Sisters Pursuing Their Passions & Bringing Light to Women’s Equality w/ Amy & Nancy Harrington -14

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Shawna Rodrigues 0:04

Conversations on passion and purpose are some of our favorites. Today, we get to hear the story of two sisters who reach beyond their successful careers in the entertainment industry. One, at Warner Brothers, working on movies like The Matrix and Harry Potter, and one, doing ads for the Academy Awards at Miramax. To work together and follow finding purpose to a whole different level and putting passion through into their title.

Shawna Rodrigues 0:35

Welcome to The Grit Show. I'm so glad you found us. I'm Shawna Rodrigues, and I'm honored to be leading you on today's journey as part of this community, growing together as seekers and thrivers.

Shawna Rodrigues 0:48

Now, for a little more information on today's guests. I put several twists and turns. Amy and Nancy Harrington became celebrity interviewers as the Pop Culture Passionistas. Ultimately, they decided to launch, The Passionistas Project. This involves quite a few different pieces, all of which you will hear more about today. The most pressing piece is one which involves their third annual Power of Passionistas Women's Equality Summit, a Passionistas Persist Award Ceremony, which you'll be drawn to know is this week. Seriously, this week, there's still time for you to be part of this. When we recorded, they were in the height of planning, and now it is upon us. So, settle in to learn more about these amazing women, their wonderful work, and how you can be part of this amazing summit, as well as some other great things they're doing. I'm excited for you to get to know them a little better. Welcome, Nancy and Amy.

Nancy Harrington 1:47

Thank you so much for having us.

Shawna Rodrigues 1:49

Yes, I'm glad you guys were able to make it. I would love to hear the story, because you were both sisters, about how you guys managed to come together and decide to make this transition to do business together. Was that a hard transition or a simple one?

Nancy Harrington 2:03

It was organic and easy in some respects. Amy and I both, as you said in the intro had careers in the entertainment industry. But mine was a very short career. I, prior to that had my own graphic design business and my own theater. I've always been a solopreneur. But Amy was really entrenched in the studio system. So, I think the transition was probably a little harder for her than me because I was used to being on my own and having my own business. But you know, we like to say we just grabbed hands, Thelma and Louise style and dove off the cliff and did it. And you know, it was easier for us because we were able to do it together.

Shawna Rodrigues 2:44

It's good to have a partner in crime when you're making big transitions.

Nancy Harrington 2:47

Yeah, yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues 2:48

Yes. So whose idea was it? Was it, what have you came up with this idea about this project first?

Amy Harrington 2:55

Well, there was a long, a long road between leaving our careers and starting the Pop Culture Passionistas. We both decided at the same time, we needed to do something different than what we were doing. And again, because Nancy had that, you know, entrepreneurial spirit, she was like, Come on, let's just go off and we'll, we'll do something. And she had a friend who had a project that we were working on for free on the side. And that really helped us jump off the, off the ledge. But after that, we kind of bounced around for a while. And we had all these different jobs together. But we weren't sure exactly what our next real move was. And we ended up at a company that was, it was a website and it was all retro pop culture content, which we were born to be a part of that. So we, we wrote almost all of the content, pretty much everything except the music content, we wrote and we produced videos for them. And we started like very germ of the experience of doing interviews. Our first celebrity interview was on the set of a TV show, we got to interview David Cassidy, Sean Cassidy, Ryan Cassidy, and the other brother, Patrick. And, and we interviewed them on the set for this company we're working for, and we're like, that's fun. And when that company folded, the first person we reached out to work with the TV Academy, our friend, Jenny, and she was like, Oh, come and do a red carpet interview for us. And we were like, we don't know how to do that. She was like, it'd be fine. Just to point the camera. I'll show you how to turn it on. So we did it. And then the next day, she was like, okay, so come in and edit it. We were like, we don't know how to edit. She was like, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. So we learned how to edit with the manual. People would leave the room and we'd like lock the door and look at the manual. And so we started to these celebrity interviews that led to us doing these longer archival interviews through the Television Academy which are like three or four hour long interviews with celebrities and people behind the scenes, and for two totally introverted girls from Braintree, Massachusetts, we learned like, we love interviewing people like, and we're good at it. And luckily, we found this passion at the same time. So when it came time, where we decided to do The Passionistas Project, which we decided, like, let's focus specifically on women's stories, we were, we had all these skills behind this from both of our individual careers in this collective experience. And so it was kind of an easy transition at that point to focus on The Passionistas Project more.

