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Each week, Amanda Campbell interviews amazing people, who will share their inspiring stories of resilience. Amanda dives deep into 40-minute DNM’s with guests, exploring their stories of how they have overcome adversity in their lives professionally and personally.
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;35;05
Unknown
Welcome to the bend like Bamboo Resilience Podcast, where we discover how life's greatest challenges can become our greatest strengths. I'm your host, Amanda Campbell, can physiologist, EMF specialist, resilience coach and author. Get ready to be inspired by these remarkable humans who share their raw, real stories of transformation. The breakthrough moments, the lessons learned in the trenches, and the practical wisdom that turned their greatest challenges into their greatest strengths.
00;00;35;08 - 00;01;02;12
Unknown
These conversations offer hope, tools and proof that resilience isn't just possible. It's your birthright together. Let's discover how flexibility can become your superpower. Turning life storms into stepping stones towards the person you're meant to become. Let's dive straight into our next conversation.
00;01;02;14 - 00;01;38;26
Unknown
Hello and welcome back to the Ben Like Bamboo Resilience Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Campbell, and today I am so thrilled to introduce you all to Lisa Johnson, a visionary creator whose journey perfectly embodies what it means to be unlike bamboo and to transform challenges into breakthrough innovations. Lisa is the founder of the Elements Kit, a revolutionary self-discovery system that's changing how people understand their unique creative identity and unlock their hidden potential.
00;01;38;29 - 00;02;24;03
Unknown
But Lisa's path to creating this transformational tool wasn't straightforward. Like so many of us, she has faced periods of feeling lost, feeling stopped and blocked about what's next in life. Rather than staying strapped. Trapped in uncertainty, Lisa channeled her experience into creating something extraordinary. The Elements Kit combines the language of archetypes with six life elements to reveal each person's unique, creative DNA, something so individual that the chance of anyone else having the same elements DNA is virtually 0.000000000 lucky going for eight 1%.
00;02;24;03 - 00;02;54;06
Unknown
But we'll get into that. So it's very unique. And what makes Lisa's approach so powerful is that unlike traditional personality tests that categorize people, the elements kit guides individuals to discover their own one of a kind creative identity. I've done this kit with her. It has helped me so much to understand myself, my superpowers, and how I can best serve in my personal life and in my professional life, and through coaching programs and team workshops.
00;02;54;06 - 00;03;20;17
Unknown
Lisa helps people move from feeling stock to gaining clarity and confidence about their purpose, passion and what to do next. So today, Lisa shares her journey of transformation, how she turned her own periods of uncertainty into a mission to help others discover their authentic selves. And why. Understanding your unique creativity. Identity is the key to understanding a life you truly love.
00;03;20;20 - 00;03;39;27
Unknown
Lisa I had to introduce you properly. So honored that you came on my podcast today. wow. What an introduction. And it is such a pleasure to be here. It really is. I'm so excited for this one. Good, good. Now, let's start with how we met. You know, it's been how long has it been now that we've known each other?
00;03;40;00 - 00;04;00;19
Unknown
I think more than three years. Yeah. And in some ways, that feels like a very long dated journey. Yeah. And in other ways, it just feels like yesterday. I know. And it's an interesting one because I remember the way that I learned about you was online. So it was through a Google search, actually. Yeah, obviously I search kinesiology.
00;04;00;21 - 00;04;28;25
Unknown
Yes. Get into the whole realm of sort of energy balancing and energy healing, which is which sits really nicely balanced with the elements kit. But I do remember something very interesting that I noticed about you and observed about you online was how integrated and how embodied you seem. So it's it's a lovely reflection now, thinking about what my mission is and how I support and assist people with a lot of help from you along the way and support.
00;04;28;27 - 00;04;50;17
Unknown
It's very much in search of what I feel. I sensed and felt about you as a practitioner. We can get into more detail about what that means, but you struck me from the get go. As someone who's very embodied, where the various elements of yourself are really integrated, sort of seamlessly into your day to day work, which I was very attracted to.
00;04;50;17 - 00;05;17;20
Unknown
And there's real magnetism in that, as you know. And I mean, I think that's the ultimate goal. So you are an incredible role model to me in that way. thanks, Lisa. That's a beautiful thing to say. And it's been such a pleasure working with you and getting to know you over these years. You inspire me not only by what you've created, but who you are as a person and how you've held yourself through all the ends and ups and downs that you've gone through.
00;05;17;20 - 00;05;52;07
Unknown
And I appreciate you sharing that today with everybody. Excellent. I cannot wait to get into it. Beautiful. So please explain the elements kit and how it differs from other personality assessments, because we've heard of, you know, Myers-Briggs or Strength Finder. I did gallop. I remember that. And but yours is very different, super different. And interestingly, my background in the design room was very much as a design consultant experiencing a lot of these psychometric tests.
00;05;52;09 - 00;06;16;06
Unknown
And I was seeing where the shortfalls were. And I was saying, if we look at something like Myers-Briggs, for example, it has a really fascinating history, a mother and daughter who are actually join forces to develop that over many decades, actually. And it's still $1,000,000,000 industry. Myers-Briggs and its whole premise is to try to categorize people into six different types.
00;06;16;08 - 00;06;59;11
Unknown
What I was learning and discovering through doing those tests over and over as a contractor in different organizations, what I was learning is that in that idea of really typecasting into those 16 types and people will have heard of and TPI and Iron J and all the different categories into those that typecasting. Two things I observed, which I found concerning in some ways is probably the word is that it seemed to me that the way that people were using the Myers-Briggs, I found it very challenging to remember the actual coding for themselves and many people were experiencing getting a different result each time, which is not supposed to happen.
