Penny for your Shots
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Penny for your Shots
Grow Your Business by Growing You: Breaking Free from Hidden Patterns with Dr. Shannon South
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Sometimes the thing holding your business back isn’t strategy, marketing, or systems.
Sometimes it’s the patterns you didn’t even know were there.
In this episode of Penny for Your Shots: Conversations & Cocktails with Brilliant Women, Penny sits down with trauma-informed therapist, speaker, and author Dr. Shannon South to explore how our past experiences can quietly shape the way we lead, build businesses, and show up in our lives.
Dr. Shannon shares how hidden emotional patterns can influence everything from the risks we take to the opportunities we avoid. When women begin to untangle those patterns, something powerful often happens: as they grow personally, their businesses begin to grow too.
This conversation is a thoughtful reminder that reinvention in midlife isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about reconnecting with who you’ve been all along.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
• Why personal growth often unlocks business growth
• How hidden patterns can quietly shape entrepreneurial decisions
• The connection between healing, leadership, and reinvention
• Why midlife can be a powerful season for rediscovery
• How untangling old patterns can help women move forward with more freedom
Key topics discussed:
• Midlife reinvention and personal growth
• Women entrepreneurs and mindset
• Hidden behavioral patterns and leadership
• Trauma-informed personal development
• Building a business that reflects who you truly are
When’s the last time you did something just for YOU? 🍷✨
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📍 Dates: July 30–August 2, 2026
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Grow Your Business by Growing You: Breaking Free from Hidden Patterns with Dr. Shannon South
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Penny Fitzgerald: [00:00:00] Have you ever wondered why certain thoughts or beliefs just seem to stick even when we're trying to grow past them? Today I am joined by Dr. Shannon South, a therapist who helps people uncover the deeper patterns shaping how they think, how they feel, and how they move through the world. Our conversation touched on everything from meditation to mindset to the way our past experiences shape the stories we tell ourselves, and so much of what she shared beautifully [00:01:00] reinforces something I talk about a lot here.
The power of getting quiet, listening inward and trusting the wisdom that's already inside of you here is Shannon South.
Good morning.
Penny Fitzgerald: Good morning to you.
Shannon, tell, tell my audience a little bit about you. Give us your name and what you do and what lights you up.
Shannon South: Yes, so I am Dr. Shannon South. I am a psychotherapist in Asheville, North Carolina, and I specifically focus on helping train coaches and counselors and help healing professionals move people into deep healing.
That last, and it's nice to find a way to really get to the root of the problem and get to it quickly. So that's what I do. I help love helping my clients. I love helping my, the people I train.
And I just really enjoy seeing people break through patterns that have been holding them back for years and years and years and really break free so they can just have more joy. You know, you love that too.
Penny Fitzgerald: I do too, for sure. Yeah. Do you work with [00:02:00] specific, um, types of therapists or types of counselors that, like is there a, a particular niche that you, um, focus on?
Shannon South: Yes, I have all kinds, but I do, I have ministers sometimes in my trainings, I have uhhuh. Um, just life coaches, um, people who business do business coaching to help people break through because as we know, mental and emotional health affects your business.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, for sure.
Shannon South: So if, if you're in a tangle there or you're in a pattern there, or sabotaging or not believing in yourself, or just can't find your way through, and you get really down on yourself or frustrated mm-hmm.
You know, breaking through that kind of stuff can really make a big difference. And, you know, being a business owner, as you know, is, you know, not for the faint of heart.
Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly.
Shannon South: So it's really, truly, um, you know. A joy to be able to break
Penny Fitzgerald: through
Shannon South: and really help people find that energy and that excitement again for their lives and businesses.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, that's great.
Shannon South: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then people, you know, I work with a lot of, uh, complex trauma. Um, you know, [00:03:00] sometimes we just can't get to what's really happening in there. Mm-hmm. And so when we do and untangle that and how it's just been, it just gets all wired together, you know, just to adapt. We have to adapt so when we get, yeah.
Tangle that adaptation and free ourselves to a new way. It is just amazing. It changes everything, you know? What's that saying? Wayne Dyer used to say, when the inside changes, the outside changes. Right?
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, for sure. Yeah. You, you know, and I always say too, that your business only grows at the speed that you do.
Shannon South: Yes. I love that quote by you. I remember you saying that in the podcast. It was so good. So I wrote, speaking of that, I wrote a book called Grow Your Business by Growing You, which is so, oh
Penny Fitzgerald: my gosh.
Shannon South: Because you know, you can't really move to the next level with your business until you really clear up the inner world.
Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I find that so many of the clients that I work with, the brilliant business women, um, that I work with, they have all these ideas. They have these things they want to do. They have [00:04:00] this impact that they wanna create for their people.
Shannon South: Yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: But they're, they're stuck in the busyness or they're stuck in moving forward.
Something is holding them back or they're keeping themselves. Back just a bit.
Shannon South: Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: And it keeps us small. It keeps us safe. You know, we don't step out of that comfort zone because it becomes cumbersome to do that.
Shannon South: Totally.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, so it's so important to look to, yeah, to get yourself in a place where your energy is up, where you're excited to start the day, you're excited to do the things that you want to do.
Not feeling like, oh my gosh, where do I start?
Shannon South: I know. I know. One of my favorite quotes is passion is the pipeline to the soul. One of my coaches that isn't that beautiful? I love that. And I was like, it's so true. We get in that creative flow when we're in our passion. Mm-hmm. And then we just do it. We have the energy to do it.
We have the insight and you know, of course it's good to have strategy. It's not just all about inspiration. It's good. Strategy is great as well in business. Mm-hmm. But we've gotta have both. And so, you know, the inside's gotta [00:05:00] meet, match the outside, and then when all that comes together, it is just like, you know, jumping that we soar.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Yeah, for sure. You, you don't feel like doing things when you're, when, when something's holding you back or when there's something that isn't right in your life.
Shannon South: Totally. And this life is not, you know, a piece of cake sometimes, you know, we, we get lost, we get grief, we get hit with things that are really hard.
Mm-hmm. And we have trauma and childhood that can hold us back and make us have physical problems or emotional patterns that just really, um, it's not our fault. It's just been given that, you know, and, but we, we've been, the good news is we've been given that to work through. You know, it's really there for us if we can lean into it and really have a really solid way to get through it.
Mm-hmm. And then when we do, we realize, oh, that was the gift in that. Oh, that was the gift in that. But when we're in it, it doesn't feel like that at all. No, it doesn't. Why am I going through this? We feel victimized by it. We feel, you know, it's just horrible feeling, you know? [00:06:00] Yeah. By me. All the things. And we get mad and we get sad, and those are appropriate stages as well, but we don't wanna get Yeah.
