May 7, 2024 • 47 mins
In this episode, I'm joined by keynote speaker and consultant Shana Francesca, founder and CEO of Concinnate. Shana shares her journey from surviving growing up in an abusive evangelical Christian cult to becoming a scholar of intentional and ethical leadership and living.
She discusses the importance of accountability and ethical leadership through curiosity, respect, and accountability.
This episode explores themes of personal growth, ethical leadership, and creating intentional, harmonious environments in both personal and professional settings.
Learn more about Shana Francesca and connect with her:
Follow her--> https://www.tiktok.com/@shanafrancesca
Other Show links:
Grab the podcast launch checklist:
www.teriholland.ca/podlaunchchecklist
Chapters:
00:00 Introducing Shana Francesca
02:08 From Cult Survivor to Ethical Leader
08:02 The Healing Process: Trust, Community, and Self-Discovery
16:20 Defining Ethical Leadership
20:45 The Evolution of a Business
27:04 Rebranding Journey
29:02 Naming Your Business
31:48 The High Cost of Early Marketing Mistakes
37:47 Embracing Intentionality in Business and Life
40:59 Connecting with Shana
42:35 Rapid Fire Questions
45:36 Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shana Francesca (00:00):
an apology is not accountability.
(00:02):
Right?
Oftentimes we use an apology to tryto escape accountability, right?
To try to escape past it, to just move on.
Yeah.
Accountability.
Is us taking responsibility forthe impact of our actions on the
people and the lives who have beenimpacted, and then getting curious
about how we can learn more, right.
(00:23):
And learning more and then doingbetter so that we mitigate and
eliminate the harm moving forward.
Teri Holland (00:30):
Welcome back to another episode of Success in Mind.
Today I am joined by Shana Francesca.
She is a keynote speaker,consultant, workshop facilitator,
and scholar of intentional andethical leadership and living.
She's the founder and CEO of Consonate.
Shana has been interviewed onmore than 100 podcasts worldwide
(00:52):
and has been published in Medium,Authority Magazine, Shout Out L.
A., Emotional IntelligenceMagazine, and Emerge Magazine.
Shana has worked with clientslike the Council for Brain Injury,
the Boys and Girls Club, and theMainline Chamber of Commerce.
Shana believes our present and future aretransformed when we infuse our lives with
(01:12):
intention, design our lives, and realizethe power in continually practicing
curiosity, respect, and accountability.
If you want to be a stronger leader,if you want to develop better
relationships with your teams, withpeople in your lives, and you want
to have better conversations, thisepisode is a must listen for you.
(01:36):
You're listening to Success inMind, the show for high performing
leaders, changemakers, andentrepreneurs ready to take your
life and business to the next level.
If you're ready for wholelife success, keep listening.
Hi, Shana.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, Teri.
I'm glad to be here.
So I have been looking forward to thisconversation because I, you know, of
(01:59):
course, reading through your bio and allof your information and stuff and just
found your story really interesting.
So let's start there.
Let's start with what led you into havingthe business that you have today and
how you found yourself on this path.
Shana Francesca (02:14):
Yeah.
Oh gosh.
Yeah.
So let's start at the beginning.
So I was born into an abusivehousehold and raised inside of
an evangelical Christian cult.
And it encompassed my entire life.
So I went to the school that was partof the church that was the cult, right?
And then I had thisreally extension of that.
high control religiousenvironment at home.
(02:36):
And so really just amplified theamount of coercion and manipulation
that was showing up in my life.
And when you're in those environments,it is impossible, it is unsafe to show up
as yourself, to even consider exploringwho you are and how you want to show up
(02:56):
in the world, because you know that theminute you would discover that and bring
that into the world, it would be somethingthat could be and would be attacked,
used against you, so on and so forth.
And so you have to hold on to who youare and keep it inside of yourself.
And so there's a There's, uh, twothings going on at the same time, right?
(03:19):
There's you not being able to matureas your authentic self, and having
to mature too quickly and functionas an adult, as a child, right?
In order to gain somesemblance of survival.
And so, you know, when I, left thoseenvironments at 26 was finally safe
(03:41):
to do that, had the ability to do that.
I started to, you know, it tooklike three years just to get my
feet underneath of me, and to, uh,just to like, It sheds some of the,
uh, significant amount of trigger.
You're triggered all the time, right?
When you grow up in those environments,you're constantly having to observe
(04:02):
the world around you and assumeit's going to attack you because
the world you came from did.
That always happened.
And so it took like threeyears to like settled in.
And kind of even be able tobegin my healing journey.
And then at 29, I moved to the cityof Philadelphia and I formed a new
community around myself and aroundmy learning and around my curiosity.
(04:27):
And I started to begin to recognize,cause at first you're like asking a
hundred thousand questions, right?
All the questions you couldn't ask whenyou were in those environments, right?
And then you start to settle inand you realize, wait a second,
there are definitely reflectionsof the environments I grew up in.
In our society at large, right?
(04:47):
And that's not just me being triggered.
It's real.
And it's because there are thesereflections in our society large, because
some of these beliefs are held andnormalized in our society at large, that
these extreme environments exist, likethey've taken these ideologies to the
extreme, that they not only exist, butare seen as normal and acceptable because
(05:12):
they're a natural foregone conclusion.
They are the natural end resultof these harmful beliefs, right?
And so as I was trying to discoverhow to show up as a human being,
not someone who like, because Ihadn't been taught how to be human.
I'd been taught how I had to learn.
I hadn't even been taught.
I had to learn how to survive rightinside of oppressive systems, both in our
(05:36):
society at large and in these communities.
High control environments.
As I learned how to become humanand how to become myself, there
was all this like healing that wasgoing on and all this exploration.
And so it started to push meinto discover, like, how do
I show up as a human being?
How do leaders show up as ethical?
(05:57):
What does healthy leadership look like?
What are those things, right?
And so it became this like more than now,more than a decade long, just consistent
learning and research and understandingof, okay, where do I see ethical
leadership or something that's strivingto be ethical leadership at minimum?
(06:19):
You know and how, what are the, whatare those environments dedicated to?
And then started to seethe through lines, right?
And it didn't take me long to figure outthat essentially it's all relationship.
Relationship with ourselves.
Relationship with the living world.
Leadership is a relationshipwith those that we lead.
(06:41):
And I think for many of us, we weren'ttaught what relationship really is.
I know I certainly wasn't, but, andit was more kind of just assumed like
proximity was a relationship, right?
You spend a lot of time withsomeone that's relationship.
But it's not really right.
We can spend a lot of time with someoneand know nothing about them and not be
(07:02):
engaged and interested in who they are andactually fostering relationship with them.
And so ultimately my work took me tothe place that all intentional and
ethical relationship and leadership.
requires curiosity, respectand accountability, right?
And so in establishing and workingthrough my own healing, wanting to
(07:27):
identify who are the kinds of people Iwant to surround myself with, and I'm
safe with, because I also believe thatAll real healing happens in community.
And I needed to know who I couldtrust to create that community.
Then also realizing that organizationsare communities, and realizing that
the same things that were applicableto my life are applicable to
(07:48):
leadership and thriving organizations.
So thriving community, thrivingorganizations, it's the same principles.
It's the same aspects.
It's all applicable.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (08:02):
I want to go back a little bit to when you
started your healing journey.
How did you be in that process?
And and what does it look like for you?
What has it been like?
Shana Francesca: Throughout my life, right? (08:13):
undefined
That I've went out there.
The last time was a couple of years ago.
I've had coaches and people along the way.
But ultimately, For me, healing reallystarted with understanding how to trust
myself, that I could trust myself, thatI had been taught not to trust myself
(08:34):
in order for the people in positionsof power to usurp my intuition.
So that they could exploit me.
And forgive me for those of you who arelistening, I have a little bit of a cold.
And so, it was a matter of firstlearning to listen to my intuition,
learning I could trust it,learning that I should trust it.
(08:55):
Yeah.
Because that's a whole other thing.
Like, you're like, should I trust it?
What if I'm just being triggered?
What if I'm being too much?
And I've been gaslit and lied toso much that I didn't even know
if I could or should trust myself.
Especially because I grew upin an environment where it was
white male dominant, right?
And so anybody who's not, you know,This man in a position of power there
(09:16):
are less worthy by default, right?
And so being a woman meant that likeI'm supposed to trust a man more than
myself And so learning to trust myselfabove all else Was the first thing
really that made a deep impact on myhealing forming community around myself.
I read a lot, right?
(09:37):
Books like trauma and recovery byJudith L Herman my grandmother's
hands by Resmaa Menakem.
Lots of stories of people whose, youknow, lives were difficult and found
their way to healing like my Dr.
Maya Angelou, so on and so forth, likejust really powerful, incredible human
beings who've been through a lot, right?
Teri Holland (09:59):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (10:01):
I think there's a, it's a book, I think there's
a, you should probably talk tosomebody about that or something.
I forget what it's something like that,but it's about a therapist who also sought
a therapist because they discovered theyreally should talk to someone about it.
Yeah.
I read a lot of books on psychology and.
You know, just all kinds of things tosupport myself and to better understand
(10:25):
my brain and my body's reaction, havingcomplex PTSD, all of these things, right?
So it's a, when we think, forme, when I think about healing and
when I think about life in general,it is never a singular thing.
Homogeneity is not, or singularity,is not an indication of life and so
(10:45):
when we're thinking about any aspectof our life, it has to be a diverse
environment, so diverse action, diverseenvironment so for me, I needed a
diverse array of community of peoplearound me who I could trust, who are
deeply invested in curiosity, respect,and accountability for themselves Yeah.
I had to be invested in those things formyself and hold myself accountable when
(11:09):
I was coming from a place of reactionary,triggered, you know, so on and so
forth and take accountability for that.
Yeah.
I had to know that the people aroundme would give me grace as well.
And then I had to like, Read and gethelp from professionals and coaches
and, you know, learn trial and error.
I mean, it was a whole arrayof things that came together
(11:33):
that helped me through my hand.
There's no silver bulletfor anything, right?
Literally.
