And the book is absolutely fantastic, which I’ve dug into and basically implemented into some of my coaching business. So thank you Ms. Susan as well. So without further ado, here’s my really good friend coach, transition, messy awesome sauce, Susan Hensley. Let’s level up.

[00:01:00] Time to Shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad. This is Scott Ferguson and I have a guest that I am immensely, immensely. Excited to interview. She has like these art artful transitions. I kind of went through her course, which we’ll get to at the end, but me, myself, I can’t even draw a stick figure. But I know that I could still take the course and level up my life as well.

And who I’m talking about is my friend Susan Hensley, who’s a transformational coach, speaker and author, dedicated to helping people navigate life’s transitions with joy, creativity. Resilience with decades of experience as a corporate executive and leadership coach, Susan has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with major life challenges.

Drawing on an extensive background in HR coaching and journalism, Susan’s mission is to empower people to unlock their inner wisdom, creativity, and sense of play, which we dig here at Time to Shine Today. During times of uncertainty and change through workshops, speak engagements, and one-on-one coaching, she guides clients to rediscover their authentic selves and infuse their lives with more color, meaning and joy.

And Ms. Susan, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce [00:02:00] yourself the time to Shine today, podcast Varsity Squad. But first, what’s your favorite color and why?

Susan Hensley: Oh, it’s blue and blue. And anyone watching video, I’m wearing it. It’s a turquoise. It’s because it’s both. Calm and it’s got energy. The color of the sky, water.

Yes. All the good stuff.

L. Scott Ferguson: He has, I’m blessed to be looking at it to my right, the Atlantic Ocean here. So I love it. Blues my jam too, so I love it. I love it. So let’s get to the roots of you, Ms. Hensley. Like kind of tell us your story. ’cause I, I’ve seen corporate, was there like corporate burnout and you just kind of leveled up into like kind helping people transition or like, talk to me a little bit.

Susan Hensley: Sure. So there’s a little bit of everything as I think most of us end up having. Right. Original career in television journalism followed that path. Had a, a family, made a hard pivot because that kind of work schedule I was anchoring till 1135 at night. Working emergencies didn’t align with my values or my husbands of how we wanted to raise a family.[00:03:00]

Moved over, took a, a corporate job, worked through that. It was great. Great company had planned on staying. I was there 23 years, had actually planned on staying many more because of the quality of the company and the opportunities I had. Yeah. But about seven years ago, I started art journaling. Then the darn pandemic hit.

And that made everything about work and the size of the company what pandemic and what my job was.

L. Scott Ferguson: What pandemic I’m kidding. What pandemic I got. You

Susan Hensley: know? It is, I love that you said that because we’re through and you don’t think about it, but it is reverberating meeting in people.

L. Scott Ferguson: It’s, it’s

Susan Hensley: still Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure.

Susan Hensley: And it was during that and I doubled down on this fun little practice, which I call sort of art journaling. I’m talking about scribbling. Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay.

Susan Hensley: And making a mess. I love that you said. You maybe can’t really draw stick figures. I can’t either. [00:04:00] Literally, I drop

L. Scott Ferguson: my

Susan Hensley: only face is hearts. This is not, not, not about producing hearts.

L. Scott Ferguson: Thank you for saying that. It’s all

Susan Hensley: process. It’s all play for, for your listeners who ever get into any brain science. It’s moving you from the left side of your brain. Highly analytical drives us to be productive, to hustle, lots of great things, but to that right side where if you will, our intuition lives where we find some peace, some joy, and you get there through some play.

And we all need that. Times are times are intense, right? We’re absolutely, we’re moving, we’re going.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, yeah. No doubt. No doubt. And it’s funny, like what I do with a lot of my clients is when they’re feeling something, they’re just not off. I’m like, throw up on your keyboard. Right? I’m like, don’t.

Punctuate, who cares if the little red markings saying you spell it wrong? Just keep going. Let it rest for 24 to 48 and then revisit it. And I’m like, dude, you have a, you have an idea and a and a path for you. Right? And that’s what we work together, through what they put with that. [00:05:00] So I’m seeing maybe a parallel.