Shawna Rodrigues 5:44

I love that. I also love that you mentioned Braintree. I lived in Boston for a time. And for anyone who's been on the red line,

Amy Harrington 5:50

used to be the end of the red line. Yeah. That's funny.

Shawna Rodrigues 5:55

Yeah. So how did you both end up in LA together from the other side of the country?

Nancy Harrington 6:01

Yeah, Amy moved out first, she moved out right after college, she lived here for 10 years by herself. And every time she came home to visit, she would be like, You guys really should move out, you guys really should move out. And finally, after 10 years of asking, it was the right time, in the right place. And my husband and I decided we were going to pick up and move. And we did. And at that point, we really didn't know what we were going to do. My husband's a musician and a composer. So he wanted to be in the industry. And I was ready for a change from my graphic design business. So, we came up, and I started working in that advertising agency. And Amy and I were together for the first time in 10 years. And it was only a matter of a few years before we started working together again. Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues 6:47

I love that. I love it. And it keeps like, you guys keep coming back together.

Nancy Harrington 6:51

Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues 6:51

So then tell me how you guys have gone from these separate careers to kind of coming together this great little adventure. And then how that blossomed into this project. With all these great different levels. It's all kind of interconnected with the focus of women and women's stories. But how did that grow into the podcast, the packages you guys send out as your business and this is wonderful summit that you guys are having.

Amy Harrington 7:15

And the election happened in: 2016

Shawna Rodrigues: 10:36

that's so exciting. I love the action item element, is that something that was from the very start?

Amy Harrington: 10:40

Yeah, we always wanted it to be, you know, we've gone through a lot of stuff where it's like, I'm so fired up, this is so great. And then you leave and you forget about it. And, you know, when we say action items, it's not like, Okay, here's your 40 page course booklet on what you need to do over the next year. It's as simple as like, we did a night of stand up comedy, with all comedians with disabilities, and one of the women said, you know, if you, even if you don't have a disability, but you go to a restaurant, and their bathroom is not accessible to everybody, say something, you know. So it's, it's the little things that we may not think about, because that's not our experience that we're living. But now, Nancy, and I think about that all the time, and we hear from other women who attended that event, like I say something every time I'm in that situation. And so it can be the little day to day things that really make a difference. That's really what we're focusing on.

Shawna Rodrigues: 11:38

That's incredible. I love that. You just mentioned that a lot of people come back and say, like, they've used that and apply that. Are there other things from your summit, that people have come back and reported back that they've been able to implement, because they've attended, and been part of that?

Nancy Harrington: 11:51

I think, I think that a lot of the women are just experiencing, you know, hearing stories about a woman's life experience that they never thought of before, you know, as a, as a privileged white woman, I don't really know what it's like to, to be a black woman or to be an indigenous woman. I've never lived those experiences. And I can be as, you know, progressive and forward thinking as I believe I am. But until you live that experience, you don't really understand it. And so, you know, we really are, I think our summit this year is made up of about 75 to 80% of the women are from marginalized communities. So just through hearing each and every one of their stories, you are learning about their experience. And I think just hearing them you take those out into the world and you can view the world in a different way.

Shawna Rodrigues: 12:47

You don't know what you don't know.

Nancy Harrington: 12:49

Exactly.

Shawna Rodrigues: 12:50

So you guys mentioned that it's a virtual event. And so anyone can attend from all over the world.

Amy Harrington: 12:56

That's right.

Shawna Rodrigues: 12:57

You have a lot of international attendance to where we found that it's primarily people from the United States that do attend that event.

