having me. I think if you’re listening from Australia, you can probably pick up the Kiwi accent. Those further afield might not necessarily be able to tell the difference between it although it’s usually pretty clear to those of us down this end isn’t it.

Shannon  04:18

We think so in this part of the world. But certainly it’s a bit like when we do the faux pas of mixing up a an American and a Canadian accent. Yes. So very clearly different to me now, but certainly years gone by I would have struggled to work out the subtle differences which are really not so subtle when you learn to hear them. Same with Australia and New Zealand. 

Laura Dick  04:40

Yes, absolutely. So yes, I’m coming to you from Hamilton, New Zealand. Beautiful, almost sunny afternoon.

Shannon  04:49

Oh, that’s too funny. So anything else you want to kind of lead with? Is there anything you how….. I’ve got so many questions to ask you. And you know we’ve got time but we’ve only got a certain amount of time? Yeah. How did you kind of get into this whole working with cycles thing? What is that? 

Laura Dick  05:11

Yeah, I guess it’s it’s like most of us, it’s a bit of a bit of an evolution. My original business journey started back in the corporate world, like, probably a lot of women who are listening will will resonate, I was in a very high demand busy, busy job, working all of the time got really burnt out, stressed out and just got to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore. 

Laura Dick  05:43

And I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue and a few other bits and pieces that go along with it. And because I had kept pushing through and keep trying to do all of the things and kept effectively gaslighting myself and trying to tell myself that it’s fine, and I just needed to push through you, I really did do a lot of damage and kind of mess up my hormones and things. So they came a point in time where I decided I needed to get out of the corporate rat race. And that’s when I started my own business. And much the same way that you and I met online, I met my mentor Stasha, who I know you’re also going to have on the podcast. 

Shannon  06:25

Well, by the time your gorgeous interview goes live, we will have already had Stasha on so anyone who’s listening, and you go, Oh, yeah, I know that name. That’s why.

Laura Dick  06:34

Yes, yes, so I came across Stasha in a few Facebook groups, and started to learn her wisdom about periods and cycles and our hormones. And although initially I was kind of like, Oh, my God, this is a bit, you know, woo woo  crazy out there. Over time, it really sort of started to pique my curiosity. And so I started to pick up some in apply some of the principles around cycle thinking, and really started to see that, you know, although by that time, I had come a long way in healing my adrenals. 

Laura Dick  07:12

And you know, that burnout recovery, that cycle thinking was almost the missing piece that really helped me create, and live and run my business in a way that meant I could harness  the high energy phases of my cycle to be productive and get things done, because I am very, you know, achievement driven, and I love taking things off the list, and I love getting things done. 

Laura Dick  07:38

But there that also does come with the need to balance that with times for rest. And our cycles have this beautiful ebb and flow of hormones that mean, you know, when we work in alignment with it and live in alignment with it, we have those times to be really productive, and the times where we just take the foot off the gas pedal, ease back a little bit and allow ourselves to slow down.

And for me, that was, it was like the missing piece of kind of going, Oh, this is this is what I needed all along, realizing that, you know, as women, we are biologically not built the same way as men, we are not meant to go foot to the floor all day, every day, we are meant to ebb and flow in our energy and the way we think and the way we feel and all of those things. And so yeah, I started to incorporate that it. It was amazing. I was always talking to other people about it. And of course Stasha created the Period Coaching School in 2020. And so yeah, I became one of the first cohorts of students. 

Shannon  08:41

You did, a period coach. It’s such an interesting thing to me. And I have often said to Stasha, who’s a very good friend of mine, that I wish I’d met someone like her or her much younger, because by the time I became aware of Stasha’s work, and what then she was going to turn into, you know, Period Coach Certification and everything that you’ve done and how you’ve, you know, what you’re doing in your business, Laura, you know, meeting people like yourself and started earlier would have transformed my relationship with working and myself. 