From what we’re kind of talking about as well, a little bit what you

Susan Hensley: did. No, it’s an absolute parallel because what you’re doing, and that’s exactly the right kind of thing, there’s lots of ways to get there, is you’re shutting that internal critic and you are letting flow. You are expressing what you are feeling and then it percolates, it’s somewhere safe.

Right. You’ve just put it in the document on the keyboard or journal or, yeah. Written little. , scribbled on a page, collage drawn, screaming, faces, drawn happy faces, , who knows? We’re, we’re all those things,

L. Scott Ferguson: right?

Susan Hensley: But then after a while you, you start to revisit it. The, the key that you are doing and I’m doing is we’re creating a space and container is all of that arises, that sort of complex sets of emotions.

Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that you said creates a space because that part of creates root words, creativity, , so it almost like you can unleash onto the world, the good side of yourself, right. In a sense [00:06:00] where you can really forge forward. So I gotta ask you, like, when you made the, so you were, I’m, I’m thinking you were kind of an anchor on TV back then.

Yeah. Is that kinda back in the

Susan Hensley: day? Yeah. That was all my, my education. Like I said, spent 11 years moving through different markets and, okay.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. I can see if you’re watching on Vimeo or YouTube, she’s stunning and she’s so well spoken. So I can see that working out. And now when you made that moving into kind of corporate for the values of your family, which is awesome, it was there kind of like people say, Hey man, what are you doing?

Like you’re being seen like this is, , trying to touch that Susan ego a little bit, being like, Hey, what are you doing? Like why are you wanting move this way? And how did you handle that?

Susan Hensley: So the, the ego and, and I call those really almost success scripts that we really buy into. Mm-hmm. Right? That my words.

Yeah. You get it right? Yeah. I saw you almost bit your drink there laughing,

L. Scott Ferguson: right? Absolutely.

Susan Hensley: And we get really hooked on those and we believe they’re us. [00:07:00] Yes. And I’ll tell you, there was a grief process in, in the Navigating Transitions coaching I do and the the art journaling when we end something. Even if we choose to end it right, we don’t always get the choice.

I, I chose to leave this career and this job I had worked really hard on. There is a, a process you need to go through where you do miss that and you have to shed that skin and you can’t rush that. So getting used to being someone else and starting a whole new career, sort of at the, the bottom right. Was a shift, but it was really also healthy.

I got through that messy middle, and with a lot of people making career transitions. I don’t know if this is true of your listeners, you have skills that you don’t know you have. If you’re making a big career switch, if you’re going from one thing to another, the skills may not be obvious, but what I [00:08:00] realized, those years in tv, anyone who served in the the military gets this.

 How to get stuff. Done, right? You do. Absolutely. You understand deadlines. Five o’clock comes, it doesn’t matter what happens, you’re producing a story. You are on live right? And that skill translated really well and helped me in my corporate career. When I had to rebuild, I thought, I’m starting from noon and I know nothing.

The truth is I actually knew how to deliver under. Certain circumstances. Yeah. Did not say, I need these things to be perfect. So when I do any form of career coaching, it’s you gotta really spend time understanding the skills you’ve built and what you have and how they translate. And believe it or not, playing with color and art journaling can help you find some of those.

Doing anything that’s a little bit of creative helps you see yourself in a different way that isn’t just the way society sees you, right. It. And so, [00:09:00] yeah. I love that you mentioned deadline. We, , being in the military and doing six tours, it’s like we knew what we had to do in the time, and obviously with you being in journalism and being in front of the camera, it’s like accidents or events don’t happen on your schedule.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. They happen on there and you have to be on time and, and, and see that and, okay, so. Do you work with people one-on-one a lot or is it more of a group setting or what, what’s your kind of platform there, Susan?

Susan Hensley: So I do both. Okay. I do, I still do, I do personal sort of life coaching when someone’s going through a big transition.

