Episode 121- Shannon Leiderman On Why Beyonce Are On This Management Consultant's Inner Hype Squad

Hey everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Okay, guys, today is a very cool day. It's so cool when you get to meet people and you're in the same groups, but you get connected to their brand or their podcast or whatever they have going on, but you really don't have a chance to really hear their full story one on one until you actually get a chance to have them come on your podcast. And this is the perfect opportunity to do that. I've been actually sort of obsessed with my next guest podcast for the last, I think six months because we connected in the very beginning. We're in Toastmasters together and we connected in the very beginning. And I found out her podcast, but it's hard because you're doing this early morning class once a and I'm actually not even going that much. I'm only going maybe once a month at times. For a while I was going every week, but lately it's just been a little crazy. So I've been going once a month. And so you have this, you're there at 7:30, you're doing the Toastmasters and then you leave. So we haven't really had much chance to talk personally. But honestly I feel like I know her already because I am listening to her podcast and then I found out after and this is what I think is so cool. I found I didn't even know her whole story. She's a holistic life coach, she does human design readings, she has this amazing coaching program called Babes Rising and she does so many things for young women that are just unbelievable around self love and emotional well being. And I'm just so excited to be able to talk to her and have her share her story with you guys. And I am welcoming Shannon Keating to the show. Hey Shannon.

Bye Stacy. Thank you for sharing all those nice things about me. I'm equally excited to be here. Yeah, it's so cool because I feel.

Like every time we connect you just are so heartwarming. And then when I'm able to listen to your podcast, I feel it's just this special thing that it's hard to even explain. And the way you're able to express your thoughts and get it out through the podcast, it makes me feel like I really know you in a really cool way.

Oh, I love hearing that.

Honestly, it means so much to me because I mean, as you know, you do mostly interviews, but I do kind of a mix, right, of the interviews and the solo episodes. But when you're doing the podcasting thing. You're there with yourself, and you don't always hear feedback from who's listening. I mean, obviously you can see people.

Are listening, but you don't know who it is.

You don't know what they're thinking. You don't know if they're liking it. So I just. I appreciate you just sharing all these things right now.

Yeah. Well, I'd love to just start off for the listeners who are just meeting you for the first time, and if you can just share more about you and your story.

Oh, absolutely. So my name is Shannon Keating. As Stacy mentioned, I am 30 years old. I just turned 30 in February. So that's exciting. Officially entering my 30s. And honestly, like Stacy mentioned, I really do feel that I'm here to support individuals based on my own life experiences, based on the challenges that I had when I was younger, the insecurities I had, just the various things that I faced, from struggling with an eating disorder to really challenging body image dysmorphia. Just always feeling as though my worth and value as an individual, as a girl, as a teen girl, as a woman, was tied to my weight, my appearance, what I looked like, and then into things like I struggled with an autoimmune condition with gut issues and just some health challenges, and then into depression and suicidal ideations, challenges with relationships, friendships. I mean, I've. I've gone through a lot of personal challenges in my 30 years. And all of that, though, has been so beautiful. It's. It's gifted me so much resiliency, it's gifted me so much wisdom, so much depth, so much empathy for others, and then a very deep sense of purpose to be able to support others with what I struggled with so deeply, what I felt I didn't really have the language for or the tools for or the guidance around when I was younger. And that's all, honestly, what has helped to birth Babes Rising and just my passion for helping young women. Because, I mean, so much what I faced, it stemmed from my childhood, what my parents experienced, you know, what their parents experienced, all of the generational things passed on, but then just what I experienced being a young girl in our society where we put so much pressure on females to be a certain way to be perfect and polished and thin and beautiful and get good grades and be athletic and speak up, but don't speak up too much. And there's just so much pressure we get. So because of all of that, I just feel like I've been equipped with a really beautiful purpose around what I went through. And then with babes rising, with the coaching, with the sharing in my side of my podcast, public speaking, it all really is centered around, okay, I have a voice to use. I have a big heart, I have a lot of passion, got a lot of creativity, a lot of depth within me. I've got these skills, I've got these tools now, and I want to share what I've learned, share what I've experienced, share what has really helped me in ways that can impact, inspire, support, and just encourage other people around me, whether it's a girl who's 13 years old or a woman in her 40s. To me, I'm here to help a wide variety of ages, but definitely with a heart for females in general. Yes.

So there's something so huge when you're able to go through this lived experience. Right. And go through all the things that you went through with the eating disorder, depression, anxiety, and everything that you experienced, and then to come out the other side of it, but not only to come out the other side of it, but then to be able to help people. What do you think helped you be able to do that? Because I think that is something that a lot of people dream about doing, but it's hard to kind of make that shift.

Yes. Interestingly enough, Stacy, it's been almost like a North Star for me in a lot of ways, knowing that. And I don't know where this came from, in all honesty. I don't know if it's just something my soul came in with or maybe something I read about or heard at some point, but there's almost always been this soul stirring, I guess, of you will be able to help people with this one day. If you just overcome this, if you just get through this, you will be sharing your story. You will be supporting others. You will be able to help people with this. And to me, it's just been this resiliency, this ability, this persistence to just keep going, keep figuring it out, just literally just keep going. And then you will help others with this one day. So if we go back a little bit into my story, I have. I have all of these moments, really, where I feel like I drew the line in the sand and. And made a claim of this ends with me. I'm not going to struggle with this anymore. I'm not going to beat my body up anymore. I'm not going to take antibiotics anymore to try to get through this health condition. I'm not going to take the steroid cream. I'm not going to throw up, make myself throw up anymore when I had an eating disorder. So there's been all of these moments when I've kind of been faced with, I guess, two different roads. Okay, I'm either going to keep suffering and struggling and feeding the insecurities and feeding more of the shadowy parts of myself, or I'm going to make a new decision. I'm going to decide to learn how to love myself, or I'm going to decide to heal holistically from the autoimmune condition, or I'm going to decide to stop beating up my body, or I'm going to decide to stop stressing so much about finances or whatever it happens to be. I have all of these memories of me sitting with myself and making a decision. And then from that place, it's been again that North Star. You're going to get through this and you are going to help other people on the other end of this. So going into. I remember the. The first time I decided to learn how to love myself. I was fresh out of college and I just realized, oh my goodness, I've spent so much of my life. It was almost this. This culmination of accumulation of epiphanies and aha. Moments to realize I have spent probably my entire life judging myself, criticizing myself, feeding my inner critic, always thinking that there's something I can change or perfect about myself, thinking that I constantly have to fix myself and just so focused on what can I do better, how can I be better? How can I perfect myself more? What can I change versus appreciating who I am or loving who I am, or being gentle or compassionate with myself? I didn't learn that, and I wasn't living that way. So I got this opportunity to be dating this man at the time, fresh out of college, he was six or seven years older than me. He had a little bit more life experience under his belt. Incredibly independent, but more compassionate individual. Very good listener. He was great with me, very emotionally intelligent, and he really loved me. And he looked at me in this way that I was not looking at myself. I mean, just pure adoration. Eyes of love. And I remember sitting there thinking, I don't look at myself that way. I don't. But I. But I really, really want to. And so that was one of those moments where I drew the line in the sand. I decided to learn something new, to make new decisions and new choices and figure out how to love myself. But I really did. Going back to your question, I said out loud, I am going to learn how to love myself for myself. And so that I can help other women do the same. And it was this combined desire that I had of I just want to love myself. I'm so sick of judging myself all the time. I'm sick of comparing myself. I'm sick of my inner critic running the show. So I was sick of that and sick of just living in my insecurities all of the time and just letting them dominate my life. And I so badly want to help other people. I've known this since I was probably five years old. I'm here to help people. And so it was this dual desire of I want to help myself and I want to help others. And I'm going to let that helping others really fuel me forward.

