What if discovering your true strengths meant stepping away from something you love? In this powerful episode of The Grit Show, Shawna Rodrigues opens up about her decision to close the Authentic Connections Podcast Network, exploring the intersection of passion, burnout, and the search for meaningful impact. She weaves in insights from Patrick Lencioni’s “Six Working Geniuses” framework and shares lessons from her journey with breast cancer. Listeners get a teaser of how aligning your “zone of genius” with your mission can change everything and why self-awareness is crucial.

Thinking about career pivots, purpose, or making tough decisions? Tune in to hear how growth can sometimes mean letting go and and learn more about women’s voices in podcasting. Don’t miss this episode if you crave inspiration, career clarity, or honest conversation about following your calling.

Shawna Rodrigues has been hosting the The Grit Show, since 2022 and has loved every minute of it. She has an award winning career in the government and non-profit industry, an LCSW, and a passion for making a impact.

She is currently facing her biggest plot twist yet—a breast cancer diagnosis in early 2025—this year is about her fight, victory, and healing. Join her warrior community Being Honest and check out the podcast episode where she shares more.

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What if I told you that discovering your strengths could actually lead you to walk away from something you're deeply passionate about? That understanding what you're truly brilliant at might mean letting go of a dream you've been building for years. Today, I'm sharing with you why I'm closing down Authentic Connections Podcast Network at the end of 2025. It's a passion that I had to amplify women's voices, and that turned into a business in 2022 when I launched this amazing network and how Patrick Lencioni's six Working Geniuses framework combined. My recent dance with breast cancer helped me to see that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is recognize there is more to your passion than you realize. And burnout is a guaranteed result when you don't find a way to make your genius and your passion align. Welcome to The Grit Show where our focus is growth on purpose. I'm your host, Shawna Rodrigues, and I'm honored to be part of this community as we journey together with our grit intact to learn more about how to thrive and how to get the most out of life. It means a lot that you are here today.

As you listen, I encourage you to think of who may appreciate the tidbits of knowledge we are sharing and to take a moment to pass this along to them. Everyone appreciates a friend that thinks of them, and these conversations are meant to be shared and to spark even more connections. I'm sure it's come across in some of my podcast episodes that I was working pretty hard and had some pretty long days before my cancer diagnosis. And a lot of it was me bargaining that I was a business owner. It was the first two years of my business. It was going to take a long time to build things, and it was just necessary. So I put in the effort, and I cared deeply about the work that I was doing. I was passionate about amplifying women's voices.

I cared about all the podcasts in my network and getting these messages out. If you've listened to any of the podcasts, you know this. The Fire Inside Her, the. The work being done by Enduring Grief. If you were here when we had the ones with Boots Knighton around heart patients. Each of the podcasts that came onto the network, each of the women I worked with, they were spectacular. And the podcasts were so important. The voices were amplifying messages that were making an impact.

And making an impact is something I care about, as well as really caring about the fact that we needed more women's voices in podcasting. And these were important messages. And the people they were reaching, they were really making a difference. So this passion about women realizing what they had to say and having the supports in place to actually be successful in podcasting and get these messages out was important to me. And that's what made the podcast network happen, right? Is hearing women talk about the podcast they wanted to have and recognizing what the challenges were. When I went to launch The Grit Show, how much time it really took, how much effort it took and wanting to help build that and make this happen. And it was. It was also exhausting.

And I took lots of different measures and lots of evaluation of different ways of aligning things and doing things to make it different. But it was still taking an enormous amount of time, enormous amount of effort to make this happen. And I couldn't quite figure out why it was taking so much. And just thinking it was part of the process. I hired people. I had editors, I had virtual assistants that were helping with different elements of things. And I kept trying and kept going. I was increasing prices, moving the metrics of how the money came in, and doing different things to make it happen.