I also do executive and leadership coaching for companies. Sure. Some of the art journaling that’s gone really well. So I’ve been doing workshops and so then you’ll sometimes have a, a group of people as they’re learning the skill. , we talked earlier, I have an online course and some videos because it’s such a low barrier activity and it’s like 10 minutes a day of play, right?

People just need sometimes that permission to get started and see if it’s for [00:10:00] them, right? It’s just another tool to help us. It’s not for everyone, but I’ll tell you the people it’s for. It’s like. Ta and it really can sort of help them process faster, recognize how resilient they are. Mm. Tap, if you will, into I’d say they’re more authentic selves.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, absolutely. Who they really are. Sometimes they don’t even know who they are, especially if they’re going into a transition. And that being said, like maybe if you’re talking to ’em, kind of one-on-one to make sure that you’re the right horse for the course. The right person for them. Right. Yeah. You know?

Is there anything that you do. Any secret sauce you wanna share that maybe helps them in find that initial blind blind spot to where you can start? Or do you kind of put them in a creative position? I’m, I’m really curious about this.

Susan Hensley: So there, I’m gonna, I am going to share the first exercise in a, a workshop because Yeah, someone listening, I, they’re driving, they can’t do it now, but [00:11:00] anyone can do, can do this, right?

There’s a three minute, three minute, what I call sort of. Letting go exercise that I do at the beginning of a, a workshop or if someone’s worked up, , we’ll choose a favorite song of theirs. If I’m in a workshop, I’ll actually, I’ll use Taylor says, shake it off, right? It’s just because of the word.

Shake it off. It’s like you have three minutes. Choose two crayons. Here’s a five by seven small piece of paper. Yeah, go in the corner. This is in a workshop. In three minutes. You need to fill that piece of paper with something, but I want it filled. Right. So you’re not gonna spend three minutes trying to draw me a perfect whatever that you used to draw as a kid, right?

You are gonna fill that thing. So we put on the music, it’s three minutes and the whole instruction is fill it. And I will tell you with I have yet to see as I’ve been teaching this. People not in those three minutes and feel lighter, feel freer, feel playful. [00:12:00] Yeah. And it’s because of all those constraints that there is no expectation as adults when we’re holding crayons as adults.

None of us, I’ve yet to meet the adults but didn’t think of that. It’s

L. Scott Ferguson: that so true.

Susan Hensley: I’m gonna create something fantastic. That inner critic, all the societal expectations is just gone. It’s obliterated. And the exercise between the music. And if you’re at home, choose your own jam, right? Yeah. You choose something that you like, and the colors, right?

You can do a pencil and a black pen, right? And the workshop, I give out crayons, but it’s only two, right? And you force the constraint. And so it shoots people from that left side of their brain judging right over to play.

L. Scott Ferguson: Hmm. And

Susan Hensley: they just, I just, we do a debrief. It’s like, how do you feel?

L. Scott Ferguson: Right?

Susan Hensley: Silly light Yes.

Free that flew by. And we just spend some time thinking about, do you want more of that in your life? Look at what three minutes right did for you. And it gives most people a little bit of a, [00:13:00] a glimmer and puts some in touch with what play felt like. And it’s not, I had to take the day off. It’s like I give myself a really intentional.

Break without that critic. Without that,

L. Scott Ferguson: should, should, I love that you said crayons and you have adults. Yeah, use crayons because it’s like, I remember, I don’t remember, but I remember being young and you gimme me a crayon in kindergarten or whatever, or even younger, right. The only person I was really trying to impress was like my parents.

’cause I’m taking it home to them and I know that they’ll never judge. ? You didn’t know it then, but you wanna impress ’em so much, but you’re just. We’re free about it. Right. It’s like that’s what you’re really trying to get them to do.

Susan Hensley: That is exactly, and I tell them, I love that you said your parents.

I asked them to be their own proud parent. , my whole story with this thing is I ended up going to like a colleagues who actually had a great side hustle as an artist. I went to a little Saturday workshop, right, to learn the color. Well, I sat there and made a mess. It was like this brown, soggy thing of paint.

