Kate De Jong - The Wisdumb Way: Become a Unicorn of Self-Awareness

Tam sits down with her friend and colleague Kate de Jong to talk about Kate's upcoming book, The Wisdumb Way: A Simple Path to Emotional Intelligence Through the Power of Paradox, co-written with EQ expert James Brydon and relationship counsellor Mauro Davide.  The conversation starts with a statistic that is hard to shake: 95% of people think they're self-aware, but research suggests only 10 to 15% actually are. Kate calls the rare few who genuinely develop this skill unicorns, borrowing the term from Dr Tasha Eurich, and The Wisdumb Way is her attempt to help more people get there.  They cover what self-awareness actually means (internal and external), the difference between genuine emotional intelligence and spiritual bypassing, the Dunning-Kruger effect and Mount Stupid, and the three core qualities at the heart of the book: curiosity, vulnerability, and comfort with uncertainty. Kate also walks through the Harrison Assessment's 12 paradox scales and why being extreme in any direction creates its own problems.  Warm, wide-ranging, and genuinely useful for anyone who wants to lead better, parent better, or simply understand themselves more clearly.  In this episode:  The self-awareness statistic that will make you think twice  Internal vs external self-awareness and why both matter  What a 360 or LSI feedback process actually reveals  Why emotional intelligence matters in leadership, parenting and relationships  The danger of spiritual bypassing when doing inner work  Mount Stupid, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and where most of us get stuck  Wisdumb as paradox: being wise and dumb at the same time  The Harrison Assessment and the 12 paradox scales  The three core qualities: curiosity, vulnerability, comfort with uncertainty  Applying the Wisdumb Way in real conversations  What it costs organisations and individuals to lack self-awareness  Book format, exercises, and launch plans  The Wisdumb Way by Kate de Jong, James Brydon and Mauro Davide: [link when available]  Do Yourself a Favour is available on YouTube: https://linktr.ee/doyourselfafavour_podcast  Join the conversation! Do Yourself a Favour is on Facebook LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaracallaghan/  Do Yourself a Favour is recorded at Tailwind Studio: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tailwind-studio  Formerly known as the 50/50 Podcast.  ———————  Chapters  0:00 Intro — Kate's teaser for The Wisdumb Way  0:35 Podcast welcome and conversation setup  0:46 Book title, subtitle and co-authors  3:03 Kate's backstory: passion for self-awareness  3:25 Shocking self-awareness statistic (unicorns)  5:08 Internal vs external self-awareness explained  5:15 360/LSI feedback — Kate's eye-opening story  7:25 Responding to feedback: defensiveness or curiosity  8:01 Why emotional intelligence matters (benefits)  9:19 Parenting, patterns and avoiding damage  11:07 Spiritual bypassing and doing the inner work  14:49 Mount Stupid & the Dunning-Kruger effect  16:15 Introducing wisdumb as paradox (wise & dumb)  19:21 Confidence + humility — the beginner's mind  21:03 Harrison assessment and the 12 paradox scales  22:08 Flip behaviours: risks of being extreme on a scale  27:12 The Wisdumb Way: three core qualities — intro  27:26 Curiosity — the first core quality  31:46 Vulnerability — strength, not weakness  33:47 Comfort with uncertainty (faith/trust/surrender)  36:22 James's intuition/love story — transformation  38:41 Applying the three qualities in conversations  45:21 Costs of lacking self-awareness & book purpose  56:18 Book format, exercises and launch details  1:01:39 Closing  ———————  #KateDeJong #TheWisdumbWay #TamCallaghan #DoYourselfAFavour #SelfAwareness #EmotionalIntelligence #PersonalGrowth #DunningKruger #Vulnerability #Curiosity #LeadershipDevelopment #InnerWork #PodcastAustralia #EQ #Wisdumb