More 2 Marketing

Susan
More to marketing. Welcome to more 2 marketing. The podcast explores marketing, product and all things business. I’m your host, Susan Walsh, and we are learning about the concept of whole body intelligence and how it relates to intuition in decision making. To share her learnings, we have a very special guest. Andrea Andrew is a human behind the bold life design, so make sure you write that down the bold life design she does coaching and consulting in her practise and it centres around enabling bold leaders and high achievers to play big. Own their story and go after their most audacious and magical goals for the for their purse, for their own purpose, but also for the to have impact, and also to get joy. Because let’s face it, we do so many hours at work. We really want to get. Joy out of. This as well, so welcome to the podcast. Andrea, I’d love to hear more about you and your story. So would you mind sharing that please?
Andrea
Absolutely. And thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to have. This conversation I. Love working with people around big life and career pivot, so I I’m I like to say I’m a great Co pilot and existential crisis. So if you’re asking the big. Questions of who am I? What I. Want what? What are the? Things that lighten me up. What are my gifts? What I want to bring to the world. Or maybe it’s just that. Like like Quiet whisper of I think I meant for more. And what is that? I love being a Co pilot and being in partnership with somebody as they’re really navigating what sometimes can feel like a very scary uncertain time. But also so much possibility and having the space to actually really quiet the noise, which is why I think our conversations going to be so fun, because that’s a lot of what we do is how do we build self trust and intuition, especially in. Seasons. We’re maybe a little terrified.
Susan
Now I completely think this is gonna be an amazing conversation because myself I’ve been through. Two redundancies and that’s a a business decision because they’ve decided to pivot their business, but. I’m a human. I’m not a business machine, so it does put you into that question mark of who am I? Where do I go from here? So I I think this is absolutely going to be magical to learn from. So that for others that are going through this or may go through this cause, it’s unfortunately very common. Now they they get something out of this to be able to help them and maybe even turn to you for some advice. In the future.
Andrea
Absolutely love that.
Susan
All right, so I. Would love to know how do you actually define whole body intelligence? What are the key components or elements that contribute to this concept? And then following on to this as well, how how can you knowing and understanding these helper business?
Andrea
Whole body intelligence is a concept in kind of a the somatic coaching embodiment, coaching realm. And that’s really speaking to three components of our intelligence, which is our mind, our heart and our gut. Right. So there’s these three parts of of what informs our self trust, what informs our decision making and why I think it’s so important to highlight those as we operate in a world that really stays in the mind level of intelligence, we stay really noisy and a lot of the mind wisdom that’s coming up that. Giving people access and permission and the practise of tapping into these other almost 2/3 of the evidence of your wisdom or 2/3 of the evidence of your intuition. Is really grounding and real helpful and for for businesses, you know that’s especially whether you are running a business or you are starting a business. I think that there’s a lot to be gleaned from these other parts of you that we often and we’re thinking about all of the doing and the project management and the networking and all. The things that’s. A lot of our visioning, a lot of our decision making, a lot of our our choices that we move through. Could actually be empowered through a gut and heart decision making versus just all of the the what’s in our mind.
Susan
Exactly. It’s like using the the best of all having the data which is part of mine, but also using your heart, I’m going to. Use the word soul. And gut to make sure it is the right decision. I find that a lot of companies are now going down sustainability or ethics, and if they’re going to truly want to do this. As having the right people there, they need to have all those elements together or they’re just going to unfortunately set themselves up for failure.
Andrea
Yeah, there is. I mean, we’re all walking around with these three vessels of our wisdom and three vessels of our knowing and we don’t tap into those. We’re missing a huge, it’s a missed opportunity.
Susan
No, I I completely agree. And I know myself. Some decisions I’ve made are more on gut. Then they might be on data because the data might. Not exist yet.
Andrea
Mm-hmm.
Susan
So you you sometimes. You do have to take, I suppose, that initiative and you probably call it more. It being intuitive to be able to go for it and try. And and and. Yes, you’re allowed to fail, but at least have that try so that. You can learn from it as well.
Andrea
Yeah, gut wisdom is the. There is sometimes not an explanation for it, it’s just the knowing in your bones why there’s a direction that that you’re choosing, and you don’t necessarily like when you’re in grade school. And I thought this was a situation for you, but they always made you show your work when you got to a math problem and because you had to. Give the steps and the. This is why I made this choice and the evidence. And sometimes God is just like I just know. And it’s trusting that.