Yeah. It's such a huge kind of like 10,000 Foot View epiphany. Right. When you're able to kind of see that the things that you've gone through are for the. The eventual ability to be able to relate and connect to someone in a way that's something that no one else can because you've actually lived through it and been through that experience so you can connect to them in such a different way.

Yeah. And I think, interestingly enough, I. I'm a coach. I see my own coaches and healers and therapists and whatnot. And it was interesting because I just worked through this with one of my mentors who just, I mean, we've done phenomenal personal healing, trauma healing work together. She's helped me in so many different ways. Just healing through childhood patterns and insecurities around dating and my body and the depression, the. The cyclical depression. I would go through just so, so much. And I was talking with her the other day around how I very much lead with my life experience. I have 1000% done the continuing education and the certifications. And I'm just such a nerd in that I love learning. And if there's a tool I want to learn about, I will get certified in it. I'll learn about it. I mean, human design.

I spent a year getting certified in.

Human design so I could incorporate that into my coaching. And I'm all about it. And I don't have this traditional educational background where I got a master's or I went and did a life coaching certification specifically to be a life coach. Or I mean, I did go to nutrition school after college, and so I did it in that way. But we were just having this discussion around. I just never felt like I needed to go and go to, quote, unquote, life coaching school or go to get a Master's or get a psychology degree or whatever it happens to be, because I lead with my life experience. I've been through it. I've navigated just really dark waters, and I really have learned what works, what doesn't work. And then I have all these tools to help me to apply it to people in very customized ways. And that's another just natural gift of mine, is I would never tell someone, hey, this is what helped me, so just go do it. I'm constantly working with individuals and recognizing we're all individuals, and then we need to be treated as such. So even if I learned some type of thing in a certification of mine, I'm still going to apply something more individualized to you, and I'm still going to treat you as an individual, and I'm still going to listen to you and observe you and get to know you, and we're going to kind of work together on this. But I do definitely lead with. I've been through that, especially when it comes to teen girls. Yeah. I know what it's like to get your heart broken and overcome heartbreak. Yeah. I know what it's like to feel like you always need to lose five more pounds. Yeah. I know what it's like to put so much pressure on yourself when it comes to grades at school or what you look like, or I know what it's like to feel super depressed and. And feel like the world's ending or whatever it is. So I really do have a lot of that empathy and experience that again. I just. I just lead with it because I feel like it's such a superpower of mine to have gone through all these different challenging experiences.

Yeah. I think the timing of this is really cool because I'm starting the Start a podcast challenge in a couple weeks, and there's a lot of people that are in there. There's so that I have the two. Couple different sides of one side. They're business people and they want to start a podcast for. And they've been paralyzed by perfection. So I'm excited to be able to help them. But there's another side of the people that have lived through just all these different experiences and are coming out from the other end of that. And then they're going through. Because I just finished a startup book challenge with them, and so I saw the patterns and the things that were coming up, like imposter syndrome and why me and who's going to listen to me and all those thoughts. Right. So I'm trying to help them work through that because and so we have to talk about this because you also have a podcast, and I keep telling people it is not about the podcast. You guys, a podcast is the thing that opens up all these other things for you. And I just thought maybe we could just stay here for a minute. And this means I'm gonna have to push up the publishing of this episode so that I can share it with them, but because I feel like there's so much power in what you're saying by leading through your lived experience, because people have so much wisdom in the things that they've gone through, and to be able to get through it and then come on the other side and then share it, it's beyond anything that I think anyone can even imagine. Because you're hearing it from someone that's been there.

Yes, 1,000%. And to your point with that, Stacy, we hear this all the time. And I think we say this because.

It'S just such a necessity of being.

A human, is we want to feel like we're not alone. And if somebody's gone through something that we've gone through, automatically, there's this resonance, there's this comfort, there's this reassurance, there's a, oh, okay. They somewhat understand what I'm experiencing. Maybe not exactly, because again, like I said, we're all individuals. But anyone, right, if you've gone through any type of trauma or you've started a business even, or you've traveled or you've written a book or, you know, it doesn't always have to be challenging. It could be challenging, but as something just, I guess, challenging in a different way, right? Doesn't have to be a struggle, but it could be anything that you've done, right? Do the thing, anything that you've done, anything that you've overcome, I think it really does bring that resonance and that comfort and that, okay, I'm not alone in this. Somebody is here who's gone through something similar. And maybe it just helps you have an aha moment or click a dot in a certain way or that person can hold your hand and walk you through it in podcast form or in coaching form or in friendship form. But, yeah, I think it's huge for us to be able to share what we've been through, share what we've done, and then just constantly. My mantra for Babes Rising actually is we're all in this together. Because I feel that so deeply, especially women supporting younger women, just recognizing we can literally all be in this together. We can all be supporting each other in this life. Experience. We're not supposed to be alone in it. So I just. Yeah, I would agree with what you're after.

