In this week's episode of The Best Guest Victoria Bennion chats with Andrea Isaacs, founder of the Isaacs Method of Emotional and Life Mastery. They explore ways to embody confidence, master emotions, and live purposefully.

About Andrea Isaacs

Andrea Isaacs is called a Master of Change and a Spiritual Teacher Extraordinaire. She has a passion to bring more joy to motivated, conscious, hard-working leaders who are changing the world. She is an international speaker, empowering facilitator and transformational coach.

After transforming her own painful shyness into confidence, she recognized that change CAN be easy. From shy and speechless, she became the host of her own radio show, and is now a magnetic, engaging and inspiring speaker, on stages in front of hundreds of people. Her own personal transformation taught her that she can guide others through their transformations. She has uncanny insight into what will aid each unique shift with the greatest ease for the greatest outcome. She has now changed the lives of thousands of people in over 25 countries.

Key Takeaways

Discover the Enneagram in Action – Learn how this ancient personality system can help you identify emotional patterns and unlock new strengths.

Master Your Mindset – Understand how your emotions shape your mindset—and how shifting both can improve relationships, business success, and overall life satisfaction.

Uncover Your Emotional Blueprint – Find out how Andrea’s EQ quiz reveals your personal gifts and challenges—and why knowing these can change how you show up every day.

Build Unshakeable Confidence – Learn why confidence isn’t about trying harder, but about healing old messages and rewiring your emotional responses.

The First Domino Effect – Discover how changing one key emotional habit can create a ripple effect that transforms everything from decision-making to productivity.

Embodiment Tools You Can Use – Hear how Andrea combines movement, language, and neuroscience to help clients embody their goals and purpose.

Quote

"Confidence is essential in our lives. No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you're a human being on planet Earth. If you don't believe in yourself, if you don't have the confidence to speak up for yourself, you won't have the relationships, the business, the life that you want."- Andrea Isaacs

Mentioned in This Episode

Emotional Mastery Toolkit & EQ Quiz https://andrea-isaacs.com/eqtoolkit/

Masterclass: 3 Keys to Unshakeable Confidence: Stop Shrinking and Start Shining – Saturday, June 28th - https://go.andrea-isaacs.com/event-optin-unshakeable

Connect with Andrea Isaacs

https://andrea-isaacs.com/

Connect with Victoria Bennion

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Transcript

Victoria Bennion: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome. I'm your host, Victoria

Bennion, and the founder of the best podcast guest booking agency. And you're

listening to the best guest, the podcast for business owners, creatives, and

entrepreneurs who want to harness the power of podcasts to grow their platforms

and increase their visibility.

Victoria Bennion:

Hello and welcome to the podcast. Andrea, how are you today?

Andrea Isaacs: Hi,

Victoria. I'm great, thanks. How are you?

Victoria Bennion: I'm

well, thank you. It's lovely to have the chance to chat with you again. You are

the founder of the Isaacs Method of Emotional and Life Mastery. I wondered if

you could talk a little bit about your method to begin with.

Andrea Isaacs: Yeah.

Well, thank you. So I. Was a professional dancer for 25 years, and one of the

things I loved to do was to choreograph dances about people and their emotions.

And I, um, I wanted my dancers to be authentic and powerful on stage, and when

they could embody these range of [00:01:00]

emotions they were, and fast forward many years, I came across a personality

system called the Enneagram, and I wanted to learn it experientially because I

am an experiential learner.

Andrea Isaacs: And I

learned I'm not the only one. And so I used my background of embodying emotion

in order to learn the system. But what happened next really surprised me

because I had been painfully shy for my whole life, and suddenly confidence

became a part of me. And confidence is essential in our lives. No matter who

you are, no matter what you do, you're a human being.

Andrea Isaacs: I'm

planet Earth. If you don't believe in yourself, if you don't have the

confidence to speak up for yourself, you won't have the relationships, the

business, the life that you want. And my journey, the, the journey I offer

people when they wanna work with me is we'd start with emotional mastery and

then relational mastery, and then life mastery.

Andrea Isaacs: But I

realized, you know what it is about emotions. Yes. But our emotions determine

our mindset. And our mindset determines everything from the mood we're in when

we wake up in the morning. The decisions we [00:02:00]

make throughout the day and the ones we don't make, the actions we take. And

the ones we don't take the quality of everything and the mood we're in when we

put our head down at the pillow on our pillow at the end of the day.

Andrea Isaacs: And so

the work really is about having the life that you want and that is life

mastery.

Victoria Bennion: I

love that. Terms of your journey, so you were a dancer, did you become injured?

Did I read?

Andrea Isaacs: Yes. I

had a career ending injury. I fell really hard. I was, I had, I was up in the

air and I landed really hard on my tailbone and I could hardly walk for three

months and that was pretty much the end of my career. I hung in there, uh,

teaching. I couldn't perform anymore, and I realized I've gotta do something

different.

Andrea Isaacs: And,

you know, I know what it's like. Not to have a life purpose, because what had

been my purpose was taken away. It was gone. The friends I had were all in that

world. My world was all designed around the fact that I was a professional

dancer and went to every dance concert and I've traveled to see dance concerts.

Andrea Isaacs: My [00:03:00] friends were in that world. I mean, it was

my world and. It. There's just, it's not, I mean, it is hard to describe, but

anyone who's gone through it knows it's not just depressing. It's like, well,

what am I here for? What's the meaning of life? And I know what that's like. So

when I came across the Enneagram and this change happened for me, I realized,

oh.

Andrea Isaacs: It, it

didn't dawn on me. It took a while for me to realize that this is my new

purpose. It's like I want people to have, uh, to speak up for themselves, to

take a stand for who they are. To know that what you want, what you need

matters. Your gifts matter, and I believe everyone. Has a purpose no matter

what you do, who you are, what stage of life you're in.

Andrea Isaacs: Even

people who are retired, I believe they have a purpose, whether it's to be with

their grandchildren, to speak up for who they are and what they want to have

that kind of confidence. We talked about a moment ago, the way, who do you

wanna be in your day? What's your intention for how you wanna be throughout

your day?

Andrea Isaacs: That

is a good purpose. That's sufficient. So I like to say there's no judgment.

About how big or small your [00:04:00] purpose

is. Sometimes someone who has a big dream, this was told to me, oh, that's too

much. You can't do that. Who do you think you are? Boy, that deflated me. Or

there's no judgment about how small your dream is.

Andrea Isaacs: It's

like, if that's what you want, let's make that happen.

Victoria Bennion:

Brilliant. Can you talk a little bit about the Enneagram?

Andrea Isaacs: Yes.

Uh, any means nine in Greek and Gram is a diagram or, or drawing, and it is a

diagram that has three symbols, a circle, a triangle, and a six pointed star.

And each point on that star, it has a personality system associated, a

personality style associated with it, and each one has predictable gifts.

Andrea Isaacs: And

challenges, and so it's useful to know your core type, which is, which really

determines your motivation for why you are the way you are, and it determines

the way what comes easily and naturally to you and the challenges that you

have. When I discovered, especially when I created my EQ quiz, which is part of

the emotional mastery toolkit that we'll talk about later when I created my

quiz though, I realized, you know what?

Andrea Isaacs: It's [00:05:00] not just about your type because we can

see your gifts and challenges in all these nine areas. Gifts and challenges is

two, nine types is nine times two 18 areas of emotion. I can see how you show

up in this whole realm of emotion and you know, we were never taught the

language of emotion and our education.

Andrea Isaacs: And

the Enneagram, I believe, is a great introduction to the language of emotion.

And because of my background as a dancer and how I brought embodiment to the

Enneagram, there's something about the language of the body. When it's brought

together with a language of emotion, you start to know how to choose your

emotions, which as I said earlier, determines your mindset and that really

brings you to emotional mastery.

Andrea Isaacs: But

anyway, so with, um, the Enneagram. We, in my work, we embody the gifts of each

type and that gives you an expanded emotional range, expanded capacity so that

you don't have to just be a confident, decisive. You can also be the peacemaker

who takes in all points of view. You can also be a real [00:06:00] powerful caregiver.

Andrea Isaacs: And

being here of service, I could go on around, uh, the gifts and challenges of

all the types, but, uh, let me put it this way. We all need all of it. And when

we have our core type, that's not the end of learning. Because to be our best

and highest selves, which is my personal goal in life, to be my best and

highest self, no matter what happens, we need it all.

Andrea Isaacs: And to

have more of the gifts. So we expand our possible options of how we respond

when life throws us, throws us a curve ball or someone pushes our buttons. And

also to know under to understand, know, and experience the shadow. Side of each

type and there's value in the shadow because we all have one.

Andrea Isaacs: And

when we do, when we step into our shadow deliberately, and then we step out of

it, we learned that what next time it arises, oh, I have the flexibility. I

don't have to live like this. I don't have to suffer. We learned that we have

the flexibility to shift out of it, and it also applies [00:07:00] to other people when we have stepped into their shadow.

