Channeling the Power of Sensitivity: Transforming from Survival to Thriving with Heather Dominick

As highly sensitive, we're only 20% of the global population. And because of that, unknowingly, the majority of us have had the experience consciously or not of feeling like the odd one out, feeling like there's wrong with us, because it's very likely at some point you internally recognize. Wow. I like experience the world differently than the majority of people around me. Most likely somewhere along the line, we gave ourselves the message. That means there's something wrong. And then we worked to go against our nature in order to attempt to fit it. So the reason why I say bells are going off, that something's pay attention simply because most likely the tendency is to try to ignore it and be like, that's not me. So that would be first and foremost, pay attention. Number two would be considered the possibility that this is not a weakness. Welcome to super entrepreneurs podcast. I'm your host Shahid Durrani. Today we have with us Heather Dominic. Heather is both highly sensitive and highly successful for more than a decade. She has trained and mentored highly sensitive entrepreneurs and leaders. So they are able to work less while making more impact and income. Welcome to our show, Heather. Thank you. So happy to be here. Grateful to have you as well. This is very unique. So I know what sensitive means. Now, can you explain to me and the audience what is a highly sensitive entrepreneur? Absolutely. So the phrase highly sensitive as a highly sensitive person comes from research. That really came out of the mid 1990s. There's one woman in particular who's most known for the research. Her name is Dr. Elaine Aaron. She's most known because she wrote the book, the highly sensitive person. In short, what it means to be a highly sensitive person is that your nervous system is wired to take in stimulation at a much higher degree than someone who is not highly sensitive. So that stimulation can be anything. Site sound to smell, to energy, to information. And so this really impacts how a person processes the world. There are pros and cons to this. And the work that I do is for the highly sensitive person who really feels called to be self-employed. Two other important pieces that I'll quickly share is that the research shows that there's only 20% of us who are born into the world, highly sensitive. And for those of us who are highly sensitive, really learn how to. Optimally and proactively work with our nervous system. It gives us access to a very unique set of strengths that can really work in favor of service-based self-employment. Interesting. So would this fall under conditions such as autism as well, because they're highly sensitive as well? It's a great question. And I really think of it like a range. And sometimes within range, I would say at the higher end, like the high end of that range might be autism that you're speaking to below that might be more of empath, which is a popular word and conversation and a lot of circles these days, and then a little bit further towards the middle of that range would be that highly sensitive person. Okay. So it's based on range. I guess it's pretty obvious. Someone could probably figure out if they're sensitive or not. Um, for example, I never gave it any thought, but if someone is yelling or if someone is aggressive from childhood, I would get really weirded out. I didn't want to be around it. And, uh, anything loud, like sirens and stuff like that. I dislike those. So maybe I have that as well. I just never knew. You truly might. The research created an assessment and Dr. Elaine Heron has that available on her website. It just helps you to determine, am I a highly sensitive person or not? Again, the work that I do takes it a bit further when it comes to the person who's called to be self-employed. And the assessment that I have on my site helps, you know, what type of highly sensitive you are. If you are somewhat of a highly sensitive person, or if you're a super highly sensitive person, or if you're like me and you're a super Uber, highly sensitive person. And then how to work with your type to be able to best serve and support the success that you want to create through your business. Interesting. Now you suffered a loss, uh, at age 14, your mother started to like, when I read that, I was, I was troubled because it's a very young age team is devastating. How did that shape your perspective for sensitivity? And did you also knew that you were sensitive at that time or did it shape the sensitivity? Can you speak around how that situation, that trauma affected the sensitivity and then how you perceive or how you perceive business? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Such a valuable question because losing my mother at the age of 14, just as you spoke to is absolutely very understandably like a life defining circumstance. So for myself, I'll speak to that first. I did not know that I was a highly sensitive person. I had never even heard that language or that phrase until I had already been self-employed for about six years. And at that point I was in my mid thirties. So I've lived so much of my life, including really navigating that deep loss and not knowing that I was a highly sensitive person and not having it support around going back to the research shows that a person, a trauma or trauma that a person experiences in their life, including any time in childhood is not what makes someone highly sensitive. You again are born into the world. Highly sensitive nervous system is why differently. However, the research also shows them. Depending upon the trauma that a person experiences that has the tendency to heighten the highly sensitive person, let's call it symptoms for lack of a better word, maybe even experience is more. So again, it's not the direct cause of the high sensitivity. Yet the trauma has an impact on the way that the highly sensitive person experiences their sensitivity. Is this considered a medical condition? Also great question. It's, it's considered more of a personality trait versus a medical condition. And it's such a great question because when we were talking about that range before, again, so much of where my work comes in is that when you learn how to work with your nervous system, you are able to affect the way that the nervous system registers