Yeah, I'd love to hear you, too. When you're talking about the degree and the life coaching and all that and being able to lead by your life experience, what do you think could help them kind of get into that mindset, to be able to really kind of move into that path and whether it's starting a podcast or whatever they end up doing, writing a book, to be able to kind of own that experience and then other people can get from it? Yes.

Okay, that's a beautiful question. Just owning the experience. Cause honestly, it did take me. It's because we belittle ourselves. We really do. We. We think that what we've been through isn't enough. Right. We're constantly battling that whole I am not enough in some way, shape or form, like you said, the imposter syndrome. We're just battling our ego all of the time. We're so in those thoughts. And then we can think, oh, that wasn't enough of an experience, or wasn't challenging or hard enough, or, oh, that I just went through it, or we tone it down for whatever reason, no matter the severity of whatever the experience or the thing was. But I do feel there's a couple things that are coming to my mind right now and things that have really helped me. So one is I do a lot of inner child work, right? So just revisiting past memories or just recognizing, okay, your child had needs that weren't met, or maybe your child liked to play in a way and create in a way, and now you can do that now, or you can go back in there and be the mother that you needed at the time. You can rewrite past memories, whatever it is, but just healing from the past, doing inner child work and something that I do when I have it, actually my bedroom is. I have little photos of myself at different ages around. So what I've also done for something like Babes rising to remind me where I've been and where I am now and where I get to support and help these young women is I have pictures of myself as a teenager and pictures of myself even at the height of my eating disorder to really connect with that part of me and remind me, oh, my goodness, you were in such a different place 15 years ago or 10 years ago or even five years ago, whatever it is for the person. And you can really tangibly see it when you look at those photos. So I think having photo images of Those past experiences, some kind of, like, tangible anchor or even an emblem or something tangible to kind of anchor and remind you, oh, I was in such a different place. And look at where I am now and what I've overcome and what I've learned and how I've grown to kind of anchor and remind them back, or even just including that into a little vision board. So I have a vision board of just all of these young women that I've impacted, young women that I want to impact. My younger self is included in that vision board. So constantly looking at that to remind myself, I'm here to support the younger version of me. I'm here to support the younger version of me who are showing up in.

Many different people out there.

So that really helps me to have some, like, tangible anchor and reminder to get myself outside of myself. Another actual quote, I lean on quotes a lot because I think they can just help us think in different ways. So there's actually a quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg that says, if you want to be a true professional, do something outside of yourself. And so that quote really leads me forward because it's constantly okay. If it's starting a podcast or writing a book, or in your example, the starting of the podcast, it's okay. You've been through all these things now take it beyond yourself, take it outside of yourself to now impact others with that. And then when it comes back to just the question about leading from experience, I think it can really. There's a couple different things, right? I think having conversations with people, genuine conversations, and telling people about your story, right? Sharing your story, sharing what you've been through. This could be just a buddy, just a friend, just sitting down with someone and saying, hey, do you mind if we open up and I share you my story and you share my story and just having people reflect back to you how amazing it is even you sharing what you've learned through the journey or through the story or through whatever the experience is. So you can do this with close people in your life to really reflect back. For example, I could do this on sharing about my eating disorder, right? And then what have I learned? Or sharing about the body image stuff. Okay, what did I learn? Sharing about the health challenges. Okay, where am I now? What did I learn? So doing that with others to really just again, gain some of that confidence. And then you could even write it down yourself of, okay, what were some experiences that I had? And. Or what are some. You could call them achievements, right? Or some success milestones, whatever you want to Call them. What are some accomplishments that I've also had? And just jotting them down and then going into, okay, what have I learned maybe as far as life lessons or tools and just looking at things tangibly. So I guess to kind of wrap up what I'm sharing here, I think a lot of it is we live in our thoughts, right?

We live.

So we swim in ourselves. So somehow taking it beyond ourselves to actually look at it. So whether it's a photo of yourself to reflect on, oh, my goodness, let me now give back to that version of myself who was in so much pain or heartbreak or so insecure or whatever it was, and now I have tools to help that version of myself, or creating some type of stone or rock or something that represents that and. Or the conversation or writing it down on paper to really look at, Wow, I do have experience to lead with. I do have wisdom to lead with. Knowledge, tools, resources. And again, whether you write it down or you have conversations, I think just expressing it more can really help. And then, of course, I mean, being a part of, like, a program like you're doing, being around other people who can just cheerlead you is huge in starting anything. Like, people who can remind you, hey, by the way you overcame this or by the way you accomplished this. I think of one of our friends from our Toastmasters Club, Scotty. He ran, I don't know, like, 50 plus miles in a race. And he was kind of sort of belittling himself around it, or not even belittling, but he's a very humble individual, and he was not realizing that's a really big deal that so many people.

Do not run, that so many people.

Will never run that in their lives, and you somehow, in a matter of one year, ran 50 miles. So let's actually look at that accomplishment and let's share about that with others and maybe even look at, what did you do? What was the mindset that you had, right? What was the training? How did you take care of your body? How did you overcome the resistance? How did you actually do that? Because again, there's so many people who haven't done something like that. So me being a cheerleader for him saying, hey, dude, you did this big thing that you're not really recognizing as a big freaking thing. So I think if we can have people who are constantly reminding us of all of the things we've gone through, all the things we've done, and just, hey, by the way, that was a big deal. You can help people, hey, by the way, don't tone down your gifts. You're really gifted in these ways. I think having people who just are cheerleading us and seeing the. The gifts in us, the value in us, the wisdom in us, and reflecting that back. I'm a big words of affirmation person, so having people affirm things about us that are just constantly around us, it's phenomenal. So I definitely recommend having that and a support group like you're doing, accountability group, a coach, friends, just surrounding yourself with people who will cheerlead you.

Yeah. And I actually, this was coming to my mind is Gregory was telling me the story of when you were. Sorry, for those of you listening, Gregory Benedict, he's the president of the Toastmasters that Shannon I are a part of, and she's the one that he talked about in our episode on accountability where you guys were at a speaker.

Yeah.

And you got him to speak just by saying, I think you reaffirmed his thing, or like, don't you want to live a story worth telling? And then that got him to speak, which then opened him up during that time. And I think that really speaks to that idea of being around people that are supportive and encouraging, because that's going to get you to be more confident and go after the things that you want 1,000%.

Yeah, I did do that.

I was like, dude, you're the president of our club. You gotta get up there. You're all about getting outside your comfort zone. You got this. Live. A story worth telling.

Greg great, too.

He did so great up there.