You don't get stuck in any of those stages.
Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. You're
Shannon South: swirling and swirling. You know, I used to say it's like being caught in a Eddie in a river. You know? You're just like swirling, swirling and swirling and swirling and seeing the same thing over and over, and you're like, again, really? So it's like we get unstuck like that.
Our energy gets unstuck, our mind, our emotions, our body comes along and it's like,
Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.
Shannon South: Woo. True freedom.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, it, it's a choice, right? We can choose to stay in the Eddie. We can choose to keep experiencing the same things over and over again. Yes. You've probably heard this too, where, you know, God gives you a little pebble or a little, little,
Shannon South: yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: Tap, tap, tap. Right. And then it becomes a pebble, and then a bigger rock. And a bigger rock pretty quick. It's a boulder. You have the choice,
Shannon South: right, right. To
Penny Fitzgerald: endure the boulder.
Shannon South: Totally, totally. I love to do this image, and I wanna find it a piece of paper. I'll show it to you. Exactly. So we, we, you know, we start here [00:07:00] and we're like, oh, we, it's just a little pebble, right?
Uhhuh, but then we, it's more unresolved and then, oh, it's just this, and then it's just this and it's just this. And then we really can't see. The truth. Like in it, we're stuck in it. And so as we feel that we literally move this over, it's not like it didn't happen. Whatever happened, right. Or whatever the pain pattern is that it happened.
But we are, we're free now and we can look at it and be like, oh look, there that is. But we have ourself back and
Penny Fitzgerald: we
Shannon South: interact with the world from a place of being in the moment. 'cause these patterns are in the past or we're either catastrophizing or stuck in the future. So when we're in the moment more fully, we are powerful.
And you know this, we, we, we, yeah, you and I talked a little bit about that, but we're powerful in our moment. Mm-hmm. 'cause this moment's what we've got. And so when our mind takes us other places, it really does get us scattered and splattered and overwhelmed. And that's no fun. Yeah. We lose our [00:08:00] concentration.
Penny Fitzgerald: You get so used to being in the chaos that you don't realize it's chaos.
Shannon South: Oh, right. You are immune to it. 'cause you've been doing it forever
Penny Fitzgerald: and it starts to feel comfortable for some, you know?
Shannon South: Yes, yes. Totally.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. The drama of, of some things. Yeah. Um,
Shannon South: it is the drama triangle. I mean, I teach that all the time.
Penny Fitzgerald: Really? Yeah. Yeah. Tell me more about that.
Shannon South: Oh man. The drama triangle is where we'd get stuck and you know, you're on it by asking that question. So the drama triangles, when we feel victimized, which of course we are victims sometimes of circumstances, we, you know, we didn't control more kids or something happens due to somebody else negligence or whatever, right?
Mm-hmm. I'm sorry, lemme turn that off. And so that happens and we get. We get lost in that victim place, even though we don't wanna admit it. And then the other side of that coin in the drama triangle is the persecutor. Mm-hmm. We become the persecutor of the outside world. We are blaming, shaming, you know, rah, rah, rah, instead of really diving in and feeling and going through and healing.[00:09:00]
What's ours to heal. And so, you know, they used to say an allon cleaning your own side of the street, right? Mm-hmm. When we do that, we get free, but if we're blaming, shaming, false regrets, ex, you know, point, point, point, point doesn't mean we're not angry. I'm not saying that I'm not taking anger away. It is a legitimate justifiable emotion and it can be helpful.
Mm-hmm.
We don't wanna get stuck there in that persecutor role, right? Mm-hmm. So victim, persecutor, and then women love this one, the rescuer.
Oh yeah.
We dive in. We have to take care of everything and everybody else, even if they don't ask us, we're doing things for people that really are theirs to do. So we're we become a rescuer or we.
Get lost in things that we think we should do versus what our, our authentic self is really calling us to do. You know, I remember doing that as a kid when my daughter was young and she was in her room one day, and it was during COVID, you know, they got stuck on the daggone computers during COVID. Oh
Penny Fitzgerald: yeah.
Shannon South: They had to do school online. It was terrible. But anyway, she hated it. So anyway, I was trying to get [00:10:00] her to eat breakfast because, you know, I thought she could focus better. It was hard, hard, hard enough being on the computer all day. So anyway, you know, I've made this breakfast, I'm up early doing all the things, and she wouldn't get her butt down to eat breakfast.
She's in her bedroom, you know, expecting me to wait on her. So, you know, I did that for a little while. I would run the breakfast up there, 'cause you know, she'd get up at the last minute and I thought, this is a hard time for her. It's. Comb And bro, I'm like, we're all going through this. Get up, do that. Go breakfast.
You know what I mean? So I laugh about that 'cause I realized I was rescuing her. I was doing something for her. She was at the age she could do that for herself. Right. Uh, and I was getting resentful. Uh, so that's always a good sign that you, we were in the rescuer mode when we're doing something for someone else that they could do for themselves.
And I remember saying to her, okay, I guess you'll be hungry tomorrow 'cause I'm making the breakfast. You gotta come down, sit at the table and eat it. Or. You know, see how it goes without it. Yeah. And that was such a freeing feeling to have those boundaries. 'cause you know, these are fewer roles we get over, we overdeliver and we think it's the [00:11:00] right thing, and then we're all torn up, you know?
Penny Fitzgerald: Right, right. We make so many assumptions for other people. Right. You know?
Shannon South: Exactly. Like they must be feeling this way or this or that, and it's not true. You know, I, I do, I'll give myself credit, you know, I did not grow up in a healthy family system and there was not a lot of collaboration, which is one of the skills to get us out of the drama triangle, collaborating, right.
We collaborate. Mm-hmm. We were just always kind of in survival mode, putting out fires, you know, trying to help my dad. He was an alcoholic and an addict, and we were always in, we were always in. You know, pay attention for the next shoot to drop. Pay attention for the problem. You know, always scanning for danger and trying to help, and it was exhausting.
But I did do one thing right in my family. We collaborated. We got together for family meetings once a week. We talked about our feelings. How do you feel? What do you need? How do you feel? What do you need? How do you feel? What do you need? Mm-hmm. It created a really solid structure to get outta that drama.
And into collaboration because that [00:12:00] is healthy communication, right? But we get lost in all the other things. Or if someone has a mental health issue or an addiction or a major problem, or they're stuck in some of their trauma, they can't collaborate. They're too triggered. Right? They're too right. They're too in the drama.
They're too in their pain body, and they can't collaborate. It's just too hard. There's too much pain there. So they need that deeper healing. But I will say, yay. You know, I realized that the other day. Yay. You know, we collaborate as a family and I love that.
Penny Fitzgerald: That's great.
Shannon South: Yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: And it sounds like you set up a system to make that happen.
We did set up weekly meetings,
Shannon South: yes. Monthly. We did a monthly.
Penny Fitzgerald: A monthly, okay.
Shannon South: Yeah. The weekly would be a lot with the busy schedule.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, you
Shannon South: know, volleyball
Penny Fitzgerald: and with teenagers.
Shannon South: Teenagers and all just way too much. But Uhhuh, once a month we would do a deep dive, hour long or 30 minutes Uhhuh fancy meeting.
And boy, it made a big difference in the way we communicate together.
Penny Fitzgerald: How'd you get your kids to buy in on that? [00:13:00]
Shannon South: You know, it was not an option. And sometimes they didn't, you know, she didn't wanna be there. I have a daughter and they have two step boys, but they were mostly gone by the time we did that.
But, um, it wasn't an option.
Penny Fitzgerald: Uh huh
Shannon South: Um, it beco it began to become something more nurturing because she would realize she would, you know, get what she wanted more.
Penny Fitzgerald: Okay.
Shannon South: Voicing her opinion,
Penny Fitzgerald: uhhuh,
Shannon South: you know, instead, instead of acting it out or, you know, um, being passive aggressive or whatever, you know, we do well, you know, we just don't know sometimes what we need until we sit down and talk about it.
We don't know
Penny Fitzgerald: exactly. Well, and our bodies go through so much change. Yes. You know. As a teenager, you know, they, they've got so many hormones that are just changing.
Shannon South: Gosh. Yeah. That was a tough
Penny Fitzgerald: stage. Your brain is changing. Yes, for sure. I call those my gen years when the kids were teenagers.
Shannon South: I love it.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and now we have menopause, so there's a whole nother set of things. Oh yeah. A whole other
Shannon South: set of things. [00:14:00] You think we'd get a break after they go to college?
Penny Fitzgerald: I know. Uh, that's all right. Now I'm just coffee this morning. But there'll be some. Cocktails later.
Shannon South: Menopause. I had to move to decaf.
How sad. You know?
Penny Fitzgerald: Aww.
Shannon South: But you know, I've got plenty of energy, thank goodness.
Penny Fitzgerald: Good. Yes. We do what we have
Shannon South: to have to caffeine another day.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, yeah, exactly. We pick our chick, pick and choose what, uh. That's right. That's right. Our vice,
Shannon South: our nervous system. Sometimes just tell us different. You need this. You need that. Darn
Penny Fitzgerald: it.
That's right. I like that.
Oh, how fun.
Shannon South: I know, I know. I know.
Penny Fitzgerald: So, um, what other strategies do you use to stay present and to stay, um, healthy, to stay focused on, um, serving your people?
Shannon South: Oh, thank you. Well, when I was in my twenties, I had terrible anxiety attacks. Terrible. Like I was, you know, I would go to bed and I would have an anxiety [00:15:00] attack and wake up and I would have anxiety attacks throughout the day.
So I, I thought, well, I need to go get some help. You know, this is kind of a funny story and, um, I can't function like this, so I end up going to a psychiatrist and the guy's like, oh, you have PGSD, you have anxiety disorder, you have depression. I'm like, this sounds terrible. I got three diagnoses. So he puts me on this medication and I was grateful.
I'm young, you know, I needed Uhhuh, I needed it. But then the medication side effects just, I did not like them. They just kept feeling dry mouth and I just didn't, I didn't feel the joy, the natural joy that I really wanted in my life. I knew there were,
Penny Fitzgerald: you were kind of numbed.
Shannon South: Yes. I knew there had to be a natural way out of that.
Mm. And so I decided to go. Learn meditation. I'd done lots of therapy things and I went and did this tea to this lady and so I walk into her office and she goes, I want you to stare at this candle for 20 minutes and I'll be back.
Oh,
like you have got to be kidding me. I was not happy. I'm like, I'm paying you one.
I came all this [00:16:00] way, two, and you're telling me to stare at a stupid candle. I am not happy. So I went in there, but I stared at that daggone candle uhhuh,
Penny Fitzgerald: and
Shannon South: she came back and she said, how did it go? And I said, well. I don't know.
My
Penny Fitzgerald: eyes are burning.
Shannon South: Exactly. This is ridiculous. What is wrong with you lady?
She goes, don't worry. Get it at eye level. 'cause you know, to induce the relaxation response I found out later you need to have a straight spine, you know, have this candle at eye level and you need to have a focal point. 'cause that all helps the nervous system, you know, relax. Okay. So you know, that's why people say like centering prayer or you can say like a mantra or a prayer that repeats itself over and over
Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh.
Shannon South: God, God, God or love, love, love or joy, joy, joy. Or some people say a Bible verse. Some people say an affirmation, some people say a mantra. But anyway, so I'm, I'm sitting in front of this candle. So she said, do that in the morning, 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the evening, you're gonna feel a lot better.
And I'm like, this lady's nuts. So I leave the office, I go home. But you know what? I, I did it. I literally sat in front of that candle, 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the [00:17:00] evening. So one day you'll love the story. One day I was, um, I. Getting off my medicine, I was weaning myself off of it. And I'm not recommending this to people, by the way.
If there are medications, don't try this at all. But I was weaning myself off of it. 'cause you know, I'm in the field, I thought I could do it and you know, you know. But having all these anxiety symptoms, you know, the panic, the chest pain mm-hmm. All the things that come with that. And I'm looking at this candle and I scream out if there's anything out there, please help me.
I can't do this alone. I can't do it anymore.
Mm.
And literally when I said that there was like an a peaceful, loving. My body filled up with this peace and love.
Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. That's
Shannon South: the way I can describe it.
Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh,
Shannon South: I never had a panic attack again.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my goodness.
Shannon South: Can you believe that?
Penny Fitzgerald: I can.
Shannon South: I know. And I said, what the heck just happened?
But I didn't have to get on my medications anymore. Something was different. And I think what had happened, I looked, I did a lot of research later, and I went on and got my doctorate [00:18:00] in spiritual psychology. That's when I, okay. My focus, because I thought, I'm not learning about this stuff in counseling school.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: You know, so I went on and got my doctorate in. Spiritual psychology and I learned that what they call that in the psychology field is a peak experience. You know, we have those where things just kinda line up. Mm. You have this alignment. Things come together. Like, you know, you'll see a, your baby's born or like the sunset sometimes, or you'll like have this just huge aha or breakthrough, right?
Mm-hmm.
So I was like, I want to, you know, take my clients into this kind of reality where they can line up mind, body, and spirit. Instead of fighting themselves, like when we're in war with ourselves, it's miserable.
Mm. Mm-hmm.
And so that new alignment that I had been GI gracefully given. Mm-hmm. Carried me and I got hooked to meditation after that.
So you were asking me what do I do, right? Uhhuh, I meditate, I get aligned, and then I teach a process called the inner counselor, which was the closest thing that I [00:19:00] found to that to get people in that kind of alignment that I experienced where it takes them outta that Eddy we were talking about. Yeah.
And into new alignment, mind, body, spirit. And so I've been using that with clients and that's what I teach people is the inner counselor process because it is. Mind, body and spirit. It's not just the mind cognitive thoughts, it's not just the body somatic stuff. It's not just reiki, the energy, you know?
You know reikis great. Mm-hmm. I mean, Reikis actually, people that get reiki after surgery heal three times faster than those
Penny Fitzgerald: really
Shannon South: energy work. Yes.
Mm-hmm.
So there's something too, really integrating the mind, the body, and the spirit and your energy.
Mm-hmm.
You know, quantum physics tells us we're energetic beings and we have a spirit.
Right. So, right. There's something larger going on here. Right. And so when we can tap into that in healing, that's when we really get those lasting transformations and it's,
mm-hmm.
So cool. We never know where it's gonna go. Like I tell coaches and counselors or, or, you know. You know, [00:20:00] people that are working with other people.
If you're a control freak and you need to know where your session's going, don't learn the inner counselor. 'cause you don't know where it's gonna go. You really don't like you're going the client until you don't know where, but you know how to get 'em out of it.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. You have to follow your soul. You are a soul with a body, not a body with a soul.
Yeah,
Shannon South: exactly. You're just giving me chills.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. So
Shannon South: this soul is there to help us and it's the inner counselor.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. And it already knows what is ahead for you.
Shannon South: It does. And it knows
Penny Fitzgerald: how
Shannon South: to help you specifically.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: Specifically. That's what's so, I mean, it brings tears to my eyes almost. Mm-hmm.
Specifically brings people exactly what they need. It is crazy.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. I'd like to think of it too, as my older, wiser self.
Shannon South: Ooh, love that.
Penny Fitzgerald: You know, she knows what's ahead. She knows what I'm capable of. Yeah. She knows that. You know, okay, you're wasting time right now. Knock it off. Yeah. She gives me tough love.
Every now and then, she kinda
Shannon South: lets, you know, this [00:21:00] is a sabotaging thing. You're, yeah. You're stuck
Penny Fitzgerald: in that. Stop scrolling. Penny. You know better than this. Yeah,
Shannon South: we all do it. We all do it, but it's cool that we have that and it gives us chance after chance, after chance. That's what I love. We can ignore it all day long. You know, this loving, wiser self,
Penny Fitzgerald: right?
Shannon South: And when people don't have a spiritual belief system. The loving, wiser self is there. It doesn't matter. You don't have
Penny Fitzgerald: to.
Yeah. It doesn't matter if you believe in it, it's there. No,
Shannon South: it's there. There's a higher loving, wiser self, like you
Penny Fitzgerald: said. Well, think about it too. Like if you look back at yourself when you were, you know, 6, 7, 8 years old.
Shannon South: Yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: What would you want for that little girl? Nothing but peace and love and all good things.
Shannon South: All
Penny Fitzgerald: good things. It's the same thing. Your older, wiser self wants the very best for you.
Shannon South: That's right. So that's when you're in alignment, what you just said mm-hmm. Is because you're in pure love for your life.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: And that younger you, regardless of what you went through, the older you mm-hmm. You, you, [00:22:00] you've been more freed up from the shaming, the blaming.
The, you know, we're so hard on ourselves.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. We would never talk to our girlfriends the way that we talk to ourselves. I know.
Shannon South: It's so sad.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: And you know, even those of us who have studied this forever and do this work, it's still like, really? Are you gonna really hang yourself out there in that level?
Yeah. You know? Stop. Gentle.
Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly.
Shannon South: Gentle.
Penny Fitzgerald: Just say stop. You know, I mean, it's easier to recognize as we get older and wiser.
Shannon South: Oh yeah. Isn't it true? That is, that's there's a joy in menopause right there.
Penny Fitzgerald: That's, you're right. There
Shannon South: are some good things. Don't, you know, we don't have as many years, so we're like, enough of that.
No criticism, joy your life. Be yourself fully, be free. Heal those things that are unhealed and just get on with it.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, give yourself some grace for those stupid mis mistakes that you might have made. Or they, you know, they felt like a dumb decision. Those dumb decisions that you made along the way.
'cause everybody does.
Shannon South: We all do. Oh my gosh. Sometimes I'm thinking, you know, I look back and I'm like, what a train wreck sometimes, you [00:23:00] know? And I'm like. What a wonderful thing, you know, that I made out of that train wreck.
Penny Fitzgerald: Hot mess express, woo
Shannon South: woo.
You know, the train wrecks come to teach us, right? They really do. Yeah. And as much as we don't, you know, like another lesson, are you kidding me? It doesn't have to be like that. If it's not done through the mind, if it's done through the heart.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, it
Shannon South: doesn't feel like a labor intensive, does that,
Penny Fitzgerald: you know, I used to think too, and I, and a lot of friends, mostly male friends would say, you think too much with your heart, or you lead too much with your heart.
You need to lead with your head. You need to be thinking about things. I'm like, you know, and now the older that I am, I'm like, no, no, no, no. Our heart is
Shannon South: a great transformer.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah.
Shannon South: It's the thing.
Penny Fitzgerald: That's why we lead better as women.
Shannon South: Oh, totally. Do you remember Joseph Campbell's quote? He used to say Longest journeys from the head to the heart.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. So true
Shannon South: that that's the journey to, um, what's his whole thing [00:24:00] about journey to awakening to yourself.
Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm.
Shannon South: Uh, journey into your authentic nature. Right. Um,
Penny Fitzgerald: wow. I haven't heard of that.
Shannon South: Yeah. The longest journey is from your head to your heart. And men especially have a hard time with that.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah.
Because
Shannon South: they
Penny Fitzgerald: don't
Shannon South: want to feel,
Penny Fitzgerald: everything's gotta be logical. Right. The feeling. Yeah.