I [00:14:00] took it home. I hung it on the darn refrigerator in my house. My husband and center are like. What, what you do when you use the tools that you loved as a kid. Yeah. Finger paints, watercolors, crayons, glue sticks. Oh my gosh. People love the glue stick, right? Or Elmer’s glue, whatever is it moves you there.

And then I’m asking them to be their own proud parent, if you will. Thank you. And to just give yourself some praise and reinforcement. Yes. It’s like building a muscle, but without any like. Shame or should. It’s a, a play muscle. It’s a creativity muscle.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. I love that. And my, Susan, my fiance, , we still keep.

Pictures of the kids stuff from when they were younger on the side of the fridge. It’s weird the way our fridge is said. Yeah, but it’s just a reminder that everything would make the parent proud and why won’t we be proud? And it, it just have fun with doing it and the freedom. And so, lemme ask you something when you’re working with somebody, , maybe [00:15:00] is there any good question that you wish they would ask you but maybe never do?

Susan Hensley: Oh, that’s so interesting. I really try and make it all about them, but I think the question sometimes is people can feel very alone. Hmm. So the question might be, I. Have you ever felt this lost? Right. Confused, scared, which of course, let’s be clear, I’m gonna tell everyone right now, the answer’s Yes, absolutely.

L. Scott Ferguson: No, you’re lying, right?

Susan Hensley: Yeah. But I, I do, I do think that when we are in a time of big transition and really shedding our skin to become someone new, it’s really important to stay focused on growth and moving forward and not stagnating. So, , maybe that’s the other question. Have you ever felt. As as stuck Yeah.

As I do right now. And once again, the answer is yes [00:16:00] because the messy middle of transitions, right. Transitions have an ending that we need to honor. They have this really messy middle and our society, we want that messy part, that long part to be gone immediately. Sure. Right. And it’s like two steps sideways, one back, one forward.

Right, right. And we just wanna get there and there’s a lot of, , sort of patience and exploration that that’s needed there. So folks don’t get stuck. Yes. And either run back to what they were doing and just recreate a pattern that may not be working for them. So,

L. Scott Ferguson: , I love that you, that you kind of said that.

’cause like Sharma, Robin Sharma, who I have dug into some of his stuff, right? Where he says any change is hard at first, musty in the middle and beautiful at the end, right? Yeah. And just to have. Like someone that, that for, I’m saying this all due respect, like dumb it down for them. Yeah. In a sense to just take ’em back to education.

’cause again, that’s what they’re really kind of needing is a reeducation in it. And the question that you a, that you wish they would [00:17:00] ask you is the one exact one When I’m in a discovery with the pros prospective client. Okay. Is, , have you ever been in my shoes? And how did you work it out? Like that’s the exact question.

You’re like my sister from another Misto. I swear it’s like For sure a hundred percent. Lemme, have you seen the movie back to the feature many moons ago? Yeah, absolutely believe it’s like 40 years, like next month. It’s been 40 years. 1985. Right. So let’s get in that Delo with Marty McFly. Okay. Yeah. Let’s go back to the double deuce, the 22-year-old Susan.

I don’t know if it’s Hensley yet, but the 22-year-old Susan, what kinda knowledge nuggets might you drop on her? , not to change anything ’cause your life is unfolded beautifully. , beautiful family, everything. But maybe to help Susan shorten her learning curve or blast through maybe just a little bit quicker.

Susan Hensley: Oh yeah. It’s don’t, perfection is not the answer. Right. I will get there. Yes. The intenseness of feeling the need to be perfect. At, [00:18:00] at 22 when I was finishing graduate school, starting on that TV career. Mm-hmm. Very, very strong. I I had some rough roads and that did not serve me a lot of what you see.

You had a lot barriers, those hard lessons. Well, I mean, it served me that I grew.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, but you had a lot of barriers. One. Being a female. Okay. At the time. ’cause I’m sure we’re kind of around the same age. Yeah. Ish. And I just remember when I was young that I could probably get something a little bit faster or more attention being a male.

