A Note from Hope — Inkandescent Women magazine is excited to introduce you to the work of Bunny Young, a stuntwoman turned businesswoman who is sharing her wisdom through books, coaching, and consulting services with leaders around the world.
Based in Richmond, VA, Bunny is a survivor. Diagnosed with a heart condition at an early age, she has been depending on a service dog for a higher quality of life. “For decades, I have focused on using each day to fully deliver our purpose within the world.”
Bunny founded her company, A Better Place Consulting to empower and educate businesses and organizations about the impact of work-life alignment. She enjoys breaking the codependency found between professionals and their companies. Bunny also enjoys teaching burnout prevention to law enforcement, military, and correctional officers.
A third-generation entrepreneur, Bunny has built her business into an international success. Not only does she speak to groups around the world, this retired therapist who speaks four languages prides herself on being a cowgirl, surfer, and love of all creatures walking around on four legs — especially her service dogs Guinness, and Goose who past away a few years ago but lives on in Bunny’s upcoming about him.
Perhaps, though, she is most proud of being mom to her two daughters, ages 3 and 9, and her supportive husband, Steve.
As we wait for Bunny’s responses to our 4 questions about What’s Next, you can add a little Bunny magic to your day right now by downloading her current book: How To Stay Sane During Insane Times.
Scroll down for Bunny’s thoughts on What’s Next.
Bunny Young Takes Us Inside: A Better Place Consulting
Hope & Cynthia: Tell us about your business/industry and where it was before the pandemic hit in March 2020.
Bunny: As a serial entrepreneur I have the privilege of working in a few industries. They all center around creating more work-life alignment for business professionals and owners. Before the pandemic hit, that involved a lot of travel to speak at conferences and share about burnout prevention, the power of self-awareness and how work-life balance was not the goal but rather alignment. We had several consulting contracts with larger companies as well as small business owners and traveled 2 weeks out of the month.
Hope & Cynthia: Where were you personally in your life when COVID-19 arrived in the US? What were your short and long-term goals at that time?
Bunny: I had just sold one of my companies that was a brick and mortar coworking space. I was on a work trip that I had squeezed in and took my dad and daughter with me as it was in Texas where we had family. We also took some time to catch an Eagles concert while we were there and I remember Don Henley stepping up to the mic and saying “Thank you all for risking your life to come out and see us” and then the whole arena chuckled. He then said, “I am sure I will regret saying that.”
That was the last concert of their tour before the rest of the tour was cancelled. I was one of those people who chuckled in that crowd. I remember walking through the airport seeing people with masks and holding my young daughter’s hand wondering how worried we should actually be. We had a transatlantic cruise scheduled and a European vacation that we were going on in the fall and I had about over a dozen in-person trips for speaking and clients scheduled.
My long-term goals were to develop more programs that companies could use for work-life alignment that did not require so much travel or consultant dependency. I had finished writing one book on service animals, was updating the second edition of my equine practitioners manual and had 2 business books wandering in my mind that I planned on giving life to.
Short-term, I was looking forward to a scheduled vacation to California and Disneyland to see family and spend a few weeks at the beach. I was also looking forward to attending my Director or Productivity’s wedding in April in Florida and seeing her in the beautiful gown that she had shared with me.
Hope & Cynthia: What are your thoughts now about your industry, your business, your personal life, your heart?
Bunny: I believe now more than ever that work-life alignment is critical. Especially now with so many individuals working remotely and so many children doing school remotely. With so much time in front of screens being able to give our minds and bodies what they need in order to feel fulfilled and healthy is more important now more than ever. Stress has such a huge impact on our immunity and although my companies do not focus on stress management we do focus on the power of purpose, burnout prevention, and mental health in the workplace.
That does include reducing stress and increasing self-awareness and care for the self for an increased overall well being. In a lot of ways I believe that the work that we do has never been more important to having sane and productive individuals to raise children and save the world through their professional efforts. I am thrilled to be able to do more recordings and be able to reach more companies and people across the world from the safety of my desk and have that message recorded. I love the permission to have kids or pets in the background without the judgment on its impact on your reputation as a professional.
I appreciate having more time with my family, and although I miss seeing parts of the world in person, I believe that this is the season for being appreciative of what is around you and focusing on what is most important to you. I am grateful to my husband for his service to our country and all of the essential team members who are sacrificing time with their family and their safety in order to keep us safe. I also want to acknowledge that COVID is not the only shift we have had during this time and the opportunities to really focus on improving humanity as a whole and the injustices and lack of equality that impacts so many all of the time but especially during a time of crisis with limited access to healthcare and basic food and shelter.
I feel blessed that I have been able to be a part of some powerful conversations on how we can raise the quality of life for every humxn and be an ally rather than a bystander during this time. It amazes me the incredible power of our words and videos to connect and unite us despite being kept apart by quarantine.
With my own health, the irony was that at one point I was told that if I had a heart episode to not go to the ER because of the risk of getting COVID. I thought how incredible of a time to be living in when going to the hospital was not safe.
Hope & Cynthia: Now the big question — What do you see coming next?
Bunny: This is the big question? These all were so powerful! Here goes …
- For your industry: I do not have a crystal ball however, my hope is that for my industry there will be an increased awareness in the basic humxn purpose. The whole person, not just the professional and the resume but what we can bring to the world as a whole and how impactful it can be when we can have permission to be ourselves and respect for that courage.
- For your company: I see a lot more remote work and recordings and writing. I desire to get everything I can out from between my two ears and onto paper or recordings so we can reach as many companies as possible. I see more companies realizing the importance of mental health in the workplace and anticipate us being even more in demand than we already are for speaking and projects as more and more individuals work, learn, and live in a remote world.
- For yourself: I am planning to engage in a lot more self-care and being able to create the space to give to the most important things in my life as well as the creative space to allow for all that writing and recording. I plan on continuing to meditate daily, more time with my horses, long walks with family, dinners around the table, and probably a few more Amazon packages as I finish all those home projects that I have started.
- For the country: I hope for peace, for equality, for unity and awareness of how our actions, biases, and behaviors impact the world and those we share the world with.
- For the world: My wish is to realize that we are simply temporary residents on this big beautiful ball and that we have a responsibility to honor our home. There is no landlord that is going to come replace the carpets and paint after we leave. The responsibility is ours alone if we want to continue to enjoy Earth’s beauty and bountiful provisions. The world is a better place with more positivity and recycled joy, happiness, memories, and not all the tangible things that only bring us fleeting moments of emotion. Sustainability starts with awareness.
- For women: For women, my dream is that you will wake up and realize that the voice in your head loves your and is your biggest fan rather than the meanest and loudest voice in your life. I hope that you share that encouragement with other women who are still struggling with that relationship with their inner voice and that we realize that we are responsible for bringing life into this world and that is in more than just motherhood. We have this unique ability to bring calm to the storm, bring a storm when necessary, and to plant the seeds for the next generation of opportunities.
Hope & Cynthia: One more question — now tell us the one question we didn’t ask you — and give us your response.
Bunny: Out of the four parts of the self (body, mind, emotion, and spirit) what are you most aware of in each that helps you align your energy and sanity.
- For my body: I have turquoise hair to remind me to not take life too seriously and that I am part mermaid and need to return to the beach often. I have tattoos that grow with my ever-changing body that represent memories that I want to carry with me as long as I have this physical earthly rental, I have tiger stripes to remind me that I grew life inside of me and brought them into this world and although there was pain, there is so much more joy now, and my muscles remind me how to balance my strength building with my stretching and the Yin and Yangs of life that are important to feel physically but impact my mental, emotional, and spiritual self as well.
- For my mind: I welcome the quiet spaces and do my best to spend more time in those spaces now as I recognize that most of my life has been very noisy mentally and that anxiety, stress, and disease cannot thrive in the present. So I practice being present, and practice some more, and then some more. I hope one day to get to 100 breaths without having 1 single thought, however how will I know when I am at 100 without thinking?
- For my emotions: I imagine warm sunlight rolling over my body and filling it with peace and joy and washing away every ounce of tension and trapped emotion. I try to bring 8 positive emotions to my day and my relationships especially with my kids and myself for every time I notice a negative emotion. And I write about my emotions and explore their origins, honor their existence, evaluate if they are serving me, and allow them to flow freely from my being.
- For my spirit: I honor that I am a part of something far greater than myself. That I am powerless over anything other than my body, my mind, and my emotion, and honor that my spirit contributes to this world and I choose to make that a positive contribution. I honor that the energy of my spirit impacts my environment and I promise to respect that energy that is a gift and that each day I wake up with the spirit in my body and life in my body, mind, and feelings is a gift and my intention is to honor that gift and lift that spirit. I also set the intention to share my spirit with those who wish to welcome it and to protect it from those who wish to bring me harm. The spirit of the beings that I have shared my life with protect me and the spirit who created me has me here for a reason and I am grateful for both of those gifts.
Click here to learn more about Truly Amazing Bunny Young: abetterplaceconsulting.com