00;06;59;14 - 00;07;38;16
Unknown
And even Myers-Briggs, one of the original state myths around Myers-Briggs, is that people don't change. Once you're a type, you're a type. This is problematic to me because I could see that people were getting different results. They were finding it hard to remember. It was very challenging to relate. So really having done those tests as well as Clifton's strengths and there's some great things about those tests, I started to design a system as a human centered designer where people could take their own self-discovery journey rather than it being a test online where you fill in some important inputs about your past experience and it spits out a report for you and tells you how to
00;07;38;18 - 00;08;01;19
Unknown
interpret yourself. It has one of those types. This is much more a self-determined process. It's very hands on, it's very tactile. Even though the Elements kit exists as a physical kit as well as a digital online experience. And the idea is that you are, as you mentioned already, you are determining who you are uniquely in order to figure out what to do next.
00;08;01;19 - 00;08;21;10
Unknown
But you're also managing the components of self that change and grow and evolve over time. Yes. Other words, there are fundamentals. Absolutely. There are fundamental elements which have been there since your childhood and will be predominant in your life till you take your last breath. But there are all these other moving parts. In other words, we're not an exact science.
00;08;21;10 - 00;08;45;08
Unknown
We change over time. And this is all about how you self discover and how you navigate and understand your life experiences, not just with a test result. Yeah, I love the way that you just explained that. That was perfect. I've over the course of well, probably over the last ten years, I've worked with many different healers and there was one that helped me with my archetypes.
00;08;45;08 - 00;09;11;22
Unknown
And then I found Carolyn Mace, and then I really started to understand, yeah. How the the readings of that can help you to understand where you're at on your life journey. And, you know, it just has helped me so much on my healing journey as I've overcome aspects of the old version of me that maybe got caught up in prostitute, which is not about being a prostitute, it's about selling yourself short.
00;09;11;24 - 00;09;43;04
Unknown
Yeah. And yeah, I learned that from my mum and when it was brought into my awareness, I was able to identify when I was doing that and therefore choose a new reaction and, and evolve and grow out of it. So that's another example of just how. Yeah, these, the archetypes can show up. You know, they're recurring patterns of characters and settings and plot structures found in stories across cultures and time periods too.
00;09;43;06 - 00;10;06;28
Unknown
A lot of archetypes are derived from roles, so they can be nurse captain. They're actually the the single word metaphor is to describe human behavior. And the important thing is we often use archetypes in our language everyday to define behaviors in other people. So we'll say, someone is an angel or someone is a saint to describe benevolent characters.
00;10;07;03 - 00;10;32;14
Unknown
Yes, there's a whole realm of shadow archetypes like you mentioned prostitute, and there's some of our favorites that people are very familiar with in contemporary language, like Saboteur and Victim. Yes, the elements that actually defines you or the upside of yourself, the colorful spectrum of self across six different elements. So you're looking at experience, self-expression, you're looking at connection and how you connect with others.
00;10;32;17 - 00;10;53;14
Unknown
You're looking at leadership and how you lead others. You're looking at knowledge, how you learn or teach other people. You're looking at navigation, which is very much how you move your style of movement through life. And then you're looking at belief as well. So when you start to classify archetypes into all those different groups and you know, there's I mean, archetypes are endless.
00;10;53;14 - 00;11;34;18
Unknown
They're been written about in, in a human sense since Plato's time and how they're actually useful is to help us recognize patterns of behavior, as you say. But also, over time, it's to really understand that we are not just one stereotype. We're not always just an angel. And we're not always we're not always a warrior. And I think one of the fascinating things about the elements, Kit, in the way that it looks across the spectrum of the upside of who you are across six elements, it's all about even understanding where conflicts within yourself might be, because you're never just one thing, like on your own chart, which we can talk about in more
00;11;34;18 - 00;11;56;27
Unknown
detail soon. Yeah, there are definite dichotomies, and this is what's interesting about something like the Myers-Briggs. It likes to assume that you are kind of one dimensional and very consistent in your behavior. But we know when we look at the the galaxy of the way that the components of your elements, discovery charts fits together, which is very pictorial, by the way.
00;11;56;29 - 00;12;20;19
Unknown
Yeah, it's a representation of your DNA and who you are. Yeah, say that there's all sorts of magic happening between multiple aspects, multiple archetypes. No one is just one archetype on on your actual discovery chart, you end up having four primary archetypes across the six elements. So you end up with a DNA of a profile of 24 archetypes.
00;12;20;21 - 00;12;45;08
Unknown
And where the fun starts is understanding how they interact and interrelate to one another. That's where dynamics and the ebb and flow of who you are as an organic human. Yeah, really starts to get exciting and I can see how this is very useful for an individual. But I'm also saying how, you know, extraordinarily useful this will be for teams in the workplace.
00;12;45;10 - 00;13;12;14
Unknown
Yeah, and I do a lot of work with teams. I mean, I've worked with big organizations for many years, both client side as well as a design consultant. So one of the things I was doing primarily as a service designer, designing products and services for big companies, yeah. Is figuring out how much that dynamic of human resource and humans within an organization was really influencing performance and outcomes.
00;13;12;16 - 00;13;36;23
Unknown
And also fulfillment in the workplace. How happy humans are working with one another and achieving really great results. So if we can dig deep into our individual DNA within any given team, it makes life so much easier, not just for the leader of that team, but also every individual in the team because they get to they get to express who they are as a full, unique human.