And kept thinking, I just need to. I just need to scale. And then once it scaled, I could back off and it would work differently. Or once I hired one more position and I had higher position, that person would leave. And the stress was real, but the passion was real, but it was exhausting me. And as you may know, in January, things shifted for me. In January, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my parities had to shift, and I had to figure out how I could make things work with my podcast network without working those long days. I kept up those long days for far longer than I should have, leading up to my surgery in April.

And part of that was training somebody that could be an operations manager, so to speak, and largely do the work I've been doing. And my hope was that that would take a big chunk of the stress off of my plate and allow me to be able to focus on the parts that I loved, which comes into play with us. Learning a little more about the six working geniuses, because the model from Patrick Lencioni is part of what helped me to recognize what parts of the podcast network were stressful for me. Which is interesting because I've taken lots of different tests. I'm about self awareness and learning, and we've had lots of great people on this podcast that have taught us about self awareness and learning. And what I gained from that was really informative in helping me to learn My next steps. So we're going to get to that a little bit more about that framework in a second. But the biggest thing was that me having cancer was an opportunity from what I could learn from it, what I could grow through it.

And the conversations we've had about this, I hope that's what you've taken from it, that it's what you grow through, not just what you go through. And the time where I couldn't do more, the time that I had to scale back, made me really learn what had the most impact, what things I could still do that were powerful and can make change happen that would take less for me and drain less for me. And it was very poignant that when I was in Mexico in January, was the first time I ever heard of the six Working Geniuses. And I read the book, I took the test, I, like, ate it all up. I consumed it all very quickly with everything else going on in my world, because it really resonated with me. And part of what the six Working Geniuses is, is it's this framework for the work. And part of the other stuff I do with my consulting with reflective leadership consulting is that I help organizations, specifically nonprofits, specifically, largely Head Start programs, because that's what I've worked with for a very long time, but nonprofits in general, helping them understand the stages of work. And that is one of the gifts of this model, is it teaches you about the stages of work that can help you understand when things aren't going the way they are as an organization, where they're falling apart.

Right. The piece that it spoke to me about was, as an individual, the parts of the work where I am working really hard and things don't flow the same way. So for individuals who are on high levels of management, teams who have reach certain points in their life and career, like, chances are, you're actually proficient in all of the areas that the six Working Geniuses talk about and all those phases of work. And it's kind of amazing to me because I have gotten jobs where I have probably sold people on my skills in certain areas that later came back. I'm like, wait a minute. That is my working frustration. How is it that I've sold myself there? So it's not about proficiency. It's not about how good I am at some of these things I can do these things I've done these things, I've ran my business.

I did run my business for that number of years. It's no matter what, things completely drain you. That's not what you can or can't do. And when you have conversations with different coaches or leaders or consultants or folks, a lot of times they'll just tell you what to do more of without taking into account how much that's going to take from you. Right? So in building my business, I could do all those pieces. I did all the pieces, I ran all the different areas and it took 14 hour days to do that. It took working half days on the weekend, it took working seven days a week sometimes. It took so much for me to do all the pieces.

I could do them all, but it was draining me. And things weren't moving forward the way that I needed them to and wanted them to because of how much it was taking for me to do that. And that's what I was really moving forward on. So looking at the six working geniuses was very helpful for me to learn. Wow, what is my genius? And it totally resonated with me and made a lot of sense because my top number one zone of genius to come up with ideas. I love to come up with the solutions for problems. Say, like the fact that only 27% of podcasts are hosted by women. I got a solution for that.

Let's start a whole podcast network. Oh, no. What they're doing isn't enough. Let me tell you why it's not enough. That's my second genius discernment. I can come into play and tell you why that's not working. So my invention, discernment, those are my zones of genius. And that's why I could build up this entire business and have these great ideas about how to solve this.

And we need the coaching, we need the background production pieces, we need all of this. We need the full picture. It's not just enough to give this little bit. We need this to make it work. And I can invent this and discern this is what's needed and I can help that. And when it comes to successful podcasts, I'm great at helping you determine what your podcast should be about and like, laying out the format for your podcast so that it can be engaging and connect with audiences and coming up with what needs to be the right artwork and how we can integrate having keywords and all the pieces for that. Like, my invention and discernment on point, like, totally comes through. Like, this is why I'm great at this, especially the initial stages, why I had that drive for this and my passions.