And I think that's the placethat we have to get to.
When it comes to really anything that'sworth that's worth fighting for, right?
It's going to take more than one actionand it's going to take a variety of
actions and investments on our part.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (11:53):
Yeah.
When you were seeking out thatcommunity, how did you begin
to build that for yourself?
And you know, you'd mentionedlike how you were, you, you
didn't know how to trust yourself.
So how did you begin to know howto trust these people that you
were building relationships with?
Shana Francesca (12:11):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
And it was a decade ago.
So I, you know, I sitwith it oftentimes, right?
Because hindsight changes the waythat we, you know, in the moment,
Teri Holland (12:20):
I
Shana Francesca (12:21):
probably experienced it differently.
But now looking back, I think I found oneperson that showed up for me, extended
me grace and kindness, was consistent,whatever that looked like for them.
Consistent, not definedby me specifically, but
consistent, like consistent.
For themselves.
(12:42):
Because I think it's also reallyimportant that we recognize we don't
have the right to control other people.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I found thosepeople in my life and no shock.
They tended to be women.
And as I engaged in relationshipwith this one person, I can,
I'm thinking of her right now.
She then It started introducing meto other people and gave me the
(13:07):
opportunity to meet other people.
And then there were some people in mylife who I just got honest with, right?
I found the power to share my story.
In ways that I felt safe in ways that feltappropriate for our relationship, right?
Because trauma dumping is a thing and wecan't don't make yourself bad or wrong
if you do it because it's human nature.
(13:27):
But maybe trauma dump to thetherapist professional, right?
Or your mom, if your momisn't for you, right?
And just slowly built, right?
You just you learn by doing.
You can spend all the rest of yourlife in a classroom learning, but
like, until you actually are gaininginformation until you actually engage
(13:49):
with that information, you're reallynot learning it and embodying it.
So I had to learn how to embody myhealing by practicing boundaries with the
people around me by setting expectations,knowing I had a right to set expectations
and the relationships around me.
And by doing so, it.
Provided a lot of clarity and a limb andhelped to eliminate frustration, right?
(14:12):
So if I approach you right sothink about deciding for me to
become a guest on this show, right?
I said here's how I think I cancontribute to your podcast and you said
you took in that information You saidI think you can I think it's great.
And so we both expressed right and Ichose to reach out to you because in your
(14:32):
profile as a host, you expressed yourintention for your podcast and the kind
of people you're looking to connect with.
And that resonated with me.
So both of us had the opportunity toextend our intentions for one another
to engage with those intentions, tochoose whether or not we aligned with
those intentions and then to chooseto be part of this conversation.
(14:52):
That process has to be the samefor all of our relationships.
And that's really the process ofhow communication is meant to go.
And it's not meant to be a one time thing.
It's meant to be a continuousaction in our relationships.
Yeah.
And that's where thecuriosity part comes in.
Is continually being curiousabout the ways in which the
(15:13):
people we want to and are activelycultivating relationship with.
With learned new things, want to showup differently, so on and so forth.
Expanded, you know, moved directions,so on and so forth, right?
We have to continuallycultivate our curiosity, right?
And so, these are just the things that Idid to, you know, move through my healing.
(15:34):
And I'm still doing.
Still do.
Yeah.
And there's sometimes people come alongin your healing journey, and they're meant
to teach you something for a brief periodof time, and then you're meant to move on.
And there's people who are goingto be part of your life and part of
your healing journey for decades.
And some for a year or two, and some forfive, or some for, some people, sometimes
you'll have that interaction with a randomstranger at the grocery store and they
(15:58):
impart such incredible love and wisdom toyou in five minutes or 30 seconds, right?
I just take in all the moments asbest as I can and engage with them
and recognize that, you know, eachmoment I'm showing up as a more healed
version of myself because I'm dedicatedto all of these aspects in my life.
so much.
(16:18):
Fantastic.
Teri Holland (16:20):
You've mentioned ethical leadership and what is, how
would you define ethical leadership,and what it looks like for us?
Shana Francesca (16:29):
Yeah, how I define it is, the combination of curiosity,
respect and accountability, right?
So when we talk about leadership,again, it's a relationship with
those we're leading, right?
Yeah.
And when we are looking to leadpeople, it's not about imposing
our will on them, but rather Again,just like we talked about with
(16:50):
choosing this podcast right here.
If we looked at interviewingprocesses the same way, right?
What's your intention forwanting to come and work here?
You know you as the employer or leader,you're sharing your intention for
somebody who wants to come work there.
Then you're deciding whetheror not your intentions align.
And then staying curious about.
(17:11):
You know, one another, the leader'sresponsibilities to continue conveying the
vision and the and providing the supportfor your people and creating a culture
of inclusivity and hiring a diverse arrayof people and you as the employee, you
know, you're continually wanting to.
Be understood, right?
(17:32):
To know that who you are showingup as you're learning, growing and
changing that there is space androom for you to grow and change and
move within, inside of an organization.
And that, and again, so that'sa relationship and it requires
curiosity, respect and accountability.
And I walk people because the beginningof, if you're not curious about who
(17:54):
someone is and how they want to show upin the world, there's no relationship.
And then Without respect, right?
Things can get weird,
Teri Holland (18:05):
right?
Shana Francesca (18:06):
Just for instance, right?
If you and I know each other, right?
I walk up, even though we know eachother, I walk up to just randomly like
boop your nose or like glasses, right?
That's weird.
It's intrusive.
So curiosity, because I'm like,I'm curious to see what your
prescription level on your glasses is.
(18:26):
I want to try it for myself.
So I take your glassesand I put them on myself.
Well, that's weird.
Yeah.
It's lacking respect.
It's lacking understanding of boundaries.
So curiosity has to bebalanced out by respect.
That's why they go hand in hand.
And I'd love to put it this way is thatcuriosity without respect is intrusive and
respect without curiosity is uneducated.
(18:48):
So they must go hand in hand, right?
Teri Holland (18:50):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (18:51):
And then they are made significantly more powerful
when we engage with accountability.
Now, accountability is not Punishment.
And it's also not us comingto someone and just asking for
forgiveness and then walking away.
Being like, I'm sorry.
(19:12):
Okay.
Clean slate.
Let's go forward.
No, an apology is not accountability.
Right?
Oftentimes we use an apology to tryto escape accountability, right?
To try to escape past it, to just move on.
Yeah.
Accountability.
Is us taking responsibility forthe impact of our actions on the
people and the lives who have beenimpacted, and then getting curious
(19:37):
about how we can learn more, right.
And learning more and then doingbetter so that we mitigate and
eliminate the harm moving forward.
And so again the formula justkeeps coming back and looping
back around, curiosity is tiedto respect and accountability is
deeply tied to curiosity, right?
(19:57):
So they all just keepfunneling back to each other.
And when we do that, when we trulyembrace what ethical, intentional
and ethical relationship actually isand understand how powerful it is we
recognize as leaders, then we can createour organization as a bubble of life.
Right now it's functioning.
Now it can function as an ecosystem, agroup of people whose diverse array of
(20:20):
understanding experience in the worldcan work together to create a bubble
of life, to thrive together, to driveinnovation, to drive profitability.
So it really becomes thisbeautiful outgrowth, right?
Of understanding that the foundationof leadership is relationship.
Teri Holland (20:40):
I love that description.
I love how you just explained that.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about your business?
And then what was that firstyear of business like for
you when you were starting?
Shana Francesca (20:54):
So spoiler alert, I started my business
as an interior design firm.
So that's what I went toschool for is interior design.
And there's a whole story behindthat, but we'll skip that for now.
But the point is that in growing upthe environments that I, uh, grew up
in, I began to recognize the powerof physical environments and how
(21:16):
they are direct reflections of ourbeliefs about ourselves and also
can be vision boards for our life.
And so I wanted to be the person whofacilitated and empowered people to create
authentic reflections of themselves.
And oftentimes we get stuck, right?
We see ourselves in one way, but otherpeople have Beautiful perceptions
(21:39):
of who we are that we can't see.
And so I love being the mirror for myclients, them telling me who they were
and me being able to distill that and mefunctioning as the mirror and reflecting
back to them how incredible I saw themas and crafting an environment that
empowered them and functioned likethe stage from which they tell the story
of their life, whether that's for theirbusiness, for their restaurant, for their
(22:03):
home, whatever the project was, creatingit as an, as a stage from which to tell
this, tell the story of their life.
Again, not in a performative way.
But in a way that when you walk intolike a Broadway play, or even if you
saw like a show like Hamilton, and yousaw the recording of the Broadway play,
(22:24):
there's a stage set that supports theactors in the story they're telling you
and helps to give more context and givesthe actors tools and so on and so forth.
So yes, they are performing but Ifwe think about it for our lives us
having the tools to be able to havean environment where we can foster
(22:45):
relationship and foster community or growour organization, so on and so forth,
is really important at being set up to.
with our goals and ourintentions is really important.
But eventually along the way I realizedthat the conversations I was having
with people about the story they wantedtheir life to tell or the story they
(23:06):
wanted their business to tell, so onand so forth, was really powerful.
And we were diving into the conversationsabout how I saw leadership and how
we show up as, you know, intentionaland ethical humans and how we
foster community around ourselves.
So we were essentially had thislike coaching relationship that
then manifested into an interiordesign, my interior design work.
(23:30):
And then I realized, uh, cause one ofmy clients brought it to my attention.
He's like, I tell everybody who aremy coach and my interior designer.
And I'm like, you do.
He's like, yeah, because that's whatI'm like, of course it's what I do.
But like, I didn't realizeyou also saw it that way.
Yeah.
That it was valuable to you in that way.
(23:50):
And I, and what's funny is I hadbeen leading group coaching for
two and a half years for smallbusiness owners and leaders, right?
So I was doing all of these things thatwere around leadership and the knowledge
I had cultivated and understood, right?
For at that point, five years of research.
But I wasn't giving myself permission tolet go of interior design as the medium
(24:14):
for these these concepts, these ideas.
And so eventually I did.
So about three years ago is when I reallymade the decision to pursue having these
conversations in bolder, Larger waysright and letting go of interior design
is the media and it doesn't mean I don'tstill take on interiors and clients I
(24:35):
do just not as frequently as I used toand it's much more intentional about who
I work with and so on and so forth, youknow letting go of that and then being
able to allow myself to take on morespeaking engagements And create works,
specifically create workshops, right?
Because I've been leading group coaching.
So I had so much wealth of material andunderstanding that I could then turn
(24:55):
into workshops and so on and so forth.
And it just, it was so freeing to Imean, I really guess I was holding
onto imposter syndrome at the time.
I was like, well, I'm just aninterior designer and I don't get to.
show up in the world as anything else.
But so many people are like, no youare showing up in the world as something
other than an interior designer.
(25:16):
You're just not giving yourselfpermission to see how valuable it is.
And when I did, it changedeverything and I rebranded my
business and then here we are today.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (25:27):
Yeah.
That's, you know, and I love storieslike that because I find that with so
many of the entrepreneurs that I workwith and also who come on as guests of
the, on the show is that they end upcreating something that really, They
didn't realize they were creating,they end up with this business that's
totally aligned with them, but that'snot how they started on their journey.
(25:47):
And it's so fascinating to mehow that plays out over and over
Shana Francesca (25:51):
in all
Teri Holland (25:52):
these conversations that I'm having is they start in one
direction and then suddenly it opensup this Whole other thing for them.
That's what they're meant to be doing.
Shana Francesca (26:01):
Yeah.
And it's why curiosity is so deeplyimportant, especially as an entrepreneur.
I mean, we know most businesses failin the first year and those don't
fail in the first field by the third.
And it's a very small percentagethat make it past year three.
And I really truly believe it's thosewho really, especially for people like
(26:22):
myself, and I don't know about you,but those who have bootstrapped their
businesses like myself, it required a heckof a lot of curiosity to keep going past
year three and year four and year five.
And, you know I started mybusiness part time in 2016.
Rebranded it and relaunched it in 2020during the pandemic shutdown, right?
(26:42):
Yeah.
And so it's now been, I guess, almostfour years under the rebranded name.
So, you know, it's been a long time.
It's been since 2016.
It's a very long journey and it's, youknow, it requires, to be successful, it
requires community, which means we haveto be invested in relationship, which
means we need to be invested in curiosity.
Teri Holland (27:01):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tell us about the rebrand and whatthat was like for you and also the
name and the story behind it.
Shana Francesca (27:11):
My phone is right here so that I can pull up the definition
because I really should have it.
And if I trusted myself, I probablyhave it memorized at this point, but I
love to just bring it up and read it.
So when I decided that I was going toreally rebrand the business, I thought,
I don't, Now I realize how little I know.
And I don't know what directionmy business is going to take what
(27:33):
exactly what direction it's goingto go, where it's going to take me.
But I do know that I have thisdeep commitment to intentionality.
And that is something that has never left.
It's always been there.
Excuse me.
And so because of that, I was seekinga name and I wasn't going to launch
the rebrand until I found the name.
(27:54):
And it took me two years.
I mean, I read, I wrotedown our company values.
I was writing down my mission.
I had written down like so many, Iwas just moving through all of this
giving language to all the thingsI felt about the direction I, you
know, I wanted the business to goand I just couldn't find the name.
(28:16):
And then a friend of mine text me.
A vocab word because I'm a super nerdand I text each other weird words.
Teri Holland (28:24):
That's awesome.
Shana Francesca (28:27):
And so I used to read the dictionary as a kid.
And so like some of my friendsknow that and also did the same.
And so they're like, Ohmy God, I found this word.
And so she texts me this word, consignity.
And I was like, Oh.
That has a nice rhythm to itand I wonder what it means.
And it was like harmony, but specificallyto do with an intentionality, but
(28:49):
specifically to do with music.
And I was like, I loved that definition,but it doesn't, we're not a music
company, so it doesn't work for us.
And then I started huntingaround for related words and I
found the word consonate, whichis the name of my business.
And it means to arrange or blendtogether skillfully as parts or
elements put together in a harmonious,precisely appropriate or elegant manner.
(29:13):
Cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's in, it's a beautiful way oftalking about intentionality, right?
In a really precise,really incredible way.
And I was like, this feels like aword that can hold the weight of
whatever direction this business.
Yes.
And I also was very intentional.
I did not want the businessto have my name anymore.
(29:34):
I never wanted it to have my namein the beginning, uh, to begin
with because I wanted there to bethe opportunity for succession.
I also didn't want it to be like so many,I think it's hard when somebody's name
is on the business to not hold them.
Above and put them on a pedestal, right?
Teri Holland (29:55):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (29:56):
And if I'm working hard, since I'm working hard, not if, since I'm
working hard to create an equitable workenvironment within my own organization
and empowering that in other people'sorganizations, it felt counter productive
to center myself in all of that.
So I really just needed to get my nameoff the door and get something that
(30:17):
powerfully held what it is I wantedto be a part of creating in the world.
Teri Holland (30:22):
That's amazing.
It's, uh, it's funny because mybusiness name is my name, but that's
because I couldn't think of anything.
I hate naming things.
Shana Francesca (30:31):
That's what happened to me.
I named it myself because I didn't have,and I think that's fine for other people.
Like, for sure.
It all depends on what you're creatingand how you're creating it, right?
If you're mostly when coachingand, you know, want to, it helps
for it to be your name for sure.
Because people need to connect to that.
(30:51):
But I knew I wanted to createsomething that turned more into a
firm where I could bring other peoplein and we're doing this together.
And it's not just me.
coaching people directly, not just me.
And we're creating something bigger.
And because of that, I was like, I justdon't want to have my name on the door.
Teri Holland (31:07):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Shana Francesca (31:09):
But when you're, you know, a smaller organization and
you're the one doing all the things,you know, it kind of makes sense.
Yeah.
Probably more beneficial to have your
Teri Holland (31:18):
name on it.
Yeah.
And I just hate thinking of names.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Shana Francesca (31:22):
I did too.
I mean, my first businessname was SF design.
That's what it was.
It was so
Teri Holland (31:28):
yeah, my
Shana Francesca (31:28):
initials and design slapped right on there.
Teri Holland (31:32):
Yeah.
Perfect.
And at that time that was probablyworked for where you were in
business and what you were doing.
Absolutely.
Shana Francesca (31:41):
Absolutely.
And I probably wouldn't have changedit if I stayed with interior design.
Yeah.
Wouldn't have.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (31:48):
What are some lessons that you've learned along the way in business
that have either transformed you orthat you wish you just didn't have to
experience and how you got through it?
Somebody asked me this the other
Shana Francesca (31:59):
day and I was
Teri Holland (31:59):
like,
Shana Francesca (32:00):
Oh no, that came up to me.
I was like, I spent like 20grand on marketing in the
first two years of business.
Oh, between having a website builtfor me and like sponsoring events
so that my knit, you know, like just,and then paying for marketing through
different websites and magazines andnone of it turned into any business.
(32:26):
Actually, that's not true.
One thing gave me one client.
And no, it didn't recoup that 20 grade.
Yeah.
And so, you know, that one clientis an incredible client and still
a client to this day actually.
Nice.
All of my existing clients still useme as their interior designer, right?
But yeah, no I think it'sreally important for you to
(32:50):
be careful with whatyou're spending marketing.
You don't even know, like for me, I didn'teven, I hadn't built enough to market.
Yeah.
Have to build.
And it didn't make sense to me.
I didn't really understand this, thatlike, there's a certain amount of
building that happens to has to happenbefore you can market yourself, before
(33:10):
you can say you should pick me.
There's a certain amount of experience,there's a certain amount of honing
the message and the language,and that takes some time, right?
Yes.
And some people can do it beforethey launch their business, but I
got started with my business becauseI was already an interior designer,
it's already what I'd been doing, andI just kind of moved forward with who
I was and so on and so forth, right?
(33:32):
Yeah.
And so, yeah, I, I wish Ihadn't spent that 20 grand.
Now I do most of my marketingthrough having conversations
like this on podcasts.
It helps me to to get immediatefeedback because the hosts are, you
know, asking questions based on howI'm sharing information and, you
know, kind of tailoring it to it and,you know, directing the conversation
(33:56):
for their specific audience.
So you're learning how to haveconversations with Specific audiences.
I mean, there's so much to gleanfrom just practicing your message
in a variety of rooms and spacesand doing it for little or no money.
And then being able to onceyou've built that name for
(34:17):
yourself now, it might become.
More beneficial, right?
Like now in this next year, I'mlooking to hire a PR person next year.
Nice.
To be able to kind of get me to that nextlevel because I've been able to get myself
published in places like Medium and ThriveGlobal and so on and so forth, right?
But to get to that next level,it's going to take somebody who
has more experience and more time.
(34:41):
To do those things that I'm, thatI have, but I don't think I'm
going to hire a marketing firm.
I'm going to hire a PR person.
Smart.
So, excuse me.
So, I don't know.
You just learn along the way.
You're going to make mistakesand it's hard not to.
Yeah.
But those failures arespringboards for learning.
Absolutely, you know, and that's the thingI've just gotten used to is like I'm gonna
(35:04):
mess up I'm going to make weird decisionsbased on what information I have and then
realize after I've made them Oh shoot.
I didn't have enough information andthen I'm gonna make a better decision
I'm gonna learn and grow and keepmoving forward right nice and that's
you know, ultimately even though Iwish I hadn't spent that 20 grand still
to this day I, uh, I'm glad that Ilearned it early and learned it quick.
(35:29):
So I didn't keep throwinggood money after bad.
Teri Holland (35:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
And just think of it as20 grand in education.
Shana Francesca (35:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Now I built my own website and I'm gunshy about hiring anyone else to create.
I'm the same.
It hurts.
I'm like, I don't, nope.
My, I had a terrible experiencewith two different people.
No, thank you.
I'll just hire
Teri Holland (35:58):
someone in house to do it someday.
Yeah, exactly.
I did the same thing.
So I totally relate to whatyou're talking about with that.
I did the same thing.