00;13;36;25 - 00;13;58;22
Unknown
Yes. And you know what it's like when you when you apply for a job. It's very much about whether you're going to measure up to a job description or a. JD. Yeah, this is different in the sense that, yes, you have a JD and yes, you have performance metrics about how you're going to measure up. But the elements Kit really says, okay, you're so much more than your job description.
00;13;58;23 - 00;14;28;19
Unknown
What are you actually bringing in and where are you going to find within your personal DNA? Where are you going to find certain frictions or conflicts with yourself, with your leader, with others? So this is an awesome tool in terms of self-awareness, integration and bringing the best parts of yourself together just so you can optimize who you are, not just for your performance, but also, just as I say, for your fulfillment and how joyful you are, how much you feel that you're bringing your full self into, into any, any work environment.
00;14;28;22 - 00;14;49;14
Unknown
Yeah. Which leads to you being able to thrive and reach your fullest potential and to feel understood and to manage conflicts and feedback and all the juicy stuff that happens when you work within This is so cool. Well, why don't we use my my cards as an example and dive in and give an example of the DNA? Yes, Yes.
00;14;49;14 - 00;15;16;05
Unknown
Let's let's let's begin with this. So as I said, obviously, people can't see a visual of this, but I can describe the elements. Kit has a whole load of cards and each card is has features an archetype and its description. And the way that this works and you move through it is it's a process of self selection. And the interesting thing about this is it's a guided process, so you're very much held accountable to the choices that you're made.
00;15;16;05 - 00;15;39;19
Unknown
It's a gentle process. I guide through as a facilitator to ask questions, to reflect on your experiences, and you make choices about which archetypes you feel are represented, to give a view across these six elements. So how do I how do I express in the world? How do I connect with others? As I said, the six elements, it seems simple.
00;15;39;21 - 00;16;07;15
Unknown
Invariably, when people do this process, they work through the six elements. In order to create the discovery chart, they end up with 24 choices. And invariably there's a point in time across at least one of those element types which are all color coded, where people say, and this is having done hundreds of charts now far out, this is actually a bit more challenging than I thought, because the way that I've designed the kit is there are many archetypes which are almost the same.
00;16;07;17 - 00;16;34;28
Unknown
So for example, there might be mental teacher and coach three archetypes which all share a lot of similar qualities. But when you're refining and having to make some final choices, you're needing to think very subtly about the nuances and the differences between those choices. And that says a lot about your experience and even the process of your dialog and the conversation as we facilitate this process can be hugely, hugely enlightening.
00;16;35;00 - 00;16;59;19
Unknown
So that said, you move through this process and you made your choices and what you've ended up with on your chart in number one position. I can go through that so people get a bit of a clear picture of this in your first highest priority position. Yeah, across all your elements you've got in expression, you've got storyteller, which was very evident to me when I first saw your website in connection.
00;16;59;19 - 00;17;27;00
Unknown
You've got intuitive, so you're driven with human connection, you're driven by your intuitive powers in leadership. You have challenger, which is super interesting. I'll talk more about that in a minute. So a lot in knowledge you have channel which relates very closely to Intuitive Channel is your ability to of actually be able to draw down from the imagination ideas which you then materialize.
00;17;27;02 - 00;17;51;23
Unknown
Your number one in navigation is seeker. So there's a thirst for knowledge and a quest for new experiences. And then your number one in belief is mystic. So your interest in, you know, in the divine mystical world. Yeah, something about something to say about that last element, which is belief is that's something that never turns up in a test that is very quantitative and structured and quite rigid.
00;17;51;23 - 00;18;16;13
Unknown
Like the Myers-Briggs. Yeah, that whole idea of belief is what do I believe in? What is my cultural heritage, What do I base my values on? So that one's really important. And of course, across those six elements we have a full picture of who you are now. They're just your top six, so you can see how you can dig deeper and deeper and deeper into all of those different elements, all of the other choices you made.
00;18;16;16 - 00;18;51;17
Unknown
Absolutely. The other things that show up to you are counselor, healer, mother, the mother connection. So interesting. And I've experienced that firsthand working with you that just the nourishment of those incredible archetypes in your leadership, you have others of of warrior and guide. You're a great mentor, teacher and facilitate, and you're also a driver and sprinter. There's a lot of high energy with you in terms of how you drive ideas forward, and that connects nicely with your entrepreneur and your strategist.
00;18;51;19 - 00;19;16;22
Unknown
And then of course, in belief, you have spiritualist medium, other ways in which you're actually channeling and which you're showing up optimistically in terms of your faith in the world and your and your own in integral spirit. Right? So there's a lot there, and it's tricky without being able to see it. But the point is, it becomes very clear when this is all laid down almost on a checkerboard of hexagon cards.
00;19;16;23 - 00;19;41;05
Unknown
Yeah, I can begin to see some very interesting patterns about the dynamic, as I said, between these things. So, for example, you've got a lot of very high energy more Yang If we want to talk about energy, the Yang energy, the masculine energy, you've got a lot of ones that are driving, challenging, get really getting shit done. The entrepreneurial drive for not just purpose but profit as well.
00;19;41;08 - 00;20;05;04
Unknown
There's a lot of Yang Energy there, but then there's this incredible spread of yin, more feminine energy through your chart, which again is the heel of the mother, the counselor, and the intuitive. So when we look at this, this would explain why sometimes you're on fire with this real drive and all the times you're you're leaning into this very gentle, intuitive process.