that stimulation so that you have, again, for lack of a better way of saying it, more control. And it doesn't have to be the experience of that. The overstimulation is happening to you. So that is a real differentiator between that personality trait versus a medical condition. It, it can be worked with intentionally in the same way that you work with the building of a muscle physically. So the nervous system can be trained to have a different response without medical treatment. And that's where you come in the picture, right? That's where you help. That's where you shine. Yes. So beautifully said. And what that really speaks to, as I mentioned earlier, is that as highly sensitive people, when we are trained and we really learn how to manage our nervous system, it gives us access to these beautiful strengths that really equip us to be like really excellent service-based entrepreneurs. Strengths such as we have the ability to really be deep listeners. We have the ability to really be deep feelers. We have a ready access to intuition, empathy, and these are again, qualities, characteristics, I like to refer to them as strengths that really help us to be able to be of service to another person and their healing or their transformation. Yeah, we're untrained. That's when the nervous system can really get in the way. And particularly when what it takes to operate a business. So as you so beautifully said, that is where we come in. So that as a highly sensitive person who desires to be an entrepreneur, who desires to lead in their business, their work, their life, they have more access to those strengths and then their business is something that's a real extension of their natural abilities versus the business feeling like it's this burden that has to constantly be worked through in order to just try to show up in your purpose. That's the difference that we really aim for. Heather is one of the strengths reading minds because my next question was specifically around strengths. What are they? And we started talking about it. It's amazing. Thanks. I don't appreciate that. I wouldn't say reading minds, but we go back to the strength of intuition, right? Yeah. When you really hone your intuitive skills, which I can say that I've been doing this work for so long now, yes, you do sometimes really end up being one beat ahead. Like a psychic type. Yeah. I have to be careful. It's all good stuff for my end. So now when someone at home or someone in the business or someone that's employed, maybe has these types of attributes, what would you recommend they do once they hear this information? Because for me, I'm learning something new here today. So I'm sure someone in audiences also, what do you recommend they should do before they take the step to contact you? Like immediately, what could they do to start taking some steps towards making this their superpower? Yeah, absolutely. So first and foremost, if as you're listening, some bells are starting to go off, right? There's some type of resonance. I would say pay attention to that. And it sounds so simple or obvious, yet the reason why I'm highlighting it is because as highly sensitive, again, we're only 20% of the global population. And because of that, unknowingly, the majority of us have had the experience consciously or not, of feeling like the odd one out, feeling like there's something wrong with us, because it's very likely at some point, you internally recognize, wow, I like experience the world differently than the majority of people around me. Yeah, most likely somewhere along the line, we gave ourselves the message. That means there's something wrong. Then we worked to go against our nature in order to attempt to fit in. So the reason why I say bells are going off and something's resonating, pay attention simply because most likely the tendency is to try to ignore it and be like, no, that's not. So that would be first and foremost, pay attention. Number two would be consider the possibility that this is not a weakness. And then number three would be something like take the assessments that we were speaking about earlier and just find out for sure. And then again, find out what type of highly sensitive or highly sensitive entrepreneur you might be. And then you can begin to work with it from there. Good. The other little piece I'll quickly speak to is that you also might be might not have bells going off for you, but you might have bells going off about someone in your life. Maybe it's a friend or it's a child or a team member. And I would say pay attention if that's the case as well. Also, because again, we're 20 percent, we're one in five. So very likely there's someone in one of your circles somewhere who is highly sensitive. And the more that you're willing to accept that there are those in your circle who potentially are highly sensitive, you'll most likely then be able to have just more effective, harmonious relationships, whether those are business relationships, work relationships, family, friend relationships. It can only be helpful. Heather, I can relate so much because that's very familiar in regards to how I grew up. I always felt awkward. I always felt the comparison. I was always comparing. I always felt like I wasn't wanted in any situation, like I wasn't supposed to be there kind of thing. I shouldn't be there. And until I did my mindset transformation when COVID hit, that's when I just broke down. And that's when I realized something is up here. And that's when I started working in the inner world. And my entire focus shifted to my inner world. And everything is different now. But whatever you're saying, like I grew up with all of that and some. So there must be so many people dealing with this, even in business. I get people on the show. It will never be an intention to upset, but there's some technical problem or some issue that will happen. They will take it to another level. There's something not right. So there are people might be out there in business that are suffering from this every single day. They probably went through all those tests, whatever they did, but they never realize is this part, the sensitivity that could be the concern. Absolutely. So appreciate everything you share. Man, I just really feel it because that was my experience. That absolutely was my experience. And I'm so passionate about the work that I do because I've really