Amy Harrington: 13:03

I know, we've actually had people attend from as far away as Kenya. And the participants are every year kind of gets more international. We've had women from India and Italy, and Canada in the past. This year, we have Australia, Singapore, France, Canada, all across the United States. So it's an international group of participants and an international audience. And, and I think what's interesting to add to what Nancy was saying is each panel is a cross section of women. So, in the past, what we were doing more is, this is the panel about disability rights. This is the panel about AAPI issues. Now we're saying, power of transformation. What does that topic mean to a woman from the LGBTQ community and a woman from the Latina community and so, so you're hearing not only about the topic itself, but what it, what it means to a variety of women, which we have done in certain events in the past was really powerful. So I think that's why people internationally connect to it, because they're seeing themselves represented on the screen. And we also invite men, we do not invite men up to the stage. We have non binary people and people whose pronouns are he, him. But we don't invite cisgender men to be a part of the actual conversation. Because this is a chance for women and non binary people to speak for themselves, and not to be told what they think about things. But we love for men to attend. We've had a lot of men who watch and what they do is they come to us afterwards and say, Oh, so that's what it's like, when you all are talking and we're not in the room. Yeah, that's what we say. That's what we say when you're not here. We're not editing ourselves. So it's really informative. And the, and the men love to hear that because they want to know, they want to know what we're really thinking and what's really important to us, but we don't always necessarily say it to them. So it's a very, very interesting summit for men to attend as well.

Shawna Rodrigues: 15:16

Yeah, to have that unfiltered perspective from that the group of individuals playing off of each other as well. And having them be able to play to each other's experiences and, and build on that. And it lasts for how many days is it?

Nancy Harrington: 15:30

It's three days. It starts on Wednesday, September 21st. With just one evening event. We're kicking off the summit this year with Luna fest, which is a short film festival by and for women. So there's eight short films about women and non binary people. And then that'll be followed by a roundtable with the filmmakers. So that's our kickoff event. And then the summit is all day into the evening on Thursday, September 22nd. And it ends on Friday, September 23rd. Thursday night there's a Passionistas Persist Awards, which we started the very first year giving one award, and we gave it to the actress, Bellamy Young who does incredible work with an organization called, CARE. Last year, we gave two awards to, one we gave to the actress and comedian, Margaret Cho and the other one we gave to the inimitable Dr. Jane Goodall, which was a highlight of our career. And yeah, and then this year, we're giving six awards, which is huge for us. It's gonna be really fun evening, we are giving an award to Laraine Newman, who was one of the founders of Saturday Night Live, founding cast member, we're giving an award to Rebecca Coakley, who used to work for the Obama administration. And now she works for the Ford Foundation. We're giving an award to the author, Sariah Shomali, we're giving an award to Danay Escanaverino who has started one of the largest organizations on clubhouse for Latinx people. And we're giving an award to Kim Roxy, who is founder of Lamik beauty. And then our last award is actually a surprise award that we are announcing at the event, we held a contest for 501 C three organizations that are catered towards women. So we had 10 finalists, and we had everyone vote, and we have chosen a winner. We have notified the winner, but nobody else knows. So we'll be announcing that at the event on Thursday night.

Shawna Rodrigues: 17:30

Oh, so exciting.

Amy Harrington: 17:32

Yeah. And the ceremony is, is interviews with all of the recipients and we don't do all the interviews, we have different women doing the interviews. So we have conversations with all of the winners that are really amazing, and very powerful. So it's going to be a really interesting event.

Shawna Rodrigues: 17:49

That is so exciting. So you have to tune in to see who the 501 C three organization is, as well as these great, insightful interviews with the rest of the winners to learn more about why they were selected, and what they're bringing to the table. That is exciting. And this is your third year, correct? That you guys have done this event.

Nancy Harrington: 18:07

That's right.

Amy Harrington: 18:07

That's right. Yeah, we started in 2020. During the pandemic, we were going to do a small local event in LA. And then when the pandemic hit, it was like, I guess we have to do it on Zoom, which was a godsend. And we were going to do like an afternoon with some local women. And now it's like, you know, 50 panelists, 50 participants, global participants, global audience, it's completely opened everything up.

Shawna Rodrigues: 18:34

That's so exciting. All of our audience can get information about that on your guys's website to be able to get their tickets to be able to attend that event. So how late can people buy tickets? They're available up until that date? Or do they have to buy them way in advance?

Nancy Harrington: 18:48

Yeah, tickets will be available through the date of the event.

Shawna Rodrigues: 18:51

We'll, jump on there and get your ticket to be part of this wonderful three day experience to be part of the, the show on Wednesday night to get to see the films that you have and to have the roundtable with the filmmakers. Do you get to actually ask questions of the filmmakers? Or is it just a discussion being led?

Amy Harrington: 19:08

Yeah, we have Q&As at every event. So if someone has a question, they can drop it in the chat and we can bump it up to the moderator. We love when people participate and ask questions. So that's part of the fun of getting to watch it live. And if you, if you buy a ticket, and you can't make it those days, there will be a replay of everything as well. But if you watch it live, then you you can participate in the Q&As.

Shawna Rodrigues: 19:32

That is wonderful. So it's definitely something to look forward to. Now for both of you to come to this place, and the shift in your career because both of you were very successful and on this track and to move to this place that has this different level of fulfillment and connection and living this purpose on this different level, what did it take for you guys to make that shift? Because it's not that easy. I know there's people listening right now that are hearing your voice and hearing this, what you're getting for the work you're doing now and hear your success from before, and that's very exciting. And then going, I want that in my voice, though, what did it take for you guys to make that transition? What do you think was the key to coming to where you are today in the work you're doing?

Nancy Harrington: 20:15

You know, I think the key for us was that we had each other. You know, Amy and I are best friends, we have been best friends, our family lore is that I asked for her to be born when I was going to kindergarten because I didn't want my mother to be lonely. And we have been best friends since the day she was born. And I think that both of us know that we have the other's back. So there isn't a fear, I think that you ordinarily have when you're on your own, trying to do something. So I think for us, the shift was pretty organic. And, you know, not that it's been easy. It's been, it's been a struggle, it's been an uphill battle, and you know, especially to get promotion and publicity and to sell tickets. And you know, there's, it's a lot of work. And on a daily basis, there is definitely fear involved. But I am 100% confident and I know Amy feels the same that we take care of each other and that we're in it together. And it just makes it easy.

Amy Harrington: 21:21

Yeah, I agree with that. And I also think that, you know, we grew up in an artistic family. Our parents met in art school, we were always encouraged to follow our passions. You know, our, we have a sister who's a filmmaker, a brother who is a musician, a sister that was a dancer. And as a fiber artist now, we, we have always from the minute we were born, then encouraged to be creative, and push through different levels of success, push through our fears, and really go for what we wanted. So that first wave of our careers, that's what we were really passionate about. I mean, I thought I would work in TV. And then when I got into visual effects, I thought I would be in that forever. And I, you know, I worked 80, 100 hours a week doing that, and I, it was my everything. But when that became not so much my passion, it was a difficult decision and it was a difficult transition. But, ultimately, for I think both of us, I would rather take that risk for a period of time to be where we are now where we have found an even deeper and more meaningful passion. Luckily, we found the same passion at the same time together. But to me, it's like, if this isn't my passion tomorrow, then I'm going to have to do something else. Because I don't want to live my life doing something for the majority of my time that I'm not passionate about. So, I think Nancy and I will be doing this until the bitter end. Hopefully, that's a long time from now. But, you know, it's, to me, I think a key element to pushing through the uncertainty of following your dreams is, is having passion for it.

Shawna Rodrigues: 23:09

It's gonna be hard. So having the passion makes it for those hard days to get to the other side. And having someone as Nancy was saying, having someone that you can get to those times really does help.

Nancy Harrington: 23:21

Yeah, absolutely.

Shawna Rodrigues: 23:22

That's amazing.

Nancy Harrington: 23:24

Thank God.

Shawna Rodrigues: 23:24

Yes. And you guys have had this wonderful idea of having the subscription box that helps you connect with your audience, which I'm sure helps bring things full circle but also helps someone that you're interviewing and connecting with as well. Can you tell more about how like you manifested having this box that you then send to kind of bring your community together and also support the women that you're connecting with?