Susan
I love that analogy.
Susan
How does the body psychologically respond, though, such as your visceral reactions or that gut feel play a role in the whole body intelligence and into which you I can never say that word decision making.
Andrea
I when I’m doing the practise of really tapping into these different. Parts of the. Wisdom with the client. What we start with first is acknowledging that, like I said, mine is really noisy. It takes up a lot of space. I like to think about if we think about the boardroom of of our our inner directors and our board of Directors, mind might be the most vocal one or the one that’s. Standing up, you know. Founder fits on the table and we got to give some space to these other humans or other parts of you that are at this board. And so we have to acknowledge mine and a lot of times it’s like thank you for your service, but you can actually go take a snack break now, like we’re gonna, we’re gonna ask mine to to come offline so that we can get. Wide enough to hear these other parts of of our wisdom and. And I’m saying that this. Say, sometimes we can’t feel those visceral physiological sensations of heart and gut until we’ve done that until we’ve given mind permission to rest and go offline for a minute so that we can get quiet enough. To feel that and. Then it’s different for everybody, but there is there might be a warmth that you know this there might be. Actual language that comes up for you. There might be a shift in your energy. Uh, it can be a whole lot of different sensations and. The the whole goal. Is then for you to actually feel those. Make sense of them?
Susan
I I can definitely see how suddenly a subconscious idea could just burst forth that’s been sitting there for ever wanting to say something that you’re too busy going through the motions of the day or the motions of work or the next thing that needs to be done. Your To Do List to actually be able to turn that off to be able to hear it and feel it.
Andrea
That’s right.
Susan
Wow, that that could be very powerful. I know I have a a very good friend who I used to work with and she swears by meditation. That. That. That’s.Two minutes.
That’s how she gets herself centred. To be able to hear these type of things coming through her to help her with decision making. Thing.
Andrea
Yeah, meditation is a really helpful practise for building capacity for that quiet right for building capacity for mind to be allowed to go offline, to notice other sensations, to tapping back into this, this what I like to call wisdom or higher knowing and so meditation can be a vehicle for that. And there’s lots of ways that people can meditate it. Could be a walking meditation. It could be a creative meditate. Action. You don’t even have to call it a meditation. It could be, you know, sitting and looking out at the birds. Whatever. Whatever resonates with you, it’s that again, that space to cultivate stillness and might not always be stillness around us, but stillness within ourselves.
Susan
And what would you say the the next step you normally take once you’ve worked with someone and they’ve they’ve found this quiet, they now feel what they think is going to be something to catch on to and maybe progress with. What’s your next? Steps that you. Work with those people to help them resonate it.
Andrea
Hmm. I am not sure if I’m answering your questions because I’m going to back up a little bit and then. We’ll, we’ll go. From there, but I first have them. So we we invite mine to take a a bit of a snack break. Thank you for we’re going to. We’ll come back to you. In a minute. We’re not missing you, but we just have some other people, other parts that need to be heard from, and then I do some breath. Work and I invite people to really drop into their heart and and I’m putting my hands over my heart right now because sometimes that’s a a helpful way for us to access that, that sensation or that connection. And so really dropping into your heart wisdom and just taking some breaths, breathing into it. And we just start to notice what do you feel? What do you notice? And usually there’s language that comes up. It might take a minute to to let that settle and then we capture what does your heart want you to know about this decision? What does your heart want you to know about XY and Z and so really holding space specifically for her to be heard. And we take some big inhales, exhales, think it for its service, and then we drop it into gut wisdom. And I always say it’s like the space between your spine and your belly button the the bowl of your hips, the the widest part of your trunk. It’s your grounding. Really, breathing and exhaling into your gut and your intuition. What is your? What is your intuition? What is your gut? Want you to know about this? So specifically asking those parts of you once you’ve created that stillness and you might be surprised. At what comes up?
Susan
I can probably imagine there’s probably a lot of people that have been very surprised thinking there might be One Direction then after all of this. Ohh, actually it’s not. It’s something completely different that they never even thought of before.