Shannon  09:16

I was kind of heading towards perimenopause, when I first came across Stasha’s work. And she kept saying, That’s okay, we can still work with it. And I did like, but at the same time, I was like, but Oh, my goodness, I needed this in my teens to have understood you back then. Right? Yes, cycle thinking is and then you know how this can positively support us as we run our businesses.  Because I think you know, I guess a side note there that anyone who’s listening as I just said, I didn’t feel like I missed out. What Laura is about to share with you I know is relevant, no matter where you’re at in your menstrual life, even if you’ve stopped menstruating in that traditional sense, right? So yes, this because that was something I had to be open to and learn through the work I’ve done learning from women like yourself.

Laura Dick  10:03

Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. I wish that I had learned this earlier as well. I was in my mid 30s, by the time I came across it and it was kind of like, why didn’t I know this when I was younger? I guess all we can do is take that and make sure that the next generations that come after us are learning about it earlier and earlier, and that talking about our cycles and our bodies isn’t such a taboo topic.

Shannon  10:28

No, no, it’s, it definitely has shifted. I’ve noticed it a lot. You know having nieces who are in their older teens, have different kinds of conversations with them that I don’t think as a teenager I’d ever have had with an Auntie. Even, you know, watching television occasionally, I noticed on a reality show I was watching in Australia, just a couple of days ago, it was kind of on the background. And one of the younger women who would be in her I guess, 30s said something about “I’m on my period” and was like, we’d never have heard that. Right? It was like, yeah, yeah.

Laura Dick  11:00

Yes, absolutely. So cycle thinking. So as I alluded to, before, our hormones ebb and flow across our cycles. So we have four key phases. 

Laura Dick  11:12

First phase, the obvious one would be when we have our periods, when we’re bleeding. After we finished bleeding, our estrogen, which is the dominant hormone in the first half of our cycle begins to rise. And so we move out of our menstrual phase, or what can be kind of turned out in a winter into our follicular phase, which is like the inner spring. So it’s almost same with the seasons, you kind of come out of that winter, the days are getting longer, it’s getting warmer, you feel a lot more vibrant, a lot more energy, and all of those good things. 

Laura Dick  11:49

Then as you move towards the middle of your cycle, you’ll hit your ovulation phase. So in ovulation, your estrogen peaks, and you also get a nice little boost of testosterone, which gives you another little boost of energy. So that’s the phase we surge, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah, it’s a short but potent phase. But it’s a phase where you will feel the most vibrant and the most confident and the most energetic, and you want to just be out in the world and socializing and all things. 

Laura Dick  12:20

And then after ovulation, that is the trigger for your body to start producing progesterone, which unlike estrogen, progesterone is much more of a calming, grounding kind of hormone. So you will feel a shift and it can be quite subtle. But again, like the seasons, you move, sort of from this high energy summer phase, to more of a autumn phase or your luteal phase where, you know, you just want to take things a little bit slower, you want to just take your foot off the gas pedal a little bit, you’re still working, there’s still things that you can do, but you might not necessarily want to work as long a days you might feel the need to you know, have an afternoon nap. That’s kind of thing. 

Shannon  13:04

I think, what makes me think of that kind of autumn shift from a seasonal perspective, which would be similar for the luteal phase, is that you kind of just don’t want to get out of bed with the same vigor that you do.

Laura Dick  13:16

Exactly. Yeah, exactly

Shannon  13:19

Cuddle under the blankets a little bit longer. Because it’s a bit chilly outside or just chill here for a bit. 

Laura Dick  13:24

Yeah, you’re less likely to particularly if you’re, you know, introvert like I am, you’re less likely to want to be around people, you know, so a bit more social. So it just feels a little harder, or you’re less motivated to do some of those things. And then of course, as you head towards the end of your luteal phase preparing to go back into menstrual phase, all of your hormones start to taper off, which is why you know those last few for some women in particular, those last few days of your cycle can feel a little challenging it because all of your hormones are starting to taper off and effectively flatline as your body prepares to bleed. 

Laura Dick  14:00

So those are the four phases and then cycle thinking is really about understanding your cycle. You know, we all have different cycles and different experiences of our cycles, particularly women who may have things like severe PMS or PMDD or women who may experience endometriosis. You know, some of those phases for some women can be incredibly challenging. For others, you know, women have other things going on. 