, again, and I’m not trying to take that conversation here, but for you to be persevere or have a persistence that didn’t recognize failure and push through that, that’s amazing. So thank you for keep doing it. ’cause what you’re doing now for people. Is incredible, , with that. And, and again, I, I’m just gonna use it, dominate it down.

’cause that’s how I would probably thrive with your program, right? Because I need that, for that rebirth of me, right? Yeah. Well,

Susan Hensley: so why it works. Please. When we are reinventing ourselves, rebirthing, we don’t, we are not consciously [00:19:00] competent. So the simpler and easier ways to build skill, it’s like if you wanna get in shape, you don’t go, lift the heaviest weight you can. You don’t go out and try and run a half marathon. Maybe you don’t even try and run a mile, right? Mm-hmm. And so in a big life transition, the stuff I’m talking about, starting small steps, starting with play and curiosity and some self-compassion and encouragement makes all the.

Difference in the world to really sort of taming and managing the anxiety you may have. The, the other things ’cause in, in reinventing yourself, which we are asked to do a number of times in our lives, thank you. At different levels. Right. You’ve done. I’ve done It goes so much easier. Yes. Yeah. Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: Inch by inch it a inch.

Right. By the art. Exactly. , just kind of kinda work your way through it, knowing that as long as there’s progress, then you’ll reach your version of perfection or at least greatness. So. [00:20:00] How does Susan want her dash? Remember that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life date, and your death date?

Hopefully it’s way down the road. Right? But how does Susan want her dash remembered?

Susan Hensley: Oh, it’s it’s kind. Yeah. Period. I mean, it’s, I love that. I love it. I just, no, I don’t wanna ever have been a jerk. And if I ever was, and intentionally I, , I just feel like I wanna apologize. Thank you. If I ever took myself too seriously or drove too hard, or yes, any of that.

’cause the older I get, it’s like, wow,

L. Scott Ferguson: cares unnecessary. I make two New year’s res resolutions every year. And one is to make someone smile every day. Right? The less I’ve hurt you, disrespect you, owe you, or judged you, I give zero. , what’s what you think about me, right? Yeah. And it’s doing that since 2009 has freed up like everything for me to serve the most amount of people, ?

And just realizing that if I make those two was are super easy to keep. Now, if I’ve hurt you, disrespect [00:21:00] you, oh, you’re a judge. I’ll apologize. Like you kind of said profusely. Yeah. Until, if you wanna forgive me, great. If you don’t. Great. , but it’s, it at least it’s out there to the universe. Yeah.

To your creator and and whatnot. So what do you feel people might misunderstand the most about Susan?

Susan Hensley: , I can succeed in a very type A world. I can drive. Drive. Yes you can. Lady. I love a deadline. I mean, I love bring it on love, get things done and hustle. And I think that can be confused. And I’ve had to work at this to sort of let all of me show up.

Right. Whether it’s my sense of humor, my goofiness, , people joke about like your freak flag to be fly their freak flag. Right? Exactly. As authentic as I can and still honor the fact that I really like to get stuff done. Sure. And the best way for me to show up sometimes for friends or family members if they are in need.

Is to, to help in [00:22:00] that way. Yes. And I think that can be, if, if I’m not really careful, I owe, I need to own a lot of this, to not let my desire, if you will, to, to get things done in service, actually overwhelm a situation.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. I, I just see. I, I kinda live by, again, I use the, the word credo again, but, , do what you love in the service of people that love what you do, right?

Yeah. Like, I love coaching. I love, I’m not a consultant. I know that everyone knows what they want, they just don’t know how to talk themselves into it, right? So I love being my superpower is curiosity, right? Yeah. So if I can get it, and then I know that that challenge is there, and if they come up with it.

They’re probably gonna see it through with my accountability. Now, if I tell ’em, Hey, do this. I know it’ll work. And be like, Fergie, you suck. It doesn’t work. But if they come up with it and I can just see you just through your play and getting that out there, that they really become their authentic self, their badass, authentic self.

Right. That’s, I love what you’re doing there. Absolutely. So [00:23:00] what is Susan’s definition of a life well lived?