I was so.

I was so proud to be in his club.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it hit him because he talked about it on our. I haven't published it yet, but he talked about it on that episode. And then it reframed something else that he did that week, too. That was the story we were telling. So, yeah, it's cool. And when you're around people that want the best for you and that are able to talk to you in a way that also challenges you, I think in a positive, affirming way. I think it's good for that as well. The other things you were talking about, which I really like, is that idea of having those genuine conversations. Right. And being vulnerable with other people. And by you being vulnerable, you're opening that space up for the other person to be vulnerable too. And I think there's something really beautiful about that because it's hard sometimes for people to kind of just feel the ability to be able to get there, but having someone else that's open and able to create that Space. It really sort of allows that person to do it too.

Yeah, thanks for reflecting that. I appreciate you saying that, Stacy, because I don't always recognize my gift and vulnerability, in all honesty, because I think it's something that I've gotten more comfortable with. It was something I did not used to be comfortable with, let me tell you. I. They say you take, you know, rep after rep after rep to get comfortable with something. I think I do probably have some type of innate quality in being able to be very open and vulnerable. But it definitely took practice for me to just make it more of a embodied characteristic, if you will. And I remember the first time I even shared because I used to not be open about what I was going through, my emotions, my insecurities. I would bottle everything up and it would build and it would build, and it would build. And then, of course, as a teen girl, I would just emotionally explode all over my household. I would have all of these emotions and insecurities and I didn't know how to handle them. And then all of a sudden I would be crying or screaming or chasing my mom around or yelling at her or hitting my sister. Right. They had to go somewhere. And so I was just very volatile in my home or I just got really into exercise. And that's been a huge support for me emotionally, is going on runs or lifting weights of just moving the emotions through me because I'm a very, very emotional and sensitive individual. And it's just. It's honestly how I'm wired. But growing up, my sensitivity wasn't honored. All of my family members are super sensitive. And it was something that there was such a stigma around. There was a lot of just, you're being too much, you're too sensitive. X, Y and Z. And so I bottled things up and I didn't really know how to handle and how to cope. But then also, if I reflect back, I was always the friend or even just in relationships, I would. I was very mature in different ways with. I remember my ex boyfriend who'd actually cheated on me.

Interestingly enough, I have a big.

I guess I'm like a boundary type of person. So I was like, well, dude, you cheated on me. There's no going back from this. I'm 17 years old. He just broke my heart. I'm gonna grieve over here, but we're done. There's no recovering from this. But we did talk on the phone. I remember. I don't know why I'm sharing the story. Maybe it'll help someone.

But I remember we did talk on.

The phone multiple times after. He was going through some family challenges. But then I remember just being really open and empathic and writing him a beautiful letter of just how great of.

A person he was and how grateful I was. Yeah. For meeting him. And unfortunately, he cheated, and therefore, I'm.

Gonna have to end this and never.

Talk to him again. But just. Literally just being vulnerable that way.

He did break my heart. It did really hurt. But, like, here's my feelings, letting him know. So I think I did have ability to, like, express my emotions and feelings. But I would say the first time I started to recognize. I would say more of, like, okay, vulnerability can be a superpower. Was when I first shared my story about mainly the food and body image challenges, because that was just such a big part of my journey. I mean, all the women in my family have struggled with dieting and. And just body judgment and feeling like our worth is tied to our weight. And just. It's. It's a big generational pattern that I'm breaking here. I think a lot of women can relate, but I remember sharing about that on a Facebook Live, and this was just. I think a business coach encouraged me to do it, or maybe my boyfriend at the time encouraged me to do it. I don't know. Somebody encouraged me to do it. And so I sat down at a park.

Literally the park in Denver, Colorado.

I had my best friend next to me. We were sitting at a park. I was holding her hand.

No one could see that she was with me. I'm holding her hand. She's next to me. She's eating her lunch. Just there for moral support. And I have my other hand. I'm doing a Facebook Live, opening up to who knows who, whoever wants to watch it, which hundreds of people watched.

It, which was huge for me at the time.

Yeah.

All about how I developed an eating disorder and judge my body. And I'm. Did this healing work, and here I am, and just. I just shared. And I remember I was shaking. I was so nervous. Again, holding her hand. I ended the Facebook Live. I looked at her, and she was like, shannon, you haven't even shared some of that stuff with me. She was my best friend. Right. So it just showed how little I was comfortable being vulnerable. But after that, oh, my goodness, the. The comments that I received, the messages that I received. I mean, women at the gym. I went. Was going to a CrossFit gym at the time, walking up to me saying, shannon, I am struggling so much too. Or I know exactly what you're Going through or. Thank you so much for opening up and sharing about this. I just really saw and witnessed. Whoa. When I am open and I lead with vulnerability and I really share in truth and honesty, it impacts people and it connects us, and it heals them, and it heals me. And there's this really beautiful reciprocal energy that's being exchanged. And so I took that opportunity and that experience, and I've just continued to do it again and again and again and again and again. And now in my personal life, I mean, my closest friends, I'm so open with them. So open. And it's so, so beautiful because I'm never concerned with being too much or I'm never concerned with. I don't have anyone to support me in this feeling I'm feeling or this experience I'm facing, or my friends get me and they support me, and coaches support me and my family supports me, and hopefully someday soon, a partner will support me, too. Put that out there.

Why not?

But. Yeah.

Let's play another manifestation scene on Stacy's podcast.

Where do you want to meet him? Let's just go there for a minute.

I mean, anywhere. I'm open. I'm truly open now. I. I'll meet him anywhere, hopefully. I think he's in San Diego. I have that feeling.

Yeah.

But again, he could be somewhere else.

But I have a feeling he's here. Maybe on the beach, maybe at my.

Gym, maybe at Whole Foods. I don't know.

I like it anywhere.

On a random hike. Maybe we'll do one on the do.

The Thing dating experiment, and we could talk more about it, because that's fun.

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Where I happen to meet him.

Maybe I'll meet him at a personal.

Developmental event or something on that.

I'm open to wherever it's meant to happen.

Maybe like out in the neighborhood, walking around.

But yeah.

So anyway, with a vulnerability piece, I.