Laura Dick  14:28

So it’s really about understanding your own cycle and learning to work with the ebbs and flows of your hormones. Now you were saying obviously, before if you’re not a naturally cycling woman, so maybe you are in perimenopause, postmenopausal, if you’re on hormonal birth control, that does tend to just give you fairly consistent hormones across the month. One of the things that you can do is sub the phases of the moon Yes, the you would use the new moon..

Shannon  14:59

Excited to hear that because I’ve always used understanding about the moon. So of course, yes, that just makes sense. 

Laura Dick  15:04

Yeah, absolutely. So, typically on average, and obviously, it’s not the same for every woman, but most natural cycles are around 28 to 30 days, which is, you know, roughly what the moon cycle is, as well. So what you can do if you don’t have a natural cycle, is to use those phases of the moon. So the new moon phase would be your menstrual phase, it’s that dark dark phase where you tend to want to just hide away and then as you come out of your menstrual phase move into follicular, that would be the waxing moon, full moon phase, obviously, your ovulation phase. And then the waning moon would be your luteal phase. So you can effectively sub the phases of the moon, but apply the same concepts of cycle thinking. So there are ways around that if you don’t have a cycle anymore, or you don’t have a natural cycle.

Shannon  15:55

Which is, as I said, for me, that was like yes, revelation or like you, we can still make the most of the cycles of the world. And I guess, you know, while as women, we majority of us have had a menstrual cycle during our lifetime, as you said, various versions of it, what else is going on in our lives and our, you know, in our bodies, but there’s been such a shift around, well how do I actually use this energy, or even awareness of it, as I said, this is that kind of a “wish I’d known more about this as a younger woman”. And definitely we got an opportunity to champion is for others. But you know, when we then become business women, yeah, we can be aware of our cycles and our energy, but that, can you give us an example of where you make the most of your cycles in planning for your business. And I know that such a big part of your business, like guiding your clients through launching whatever it is that they’re launching in their business. So maybe you can talk through like, yes, four phases and how we use them from a launch perspective.

Laura Dick  17:00

Yeah, absolutely. So as I was saying, before, once you get to know your cycle, that’s when you can really use that information, as absolute gold for how you plan your business. So you know, when it comes to launches, the last thing that you would want to do is run something like a webinar or any kind of launch event in the last few days, you probably feeling a little bit crappy.

Shannon  17:26

 I think it’s sort of fascinating, even in that phase where you, you look at yourself, and you kind of think you look different and you don’t look as good as maybe you’re, you know, as you go into ovulation. Like you’re the same person two weeks later, but it can no, it doesn’t.

Laura Dick  17:41

Yeah, absolutely. So once you once you know your cycle, you can then plan for that. So your menstrual phase is a really great time, you can get into much deeper states of meditation and things during this phase to do a lot of like daydreaming and setting the big picture goals and making sure that you’re in alignment with that, and that where you’re heading is still the right direction that you want to go on. Because you know, our businesses grow and evolve and change over time. 

Laura Dick  18:12

So yes, setting that big picture goal, checking in with that dream and really aligning with it. As you move into your follicular phase, that is a really great time to do anything that is strategy, planning, kind of working out the how. So you can take that vision, that goal, that idea for your launch, whatever it might be, and start to work out, Okay, how am I going to do this? What are the things that I need to do in order to plan out this launch, or whatever else it might be that you’re doing in your business, you can use that time to work out the plan, figure out how to set up the tech if you don’t have someone to help you with that to kind of do all of those things. And as your energy rises, that’s when you can then really get stuck into the doing of things and use that energy to power through your to do list, get lots of things done. When you’re actually in launch mode, the best time to plan to do that is through follicular and ovulation because you have that energy, you are feeling good, you are feeling confident, you want to get out there and sell and be around people. So it’s a really great time to kind of plan around. 

Shannon  19:25

Being your most magnetic, you know, attracting people in and being kind of on point with your brand, your message your energy, your vitality, right at that time, right?

Laura Dick  19:35

Yes, absolutely. So use that to your advantage. And then, you know, as you move into your luteal phase, that phase is a little bit more, it’s a time of completion. So it’s a great time to finish up your launch. You could do a review of what worked and what didn’t. It’s also a time I find where when you do slow down and you create a little more space, a lot of ideas or those downloads from the universe continue to drop in because you’ve created the space because you’re not going and doing all of the time, you sort of move into a little bit more being less doing this space for those things to come through. And it can also be a phase where you are, you feel a little more maybe creative. Or you might want to jump into Canva and design your launch graphics for your social media or make your sales pages look beautiful, or whatever it might be. So it’s more, where as the first half of your cycle can be a little more structured and disciplined, this is more free, flowy, creative, kind of energy. So yeah,

Shannon  20:44

So it’s like, which way do we go next? But like my brain is going or like, oh, no, what are we gonna ask next!? But I think to bring in – because you do know your Thrive Factor Archetypes – I’d love it, if this what you’ve shared with us, then you can also share how you may be tapping in and using the energies of your Thrive Factor Archetypes, you can just share through one of them, or more than one of them, that align with those different phases.

Laura Dick  21:12

It’s interesting. So I have five Archetypes. I’ve have Inspirer Believer, Mediator Diploamt, Mentor Teacher, Queen Ruler, and Heroine Adventurer. Yes. And it’s really interesting. I’m naturally, you know, observant and analytical as you know. So I definitely see different Archetypes more dominant, I guess through those different phases. 

Shannon  21:40

Makes complete sense to me. 

Laura Dick  21:41

You know, Queen Ruler, I think is very powerful in my ovulation phase. Yes, most definitely.

Shannon  21:47

I mean, she’s the go-getter leader who’s out there to kind of create impact on a global scale, like that’s the energy of the Queen Ruler. So using her and just kind of letting that part of you rise up during that ovulation is ideal.

Laura Dick  22:02

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The other one that comes through quite strongly is, of course, my Mediator Diplomat. Like all of us, we kind of have our own favorite season, our own favorite phase of our cycle, it’s different for all of us, I definitely feel, unsurprisingly, the most at home in my follicular phase. And that’s when my Mediator Diplomat definitely shines through. That’s the systems and the planning and the processes and all of the the other things that I love.

Shannon  22:31

That you love. And it’s like your natural love. That’s you in your effortless success zone. And the Mediator Diplomat for anyone who’s listening to us is, it’s also the archetype of truth telling. And so I think if you consider like what you’re bringing forward to launch or to bring to life in your business, then harnessing the energy of your Mediator Diplomat in that follicular phase is also ideal. Because she’s reminding you and connecting you with the truth of who you are and what you stand for.

Laura Dick  23:01

Yeah, yes, I love that. She’s also you know, as you say, the truth teller, she can be quite powerful and strong. Also, the last few days of my cycle, we’re, you know, for a lot of us, we kind of just don’t really give too much thought to what other people think. And we will just tell it like it is, yeah, so she can come through quite strongly.

Shannon  23:30

I’m intrigued to where you see your Heroine Adventurer, kind of showing up through your cycle, because that is an archetype, she’s, you know, she’s fierce, when she wants to be, she’s got an incredible determination and drive when she wants to. She’s also a champion for women and children. So the fact that you and Sasha has his archetype as well, that you’re both drawn to working with, you know, the phases of the cycle. Just, I think it’s such a beautiful alignment with that archetype. But you know, it’s about championing causes for women and children. So with your Mediator Diplomat, kind of the truth teller, they come together, but you know, she also can be an archetype that’s really terrible at resting. So well, how does that kind of how’s that working for you?

Laura Dick  24:16

Well, I think we just rewind a few minutes, and you’ll realize who was probably more dominant! Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think she again, does tend to come through quite strongly in those follicular and ovulation phases, and she’s the one who probably in my business is, you know, I’ll have a great idea and then I’ll just want to experiment or have a play with that and go oh, this could be fun. Let’s see what could happen if we did this. Or if we did that. So yeah, I think she she can definitely be a little bit too dominant sometimes.

Shannon  24:25

Yeah, I’m sure that you are not alone. Because I’ve heard it, they’re not alone in sharing that about your Heroine Adventurer. And one of the things I love to remind the women who have that beautiful Archetype is that connect with nature, like go outside and get away from the doing, doing, doing, focus, focus, focus, I have to achieve, I have to tick off all the things, I have to do like to the best of my potential ability, which will be amplified by your Mediator Diplomat, who’s a perfectionist, you know, go and just chill. And I love that you’ve got dogs, it’s not uncommon, for Heroine Adventurer’s to have pets, particularly dogs, gets you outside. That’s my theory behind that. It’s like an intuitive thing for Heroine Adventurer’s to own pets and get them out of their kind of four walls or their natural, you know, working environment. So that’s awesome. 

Shannon  25:42

And the Inspirer Believer, like that’s an archetype that you and I share. It’s an archetype that is the archetype of you know, I say, you know, her currency is energy, though, we’re talking about energetic shifts in our cycle. But you know, when she’s in her cheerleader kind of mode,  she’s full of like, belief and inspiration and intuition and the height of like energy. But she also can have the extreme of, I can’t be bothered, why am I doing this? This is terrible. I failed, you know, even though yesterday was the best day ever, like today could be you know, so how’s that kind of worked for you in your cycle and remembering that when she goes to the cave, which we talk about, that’s not the reality forever? Yes.

Laura Dick  26:29

Yes, absolutely. And look, you know, one of the biggest things that I had to work through when I started to embrace cycle thinking, was the letting go of the doing and the being\ all of the time and really, you know, it’s okay to slow down and the second half of my cycle, it’s okay to rest, it’s okay to not be go, go, go, do, do, do of the time. And I think when my Inspirer Believer has lost her mojo, that’s the one that I notice the most, because that is when I just kind of go, Ah, I just can’t be bothered, I just don’t want to, I just want to burn it all to the ground. Again, usually, that comes through quite strongly about three days before my period.

Shannon  27:15

Which makes complete sense to me that that is the time in our cycle, which is also you know, that coming to the, you know, the the moon is getting darker as we talk about those that are cycling from a menstrual perspective. When yeah,  like, let’s give up like, as you said, burn it all down, there’s actually fire is a visual symbol of the Inspirer Believer Archetype, which I intuitively painted that image, kind of not necessarily focusing on that, and then seeing it out, you know, in other lights. But it’s such an interesting time, because in that phase, we can literally get to the point where as what is the point of doing this and feel like we literally said, burn it all down, give it away, stop it, like we second guess ourselves, we doubt ourselves, we think everything we’ve ever created and believed in who we are is nonsense, and a lie. Like it’s just so fascinating. It can be so rich and deep. And yes, debilitating. But usually it’s fleeting. Thank goodness. Yes, exactly.

Laura Dick  28:19

And we’re not what I like to do when I am feeling like that is just remind myself that I’m a cyclical human. Yeah, just my hormones that are, you know, influencing how I’m feeling and that it’s all going to shift and change in a couple of days. And it always does. And look, you know, it’s a great time if you like to do social media detoxes – that’s a really great time to just switch off Instagram, and because otherwise, you can get caught in the, Oh, look, she’s doing amazing and I’m not there yet and all of the comparisonitis and I’m not good enough and all of that can come up. So it’s a great time to stay off social media. If you’d like to do a social media detox every now and again. 

Shannon  28:58

I think the next kind of question to ask before, then I’m going to move into some questions I’m going to ask every one of our guests is that, let’s talk about hustle. Like it’s a word you and I both have an aversion to. Laura is doing a big sigh out of faces just like nuh, that word. And I often talk about, you know, in part of the work that I’ve done through my coaching has been around, you know, not being in that space of hustle or really unhealthy hustle because I do believe hustle has, from a perspective of it being a word to define doing a lot and taking a lot of action, is that it has a purpose at times. 

Shannon  29:40

Yeah, but unhealthy hassle is not okay. I know I’ve written an article and published it like a few places now over the years around why I think it was something like that the topic was why I’m allergic to hassle, you know, because when I looked at my Mentor Teacher loves to go and understand the meaning of words. So I went and I looked up what hustle meant, and oh my goodness, it was not a thing I wanted to have anything to do with. But it’s been glorified in business, even the “side hustl” word, or they, you know, “you’ve got to hustle or you’re never gonna get anywhere” and y”ou’ve got to hustle to be a success”. You and I both know, different, but I’d love to hear your take on it.

Laura Dick  30:22

Yeah, just saying amen to everything that said, you know, as I was saying that me hustling in the corporate world led me down a path that ended, you know, with me being quite unwell for sometime and even a few years on, you know, I’m still dealing with some of the ramifications for that. So when I see people glorifying, you know, work all of the time, at the sacrifice of having a life at the sacrifice of your health and your mental and your emotional and your physical well being. 

Shannon  30:55

I saw someone say last night, “you don’t need to sleep much – get on with it”. What?!

Laura Dick  31:01

Uhh, you know, and a lot of it does come from the bro marketing culture, shall we say, and look, hey, as I’ve said before, mens hormones tend to be fairly consistent across the month, they don’t ebb and flow. So for them, it is a little easier to always be on and always go, but they still need sleep, they still need, you know, time off and time to rest. But for women, we can not, and we are not built to work that way. It just doesn’t work for us. And it only leads you down the path of burnout if you try and ignore how you’re built and how your body is meant to be working.

Laura Dick  31:39

Yeah, I mean, if you’re always going and you’re always doing, and you never take the time to stop and check in, it can be so easy to just keep doing all of the things because all of these people on the internet, say you have to do this and you have to do that in order to have a successful business. And then you get one two years down the track and look back at what I’ve created this thing and I don’t even like this business, or I don’t even like this thing that I’ve created.

Shannon  31:39

I feel like that is almost like one of the best lessons for life and business we can ever get. Is that we are not designed to be go, go, go all the time. Yeah. And that there is nothing wrong with you having different phases and doing more and then doing less. In fact, that is the, again, an example of being in your effortless success zone.

Shannon  32:28

The beast that you don’t recognize, even though you created it. 

Laura Dick  32:32

And I mean, I’ve seen it with a lot of some of the bigger name women entrepreneurs out there, you know, they’ve come I’ve created this business and now I’m getting rid of everything and not starting from scratch but they’re you know, reinventing a lot of their programs and recreating a lot of things. And so we’re cycles have this beautiful ebb and flow where we can check that we’re in alignment, check that what we’re working towards is actually still what we want, work out how we’re going to do it, take some action, slow down, rest, check back in again, and then you know, go through the cycles. And so why would you want to ignore that beautiful gift that our bodies and nature has given us?

Shannon  33:15

I know, I know, I think it’s it’s such a balance for so many women in business and in corporate, in life and employment, where the world, the external world, is saying you have to do and they list off all these things. To be a kind of a contributing person or a valued person or a worthy person or a successful person or a person who’s going to achieve or make money or whatever like… the lists just go on don’t they, and they all compound with this message of doing more to achieve more, which it’s not. The magic is doing less to achieve more.

Laura Dick  33:58

Absolutely and when you know your Archetypes and when you know what you’re good at and what works for you, then you can just double down on the things that you enjoy and that you’re good at and then it just feels even easier you know. 

Shannon  34:12

That’s what it’s all about right!? Love it. So much to talk about. Not surprised, right? 

Shannon  34:21

Okay, so let me get to some questions that I’m asking every one of our guests. Now She Leads She Thrives as a leadership element to you know, the energy and the themes of the podcast and really much about self leadership. But the first question I’d love to hear your answer on is what role does leadership play in your life and business?

Laura Dick  34:41

Oh, gosh, we could do a whole interview.

Shannon  34:46

There might be a series where we’ll just pull out everyone’s answers and put that together as an episode.