Susan Hensley: Mm, I think it’s in service. It’s the people we’ve touched. , when I was I, I do a lot of work with clients and myself on making sure I am aligned to my North Star. That my intentions every day are aligned, that my values are clear.

, in the online course we do a whole set on, on values because. Understanding what lies behind the value. Different people may look at the word, the value of, of respect very differently, or integrity. It’s really understanding how that shows up for me individually, right. The client, and then trying to live that aligned.

And when I have this image, it’s like a pebble going into a pond. I would like my life to have had positive ripples. Gentle ripples. I do not wanna be a tsunami in someone’s life. Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. I love that. And, and understanding what lies behind your values because if someone has them, then we [00:24:00] can kind of take them deeper and then there’s the magic, right?

Yeah. It’s like they have it. I love this is amazing. So squad, we are going to take my lovely friend, Ms. Susan Hensley, through our leveling up lightning round just as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors and affiliates. Time to Shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad. We are back in Miss Susan. Next time we’re in Austin, which I’m there four or five times a year, I’d love to meet for coffee and kind of pick your brain actually.

And a few things that we didn’t cover on the mic here, but, and we’ll talk about some of these questions, probably 15, 20 minutes maybe, maybe 10 minutes, whatnot. But today you have five seconds with no explanations and I promise you they can all be answered that way. You ready to level up? I am. Let’s do this.

Okay. Susan, what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received? Bravery. Yes. Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Susan Hensley: Meditation.

L. Scott Ferguson: Beautiful. And you see me kinda maybe walking down the street or at an event or whatnot, you’re like, eh, Fergie looks like in his, he’s in his [00:25:00] doldrums a little bit.

What book might you hand me? This really helped make a switch in your mind, other than , up for your sanity, which we’ll get to.

Susan Hensley: It’s a teeny little book called How to Smile by a Buddhist Monk named Tick, not Han.

L. Scott Ferguson: Put that in the show notes ’cause I’ve never heard of it and I’m gonna dig into that today.

Alright. Most commonly used emoji if any when you text, ah, heart Gotcha. Nickname’s growing up, Susie. Right. Love it. Do you have any hidden talent or, and or superpower that nobody knows about until now?

Susan Hensley: Huh? Open book pretty much. So I’m gonna give you, no, I don’t think I’ve kept it hidden. Very

L. Scott Ferguson: cool.

Susan Hensley: Chest checkers of Monopoly.

L. Scott Ferguson: Oh, monopoly. Headline for your life.

Tried. Love it. Buy into any superstitions at all. , I knock on [00:26:00] wood a lot. I love it. For me too. I love it. Go to ice cream flavor. Oh, mint chocolate chip. Love it. That’s actually mine too. Okay, here we go. There’s a sandwich called the Susie. Build that sandwich for me. What’s on it? What are we eating?

I.

Susan Hensley: Okay, so I’m gonna do it on slightly toasted sour dough, some tasty mustard, avocado, Turkey, Swiss lettuce, tomato. I’m gonna put on some pickles. Nice. Maybe even a little cranberry in there.

L. Scott Ferguson: Ooh, there you go. Dill or sweet pickles.

Susan Hensley: Dill.

L. Scott Ferguson: Me too. Absolutely. Favorite charity and or organization you like to give your time and or money to?

Susan Hensley: Right now it’s called Austin Pets Alive. There are a lot of

L. Scott Ferguson: stranded pets, what, is that a no kill shelter in Austin? Yeah, that’s exactly it. And they, I have volunteered there. Okay, so I’m gonna break my own thing. When I speak in, in cities, right? My agents blessed to line me up with speaking events everywhere.

When I go to Austin. When I went to Austin, one, I try to find a juujitsu place. ’cause , I’d like to grow and there’s. Fantastic Juujitsu [00:27:00] with B-team and everything else there, blah, blah, blah. But then I also find a pet rescue. ’cause when you speak and you’re on the road, you have a lot of free time.