Nancy Harrington: 23:48

So, the subscription box when we started the project, we knew that we wanted to do some kind of E commerce. And we envisioned it more as just an online store where people would come and buy products and one of our very early mentors, Sashi Chandran, who's has an incredible company called, Tea Drops, its bagless tea. She, we met with her one day to get some advice and to get her opinions on things and she was like, you know, I think you guys should do a subscription box and we were like, what's a subscription box? So, we talked about it with her and then we went home and started researching we're like, oh, a subscription box is a really cool thing. You sign up and then you know this is a quarterly box so every three months you get this box in the mail full of surprises and nice gifts. We individually wrap everything so it's like Christmas in a box every three months. And, and what we really decided that that was the great way to spot not only spotlight the products that are made by women, but to spotlight the women themselves. So we do in a written interview with every woman who supplies a product for the box so you're not only learning about the product you're learning about the woman who started the company, what her passions are, why she started it, what her struggles are, how she overcame them. So it's, um, it's sort of our podcast embodied in physical products. And, and we, every quarter, we come up with a theme, and then we just start searching for products that fit that theme. And we've gotten products from all over the world and all over the country. And we're, we are three years in now. So it's, it's pretty exciting. It's really fun. The boxes are beautiful, and they're, they're the one thing we consistently hear is they're very unique. It's not, you know, a lot of typical subscription boxes are just like, you know, a lot of girly things, lots of makeup, and you know, we have those things occasionally. But every, every box, we really try to have a unique array of things, all sorts of lifestyle products, from clothing, to jewelry, to makeup, to books to T-shirts to, you know, we, lots of, we do lots of food products and, and beverages and things like that. So it's always something different. It's not the typical subscription box stuff.

Amy Harrington: 26:08

Yeah. And we donate a portion of the proceeds from every box to a woman centric or female founded 501 C three, as well.

Shawna Rodrigues: 26:16

That's wonderful. And how have you selected those organizations and found them?

Amy Harrington: 26:20

We pick a featured passionista in every box, and we do a slightly longer interview with that woman. And we let her pick, we asked her to recommend a charity and tell us why she's selected them. And the other thing that I should add that we do in every box is we do a virtual event. So that can range from a life coach, meet up to this quarter, we're doing a fall preview of a fashion line called, Cabi. We've done cocktail parties and painting parties. So you get to meet the other women in the community and connect with the other passionistas as well.

Shawna Rodrigues: 27:01

Oh, great. So you really have created a community, which I'm sure especially during the pandemic, that was very valuable for people to have that.

Nancy Harrington: 27:08

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we have a very strong community. We also do a lot of Facebook live events, and people sort of meet up there. So we definitely have a good strong community of passionistas. They get to, getting to know each other, we'll interview somebody and they'll say, Oh, I, do you know I drink sash, sashi's tea, or I, you know, I gave that such and such a thing to a friend as a gift. So it's really wonderful to see them supporting each other.

Amy Harrington: 27:35

So like, be on Instagram, and I'll see that somebody commented or liked somebody else's posted. I'm like, Oh, I wonder how they know each other and then it's like, oh, right. They know each other first of all.

Shawna Rodrigues: 27:45

We're more than that. Be that conduit, so exciting. It's like a role to play. One thing that we do like to talk about on The Grit Show is self care. So what is something that each of you do for self care?

Nancy Harrington: 28:01

You know, I have to say, as entrepreneurs, it's really difficult to carve out the time for self care. I think you probably hear that a lot. And I have found that recently, what I'm trying my hardest to do is carve out my Saturdays and not work. Not let myself get on the computer because I could work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you know, we have so much to do. And I tried to take some downtime and see my sisters, we have another sister that lives here in Los Angeles. And we don't always get to connect together, all three of us, but I try to see at least one of my sisters every Saturday and just have a little downtime, have some iced tea and chill.

Shawna Rodrigues: 28:42

Iced tea and chill. It's a good thing to do. Spend your time with people you care about. What about you, Amy? What do you do for self care?

Amy Harrington: 28:51

I, from the moment I was born, I've been a television addict. So, and, and I love food. So, for me, I either like to go out to a nice restaurant, or you know, these days sit outside at a nice restaurant or even like a hole in the wall restaurant, and try something different, have some good food. And I also liked late at night to sneak out of bed and go into the other room and binge television shows way later than I should. Deep into the night. Oh, there's only one more episode. I'll just, I'll just watch it and then three episodes later, I'll be on another show. So, that's my, get-out-of-my-head, free myself from the troubles of the day self care moments.