Andrea Isaacs: What I

like to call a ritual container where there are no real life consequences. When

other people are in their shadow, we know that it's their shadow. It's not

about me, it's about them being their shadow. We have a, we have better tools

for responding to other people when their shadows arise. So in terms of what

the Enneagram is, it's a great tool for understanding ourselves and others, and

it also is a doorway to our emotional mastery.

Victoria Bennion:

Hmm. Do you see more of one type of number than another with clients you work

with? Or is it like an even spread? I.

Andrea Isaacs: Uh,

not, well, it depends. Uh, when I go to the, uh, international Enneagram

conferences, I've had programs worth of 65 to a hundred people attend, and the

numbers are pretty evenly. Spread because sometimes I'll put them into type

groups and we have exercises that we do in the type groups. So sometimes the

numbers are evenly spread.

Andrea Isaacs: In

smaller programs, there are some types that don't show up as often. I could say

that sometimes types type [00:08:00] three,

which is called the achiever, they have, one of their challenges is they're

really focused on their image, how they come across. So they wanna be seen as

successful. Why do I need, why do I need to work on myself?

Andrea Isaacs: I'm

already done. Growing. I'm like, a, I've got this. And they do, they are

successful, but I believe we all have some room for growth. So sometimes they

don't show up as much. Um, some people, some types are more withdrawn, although

I would say type nine, those who know the Enneagram, know what I mean? Type

nine, who's the peacemaker?

Andrea Isaacs: They

can get along with all kind types of people. They want inner peace no matter

what. And so they'll put aside. Any conflict, any differences, any any wants or

needs because what if I, what I want or need is different than what you want or

what if you don't wanna be, do that for me. So they put it all aside, which

helps the peace between them and the other person.

Andrea Isaacs: And it

also helps going with the flow. So there's a benefit to that and they

compromise to go with the flow, and there's a benefit to that. But when they

compromise again and again, and again, and again, and again and again, they

start to feel like no one cares what I [00:09:00]

want. It's like no one even cares what I think or what I feel, and no one cares

what I want or need.

Andrea Isaacs: And

it's like I'm invisible. Like I'm not even here. So their challenge is to, um,

to learn how to embody the truth of who they are, which is that you want and

your needs matter.

Andrea Isaacs: So

actually I get a lot of them showing up in my program.

Andrea Isaacs: And

also at the end of it, when working with me, they know that their needs matter.

They can take a stand. I, I have kind of a lot of energy. Maybe you've seen

that already. Um, sometimes they're intimidated by that.

Andrea Isaacs: They

start to back off because I come across maybe like strong or powerful. I don't

know. I don't always feel that inside, but it intimidates them because they're

afraid of it. know, that brings to mind an interesting topic, which is about

power. A lot of people don't step into their power. Because they had been

exposed to power, used in a wrong or bad way, maybe even an abusive use of

power.

Andrea Isaacs: In

fact, I remember being around a lot of anger. Anger when I was young and [00:10:00] power used for the wrong way. And I

remember saying, I'll never be like that. And we have this saying, you know, we

throw the baby out with the bath water. What does that mean? It's like, well, I

threw out my confidence in favor of not being angry ever.

Andrea Isaacs: Well,

did I ever get angry? You bet I did. But I kept it down. And anybody who's ever

done that, you felt anger and you just pushed it down. I can't feel angry or

I'm a spiritual person. I don't get angry. I'm peaceful inside. Deep inside

there is anger, and the challenge of anger and power is we have to experience

it.

Andrea Isaacs: The

wrong use of it in order to know the energy of it so that we can learn how to

choose to use it in a healthy way, which is what I like to call unshakeable

confidence. And that is powerful. It's not power over, it's the power to be all

that you are. The power to be you, to be all you. That like lights me up and

that is, uh, it, it lights up your life and that is a beautiful and a right [00:11:00] use of power.

Victoria Bennion: How

can we get to the point where we have unshakeable confidence?

Andrea Isaacs: Oh, I

love that. I love that question. I love talking about it. In fact, I'm doing a

masterclass about it called the Three Keys to Unshakeable Confidence, stop

Shrinking and Start Shining. So when I look at someone's blueprint, which is

the result of your EQ quiz, I can see a combination, a unique combination of

gifts that points to your life purpose, and also a unique combination of

challenges.

Andrea Isaacs: That

have held you back from clarity about it or living it. And when we see those

blocks, we can unblock them and we there, I can talk more about that. We can

unblock them and then unshakeable confidence arises. You can't just start with,

oh, just be confident. When I was a kid, my mom said, I can't tell you how...