This one's for everyone who's ever felt like they had to choose between being authentic and being professional.

Jean Evans is a Networking Architect, but this conversation isn't about collecting business cards or LinkedIn strategies. It's about something much more essential: how authentic connection becomes life resourcing, especially for women rebuilding their worlds.

After being made redundant while breastfeeding one child with two toddlers around her feet, Jean discovered that learning to network wasn't just about business—it was about discovering who she was as a human being.

We dive deep into the wounds that keep us isolated—the fear of being seen as needy, the toxic self-reliance, imposter syndrome, perfectionism.

This conversation challenges everything we think we know about networking, success and the dangerous myth that we can, or should, do it all alone.

Key Themes:

• Networking as a learnable skill
• Vulnerability as permission
• Transactional networking or life resourcing?
• What's costing you connections & opportunities
• The mentality that leads to burnout, everytime
• The courage equation
• Your TRUE credentials

If this episode reminded you that none of us are supposed to do life alone, we'd love if you'd share it with someone who needs to hear that message.

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Connect with Jean:

Websites

Ignite Business Network

Jean's Newsletter, + free Top 20 Tips to Rock Your Week.

Jean's Networking Blog

Podcasts

Ignite Talks

NetworkMe

Socials

Linkedin

Instagram

Facebook

X.com

YouTube

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Subscribe to Amanda's ⁠ ⁠SUBSTACK for companion articles, tools & resources.

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Music Credit:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Holes⁠⁠⁠⁠ By Bradley James Grace.

Amanda met Michelle at a professional speaking event, where she stood before a room & declared: "Every single person has something to offer. Everybody has value." Then she challenged everyone to prove it, right there, in real time.

In this conversation, Amanda unpacks with her, the inner panic that quickly ensued.

Michelle, aka THE PEOPLE READER, is an expert in human behaviour, president of the Professional Speaking Association and a woman who, on Dec 26th 2004, was caught in one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

But what she witnessed in the aftermath wasn't devastation, it was revelation and it led to her life's work.

Tune in to hear:

• Why self-reliance doesn’t work & what the alternative is

• What happened when Amanda's ego "threw a tantrum" & quit on her recovery.

• Michelle's take on the key to our collective evolution.

• The results of Amanda's driving forces analysis (a tool developed by Michelle) & a powerful challenge to us all.

  
  

  Connect with Michelle:

  LINKEDIN

  FACEBOOK

  WEBSITE

  THE PEOPLE READER

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  Subscribe to Amanda's SUBSTACK for companion articles, tools & resources.

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  Music Credit:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Holes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ By Bradley James Grace.

What happens when you stop being a "square peg trying to fit in a round hole"?

Interior architect Stephanie O'Sullivan spent over a decade in corporate creative roles, masking her neuro-divergent nature and slowly having "anything good about it sucked away."

Then came the breakthrough that changed everything and led to a complete reimagining of what it means to be creative, authentic and unapologetically yourself.

This Conversation Is Essential Because:

It's about reclaiming your creative intelligence in a world that profits from your conformity.

It shows how breakdown can become breakthrough when you stop fighting who you are.

It proves that your "difficult" nature might be exactly what the world needs.

And because sometimes the most radical act is simply being unapologetically yourself.

Stephanie's Links:

SOSCOUT

INSTAGRAM

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Subscribe to Amanda's⁠ ⁠SUBSTACK for companion article, tools & resources.

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Music Credit:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Holes⁠⁠⁠⁠ By Bradley James Grace.