We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Shawne Duperon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Shawne, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

We started off teaching businesses how to get free publicity and be on or in the news to help grow their branding and sales We noticied our model of teaching people how to find great stories, create great press releases and pitch the media, was not working. At all. There was something getting in the way. I soon realized fear was the culprit. You can know how to do all the things necessary to get on media but it still did not mean success. That’s where our business model shift started. It was this notion of managing the internal discomfort, fear and resistence while under high-pressure. High-pressure can stop people from moving forward and going for the more risky conversations, deals, hiring, etc. Our trainings and coaching unpack the internal discomfort, provides new tools and skills so that no matter what high-pressure you face, you can manage it, face it and actually excel.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Dr. Shawne, the CEO of our agency ShawneTV. We’ve been in business for more than 20 years. Our accolades include 28 EMMY® nominations and 6 Wins, a social reach in the millions and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for our leadership tool on forgiveness in the workplace “Accept the Apology (You’ll Never Receive).®.

Our core services are training and developent. We facililate workshops, keynotes and coaching for Fortune 500 companies and individual entrepreneurs under the theme of High-Pressure Communication with 3 spokes:
-High-Pressure and Media Mastery
-Good Gossip Theory (I have a Phd in gossip and we consider creating influence (that matters) as a high-pressure conversation
-Forgiveness (non-religious) in the workplace. (Conflict can be a high-pressure situation, indeed)

Our trainings are highly interactive and engaging. We’re pros at engagement! A big part of our teaching is actual role play so you can practice high-pressure in numerous scenerios. Being in front of a large room captures the true experience of high-pressure. Our style of no shame, and open and authentic learning is our super power. Once a company experiences us, attendees rave about us in good gossip, and we come back over and over and are often recommended to other companys. We practice what we preach.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When COVID hit, we lost every single one of our contracts. We primarily do live workshops and presentations and that just stopped. A lot of resilience was needed after COVID (family stuff shared below). Our lead time for contracts is typically 3 years with Fortune 500 companies. Our contracts are closing again (yay!) working with Corteva Agrisience, Salesforce and Stelllantis to name a few. Also we expanded our sales focus to include state government and specific niches of associations. We had too much sales focus on large corporations and diversifying that focus has been exquisite and successful

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

With forgiveness and conflict resolution training as one of our expertises, I was deeply challenged with forgiveness. During COVID, my mom, my dad and my sister all died in quick succession from three types of cancer. I know, right? There’s actually no words for that grief. I’m doing much better today after processing a lot of anguish and I had to unlearn some of my own beliefs and ideas about forgiveness.

We’re known for dispelling myths about forgiveness such as Forgive and forget is a myth. We teach to forgive and remember so you can put boundaries in place to stop repetitive and painful behavior from others. It’s a beautiful way to live.

With that said I had to unlearn and figure out what it meant to forgive myself: Forgiving myself for struggling to get out of bed because the pain was dibilitating, forgiving myself for no motivation for my business, forgiving myself for my apathy.

That unlearning gave me access to me again. Self forgiveness was at the crux of a lot of my healing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ShawneTV.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/projectforgive/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectForgive/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnetv/
• Twitter: Twitter’s hate-filled messages has pushed us away.