Think it has just been. I think I do have a gift with it, but it's a practiced gift, and it's just realizing, oh, okay. I have an ability to communicate my emotions and, like you said, my thoughts. And I can communicate from my heart. Therefore, use this, Shannon, because you can see that. One, it's something I genuinely like to do. I like expressing myself. And two, you can see the ripple effect it has on others. So it's kind of just. I think, going back to that Marianne Williamson quote, who are you to be? What? Talented, beautiful, brilliant. All these things goes into. You're a child of God. You're here to, to give the world these gifts to be this. And when you shine your light, it empowers other people to shine their light. I think I'm constantly anchoring into that and just telling myself, you've got these gifts, girl. Go use them. So that's speaking to the gift of vulnerability.

Yeah. And when you use them, then the other person feels safe to be able to open up too. And it's just such a beautiful gift to be able to be an instrument in that way.

Yes. Yeah, definitely.

The other thing you said that I really liked was, I mean, there's a lot that you said I liked. But the other thing that's calling out at me is when you talked about that part of writing down your experiences and then the lessons that you've learned from your experiences. Because I think what that's doing really well is it's building your confidence up in the things that you can do and the things that you want to do. And I feel like that's what happens. Right. When people get self doubt or if they're feeling imposter syndrome or whatever is coming up, it's because your confidence is broken in some way. And I don't like using the word broken, but there's some kind of crack there. And by you being able to really kind of note down these things that you've done, you're building it back up. And then when you're able to then do something new, you can pull that past experience in and say, wait, I've done this before. And then you can use it in that way too.

I very much agree with that. I feel like, I mean, Toastmasters has been huge for me. Just, I think I've given four speeches now, and I've been focusing on doing one a month and just continuing to get myself out there. But it is kind of like that of just you sit down, you're creating this speech, you're looking at, oh, wow, I learned X, Y and Z. I did a speech on healing my relationship with food. And oh my goodness, I, I could have made that speech 30 minutes long. Right.

We only, we only get so many minutes. I think I made it eight or nine minutes, but it could have been.

So much longer and more robust. But it does build that confidence. And then giving a speech. But to your point, around just the repetitions or I've done this before. I was so nervous my first speech, oh my goodness, was I nervous. I think I was shaking the whole time, but I gave it right. And then the second speech is like, okay, you've done that before. So just remember you've done it. And just what did you do last time? Okay, you wrote the speech out. You read it out loud. You memorized it. You practiced it with a few people.

So now I just stick with what I've been doing.

And then, of course, then I'll get more into. Okay, let's not prep as much. Let's do this. Let's try different things out. But I think it does help to do the thing and then do it again. And remember. Okay, I've done it before. I can apply it here. And just. Yeah, just. I think what you spoke to, too, that I don't think we always talk about is we really have to create confidence. I think we think that some people are just born confident or, oh, they've got it, and I don't. Or I should just feel confident. But I feel like we have to be really intentional with our confidence, and we have to be cheerleaders for ourselves. And like you said, that exercise of writing down and building that in for ourselves, or looking at the mirror and saying affirmations, or surrounding ourselves with confident people and then just starting to feel that ourselves, I really think it's something we have to create. It's not just something that we always innately have. At least for me, I wouldn't say that I've always innately had confidence. It's something that I've intentionally built through experience, through affirmations, through different healing modalities, through being a cheerleader for myself, through just very intentionally building myself up.

Yeah. And I think something to notice, too, is there are certain times in your life when you might, I don't want to say lose your confidence, but it might be a struggle again. You might have had it. I just had this happen recently. I was picking the subtitle for my book, and then I'm kind of going through a gross stage and would do the thing and going to the next level. And so I was going outside of myself for the first time in a while, and I was like, what is going on? It was weird. And I had to go back in and rebuild my confidence up again to say, no, I can do this. This is something I can do. It goes back to past experience. I love the way you worded it, because that's where the lessons come, and that's where the confidence is created, as you said.

Yeah. Well, I even think about that, Stacy, with this whole me being open to meeting my partner thing. I used to be somewhat confident in dating, and I had boyfriends, so I.

Was reflecting on this too.

Speaking to the breaking of the confidence. I always had a boyfriend or a love interest or someone I was flirting with. Oftentimes multiple guys. Let's be honest. I was like, oh, I like him and him and him and I'm gonna blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I'll date him for two weeks.

And then I'll date him. And I was just kind of always in that experience. And also in school, it's a lot easier just surrounded by people. But then I took a big break from dating intentionally. I actually, I ended a relationship. I told myself, I'm gonna be single for one year because that's the most.

Shannon thing in the world to do. I was like, I'm gonna be single for one entire year. I'm not gonna date. This is my challenge to myself.

But it also was intentional and that I knew I needed to heal from the heartbreak of it and I didn't want to just jump into dating again.

So it was like one year of me being single and learning how to.

Love myself as single. Shannon. And then it progressed into two years. And then when that two year mark hit, that's when I really started to feel this desire and I felt zero confidence in this area. Oh my goodness. Like you said, confidence being cracked. I was like, I see a cute guy and I would just freak out.

I wouldn't know what to do. I'd be like, what do I do? I'm going to turn the other way and walk the other direction. Literally.

It hasn't even been since I got to San Diego that I've gotten more and more comfortable with.

If I see an attractive guy smiling and saying hello, I was not doing this six months ago, a year ago. I was just so on wobbly legs when it comes to my confidence and.

Just connecting with men and dating men.

Or just even connecting with them, I felt like, so, yeah, cracked in that arena.

But then I went on some dates. I've made a lot of male friends here, which has been really great. I've practiced making eye contact and smiling and saying hello. And it's just gotten easier and easier and easier. And you remember, okay, I'm fine. I'm just myself. It's not a big deal.

It's not like a hugely scary thing. But it does happen in so many different places. So that's just one of my own personal ways it's happened for me.

Yeah. And I'm glad you shared that because, yeah, it's not only looking at your past experience and seeing the lessons, but it's also doing something currently and flexing the muscle and practicing like you said. Because that's what's giving you the confidence to be able to continue on because you're getting comfortable with it each time you do it.

Yeah, more and more comfortable. Just even like the whole first date thing. I was so nervous the first first date I went on here, I almost canceled. I brought a book with me. I brought a journal and a book and a pen with me. I think a protein bar in case he didn't show up.

Like all in my, all in my purse.

I'm like, he doesn't show up, it'll be fine. I will date myself. I'll read, I'll journal, I'll snack on this protein bar.

It'll be okay.

I remember talking to my friend, driving over there so nervous. I almost canceled him that morning. And then I had it and it was great. I mean it was like a 8 hour date or something like that. It was really, really great. Lots of good conversation. And then I remember the next first date I went on was so easy.