00;20;05;06 - 00;20;29;02
Unknown
Sometimes you're a strategist, which is more of a left brain thinker. It's all about logic frameworks, what to do next. Road Maps planning may conflict with your intuitive that just wants to move very, very gently and easily in in alignment with you. A channel just to draw imaginative ideas down and just follow your nose. Yeah, absolutely. That's me too.
00;20;29;02 - 00;20;56;22
Unknown
It's. Hey. Yeah. And so it's the balance of energy. Given that you're in the realm of energy healing, the balance of energy there becomes so apparent on your chart and you can begin to work tactically with it. In other words, you begin to say, right, I have an upcoming meeting and I'm going to be meeting with these individuals and I need to be very aware, mindful of taking certain archetypes from my chart in to lead this conversation.
00;20;56;29 - 00;21;16;03
Unknown
Yeah, Others perhaps need to take a backseat. Like maybe today I'm in a big business meeting, maybe today missed it can take a backseat or medium can take a back seat, but maybe you need a bit of your magician power coupled with your strategist, coupled with your challenger to really take in whatever it is that needs to be negotiated.
00;21;16;05 - 00;21;50;22
Unknown
Yeah. So it's all about that mindfulness of which components of self. Yeah. Are going to serve me best for the outcome that my seeker and my driver want to drive toward. Amazing. Amazing. I just love this stuff so much. my gosh. And you get to do it all day. This is so good. This is a great example of how you would coach someone one on one, give them an understanding of the archetypes and how, yeah, they can integrate that into their daily life to to live their best life and to transform through difficult times.
00;21;50;27 - 00;22;17;15
Unknown
Any time I've had a card reading, it has been at a crossroads, and that's really, really helped as to yeah, which, which archetypes, you know, are challenging for me at the moment and which ones are going to really help me and how to balance them out. Yeah, and we mentioned before shadow archetypes. Yeah. When you, when you complete a discovery chart, it's in that colorful spectrum of the upside.
00;22;17;15 - 00;22;46;11
Unknown
So there's no such thing as a bad archetype in the elements kit. However, there's a whole set of challenges which sit to the side of the kit and they are the opposing challenging forces. What happens when you start to just, you know, feel encroached by the energy of saboteur where you're self-sabotaging or you're feeling that someone else is sabotaging you, or you're really moving into victim behavior where you're feeling the continual helpless victim in a situation.
00;22;46;14 - 00;23;10;21
Unknown
There's a whole cast of characters which we bring in to, to, to work with as we start to map with the other tools in the kit. Your life experiences both past and planning your future experiences that you'd like to manifest. Shadow becomes super important because there's a flipside and a shadow behavior with every like a good example is Challenger.
00;23;10;24 - 00;23;33;14
Unknown
Challenges are wonderful in terms of challenging the status quo. Challenging in your case, a diagnose this you were given where doctor said you may never walk again from this point in time onwards without your challenger, you may not have had the grit to actually oppose that. So there's wonderful healing and liberation that a challenger can represent. On the Challenger bodies up with some shadow forces.
00;23;33;14 - 00;24;02;01
Unknown
A challenge. It could be over argumentative or not listening to different sides of the story or, you know, disruptive or antagonistic in a way that is counterproductive. So this is how these archetypes work. We want to try to get every archetype within your chart in its best alignment. Yes. Then we want to get all of those archetypes in their best alignment working together for a sweet spot of integration.
00;24;02;07 - 00;24;26;10
Unknown
Yeah. And then we want to be super aware about how we using each of those archetypes in different allegiances and whatnot to overcome those shadow forces, which is a daily, if not a minute by minute practice. Yeah, absolutely. That's how I know archetypes is once you know which ones you're working with in your DNA and sometimes they change a little bit too over time.
00;24;26;12 - 00;24;49;15
Unknown
But yeah, it was about the progression of the evolution through then. So when it was more sort of the initial stages of initiation, you know, and I was heavily in prostitute, for example, in the past where I was selling myself short and then eventually that archetype started to disappear in that shadow aspect as I was getting more ratings.
00;24;49;17 - 00;25;13;17
Unknown
And even with Challenger, I as a child needed to challenge to get myself out of situations that weren't safe. And so that's how it served me. But then, yes, when I am in more of a shadow or I'm high vibration, it can be yeah, it can become conflicting and not productive at all in conversations in a dynamic around teams.
00;25;13;17 - 00;25;45;10
Unknown
Of course. So but it has served me very well in situations like, you know, challenging the status quo, stretching myself more than than usual and, you know, at my diagnosis as well. So this is so cool, so juicy. Yeah. And it really is about that. It's about optimizing the best of who you are born to be. And part of that quest is every time you're meeting a test or a challenge, how do I return to my best self?
00;25;45;10 - 00;26;07;28
Unknown
How do I return to the most creative and productive aspect of myself from an archetypal perspective? Yeah, returning to your best self because every is very similar to how I coached my clients is at the end of the session. I want them to understand what they're letting go of and then what they're moving towards, I guess in a sense of returning to their best self.
00;26;08;01 - 00;26;40;27
Unknown
And with that information, that's powerful, that's very empowering information. And speaking of empowerment, something that's interesting the way a lot of these psychometric tests work, where you input data about gleaning information from your past experience. What's interesting about that is let's say you have a situation when your very young and let's say you are as a child, very confident about getting up on stage and performing.