Shawna Rodrigues: 29:34

That's wonderful. Gotta have your ways. You gotta have your ways. Yeah. Last night I finished a book and I was like it's too late, but I just kind of read it. I was done. I was done. So, do you have a favorite show recently that you've watched that's been a good escape for you?

Amy Harrington: 29:47

My favorite thing of the last year, it's on Paramount plus. It is called, The Offer. And it's a scripted, limited series about the making of The Godfather. And it's not entirely factual. There's you know, because now, because now of course, I'm reading a book about the making of The Godfather, and it's like, oh, that's how that happened. But, um, they kind of attribute things that happened to different people, and they cheat a little bit, but the acting is so good. The guy that plays this legendary film producer, Robert Evans is like, he didn't get nominated for an Emmy. I'm angry about it. But it's just so much fun. And everybody knows The Godfather, everybody, you know, most people have seen The Godfather. So even if it's not 100% the, the exact details of what happened behind the scenes, it's a really great fun story. So that's high on my list. What else Nan? What else have you got?

Nancy Harrington: 30:45

You know, I have to say, I just started this weekend binging, League of Their Own.

Amy Harrington: 30:50

Oh, I can't wait.

Nancy Harrington: 30:51

I love it. It's really, really, really great. It's another one of those things I couldn't sleep the other night, you know, it was midnight, I'm tossing around, like, I can't really sleep. And I was like, Oh, I could get up and watch League of Their Own. And so I watched like, you know, till four o'clock in the morning and binged half the season. But it's really great. And it's, it's, you know, similar to the movie, but it has a really great twist that I didn't know, I didn't know anything about it going into it. I just knew that it's a league of their own. And it's, it's a different perspective on an air of time that you don't hear much about. So, that's all I'll say. I don't want to give any spoilers.

Shawna Rodrigues: 31:28

Okay. No spoilers.

Amy Harrington: 31:28

Yeah. And one of our passionistas, who's a talent manager has a client in, Robin McWilliams, who was a client in the show.

Shawna Rodrigues: 31:37

That's so fun. Now, I had to check that. I hadn't even heard of that. So I've definitely heard of the movie. But I hadn't heard there's a TV show.

Nancy Harrington: 31:46

Yeah, it's on, I think it's on Amazon, Amazon Prime.

Shawna Rodrigues: 31:50

There's so many options. Last night, we were flipping through and we're like we're going to the same shows. We've been watching. So we have all of these. Why do we have all these apps we never use? Because we have very little time for TV and we go to the same things. So many options now.

Amy Harrington: 32:06

Yeah, yeah. I keep telling myself I'm, I'm gonna be, Okay. I don't watch Apple TV. I'm gonna get rid of Apple TV. And then I'm like, Oh, and there's a new show. So then I keep Apple TV. Alright, I'm gonna get rid of Terremark. Oh. So, I just I don't have kids. I don't have a pet. That's my, that's where

Shawna Rodrigues: 32:25

it's one your self care items. So I'm endorsing it. The next time you question, it's been endorsed.

Amy Harrington: 32:32

Thank you.

Shawna Rodrigues: 32:33

So one of the things here in The Grit Show is for each of our guests as a thank you for being on the show, we have a line of coloring books that we're putting together. And so we offer our guests a free coloring book as a thank you for being on the show.

Nancy Harrington: 32:46

Oh. That's exciting.

Shawna Rodrigues: 32:47

Yes. So you add another option for self care into your repertoire. The one that is out is Vintage Mermaid and Magnificent Ocean. And then when it's coming out is You've Got This, which is inspirational quotes and sayings. So which of the two would you guys like?

Nancy Harrington: 33:05

I think we maybe should get one of each. I'm drawn to the mermaid one.

Amy Harrington: 33:10

Okay, yeah, I'll get the quotes. that's good. I want the inspirational one.

Shawna Rodrigues: 33:13

That's a plan. All right, so Nancy can get, we'll get hers first because hers is already out. So I can send that out ASAP. But Amy, you're gonna have to wait until we get yours out. So we will, we will send that to you.