For me, it was, I hired someone todo my branding before I even knew Who
I was or how I wanted to be seen inbusiness or how I wanted to show up.
Shana Francesca (36:16):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (36:16):
And within, not even a year, within like eight
months, I was like, this isn't me.
This doesn't look like me.
These aren't, this isn'thow I wanna present myself.
Shana Francesca (36:26):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (36:26):
And uh, and I did the same with my website.
Hired someone.
It was a terribleexperience and now I just.
Shana Francesca (36:32):
Yeah.
I actually hired a firm just tocreate my website and they insisted
on creating my branding first.
And I was like, I alreadygave you my branding.
I already told you who I am.
Here's all the copy.
Teri Holland (36:41):
Oh, wow.
Shana Francesca (36:42):
Here's all the brand colors.
Here's the fonts.
Here's all the imagery.
Here's the outline of howit's going to show up.
So on and so forth.
And they just kept focusing on branding.
I'm like, I already told you who I am.
And they kept trying to gear me towardsthis like very Canva Pinterest, you
know, pale pink, neutral color, butthere was very popular at the time.
This was like five years ago.
(37:04):
I was like I'm not the popular it girl.
I'm me.
And I want my website.
to have like teal and black andbe anchored and grounded but also
have bright colors and I don't wantjust specific colors to show up.
Like, I want my logo in blackand white and I want to be able
to use whatever colors I want.
(37:26):
I don't know.
So it was just a terrible, andafter a year and a half, I fired them
after spending thousands, literallynothing for it because I didn't
want anything they had created.
So don't do that.
Yeah.
Both of us have similar experiences.
Teri Holland (37:42):
Don't do that.
Don't do that.
No.
So what is life like foryou now in your business?
And can you tell us also aboutcreating an intentional life?
Yeah, how you've designed your
Shana Francesca (37:56):
Yeah, so funny, because my, Thoughts and visions of what my life
would look like have changed so many timesand I imagine they're going to change a
heck of a lot more times at the moment.
I'm living near family.
We're all kind of within a coupleblock radius of one another because
my one sister had a baby duringCOVID and she's now pregnant again.
(38:18):
And my other sister's daughterat the beginning of COVID
was three and now is eight.
And I'm the, you know, unmarried,don't want to have kids aunt, you
know, who's like, Oh, like theycall like, Hey, can I drop her off?
You know, can you watch her for a fewhours or, you know, we're going out, can
you watch her for the night type person?
I'm their community, I'm their support.
(38:39):
And you know, for a long time I thoughtI would just stay ran away from home.
Like I would never come back.
And after 10 years I,you know, came back home.
And so for me, it's about.
It's about knowing who I am andcreating the freedom and safety.
I, you know, a long time ago Idecided I, I wanted the freedom to
(38:59):
be able to do with my business whatI wanted to be able to do with it.
And that was my intention for my life.
Yeah.
And so then I realized that Iactually didn't want to get married.
And I didn't want to have kids andI didn't feel like those things were
going to validate my existence or makeme any more valid as a human being.
And so I released them.
And it's funny because Wonder Womanhas always been this kind of fictional
(39:23):
character that I always felt connected to.
And at some point I realized, you know,Wonder Woman was Wonder Woman because she
wasn't married and she didn't have kids.
Teri Holland (39:30):
Yep.
Shana Francesca (39:32):
She didn't do everything.
And we don't have to do everything andwe can make that choice for ourselves.
So I made that choice formyself and that's what my
intentionality looks like for me.
So that when someone hires me, Idon't have to worry about, you know,
and I love dogs, I love animals, butI don't have them because I don't
have to worry about working late,coming home late, so on and so forth.
(39:53):
I don't have to worryabout any of those things.
Plus my siblings have dogs, so Icould just snuggle with their dogs.
Perfect.
You know what I mean?
Surrogate dogs.
Yeah.
And so, and many of my friends do as well.
So like cats and animals that love me.
And so I just go get mysnuggles in and then I go home.
Nice.
So that's for me, that's intentionalityis me being able to take on the work
(40:15):
that I want to take on and being ableto do it without having, you know,
specific restrictions, but stillbeing grounded in community, but that
community being defined the way that Iwant it and need it to show up, right?
Instead of how other people do.
So, and that allows me to balance, right?
So when I have a big project that's dueand I need to work, I don't have to worry
about feeding someone other than myself.
(40:37):
I don't have to worry about, you know,hurting someone's feelings because
I'm not spending so on and so forth.
And then also, when I'm done working,then I can take care of myself, right?
And I can go out with my girlfriends,and I can spend time with people
I love, and I can reconnect to mycommunity, and I can gain that kind
of support and love that I need.
(40:58):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (40:59):
Excellent.
So, if people listening want to reach outto you or learn more about your workshops
and everything that you offer, what'sthe best place to connect with you?
Shana Francesca (41:09):
Yeah, head to my website, it's www.
consonate.
world, you're probably going tohave to put the W's in the first
time you put it in because it'sdot world, not dot com, dot org.
So your computer's going to be like,do you know where you're going?
And you're going to haveto be like, yes I do, www.
And I'm sure the website willbe tagged in the show notes.
All my contact information isthere, information about me as a
(41:30):
speaker and about my workshops,articles that I've written, podcasts
I've been on, like this one.
There's links there for all that stuff,testimonials, so on and so forth, and
there's some free resources as well.
If you're an individual looking for that.
And then I offer my Workshops, obviouslycorporations, you know they're paying
(41:51):
a hefty fee to have me come in half aday, but I want to make sure there's
a democratization of informationand that small business owners have
access to that information as well.
And so I offer my workshopsin a condensed form through my
website for a hundred dollars.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So definitely head that way.
If that's something you'dwant to be engaging with.
Teri Holland (42:10):
Perfect.
Have you ever wanted to launchyour own podcast, but maybe you
just don't know where to start?
I've got you covered.
Go to my website, grab my podcastlaunch strategy checklist.
It's free.
It's in the show notes and it will giveyou a checklist of everything you need
to consider from your concept all theway through to launch and promotion.
(42:32):
Grab it today.
It's in the show notes.
have some rapid fire questions for you.
Go for it.
Ready?
Uh, favorite
Shana Francesca (42:40):
book.
Oh, right now I will say HowWe Show Up by Mia Birdsong.
Nice.
Favorite food.
Oh, it's hard.
Pizza, probably.
Teri Holland (42:50):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (42:51):
Yeah.
Good choice.
Good choice.
Or like hamburgers.
That's why I was like, it's hard.
I also love a good cheeseburger, you know?
Teri Holland (42:58):
Yeah, I get it.
I get it.
Uh, biggest pet peeve?
Shana Francesca (43:03):
I would say, like making yourself two at home, like with, like
when people come and they just like kickoff their shoes in the middle of the
floor, I'm gonna, here's why it bothersme, is because I'm gonna trip over them.
You got to tuck them away.
You got to tuck them away.
I'm going to, I'm going to, like, even ifyou put them in front of yourself in front
(43:24):
of the sofa, I'm going to walk in front ofyou to get to the bathroom or something.
And I'm going to trip right over them.
So they have to be out of walking paths.
Right.
Teri Holland (43:34):
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Who inspires you?
Shana Francesca (43:40):
There's so many.
People that I've gotten to knowwho've made like such incredible,
brave decisions in their lives.
Right now I'm, I just startedreading Madeline Pendleton's book.
I survived capitalism and all I gotwas this t shirt and she is this
incredible creator on Tik TOK who hasan incredible business and, you know,
(44:01):
absolutely love and appreciate theway that she shows up in the world.
And so she absolutely inspires me.
Teri Holland (44:07):
Perfect.
What are three things you takewith you to a deserted island?
Shana Francesca (44:13):
Shampoo.
Teri Holland (44:14):
Oh,
Shana Francesca (44:14):
yeah.
Yes.
Shampoo, body wash.
And probably food.
I mean, well, yeah.
Yeah.
Does the island have food?
Yeah, let's say it has food.
Let's say it has food.
Yeah.
Then probably like lotion.
Like I'm going to take care of my skin.
(44:35):
I'm going to need sunscreen.
Yes.
You know, a lotion with sunscreenso I don't turn into a raisin.
Nice.
Teri Holland (44:42):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good call.
A celebrity you would like tohave dinner with, dead or alive?
Shana Francesca (44:48):
I would love to have dinner with Dr.
Maya Angelou.
Teri Holland (44:54):
Oh, yeah.
Shana Francesca (44:55):
Yeah.
Would love to have dinner with, for sure.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (44:58):
Yeah.
That'd be amazing.
Shana Francesca (45:00):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (45:01):
And your go to karaoke song.
Shana Francesca (45:04):
Oh my gosh.
Oh, so I don't know if people knowwho Ina is I N A is her name.
She is a multilingual artist who'sfrom, I think it's Romania.
I might be making that up.
Anyway, she has this song called Senorita. I'm going to have to check it out.
(45:24):
I don't know that one.
Yeah.
You should listen to her music.
I mean, it's great for likegetting your energy up.
She's a whole vibe.
She's an incredible.
Teri Holland (45:32):
Yeah.
Oh, definitely going to check her out.
Thanks for that.
And any last final thoughts or wordsthat you want to leave our audience with?
Shana Francesca (45:41):
Yeah.
I think it's important for usto understand that our growth is
going to require us to be Right.
And I'm not talking about someone puttingyou in a position where you're unsafe,
but I do mean uncomfortable, right?
And Learning to regulate that's not wrong.
Yeah, and that We're going tobe dysregulated and that doesn't
(46:03):
give us a right to lash out tothe people around us, right?
We're gonna have to sit withit and be present and recognize
that it's your vulnerability.
You're not used to it We're gonna haveto get used to it right in order to
make the change we want to see in theworld We've got to get comfortable
with being uncomfortable Perfect.
Teri Holland (46:21):
Well, thank you so much Shana.
I really appreciate you spendingsome time with us today.
Thank you for being here
Shana Francesca (46:27):
Thanks for having me
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
And if you did enjoy this episode andyou want to learn more about Shana
and you want to hear more from her,then definitely check out her website.