00;26;41;00 - 00;27;19;12
Unknown
And then let's say you have a traumatic incident where you're bullied about how you performed by an adult or a peer, another child, for example, and that sends you into a state of really lacking confidence and quitting something which you had really great potential. But what's interesting about a psychometric test that will just ask you a lot of questions about what your past behavior is, is that there is there can be dormant potential within you that for one reason or other, through any form of trauma you've repressed or you've pivoted away from at some point in your life.
00;27;19;14 - 00;27;48;06
Unknown
So you don't have much evidence of that existing in your life. So in other words, if someone's to glean your past experience to figure out who you are now, they may not see the unseen treasure and the untapped potential. And that's precisely why the Elements Kit is very much a conversational tool and a tool of self-discovery where you can reflect even on the hidden and unseen parts of yourself, that a psychometric test is just it's not going to find it's not going to know these things about you.
00;27;48;06 - 00;28;15;20
Unknown
Just as I said before, it's not going to understand your cultural values or your belief system. It's not going to understand your desire. So the Elements kid also talks very deeply about what resonates with you in terms of something that you would love to explore. And it's not just about, Well, I want to sing in order to become famous because, you know, certain people are going to are going to be driving toward that in their life.
00;28;15;22 - 00;28;40;23
Unknown
It's not necessarily about finding archetypal alignment in order to make a full blown career or vocation out of something. It's really just about giving yourself an opportunity to express that in a personal way because you've never had the opportunity before. You've lacked a confidence someone has told you, you know, And how many people do we hear about? I hear about people every week who've been told by their parents, You need to go in a certain direction in life.
00;28;40;24 - 00;29;12;17
Unknown
Doctor or lawyer. It's a very common as you would have experienced yourself. Your choices may become limited through survival strategies or through shaming or whatever has happened. So this is very much about who are you in your own, in your own eyes, on your own terms, and what are the things that are not yet expressed within you that you want to bring to the fore, even in a small capacity, even in a small creative exploration, even as a small side project or a hobby or something?
00;29;12;19 - 00;29;43;03
Unknown
Yeah. So the elements kids are not just about from personal development perspective. Yes. It's not just about career. It's not a career finder. It's a who am I as a holistic thing and how do I not only bring the best of my being to life, but also allow that untapped potential to be really celebrated and championed? Yes. Which is why this is fantastic for kids Year 11, 12, nine.
00;29;43;05 - 00;30;09;17
Unknown
This is fantastic for anyone going through a crossroads as well of just navigating forward from that and reconciliation and closing off old chapters and moving forward with confidence into the new ones and leading teams like I can really understand now. And I think everybody would get a really good insight now into what they would be able to get out of a coaching experience with you understanding this one on one.
00;30;09;19 - 00;30;35;08
Unknown
Talk me through what you do and how it works when you're working with teams at work. Yeah, great question. So there are two ways that I work with ladies and teams. The first is more intimate in terms of one on one coaching, so that might be an executive, for example, or just manages within within any team structure within a corporation or organization.
00;30;35;10 - 00;31;06;14
Unknown
But usually the way we start is with workshops and that is where we come in. We run a day workshop and that's where the team will assemble and H to the elements. Discovery Chat as the first port of call, and we will share that as a group. So the and that's an amazing dynamic, like to hear people self express the full picture of themselves both inside and outside of work, within the limits of what they feel comfortable sharing is never pressure.
00;31;06;17 - 00;31;28;08
Unknown
Yes, they really get to be seen and heard. And some amazing magic happens with this. By the time you actually spend a day in the company of your team. And remember, I'm often dealing with teams who have team members spread out all across Australia. So workshop like this, often people will fly in from interstate and they'll be meeting each other face to face for the first time.
00;31;28;10 - 00;31;59;08
Unknown
That dynamic and the power of that is just extraordinary. And then by the time they open up this incredible colorful elements gift box really of who they are and how they can actually share that with others in their team. By the time you get to the end of a workshop, the end of a days workshop, not only do people know each other fully and wholly, yeah, but they also have worked out how to use other tools in the elements kit to assemble each individual around whatever the team goals are.
00;31;59;11 - 00;32;21;10
Unknown
Right? So and that can be based to KPIs and okay hours and all those other metrics systems within an organization about what the team is striving for by end of financial year or next financial year, any given quarter this month, a week. So it's very goal oriented. It's not just about who are you and that's fun. And now we all go home.
00;32;21;13 - 00;33;05;18
Unknown
It's like, who are you in your in your own on your own terms? How are you perceived by others in this team? Yeah. How can we work together with the best of who we are relative to these very real goals, which we have metrics around within an organization. So that becomes powerful over time. And with the coaching, the ongoing coaching that I do, naturally, that's something that we align very carefully to what the business really wants to be achieving with these individuals for their own benefit, their own fulfillment, as I say, as well as the benefit of of the role that they're really trying to perform well in.
00;33;05;20 - 00;33;36;06
Unknown
What a wonderful thing for a business to offer the team. They've turned an understanding of themselves, but also how to best accelerate in their roles. And if it is, it becomes more filled with purpose and joy, like their role will become so much more fulfilling. I imagine what I've seen happen is and this was about two months ago in a workshop, A was sitting beside.
00;33;36;06 - 00;33;58;16
Unknown
Sometimes we work in pairs, which is hugely powerful as well, was sitting beside a team member, one of her team members, and they got to know each other so well in this teamwork that it actually precipitated after a restructure, a complete rethinking of the role that this team member was was able to apply for and and be positioned in.
