Dancing in the Discomfort Zone with Anne Bonney

Anne Bonney
  • 4.8 (25)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Let's face it, life is uncomfortable. Whether it's interacting with other humans (or trying to), going after our goals and improving our lives, or understanding other people's perspectives, preferences and proclivities, being able to face the discomforts in life with courage, compassion, confidence and resilience will make life a lot more enjoyable! So join me as we DANCE IN THE DISCOMFORT ZONE! We'll explore new ideas, learn how to build our confidence, courage and resilience, and laugh a little too, because life is serious enough. We need a little cha cha, and a little ha ha every once in a while! Welcome to the Discomfort Zone with Anne Bonney!

  1. 7h ago

    Who Are You When Everything Changes? with Elaina Carpino

    Ever have life pull the rug out from under you—and your first thought is, “Okay. RUDE.”                WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/bLW8oNovemo You lose your job. Get the promotion. Get divorced. Leave something behind. Start something new. Or life simply grabs the Etch A Sketch and shakes the crap out of the picture you had of yourself. And somewhere between “Well, THIS isn’t what I expected…” and “What the hell do I do now?” an even weirder question sneaks in: Wait…who am I now? Because sometimes the hardest part of change isn’t figuring out the new plan...It’s realizing that the old version of YOU doesn't fit anymore. Enter Elaina Carpino, leadership alchemist and founder of Change is Heartwork. (https://changeisheartwork.com/)  Her own career has taken her all over the place, arming her with the tools to help others with their own reinvention. Together, we tackle that delightful “I’m not who I was, but I have NO FREAKING IDEA who I’m becoming” problem so you can stop demanding that Future You immediately show up with a name tag and a five-year plan. Because that weird space between what WAS and what’s NEXT might not be a problem to solve. It might be where the transformation is actually happening. Along the way, we poke at: Why major change totally messes with your identityWhat happens when your job title gets a little too tangled up with who you areThe strangely productive awfulness of the messy middleWhy self-trust gets especially important when you have no freaking clue what happens nextWhat you may need to let go of before there's room for something newSo if life has recently shaken your Etch A Sketch and you’re staring at the blank screen thinking, “Well…shit.” Good.  Because the blank isn't the problem.  The blank is THE POSSIBILITY!   Want more from Elaina?  Go to https://changeisheartwork.com/ Elaina Carpino is a Leadership Alchemist and the founder of Change is HeartWork, an executive coaching practice for leaders in transition. Over 25 years she learned that transitions are identity events, not logistics. Her HEART Work Model guides leaders through the passage: back to themselves, forged for what's next. Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​   Your host is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of personal and organizational change.

    Who Are You When Everything Changes? with Elaina Carpino

  2. Sep 28

    Who the H*ll Made this Scoreboard?

    Who the hell made the scoreboard and why are we letting it decide whether we’re winning? After a month of conversations with extraordinary women in sports, one theme kept jumping out at me: we’re really good at letting one narrow outcome determine whether we consider ourselves successful. Olympian Elli Overton (https://www.ellioverton.com/) finished fifth IN THE WORLD and still felt like a failure. Sports broadcasting trailblazer Kate Delaney (https://katedelaneyspeaker.com/) heard hundreds of “no’s” from an industry that wasn’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat for women. Champion cyclist Traci Brown (https://www.bodylanguagetrainer.com/) never achieved her dream of making the Olympic team—yet raced for Team USA, won national titles and built an extraordinary career. So what happens when we stop letting the medal, promotion, paycheck, title, acceptance or somebody else’s opinion be the only measure of whether we’ve succeeded? In this month-end episode, we’re questioning the damn scoreboard. Because goals matter. Winning matters. Go chase the BIG thing. Just don’t let one outcome erase everything you accomplished along the way. Courtney Clark's episode on quitting: https://ignitingyourcourage.com/blog/2026/06/22/quitters-might-actually-win-with-courtney-clark/Scott Scovill's episode on never quitting: https://ignitingyourcourage.com/blog/2026/06/19/how-a-college-dropout-ended-up-touring-with-the-rolling-stones-with-scott-scovill/My wrap up episode of these 2 seemingly contradictory episodes: https://ignitingyourcourage.com/blog/2026/06/29/the-surprising-truth-about-quitting/ Anne Bonney helps people “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​  Anne Bonney is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of life and work's change, including resistance to change, resilience, emotional intelligence, courageous communication, and change leadership.

    Who the H*ll Made this Scoreboard?

  3. Sep 21

    Think You Can Spot a Liar? Your Brain May Disagree | Traci Brown

    Think you’re good at spotting a liar? Your own brain might be working against you. WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/jm6tURgN0ws Traci Brown (https://www.bodylanguagetrainer.com/)  is a three-time U.S. collegiate national cycling champion, former Team USA cyclist, and body language and deception detection expert who has trained alongside law enforcement, and her path to becoming a human lie detector started in one of the most notorious eras of professional cycling. In this episode, Traci takes us inside the world of elite cycling, including racing alongside the generation of athletes that included Lance Armstrong, the complicated reality of doping, and what high-level competition taught her about preparation, persistence, and never freakin quitting. Then we get into the REALLY fun stuff: How do you spot deception? What does body language reveal? And why are we so damn good at rationalizing away evidence that conflicts with what we already believe? Because spotting a liar isn’t just about watching them. Sometimes you need to watch yourself.   Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change.  She gets them moving through the discomfort and into action and self-accountability.​  Anne Bonney is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change, including resistance to change, redefining success, emotional intelligence, courageous communication, and change leadership.

    Think You Can Spot a Liar? Your Brain May Disagree | Traci Brown

  4. Sep 14

    When Success Still Feels Like Failure | Elli Overton

    What happens when you’re one of the best in the world…and still feel like a failure? Three-time Australian Olympic swimmer Elli Overton (https://www.ellioverton.com) knows exactly what that feels like. WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/IL56sy9fKS0 At 22, Elli walked into her second Olympics confident, accomplished, and ready to win a medal. She’d built her life around that goal; training, eating, sleeping, sacrificing and visualizing that one race. Then she finished fifth. FIFTH. IN. THE. WORLD. And her brain translated that extraordinary accomplishment into: I’m a failure. In this episode, Elli gets incredibly honest about the dangerous line between pursuing excellence and tying your entire identity and worth to the outcome.  We talk about  the crushing disappointment of missing the podiumthe question she still hates being askedthe perspective she wishes she’d had as a young elite athlete.Now pursuing a career in mental health, Elli is using those hard-earned lessons to help athletes, parents, coaches, educators and high-performing organizations rethink success and failure. Because there’s a HUGE difference between “I failed at something” and “I am a failure.” How do we chase extraordinary goals, push ourselves to our potential…and still be okay when we don’t get the medal? THAT’S the conversation.  Elli Overton is a three-time Australian Olympic swimmer, a mother, a TEDx speaker, and a children’s book author. She is also pursuing licensure as a marriage and family therapist. Through her speaking and consulting, Elli helps individuals, teams, and organizations thrive in life and sport by fostering sustainable excellence through self-awareness, resilience, and healthy perspectives on success and failure. Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​  Anne Bonney is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change, including resistance to change, seeking excellence and resilience, emotional intelligence, and change leadership.

    When Success Still Feels Like Failure | Elli Overton

  5. Sep 7

    500 Rejections. She Did It Anyway | Kate Delaney

    What do you do when the world tells you “NO” 500 times? If you’re Kate Delaney (https://katedelaneyspeaker.com/) apparently you keep going until they finally get the hell out of your way. WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/U9j2caW-OeE Kate is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, author, speaker, and one of the first women to host a solo nationally syndicated sports talk show. But before the awards, big-name interviews and 700+ locker rooms (yes, there are stories), there were years of rejection, including being flat-out told that women didn’t belong in sports broadcasting. So how do you keep rejection from turning into discouragement, bitterness, or the sneaking suspicion that maybe everyone else is right? THAT’S where this conversation gets juicy. Kate and I talk about what it actually takes to keep betting on yourself when all signs point to Quitsville and how she built the confidence, resilience and tiny-but-mighty army of “raving fans” that helped her break through. We also get into: The spectacularly inappropriate on-air slip that helped Kate WIN an award.Why she stopped telling certain people about her dreams and who she listened to instead.The confidence lesson she learned from watching men claim what they were good at…sometimes before they were actually good at it.Come for the sports. Stay for the glorious reminder that someone else’s “you can’t” does not have to be yours. Anne Bonney helps organizations stop waiting for people to “get on board” with change and gets them moving through the discomfort and into action.​  She is a change keynote speaker and emcee specializing in the human side of organizational change, including resistance to change, confident change leadership, emotional intelligence, and courageous communication.

    500 Rejections. She Did It Anyway | Kate Delaney

  6. Aug 31

    Curiosity Changes Everything | Lois Barth

    When life throws you a curveball, what's your first instinct? Defend yourself?Shut down?Get angry?According to leadership expert Lois Barth (www.loisbarth.com), there's a better option: Get curious. WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/4kUmYfmi5go In this episode, Lois shares how curiosity, compassion, connection, and courage can completely transform the way we live, work and interact with others. From overcoming a life-changing eating disorder to helping organizations build healthier workplace cultures, Lois offers practical tools for replacing judgment with curiosity and "being nice" with something far more powerful: genuine kindness. If you've ever struggled with difficult conversations, imposter syndrome, change, conflict, or your own relentless inner critic, this conversation is packed with practical ideas you can start using immediately. In this episode: • The difference between being nice and being kind • How to have difficult conversations without damaging relationships • Why disruption can become your greatest teacher • Replacing your inner critic with curiosity and compassion • How healthy workplace cultures are actually built Chapters 00:00  Introduction to Disruption as a Mindset 01:45 Lois Barth's Journey and Philosophy 07:17 The Four C's: Curiosity, Compassion, Connection, and Courage 11:26 Curiosity's Role in Disruption 14:30 Implementing the Four C's in the Workplace 20:34 Creating a Culture of Beautiful Honesty 27:59 The Structure Behind Honest Conversations Want more from Lois? www.loisbarth.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/loisbarth/ Lois works with heart-centered go-getters who crave greater meaning, fulfillment, and impact in their lives by helping them clarify their goals, foster well-being, and be more effective leaders. A term she refers to as Behavioral Wellness Meets professional development. She has been the makeover life coach for SELF Magazine; Fitness Magazine and Fit Blog (Sears) which to date 3 million people registered for. Lois has been quoted and published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and SELF Magazine. Her speaking clients include Capital One Bank, L'Oreal, Women in Banking & Invesco to name a few. Anne Bonney is a keynote speaker and emcee who helps organizations lead through change by building resilience, emotional intelligence, and courageous communication.

    Curiosity Changes Everything | Lois Barth

  7. Aug 24

    Design a Life You Don't Need a Vacation From | Hilary Colvin

    What if the life you've been dreaming about...doesn't have to wait until retirement? WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/4NgnzjIF4l4 Hilary Colvin and her husband asked themselves that question, and then did something most people only talk about. They intentionally built careers that let them work from anywhere and then traded their regular ol' home for a camper van (named Lucy!), and that was just the beginning.    But this episode isn't about living in a van or on a boat.  It's about letting go of the things that quietly keep us stuck.  Stuff, schedules, expectations, and the belief that "someday" is guaranteed. We talk about creating space for adventure, building a life around experiences instead of possessions, trusting other humans, and why asking yourself how many "good summers" you have left might completely change your priorities. Whether you dream of traveling the world or simply want to live with more intention, this conversation will challenge the assumptions you've been making about what's possible. Chapters 00:00 Exploring a Life of Adventure 03:00 Transitioning to RV Life 06:08 The Joy of Minimalism 08:45 Lessons from the Road 12:00 Embracing New Experiences 15:02 Highlights of the Journey 18:10 Navigating Work and Adventure 19:31 Growing Together: Relationships on the Road 21:28 The Leap to Sailing: A New Adventure 24:00 Life on the Boat: Surprises and Adjustments 27:52 Community at Sea: Bonds Among Boaters 32:14 Trusting Humanity: The Spirit of Travel Interested in learning more about Hillary? https://colvincpa.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillary-colvin-cpa/Anne Bonney is a keynote speaker and emcee who helps organizations lead through change by building resilience, emotional intelligence, and courageous communication.

    Design a Life You Don't Need a Vacation From | Hilary Colvin

  8. Aug 17

    What Will They Say? Breaking the Rules We Inherited : Denise Soler Cox

    What if some of the rules running your life aren’t actually yours? **WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YouTube: https://youtu.be/ty1VIuHSMDY Award-winning filmmaker, keynote speaker, and author Denise Soler Cox (https://denisesolercox.com/) returns to Dance in the Discomfort Zone with her new book, What Will They Say?, an exploration of the cultural taboos, inherited expectations, and unspoken rules that shape how we live, lead, belong and sometimes hold ourselves back. **BUY THE BOOK NOW: https://denisesolercox.com/book The book was born after touring with her documentary Being Ñ. After viewing the film, people repeatedly approached her and revealed secrets they’d never told anyone and dreams they were afraid to go after. Denise began noticing a pattern: underneath many of those stories was the same powerful fear...what will people say? While Denise writes through the lens of her Latino perspective, this conversation is wildly universal. Because every culture, family, workplace, and community has rules that encourages hiding things from others to "save face". The fun begins when we start asking whether we still want to follow them. We get into: The surprising “line” that inspired an entire bookA cultural phrase that can quietly follow you into your career and lifeThe deeply personal taboo Denise almost didn’t write aboutWhat an AP Physics lesson unexpectedly reveals about emotional healingWhy breaking a generational cycle may be much simpler than we thinkMore from Denise: https://denisesolercox.com/https://www.instagram.com/denisesolercox/https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisesolercox/Denise's original appearance here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-182-denise-soler-cox-film-maker-and-expert-in/id1444223443?i=1000560093054Denise Soler Cox is a cultural excavator — award-winning filmmaker, keynote speaker, and author who goes inside the cultures that shape how we lead, belong, and who we become. Her debut book ¿Qué Dirán? / What Will They Say? (Simon & Schuster, August 2026) uncovers the ten inherited rules keeping us shrinking and shows us how to stop. She’s spoken on 400+ stages, including two TEDx talks, and her podcast The Self-ish Latina has listeners in 32 countries. Anne Bonney is a keynote speaker and emcee who helps organizations lead through change by building resilience, emotional intelligence, and courageous communication.

    What Will They Say? Breaking the Rules We Inherited : Denise Soler Cox
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4.8
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About

Let's face it, life is uncomfortable. Whether it's interacting with other humans (or trying to), going after our goals and improving our lives, or understanding other people's perspectives, preferences and proclivities, being able to face the discomforts in life with courage, compassion, confidence and resilience will make life a lot more enjoyable! So join me as we DANCE IN THE DISCOMFORT ZONE! We'll explore new ideas, learn how to build our confidence, courage and resilience, and laugh a little too, because life is serious enough. We need a little cha cha, and a little ha ha every once in a while! Welcome to the Discomfort Zone with Anne Bonney!

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