Shannon South: They have to buy a feel of feeling, you know?
Penny Fitzgerald: Well, and it's also an intuition, right? It's like a knowing that, okay, this isn't right.
Shannon South: That's exactly it. You know, you have your mind, you have your fear, and you have your knowing.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: So when we get in a little tangle, you know, what does your mind say?
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, what does
Shannon South: fear say? But what does your knowing say? It's totally different.
Penny Fitzgerald: Right. You cannot live in fear. You cannot make decisions out of fear. Mm-hmm. You fear, if anything run like the fear is. Well, when you're afraid to try something because it feels uncomfortable, that is a knowing fear.
That's a fear that, okay, I know that that's making me uncomfortable, but that's exactly what I need to do.
Shannon South: Love that [00:25:00] brave courage.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: Courage to face the fear and do it anyway. Yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: Right.
Shannon South: Carolyn May, one of my teachers, Dr. Carolyn Mac, used to say, uh, if you fear something, you probably need to do it.
Penny Fitzgerald: Right.
Shannon South: I
Penny Fitzgerald: agree with
Shannon South: that. I'm not about walking in front of a car, that kind of fear. No, no,
Penny Fitzgerald: no.
Shannon South: Talking about that, but talking about a dream or a goal that keeps nudging you.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: It's something that you wanna really do, but you're just scared. Then there is a, there's something in it for you.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the, the decisions out of fear.
Um. Like the, the masculine out of fear, I feel. Yes. Like this isn't good for, I'm drawing a blank here on what I'm trying, how I'm trying to analyze this. Yeah. Huh. Sure. A, a fear of, well, I can't do that because that would not be what my parents would want me to do. Oh,
Shannon South: the conditioning.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes,
Shannon South: yes. They get stuck in that conditioning.
There's the eddy. They're in that condition, right? They're stuck in the eddy and this conditioning.
Penny Fitzgerald: I'm trying to [00:26:00] please someone else.
Shannon South: Too many rules and roles. Mm-hmm. You get in, if you get lost in rules and roles, you're not authentic. Mm-hmm. It's with a box, not a circle, you know? Let's cut the corners off.
Let's get into the circle.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Yeah.
Shannon South: It's like flexibility. The self-actualized person, according to Abraham Maslow is more flexible. They're more flowing. Mm. There's that flexibility because that is where we are in the present moment.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: This feels more. Accurate for me. Right. Versus this, I sense this is a better decision than that when we can get above the chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh.
Shannon South: Yeah. You know, like I was trying to make a decision around going to see this certain doctor and I couldn't get, I couldn't get clear about it. I was just on and on and on with like, I could do this, I could do this, I could do this, this. Oh wow. You know, I just was really in a loop about it and I was think, think, think, think thinking.
And then one day I just got off of a call from a bunch of my girlfriends. We have a business mastermind and I was in a really good place and, and I just did the work that I do with clients on myself. I [00:27:00] said, what does your energy say? What does your energy, does it feel like if you cancel that and move it to January, that's going?
And I just feel this relief.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm.
Shannon South: And I was like, there's the answer. I felt free. I felt relieved, you know, and I moved the, the knowing for January and I thought, yay, for listening to your energy. Energy doesn't lie.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm.
Shannon South: Right. You know, it gives you a sense of, oh, this feels uplifting or relief. Mm-hmm. Or better, whatever.
But it's a full sensory experience. You know, Helen Keller talked about that when she was blind and mutant and all the things.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: Your sixth sense. That's what it is. Mm-hmm. It's a beautiful thing we have, and when we integrate the heart and the head, that's, that's what we get.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: Instead of staying in the logic,
Penny Fitzgerald: instead of staying in the head.
Yeah,
Shannon South: logic's fine love and logic's great, but
Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.
Shannon South: How to integrate the love and the logic.
Penny Fitzgerald: Right.
Shannon South: It wasn't gonna hurt me if logically, to wait on that appointment, but what did my, what did I need most when my energy told me? Oh, I [00:28:00] felt so relieved when I reschedule thing. I mean, that's just a small decision compared to the bigger decisions we need to make sometimes.
But when we're in a loop mentally analyzing it, sometimes we're not able to feel what we really need.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: So you can even ask yourself that question. You know, your listeners can do that. Mm-hmm. What is your, what does your mind say about this?
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: And you can listen in. I do this with, uh, counselors and coaches all the time on webinars.
And then the mind will say something like, chatter chatter, chatter, chatter.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: Does your fear say, you know, we can do it right now. You want me do it with you?
Sure.
Yeah. Let's do it. And your listeners can come through it with you if you want.
Penny Fitzgerald: Okay.
Shannon South: But think about something that's kind of just, you know.
Annoying or irritating or bothering you or something that you're unsure about or maybe you're trying to, um, something that gets you reactive, like you feel more reactive as sort of responding from your best self. Hmm.
Penny Fitzgerald: That's interesting, Shannon. I am. Wracking my brain. I'm so happy right now. Look
Shannon South: at you.
That's [00:29:00] great.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, I'm in. I'm in a lot of joy right now. Um, that's
Shannon South: wonderful. Maybe think of a past thing then, and we'll just do the exercise from that. Okay. Because it sounds like you're in a really good place right now.
Penny Fitzgerald: I, yeah, I really, I mean to
Shannon South: bother you then.
Penny Fitzgerald: What used to bother me. Hmm. Oh, there, she's
Shannon South: Coco.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Um, oh, I can tell. I maybe something like, uh, I feel, um, frustrated by, um. Uh, you know, being in menopause, things change.
Shannon South: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: And I have gained weight.
Shannon South: Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: I feel, um, not as strong
Shannon South: Yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: As I was. So I, I know I need to work on that. I know I need to do more things and I'm, you know, I'm starting to be more active and,
Shannon South: yeah.
So the frustration around menopause, like feeling not as strong and mm-hmm. Not as, um, knowing you need to do all these things, right?
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah.
Shannon South: So what would your mind say about your frustration? Just take a moment.
Penny Fitzgerald: [00:30:00] Um, my mind would say, well, just get up earlier.
Shannon South: Yeah. Yeah. Do more.
Penny Fitzgerald: Do more.
Shannon South: Mm-hmm.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: Yep. So what would your fear say about that frustration?
Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm. My fear would say. You are losing your ability to do the things that you wanna do. Time is ticking.
Shannon South: Mm. Mm-hmm. That fear voice. Ooh, yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: And so that feels yucky. That doesn't feel,
Penny Fitzgerald: yeah.