Your passions can be separate from your geniuses. Right. So my passion for this is my desire to make an impact My caring for women's and women's voices. I'm somebody who has loved speaking and connecting with others. This just brings all of it together, right? So it makes sense why this is where I was led and it makes sense why this was something very much in the beginning I was excited about. So consequently, this was something that made sense. And I took this quiz probably in February, and it was good timing because I was looking to hire somebody to take over my work while I was going to need to be down and out with my healing and my dance with breast cancer and taking care of things and being less available. And it helped me see, like, what pieces of the work I really needed someone else to handle.

But really they're gonna have to handle it all because I was gonna be gone. So it helped me see, like, when I came back what I'd wanna come back to. I knew that maybe that was the piece and maybe that's what I was missing for my podcast network, that I needed to have these other pieces handled. Cause again, they're stages to work. And what stages of work were draining me and taking me a long time because they drained me so much. So my invention, when it comes to these pieces, time just flows. You know, how you're doing things, you're in that zone with it. And those are the pieces that I'm in the zone for those things.

And I can just get those things done and flow with those pieces. Those are my jam, right? And the rest of the work is what gums up and takes me longer and is harder for me to push through. And I have to really force myself to work on and get my motivation on. But those pieces I can jam with. So I use somebody else that can do the other pieces. It's harder for me to push through and get accomplished and get taken care of. So that was my plan and thinking, like, when I came back to be ready for that and all those pieces. And so I set out, hired somebody, was training them, still working my really long day, still doing all the pieces, getting it done.

And interestingly, when my surgery took place, there is a piece of my work that a lot of times we don't talk very much about. And that piece of my work is my coaching. And my coaching is connected to some work I do with the agencies that I'm just now mentioning to you about. With reflective leadership consulting. And that work, the coaching piece, I was able to continue, which is great, because my podcast network, I was losing money. I had to pay somebody else to do my work and do my Stuff. And again, I was not paying some 14 hours a day. We had to contain the work.

We had to limit, not take on new clients, limit things significantly. So money's not coming in like it should be, and all the money's going out the door to pay everyone. And I'm essentially losing money on my podcast network while I'm out my surgery. So losing money on my network. And the only way there's any money coming into the business at all is because I'm still doing this other component of my work, which is my coaching. And my coaching. The way I had it set up, it was approximately six, eight hours, but it was every other week. And every other week was a good cadence for when I had surgery, because I needed to be off for about two weeks for the surgery so we could time it well, get in the meetings before I went to my surgery for that week and then be off for two weeks and then come back for those.

So I was able to take the time off I needed and not miss a beat with any of my clients and still have the time I needed. That was really pointed for this surgery. And then when I came back, I could do that without having to. Too much movement, mostly using my brain, right? Let my body heal, take care of things, and gave myself permission if I needed to not show up for it, but was able to show up for it and able to still use my skills of invention and discernment as I went through and handled the needs of my clients during that time. And it was amazing because I never missed a beat, thoroughly enjoyed it, and it did not feel like I was exerting myself with being able to fit in that those little pieces of work while I was recovering and going through everything that I was going through, which was amazing. The podcasting, on the other hand, I had other people handling it and I'd still have to step in. And the people that were handling it were a little overwhelmed by it, and they were. They were not going to stay on.

Like, it was clear. The first meeting I had with them, about a week and a half after my surgery, I took my first nap. It was my first nap. Just that hour and a half meeting, like, completely drained and exhausted me. And it was so clear to me that my work, my podcast network, wasn't using my geniuses. I wasn't on the phone with my podcast clients doing invention and discerning and building up their podcasts. I was in the minutiae. I was in the other end of things, which was the tenacity, the finishing, the Taking care of all the fine little details and the galvanizing, which galvanizing is like, you know, the motivating, getting things done, bringing people together type of thing.

