Shanti Brien and Laura Francis are helping women to understand themselves on a deeper level.
LISA: TWO LONGTIME FRIENDS HAVE TEAMED UP TO CREATE HALF-DAY RETREATS FOR WOMEN. SHANTI BRIEN AND LAURA FRANCIS.
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From a Piedmont native, Emmy award-winning television journalist-turned-home matchmaker, part-time radio anchor, UCLA graduate, wife and mother of 3.
LISA: WHAT INSPIRED YOU GUYS TO START DOING THESE RETREATS?
Laura: We’ve been to many retreats for women; I’ve led retreats, and Shanti has led retreats. But we wanted to bring something home to our neighborhood and the people in our community.
Shanti: It’s fun and it’s inspiring, and it’s a great way to meet people in our community that you maybe wouldn’t otherwise know.
LISA: SHANTI, YOU’RE AN AUTHOR AND A STORYTELLER. HOW DO YOU GET PEOPLE TO EVEN START TO BEGIN TO TELL THEIR STORY? AND HOW DO YOU GET THEM TO PUT IT ON PAPER?
Shanti: Everyone has interesting stories to tell about their lives, and it’s a matter of making space for them to reflect and think about what were the crucial stories we want to tell and maybe reexamine.
LISA: WHY DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE TO KNOW THEIR STORIES?
Shanti: Well, stories are how we create our identity and we understand our life. As we’re getting older, it’s the perfect time to look back. We have the wisdom now to be able to reexamine our stories and see how we’ve grown and where we have the potential to maybe sometimes change those stories into something that can propel us forward.
LISA: SO, LAURA, YOU ARE A PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT COACH. HOW DO YOU HELP PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND WHO THEY’VE BEEN AND WHO THEY’RE MEANT TO BE?
Laura: Great question. So I work with a lot of different age groups, and when I am dealing with clients, I have a variety of exercises and assessments that I can give to people to help them understand what’s their personality type. If they come to me for career change, what are their career values? What are their life values? What gets in their way? What are their saboteurs?
LISA: DO YOU FEEL LIKE A LOT OF TIMES WHEN PEOPLE FEEL LIKE THEY’RE NOT REACHING THEIR GOALS OR CAN’T ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS, IT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE ACTUALLY SELF-SABOTAGING THEMSELVES?
Laura: We all have a master saboteur, and that’s the judge. We judge ourselves and then we have accomplice saboteurs. So if you happen to be a pleaser, speaking from experience, you might do things in a different way because you’re used to pleasing other people before you do things for yourself.
LISA: SO WHO ARE THE PEOPLE THAT ARE COMING TO YOUR WORKSHOPS AND HOW ARE YOU NOTICING THAT IT’S CHANGING THEM?
Shanti: We have such a really interesting group, of women that come and from different ages, mostly from the East Bay and they learn different things. They all come with different questions and different reasons that they want to know themselves more deeply. So they all take away something slightly different usually this is the beginning of a journey of self-reflection.
LISA: SHANTI AND LAURA. THANK YOU.
Thank you. Lisa.
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