The link is in the show notes,but also go follow her on Tik Tok.
I've been following her there and I loveher content and what she has to say.
(46:50):
So I suggest you give her a followand you'll really get a sense of
who she is and what she stands for.
She creates really great content there.
So check out her TikTok, look at thewebsite, and of course, obviously
share this episode with a friend whoyou think will get value out of it.
And then leave me your five star review.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
(47:11):
Have a fantastic day.
And I'll be back again on Thursday.
Bye for now, friends.
an apology is not accountability.
(00:02):
Right?
Oftentimes we use an apology to tryto escape accountability, right?
To try to escape past it, to just move on.
Yeah.
Accountability.
Is us taking responsibility forthe impact of our actions on the
people and the lives who have beenimpacted, and then getting curious
about how we can learn more, right.
(00:23):
And learning more and then doingbetter so that we mitigate and
eliminate the harm moving forward.
Teri Holland (00:30):
Welcome back to another episode of Success in Mind.
Today I am joined by Shana Francesca.
She is a keynote speaker,consultant, workshop facilitator,
and scholar of intentional andethical leadership and living.
She's the founder and CEO of Consonate.
Shana has been interviewed onmore than 100 podcasts worldwide
(00:52):
and has been published in Medium,Authority Magazine, Shout Out L.
A., Emotional IntelligenceMagazine, and Emerge Magazine.
Shana has worked with clientslike the Council for Brain Injury,
the Boys and Girls Club, and theMainline Chamber of Commerce.
Shana believes our present and future aretransformed when we infuse our lives with
(01:12):
intention, design our lives, and realizethe power in continually practicing
curiosity, respect, and accountability.
If you want to be a stronger leader,if you want to develop better
relationships with your teams, withpeople in your lives, and you want
to have better conversations, thisepisode is a must listen for you.
(01:36):
You're listening to Success inMind, the show for high performing
leaders, changemakers, andentrepreneurs ready to take your
life and business to the next level.
If you're ready for wholelife success, keep listening.
Hi, Shana.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, Teri.
I'm glad to be here.
So I have been looking forward to thisconversation because I, you know, of
(01:59):
course, reading through your bio and allof your information and stuff and just
found your story really interesting.
So let's start there.
Let's start with what led you into havingthe business that you have today and
how you found yourself on this path.
Shana Francesca (02:14):
Yeah.
Oh gosh.
Yeah.
So let's start at the beginning.
So I was born into an abusivehousehold and raised inside of
an evangelical Christian cult.
And it encompassed my entire life.
So I went to the school that was partof the church that was the cult, right?
And then I had thisreally extension of that.
high control religiousenvironment at home.
(02:36):
And so really just amplified theamount of coercion and manipulation
that was showing up in my life.
And when you're in those environments,it is impossible, it is unsafe to show up
as yourself, to even consider exploringwho you are and how you want to show up
(02:56):
in the world, because you know that theminute you would discover that and bring
that into the world, it would be somethingthat could be and would be attacked,
used against you, so on and so forth.
And so you have to hold on to who youare and keep it inside of yourself.
And so there's a There's, uh, twothings going on at the same time, right?
(03:19):
There's you not being able to matureas your authentic self, and having
to mature too quickly and functionas an adult, as a child, right?
In order to gain somesemblance of survival.
And so, you know, when I, left thoseenvironments at 26 was finally safe
(03:41):
to do that, had the ability to do that.
I started to, you know, it tooklike three years just to get my
feet underneath of me, and to, uh,just to like, It sheds some of the,
uh, significant amount of trigger.
You're triggered all the time, right?
When you grow up in those environments,you're constantly having to observe
(04:02):
the world around you and assumeit's going to attack you because
the world you came from did.
That always happened.
And so it took like threeyears to like settled in.
And kind of even be able tobegin my healing journey.
And then at 29, I moved to the cityof Philadelphia and I formed a new
community around myself and aroundmy learning and around my curiosity.
(04:27):
And I started to begin to recognize,cause at first you're like asking a
hundred thousand questions, right?
All the questions you couldn't ask whenyou were in those environments, right?
And then you start to settle inand you realize, wait a second,
there are definitely reflectionsof the environments I grew up in.
In our society at large, right?
(04:47):
And that's not just me being triggered.
It's real.
And it's because there are thesereflections in our society large, because
some of these beliefs are held andnormalized in our society at large, that
these extreme environments exist, likethey've taken these ideologies to the
extreme, that they not only exist, butare seen as normal and acceptable because
(05:12):
they're a natural foregone conclusion.
They are the natural end resultof these harmful beliefs, right?
And so as I was trying to discoverhow to show up as a human being,
not someone who like, because Ihadn't been taught how to be human.
I'd been taught how I had to learn.
I hadn't even been taught.
I had to learn how to survive rightinside of oppressive systems, both in our
(05:36):
society at large and in these communities.
High control environments.
As I learned how to become humanand how to become myself, there
was all this like healing that wasgoing on and all this exploration.
And so it started to push meinto discover, like, how do
I show up as a human being?
How do leaders show up as ethical?
(05:57):
What does healthy leadership look like?
What are those things, right?
And so it became this like more than now,more than a decade long, just consistent
learning and research and understandingof, okay, where do I see ethical
leadership or something that's strivingto be ethical leadership at minimum?
(06:19):
You know and how, what are the, whatare those environments dedicated to?
And then started to seethe through lines, right?
And it didn't take me long to figure outthat essentially it's all relationship.
Relationship with ourselves.
Relationship with the living world.
Leadership is a relationshipwith those that we lead.
(06:41):
And I think for many of us, we weren'ttaught what relationship really is.
I know I certainly wasn't, but, andit was more kind of just assumed like
proximity was a relationship, right?
You spend a lot of time withsomeone that's relationship.
But it's not really right.
We can spend a lot of time with someoneand know nothing about them and not be
(07:02):
engaged and interested in who they are andactually fostering relationship with them.
And so ultimately my work took me tothe place that all intentional and
ethical relationship and leadership.
requires curiosity, respectand accountability, right?
And so in establishing and workingthrough my own healing, wanting to
(07:27):
identify who are the kinds of people Iwant to surround myself with, and I'm
safe with, because I also believe thatAll real healing happens in community.
And I needed to know who I couldtrust to create that community.
Then also realizing that organizationsare communities, and realizing that
the same things that were applicableto my life are applicable to
(07:48):
leadership and thriving organizations.
So thriving community, thrivingorganizations, it's the same principles.
It's the same aspects.
It's all applicable.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (08:02):
I want to go back a little bit to when you
started your healing journey.
How did you be in that process?
And and what does it look like for you?
What has it been like?
Shana Francesca: Throughout my life, right? (08:13):
undefined
That I've went out there.
The last time was a couple of years ago.
I've had coaches and people along the way.
But ultimately, For me, healing reallystarted with understanding how to trust
myself, that I could trust myself, thatI had been taught not to trust myself
(08:34):
in order for the people in positionsof power to usurp my intuition.
So that they could exploit me.
And forgive me for those of you who arelistening, I have a little bit of a cold.
And so, it was a matter of firstlearning to listen to my intuition,
learning I could trust it,learning that I should trust it.
(08:55):
Yeah.
Because that's a whole other thing.
Like, you're like, should I trust it?
What if I'm just being triggered?
What if I'm being too much?
And I've been gaslit and lied toso much that I didn't even know
if I could or should trust myself.
Especially because I grew upin an environment where it was
white male dominant, right?
And so anybody who's not, you know,This man in a position of power there
(09:16):
are less worthy by default, right?
And so being a woman meant that likeI'm supposed to trust a man more than
myself And so learning to trust myselfabove all else Was the first thing
really that made a deep impact on myhealing forming community around myself.
I read a lot, right?
(09:37):
Books like trauma and recovery byJudith L Herman my grandmother's
hands by Resmaa Menakem.
Lots of stories of people whose, youknow, lives were difficult and found
their way to healing like my Dr.
Maya Angelou, so on and so forth, likejust really powerful, incredible human
beings who've been through a lot, right?
Teri Holland (09:59):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (10:01):
I think there's a, it's a book, I think there's
a, you should probably talk tosomebody about that or something.
I forget what it's something like that,but it's about a therapist who also sought
a therapist because they discovered theyreally should talk to someone about it.
Yeah.
I read a lot of books on psychology and.
You know, just all kinds of things tosupport myself and to better understand
(10:25):
my brain and my body's reaction, havingcomplex PTSD, all of these things, right?
So it's a, when we think, forme, when I think about healing and
when I think about life in general,it is never a singular thing.
Homogeneity is not, or singularity,is not an indication of life and so
(10:45):
when we're thinking about any aspectof our life, it has to be a diverse
environment, so diverse action, diverseenvironment so for me, I needed a
diverse array of community of peoplearound me who I could trust, who are
deeply invested in curiosity, respect,and accountability for themselves Yeah.
I had to be invested in those things formyself and hold myself accountable when
(11:09):
I was coming from a place of reactionary,triggered, you know, so on and so
forth and take accountability for that.
Yeah.
I had to know that the people aroundme would give me grace as well.
And then I had to like, Read and gethelp from professionals and coaches
and, you know, learn trial and error.
I mean, it was a whole arrayof things that came together
(11:33):
that helped me through my hand.
There's no silver bulletfor anything, right?
Literally.
And I think that's the placethat we have to get to.
When it comes to really anything that'sworth that's worth fighting for, right?
It's going to take more than one actionand it's going to take a variety of
actions and investments on our part.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (11:53):
Yeah.
When you were seeking out thatcommunity, how did you begin
to build that for yourself?
And you know, you'd mentionedlike how you were, you, you
didn't know how to trust yourself.
So how did you begin to know howto trust these people that you
were building relationships with?
Shana Francesca (12:11):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
And it was a decade ago.
So I, you know, I sitwith it oftentimes, right?
Because hindsight changes the waythat we, you know, in the moment,
Teri Holland (12:20):
I
Shana Francesca (12:21):
probably experienced it differently.
