Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson, Co-Authors of Being Boss

What is your life’s purpose?
Our life’s purpose is to be creative: We want to take advantage of how lucky we are to be humans on earth by creating art, making memories, and living life to its fullest!

How are you living your purpose?
As creative entrepreneurs, we are living our purpose by finding alignment and authenticity in both work and life and owning who we are 100% of the time—whether we’re at our desk or dinner table. But over time we’ve realized living our purpose isn’t just making money doing what we love as creatives running our own branding agencies and online business consultancies. Living our purpose means sharing it with others. We want to help other creative entrepreneurs tune into their purpose (and make a living from it!) by sharing what has worked along the way—from how we’ve cultivated confidence and overcome the imposter complex to how we’ve established healthy habits and firm boundaries to protect what we want to create.

How did you find your purpose?
We wish finding your purpose was as easy as stumbling across it—the truth is your purpose is within you. You just have to get quiet, tune in, and then take action. Our inspired action came when we decided to hit publish on the vulnerable and candid conversations we were having as creative colleagues and what we call “business besties.” Every month, we were sharing our struggles, successes, insights, and advice with one another—and we knew that other creatives, freelancers, and aspiring entrepreneurs could probably benefit from hearing what it’s like in the trenches. We launched our podcast Being Boss with low expectations—it was supposed to be a fun passion project we did on the side—but it quickly became clear that we were making a real impact.

What advice do you have for purpose seekers?
We often have other creatives ask us how we found our voice (that style and point-of-view our listeners have come to rely on); we always say that we found our voice by using it. And we think finding purpose takes a similar route. We found our purpose by listening to our guts, responding to what made us curious, showing up, and taking inspired action.

So for anyone who is looking for your purpose, trust that it is already within you. You just have to help bring that purpose to the surface by doing the work.

 

What resources do you recommend?
Nothing helps us become more of who we are than learning from and reflecting on the work of others. Here are some of our current favorites:
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Dr. Brené Brown
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon by Dr. Joe Dispenza
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

 

Connect with Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson
Email: hello@beingboss.club
Website: https://beingboss.club/book
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beingbossclub/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beingbossclub/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beingbossclub
Being Boss Podcast
Book: Being Boss: Take Control of Your Work and Live Life on Your Own Terms

 

 

Emily Thompson is the co-author of Being Boss: Take Control of Your Work and Live Life on Your Own Terms. She founded Indie Shopography, a design and strategy studio for online entrepreneurs, in 2009. Emily has worked to help makers, coaches, and designers develop an online business model, strategize and launch websites, and grow their online business. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with her life and business partner, David, and their daughter.

Kathleen Shannon is the co-author of Being Boss: Take Control of Your Work and Live Life on Your Own Terms. She is the founder of Braid Creative and Consulting, a boutique branding agency and consultancy she co-owns with her sister. Together they have helped thousands of creative entrepreneurs authentically brand and position themselves as creative experts. Kathleen also does creative coaching and is regularly invited to speak on personal branding at design conferences and retreats. She lives in Oklahoma City with her husband and son.

Together Emily and Shannon are the hosts of the top-ranked podcast Being Boss, a show that has helped thousands of creative entrepreneurs authentically brand and position themselves as creative experts. With hundreds of episodes and millions of downloads, they have a dedicated global audience that tunes in weekly for their advice and illuminating interviews from a wide range of experts including Brené Brown, Marie Forleo, and dozens of others.