Shannon South: Just like to your inner self, you know?
Penny Fitzgerald: But I know it's not true.
Shannon South: Good. So there's your knowing already. You're already there. Yeah. So what would your knowing say about this frustration? What would your
Penny Fitzgerald: knowing? My knowing, my knowing says, give yourself grace.
Shannon South: Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: My knowing says. schedule your appointments a little later in the day.
Shannon South: Love it.
Penny Fitzgerald: My knowing says, walk in the morning, do your meditation in the morning.
Shannon South: Yeah,
Penny Fitzgerald: do set your day up for success.
Shannon South: Love it. That's, look how clear you are. Look how clear you are. So that knowing [00:31:00] voice is the one we wanna listen to.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: Because the other two are just not gonna take us into that expanded, authentic, stronger place. Right,
Penny Fitzgerald: right.
Shannon South: That higher nature has qualities and the qualities of that higher nature are unconditional love, like you just said to yourself, give yourself some grace.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: They are peace. Does that give you peace? More peace? Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah.
Shannon South: Yes,
Penny Fitzgerald: for sure. Yeah. 'cause you go, I, I mean, as women, I think this is kind of typical that we put everybody else first or we, we tend to allow others to dictate maybe what happens in our schedule or, you know, this works better for them.
So that's when I'll schedule it. Um, but you know, no, no, no. Um, I need this extra hour in the morning for, yeah. In order, in order to be a better human, to be a better a servant, to be able to serve my people better, I need to take care of myself.
Shannon South: Your alignment matters.
Penny Fitzgerald: Right.
Shannon South: Alignment matters, and you coming from that [00:32:00] knowing versus being reactive through your day.
Mm-hmm. 'cause I'm, I'm sure you, like me, have gotten up and not had mornings where you've taken as good care of yourself and then you go through the day just feeling reactive. Like you're,
Penny Fitzgerald: you catch up all the whole day, you're catching up
Shannon South: all day. Feels like a cog on a wheel or like a mouth on a circle.
Right,
Penny Fitzgerald: right.
Shannon South: When you set yourself up like you just described, you're knowing, just told you exactly how to do that. Walking, getting quiet, having that time. You are set for your day in a way that's so powerful and it, and it ripples a new experience out into the world.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: Um, so way to go. What's good for you?
Good for them. Don't you love it? What's good of course's? Good for them. Yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Yes. That and, you know, we can't take, yeah. And every day can't be perfect. Can't be. I'm starting out every day this way. But, but you know, if you have a good balance of that, a good amount of. You know, getting yourself health healthy, getting yourself right.
Shannon South: Yep.
Penny Fitzgerald: That
Shannon South: helps. I like to, I wanna do everything in the morning and I can't [00:33:00] because this takes too long because you gotta work and do other things. But you know, I try to rotate, you know, so one morning I'll do yoga and one morning I'll sit and meditate. Nice. One morning I'll walk and have 10 minutes of quiet or whatever, you know.
So I just try to do at least 30 minutes to an hour, something like that. Right,
Penny Fitzgerald: right.
Shannon South: To really set myself up for success, like you said, and it just makes such a huge difference.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and you've gotta know your own body and your own soul too. Yes. I feel one of my girlfriends, um, we were talking about meditation the other day and she said, oh, I always do that at night because then she's able to sleep.
She sleeps more soundly. She has beautiful dreams. She's really setting herself up to sleep well.
Shannon South: Yeah. So
Penny Fitzgerald: for
Shannon South: hers,
Penny Fitzgerald: so gotta
Shannon South: find what works. Yeah,
Penny Fitzgerald: exactly. Find what it
Shannon South: works. It's a thing to, um, set your subconscious up like that before you go into Dream
Penny Fitzgerald: Street. Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: In a relaxed place. That's beautiful.
Um, one of the things we used to talk about in the, in the addiction treatment field is when we're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, we get off.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah,
Shannon South: right. [00:34:00] Halt.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: So yeah, those are things we just track during the day and help our nervous system, you know, to feed us ourselves, to navigate anger and. Move into more grace, right?
Or mm-hmm. Navigate that push energy. Um, make it more a playful,
Penny Fitzgerald: right. Right. That
Shannon South: playful pace. Right. As opposed to the push.
Penny Fitzgerald: Right.
Shannon South: Lonely. We need people, we need each
Penny Fitzgerald: other. Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: We need,
Penny Fitzgerald: we, we get goal oriented too. I feel like. Um. Back in the day, you know, when I was running, um, my business with a team and we had, would have goals to go for.
Mm-hmm.
Penny Fitzgerald: And you want those things so badly, you know, you're working so hard to, to get
Shannon South: Oh yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: You know, to do all the tasks that you need to do and Totally. It's great and it's exciting, but if you're pushing, it's like pushing a rope up a hill.
Shannon South: Oh wow. Right.
Penny Fitzgerald: You know, where you, if you come from, at it from an energy of.
This is beautiful. This is how I'm serving my people. This is, I'm attracting the right people to me. I'm attracting and, and serving those [00:35:00] people in a way that serves them and their, you know, it's this, this beautiful momentum where people are just jumping on your train and here we go. Let's go down the track together.
Let's do this thing together and celebrate at the end. You know,
Shannon South: you hear what you're saying is so beautiful. You're just wrapping up kind of some of the themes we've been talking about, serving from the heart mm-hmm. And the head, right. And collaborating.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: Like you're saying that you're just really in a relational field, uh, and it just makes everything so different.
The push energy is just very, you know, single focused. It's very mm-hmm. Fed focused.
Penny Fitzgerald: It's very masculine.
Shannon South: Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: It's not a pie. We keep saying this, it's not, we
Shannon South: need the pie, not the square. Exactly.
Penny Fitzgerald: Well, no, it's not a pie. I mean, like the, like if you're go, everybody has this one pie that everybody's going for the same pie, or you gotta get your piece
Shannon South: right.
Yeah. Do you remember that old book, um, about the little caterpillars crawling over each other, trying to get to the top?
Penny Fitzgerald: Huh.
Shannon South: Oh my gosh. What was that called? Hope for the [00:36:00] Caterpillars or something like that. It's a chalk book. I know. But it was about people trying cute to get to the top and just stepping all over each other.
It wasn't, it actually kind of that whole push energy. Right. It just mem um, hope for the flowers. I think that was it.
Penny Fitzgerald: Okay.
Shannon South: Anyway, great little kids book about the competitive versus the cooperative. Mm.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: And the difference in that, the energy of that and how of course a little healthy competition is, is fine, you know?