But now looking back, I think I found oneperson that showed up for me, extended
me grace and kindness, was consistent,whatever that looked like for them.
Consistent, not definedby me specifically, but
consistent, like consistent.
For themselves.
(12:42):
Because I think it's also reallyimportant that we recognize we don't
have the right to control other people.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I found thosepeople in my life and no shock.
They tended to be women.
And as I engaged in relationshipwith this one person, I can,
I'm thinking of her right now.
She then It started introducing meto other people and gave me the
(13:07):
opportunity to meet other people.
And then there were some people in mylife who I just got honest with, right?
I found the power to share my story.
In ways that I felt safe in ways that feltappropriate for our relationship, right?
Because trauma dumping is a thing and wecan't don't make yourself bad or wrong
if you do it because it's human nature.
(13:27):
But maybe trauma dump to thetherapist professional, right?
Or your mom, if your momisn't for you, right?
And just slowly built, right?
You just you learn by doing.
You can spend all the rest of yourlife in a classroom learning, but
like, until you actually are gaininginformation until you actually engage
(13:49):
with that information, you're reallynot learning it and embodying it.
So I had to learn how to embody myhealing by practicing boundaries with the
people around me by setting expectations,knowing I had a right to set expectations
and the relationships around me.
And by doing so, it.
Provided a lot of clarity and a limb andhelped to eliminate frustration, right?
(14:12):
So if I approach you right sothink about deciding for me to
become a guest on this show, right?
I said here's how I think I cancontribute to your podcast and you said
you took in that information You saidI think you can I think it's great.
And so we both expressed right and Ichose to reach out to you because in your
(14:32):
profile as a host, you expressed yourintention for your podcast and the kind
of people you're looking to connect with.
And that resonated with me.
So both of us had the opportunity toextend our intentions for one another
to engage with those intentions, tochoose whether or not we aligned with
those intentions and then to chooseto be part of this conversation.
(14:52):
That process has to be the samefor all of our relationships.
And that's really the process ofhow communication is meant to go.
And it's not meant to be a one time thing.
It's meant to be a continuousaction in our relationships.
Yeah.
And that's where thecuriosity part comes in.
Is continually being curiousabout the ways in which the
(15:13):
people we want to and are activelycultivating relationship with.
With learned new things, want to showup differently, so on and so forth.
Expanded, you know, moved directions,so on and so forth, right?
We have to continuallycultivate our curiosity, right?
And so, these are just the things that Idid to, you know, move through my healing.
(15:34):
And I'm still doing.
Still do.
Yeah.
And there's sometimes people come alongin your healing journey, and they're meant
to teach you something for a brief periodof time, and then you're meant to move on.
And there's people who are goingto be part of your life and part of
your healing journey for decades.
And some for a year or two, and some forfive, or some for, some people, sometimes
you'll have that interaction with a randomstranger at the grocery store and they
(15:58):
impart such incredible love and wisdom toyou in five minutes or 30 seconds, right?
I just take in all the moments asbest as I can and engage with them
and recognize that, you know, eachmoment I'm showing up as a more healed
version of myself because I'm dedicatedto all of these aspects in my life.
so much.
(16:18):
Fantastic.
Teri Holland (16:20):
You've mentioned ethical leadership and what is, how
would you define ethical leadership,and what it looks like for us?
Shana Francesca (16:29):
Yeah, how I define it is, the combination of curiosity,
respect and accountability, right?
So when we talk about leadership,again, it's a relationship with
those we're leading, right?
Yeah.
And when we are looking to leadpeople, it's not about imposing
our will on them, but rather Again,just like we talked about with
(16:50):
choosing this podcast right here.
If we looked at interviewingprocesses the same way, right?
What's your intention forwanting to come and work here?
You know you as the employer or leader,you're sharing your intention for
somebody who wants to come work there.
Then you're deciding whetheror not your intentions align.
And then staying curious about.
(17:11):
You know, one another, the leader'sresponsibilities to continue conveying the
vision and the and providing the supportfor your people and creating a culture
of inclusivity and hiring a diverse arrayof people and you as the employee, you
know, you're continually wanting to.
Be understood, right?
(17:32):
To know that who you are showingup as you're learning, growing and
changing that there is space androom for you to grow and change and
move within, inside of an organization.
And that, and again, so that'sa relationship and it requires
curiosity, respect and accountability.
And I walk people because the beginningof, if you're not curious about who
(17:54):
someone is and how they want to show upin the world, there's no relationship.
And then Without respect, right?
Things can get weird,
Teri Holland (18:05):
right?
Shana Francesca (18:06):
Just for instance, right?
If you and I know each other, right?
I walk up, even though we know eachother, I walk up to just randomly like
boop your nose or like glasses, right?
That's weird.
It's intrusive.
So curiosity, because I'm like,I'm curious to see what your
prescription level on your glasses is.
(18:26):
I want to try it for myself.
So I take your glassesand I put them on myself.
Well, that's weird.
Yeah.
It's lacking respect.
It's lacking understanding of boundaries.
So curiosity has to bebalanced out by respect.
That's why they go hand in hand.
And I'd love to put it this way is thatcuriosity without respect is intrusive and
respect without curiosity is uneducated.
(18:48):
So they must go hand in hand, right?
Teri Holland (18:50):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (18:51):
And then they are made significantly more powerful
when we engage with accountability.
Now, accountability is not Punishment.
And it's also not us comingto someone and just asking for
forgiveness and then walking away.
Being like, I'm sorry.
(19:12):
Okay.
Clean slate.
Let's go forward.
No, an apology is not accountability.
Right?
Oftentimes we use an apology to tryto escape accountability, right?
To try to escape past it, to just move on.
Yeah.
Accountability.
Is us taking responsibility forthe impact of our actions on the
people and the lives who have beenimpacted, and then getting curious
(19:37):
about how we can learn more, right.
And learning more and then doingbetter so that we mitigate and
eliminate the harm moving forward.
And so again the formula justkeeps coming back and looping
back around, curiosity is tiedto respect and accountability is
deeply tied to curiosity, right?
(19:57):
So they all just keepfunneling back to each other.
And when we do that, when we trulyembrace what ethical, intentional
and ethical relationship actually isand understand how powerful it is we
recognize as leaders, then we can createour organization as a bubble of life.
Right now it's functioning.
Now it can function as an ecosystem, agroup of people whose diverse array of
(20:20):
understanding experience in the worldcan work together to create a bubble
of life, to thrive together, to driveinnovation, to drive profitability.
So it really becomes thisbeautiful outgrowth, right?
Of understanding that the foundationof leadership is relationship.
Teri Holland (20:40):
I love that description.
I love how you just explained that.
That's amazing.
Thank you.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about your business?
And then what was that firstyear of business like for
you when you were starting?
Shana Francesca (20:54):
So spoiler alert, I started my business
as an interior design firm.
So that's what I went toschool for is interior design.
And there's a whole story behindthat, but we'll skip that for now.
But the point is that in growing upthe environments that I, uh, grew up
in, I began to recognize the powerof physical environments and how
(21:16):
they are direct reflections of ourbeliefs about ourselves and also
can be vision boards for our life.
And so I wanted to be the person whofacilitated and empowered people to create
authentic reflections of themselves.
And oftentimes we get stuck, right?
We see ourselves in one way, but otherpeople have Beautiful perceptions
(21:39):
of who we are that we can't see.
And so I love being the mirror for myclients, them telling me who they were
and me being able to distill that and mefunctioning as the mirror and reflecting
back to them how incredible I saw themas and crafting an environment that
empowered them and functioned likethe stage from which they tell the story
of their life, whether that's for theirbusiness, for their restaurant, for their
(22:03):
home, whatever the project was, creatingit as an, as a stage from which to tell
this, tell the story of their life.
Again, not in a performative way.
But in a way that when you walk intolike a Broadway play, or even if you
saw like a show like Hamilton, and yousaw the recording of the Broadway play,
(22:24):
there's a stage set that supports theactors in the story they're telling you
and helps to give more context and givesthe actors tools and so on and so forth.
So yes, they are performing but Ifwe think about it for our lives us
having the tools to be able to havean environment where we can foster
(22:45):
relationship and foster community or growour organization, so on and so forth,
is really important at being set up to.
with our goals and ourintentions is really important.
But eventually along the way I realizedthat the conversations I was having
with people about the story they wantedtheir life to tell or the story they
(23:06):
wanted their business to tell, so onand so forth, was really powerful.
And we were diving into the conversationsabout how I saw leadership and how
we show up as, you know, intentionaland ethical humans and how we
foster community around ourselves.
So we were essentially had thislike coaching relationship that
then manifested into an interiordesign, my interior design work.
(23:30):
And then I realized, uh, cause one ofmy clients brought it to my attention.
He's like, I tell everybody who aremy coach and my interior designer.
And I'm like, you do.
He's like, yeah, because that's whatI'm like, of course it's what I do.
But like, I didn't realizeyou also saw it that way.
Yeah.
That it was valuable to you in that way.
(23:50):
And I, and what's funny is I hadbeen leading group coaching for
two and a half years for smallbusiness owners and leaders, right?
So I was doing all of these things thatwere around leadership and the knowledge
I had cultivated and understood, right?
For at that point, five years of research.
But I wasn't giving myself permission tolet go of interior design as the medium
(24:14):
for these these concepts, these ideas.
And so eventually I did.
So about three years ago is when I reallymade the decision to pursue having these
conversations in bolder, Larger waysright and letting go of interior design
is the media and it doesn't mean I don'tstill take on interiors and clients I
(24:35):
do just not as frequently as I used toand it's much more intentional about who
I work with and so on and so forth, youknow letting go of that and then being
able to allow myself to take on morespeaking engagements And create works,
specifically create workshops, right?
Because I've been leading group coaching.
So I had so much wealth of material andunderstanding that I could then turn
(24:55):
into workshops and so on and so forth.
And it just, it was so freeing to Imean, I really guess I was holding
onto imposter syndrome at the time.
I was like, well, I'm just aninterior designer and I don't get to.
show up in the world as anything else.