00;33;58;18 - 00;34;29;23
Unknown
And you think, well, you know, that's what happens all the time with the restructures and people shift here and there but that one simple exercise of that team member being seen by that gym who had both the authority and sort of the decision making capacity and status to be able to make effective change that one small change in a role to maximize someone's potential can not just influence how fulfilled they feel, but it can change the entire course of their of their vocation and their career from that point on.
00;34;29;28 - 00;34;58;28
Unknown
Absolutely. Yeah. It's powerful stuff. Absolutely. So. So how what inspires you to create the Elements kit in the first place? Well, way back in when I was studying many decades ago now actually archetypes, it was a personal journey and I found it so powerful. Studying through some of the contemporaries like Carolyn Mace, for example, And I was finding that works so personally powerful.
00;34;58;28 - 00;35;22;09
Unknown
And then at the same time, I was developing all this design skill around human centered design and as an alchemist, which is one of my primary archetypes within the belief element, I could see an incredible potential for the alchemy, the twin archetypal thinking and these design tools. And so everything in the Elements kit is unique and original and designed from the ground up.
00;35;22;09 - 00;35;53;07
Unknown
Because I am a designer, an innovator at heart as well. Yes. And the idea of what I was writing about even a couple of decades about on my own personal journey was this idea of creative alignment. I was really intrigued that even people that I knew who were in the sort of late twenties at the time was somehow able to find this magic sweet spot which set them up for really an ease for progression where they were very aligned with what they were doing and they enjoyed very early success.
00;35;53;07 - 00;36;17;19
Unknown
And I'm talking phenomenal success where they were doing world class stuff at a young age. Yeah, I was intrigued by that because I'm like, Wow, what is it that they're doing? And later I learned studying Dr. Karl Young's work. He was one of the masters of of archetypal thinking and shadow work as well. What I learned that I was referring to as creative alignment he referred to is integration.
00;36;17;21 - 00;36;41;00
Unknown
And again, it's that idea through one single vocation or many different pursuits. How do I balance the energies of myself archetypal to find that sweet spot? And that seemed to be the magic that these people who are aligned, successful and very happy doing, doing, doing the work that they were doing in the world with purpose and passion, whatnot.
00;36;41;03 - 00;37;07;10
Unknown
They seemed to be able to do this very naturally. And I, I was not so naturally able to do that. And it took me, you know, as I say, many years to uncover a system that would help people who weren't naturally able to find that ease for us and that alignment. How how something like this design could be used for for a discovery process that could help you unlock the same.
00;37;07;22 - 00;37;29;23
Unknown
So it really it really came from that quest and a personal interest in in all of the subjects of the elements Kate combines. Yeah, absolutely. Because you've been exposed, you know, to some, you know, pretty incredible human beings in the wonderful work that you've your career. So before this, let's talk about what you were doing before the elements.
00;37;29;23 - 00;37;53;23
Unknown
Q Yeah, well, I mean, my, my trajectory, you know how I talked before about how there are some things that stay very consistent and they even with the ebb and flow of life and other archetypes coming to the fore and then receding and coming to the fore and then receding design is one of my big ones. So designer designer as an archetype has always been with me.
00;37;53;23 - 00;38;14;18
Unknown
I grew up with a designer as a as a father who was and he was a great example, a very, very he was preternaturally gifted, started who is an automotive designer. Yeah. But he found creative alignment very early in life, and then he followed one trajectory. He was dedicated to that cause for his entire life as an automotive designer.
00;38;14;21 - 00;38;35;13
Unknown
And of course, he moved up the ranks and became chief of design and whatnot over time. But I think it was his inspiration as well that, you know, how does one actually design a life they love? And, you know, from when he was an apprentice at 16 or 17, that was something that he almost fell into very naturally.
00;38;35;16 - 00;39;15;05
Unknown
But like I say, the rest of us, it's often a bit of a wayward path. So I think design has always been there. For me, a precedent was a strong precedent has been set and then I have as a seeker like you, I have actually traversed all domains of design. So I've gone through even beginning in landscape architecture, interior design and architecture, graphic design, moving into experience design, which is more the whole world of digital, primarily that I worked in designing digital products and services through all of that, even into working with my husband, who's an architect, to design a house primarily.
00;39;15;05 - 00;39;40;27
Unknown
That one continuum to me has been around design. So it's very natural that the next evolution from just designing products and services for big companies, which I've done for many years, all the big telcos and banks and health insurance companies, I've worked for many of them across lots of sectors. It seemed natural that the very next elevated sort of embodiment of these ideas is Now how can you take all this thinking?
00;39;41;04 - 00;40;13;29
Unknown
How can you, as the most intimate product and service yourself, how can you design your life design? You know, at the most valuable and precious thing? Really? Yeah. I'm humanness. So when you said before how you've what you noticed of what how people excelled was the integration of the understanding of what the elements kit and the archetypes gives you, as with and also being able to execute your talents.
00;40;13;29 - 00;40;45;16
Unknown
And it seems to lead to brilliance in your observations in the same way how have you noticed? You know, because I've met some incredibly smart entrepreneurs in my time as well, and exceptionally smart, brilliant, you know, execute us, but have noticed shut out aspects that have led to their downfall and we have what have you what can you speak of in that sense in the opposite way of what you've observed?
00;40;45;18 - 00;41;14;17
Unknown
Well, if you think about archetypes again, returning to the light and shadow side and again Carl Jung spoke about this. His whole life's work was on this. That continual tension of the double sided coin. You can't have you just can't have light without shadow. You can't have shadow without light. And as an optimist, you'll appreciate that we can choose to lean into the idea that light is ever powerful.