Andrea
It’s something that completely never thought of before. Or sometimes we’ll get a lot of big sweeping body emotions like tears. Like there’s a part of you that has been unseen and untended to that Allison were quiet enough to hear. And that can be a really powerful part of informing what what it is that in your body. Your your whole centre is really wanting from you. Tears are really wise.
Susan
Yeah, it’s definitely a a a trigger isn’t. A trigger to actually listen to.
Andrea
Yeah. And make meaning of.
Susan
Exactly, and this this probably follows perfectly into to our next question, how do mindfulness practises or body awareness techniques contribute to the development of whole body intelligence and enhance that intuitive decision making abilities? So we’ve talked a bit about tiers. Now, but what else can you talk to and share?
Andrea
Yeah, those mind body practises, they give us capacity to build that stillness. They’re they’re like flexing a muscle for for creating stillness and the capacity to be in stillness and then building those awareness mind body awareness, sort of mechanisms actually starting to notice the sensations of your body. We I mean, how often do we go through our day? And I’m like, I don’t even know less than I remembered that I. Took a breath. Like we just are so not in our bodies experience and that is where heart and gut wisdom lives. So in order to build relationship with those parts of our wisdom, we have to start feeling the sensations of our body. And so checking in, just starting to notice the nuance. Of of how digestion feels, how your energy feels, how. Your throat feels how what warmth and cold just even baseline 5 senses is a really great place to just to start building checkpoints with yourself and building new baseline for that awareness.
Susan
I think that’s something a lot of people don’t do and I can I can vouch for that. You’re just busy going through the. Motions. And then it’s like. Oh, I’m now run down or ohh, I forgot to take my vitamins or. Oh, I’m actually cold. How long have I been sitting? Here. With very cold arms in the air conditioning. I haven’t put a. A shawl or a jumper or a jacket. So you you do just get so blindsided and focused at points?
Andrea
That’s great.
Susan
That I I I completely agree that even taking a breath. Can be something that you don’t even realise that you have been doing.
Andrea
Umm yeah, there is a our culture sets us up to just constantly be doing to be constantly overwriting. The needs and sensations of our body. It takes proactive attention and intention in order to build that awareness.
Susan
And it seems to me some of the language you’ve used, like the gut digestion, it’s also about taking the time to make sure you’re healthy and at your peak. So if you’re more in tuned about what you’re doing for work, not only that will help your work life for decision making, but also your body and mind. That they’re getting more peace as well, so that they’re more focused and relaxed to a.
Andrea
Yeah. How we tend to our vessel is an important part of what, how our vessel then tends to us in terms of giving us those wisdoms or giving us that evidence and that information that it wants us. To hear.
Susan
Are you able to share any examples or antidotes we’re relying on whole body intelligence or? Intuition has led to successful decision outcomes in either personal or professional contexts.
Andrea
Yeah. I mean, I think that. It shows up for me in so many of my business decisions I I often journal and and speak to like I feel like I’m uncomfortable all the time. Like I think that that’s just like a baseline for an entrepreneur, is just constantly stretching and growing and evolving and and trying something new. Being courageous and.
Andrea
A big part of what I feel like has empowered my journey. I’ve had my business for eight years and I, you know, just for some some context to to back you up. I’m a registered dietitian. I actually started my coaching work for the lens of food and body piece coaching and intuitive eating, coaching and quickly learned that. And these, you know, coaching relationships with women. I was like, ohh, this isn’t actually about food and body. This is about relationship with worthiness and perfectionism and their relationship with purpose. Yes. And that all led me to really down this path of joint success coaching and executive coaching and leadership coaching because it’s the umbrella under which we operated. So what is our self leadership and to make that pivot from leading with dietitian to leading with coach was terrifying. I spent a lot of years. Working on that credential and and and feeling really proud of it that to all sudden take a step back and to reevaluate, you know, what is it that I want to lead with? What is it that I actually want to be known for? That was a really. Big pivot point for me and from an entrepreneurial standpoint and and a little terrifying and part of what empowered me to keep putting 1 foot in front of the other and to really move that forward and make that shift. Was. Trusting myself, it was like mine is going to be vocal and have lots of noise around why I shouldn’t. Look at how hard you worked for this thing. It’s like that sunken cost house. So you right? And we’ve spent so much time doing this thing, why wouldn’t we keep? Doing this thing. Even if it’s not really what we want to do anymore. Or how we want to position ourselves. And so it was a lot of that tapping back in. To what do I know to be true here? What do I know to be true here? And so I had to do a lot of work to tap into that heart and gut intuition and wisdom in that season because it was just it was volatile. There’s a lot of uncertainty. So making making big Pivots is a really important time. For that.