Sure. You know, we successful people do that. But really having a cooperative spirit as you're saying. Yeah. To the show through the day. What a different experience. How exciting.
Penny Fitzgerald: Come together and
Shannon South: yes,
Penny Fitzgerald: bake another pie. So easy we, we can solve that problem, right?
Shannon South: It's a win-win for us and them, which is so nice because the other gets so isolating and just so territorial and very set.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, it's, yeah, very isolating. Yeah. That's nails it.
Shannon South: Yeah. We've all done it. We've all been in our,
Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. Well that's the way we're trained. It's the way [00:37:00] we're conditioned.
Shannon South: I know, I know, I know. And, and sometimes it can be tough to work in teams, you know, so it's like, oh, forget all that. I'll just do it myself.
And that's,
Penny Fitzgerald: yeah.
Shannon South: And that's, um, unfortunate because,
Penny Fitzgerald: well,
Shannon South: it happens.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and sometimes it's okay to work alone.
Shannon South: Oh, of course.
Penny Fitzgerald: You know, especially in, in court, in a corporate setting, it's. Difficult, you know, to be achieving those goals or achieving objectives of the company.
Shannon South: Yes,
Penny Fitzgerald: it's set up to be a masculine system, but it's very difficult, I feel for, for women who want more, who want to serve more, who want to collaborate.
Shannon South: Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: Unless women are leading the company. And then let's do this.
Shannon South: Yeah. More collaborative.
Penny Fitzgerald: Let's do it. Yeah.
Shannon South: Thinking about um, being alone and when you're alone working, how you always have your creative muse there with you, you know, you have this creative higher self. Mm-hmm. 'cause another quality of your higher loving self is [00:38:00] creativity.
Mm-hmm. So really are not alone. Even if you're working by yourself, you know? 'cause you're, um, if you have the joy of being able to tap into your creativity in a position, you know that you're in.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What
a wonderful thing. 'cause then you're in this, um, co-creative dialogue. You know, which is so fun.
Mm-hmm.
So fun. You have a good idea and you get to explore it and you have another idea and you explore that and then it's just really, really great to, um, to have that, um, there for you.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. We don't play enough as adults.
Shannon South: That's right. That's right. It works for us as kids.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. Anything could be a toy.
You know, A pencil can be a rocket ship.
Shannon South: Well, I know you love to play and, uh, they used to call me the Joy Doc 'cause I, they, they would hear all this laughing in my office. 'cause you know, with my clients and I, we have a great time, but, and we do laugh, but it can be very painful. But we gotta have all the emotions, you know.
[00:39:00] Yeah.
Penny Fitzgerald: Well, it has to be fun or I'm not doing it.
Shannon South: There's another motto for our menopausal years.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Right, right. It's gotta be fun.
Shannon South: Bring the fun and you know, like we were saying, when we do these healthier things mm-hmm. It helps us. Um, it just naturally brings more fun collaboration.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: You know, being out, you take the self-care stuff, um, just flowing.
Being more flexible.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: All things
Penny Fitzgerald: celebrating each other's wins.
Shannon South: Yes, yes. Yes. Uhhuh true.
Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. What haven't I asked you that you wanna share?
Shannon South: Oh goodness. I think we've covered so much.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: Um, I think I just wanna share the pure joy. I just, I just want people to know that they don't ever have to feel stuck in something.
You know? I think that's the number one thing is 'cause that's some of the, you know, people have tried this, they've tried that, they've tried this, they've tried that, but they don't have to be stuck. And then that's the good news is there are [00:40:00] multidimensional, proactive ways to get us unstuck. Mm-hmm. And that next chapter for our lives.
So whatever listeners may be feeling stuck in or they, people that they work with, they can't, like, you know, I was talking to my accountability buddy yesterday and she was like, I just got this lady. She's. Die burn. I'm like, have you done the inner council process with her yet? She said, no, I can't even get her to do it.
You know, so she's like, oh, up in her. Uh, you know, and I said, well, you know, so I was kind of coaching her, um, on some ways to help her get that client into that deeper place,
Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh,
Shannon South: because all these armoring that she's using and all these protective things, you know, we, um, are have just been there to help her forever.
This lady, and she wants to drop 'em. She's exhausted with them. You know, she's fighting with her kids and oh, she wants to drop these things, but she has to know that it's safe and that there's another way.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: It's so that's what I love about, you know, transformational work that works is that
Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.
Shannon South: You, [00:41:00] you drop that, but you don't just drop it and have an empty vessel, you drop it and you have a new way that
Penny Fitzgerald: you
Shannon South: know where you're going.
And so you don't just, you're not just left with a void of like, ah, you know, I'm, I used to go to counseling years ago, and then you leave and you're like, what just happened there? But you know, it's nice to leave with a resource so then you Right. Feeling more, more full than when you came.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: And more capable or more peaceful or whatever you're going for.
More abundant or more enough, you know, with as women struggle.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: With feeling enough.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Shannon South: And so to be able to feel enough
Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.
Shannon South: And like what I do is enough, it makes a difference. It makes a ripple. It, you know, things I touch make a big difference in the world.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: Um, it's huge.
Penny Fitzgerald: Just feeling that little bit of safety, just feeling safe to take, to dip that one toe into the water.
Yes. Into that, outside of that comfort zone. Just one little itty bitty toe.
Shannon South: Exactly. Exactly.
Penny Fitzgerald: You know, and that builds your confidence. Yes,
Shannon South: exactly.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. A
Shannon South: little [00:42:00] crack. 'cause what's that? Crack is where the light gets in. Right?
Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh
Shannon South: like we have that little crack and of feeling safe. Oh, maybe this is possible.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly.
Shannon South: And wow that it
Penny Fitzgerald: builds
Shannon South: whole other, you know Dan Siegel, I love him. He's a, a neuropsychologist. Yeah. He talks about the plane of possibility.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh nice.
Shannon South: And I love that 'cause it's like how do we move from where things have not been possible at all to the possibility.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: And that's, I just want your listeners to know that it's always there.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: They can get there. That's
Penny Fitzgerald: beautiful.
Shannon South: Their knower knows how to get them there.
Penny Fitzgerald: Right, right.
Shannon South: Yeah, exactly. And you know, I have an ebook. I don't know if I've shared that with you. I have an ebook if they wanna read more on this called That's
Penny Fitzgerald: great. How
Shannon South: inner counselor.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: Um, and they can get that for free if they wanna read more about the ways that we stay stuck.
Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh,
Shannon South: um, it's called Inner Counselor, the three, I think it's like the three things that. Stop these breakthroughs [00:43:00] for us.
Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. I will, yeah, I'll include the link in my show notes. Oh, great. But you super do you, do you know it off the top of your head in case people are listening and don't have a pen handy that they can find it?
Shannon South: It's the the inner counselor.com.
Penny Fitzgerald: The inner counselor.com. Okay.
Shannon South: Yep. And then I have another website for people for anxiety. They have a lot of anxiety. Uhhuh a free gift on there, um, Dr. Shannon south.com. Um, that how to help people break the cycle of anxiety. Since that's been one of my personal stories, um, and getting beyond that fear and,
Penny Fitzgerald: yeah.
Wow.
Shannon South: If they wanna go get that free gift, they're welcome to.
Penny Fitzgerald: That's beautiful work, Shannon. That's awesome.
Shannon South: Thank you. Well, I think if you've lived in this life long enough, you've had places where you've just been scared to death and stuck
Penny Fitzgerald: in, everybody's got something right?
Shannon South: It's just part of the gig.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah.
Shannon South: So we're helping
Penny Fitzgerald: each other.
Shannon South: We all help
Penny Fitzgerald: each other. Yeah. Okay. Can I shift gears on you?
Shannon South: Mm-hmm.
Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. So go for it. At the end of ev, every episode, I love to bring it around to what's your favorite cocktail or glass of [00:44:00] wine, or it can be a mocktail, it doesn't have to be alcohol. Love that. Love that.
So, yeah, what's, so do you have a favorite, favorite beverage?
Shannon South: I like vodka. If I'm gonna drink a beverage.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah,
Shannon South: I want something with vodka. Um. I do like a chocolate martini.
Oh yes. Yes, me too. Taste
are tasty. I don't have 'em that often, but they are such a treat. When I uhhuh and then we traveled to Italy and Greece a few years ago.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah,
Shannon South: I really like a good Italian wine. Red wine.
Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.
Shannon South: Yes, girl. It is tasty. Just a good one. Those other ones, you know, with the sulfites, give me all the headaches, but,
Penny Fitzgerald: oh,
Shannon South: really good wine. Woo. Yeah. So good.
Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. That's very, that's so cool. You know, can I share something with you about sulfites
Shannon South: please.
Penny Fitzgerald: So they are a naturally occurring chemical uhhuh, um, that occur in the fermentation process.
Shannon South: Okay.
Penny Fitzgerald: And so anything fermented has. [00:45:00] Sulfites in it.
Shannon South: Oh, wow.
Penny Fitzgerald: And our labeling laws in the United States require us to put that there are sulfites in the, in the wine.
Shannon South: Okay.
Penny Fitzgerald: Um, so there are no less of them in European wines than there are in American wine. Really. Wine. Yep. Yep. It just, part of that is, um. Well, it's the labeling, but it's also that okay, you're on vacation
Shannon South: and, and that's why we don't get a headache.
Penny Fitzgerald: It's, it's a little, it's it's a little bit more relaxed, a little bit more. Oh, yes. But yeah, if you, if you are bothered by those or if they're a little bit much for you, um, drink a little bit more water with. With wine when you're drinking wine. Oh, sure. Because part of that is dehydration too. Um,
Shannon South: yeah, good point.
Good point.
Penny Fitzgerald: So yeah,
Shannon South: good tips. Thank you for that. I didn't know
Penny Fitzgerald: that. You're welcome. So, yeah, like for
Shannon South: me
Penny Fitzgerald: for sure. And any, anything, um, like even dehydrated fruit. So if you love, um, you know, dried apricots like I do, or [00:46:00] um, any dried fruit, they have a lot of sulfites as well.
Shannon South: Oh wow. I did not know that.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: Okay.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And it's, um. Yeah, I'm, it's just a naturally occurring thing, but, um, the, it's also used in the cleaning process in the wineries, so some, you know, like the, the more mass produced
Shannon South: mm-hmm.
Penny Fitzgerald: Wines that you encounter mm-hmm. The, the ones that you see everywhere.
Shannon South: Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: You know, they have to be so, so careful and they are.
Um, with cleaning the equipment and all that, all that, but a lot of those things that are used to clean the equipment, um, some people are more sensitive to than others. Okay.
Shannon South: Okay. Well, good to know.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, I
Shannon South: know there's certain wines that I just don't agree with and others I do, you know?
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Shannon South: To see,
Penny Fitzgerald: find the ones you love and that don't bother you and mm-hmm.
Shannon South: Exactly. Like a Tempranillo is so good.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Very good. Very good. So good with, um, tapas. Of course.
Shannon South: Exactly. Lovely. I need to go on one of your wine tours [00:47:00] sometimes. That would be so.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, I would love that. It'd be fun. So what's a, what's a fun memory shared with girlfriends or family or friends over a class of, of wine?
Shannon South: Well, now that I'm on Greece in Italy, it's, it's got to be traveling through Greece and Italy. We had a blast. And my daughter was old enough to join us and, uh, to partake in the festivities.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, nice.
Shannon South: We just had a blast going through Greece in Italy and enjoying the wines and the food, and it was just, it felt like you could eat pasta every night and not gain a pound, you know?
Yeah. It just
Penny Fitzgerald: felt
Shannon South: like
Penny Fitzgerald: you were Exactly.
Shannon South: Really just living the good life. Exactly. And not worrying about the things we do here. Um
Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.
Shannon South: And it just felt so much fun. And of course, the seafood and Greece. Mm-hmm. All the good wine here. The, I mean, just fun.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, just
Shannon South: good, good eating and drinking and enjoying landscape and views and
Penny Fitzgerald: with friends
Shannon South: you're walking all day long and
Penny Fitzgerald: yeah,
Shannon South: it was just great.
Yeah,
Penny Fitzgerald: it just felt good, didn't it?
Shannon South: [00:48:00] Felt so good. Felt so good.
Penny Fitzgerald: I love that.
Shannon South: Thanks.
Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh, Shannon, this has been so fun. Oh, so great to see you again.
Shannon South: I was so excited to come on. 'cause I'm just connected with you so strongly. Yes.
Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, we we're,
Shannon South: I love what you're doing. I love your bringing joy to people and um, I love that we have a similar mission in bringing Yes,
Penny Fitzgerald: absolutely.
Shannon South: Empowering people into their best lives and
Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.
Shannon South: And a treat to be with you.
Penny Fitzgerald: You too. Thank you so, so much.
Shannon South: Alright, take care. You
Penny Fitzgerald: too. Bye.
[00:49:00]