00;41;14;17 - 00;41;40;09
Unknown
I do remember a healer once saying to me, Notice how when you light a tiny candle, a dark room, the entire room is lit. If you take the same volume of darkness, it doesn't stand a chance against a room full of light, which I think is a really interesting premise for the elements, because again, we're continually trying to return to the light up side state, the creative, the creative state of every human being.
00;41;40;12 - 00;42;07;17
Unknown
So shadow is always there, Shadow is always lurking. Shadow is looking minute to minute in our in our daily kind of mental hurdles and challenges. Yeah. And as we said right at the beginning, that conflict and tension in even in the work in a work environment, it's usually quite simple in the sense that the archetypal need of one person is not being met by the archetypal native another.
00;42;07;19 - 00;42;32;05
Unknown
So if you can start talking archetypes, you can work out in that conflicted situation where the shadow has come into it. A great example is to two archetypes competitor and Hustler. They're both fabulously dynamic, they're quite yang, again, quite masculine, yang driven archetypes. They're amazing. They're people who just know how many, many CEOs possess either one or both of those.
00;42;32;05 - 00;42;58;09
Unknown
And that can be a real superpower. Yeah, but when competitor falls into shadow side, it's all about winning at all costs. Yeah, often at the expense of other humans. But that can easily with acknowledgment, especially when two people are locking. And I've had a story about this where 2 to 2 CEOs in the finance industry within an advisory board, we used this archetypal understanding to unlock horns.
00;42;58;09 - 00;43;17;23
Unknown
And as soon as they could say, okay, let's talk about this from archetypal need perspective and let's work out how we're moving into that shadowy domain of, you know, winning at all costs as opposed to a more judicious and fair analysis of the situation to make it a win win for whatever the archetypal need is in each individual right.
00;43;17;25 - 00;44;01;08
Unknown
So all of this stuff can be decoded, archetypal, and actually just abated so quickly because the reality is shadow is always there and it's the choice where continually making for the benefit of humanity, not just ourselves and winning. So it's a fascinating one. It puts also so many problems at work. It does continually and quickly, faster than you think, because it's almost as and this is why bringing design into it and circling back to that, the whole Elements kit is so visual because something happens to our brains when we can see something mapped out diagrammatic like a chessboard of in this case hexagon paths, we can sit and shuffle and shapeshift, and when we can
00;44;01;08 - 00;44;33;00
Unknown
see things, we can understand them better. We can get a much clearer understanding. So the fact that the kit is visual and designed is really, really important. And the fact that the physical kit is tactile because you can have people moving through a conflict where they're actually moving things around on a table and saying, well, you know, this is where I feel this archetype within myself sits, and this is where I think where, where we're seeing eye to eye or where my challenger is moving from the light side to shadow side, etc..
00;44;33;02 - 00;44;58;25
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Or in on your website you need to have like a section for couples. The keys, as you mentioned, just one on one individuals. And for it's such a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant product that is going to help so many people. Lisa Yes, it's, it's deep, deep work. And like I say, what it took many years to design this, so it feels simple and it feels fun.
00;44;58;25 - 00;45;23;10
Unknown
But then, as I say, the subtle nuances of it as you get into it and yourself directing and guiding and thinking about your really reflecting honestly on your behaviors and also your future aspirations, the work is, is really deep. It's fun, but it's deep and there's there's usually an insight, even a small insight, that can really change the course of your your future.
00;45;23;13 - 00;45;52;19
Unknown
Is there an example you can think of of someone you've worked with recently and a big transformation you can anonymously speak of? Yeah. One of the biggest ones was working with a young man who was 21 who was autistic, and he had just done a very brave thing in quitting a job, working in a factory on a production line with a very, very reprimanding militant boss.
00;45;52;21 - 00;46;21;00
Unknown
And on a day to day basis, everyone on that production line was in tears, was really, really miserable work environment. And this young man just emerging, you know, into into into a direction he'd always been diagnosed, prescribed from a very young age about who he was. And his mum came to me and said, I would really love to give him an opportunity to do do his own discovery chart and work through it.
00;46;21;02 - 00;46;42;27
Unknown
We spent many hours going through his discovery chart. Brilliant, brilliant mind, and actually was able to perceive things about the design of that, the elements kit. But other people didn't have the understanding or the knowledge about he could. He was a real patent make a real systems thinker and he was able to identify straight away, which I found fascinating.
00;46;43;00 - 00;47;04;28
Unknown
But to cut a long story short, he went from having no job, very low self-esteem, having come off the back of this really quite grueling situation in an unhappy work environment to then doing his discovery chart and understanding the components of himself through his eyes. His mother said after that session, which she sat in, which is very, very quietly.
00;47;04;28 - 00;47;25;15
Unknown
So it was all about him doing the work, she said. I feel like I've seen my son for the first time in his life because it's always been about everybody else telling you about the limitation on everybody else, telling me about, you know, the special need or, you know, the the various challenges. This was himself governing his own journey.
00;47;25;17 - 00;47;56;11
Unknown
And from that point when he could see himself and express himself fully through his discovery chart and his mum could say she could help set up some support situations in terms of a business mentor because he's very entrepreneurial. He was maker was showing up. He loves to use his hands. He very innovative, brilliant mind, as I say, as a child, just inventing experiments and physical, you know, zip lines like flying foxes across backyards and very, very rudimentary at a very young age.