Susan
Definitely. And it sounds like during these big pivot moments as well, it’s a lot about building that self trust by doing those exercises about heart and gut to ensure that it’s all aligned.
Andrea
Yeah, there’s the the practise of. There’s we can’t passively feel these wisdoms. It’s just it’s so countercultural that it’s getting into the practise of really quieting mind and tapping into heart and gut and and similar, you know, asking myself, like I’d asked my client and like, what is what is your heart like? You need to know about this decision. What does your gut what you know about this? And and it’s interesting, and this seems to be a thorough line and a lot of the the clients that I work with. But also my own experience. God is very succinct. God has like these very direct responses. God is just like you know. You know this is right. You know, it’s adjust to the the quiet and down and to be able to actually hear those two or three words and have them feel irrefutable within your bones is really powerful.
Susan
I’m completely agree, like even in my personal life. Because all these exercises can be used for not just work, but also personal life, you just know. So. For example, I just knew I I wanted this little puppy one day. It wasn’t in a location I would normally buy a puppy from because I don’t believe in buying from pet stores. But this little puppy pepper she she just watched me even though her sisters were banging into her, knocking her over and she just watched me walk through the whole shop and wouldn’t stop. Eye contact and we just stood there with eye contact with each other when she was getting beaten around by her sisters and it was about a good 5 minutes. And my my husband just looked at me and. Went. We’re taking her home, aren’t we? And. And my gut was just like, I think she’s chosen me.
Andrea
Huh. I.
Susan
Did not expect to get another animal or anything like this, and she as soon as the lady came to open the the gate, she got up and walked over because she knew she had picked me and I knew she had picked me in my gut and I knew I wasn’t leaving there without her because she wasn’t going to let me. You’re new. As soon as she went into my little. Arms she just started. To cry and cry. Happy cries. And it was just like, and now every time she sees me, she’s 14 years old. Every time she sees me in. The morning she cries. Because I’m just her little person that she had to have. And I just. I knew that, like you said, you just.
Susan
Know in your gut when. Your your mind stops and you.
Susan
Just I stood there. For 5 minutes, just looking at her and then my head started going, oh, you don’t need another dogs and you don’t need another dog.
Andrea
Right, it’s nice. Got lots of things they want you to hear. Mm-hmm.
Susan
And I’m just like, I don’t think my heart is giving me a choice here. And neither is she.
Andrea
Yeah.
Susan
But that that’s that would be like my example that I have. But in regards to doing this in more of a I suppose team.
Susan
And I know that this can be a very solo activity, but would you recommend doing anything within a team environment where you might just sit in a team meeting for 5 minutes quietly? All technology off. Put your phone down. Put your hands down in your lap or wherever they need to be comfortable and just breathe for a few minutes before you start a session.
Andrea
I think that our world will be in a very different place if we all took a moment to be still in silent and to tap into our heart and gut wisdoms before we made big decisions. So I am all on board with that. I think that there is. The reality is we’re we’re walking around with these, these bodies of evidence within ourselves all the time and we’re often. Even making choices on the basis of these, we’re just not getting to a place of really acknowledging the source and the origin and. So it can be powerful in meetings to like to say, pull the dark cherry corner, whatever mines got cooked in, we’re just gonna lay it on the table and we’re gonna let it rest there for a little bit and then, OK. What what happens when we when we tap into what does our heart want to know about this decision? What does our gut want us to know about this decision or the these options? And there is it. It’s countercultural, so, you know, working A-Team up to that place of being able to have safety, psychological safety, to be open and honest in those conversations because there’s a level of vulnerability. If when we, when we drop out of all of the mind, head space into heart, wisdom and gut wisdom, there’s there’s vulnerability there. And so that has to be. That space has to that safety, has to be held within the team culture and by the team leaders in order to facilitate that level of of share.