But it was the two of them together. I was having to be tenacious about other people's work and motivating other people to get their work done and directing their work and taking care of those pieces and the two of those together as like my kryptonite. And was completely exhausting because I can, you know, it takes effort to get me motivated, to get things done, to motivate myself. But then when I have to motivate others and I can do my fine work, my fine tooth coming through, little detail, finishing work for me, but then my finishing work for other people's stuff, like other people's details and motivating them and taking care of the details, Those are my two frustrations. Those are things that drain me more than anything. And then I have the two other that are right in the middle. The two other ones I have in the middle, one's called enablement, and the other one is called wonder, which is actually the other side of invention, so to speak, with that early phase, when you're figuring things out, that that's kind of the questions that lead to the invention. And those are two things that I can do those no problem.

Like, the enablement is like supporting the work, getting done and getting work done for other people and getting it taken care of. And those two things, like, I can flow with. And that's kind of the concept I love about the six working geniuses, is that when you are doing your genius zone, like, you want to be doing that, like, 60% of the time, like, because you're in your zone, you can keep doing that, you can keep doing that. But once your. Your middle competencies, like, take up so much of your time you can't get genius zone, then you enjoy it a little bit less, and it takes more effort to get it done, and it's a little bit more of a burden. I mean, your frustrations are taking up all of your time. Because that's all I was doing, was doing that type of work when I was stepping in for the podcast network. It was positively exhausting.

And there was no invention, no discernment. It was all just galvanizing and tenacity for what I had to step in and take care of. And it was exhausting and burning me out. And that's when it all made so much more sense, why my podcast network had become something other than what I Started because I was on, like, with this, there's the three stages of work, right? And those two pieces are towards the beginning part of the work. And the tenacity is at the very end. The galvanizing is, like, towards the middle end, like after the sermon, you go into the galvanizing. And so those pieces were over there, where it was harder for me to have to just do those pieces and harder when I had other people that I hired, thinking hiring other people would be easier for me. When I hired other people that required me to do more of the things exhausted and drained me.

It wasn't good. If I hired other people and it required more of me to do more invention and discernment, that would be great. But now when I hire more people that require me to do more galvanizing and more of the tenacity, and then it just completely, like, ground me to my core and made it that much more challenging. So it made it very clear to me in that time when I was away how much I was wearing myself out and how very literal it was that if you're not in your zone of genius, it's less about your proficiency in these things and more about protecting yourself and taking care of yourself and working in the places that really give you room to grow and thrive. And when you have a team, the beauty is having a team that can balance those pieces out. And when I do my individual coaching with folks, especially individuals working in nonprofits, because that's. I'm very passionate about nonprofits and the mission and remember the impact work. I care so much about that when people are working these nonprofits, that they have teams where.

Where they have this balance. And when you already have your team and you don't have a good balance, that you start to look at your systems and inventing systems and working on your systems, making decisions within your systems to make it so that you can get that balance, for the work to have all of those pieces filled so that you are doing all the phases of work and have people that have the geniuses to help move that work. And the individuals that I coach, that they have the understanding of where their zone of genius is and. And they find the way to spend more time in it. And that's one reason why I actually do trainings around AI as well, because AI is a great companion and tool to be able to do some of those pieces for you as well as you leveraging other people on your team when you have a team to work with to make those things happen. And so that is a Big reason why I finally realized that at this time in history where the continued focus is I'm very passionate about women's voices and podcasting. And if I had enormous grant, I could make this happen. I could hire the people that would be in the different places so that I could do my piece and not completely burn myself out.

But with this many years in and the amount of money and effort I've already put into this and the money I've hemorrhaged and loss from the time that I was out, that, like, went into keeping this business going, that that's not really an option to keep doing that. Right. And that instead I need to, like, take a look at where I'm having the most impact. And because impact was biggest. Right. As much as you know that I have this passion about women's voices, impact is that root thing for me. And you know that we're all about asking the questions that get us the deeper layers. And that's the deepest layer for me is making an impact.