learned absolutely for myself, for so many that I inventor. It doesn't need to be. And what's unfortunate is I refer to it as like last century business, right? Or last century, like marketing and selling. There's just one way, one type of way of being in business. That's been taught for so long and that tends to be, or I refer to that lovingly as the other 80% is our nervous system is wired differently. So we have to be willing to go about things differently. And once you're willing, it absolutely is possible. And then just as you so beautifully described, everything changes. I also really appreciate that you spoke to the inner and you're willing to share that. And that was your experience because it always speak to that for us as highly sensitive, creating success is an inner and an outer process. And it's an inner process that absolutely plays mindset. But even further than that, again, connecting into how to manage the nervous system, which is like the antenna for all of it, right? It's the mindset work, it's the end for the emotional intelligence work. And when you're really able to, again, rework how the nervous system is taking in stimulation, it can all become so much easier. Someone listening or watching. And at this point they realize, yeah, I'm the 20%. What kind of tips or what would you do with someone like that at that stage to help them shift from survival to thriving mindset, whatever they could do immediately or what you would do with someone like that came to your office, what would you do to make that shift happen? Because they may have just realized that there might be, I'm not saying they are, but might be struggling in business. And they just got this answer like in their lap that, oh my God, this might be it. What would you do with them? Yeah, absolutely. First again, it goes back to those three that we talked about before, right? Pay attention, really be willing to extend it. I mean, I'm not a weakness that really began to work in what type of highly sensitive you might be. From there, first I'll say down to the members of the highly sensitive leadership training program. They're in all phases of business. Some discover that they're highly sensitive just as they're starting out business. Some have been really successful in business for over 20 years, but everything has felt like really hard and getting a place where they can push through. Right. To create that external success and more, they discover that they're highly sensitive and then they change the way they've been in business and anyone in between all to say it's never the wrong time. It's never the wrong time. Once you are aware that you're highly sensitive, the best thing that you can do is again, begin working with it. From there in the leadership training programs, we have seven tracks of leadership curriculum. No matter what track you assess into all the tracks begin with the orientation trainings and the orientation trainings, unlike any other training program out there, are not about orienting to the program. They're not about orienting to being in business. They're about orienting to yourself. And learning how to begin to work with yourself differently, particularly when it comes to those highly sensitive shadows versus strengths and the highly sensitive coping mechanisms that we default to. So once again, you've gone through those first three steps of paying attention, accepting this, I'm finding out more, and then it's really about, okay, how do I now want to work with myself so that I don't default to habitual coping mechanisms, but I can start to shift into creating. And we have an assessment for that as well. And that would really be the best next step. So that's where the shift begins from survival to thriving. So they can make a bigger impact. Absolutely. And again, it has to be a willingness to be like, okay, like I accept this about myself and that I'm willing to actually consider doing things differently. Also just have an easier experience. One of the things that I like to say is that when you're starting to shift from surviving to thriving as a highly sensitive entrepreneur and leader, you shift from feeling like the world is happening to you to how to work with the world happening for you. And that's really significant. Thank you. Great. Heather, can you share with us what you feel your innermost superpower is that got you to this point in life? I would say it really goes back to that loss that you referenced and experiencing such a significant loss at such an early age. And from that really developing commitment to resilience and that commitment to resilience that also really supported me and being willing to discover that I was highly sensitive and then to find a way to work with it and then to be able to support others and doing the same. And though that loss is a tragedy, that again is a redefining moment, that is what I can say is the silver lining and the gift that was given from that really, really traumatic experience. Well, thank you for sharing that, Heather. And I appreciate your time today and I'm wishing you all the success and growth because of this purpose. I wish it to everybody, but especially your purpose, I'm grateful to have this opportunity to help you spread this message because the struggle in different various forms is out there and you're checking a box for one of them. So I appreciate you. Thank you. I so love the work that you're doing and the way that you're doing it and the focus on superpower. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Heather. I also appreciate you agreeing to help us promote the episode on your network. It really helps us make a bigger impact. Yes, absolutely. I followed your social media as well, whatever I saw in the booking, definitely will send it out once it goes live. And audience, thank you so much for joining us for another episode with Heather. So if it got your attention in some way, definitely check out the assessments that she has available. Maybe there's room where you can improve your life and business that you never even thought that there was for me, it was always just there, but COVID woke me up to make me realize there's something wrong here, hopefully everything is good for you guys, but if there's some kind of a nudge or a gut feeling you're getting, definitely get in touch with Heather and thank you so much for joining us once again.