Susan
Hmm. Completely agree, because that does leave you in a space of. Am I different to everyone else, or does everyone think the same as me? And I can see also these these tools being very useful in those big as you call you do call them the big pivot moments, but particularly for things like redundancies, where you now have a potential choice of where you want what you want to do next and you might be afraid of that decision, it could be starting your own business. Changing fields of career. Here and how do you get the voice out of your head of doubt? To say that let’s let’s give it a try. Let’s give myself permission to try permission to actually go out there and give it a go and permission to fail. But learn when I fail as well and still be on my feet.
Andrea
Yeah, a lot of our inner critic is they’re alive and well in our mind, and our courage is often in our heart. Our guts. And so when we’re in seasons that require courage, being really attentive to those other parts of our wisdom, feel really, whether that’s courageous decisions, courageous, next moves, courageous leaps, courageous conversations. That is a powerful, grounded place to start from.
Susan
Yes, so I like, I’ve myself been through redundancies and it’s definitely that time of reflection and if you. Can do these practises and quiet the mind. It can help you to at least understand how you feel to then move forward in a positive way.
Andrea
Yeah, not, I mean I love coaching and and whether it’s coaching with me or coaching with somebody else or in, you know, therapeutic conversations, that’s the power of having a third party person hold space for us, especially in seasons of uncertainty is because it it gives us permission to hover above the weeds that our mind. Like to to just marinate and to say what else is possible here? What what does? Quiet. What does heart God want us to know about our options? Here? We often get trapped in the possibilities that mind comes up with and. And when we give permission to these other parts of us and hold safe space to navigate those other parts of us, it’s amazing. What else becomes available.
Susan
And I’d also say that probably a lot of people. Don’t have others that they feel that they can talk to, so that’s where this third party like yourself comes in. To be able to give permission and to listen and not judge and just help them pull out those words and make sense of those.
Andrea
Good coach should be a conduit for. Your highest wisdom. Self. It’s not about the coach. It’s about holding space for you.
Susan
Exactly. Now looking ahead, what do you envisage as the future implications or applications of this whole body intelligence, particularly in the aspects of? Human life like education, healthcare and even leadership.
Andrea
I think that the more smoke and mirrors and potentially quote unquote artificial that our world gets, I think the more these very human attributes and very human parts of our connection and decision making are going to become even more. Irrefutable and even more required. And that’s your heart and gut. And AI can’t replicate those things. Your gut check, your intuition, your your heart sense. It can’t replicate those things. And that is where. Really powerful leadership comes from and in human centric leadership, compassionate leadership. It comes from those places. And so I think that. Especially post COVID and in our hybrid situations, I think that that’s what will really the pendulum has kind of swung and that’s what we’re really rumbling with now is like what does sustaining leadership actually look like? And it’s not all of the smoke and mirrors things. It’s not all of the best strategy. It’s like how do we tend to our. Length. How do we tend to? The workforce that is, that is the reality and and frankly the majority of the capital spend in organisation, it’s like how do we tend to that and that really happens at the mine level.
Susan
It is. It’s definitely a shine, then a lot more companies think of the mind because it’s where all ideas. Come from it’s how decisions are made. It’s how you work, it’s how you treat people. It come all comes out of there. So if you’re not feeding at the right food, you’re going to have the wrong behaviours.
Andrea
That’s right. It’s the. There’s the parable of the two wolves, which I’m I’m sure you’ve heard of. The listeners I’ve heard of the there’s the, you know, the Native American grandfather who’s speaking to his grandson thing grandson. We all have two wolves within us. There’s the wolf of darkness and hatred and jealousy and. All the things that I don’t feel good and then you have the love of whiteness and generosity and kindness and compassion. And the grandson asked his grandfather, you know which which will win if they’re both inside of us when we’re at war every day which. One wins and. The grandfather says the wolf that you feed. So where we want our energy to go and we have to, we have to give attention to it where we want our society to go, our companies, to go, our cultures to go. That is what we have to feed mind heart and gut.
Susan
Exactly all together and trying to balance them as best we can.
Andrea
That’s right.
Susan
What excites you most about whole body intelligence?