And my chosen way for the impact with the podcast network was to increase women's voices in podcasting and impact the way that they can then have this larger impact in the world by getting those out there. And so consequently, to kind of pull that back. Because on one hand, I'm very excited that as I went and looked for statistics today, like, part of it was hopeful that maybe things changed that may be able to make as much of an impact as I wanted to. But in fact, we do have the fact that female listeners for podcasting has tripled since 2015. So it was 15% of monthly podcast listenership was women, and it's 45% in 2025. And if you add the video component, that becomes 52%. So there's actually very exciting to see that. And that's from the women's audio report by Edison Research and Media that came out in April.

So it's very exciting that more women are listening to podcasts and that listenership is definitely increased, which is very exciting. So we do want to have. We do want to have more women listeners. But in fact, just today, I'm recording this on November 11th. It's coming out a little bit later, but recording this on November 11th. And just today, an article came out from OPB and the title is Bros Really Are Dominating Podcasting, which is just so discouraging because it's the same data from 600 plus popular podcasts. Nearly 2/3 of top 100 podcasts are hosted by men. 3/4 of guests are male.

Like continuing that same trend. That was the case when I started this in 2022, when I saw the alarming data about the number of women hosting podcasts then. So it hasn't changed. And I'm not making a big effect on the industry, which is what I'd hoped to do. And that just shows you that I'm getting stuck because of what I'm able to contribute, because I am getting burnt out. Even with the number of hours and the time I'm putting into it, I've made a huge impact, and I know this. I know this. On the women I've worked with, on the podcasts that have gotten out there, on the people that have listened to those podcasts.

Like, I'm aware of this. I'm grateful for this opportunity. It's been an amazing journey. I'm grateful to each of you for listening to this podcast. The small podcast is just one and the network. And right now, we still have these amazing women and these amazing voices, and some of which may not have started if not for the fact that there was this podcast network to support them and get this out there. And even as we've been a lot of times the launchpad for podcasts that some of them have tried to come back, and I've had to tell them that we're going away because it was such a good experience, starting here and working with us, learning with us, and getting that start in podcasting. And that's so exciting.

It means so much that I know that some of those voices and some of those opportunities that came out into the world were because we existed. So throughout the work we've done, throughout this opportunity, and also, like, knowing that it hasn't made as much of a dent makes it a little easier to know that we can go about, or I can go about making impact in a small way in a different area that's not burning me out, because I don't have the stage to make the impact on podcasting the way that I wanted to. And I'll continue to listen to female podcasters and support that portion of the industry and those voices and look for opportunities to encourage more women to have podcasts and be successful in that way, because I feel it's very important. And I can move to a place where I get to use my working geniuses and my gifts in a way that doesn't burn me out, so I can keep giving and building and continuing to make things happen and make things grow. It's also been valuable because this isn't probably the first time in my career that I've learned, oh, this is why I'm getting burned out as I'm not leaning into my geniuses and even as I move into my new opportunity, that is something that I need to look out for and be aware of. Right. We're going to go back and we're going to talk about that more. But I want to make sure that while we're talking about our podcast that we give you an opportunity to learn about the plan for a lot of the podcasts.

So Author Express, which is one that I'm one of the co hosts on, which I stepped away from for a good time during my dance with breast cancer, as I say. And their last recorded episode will be airing at the end of November. So they're not going to record new episodes, but they're still going to be up for you to listen to in perpetuity. So you can definitely, if you want to learn about listening to your next favorite author and learning about the person behind the book, there's quite an archive there. I think they have over 130 episodes of Conversations with Authors are short, 15 minute episodes that are there. That is fabulous. And during Grief, they're going to have a new season coming out in the spring and we're working with them on that. Dog Tag Diaries is going to a new production company that's going to support them and they're going to continue coming out with their weekly episodes.

Marley Williams getting a new production support. They're going to keep going. The Fire Inside her has been on hiatus for a while. On a. She has a better term for it than hiatus. They're on a. Oh, darn it. It's what you do when you're like a professor and you get to take a break.