So if I walked in there and said, Hey, I’m, I’m here, I’m, I’m half Susan, Susan Hensley, I’m here to speak on behalf of her company, , but I’m, I’m here on behalf of her company to volunteer for you. I’m certified to walk dogs, pick up poop in Jupiter, Florida. , I was wondering if I could volunteer.

So I volunteer there. They’re gonna call you. Right one. I love my fur babies. I have three adopted fur babies that are watching me right now, but two, they’re gonna call you and say, Ms. Hensley. Yeah, the Scott showed up. You had no idea. You’re never gonna hire another speaker. It was something that was brought onto me, but I’ve heard of them and I’ve been there and that’s awesome.

Thank you for doing that. That’s amazing. Oh, that is fricking amazing. It’s a great organization. It’s awesome organization. It is kind of like what we have down here at Peggy Adams, which is kind of a organization for rescuing, , dogs and cats and fur babies. No kill shelter. I love it. Love it. Thank you.

Thank you for doing that. So, last question, you can elaborate on this one as much as you want, but what’s the best decade of music? Sixties, [00:28:00] seventies, eighties, or nineties? Oh, come on. You’re driving in that van, going to, , do some re , reporting on something. I’m guessing it’s

Susan Hensley: gonna be, I’m guessing it’s got to be eighties, right?

That’s just when I was a teenager. Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: I graduated in a 90, so it’s like I have like, yeah, that’s my jam. And there’s so much that happened in that decade, right? Yeah. , invasion from U2 or Men at Work or Culture Club to our big hair Don’t care people here. And it was like, , kind of like incarnation of rap, if you will, with Beasty Boys and run DMC.

It’s like, get everything that, and if you listen to songs now, Susan. You’ll hear hooks from the songs we grew up with. You’ll hear ’em.

Susan Hensley: That’s what I love. Yes. I That happens all the time. Yes. And it is, I mean, clearly someone in the research, there must be a bunch of us out there, but yes, I love it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes. And it’s funny that that means they need more of you because they, creativity is not happening.[00:29:00]

These days versus what that is back then. What I’m saying? If they have to use a hook from back then, then we never u You never heard hooks in songs in the eighties, from the fifties and sixties. You just didn’t. They wanted to get as far away from it in a sense. Right. But no, that, that’s fantastic.

So Miss Susie, Susan, Susan, how can we find you?

Susan Hensley: Easy. It’s just best Place is my website, susan hens link.com. You can buy the book there, of course. Is there, you can contact me for coaching. I answer, , emails.

L. Scott Ferguson: Sure. I love it. And, and if you’re watching Vimeo or YouTube, I’m have it on the screen right now.

If beautifully set up website, make sure you looks like you get on our email list and get a nice little starter guide. And also you do have a course, artful Transitions. Can you go a little deeper on artful Transitions for us?

Susan Hensley: Yeah. The reason I, after writing the book and doing workshops, which only are, are like an hour, people wanted to go deeper.

They wanted to get into, if they weren’t a coaching client, they wanted to get into the values work. The what it’s like to have some guidance [00:30:00] over time as your art journaling so that you can reflect, sort of tap in. To, if you will, what it’s telling you. And so I love the workbook that goes along with it because it outlines a lot of what we do in coaching, right?

Yeah. There’s values clarification, there’s capturing emotions, there’s goal setting. And so the artful transitions really sort of allows a person to go deeper without being a, a direct client.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. So they, it’s kind of self-paced, but you give them all the resources to make it happen then. Correct.

Absolutely. Yeah. Love it. And how about our awesome sauce art for your sanity? Tell us a little bit about what went into writing it and how people can use it to level up.

Susan Hensley: Sure. So the funny thing after journalism, people always say, , do you, do you wanna keep writing or keep doing that? I’d say no.

They’d say, do you wanna write a book? I’m like, never gonna write a book. Right. Always so funny when we have those reactions to [00:31:00] things, right? And because I was using art journaling so often in both my corporate executive coaching and life coaching, I recognized. I wanted to put it out there in a, you are not an artist.

This is not about becoming artists. It is about using play creativity, self-compassion, to help you move more quickly through difficult times and manage chaos. Right? The subtitle is all about unleashing joy and managing chaos. And so I sort of did the thing I said I wouldn’t do. I wrote a book. It’s super personal.