Andrea
I think that this is where peoples most courageous choices come from, and courageous possibility is when people are really tapped into. Mind out and gut. This is where I think anything’s possible and. Especially when people are in seasons of uncertainty or seasons of challenge, ambiguity or or high levels of fear that, well, we can drop into these places. That is where our grounded sense of I got this comes from and people making decisions from a place of trusting themselves, feeling their feet rooted to the earth. What a different world we’d live in that if we’re just all, you know, fully around making decisions on the basis of the the fears and scarcities of our mind. So I I think it’s a really powerful place to build leadership from.
Susan
I agree and I can feel your passion about this whole topic as well, which makes me so excited as well. Now.
Andrea
Thank you for having me.
Susan
I do have one final question I ask everybody. What brand? Any brand in the world best represents you and why?
Andrea
I love this question. I sat with it and I have to tell you, I asked my husband. I was like, OK, if you had to put a brand, you know, I’m back to to my my personhood. What would you say in here? He said. Lisa Frank and I don’t know if you are familiar with that brand. It’s like a brand of my youth. It’s very colourful. It’s unicorns and it’s a whole. There’s folders and stationary. It’s a whole thing. I don’t know if I agree with him, but I felt like that was very telling. And what I did glean from that is. Joy is one of the tenants of who I am, and it’s who I am. It’s how I practise. It’s a big part of the work. That I do. Is like feeling deep in your bones, joy in your life and and and and your your work and.
Andrea
So that that resonates for me. But I feel like the the my grown up version of Lisa Frank is bandeau the brand bandeau and it’s they have lots of like colourful stationary and colourful clothes. And there’s a playfulness and a. Whimsy to it.
Susan
I like it.
Andrea
And you know, not taking ourselves so seriously. And finding the joy and colour and shapes and fun sayings. And I feel like that that resonates with me.
Susan
Beautiful. I love that. I I I do not know those brands, so I’m definitely going to be checking them out because I do like. Bright stationary myself.
Andrea
You’re going to get a whole lot of colour turning that beautiful little friend, so you’re either fairly warned or you’re welcome.
Susan
I love it. Thank you again so much for your time. I’m just going to do a quick wrap. Up as well. So with body intelligence, it’s so important to be in tune to this to help with decision making, particularly those pivotal times where they’re big moments and you really want to make sure you’re making the right decision. So take the time to understand your mind, heart and gut, and use it to to listen in for that wisdom and intuition that will come out when you make yourself quiet and let the noise and the feelings and the warmth or cold wherever it is come out, because that will help you with your self trust and decision making. Acknowledge that your mind is noisy. There is so much going on up there at any point in time that you will need to actually work on and practise how to make it quiet at the right time to then exercise. Quietness to then find this inner thoughts and inner feelings, so it will take time. It will take practise. Just make sure you keep trying at it. Feel those emotions. Get quiet enough to hear those other noises. Sounds, feelings coming through and that will help you to cultivate stillness. Practise your mind body all the time, where you can either within your team or individually for personal or for work to help with those big decisions making. It’s like flexing a muscle. You need to practise it to be able to learn to get that stillness and start to notice those sensations and recognise them even thinking about. Checking in on it. How’s your digestion going? Your throat. Think about all those different things. Are you warm or you’re cold? Go through that practise and then you’ll start to hear and feel and get the heart. And then the gut working together with your mind. Definitely this is all about developing your own self trust to allow yourself to try. So. Practise this. Learn. This is a fantastic technique because it helps you to be courageous and also imagine the possibilities that you’re missing out on. If you don’t try this. So what if you got to lose as well? Have I missed anything? Angio.
Andrea
I’m just smiling. You nailed it. I got one fuzzy that’s that’s right. And I I loved your last piece of we’re missing out. We’re not tapping into this. What could you be missing out on? I think that that is such a fair place to end this honour. That so that you can really feel fullness of your experience.
Susan
Ah. Perfect. Thank you so much. Now for anyone who needs any coaching in this space or wants to learn more about these techniques, I’ll have Andrea’s details in the show notes and make sure that you check her out. Thank you again so much for your time. Andrea, you’ve been amazing. I’ve loved this conversation.
Andrea
Thank you for having me. I love this conversation as well.
Susan
Thanks for tuning in to more 2 marketing. Don’t forget to subscribe for more insights and to hear from some more amazing guests in the future. And also if you have any suggestions, please reach out as well. This is more to marketing. Thank you. More to marketing.