So they've been on a break for some times. Their break is continuing and they'll figure out their next steps that they come back and then like real estate energized, They've had a season up that'll still be available. And Authenticity Amplified is a season up still available. And all the other great ones that we've launched, like Business Misfits, Black Writers, Therapy Boots, Knighton's podcast, which I always forget the new name for that one, but I think it's heart surgery, open heart surgery as night. I think it is now. Like they've all like found homes and they're all still readily available to you where they're currently at. So you can keep listening to all of them. The one we have with Stacy and the circus that I should Remember the name of it.

But all of those fabulous ones we've helped to launch, they're all still out there and available in their new homes because you've done a lot of helping folks to launch. So these things are still going to be available to you. The RSS feed is unchanged, and it's just the production, the supports, and then having the master page and us pushing things out on social media and all the background stuff is what's going to shift for them versus that. So they're still going to be going in the right direction, and then I get to be moving in the right direction as well, which is where the whole point of this is that alignment between your genius and your purpose and my genius and my purpose of that impact piece. Right. And I was already telling you that my coaching when I was on leave, I was still able to do that, which is so exciting. And recognizing how much of that was in fact the gift of invention and discernment and being able to continue to do that is what I get to do going forward. Right.

And I also help with utilizing appreciation languages, implementing the working genius model, helping with challenging conversations, working on the AI implementation with nonprofits, and some of that is that invention and putting together with systems within the organizations. But it's also that individual coaching that I get to be doing more than I realize with that invention discernment piece, with all these different tools that I've had in my toolbox and help others to implement to their toolbox. And when you're in your working genius, it's like, what would take somebody else eight hours takes you four, and if it was your frustration, it would take you 14. So it's the flow that you're able to get in and to get things done is so exciting. The challenge is that as I build this up more and as I have other consultants I'm working with, that I don't go into the weeds, that I don't go into those places where I need to galvanize others, where I need to do this finishing tenacity piece, or that I don't pay attention and that I make sure there's systems in place that I can invent, because invention is one of mine. I make sure I invent systems that can make sure that those are handled elsewhere or minimally by me so that they can get done so I don't go back down the same road. Right? And that's the piece that I need to promise myself. I make sure that I'm doing so that I can be able to support that and make sure things move forward in that way.

And that's a thing we all have to do. And I found the tool for me, the working geniuses. And it might be a great tool for you if you're interested in that. Definitely. Just send me a note and I'll direct you to the place where you guys can take the tests or help you support that. For me, that was a magic ticket for you. It might be something else. You might already know the things that are draining you and burning you out.

Right. But even as you move in the right direction, you still have to guard against those things coming up again and happening again. I was actually watching a TV show where one of the characters was entering a new relationship and like, the same patterns that she had before were coming up in that new relationship. And luckily she caught them through surprising avenues of having them being pointed out to her. So you need to be aware of what those are so you don't repeat them and don't go down that again. Right. So I need to be aware, make sure I have systems, and I'm taking care of that and taking care of myself too, so that I'm constantly problem solving on how to make sure that I move that back into that area. Luckily, invention and problem solving is one of the things I get a lot out of.

It may not be for you, though. So you need to make sure you have somebody that you're working with that can help with that, or you have a plan for that. So it's important. And I also want to point out that there's a concept in here too, about the scale of your impact. So maybe you're someone like me that is drawn to make an impact. And I think right now, especially post pandemic, especially with things going on in the world, that being able to focus your impact more locally, whether that's literally locally within your neighborhood, locally or locally within a specific topic that's smaller and more attainable, that you give yourself permission to do that, that you can go to a scale where you can feel the impact and feel that connection. I think I've given an example in the past about when my niece was in. She was actually in high school when she came to see me when I worked in Washington, D.C.

and she came to my office and she's like, where are the kids? I was like, well, I work at the national level now, and I go to a lot of meetings, and what we do impacts a lot more kids than when you came to my office when you were younger and I worked in classrooms Or I went to parents and homes and did that. I was a mental health consultant way back when. She would go to my office and my office was located in an administrative building. But I went to actual Head Start programs and who went into families homes and actually worked with children. So she was aware of like how close they actually worked with children, had that proximity to that work. That was so much closer than when I was in D.C. and sitting at meetings with a bunch of people and reviewing work that was being done by national centers and making decisions at that scale that would result in products would make large level impacts. I loved both of those types of work.