I didn't get scared at all. I barely got ready. I just walked over, met him at.

A restaurant, easy peasy. Went home, was like not really for me.

Woke up the next day, kept moving forward.

So it is just, we gotta just.

Go for it and. But it, it is funny. Just reflecting on all of it.

Yeah. You also mentioned something earlier about that idea of surrounding yourself with people that are encouraging and supportive and your cheerleaders. How do you find, especially you just recently moved to San Diego. How do you find that? How do you do that in real life?

Oh, I absolutely love this question.

Okay. So I am very intentional in this area as well because I'm a big people person. I really am. I, I'm somewhat of a social butterfly. I'm not a super extrovert. In all honesty. I'm kind of a little bit of a mix. I definitely am introverted and I just love, love, love my alone time and I recharge with my alone time. But I'm very social and I just love humans and I love deep connection with humans and like minded humans. It really fuels me and just it keeps me going in life. Honestly, my relationships and humans have always kept me going and kept me just centered to my authentic self. But to your point, we have to surround ourselves intentionally with people who are right for us and who are going to support us and match our goals. So for me and I coach people in this all the time and I help girls with us all the time. Around friendships. But the first thing that I like to do is really create some of it of a division in all honesty, around, okay, what type of community do I want to anchor into? What type of connections do I want to have? Relationships, friendships? Let me have somewhat of a vision for myself. Even if you're just writing on a paper or creating on a vision board, let me have a little bit of a vision for what is it that I want to create, what types of people, what are we doing, what are we talking about, what are we thinking about? So it could be be okay, I want to get into public speaking. Okay, So I want to talk to people about TED talks or books they've read or whatever it happens to be, right? Or maybe I am just a new mother. And so I really want to find mothers who are holistic minded or thinking about conscious parenting or astrology. And so these are some of the topics and themes I want to talk about with my new mother friends or whatever it happens to be. So I think having somewhat of a vision or an anchor or some goals written down around types of connections and then it really is go to the places where those people are likely to be. So for me, Toastmasters has been such a blessing in moving to a brand new city where I knew very few people and I didn't even realize how much of a gift it was going to be. I've met such beautiful friends. I mean this podcast conversation is happening because of that. Gregory, who you mentioned, Scotty who I mentioned, Shannon, the other Shannon who you've had on this podcast. So many of these amazing connections and now friends of mine I met through this club. So I joined that because I want to get into professional public speaking. So join Toastmasters. Also, this is a volunteer public speaking group.

You're most likely going to meet other.

Ambitious, entrepreneurial, motivated, outside of the box thinker type of people at a club like this. So that again, very intentional. Or it could be joining a gym. So I just joined a gym in Solana beach and have just made some cool connections there and people who are interested in health and wellness and exercising in community versus at a global gym. Right. So putting yourself in the places where a church group or a intramural sport league or an entrepreneurial group or a yoga studio, any of these places, there's so many different places. But plugging yourself in two spaces, whether it's virtual online, so I mean even the groups you run, amazing for people to meet like minded people in a group around dating or starting a podcast or writing a book, get Yourself plugged into those places. And then two more things I want to speak to.

I'm really passionate about this topic, but.

The next thing is you got to go first. I tell people this all the time. You've got to reach out first. People aren't always going to reach out to you first. They're not always going to be super welcoming. Even as someone who's brand new to this space, probably 90% of the time, I've been the one to reach out to somebody new who's already established here in San Diego. They're not reaching out to me thinking, oh, you're brand new here. Hey, you want me to show you around? That hasn't happened for me. It's been me being like, oh, even with Gregory, it was like, hey, you're a kindred spirit. You want to go get tea with Shannon from her Toastmasters group? Wow, you seem awesome. Do you want to go on a walk? People at the gym? There's my neighbor Laura. Hey, would you like to go on a walk this Sunday together? So I'm constantly being the first person to just reach out. If there feels like a synchronicity or a connection or just, oh, I'd really like to spend some time getting to know this person. I am not shy in reaching out. And then from there, you can surrender. And if it's meant to happen, it'll happen. So there's that at play. But reaching out first and then the last piece, going into the whole cheerleader aspect of people supporting you, I also am under the mindset of you've got to also be that. So if you want people to cheer you on and celebrate you and love you and appreciate you and acknowledge you, you've got to be that for other people. So I'm a huge words of affirmation person. I give people words of affirmation. I'm also mindful of other people's love languages and trying to meet their love languages. But I'm a words of affirmation person and a quality time person. So I will give my time, I will give my words. I will check in with people. I will express that to them. I will cheerlead people because then I receive it back in return. Right? The law of reciprocity.

I don't even how to say that word. Law of reciprocity. There we go.

I know, right, who you are. You attract. So I'm going to be that. I'm going to be generous. Generous is one of my words for this year. I'm going to compliment people. I'm going to celebrate them, I'm going to cheer them on, I'm going to show up for them, I'm going to see the potential in them. I'm going to highlight these things. Not coming from a place of now, you have to do it for me. More from a genuine, heart centered place. Trusting. When I'm this, I also receive this in return whether it's from this person or another person. So if I want people who are going to cheer me on, I've got to be someone who cheers other people on. And so I have that mindset in my life too. If I want X, Y and Z, I've got to be X, Y and Z.

Yeah, good. It's so good because so many people are just sitting there waiting for something to happen and you are just really speaking to that if you want it. Actually the subtitle of my book now is don't wait for Opportunity, Create it. And that's really what you're speaking to right now is that because no one's going to do it for you, you have to go after it if that's what you want for yourself.