But so many people are like, no youare showing up in the world as something
other than an interior designer.
(25:16):
You're just not giving yourselfpermission to see how valuable it is.
And when I did, it changedeverything and I rebranded my
business and then here we are today.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (25:27):
Yeah.
That's, you know, and I love storieslike that because I find that with so
many of the entrepreneurs that I workwith and also who come on as guests of
the, on the show is that they end upcreating something that really, They
didn't realize they were creating,they end up with this business that's
totally aligned with them, but that'snot how they started on their journey.
(25:47):
And it's so fascinating to mehow that plays out over and over
Shana Francesca (25:51):
in all
Teri Holland (25:52):
these conversations that I'm having is they start in one
direction and then suddenly it opensup this Whole other thing for them.
That's what they're meant to be doing.
Shana Francesca (26:01):
Yeah.
And it's why curiosity is so deeplyimportant, especially as an entrepreneur.
I mean, we know most businesses failin the first year and those don't
fail in the first field by the third.
And it's a very small percentagethat make it past year three.
And I really truly believe it's thosewho really, especially for people like
(26:22):
myself, and I don't know about you,but those who have bootstrapped their
businesses like myself, it required a heckof a lot of curiosity to keep going past
year three and year four and year five.
And, you know I started mybusiness part time in 2016.
Rebranded it and relaunched it in 2020during the pandemic shutdown, right?
(26:42):
Yeah.
And so it's now been, I guess, almostfour years under the rebranded name.
So, you know, it's been a long time.
It's been since 2016.
It's a very long journey and it's, youknow, it requires, to be successful, it
requires community, which means we haveto be invested in relationship, which
means we need to be invested in curiosity.
Teri Holland (27:01):
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tell us about the rebrand and whatthat was like for you and also the
name and the story behind it.
Shana Francesca (27:11):
My phone is right here so that I can pull up the definition
because I really should have it.
And if I trusted myself, I probablyhave it memorized at this point, but I
love to just bring it up and read it.
So when I decided that I was going toreally rebrand the business, I thought,
I don't, Now I realize how little I know.
And I don't know what directionmy business is going to take what
(27:33):
exactly what direction it's goingto go, where it's going to take me.
But I do know that I have thisdeep commitment to intentionality.
And that is something that has never left.
It's always been there.
Excuse me.
And so because of that, I was seekinga name and I wasn't going to launch
the rebrand until I found the name.
(27:54):
And it took me two years.
I mean, I read, I wrotedown our company values.
I was writing down my mission.
I had written down like so many, Iwas just moving through all of this
giving language to all the thingsI felt about the direction I, you
know, I wanted the business to goand I just couldn't find the name.
(28:16):
And then a friend of mine text me.
A vocab word because I'm a super nerdand I text each other weird words.
Teri Holland (28:24):
That's awesome.
Shana Francesca (28:27):
And so I used to read the dictionary as a kid.
And so like some of my friendsknow that and also did the same.
And so they're like, Ohmy God, I found this word.
And so she texts me this word, consignity.
And I was like, Oh.
That has a nice rhythm to itand I wonder what it means.
And it was like harmony, but specificallyto do with an intentionality, but
(28:49):
specifically to do with music.
And I was like, I loved that definition,but it doesn't, we're not a music
company, so it doesn't work for us.
And then I started huntingaround for related words and I
found the word consonate, whichis the name of my business.
And it means to arrange or blendtogether skillfully as parts or
elements put together in a harmonious,precisely appropriate or elegant manner.
(29:13):
Cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's in, it's a beautiful way oftalking about intentionality, right?
In a really precise,really incredible way.
And I was like, this feels like aword that can hold the weight of
whatever direction this business.
Yes.
And I also was very intentional.
I did not want the businessto have my name anymore.
(29:34):
I never wanted it to have my namein the beginning, uh, to begin
with because I wanted there to bethe opportunity for succession.
I also didn't want it to be like so many,I think it's hard when somebody's name
is on the business to not hold them.
Above and put them on a pedestal, right?
Teri Holland (29:55):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (29:56):
And if I'm working hard, since I'm working hard, not if, since I'm
working hard to create an equitable workenvironment within my own organization
and empowering that in other people'sorganizations, it felt counter productive
to center myself in all of that.
So I really just needed to get my nameoff the door and get something that
(30:17):
powerfully held what it is I wantedto be a part of creating in the world.
Teri Holland (30:22):
That's amazing.
It's, uh, it's funny because mybusiness name is my name, but that's
because I couldn't think of anything.
I hate naming things.
Shana Francesca (30:31):
That's what happened to me.
I named it myself because I didn't have,and I think that's fine for other people.
Like, for sure.
It all depends on what you're creatingand how you're creating it, right?
If you're mostly when coachingand, you know, want to, it helps
for it to be your name for sure.
Because people need to connect to that.
(30:51):
But I knew I wanted to createsomething that turned more into a
firm where I could bring other peoplein and we're doing this together.
And it's not just me.
coaching people directly, not just me.
And we're creating something bigger.
And because of that, I was like, I justdon't want to have my name on the door.
Teri Holland (31:07):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Shana Francesca (31:09):
But when you're, you know, a smaller organization and
you're the one doing all the things,you know, it kind of makes sense.
Yeah.
Probably more beneficial to have your
Teri Holland (31:18):
name on it.
Yeah.
And I just hate thinking of names.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Shana Francesca (31:22):
I did too.
I mean, my first businessname was SF design.
That's what it was.
It was so
Teri Holland (31:28):
yeah, my
Shana Francesca (31:28):
initials and design slapped right on there.
Teri Holland (31:32):
Yeah.
Perfect.
And at that time that was probablyworked for where you were in
business and what you were doing.
Absolutely.
Shana Francesca (31:41):
Absolutely.
And I probably wouldn't have changedit if I stayed with interior design.
Yeah.
Wouldn't have.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (31:48):
What are some lessons that you've learned along the way in business
that have either transformed you orthat you wish you just didn't have to
experience and how you got through it?
Somebody asked me this the other
Shana Francesca (31:59):
day and I was
Teri Holland (31:59):
like,
Shana Francesca (32:00):
Oh no, that came up to me.
I was like, I spent like 20grand on marketing in the
first two years of business.
Oh, between having a website builtfor me and like sponsoring events
so that my knit, you know, like just,and then paying for marketing through
different websites and magazines andnone of it turned into any business.
(32:26):
Actually, that's not true.
One thing gave me one client.
And no, it didn't recoup that 20 grade.
Yeah.
And so, you know, that one clientis an incredible client and still
a client to this day actually.
Nice.
All of my existing clients still useme as their interior designer, right?
But yeah, no I think it'sreally important for you to
(32:50):
be careful with whatyou're spending marketing.
You don't even know, like for me, I didn'teven, I hadn't built enough to market.
Yeah.
Have to build.
And it didn't make sense to me.
I didn't really understand this, thatlike, there's a certain amount of
building that happens to has to happenbefore you can market yourself, before
(33:10):
you can say you should pick me.
There's a certain amount of experience,there's a certain amount of honing
the message and the language,and that takes some time, right?
Yes.
And some people can do it beforethey launch their business, but I
got started with my business becauseI was already an interior designer,
it's already what I'd been doing, andI just kind of moved forward with who
I was and so on and so forth, right?
(33:32):
Yeah.
And so, yeah, I, I wish Ihadn't spent that 20 grand.
Now I do most of my marketingthrough having conversations
like this on podcasts.
It helps me to to get immediatefeedback because the hosts are, you
know, asking questions based on howI'm sharing information and, you
know, kind of tailoring it to it and,you know, directing the conversation
(33:56):
for their specific audience.
So you're learning how to haveconversations with Specific audiences.
I mean, there's so much to gleanfrom just practicing your message
in a variety of rooms and spacesand doing it for little or no money.
And then being able to onceyou've built that name for
(34:17):
yourself now, it might become.
More beneficial, right?
Like now in this next year, I'mlooking to hire a PR person next year.
Nice.
To be able to kind of get me to that nextlevel because I've been able to get myself
published in places like Medium and ThriveGlobal and so on and so forth, right?
But to get to that next level,it's going to take somebody who
has more experience and more time.
(34:41):
To do those things that I'm, thatI have, but I don't think I'm
going to hire a marketing firm.
I'm going to hire a PR person.
Smart.
So, excuse me.
So, I don't know.
You just learn along the way.
You're going to make mistakesand it's hard not to.
Yeah.
But those failures arespringboards for learning.
Absolutely, you know, and that's the thingI've just gotten used to is like I'm gonna
(35:04):
mess up I'm going to make weird decisionsbased on what information I have and then
realize after I've made them Oh shoot.
I didn't have enough information andthen I'm gonna make a better decision
I'm gonna learn and grow and keepmoving forward right nice and that's
you know, ultimately even though Iwish I hadn't spent that 20 grand still
to this day I, uh, I'm glad that Ilearned it early and learned it quick.
(35:29):
So I didn't keep throwinggood money after bad.
Teri Holland (35:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
And just think of it as20 grand in education.
Shana Francesca (35:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Now I built my own website and I'm gunshy about hiring anyone else to create.
I'm the same.
It hurts.
I'm like, I don't, nope.
My, I had a terrible experiencewith two different people.
No, thank you.
I'll just hire
Teri Holland (35:58):
someone in house to do it someday.
Yeah, exactly.
I did the same thing.
So I totally relate to whatyou're talking about with that.
I did the same thing.
For me, it was, I hired someone todo my branding before I even knew Who
I was or how I wanted to be seen inbusiness or how I wanted to show up.
Shana Francesca (36:16):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (36:16):
And within, not even a year, within like eight
months, I was like, this isn't me.
This doesn't look like me.
These aren't, this isn'thow I wanna present myself.
Shana Francesca (36:26):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (36:26):
And uh, and I did the same with my website.
Hired someone.
It was a terribleexperience and now I just.
Shana Francesca (36:32):
Yeah.
I actually hired a firm just tocreate my website and they insisted
on creating my branding first.
And I was like, I alreadygave you my branding.
I already told you who I am.