It was harder to feel the impact when I worked at the federal level doing national level tnta, doing national level grants, doing that. And we'd have moments like we would have conferences and be able to talk. And when I did one of the presentations at a national conference on child abuse and neglect and we had people from international participants actually, because it was actually one of the few that was video streamed, we got to speak to some of the people that were involved. Right. So you get to get a little closer to the work that you're doing at times, but you're further removed. And doing this podcast work, I got to speak less often with the podcasters. I was speaking with people, making sure we got things put up and we were talking more about what wasn't working, that what was working. Because that's the stage of work we're in with that finished product that's being put up versus the actual knowing the people in their living rooms or in their cars or out for their walk, listening to the product that we help put out there.

So the scale is big and the impact is large, but it's not as tangible. And I think sometimes when the world feels a little bit more chaotic and a little harder to center yourself in with all the things happening that sometimes getting a little more local and maybe it's as small as the person next to you on your couch in your home that you need to get smaller and feel that impact so you have a little left to give at those higher levels. So maybe it's. I got the most amazing card again, this amazing organization that exists and this is the third time they send me these cards. It's PeopleSpread Love and PeopleSpreadLove.com and they send me these thoughtful cards. And every time I open these things, they bring tears to my eyes. And I'm extremely touched by people I know that send me things as well. But for some reason these perfect Strangers sending me stuff, and especially when perfect strangers are sending me things that, like, resonate immensely.

For instance, the ones I received today, it had the quote in it, what if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly? And it attributes that to Winnie the Pooh. I thought it was. And that would be in the email, but I thought it was somewhere else that was from. I haven't looked it up, so I won't guarantee either way. But that quote, what if I fall, oh, but my darling, what if you fly? Has always been something that has been so resonant with me, regardless of where it started. Because that is a feeling I've had so many times in my life that's gonna trick me up right now. Like, when I set out to try things like, it's scary.

It's scary to try new things, like, what if I fall flat on my face when I try this? And I think I have been so fortunate in my life. I have flown more than I've fallen off the cliff. Right? You never know that you can possibly fly. And I love that quote. And I love that a complete stranger sent that to me. So those are the type of things that, like, when the world seems like it's crazy around us, burning around us, everything feels like it's nonsensical around us. That joining a group that writes cards to strangers and sitting with people that you know in your community and writing cards to strangers might be a really great place to start to feel that connection on a small, local level that's having an impact, but you can feel that connection locally to then have a more global impact, even though it's small. Like, I'm sure this seems very small to be sending cards like this, but for instance, this card and this person just got put out in a podcast and went to even more people.

And those ripples are important, and we need more of those ripples in the world. So starting small and doing those ripples makes a difference. And so me learning from my cocoon of cancer and my time to be focused inward and not able to do as much, to find in it that I need to honor my geniuses and to understand how draining my frustrations are and how much me trying to do those things I can, I'm completely capable of doing those things. It's not that I can't do those things, but they exhaust and drain me and burn me out. And I have so much to give that I need to give in the areas that I can flow with and give more freely with and grow in. And so as Hard as it is. And my podcasters know they can just say, well, what if we did this? I'm like, okay, yeah, we'll work on that. So we can do a little bit more, you know, and we have an amazing podcast that we're going to work with to.

To launch individually this person, even after, like, we're closed, because the fact her stuff is important. So we're no longer a network. We're still going to help this person get her voice out. Because I am passionate about these things. Right. But I need to care for me and do as much less this as possible so that I can put my energy into the places, into nonprofits, and to coaching individuals and to coaching parts of teams so that I can make these smaller ripples and I can see those effects. And I can with the team that I've been working with. They have come so far.