00;47;56;11 - 00;48;29;25
Unknown
But he just had this mind to be able to create and innovate. What was fascinating is that he was then able to get some mentorship and then before long landed an amazing opportunity working with a brilliant entrepreneur who was the founder and franchise developer of barber shops, very cool, hipster kind of barber shops and for this young man, this was a dream for him to be employed in this situation because he was using his hands, learning his he was an apprentice as well.
00;48;29;28 - 00;48;53;29
Unknown
So he had an opportunity to be a maker, an apprentice, an innovator, learn from one of the best in the business about about how to become an entrepreneur over time and found this fulfilling job, which he's still in two years later. I think we're almost getting to really spreading his wings because of what these discovery Chas was allowed him to express and see about himself.
00;48;53;29 - 00;49;19;13
Unknown
And it was really a moment of just taking back his power and stepping into an entire new life. My gift. What a gift to give someone. Yeah, that was amazing. That's an amazing transformation. one final question, Lisa. Can you think of how when you've understood yours, how that got you through some tough moments? yeah. Such a good one.
00;49;19;15 - 00;49;42;28
Unknown
And I think. I mean, I know we talk about resilience a lot in the sessions I've had with you over many years coaching. I think something interesting about resilience. You know, we talk a lot about bending like bamboo flexing and that idea of just yielding, being supple but really strong at the same time. I also think a big component of resilience is creativity, how to create your way forward.
00;49;43;01 - 00;50;09;05
Unknown
And when you know who you are, you know what to be creating and how to create it in alignment with yourself and what you truly desire. So I think I think in my own case, just a deeper self-awareness of all of the archetypes within myself, the ebb and flow of them, which ones actually need to be expressed at certain times, which ones need to recede, which ones need more self care?
00;50;09;07 - 00;50;39;11
Unknown
All of this is wonderful to sort of rejuvenate from a resilience perspective in developing resilience, but it's also brilliant because you can just put into action your best creative forces to be your allies, to move through any dark times, any dark night of the soul, any challenges. Knowing yourself creatively, I think is a real key to how you as a side design your lives and move through any obstacle.
00;50;39;14 - 00;51;11;00
Unknown
So I think it's just and it's it's a continual check in with myself. I'm continually referring back to my job. I'm continually I'm, I'm walking the walk in the talk and actually doing the work. It's a never ending process of of self-discovery with every challenge that comes your way. But I think it's, you know, getting back to archetypes and the definition of an archetype, the reason it's so potent to understand is that any archetype that you possess and express through it's a pattern of power.
00;51;11;02 - 00;51;49;05
Unknown
So in other words, when you're bringing down imagination and then you're translating that into physical realities and outcomes and things that you want to make or build or businesses that you want to run, essentially it's the way that you empower yourself, generate power in order to create and then empower others. So if we think of it like that, that it's a continual revisiting of what our patterns of creative power are in order to become more resilient, in order to overcome, in order to fully self express, and in order to really have a life that you love, which is the ultimate goal, right?
00;51;49;07 - 00;52;25;29
Unknown
Yes, Such a perfect explanation. And the more that I reflect on yeah, the archetypes you've pulled for me that we've put together have helped me on my my journey to just return back to who I authentically am. And that sense that that that is enough. And to integrate that into my business expression has been quite big and I guess important work, which always works, works best because yeah, when I'm in shadow I'm always trying to be and do so much and it's exhausting.
00;52;26;01 - 00;52;50;28
Unknown
It's realizing where my talents really lie and focusing more on the healer. That became a quote for me. Remember, you're a healer. Let that guide you. Yes. And rather than yeah, thinking it was other things when I focused on that, a lot of things started to realign in the way that I was working and brands and all that has unfolded with that topic.
00;52;50;28 - 00;53;13;19
Unknown
And I keep that statement on the top of my diary every morning. Yeah, and I think it's very, very much about navigating with feeling like ultimately the elements. It's a thinking process to begin with. But then you find very quickly you're you're navigating by resonance, you're being driven by your, your own intuitive assessment of self and sharing of those ideas.
00;53;13;21 - 00;53;36;09
Unknown
And I think when we move into full embodiment, we're actually driving with feeling, even if thought is helping guide us and is the framework to get things done. If we can move with feeling and we can move with with real reverence for self and alignment with self in a way that feels harmonious, as you say, that's how to have the life you love.
00;53;36;19 - 00;53;57;23
Unknown
what a perfect way to end this podcast. Lisa It's such a beautiful day. Transformative conversation with you today. I loved it. Honestly. Everyone, if you want to check out the elements Kit, the Elements Kit Dcoms that are you. And you can also find Lisa on LinkedIn. All of your notes and links will be in the show notes.
00;53;57;23 - 00;54;24;23
Unknown
Lisa, thank you so much. It is a pleasure. Absolute pleasure to be on the journey, walking beside and doing the good work and finding purpose and passion in every moment. Love it. Thank you for everything that you do. Please keep doing what you do. It's magic. Yeah, Likewise. Rob. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Women. The true strength lies in flexibility and keep bending like bamboo.
00;54;24;23 - 00;54;56;02
Unknown
I'll see you guys next time. Thank you for joining us on the pen like Bamboo Resilience podcast. I hope today's conversation inspired you and if this resonated with you, please write, follow and share it with someone who needs to hear this episode. If you would like, go deeper with me. Whether you're leading through burnout, navigating health challenges, or rebuilding after setbacks, I'd be honored to support you had to bend like bamboo dot com to explore our programs.
00;54;56;04 - 00;55;07;00
Unknown
Check out my new book or book a free discovery chat. Trust your ability to bend and flow with life. I'll catch you with the next episode.