Laura Dick  34:52

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that I’ve realized in you know this business journey, in the cycle thinking journey is that we either get to be a passenger in life and just have life happen to us, or we can become leaders of our own lives and take responsibility, you know, not to get sort of too woowoo and out there, but you know, when you take responsibility for your life, and you show up and you do the things that are going to help you create the life and the business that you want, that’s how you’re going to get the things that you want. And that only comes when you take that responsibility and say, Look, this is what I want, this is what I stand for, this is what I will do, this is what I won’t do and really embody that.

Shannon  35:45

Yeah, totally. I know that when I first published my first book around the archetypes, which was called Personal Leadership Style back in 2013, I think it was anyway, long time ago. It’s no longer in print for anyone who’s out there and looking for it. The Thrive Factor book is the the one that took over, but a lot of personal leadership, which is really a kind of I more refer to now self leadership principles, were sitting there underpinning all the work of the Thrive Factor Framework, and I still do. I remember back then defining in that true Mentor Teacher, Liberator Engineer style, what personal leadership was, and I talked about it being the expression of the choices you make, and the action you take, which is exactly what you were just saying, what right, you know, it’s that taking that responsibility,  and you know – doing something with it, so that we can then influence, positively influence, what’s going on. 

Shannon  36:37

So next question, how do you know you’re thriving? How do YOU know you’re thriving?

Laura Dick  36:44

Because it just feels easy. 

Shannon  36:46

Yeah, nice answer.

Laura Dick  36:49

If it feels hard, then you’re doing something wrong.  That’s how I feel.

Shannon  36:53

Yeah. Nice. Simple to the point where Yeah. 

Shannon  36:58

Okay, so I’ve got one final question I’m going to ask you. But before we do that, I’d love you at this point to tell people how they can connect with you. So anyone who’s listening, if anything that Laura has shared has kind of piqued your interest and you want to know more. I happen to know she’s very active on social media like me, she loves Instagram, but a lot of great content out there. So where’s the best place for people to connect with you?

Laura Dick  37:20

Absolutely. Instagram is the best place to come find me. My handle is @businesswithflow. Yeah, come hang out with me, shoot me a DM, I would love to connect with you. And as you mentioned before, I also have my own podcast. So yeah, you can come in, you can come and check that out if you want to nerd out a little bit more about the different phases of your cycle, and go in depth about that. It’s called With Flow and it is on all of that podcast platforms.

Shannon  37:50

Awesome. So we will make sure that all of those relevant links are there in the show notes along with the transcript for today’s episode, which will always be found on the thrivefactorco.com website under our blogs. So look out for those they’ll make it very easy but you know, if you just do a search any of those you’ll find more pretty easy. And if you can’t reach out to me and I’ll connect you so before we wrap up kind of officially for today, we could talk for hours I know, but we’ve got to come to an end at some point. 

Shannon  38:20

What’s kind of a final piece of wisdom that you’d like to share with you know, the ambitious ingenious souls that are tuning in today.

Laura Dick  38:28

Oh my goodness I think the one thing that I would like people to really take on is that it’s allowed to be easy and you don’t have to fight things in order to make it be easy. If something feels hard, it feels hard for a reason. Maybe you need to get help with it, maybe you need to let it go, maybe it’s not the right thing for you, but it’s allowed to be easy. When it comes to business you’re allowed to choose the things that feel right and easy for you and let go of the strategies and the social media platforms and all of the other things that just don’t feel right or to feel hard or just aren’t right for you you’re allowed to do it your own way.

Shannon  39:18

Yes my Inspirer Believer has pom poms out for that one for sure. Thank you so much beautiful woman I’m so happy that we got to chat not that you know you as you were definitely high on my list for people to come and connect with we had, as I said such a great conversation on your podcast not that long ago. So you know we always have lots to talk about and lots of really great useful information which is another theme of this show is useful sharing something we could do stuff with. 

Shannon  39:44

Right so thank you everyone for listening in to Laura and I today. You know what to do go and find us to subscribe to, rate, do all do all the things for the podcast, so more people get to know about She Leads She Thrives and I will be back with you with either solo episode or another incredible guest very soon so, thank you again Laura. Thank you everyone for listening in. Have a beautiful day wherever you are in the world.