Check Out Shana Francesca’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shana Francesca.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am an ethical leadership architect, relationship ‘ecologist’, keynote speaker, cult survivor, and founder of Concinnate LLC. My TEDx , “The Risk of Missing Mozart: Why We Need Neurodivergent Minds” was released earlier this year which touches on my advocacy for inclusivity. I draw on her lived experience as a neurodivergent person, a cult survivor, and a scholar in both my work and my TEDx.

I work with organizations spanning from local non-profits to Fortune 500-ranked companies. No matter who I am working with or speaking to, we are always grounding and centering the conversation in relational ecology, because literally everything is relationships and having come from such unhealthy, high control environments, I know first hand what happens when we abandon ethical relationship.

My radical belief is that organizations are living ecosystems where honoring every voice forges unshakable trust and drives sustainable success. By reframing our understanding of relationships as a type of ecosystem, I seek to remind us that all life is dependent on relationships; and that our thriving is interconnected and requires our informed and intentional participation.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Certainly not a smooth road, although I am not sure that any of us do, have a smooth road. Growing up in a high-control religion and an abusive household made it so that I had no real understanding of healthy relationships. When I left, I had to learn, virtually on my own, because I left everything and just about everyone I ever knew, how to be human, or more specifically, how to connect to my humanity and build healthy relationships, because no one had ever shown me how. So I was healing, learning, growing, and seeking mentorship all at the same time for many years before I felt I finally had some sense of a framework that gave me (and really all of us) a healthy way to exist and connect.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
A large part of who I have always been is a writer and artist. I have spent so much time on stages since I was a child in various capacities. My goal was not to build a framework and speak and consult, but it ended up working out that way and my comfortability with being on stages made it more natural to do so. When I set out, my research was just for me, mostly because I thought I would spend my life as an artist in some capacity. About a decade into my personal research into healthy relationships, I began to hear from people that I was working with that they were telling others I was their life coach, their consultant, etc. because my work with them as a designer was much more and could not be well explained by calling me their designer.

That became something I sat with for several years, and ultimately, it’s what led to what I do now. I had done so much work to learn and had unique perspectives because of my lived experience, and I realized I was comfortable on stages. At that point, it became mostly about distilling what I had learned into something I could communicate to others in impactful ways. Since then, I have written more speeches than I can count and conducted hundreds of workshops, and it feels incredible to be able to be a part of other people’s lives, leadership, and ultimately cultural shifts inside families, communities, and organizations.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love LA. I don’t get out there as much as I would like but looking forward to the next time I am in the city.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.concinnate.world/
• Instagram: @ShanaFrancesca
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shana-francesca/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShanaFrancesca