The G.E.M. Series Episode 9 Overcoming Fear to Impact Generational Change With Shani Godwin

[00:00:00] Shani Godwin: Welcome to the gym series for today's episode. I am thrilled to welcome my cohost. The heat far Zod the heat is a customer success, executive responsible for reinventing the customer experience here at rocket. And she is an absolute rock star. The heat will be interviewing today's guest Shani God-man Shawnee is an accomplished entrepreneur, author blogger, podcaster, and speaker.

[00:00:25] Shani Godwin: And it's known as chief joy officer high-growth marketing firm communicate. You will say with over 18 years of experience leading her firm, she is an expert at helping small businesses take the guesswork out of marketing, telling their story and growing their businesses the right way, passionate about work-life integration, Shawnee and her communicate USA team have been providing marketing project relief and support district.

[00:00:48] Shani Godwin: Overworked marketing departments around the country, including Chick-fil-A Cox enterprises, CommuniCore RT city of Atlanta, Georgia power and Safeco insurance companies among tons of others. Under Shawnee's leadership. Communicate also created joy economics for signature coaching program for helping women entrepreneurs scale to seven figures in before.

[00:01:09] Shani Godwin: Using their gifts, talents and stories. This approach has helped communicate grow by nearly 300% and includes company policies and programs that free its staff to enjoy life as much as work joy economics, creating better way to life work and play also uses a client service approach that delivers expert marketing relief teams and a joy economics national speaker series to empower others to transact joy.

[00:01:34] Shani Godwin: This podcast is all about those who didn't take the beaten path and are doing something disruptive, writing their own stories and investing in themselves. There is so much of this that we can learn from Sean. Enjoy 

[00:01:48] Nahid: Shawnee. Thank you so much for hopping on the podcast with us. It's you know, I, I can tell you're such a busy person, so really appreciate the time.

[00:01:58] Shani Godwin: Yeah, no, I I'm grateful to be here. I'm going to. Put my bracelets up here, baby found in there, but appreciate that. I mean, we're all busy, right? You could make time for the things that are 

[00:02:13] Nahid: important. Thank you so much. It really 

[00:02:15] Shani Godwin: is for me so many years ago, and he is in a whole span of my 30 years that I've been in an advertising, marketing and communicates.

[00:02:27] Shani Godwin: Hands down one of the top people I've thoroughly enjoyed. 

[00:02:30] Nahid: Oh gosh. I'm so lucky to work with her. I really love working with her and it's just the type of person where work doesn't feel so much like work. It feels like working with a girlfriend, you 

[00:02:38] Shani Godwin: know, Yeah. We ran into each other in a restaurant that was probably about four or five years ago.

[00:02:45] Shani Godwin: And I was eating with my attorney and she's like, you know, it's like

[00:02:55] Nahid: good coincide. And also, I think it's just so, so cool that you can just have those, those relationships, you know, whether it be, you know, personal obviously, but like professional spanning so many years. And, you know, I know that's something that you're really big on is helping, you know, women and just kind of supporting women in, in business.

[00:03:11] Nahid: Excited to dive into all of that. So, so yeah, so thank you so much for being here. You know, I think the one place I really want to start is it's just kind of giving an overarching, you know, look to our listeners on what it is that calm unique does. And a little bit just kind of about you. So if you want to just kind of dive into that.

[00:03:30] Shani Godwin: Absolutely. So I am the CEO. I'm so sorry. That's okay. We get that all the time. It's a little French inspiration on a communicate means communication and France. And so that's for me where this story begins. I love to write, I will always been a writer my whole life. I grew up speaking at a very early age.

[00:03:51] Shani Godwin: Probably I've thought about this. Cause you know, it's so a part of you, you don't really think about how long you've been doing it, but probably around it is the first, second grade I was Harriet Tubman in a black history month program and had on my mom's big Sachi skirt, which went down to my ankles and like some Mary Janes tied a scarf around my head and Harriet was born, but that.

[00:04:15] Shani Godwin: I remember distinctly writing that as my first composition ever. And then giving that speech. And that was probably the start of, of, of my career. If I really think about it, I didn't know. At that time I'd go on to lead a communications company, but you know, lifetime talent career led me through advertising traditional agency side into corporate advertising work.

[00:04:37] Shani Godwin: And then eventually got the opportunity to start communicate 20 years ago this year. So. It's been a great Turkey. What we do is really simple. The inspiration behind communicate was to really create for you. I got to take you back to 2002. At that time, there was no Facebook. There was no content wasn't driving everything.

[00:04:58] Shani Godwin: the.com had just all burst and dissolved and crashed. So content wasn't the driver of marketing, but I here was a writer inside of the halls of corporate America, dying a little bit creative. In, in super inspired to create a content shop, basically for small business. And so that was the inspiration in original vision.

[00:05:20] Shani Godwin: It was for me, really a lifestyle business. I was married at the time. I really had this vision for my life, where I wanted to be super high, creative, do great, great work, but I wanted to be very present in my life as wife. Mom. If I had kids as a daughter, a friend, and I just couldn't see how I could make that work in a nine to five, two weeks of vacation a year, and I was young, but I had that foresight and vision.

[00:05:45] Shani Godwin: And so fast forward, 20 years later, content drives everything. And we started this company as a content shop. What we do and hyper-focused on today is two main areas. We do provide end to end content. Development work for all kinds of coms teams, departments, corporations, major corporations with big marketing budgets and corporate comm budgets small businesses teaching women, entrepreneurs, how to use their content, their stories to create a brand that honors the best of who they are so that they can have a business that honors the lifestyle they want.

[00:06:19] Shani Godwin: But then we, so over the year started getting a lot of requests to help find talent. Fast growing organizations and fast growing small businesses. And so we built in an embedded staffing division where we help find fractional marketing and communications talent. So together the actual execution of the work.

[00:06:42] Shani Godwin: Hi, finding, helping you find the people who do the work of that comprises the line, share of the work we do. Wow. 

[00:06:47] Nahid: So I, I just am amazed at all the different things that you have your, your hand in. So obviously you run, communicate. I know you have another kind of side brand joy economics, right? Did I say that one, right?

[00:07:02] Shani Godwin: Yeah. It's actually more of a work philosophy. We do have a coaching program that we created during the pandemic before. Small business owners, women who wanted to reinvent their lives, their businesses who were stressed out and it like economics kind of undergirds the philosophy of how we do our business.

[00:07:18] Shani Godwin: And so we believe that when you do work that you love little Shawnee play in Harriet Tubman who play love to write. So, what I've learned through the years is how to monetize those talents and find joy my work. And when I chase joy, the money, the opportunities, the scaling, the growth comes. So that's, that's the, the inspiration behind joining economics.

[00:07:43] Shani Godwin: And we've started to get press and opportunities because we're in a space in the economy where people are very receptive to a work-life balance, work, friendly work. Work life centered. Yeah, 

[00:07:57] Nahid: no, a hundred percent. I think that that's something we always are talking about over here is we were, I don't know if you've heard the term, but like the great resignation, like a lot of people I think are coming to that conclusion that it's like, you know, especially very corporate style jobs, which I know you used to work at.

[00:08:13] Nahid: It's very hard to, to kind of think, how am I going to balance myself as a person? The things that drive me, my passions, my family, you know, those types of things, because they're just as important as work. Right. You know? So, so I think that's very cool that you had the, I guess, the foresight, you know, to see how important these things are and how easily people can burn out without them, you know?

[00:08:36] Shani Godwin: Yeah, well, you know, it's, it's some foresight, but it was also my real life story. So here I am, I'm highly successful, high functioning, leading high growth teams, and also dealing with privately depression at that time, having to show up to work, looking the part, but having. These challenges behind the scenes.

[00:09:02] Shani Godwin: So the rest of the story is the marriage did not work out. The family did not come instead. I ended up sick, depressed, divorced, and then my dad died all in the span of three years. And then that's when God was like, now writer, girl, go write about this. And I knew that not only would writing, be part of my healing and recovery.

[00:09:27] Shani Godwin: But outing myself as a leader, sharing real impact on my life and how hard and difficult it was to show up in work. When you looked fine with all of these things, falling apart that I'm hub covering and hiding. And when I really let it go and just said, Hey, you know, guys, this is what's happening. This is the real thing.

[00:09:49] Shani Godwin: The very thing I thought would happen, which was, you know, I'd break the brand, I'd lose the clients, I'd lose the respect and trust the complete opposite. Now me and so I, I hope thickly know that my work on this earth is about teaching women, especially, but anyone who really values work and life and is working hard to have a life, they love to learn how to do that in ways that create joy, wholeness, health.

[00:10:15] Shani Godwin: And I personally champion and advocate for mental health in the world. Yeah. I 

[00:10:19] Nahid: mean, that's, I had no idea obviously about any of those details about you and that's thank you for sharing that because that's obviously very personal, but I think that it's something that so many people just relate to, you know, I mean, I would love to kind of back up on your story a little bit and kind of maybe dive into, you know, when you were kind of in that, that corporate place and all these, you know, pieces of your life or.

[00:10:42] Nahid: Falling apart or not working out the way that you expected you know, where were you at in your career and what was kind of the decision making process and to thinking I need to do something different, I guess. Cause I, yes, 

[00:10:54] Shani Godwin: it's funny. It's a great question. You know, oddly, I had figured out that I was not cut out for corporate before all of the things before the world from right.

[00:11:04] Shani Godwin: And crap. So it is, it's funny because you know, the pandemic showed up at communicate hard, fast and brutal. And while I think it was really difficult for a lot of us, I've been through so many things. I was poised and ready and just know how to S to move and pivot. I rather enjoy kind of just going with the flow and figure it all out.

[00:11:25] Shani Godwin: But I also recognize though, like, had it not been for those difficulties a decade ago that I too would be kind of having these awakenings of like, what is this all about? And so for me, I started the business in 2002. And all of these things happened about three years later and it was, you know, there's series of events that, that lead to.

[00:11:46] Shani Godwin: To you know, this tipping point where you don't have the cliff land, but I, you know, if I, without unpacking it all for me from a spiritual place, I had prayed this prayer. Then I'll kind of focus it there, which was like, God, what is your will for my life? Whatever you want me to do, I will do it. And I, now I admit that with my whole heart, until like all of that stuff happened, I was like, is that really what I was telling?

[00:12:13] Shani Godwin: Well,

[00:12:17] Shani Godwin: this is not what I thought you had,

[00:12:22] Shani Godwin: but so it was interesting because I pushed through the fear of starting a business. I was out there. I think I was so young. And honestly ambitious. And there's a beautiful part thing about being young and ambitious. It also comes with a good dose of naivete. I just didn't think about the field where everyone around me, it was like, are you crazy?

[00:12:42] Shani Godwin: And I was like, what's wrong? So I jumped out, but it was when all these things crashed. I'm three years out. It was, I remember it being this feeling of like, oh my God, I know. I actually thought I was invincible. I never considered that as a business owner life could show up in this way. You know, I had turned 30 and I, I read read article about like what you learn in each decade.

[00:13:07] Shani Godwin: And I love this applause, but it said in your twenties, you, you show up in your life as the, you, you think you're supposed to be, and that's informed a lot by like your opinion. And what you saw girling up in, in what you envisioned adulting is really supposed to be. And then in your thirties, life kind of smacks you all upside the head, but it also shows you, you know, the harder things in life start to show up for a lot of thirties.

[00:13:33] Shani Godwin: And, and that was certainly my case. And, but it shows us our real core in our character. And then the forties you arrive at. The you that you were created to be in that certainly kind of summarizes the story. So again, I don't think it was until these things happen that I ever even considered like the backup plan.

[00:13:55] Shani Godwin: What if this business did fail? What if I don't have it? What if I can't get myself together? And what does this mean for my career? Who am I, if can I be successful? And, you know, bright and brilliant and also have this mental struggle, these things I had to recognize all of those things privately before I could then publicly come out and share.

[00:14:19] Shani Godwin: And at the time in place that I'm called to do this work in my forties, mid forties, at that a mental health is trending. I would have never had any idea that the timing would align. But. I can speak authoritatively on this topic because it's just not a philosophy. It is, as I said, some foresight, but a lot of life experience in, and it's a real story.

[00:14:46] Shani Godwin: And there are Shawnee in our offices every day around us who, who don't have permission and don't feel like they have the ability to show up as their real selves. And I think these are the gifts that the painting. Is offering us. And that's why we're seeing things like the great resignation and people really impressing like the real of who they are and trying to find work that aligns with the best parts of who they are and who they, yeah.

[00:15:12] Shani Godwin: It's, 

[00:15:12] Nahid: it's so funny how often I feel like I've heard and I'm sure you've heard this a ton of times, like companies saying, we want you to come to work as your authentic self and it's like, that's a whole person. That's not just, you know, the, the, the corporate side of you. Exactly. And then people don't really mean it the way that they, it needs to be meant for people to thrive and be healthy and be, you know, good at their jobs.

[00:15:32] Nahid: And, you know, so that's, that's very cool. That's something that, that you really, you know, help, help you know, people work on and to kind of tap into those skills that they have to. You know, bring their true, authentic selves to work. Now, you know, you obviously had a lot of adversity and, and, you know, I'm sure, even though you kind of went into starting your own business with maybe like a bright eyed bushy tailed attitude, I'm sure you had your tough days there too.

[00:15:56] Nahid: So how do you think you kind of like reframe your mindset on those days? Cause obviously I think a big, you know, Criticism or big, the biggest critic is yourself probably most times. So I guess, how do you help reframe your mind on those days? 

[00:16:12] Shani Godwin: Yeah, so it's you know, I advocate for therapy and all, all the things, the coaches, therapists, all of that.

[00:16:17] Shani Godwin: But one of the biggest tools I use is like to talk back to the narrative. So we all, whether it's, you know, us as employees, us as business leaders, Us as vendors, whatever part we're playing, we all, we all create narratives about other people about ourselves. Some are true. And some aren't true. And I love, I think in narratives because I'm a writer, I own a communications.

[00:16:43] Shani Godwin: We write brand stories and stories and narratives all day. But you know, when I find myself doubting myself or coming a little bit unglued, what I typically have learned to do, it's just a tool in my toolbox is to, you know, as they say, where are the receipts? Like when I look back over history, I go give me, give, I ask myself to give myself an example of a time I failed at that, or I didn't deliver, or the thing that I'm afraid of happening has actually happened.

[00:17:14] Shani Godwin: If, if I can't find receipts in my, my history that say it's likely to happen, and then I know it's a fear. And when you see fear for what it is, false evidence appearing real, then you're able to come And approach it from a different angle and push past it. So I've gotten very good at doing it scared.

[00:17:34] Shani Godwin: And I think for me, it's the awareness that fear is what's driving the decision or lack of decision sometimes. And when I see fear that just can't be the reason we can make decisions for a lot of other reasons, viable reasons, but fear can't be the reason I don't do something. So it gets me doing a lot of crazy over the.

[00:17:54] Shani Godwin: top Challenging stretchy things, but Hey, it keeps up. Yeah, absolutely. What did you say? 

[00:18:02] Nahid: You just said fear was a, you used like an acronym. 

[00:18:06] Shani Godwin: You said a false evidence appearing real. 

[00:18:08] Nahid: Wow. I've never heard that 

[00:18:10] Shani Godwin: before. I've heard that. And I love that it's evidence 

[00:18:15] Nahid: of, I love that. That is, I mean, that really is what it is.

[00:18:18] Nahid: Like if we don't have, like you said, if we don't have the receipts, what are we so afraid? 

[00:18:22] Shani Godwin: But, yeah. So like, where is the evidence like, have you, if you, if, and here's the thing, fear is an appropriate response. If you are in danger, if you know, I am chasing you check yeah. You better be afraid and get your butt out of there.

[00:18:37] Shani Godwin: Right. But if you're not in imminent danger, then you add for me, I have to interrogate the narrative around the fear. And I've oddly found my biggest blessings typically are on the other side of that fear. Push through it, then there's something beautiful way. Yeah. But I've done it a lot. Right. So it's, it's trying to practice in 

[00:18:59] Nahid: it.

[00:18:59] Nahid: And, and like you said, you know, it leads to maybe you taking some of those bigger risks, bigger reward though. So I guess, you know, kind of going back a little bit to when you first started this company you know, I think the hardest part of anything is just starting. Right. So for you, can you kind of think back to when you first started, like, what were some of the goals you had and, and where did you kind of see.

[00:19:25] Shani Godwin: Sure. So this is a funny little story. I, I, as much as I knew, I love to write, I, you would think it was like, Ooh, I'm going to start rice riding company. And that was not how it went. I had a lot of fear, a whole lot of fear. It was the over raining belief and feeling. And I didn't have, again, history of pushing past fear as rev.

[00:19:46] Shani Godwin: Very much a calculated risk taker. I have a lot of people like Shawnee, you're super risky. I'm a calculated risk taker. I'm a move, but I kind of have to see a little bit of a, a net or something. I know a plan before I move on it. So for me again, I was married at the time and my ex-husband kept saying Shawnee just right.

[00:20:07] Shani Godwin: And this went on for two and a half years. So I want to be really clear. This is not an overnight. For two and a half years, I bugged the heck out of him with every idea, but riding under the sun, I mean, I'm going to open a Sylvan learning center. I'm going to open a damn. Dance place and he's like, you don't dance.

[00:20:27] Shani Godwin: And I was like, but I missed a date. That's so funny. And a half years, we finally I got this bright idea to go visit this church. We had never been to this church. We kept passing by it. I was like, Hey, do you want to go to this church? Sure. We show up in the air. And that Sunday, the pastor was a lady and she was preaching about fear.

[00:20:49] Shani Godwin: And she said something that just. I knew I was supposed to be in that church on that Sunday at that time in my life. Cause she said some of you are afraid and you're over-analyzing and over-thinking in your, your paralysis of analysis is going to make you miss your blessing in your season. Ooh, is that if, if I'm talking to you, come up here and let me pray for you.

[00:21:15] Shani Godwin: I'm not a person who's like, oh, let me come up there. I look at myself, I look at him. I'm like, I think she's taught, he was like, I'm waiting. I'm like waiting on you. Are you going? And so when we came out of that service, I said to him, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but I know that I can write. So I'm just gonna write.

[00:21:34] Shani Godwin: And within a week, someone asked me to do a nonprofit brochure for their uncle. I asked if I could do it for free and vet him and let him be a Guinea pig client. Five 10 minutes into the conversation. I realized I couldn't even write because there was this whole consultative messaging strategy piece that I had acquired from being in corporate and boom.

[00:21:58] Shani Godwin: The model for communicate came in division. So it wasn't, I never was going to have it until I took a step. And that's what I've learned. A lot of times we're waiting for the vision to be completely clear, completely playing before we move. And that's why fear stifle. But for me, I love this quote by Martin Luther king.

[00:22:18] Shani Godwin: I quoted a lot. You don't have to real entrepreneurship journey is you don't have to see the whole staircase. You get to the top by taking the first step. So in that moment that I'm consulting with this uncle, I don't have a name for the business. I don't, I I'm just gonna write 20 years later, you know seven figure business owner, multiple corporate clients that I could have never driven.

[00:22:44] Shani Godwin: In the middle of those sinner is never start with where you are and take a step. And then once you take that step, just think if you're going up a staircase, if it winds and curves, you're not going to know what's ahead until you get to that step where you can turn and go, oh, you're turning. And move in the answer, 

[00:23:06] Nahid: start with that.

[00:23:08] Nahid: That was a great story. I mean, it's such a good example of yeah. Like you don't listen, you know, it's something we say here a lot is it's better done than perfect, you know? 

[00:23:18] Shani Godwin: Yeah. Something we started adopting that mantra at communicating. About two years ago. Cause I was like, it's perfect. It's hard

[00:23:30] Shani Godwin: to make yourself and me year as I age gracefully, I've chilled out a whole lot. So people in my early days would be like, that was not your mantra 10 years ago. Yeah. Done is better than perfect is definitely what we've been facing. Absolutely. But 

[00:23:46] Nahid: yeah, I mean, taking that first step and you're going to figure it out as you go along, but start, you know, start doing something, anything, right?

[00:23:54] Shani Godwin: Yeah. Well, and it's funny because I did a masterclass recently. I love telling on myself all the time. There's no reason to be mystified and break the facade, but I just actually love showing people what it really looks like behind the scenes. So for our economics coaching, You know, we doing all this, promoting them a masterclass.

[00:24:13] Shani Godwin: We tried it last bad timing. Now not a lot of people registered. I was like, forget it. It's we're not going to do it. And then the new year started, I was like, it's the perfect time. Let's do it again. And I said, and even if no one shows up, we're doing it period. And so we just did the masterclass. We probably, we had a very low turnout.

[00:24:30] Shani Godwin: We did it. A couple of Sundays ago on a Sunday evening, you know, we did all the promotion, the email, the Facebook post, all of that, probably about four or five people showed up, not a great turnout by a marketer stats, but because I said we were going to do it, we did it. And when we did it, we had all kinds of weird tech glitches.

[00:24:51] Shani Godwin: It was beyond done, but not perfect. It was definitely done, not heed in part of the time we finished, I was like, I know what we need to do. Like this needs to be pre-recorded. We need to do it this way. And I never would have figured that out if I wouldn't have just done it for, even for our audience of one, even if that one was me.

[00:25:12] Shani Godwin: So the answers really do find you when you just takes the moves and the journey. And the process is where the beauty lies. It's really not. You hit a goal and you cheer, you eat out, you go on a trip and then you, like, what are we doing? So I'm really learning, learn to do. Be in the moment with the process and learn.

[00:25:32] Shani Godwin: Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, you 

[00:25:33] Nahid: don't always know what you're going to learn. You know? Like you, you just come up with so many takeaways that you're like, wow, I didn't even expect to kind of have that, you know? So 

[00:25:43] Shani Godwin: yeah. Well, and it's like unlocking a code, right? So you make functions before you move. But in the doing is when you either validate the assumptions or, or you discover something new about yourself.

[00:25:55] Shani Godwin: That you, you didn't even know. So in that story of how communicate got started, I'm thinking I'm writing this brochure for this nonprofit, but consultant girl is like, oh no, give me that microphone. Like, who's your target audience? Or what is the yes or who benefits? And I was like, That's awesome. Part of the model.

[00:26:20] Nahid: Okay. So you're landing your first client, things are going well. How did, can you kind of bridge the story between how you got from being, you know, that, that one person, but that one uncle client versus now you've got like corporate clients, you've got a team you've got like, you've grown this to be so big.

[00:26:37] Nahid: Like what, what was that in between? Tell me about. 

[00:26:42] Shani Godwin: Yeah. So it's so funny. Cause I, from day one, I always spoke in, in second person, plural, I was always saying we, and I remember in those early years, people would be like, I'd be like, and we're going to do this. And you got to think I was like super young and super cute.

[00:26:59] Shani Godwin: Okay. And I'm saying we, and they're looking, people would like be like,

[00:27:07] Shani Godwin: but I had vendor partners. I had advice, always we in my head. So. I think two secrets to my success. I've thought about this a lot recently. I'm very clear on what I know and I'm clear on what I don't know. And I don't try to have all the answers and I'm super, as you see people and I like people collaboration.

[00:27:29] Shani Godwin: So I would, I, and I'm a connector, which is why, you know, I can pull back in my, my Rolodex, my LinkedIn. 2030 years and pull people into present time. And so I knew, kind of had those strengths, really the work just built. So when I got, it was a simple overflow model. When I got too busy, then I would add a person, a fractional person.

[00:27:55] Shani Godwin: They got too busy and every person I'd say, how much do you want to work? Not like I need you to do all this work. It would be. Hey, Shaunie, I'm a mom. I'm coming back to the corporate world. I want to do great work, but I need to be at the bus stop at three o'clock to get my kids. Okay. How many hours can give me 20?

[00:28:14] Shani Godwin: Cool. We get you to 20. We match you with a client who can take that capacity. And then when you get to full, your obligation is to create a new job for someone else. We always kind of outgrew the work and, and there was a point of specific pivotal point where I did a business development program again immersing myself in free resources and programs.

[00:28:37] Shani Godwin: And I've been sponsored and scented Dartmouth and tuck and executive education by amazing clients and people who invested in me and my business. But there was this moment in 2014 where I realized if I didn't stop doing the work that. Hey, I was leading people who are depending on me to have vision and who were depending on me for their livelihood and stability, who were not business owners.

[00:29:01] Shani Godwin: And I needed to let go of the work so that I could leave the company. And that was a, that's a whole nother story and a whole nother process, but that scaling from lifestyle to a real growth business, it's a hard steep climb. We went from four to 90 nines. At the end of 2014 to 14 W2's and 10 months at the beginning of 2015.

[00:29:25] Shani Godwin: All the way Koreans do not recommend.

[00:29:31] Nahid: No, that's very cool. I'm so amazed by just like all the different things that you do. And then this whole story is very interesting to me. So obviously, you know, we've kind of peppered this in throughout our conversation, but you do have like a large focus on helping like women entrepreneurs, right?

[00:29:48] Nahid: Yeah. So, yeah, let's talk about that. 

[00:29:52] Shani Godwin: So I have a passion for women. Obviously I am a woman, I think will be so much of what we've talked about today. When we talk about fear, like fear resides in the hearts of women. So deeply, it keeps us playing ourselves so small. I mean, again, I started this business for very feminine lifestyle reasons.

[00:30:12] Shani Godwin: Right. But I, the reality is I never even thought to a million. Not because I didn't want it. I just never could think that far or that big, you know, I, and in that way, the more I grow, the older I become the wiser, I become men. Men don't have a lot of the mental blocks. The challenges, mindset, challenges that we as women have.

[00:30:40] Shani Godwin: I was just on the phone with a candidate today and she's got a couple of job offers on the table. We're trying to advocate to get her this role with a client. And I, and she apologizing. And I had to say, why are you not supposed to apologize for being great, beautiful, and brilliant. And for people wanting you, but she feels like she's pressuring us.

[00:31:02] Shani Godwin: And she's like, thank you for giving me permission. To stop saying, I'm sorry. And I was like, yeah, stop that. Like, unless you did something wrong, we as women, I think we apologize way too much. We do this awful thing called mind reading. So I'm like looking at you and I'm like, I know she's thinking this and I'm going to say that.

[00:31:24] Shani Godwin: Unless you told me, you're thinking that I don't know. So, so, so much of the work we get to do with women, entrepreneurs and women, founder led companies is really life-changing well beyond the marketing that we'll ever do well beyond helping them tell their story. You see them grow from the inside, and I just believe feminine energy regardless of how you identify.

[00:31:50] Shani Godwin: If you embrace the feminine, the feminine part of you, then I really believe we are called to lead differently than energy. And so much of the stress on women is we are in a male dominant society where we think in order to succeed and thrive, we have to suppress our feminine and being masculine. That's never going to work to our best advantage.

[00:32:13] Shani Godwin: So in our programs, in our work with women, founder led companies. We're doing a lot of hard work and hard work. And what a lock things like you. Why can't you take a vacation again? Oh, because I can't and I did it and we go, we move people from, we moved one person in our coaching program from, I can't take one day off to notify her clients last December.

[00:32:37] Shani Godwin: It's not only she going to take a day off. She's going to take the whole month of June, 2020. And when she comes back, she will no longer be serving the clients. She will be transitioning people to her team. Now she can scale. Now she can grow. That's what being a boss is really about. Like calling your own shots.

[00:32:56] Shani Godwin: It's not always about making dollar. It's about showing up in the fullness of who God created you to be. So, yeah. And in that way, I know we changed her life. We probably really helped her marriage because now she's home cooking and president dinner and there's not a computer. And yeah. So that's, that's why we liked well with women, we, we don't discriminate.

[00:33:19] Shani Godwin: We let them do like the Phillips. Yeah. I can't 

[00:33:24] Nahid: remember where I read this, or if someone told me this, but it's something that I think about all the time, because I catch myself doing it. Is that like when there is a job available so many women will look at that job and say, I don't match, you know, most of these qualifications, therefore I'm not gonna apply.

[00:33:38] Nahid: Whereas men say I'm matched to qualifications, I'll apply. I'll get the job. And 

[00:33:42] Shani Godwin: they do I'm around men, male business owners so much. They think they can like scale now coming Ajara until they just don't have, they don't have these issues. And we, we diminish ourselves. So like, if you unleashed the fullness of your possibility, you can, if you desire, be really big, bright, light, bold, and big doesn't always mean better, but the fullness of who you are, so.

[00:34:16] Shani Godwin: Oh my okay. How you think about like this concept? What, like, I'll give you my answer to what percentage, if you think about just you as a woman, what percentage of your real power do you think you're operating it? If you could be fully not heed in all the way. Hair makeup clothes. Like 

[00:34:40] Nahid: it's definitely not a hundred percent.

[00:34:42] Nahid: Thankfully I have to say that I am so lucky that I have a job where they do really allow us to be ourselves and to bring a full version of yourself to work. But at the same time, I don't think that I allow myself to be a hundred percent me. So maybe maybe 50%, 60%. 

[00:35:00] Shani Godwin: Yeah. I mean, I do this work and I'm, I would put myself still as much as it seems like it's oozing out loud.

[00:35:07] Shani Godwin: Me there's a whole lot more in here. I'm probably like 60, 70. I couldn't tell me to, 

[00:35:17] Nahid: no, I think that's such a good point to bring up that. I mean, we, we really, even when we do have the space and you are, you know, you were the one who has a lot of control over the space, you influenced the space a lot and you still are, you know, don't even fully allow yourself to a hundred percent, you know, be who you are, you know?

[00:35:37] Shani Godwin: Yeah, and it looks different ways for different women. Some women are quiet and meek and mild, but the fullness of that, right. We're always being told as women, what not to be, not what be so in my family, even I'm told often, oh, you Sue so much and it's true. I own it. But there are places in spaces that I'm competent.

[00:36:03] Shani Godwin: You know, Ted talks, stages, radio stations, where this energy is needed. Right. And I took me doing a radio interview where I was like, oh, I'm so sorry. I hope that wasn't too much. And he was like, you could go even harder. I was like, yes, you can. So I say, whatever version of you is the pure real, you be a hundred or strive for a hundred percent of her.

[00:36:27] Shani Godwin: And we all come in different forms and energies and styles. Now be mindful of when people are telling you what you should be should is always on that. 

[00:36:35] Nahid: Okay. I love, I love that. That was good answer. So I guess you know, I was talking about these types of things that, you know, women are often dealing with.

[00:36:44] Nahid: What would you say is like the most common roadblock that a lot of the women that you work with in your coaching kind of phase it's similar type of thing where they're just not really fully being 

[00:36:54] Shani Godwin: themselves. It's definitely I, that could go into several answers, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick with the shaming themselves.

[00:37:03] Shani Godwin: There's a lot of shaming narrative, a lot of mind reading and coming up with these stories of what people are gonna think if they do this and they do don't do that. And I'm like, well, did you know. You know, we had a client today. I had to have a hard conversation, a client who wasn't so pleased and I got on the phone and I reached out to her and asked like, Hey, you know, how did it go?

[00:37:28] Shani Godwin: We talked through it and you know, she's over there stressed. And I said, well, why are you, why didn't you just come? Like I reached out to you for feedback. Why didn't you, why didn't you just come talk to me? That's the kind of stuff that as women do, like we create a narrative. We believe that. It's going to mean this and conflict doesn't have to be that conflict.

[00:37:50] Shani Godwin: Right? We're very conflict diverse. A lot of times we're very afraid. Fear is just, like I said, fear lives in the hearts of women. So it's like gripping our hearts and getting us blocked. And when you can be honest, you can open up communication. You can win back. You can, you know, make people feel good. You can change someone's narrative.

[00:38:13] Shani Godwin: But it makes an intention behind it. So really helping women get over apologizing for their greatness, apologizing for how they need their business to look, to run their life. Because at the end of the day, I started this business to work for a certain lifestyle. My life did yield kids. My life didn't yield a husband, but it did yield disability to do this work for so many women, because it's always, it's always mattered to me from that.

[00:38:43] Shani Godwin: And this, the reason I started the business, so really helping unpack that and then giving them the tools and just watching them like loss. It's you get to literally watch people open up. That's so boring. Okay. The 

[00:38:56] Nahid: impact that you make probably, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, probably feels so much bigger than, you know, when you were in your corporate type job and, and, you know, I think that that's just something that.

[00:39:09] Nahid: You're so lucky and those who kind of follow a similar path are so lucky to be able to say like, wow, the impact that I make every day, because I took this risk and I followed this path, you 

[00:39:18] Shani Godwin: know? Yeah. Yeah. I'm definitely on the significance chapter of my life. I had a friend who knows about it today.

[00:39:28] Shani Godwin: Hi. I think his mom got this from someone. So he quoted his mom and I looked it up, but I'm pretty sure there's someone important. So it basically said the first half of your life is about success, but the second half is significance for me. I've turned the corner. Like I can show up and make a lot more money in the world and it would be fun.

[00:39:46] Shani Godwin: I'm not going to say I wouldn't enjoy doing that a much more important. It's much more important to me that I am Making generational change. Like if I, if I change and impact, one woman's ability to be present for her kids by reorganizing her work in a way that works and creates immense joy for her, her husband is going to benefit her.

[00:40:07] Shani Godwin: her Kids are going to have a better version of their mom. That's going to impact who they become, who their kids' kids become and who their kids, kids. So maybe it's just this narcissistic thing. I get to be like the moral cause long after I'm gone, I would have impacted like so many lives. 

[00:40:26] Nahid: No, but see, this is exactly what you're talking about earlier.

[00:40:28] Nahid: This is not you being narcissistic. This is you truly 

[00:40:31] Shani Godwin: impacting people is 60%. We all need to check. Yeah. So that's what I love about our program because we're always, I'm always sharing my stories. I failures my successes and, and, you know, in the trenches with the women doing the work, the heart work with them.

[00:40:53] Shani Godwin: So it's not just like, oh, I figured it out here, go do this. It's like, no, this stuff works. I've lived it so much of the balance. The boundaries, the breakthroughs comes from my struggles with depression and how I've had to set this business up to honor me so that I don't have a breakdown or end up in a hospital.

[00:41:12] Shani Godwin: I've got to move differently in business. And if I move like a man or move like the next woman, it could have dire consequences for me personally. So being able to pass those lessons on and the tools it's really rewarding. And then for our corporate clients, like all of this boils down to stress relief, really our vision is to heal the world by helping create more joy at work.

[00:41:34] Shani Godwin: And so underneath all of this as a business case that shows us that before the panic. Stress with costing us companies $360 billion a year in losses. Right? So if you now escalate that because of the pandemic mental health is on the rise, I need to go pull the status. I'm going to make a commitment to do that.

[00:41:56] Shani Godwin: I'm sure it's much higher. Two years. Wow. So work matters and it impacts businesses real time. Bottom line, when you went there and give people time to take breaks, to beat them. To be with those. They love that energy positively pours us back into the business and the numbers, the proof is in them, 

[00:42:18] Nahid: like I've heard stuff like that too is like, I'm totally making this up, but it's like in Sweden or somewhere like really progressive and wild, like that, it's like they have four day work weeks and they don't, they have like five, six weeks vacation and it's like, the productivity is crazy.

[00:42:30] Nahid: And it just, it really goes to show like people need to invest in themselves, you know, as much as they invest in other people. Yeah. 

[00:42:39] Shani Godwin: During that season. My, my divorce and my dad dying were both unexpected events about your apart. So it's like compounded trauma. I ended up doing four day work weeks and taking Friday and dubbed them fun Fridays.

[00:42:52] Shani Godwin: I told all my clients, I still maintain to this day. That was the most productive I've ever been in. My career was four day work weeks. I would, I would advocate for them. I'll tell my boss. Okay. Hopefully I was more creative because I was creative energy. Can't really fully express itself. If you're tired and wiped out, it's not going to rise to.

[00:43:17] Nahid: I mean, that's something that that's definitely big for us too. I'm not sure how much you know, about the way we've kind of structured things, but we have like a sales team and traditionally sales teams tend to be very, very high stress, long hours. You know, end of the month, if you don't make the sale, you are here until 10:00 PM doing what you have to do to, you know, and so we've kind of restructured things to a place where we have everybody, you know, these, these sales teams are remote.

[00:43:43] Nahid: They work the hours that work for them. If you make your number. Great. You don't have to, you know, kill yourself after you make, you know, the numbers. Whereas a lot of sales places, it's like, oh, you made your numbers. Now you have time to make more, you know, it's like, we have this philosophy here. That's very similar, you know, that, that you are going to be a lot more invested, a lot happier and just be a better asset to our team if you have that time to be 

[00:44:06] Shani Godwin: flexible.

[00:44:07] Shani Godwin: Yeah. Well, and I think man w we can stop talking about millennials because that train has left the station. I get so frustrated with like, oh, millennials. I'm like the millennials we need. Cause my knees are a whole different animal. Like that's what she needs to be concerned about. But I think they're going to demand a command fluidity, right.

[00:44:31] Shani Godwin: Between work and life. That's what you're seeing is this merger of the two. So when we're thinking futuristically real-time and futuristic. Conversations we're having now are no longer about like email boundaries after hours. It's more about unlimited PTO workshops where benefits, like, why can't my team hybrid teams.

[00:44:53] Shani Godwin: Why can't you go to Barbados and say, I'm a plugin from seven to two and get done and not have to take vacation time. Cause you worked. But also because like you sun on the beach in Barbados.

[00:45:11] Shani Godwin: but you got to have checks and balances. People have self-managed. So they're all those things too. I think the world is changing. I mean, to it's 

[00:45:20] Nahid: it's very cool. So kind of somewhat switching gears a little bit. I know that you just said something that sparked you said like, oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna find these stats later.

[00:45:29] Nahid: I'm committed to doing it. I kind of want to talk a little bit about like executing. Some of the goals you might have and like how you stay accountable to certain goals. And I'm sure maybe it's easier to see accountable now that you really have like a structure and clients and people that work with you, but maybe, maybe it was harder when you were just like on your own a little bit.

[00:45:48] Nahid: Like how, how do you like make sure that you either stay accountable to your goals yourself, or also, how do you coach people to kind of stay accountable to. 

[00:45:57] Shani Godwin: Yeah. So accountability is really important. I have a team of about 20, so I have to I'm accountable for every decision because my decisions affect their labs, their paychecks, their families, their lifestyle.

[00:46:12] Shani Godwin: So I've, over the years, I've done different things. There was a season where I had an advisory board where I just set my plans. I didn't pay them anything. I, I bought them at amazing dinner in once a quarter, once a quarter, like here's my plan. And we loved it. It was a good group of people. The way I created the advisory board, I picked people again that were strong in areas where I needed support.

[00:46:37] Shani Godwin: So like a finance guy, marketers, typically, aren't your finance people, finance guy. I had a friend's mom. Who's retired, New York school principal. You'd be like, why'd you pick. She was outside of business. She just seemed, she ran. I mean, a school is a business, but she, she can completely from left field. And I wanted that perspective.

[00:46:57] Shani Godwin: I had a woman owned business at the time. We weren't over a million and she was, and then I had another marketing agency and we would get together for years. I would put the plan together for the year and every quarter I'd report back on goals. And they were the ones who helped me really get over the million dollar mark.

[00:47:16] Shani Godwin: But I had to stop doing the work to lead. The, and that was a real hard shift. When I said you go from lifestyle to growth, you can't grow. If you're doing all the work. And I had to be intentional about that today, we implement a system called EOS is trending off of a book called traction by Gino. Is entrepreneurial operating system.

[00:47:37] Shani Godwin: And we have a paid consultant who works with us. We meet once a week as a team. My leadership team is tied in financially to the goals of the company with compensation and bonus. And everyone about leadership routine is responsible for a number that's tied to all. So we'd meet every. We go over action items, issues, where are we on our goals?

[00:47:59] Shani Godwin: We look at that scorecard and then we go every 90 days with our implementer our EOS consultant and he challenges our reality. And then, you know, then I have people in place, you know, financial controls, you know, so I don't like all the money and I'm in, but I do think it's, the owner has to be self aware and.

[00:48:24] Shani Godwin: Accountability is one of our core values. So it's easy for me in that way because I'm a high responsibility person and I want to be able to express to my team, especially people who are entrusting me with their lives, their livelihood. I have to create vision in, and I'm a leader who leads off of vision and inspiration.

[00:48:43] Shani Godwin: And it is the most honoring thing to be able to have something in your head. Express it and have people come along with you, I'll never get over. That is very humbling and I'm excited and proud and honored to do it. So being accountable back to them is, 

[00:49:01] Nahid: is my no. And something. I think that that kind of ties everything you said together is that.

[00:49:08] Nahid: You know, you're always kind of checking in with someone else. So if you're starting your business and maybe it's your mom, maybe you're like, mom, this is my goals. Like, you know, help, help me just kind of walk through them so that if I say it out loud, that's what's happening, you know, 

[00:49:20] Shani Godwin: just. Right. And I also joined a group EO, Atlanta, shout out to EO, Atlanta.

[00:49:26] Shani Godwin: So it's entrepreneurs organization. So I think community matters and that's something when I did start to grow really fast, I said, I don't recommend fast growth. I didn't have a community of people who done it. So it's super isolating and just getting in the right community of entrepreneurs who can be like, girl, why are you stressing?

[00:49:45] Shani Godwin: And I go do that. And you're like, oh, look, I've been thinking about year. Sorry. I think

[00:49:54] Shani Godwin: that's also helped helps me keep accountable because I'm accountable to my employees, but now I'm in this community example, each other accountable and iron sharpens iron. So, and that is a lot of men in that community. So I start showing up differently. Cause I'm like, wait, he's not, he's not afraid of this.

[00:50:13] Shani Godwin: He's not worrying about what I'm thinking. He's not. And then it's like, I worked with him, right. So. So they hold me extra. I think 

[00:50:22] Nahid: that's so great. Community is very important. I, a hundred percent agree. So I guess kind of just to close out our conversation, I feel like you've given so much great advice.

[00:50:32] Nahid: I feel like this whole conversation will, you know, just, just give so many little tidbits to, to anyone who's listening. I think you can relate to so many parts of this, but what do you think your advice would be? To a woman who who's maybe just on the. Kind of cusp of, of jumping in and starting to do something on her own, like, like you were, you know, starting, you know, back then, what would you say to someone who's just afraid to take that leap?

[00:51:00] Shani Godwin: This sounds so simple. Do something you don't have to, you don't have to go start a business today, but you can take one step. You can do something that moves you closer to that goal. Do something until you know exactly what. I mean, that's essentially what I did. I just did something moving in that direction until it was clear and plain.

[00:51:24] Shani Godwin: And trust me when God wants you to move, it becomes very clear, very badly. So yeah, just do something. Don't put all that pressure on yourself. Like it's not our job to figure out the how a lot of times, like, as you hear, I'm a person of faith, but whatever you believe in a lot of times, we're not supposed to figure out how we're just posting.

[00:51:45] Shani Godwin: Figure out the what and the why with those two things, you can move mountains. The how a lot of times figures itself out in the process. 

[00:51:54] Nahid: I think that's wise, there's something very, it's simple, but there's so much meaning behind it and so much that you can interpret. So I think that's great. Thank you so much, really, really appreciate having you they have had, and Shawnee, if you don't mind, can you just kind of tell everybody where they can find you Instagram?

[00:52:11] Nahid: You know, if you have any events coming up, you want to plug up. 

[00:52:16] Shani Godwin: Sure. So I would love to connect with all of your viewers and listeners. Thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm it's I love talking to people and sharing the story and giving tips. I can be found very easily at I am Shawnee Godwin.

[00:52:33] Shani Godwin: I am Shani S H a N I Godwin, G O D w I N. I'm on Instagram and Facebook. You can link in with me on LinkedIn and you can also go to my website@shawneegodwin.com and sign up for a free joy assessment. And we'll talk specifically, you'll meet with me. We'll we'll do some little assessing and figure out what some good next steps for you are.

[00:52:55] Shani Godwin: And that is also how you sign up for my email list. And we send out all kinds of free videos, masterclasses, mine, hacks. And. And YouTube I'm on Shawnee. God. It, so I'll, I'll think Shawnee got, and we just 

[00:53:06] Nahid: Google hurry all. You'll find it. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm sure. You know, our listeners will pick up a lot of advice here, but really, really appreciate it.

[00:53:15] Nahid: Thank 

[00:53:15] Shani Godwin: you. It was a pleasure. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the gyms. The podcast for anybody dedicated to investing in themselves, stay tuned for our next episode and look in the links below for resources that you can use for yourself until next time. This is Blake Chapman, and remember to be awesome and do awesome things.