It’s a combination of my journey and all the brain science that goes deeper into why this works, right? There’s some great research that explains why it works, right? And yeah, put that out in the world a few months ago. So,

L. Scott Ferguson: no, I have to add, I’m a Kindle guy. Okay. That’s why I like to read my books on Kindle.

Okay. But is it better, can they get as much out of outta Kindle or do they really need the physical? Just be honest [00:32:00] with me ’cause that’s what I really wanna make sure.

Susan Hensley: No, you can get as much out of it on, on Kindle, right? It’s sometimes they

L. Scott Ferguson: have the physical book color. You see the pictures. I

Susan Hensley: didn’t do a work.

Book for that very reason. Right. Okay. Thank you. If someone wants a workbook, then it’s in the course.

L. Scott Ferguson: Got you.

Susan Hensley: Perfect. This is a narrative that it gives you tips on how to try, but No, you can absolutely do the e-version of it. Okay.

L. Scott Ferguson: Thank you for, thank you for being transparent on that. Yeah. So squad, we are going to do a two paper book giveaway.

And also a, let’s do any the first and, and two Kindle. Give way. Just put it into any, I don’t care if it’s Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn. Text it to five six one four four zero three eight three zero. The keyword is rebirth. I want to hear Rebirth. I wanna see that in there. And if our first two people that see it, or first four people, just let me know.

If you want the Kindle or paperback in time to shine its dime, I’ll be happy to put it in the mail and get it out to you. So Ms. Susan. I need you to do one more solid for me and leave me with, leave the squad [00:33:00] with one last knowledge nugget that we can take with us, internalize and take action on. Okay,

Susan Hensley: so think about adding some play because play short.

Three minutes, five minutes. Pure burst of messiness is that bridge to self discovery play. Self-discovery, short burst. Could be Play-Doh, skipping, singing, making a muddy mess. Crayons. Try it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes,

Susan Hensley: you’ll get something.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, I love it. And squad, I have pages of notes that we, , just taken here. Talked to my miss, my friend, Ms.

Susan here. , original career in journalism. Went to the corporate world, found out well, journalism really didn’t align with her. Her family dynamics, values and whatnot. She moved into the corporate world found. There’s also after that, a need for scribbling and scribbling and making a mess. , making it from the analytical left side of your brain to the right intuition, the [00:34:00] creativity, let’s get going.

Shedding that internal. Credit that you have on yourself and letting it go and doing that will help percolate creativity and unleash your greatness. , when we end something, whether it’s a job, whether what, even a relationship, there’s a mourning process, right? And this is the best time to do that.

Get messy. , remember, it’s hard at first. Messy in the middle, but beautiful at the end, ? The skills you build will translate through this creativity, this messiness will translate not only into helping you but everybody else that’s around you. , give yourself permission to get started.

Get out there and get it done. That that perfection is not the answer. Yeah, that’s one thing that she said When we are rebirthing, I. We are not really consciously competent. So get messy, inch by inch is a cinch right? Do it, keep doing it, , by the yard. It’s hard. She, we were remembered as somebody that is kind period.

I mean, she slid across home, home plate, bumped, bruised, whatnot. But she still scored. And [00:35:00] she knew that and she knew that she did well. ’cause she lets her freak flag fly. She is authentic, she’s in service. , she understands what re is behind her values and she wants you to do the same as well.

, , be. Really buy into that creativity and self-compassion, , and think about adding some play to yourself, especially in a situation where it’s C cha challenging, even if it’s short play. , because she reminded us that it’s a bridge to self-discovery. And thank you so much, Susan, for coming on.

You absolutely level up your health. You level up your wealth. You’re absolutely stunning. And you earned your varsity letter here at Time to Shine Today. Okay. People need to hear you. People need to see you. I can’t wait to rock a stage with you very soon. And again, we absolutely love your guests. Thank you so much for coming on.Susan Hensley: Thank you. Total pleasure. Bye now.

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