And the individuals, oh, my word. Like, I wish there was a measurable way I can see all the beautiful ways they have grown and their worlds have been impacted by the conversations we've had and the way they have grown and connected to themselves and honored themselves in beautiful ways. And I want to do more of that because that feeds my soul, too. That's impact as well. And I don't need to be shaken and impacting the whole world here. I just need to make these little ripples, and that's powerful for me, and maybe that speaks to you. So I think that as well as there's two parts of this conversation about, you know, the working geniuses and figuring out what part of you is something that doesn't burn you out, that you can just keep doing and giving and it doesn't drain you, doesn't take away from you. I needed a tool to help me figure that out, because I'd never thought about things in that specific way before and recognized I knew the little things, but not the category of things that were draining me so much.

And again, one of my former titles was like a collaboration director. So, like, galvanizing you, I would have sold you on as being one of my greatest gifts. I'm very proficient at it. However, it also drains me. And I knew that on some level because I would take. When I did my big meetings in D.C. the first time, I had to lead this meeting with people from all these different offices, and it was this really big deal, and I let it, and it was fantastic success. And everyone was so impressed at how well it went.

And I went back to my office and I was comatose. I was, like, barely moving Staring up to space. Because it took everything I had for that meeting to be a huge success. And I did it. However, it completely drained me. And we don't recognize, like that as a factor. Right. I'm good at it.

Why am I not doing more of that? And that's why I loved taking this assessment, to understand, like, the things that are draining me versus the things whether or not I'm proficient in them. Because a lot of these ways of looking at ourselves are about aptitude and not about giving what drives us and lights us up being the priority. And that has been such an important change for me. And I see with these teams, especially now, that folks really need to be able to be in the place that lights them up and gives them the most. And we all have to do all the pieces at times, especially in nonprofits. That's what I'm specializing in. And that's the case. But the less we can do the things that are frustrating and draining us, the better.

So for you to look at that a little bit in your world, to think about if there's even just one thing that you know is a thing that drains you and takes you longer and takes more, and if there's a way for you to do less of that in your world, that's a good start. And then to think about your impact and think about if you like the idea of becoming a little bit more localized and having those ripples, because if we're all doing a little more localized, smaller ripples instead of trying to do the biggest ripples possible, those little ripples from all of us will start to make bigger ripples and that we still want to care about big things and you can still put some energy into those big things. I don't want to take that away from you. But also to know that the things that you feel and can make it so you can keep making the big ripples is if you do some of the smaller ones. And that maybe it is writing that card with just some local friends and sending it to a complete stranger whose name you got off a list. And you might make her cry on our podcast. And maybe you're impacting a lot more people than you ever thought you might, because you don't know the way those ripples might hit and affect and cause a big wave somewhere. Right? Ripple effect.

Forget the butterfly effect. We're going with the ripple effect. I'm so glad you're here, and I hope this is powerful for you. Do know that the grit show. We are going to get some more extra episodes out before the end of this year. There's some things that I want to have some different voices in here and share with you, and we're going to slow down in the new year and give me some time and figure out the next because I want to be doing this with better intention so it's going to be less of this so I can focus and build other places. But we've got lots of wonderful, amazing conversations for you to look back on, so I hope you do that. Thank you for being here.

I value the time we shared together today. Thank you for making time to be here and to continue taking steps towards growth and bringing more ease into your life. I'd love for us to stay connected on Instagram, @shawnapodcasts or @the.grit.show. There's even a link in bio at The Grit Show where you can send me an email to let me know what you thought. Today's episode Hearing from you helps to make the effort that goes into producing these episodes worthwhile. After all, you're why I'm here. And since it's been a while since you've heard this, you are the only one of you that this world has got and that really does mean something. I hope you realize that I'll be back again soon and I hope you're following along or subscribed so that you'll know and be here too.