Yeah, it truly is. And I think, I think it's scary too. So there's a few different people that I've been chatting with. One was a friend. A couple are clients of mine who have a lot of social anxiety and they get really scared of rejection or reaching out to people or what are people gonna think of me? Do they wanna spend time with me? Or they just get really anxious around doing the thing or putting themselves out there or reaching out or getting into the social clubs. And so I do wanna just speak to that type of individual to just have a lot of grace and compassion and gentleness for yourself because it doesn't mean you have to text the person, ask them to hang out with a ton of confidence. You can still feel really nervous. But like you said, create the opportunities, put yourself out there, go first. Because I find typically more often than not it's really well received and people like the connection and they, they like to be acknowledged or celebrated or complimented or whatever it is you're extending the other person. They're typically not going to shut you down or reject you or not want to spend time with you. Typically they're not. And if they don't, then we can go into, okay, they weren't meant for you anyway. It's not aligned right now. Let's work on healing maybe some of your insecurities around rejection or some of the fears you have that maybe you're creating in your life and let's work on that. But not to get too layered with it. It's more just the compassion for if you are shy or you are anxious or you're nervous or you're fearful of rejection in these social situations, just be gentle with yourself. Because I've been in plenty of situations where it's like, eh, that wasn't a great fit. Or I did meetups.com and went to an event and I just didn't really feel like I was myself at that event or I didn't connect with anyone or I tried to gym out and it just ended up being not a good fit. So just have some of that resiliency too, but compassion for yourself that you just kind of got to try and kind of see what works and what doesn't work and give it a shot. But have the compassion for yourself because it is scary to meet new people, to put yourself out there, to compliment someone and hope they receive it well or whatever the action happens to be.

Yeah, I'm really glad you said that because I'm an introvert by nature, but I'm a learned extrovert and like you said, I get my energy from being alone. But I have learned the type of environments that I really like that I thrive in extrovertedness. And one of those is the Toastmaster style where it's already structured and I can just plug myself in. So if I go to a networking meeting and or a networking thing and there's no structure around it, I have a really, really hard time. And so I think that's so important is to get to know yourself and not to immediately shut it down. Right. And so it's almost like giving yourself compassion but then also asking, okay, what about this don't I like? And then how can I find something just a little different and see if I like that better versus saying oh no. I think some people might say oh no, that wasn't for me. Instead of exploring it more to see what might be for them.

Yes, I have an example from an actual friend of mine because I was in Tampa, the Tampa Bay area before this and was there for a year, very similar situation, brand new, moved there by myself, knew two people and had to make friends and put myself out there. And so I had another friend of mine do the same exact thing. She moved to Asheville, North Carolina. And so maybe six months after me, she was in the same boat and she's much more of a. Well, actually I'm this way too like a one on one type of person. I'm, I'm very much a one on one type of person. But I can vibe in like a Toastmasters club, right, and be more extroverted, more social and more outgoing than maybe she is. She's much more reserved, much more outgoing if it's a one on one setting and prefers the one on one connection. So I was just giving her advice around, okay, you gotta go to the event, go to this, reach out, do these things. And she worked it and she tried it and then through that she recognized, okay, I really like if it's a group of five people or less, that's when I feel most myself. And even better, I really like if it's a one on one, me and somebody else getting a coffee and just having that deep connection time. And so through that she realized I don't really love going to parties if there's more than 20 people that I don't know there. Unless it's a party where I know people. She doesn't like it, it doesn't work for her. She doesn't really feel like she can be herself. So she just learned what's working best for her and so she just started to do that of okay, maybe I'll meet someone here, but then I'll reach out one on one and go on a hike with them or grab a coffee with them. And that's going to work much better for me. So I think to your point, it is kind of figuring out, okay, what's going to work well for me. As an example, I don't drink alcohol, which is a rare thing. I'm not sober because I'm an alcoholic or anything like that, which a lot of my family member is. That did factor into my decision, but it's just a decision. I'm a sober individual. I don't drink. And in my 20s, I stopped drinking when I was 22 years old. So in my 20s, now into my 30, my 30s, not even 30s, my.

30, I guess I'll call it.

But I, I don't go to parties or late night gatherings. I mean, I'll go to parties every now and then, but I'm not at bars and not at clubs. If I were to put myself in that environment, I would feel like Shannon Keating. I would feel like a fish out of water. That's not my environment, that's not my vibe. So I know that about myself. Toastmasters, much more my vibe. A gym, much more my vibe. Picnic or a barbecue, much more my vibe. But we just do have to know these things about ourselves and just not beat ourselves up. If we're in environments that we're not feeling super authentic or we're feeling shy or feeling insecure, it might just be the environment isn't a right fit for you and. Or the people aren't a right fit for you and. Or you're just not quite in the mood at that time. So not beating yourself up too much and figuring out similar to how you did Stacy, just strategically, what is going to work best for me to be aligned and around aligned individuals and feel most myself. And then when you're feeling most yourself, that's when the beautiful connections happen. Because you're authentic.

Yeah. And that's when your energy's at its fullest too. And it's so cool because then you're not shutting things down. You're just asking yourself the question to explore more. What is the right fit for you? I'd love to also ask you. You said something really, really important earlier with the living in our thoughts and then bottling things up. And I feel like it's a thing that a lot of us do. And I had this for a long time and actually me doing voice notes before I even had the podcast, I did voice notes to myself. And so once I started activating my voice was when finally my thoughts came out and then all the magic literally started happening. And I just love to talk to you about that, especially because that's kind of my whole thing right now with the. I just finished the find your voice challenge, which was basically me recreating what I did with voice notes. And people had said they got more out of it than even two years of therapy from a 17 day challenge. And then the start of podcast challenge and getting people to activate their voice. And I just love to hear just your thoughts on that.

Yeah. Oh, I love the voice notes idea because that is something I will do every now and then as well.

Is.

And it's so interesting because it's, it's something. Maybe it's something psychological, but it's different than just speaking out loud.

When you're actually recording in a voice note. Maybe it holds you accountable to it.

I'm not sure.

But it, it's almost like you have to have it recorded in order to actually do. Can't just be like I'm just talking.

Out loud right now.

Yeah. Oh, I even did a. I even did a venting voice note. I had them do it because I used to vent. I used to. It was the way I when I was upset with something because I was like That I don't want to call myself toxic positivity, because I don't know if I was actually that. But I was very positive and I repressed my emotions. So I would think it, but then I wouldn't speak it because I didn't want to bother anyone. And then I was also a big people pleaser. And then by me being able to release, but the energy's still there. The people that I was with still felt it. It wasn't until my daughter told me that she didn't understand why I wasn't saying I was upset about something. She's like, I feel crazy when you're telling me you're fine, and I can feel that you're not. And so that was the mom that I was like, okay, I need to really figure this out. And that's where the whole speaking out things that got me more congruent. And I feel like this is screaming at me. I have to say it. But the podcast episode where you read the poem, I feel like I think you get it, what I'm saying, because even just speaking that poem out loud, I could feel it in a different way than it probably was when you wrote it. And even though you read it and it was probably the same as you read it, there was something about that voice activation that I think added a level of power that was on. I mean, I could literally, when I. I think I saw you that morning, and I was like, I almost cried telling you just how much it meant to me to listen to you reading this poem.