Amy Harrington: 33:22

That's fine. And also, we would like to buy a copy of the mermaid one because we have a friend who lives in Corvallis. And she is starting an organization called, Mermaids Garden. And so we, we, let us know how we can buy a copy of that so we can give it to her.

Shawna Rodrigues: 33:41

It's very easy. It's on Amazon. Super easy to get. So I will give you guys that link. That's very fun. So Corvallis, Oregon is where she lives?

Amy Harrington: 33:49

Yes.

Shawna Rodrigues: 33:52

That's great. Well good. The other thing that we love to do for our audience is to kind of give them something to walk away with. So I'm curious, we want to talk to them a little bit about maybe, what your guys's thoughts are on ways that they can kind of work through getting towards their passion and focus, some ideas you have on that? If we could give our audience.

Nancy Harrington: 34:12

Yeah. I think the first thing is to just really sit with yourself, maybe journal and really figure out what that passion is. I think a lot of times to find your passion, you need to go back to your childhood. And what were the things that brought you joy when you were little? And, and a lot of people find that that's the, that's the underlying thing that really makes them happy. And, and just persevere and make a plan and, you know, take the, take the first step. Don't, don't wait. You know, if you put it off because until you're perfect or until you know more until, until, until, until, until, you'll never do it. So just take the first step, and then take baby steps and you'll get there.

Amy Harrington: 35:03

And don't be afraid to allow yourself room for your passions to change. And we don't live in the world that our parents grew up, in our grandparents grew up in, where you're going to work at the bank, your whole life and that's what you're gonna do. And you can't change your, you know, your daily routine. We live in a world where you can do different things, you can try new things, it doesn't even have to be your career. It can be something you do for fun on the side. But you don't have to commit to a lifelong, you know, dream. You can, you can evolve, you can let your passions evolve, and you need to give yourself permission to do that.

Nancy Harrington: 35:46

And I think one other thing that we like to tell people is to really reexamine your definition of success. Because, you know, we're, we're brought up to think that success equals money. And money is wonderful. We all want to be financially stable. But a lot of people following their passions, need to put aside those old tropes that, you know, money is everything, and that, you know, really success to us and a lot of our passionistas is feeling fulfilled, feeling like you're making an impact, feeling joy. So, you know, really give, give that some deep thought, like how you define success.

Shawna Rodrigues: 36:27

That's wonderful. I like that. We had a whole episode with Belle Lockerby, who's actually somebody who was in Australia, and she did a TED talk around the definition of words and how you let them define them, and how you need to look at these definitions and let them change sometimes. So, definitely along those lines, very, very good advice. I love it. Well, good. Let's tell people how they can find you. The best way to connect with you.

Nancy Harrington: 36:51

Our website is ThePassionistasProject.com. And when you go there, you can find out about the summit, you can find out about the subscription box, you can get all our social media links. So, that's the best way to find us and reach out to us through social media anytime.

Shawna Rodrigues: 37:06

Perfect. And I'll have their Instagram links or Facebook links, we have more links for you in the show notes so check those out. But it's nice to have one place to know to go first. Now that you know more, I'm sure you are ready to jump right in and be part of The Power of Passionistas Summit starting September 21st to the 23rd. That's tomorrow. So get on it. Visit their website for more information, as well as information on its quarterly boxes as well as their podcast. And you guys have every other week as you guys released the podcast?

Amy Harrington: 37:37

Yeah. Every other Wednesday.

Shawna Rodrigues: 37:39

Perfect. Wonderful. Thank you both so much for being here. It was lovely to meet you. And I'm so excited about the work that you're doing. The passion you have for it and you're connecting more women and bringing that to them as well.

Amy Harrington: 37:49

Thank you so much for having us.

Nancy Harrington: 37:50

Thank you.

Shawna Rodrigues: 37:51

So glad we got to know Amy and Nancy a little bit better. As for you, I hope your week is going well. Thank you again for being part of this community. It really does mean a lot that you show up here every week, and you take the time to listen in. Don't forget, you are the only one of you that this world has got and that means something. Thanks for being here today.