Here's all the copy.
Teri Holland (36:41):
Oh, wow.
Shana Francesca (36:42):
Here's all the brand colors.
Here's the fonts.
Here's all the imagery.
Here's the outline of howit's going to show up.
So on and so forth.
And they just kept focusing on branding.
I'm like, I already told you who I am.
And they kept trying to gear me towardsthis like very Canva Pinterest, you
know, pale pink, neutral color, butthere was very popular at the time.
This was like five years ago.
(37:04):
I was like I'm not the popular it girl.
I'm me.
And I want my website.
to have like teal and black andbe anchored and grounded but also
have bright colors and I don't wantjust specific colors to show up.
Like, I want my logo in blackand white and I want to be able
to use whatever colors I want.
(37:26):
I don't know.
So it was just a terrible, andafter a year and a half, I fired them
after spending thousands, literallynothing for it because I didn't
want anything they had created.
So don't do that.
Yeah.
Both of us have similar experiences.
Teri Holland (37:42):
Don't do that.
Don't do that.
No.
So what is life like foryou now in your business?
And can you tell us also aboutcreating an intentional life?
Yeah, how you've designed your
Shana Francesca (37:56):
Yeah, so funny, because my, Thoughts and visions of what my life
would look like have changed so many timesand I imagine they're going to change a
heck of a lot more times at the moment.
I'm living near family.
We're all kind of within a coupleblock radius of one another because
my one sister had a baby duringCOVID and she's now pregnant again.
(38:18):
And my other sister's daughterat the beginning of COVID
was three and now is eight.
And I'm the, you know, unmarried,don't want to have kids aunt, you
know, who's like, Oh, like theycall like, Hey, can I drop her off?
You know, can you watch her for a fewhours or, you know, we're going out, can
you watch her for the night type person?
I'm their community, I'm their support.
(38:39):
And you know, for a long time I thoughtI would just stay ran away from home.
Like I would never come back.
And after 10 years I,you know, came back home.
And so for me, it's about.
It's about knowing who I am andcreating the freedom and safety.
I, you know, a long time ago Idecided I, I wanted the freedom to
(38:59):
be able to do with my business whatI wanted to be able to do with it.
And that was my intention for my life.
Yeah.
And so then I realized that Iactually didn't want to get married.
And I didn't want to have kids andI didn't feel like those things were
going to validate my existence or makeme any more valid as a human being.
And so I released them.
And it's funny because Wonder Womanhas always been this kind of fictional
(39:23):
character that I always felt connected to.
And at some point I realized, you know,Wonder Woman was Wonder Woman because she
wasn't married and she didn't have kids.
Teri Holland (39:30):
Yep.
Shana Francesca (39:32):
She didn't do everything.
And we don't have to do everything andwe can make that choice for ourselves.
So I made that choice formyself and that's what my
intentionality looks like for me.
So that when someone hires me, Idon't have to worry about, you know,
and I love dogs, I love animals, butI don't have them because I don't
have to worry about working late,coming home late, so on and so forth.
(39:53):
I don't have to worryabout any of those things.
Plus my siblings have dogs, so Icould just snuggle with their dogs.
Perfect.
You know what I mean?
Surrogate dogs.
Yeah.
And so, and many of my friends do as well.
So like cats and animals that love me.
And so I just go get mysnuggles in and then I go home.
Nice.
So that's for me, that's intentionalityis me being able to take on the work
(40:15):
that I want to take on and being ableto do it without having, you know,
specific restrictions, but stillbeing grounded in community, but that
community being defined the way that Iwant it and need it to show up, right?
Instead of how other people do.
So, and that allows me to balance, right?
So when I have a big project that's dueand I need to work, I don't have to worry
about feeding someone other than myself.
(40:37):
I don't have to worry about, you know,hurting someone's feelings because
I'm not spending so on and so forth.
And then also, when I'm done working,then I can take care of myself, right?
And I can go out with my girlfriends,and I can spend time with people
I love, and I can reconnect to mycommunity, and I can gain that kind
of support and love that I need.
(40:58):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (40:59):
Excellent.
So, if people listening want to reach outto you or learn more about your workshops
and everything that you offer, what'sthe best place to connect with you?
Shana Francesca (41:09):
Yeah, head to my website, it's www.
consonate.
world, you're probably going tohave to put the W's in the first
time you put it in because it'sdot world, not dot com, dot org.
So your computer's going to be like,do you know where you're going?
And you're going to haveto be like, yes I do, www.
And I'm sure the website willbe tagged in the show notes.
All my contact information isthere, information about me as a
(41:30):
speaker and about my workshops,articles that I've written, podcasts
I've been on, like this one.
There's links there for all that stuff,testimonials, so on and so forth, and
there's some free resources as well.
If you're an individual looking for that.
And then I offer my Workshops, obviouslycorporations, you know they're paying
(41:51):
a hefty fee to have me come in half aday, but I want to make sure there's
a democratization of informationand that small business owners have
access to that information as well.
And so I offer my workshopsin a condensed form through my
website for a hundred dollars.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
So definitely head that way.
If that's something you'dwant to be engaging with.
Teri Holland (42:10):
Perfect.
Have you ever wanted to launchyour own podcast, but maybe you
just don't know where to start?
I've got you covered.
Go to my website, grab my podcastlaunch strategy checklist.
It's free.
It's in the show notes and it will giveyou a checklist of everything you need
to consider from your concept all theway through to launch and promotion.
(42:32):
Grab it today.
It's in the show notes.
have some rapid fire questions for you.
Go for it.
Ready?
Uh, favorite
Shana Francesca (42:40):
book.
Oh, right now I will say HowWe Show Up by Mia Birdsong.
Nice.
Favorite food.
Oh, it's hard.
Pizza, probably.
Teri Holland (42:50):
Yeah.
Shana Francesca (42:51):
Yeah.
Good choice.
Good choice.
Or like hamburgers.
That's why I was like, it's hard.
I also love a good cheeseburger, you know?
Teri Holland (42:58):
Yeah, I get it.
I get it.
Uh, biggest pet peeve?
Shana Francesca (43:03):
I would say, like making yourself two at home, like with, like
when people come and they just like kickoff their shoes in the middle of the
floor, I'm gonna, here's why it bothersme, is because I'm gonna trip over them.
You got to tuck them away.
You got to tuck them away.
I'm going to, I'm going to, like, even ifyou put them in front of yourself in front
(43:24):
of the sofa, I'm going to walk in front ofyou to get to the bathroom or something.
And I'm going to trip right over them.
So they have to be out of walking paths.
Right.
Teri Holland (43:34):
Yeah.
Makes sense.
Who inspires you?
Shana Francesca (43:40):
There's so many.
People that I've gotten to knowwho've made like such incredible,
brave decisions in their lives.
Right now I'm, I just startedreading Madeline Pendleton's book.
I survived capitalism and all I gotwas this t shirt and she is this
incredible creator on Tik TOK who hasan incredible business and, you know,
(44:01):
absolutely love and appreciate theway that she shows up in the world.
And so she absolutely inspires me.
Teri Holland (44:07):
Perfect.
What are three things you takewith you to a deserted island?
Shana Francesca (44:13):
Shampoo.
Teri Holland (44:14):
Oh,
Shana Francesca (44:14):
yeah.
Yes.
Shampoo, body wash.
And probably food.
I mean, well, yeah.
Yeah.
Does the island have food?
Yeah, let's say it has food.
Let's say it has food.
Yeah.
Then probably like lotion.
Like I'm going to take care of my skin.
(44:35):
I'm going to need sunscreen.
Yes.
You know, a lotion with sunscreenso I don't turn into a raisin.
Nice.
Teri Holland (44:42):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good call.
A celebrity you would like tohave dinner with, dead or alive?
Shana Francesca (44:48):
I would love to have dinner with Dr.
Maya Angelou.
Teri Holland (44:54):
Oh, yeah.
Shana Francesca (44:55):
Yeah.
Would love to have dinner with, for sure.
Yeah.
Teri Holland (44:58):
Yeah.
That'd be amazing.
Shana Francesca (45:00):
Yeah.
Teri Holland (45:01):
And your go to karaoke song.
Shana Francesca (45:04):
Oh my gosh.
Oh, so I don't know if people knowwho Ina is I N A is her name.
She is a multilingual artist who'sfrom, I think it's Romania.
I might be making that up.
Anyway, she has this song called Senorita. I'm going to have to check it out.
(45:24):
I don't know that one.
Yeah.
You should listen to her music.
I mean, it's great for likegetting your energy up.
She's a whole vibe.
She's an incredible.
Teri Holland (45:32):
Yeah.
Oh, definitely going to check her out.
Thanks for that.
And any last final thoughts or wordsthat you want to leave our audience with?
Shana Francesca (45:41):
Yeah.
I think it's important for usto understand that our growth is
going to require us to be Right.
And I'm not talking about someone puttingyou in a position where you're unsafe,
but I do mean uncomfortable, right?
And Learning to regulate that's not wrong.
Yeah, and that We're going tobe dysregulated and that doesn't
(46:03):
give us a right to lash out tothe people around us, right?
We're gonna have to sit withit and be present and recognize
that it's your vulnerability.
You're not used to it We're gonna haveto get used to it right in order to
make the change we want to see in theworld We've got to get comfortable
with being uncomfortable Perfect.
Teri Holland (46:21):
Well, thank you so much Shana.
I really appreciate you spendingsome time with us today.
Thank you for being here
Shana Francesca (46:27):
Thanks for having me
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
And if you did enjoy this episode andyou want to learn more about Shana
and you want to hear more from her,then definitely check out her website.
The link is in the show notes,but also go follow her on Tik Tok.
I've been following her there and I loveher content and what she has to say.
(46:50):
So I suggest you give her a followand you'll really get a sense of
who she is and what she stands for.
She creates really great content there.
So check out her TikTok, look at thewebsite, and of course, obviously
share this episode with a friend whoyou think will get value out of it.
And then leave me your five star review.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
(47:11):
Have a fantastic day.
And I'll be back again on Thursday.
Bye for now, friends.
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