Yeah, I do know. Thank you for that. I actually. I wish you'd been there. Two weeks ago, I did another version of it as a speech for Toastmasters.

So I edited it a little bit and then I shared it out loud in front of. I think we had 14 people that day. And so that was a whole nother level.

But something I like to say is, or I guess it's a phrase, if you will, of just self expressed or expressing yourself. I mean, we hear this, it's normal languaging, but for whatever reason, that word, right, expression, expressing, expressed, really means a lot to me because I feel like we suppress so much and expression to me is the opposite of that. Creating, expressing, moving, the energy. So I think for me, as somebody who is very sensitive, very emotional, I mean, I'm a human design person, so I like to see what's going on in human design. And I have the emotional center in my human design chart is very activated. There's a lot of energy running through that center It's a big part of. Of my energetics. Learning this about myself, reflecting on it, made a ton of sense. I'm a feeler. I'm Pisces. Astrologically, I'm a feeler.

I feel things.

And if I don't, similar to what your daughter was saying, if I don't express it, it just stays suppressed, trapped inside of me. I feel more lethargic. I'll feel sad, I'll feel more depressed. Right. Depressing things or a state of depression oftentimes happens when we're not creating, expressing ourselves, because we're literally in a depressed version of ourselves, a depressed state. So I just learned, okay, how I feel healthiest is when I'm expressing, when I'm creating, when I'm sharing with my voice, whether it is a podcast, a conversation, the voice note situation, whether it is singing, I will put music on, I will sing, I will write. So just writing poetry or writing scribbly words or journaling or writing a blog post, but I realized, okay, the more I can move this energy, the better I feel. And so it really is this energetic hygiene practice of moving energy, creating. I like to think of writing things or creating a podcast as an opportunity to create something where nothing used to exist and we get to create something beautiful potentially out of our painful emotions or our chaotic emotions or our destructive thoughts or whatever it happens to be. So I find just finding outlets to express what's there is so cathartic, healing, therapeutic. And then we can create something that gets to ripple out into other people and just we're gifting the world with our own form of magic, if you will.

Just love the way you put that.

And I feel it feels so good.

Oh, my gosh. So with that amazingness, I would love to hear your number one piece of advice for the listeners on doing the Thing. And keep in mind, doing the thing, it used to be do the thing. And then as I got with the podcast longer and longer, I realized it's so evolved. It's really just doing the thing that's true for you and being able to go after the things that are coming from your heart pretty much, and not your head.

Oh, okay. One piece of advice for doing the thing. I'm gonna have to repeat this because.

A million pieces of vices are flooding my mind right now, and I have to pick one. I'm sure you've gotten so many good pieces of advice through this question.

I think what's coming up to me right now is honestly staying present with the process. In all honesty, it's can you truly be present with the process of doing the thing? Because that's what it's all about. It's not about having something you can check off in a box. It's not about just all of a sudden I have this book or I have this podcast episode or have this relationship, or my goal right now is.

To do a pull up at the gym. So I have this pull up that's.

Achieved, but it's literally the present moment that's your life. So can you be really present with the whole process and journey of the thing unfolding and each, you know, step of that journey? So there might be moments when you're present with your anxiety and that really does not feel good. And I hate that part of the process, in all honesty. And then there's parts when you're present with feeling so successful and accomplished. And I love that part of the journey, right? It's like, yes, I'm on cloud nine. I feel amazing. And then being really present, maybe as you receive admiration or validation or acknowledgement, can you be present receiving those compliments and really take them in and feel how that feels and be present with it? Or maybe when you're holding your book for the first time, can you really engage your senses and be present with that part of the process? So I would just really go back to constantly reminding yourself to get in your body, be present with whatever part of doing the thing you are in, be with it, because this is your life. It's constantly reminding yourself and anchoring back in that this moment right here with you and me right now, Stacy, as we record this with anyone listening to this, this right here is your life. And your life doesn't exist on the other end of doing the thing. It exists right now. So presence is just always what matters more than anything else.

It actually is so funny that you're doing that perfect time. I love this timing. Divine timing. Because with the Start a podcast challenge, there's some people that are like, I don't want to start a podcast. I'm like, it's not about the podcast. I want you to enjoy the process and the journey and you being able to, like, go through the growth that you're going to be experiencing as you're doing it. And, yeah, you might end up with a podcast or you might not, but it's that moment of you doing the thing that's the thing that's gonna be.

What'S gonna transform you 1,000%. I mean, as you know and I've shared in this episode, I've been on this journey. I want my partner. But oh my goodness, if I knew two years ago when I first honored this desire and did my manifestation list and whatnot and started to work with coaches around and put myself out there and go on dates and all these things, I have learned so much. I've grown so much. Who I am now because of this desire is just such an incredible version of myself. Like, I'll have the partner, he's coming, he'll come when he's meant to. But it's just so beautiful if you really have that mindset of wow, goodness. All of the men I've connected with, all of the friends I've deepened my relationships with, the, the healing that I've done for myself and my future children because of just this desire for partner.

And all the unworthiness it brought up.

It's really beautiful when you can be present with the process of something.

I'd love you to share with the listeners how they can learn more about you, your podcast, your coaching and all the good things.

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm, I'm very easy to find. It's Shannon Keating dot com. My Instagram is at Shannon Keating. And then for Babes Rising a little more tricky to find, but you can always find it through me because it's Babes Rising co. Because somebody is sitting.

On the.com domain right now and I cannot find them. But if you can find them for me, let me know because I really want the dot com. But it's Babes Rising co and then.

On Instagram it's Babes Underscore Rising. But those are both places you can find me. And then the podcast you can also find on my website, you can find through my Instagram. It's called Unmasked and Open Hearted. And you can find it on Apple, you can find on Spotify and yeah, those would be the easiest places to get connected with me. And you can email me, you can send me a message on Instagram, however you want to connect. I'm available for.

Thank you so much, Shannon. This has been, I mean, I can't even put word to it. It's been so great. So I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your story and really creating that space of vulnerability because I think it's going to help a lot of people when they hear your lived experience.

Thank you for having me.

This is so fun. I feel like it flew by. I could be here for so many more hours. But thank you. It's been really great.

I'm so grateful that we are connected. And just thanks for having me on this beautiful show.

And for the listeners, do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity, create it.