Discovering Your Creative DNA: How The Elements Kit is Revolutionising Leadership and Self-Discovery. Ep 57

Written By Amanda Campbell

Welcome to The Bend Like Bamboo Resilience Show
We discover that our greatest challenges often become our greatest strengths.

Each month, I sit down with remarkable leaders who've transformed adversity into triumph, sharing their inspiring journeys of resilience and renewal. Together, we explore the mindset shifts, practical strategies, and breakthrough moments that turned their setbacks into comebacks.

What you'll discover:
Real stories of people who've learned to bend without breaking, actionable tools to transform stress into strength, and evidence that when we change our story, we change what's possible for our health, relationships, and future.

Like bamboo, we're designed to be flexible.
When we embrace this truth, we don't just survive life's storms - we use them to grow stronger, wiser, and more resilient than ever before.

Join me as we explore how flexibility builds unshakeable resilience.

Lisa Johnson, Founder of The Elements Kit

The Elements Kit.

In a world where traditional personality tests tell you which box you fit into, what if there was a tool that helped you discover your unique creative identity—one so individual that the chance of anyone else sharing your exact profile is virtually zero?

I recently had the privilege of hosting Lisa Johnson, founder of The Elements Kit, on the Bend Like Bamboo Resilience Podcast. Lisa's journey perfectly embodies what it means to bend like bamboo—transforming her own periods of uncertainty and feeling stuck into a revolutionary self-discovery system that's changing how people understand their authentic selves and unlock their hidden potential.

Lisa Johnson, Founder, The Elements Kit

Beyond Traditional Personality Tests

Having worked as a design consultant for years, Lisa experienced firsthand the limitations of traditional psychometric tests like Myers-Briggs and StrengthsFinder. Whilst these tools categorise people into fixed types, Lisa observed something concerning. People struggled to remember their results, often received different outcomes each time, and felt constrained by rigid categorisation.

"What I was learning is that in that idea of really typecasting into those 16 types, people found it very challenging to remember the actual coding for themselves," Lisa explains. "Many people were experiencing getting a different result each time, which is not supposed to happen."

This realisation sparked Lisa's mission to create something fundamentally different—a tool that guides individuals to discover their own one-of-a-kind creative identity rather than fitting them into predetermined boxes.

The Power of Archetypes in Leadership

The Elements Kit combines the ancient wisdom of archetypes with modern self-discovery methodology. Archetypes—recurring patterns of characters found in stories across cultures and time periods—serve as powerful metaphors for human behaviour. We use archetypal language daily: calling someone "an angel" to describe benevolent behaviour or recognising the "warrior" energy in a determined colleague.

What makes Lisa's approach revolutionary is how it maps these archetypes across six distinct life elements:

  • Expression: How you show up in the world

  • Connection: How you relate to others

  • Leadership: Your leadership style and approach

  • Knowledge: How you learn and share wisdom

  • Navigation: Your movement style through life

  • Belief: Your values and spiritual foundation

My Personal Elements Kit Journey

As someone who has personally experienced The Elements Kit, I can attest to its transformative power. My discovery chart revealed fascinating insights about my creative DNA:

  • Expression: Storyteller, Entrepreneur, Strategist

  • Connection: Counsellor, Intuitive, Healer

  • Leadership: Challenger, Warrior, Guide, Hero

  • Knowledge: Channel, Mentor, Teacher, Facilitator

  • Navigation: Seeker, Explorer, Driver

  • Belief: Magician, Medium, Spiritualist, Mystic

What struck me most was how the chart revealed both my Yang energy—the driving, entrepreneurial, challenge-the-status-quo aspects—alongside my Yin energy—the gentle, intuitive, healing qualities. Understanding this dynamic has been invaluable in recognising when to lean into different aspects of myself depending on the situation.

For instance, in a strategic business meeting, I might consciously access my Strategist and Challenger archetypes whilst allowing my Mystic to take a backseat. Conversely, when working with clients in my healing practice, I might lead with my Intuitive and Healer whilst my Entrepreneur supports from behind the scenes.

Transforming Teams and Organisations

Beyond individual discovery, The Elements Kit is revolutionising how teams work together. Lisa works with organisations through one-day workshops where team members complete their discovery charts together, sharing their authentic selves in a safe, guided environment.

"By the time you get to the end of a workshop, not only do people know each other fully and wholly, but they also have worked out how to use other tools in the elements kit to assemble each individual around whatever the team goals are," Lisa shares.

This approach is particularly powerful for teams with members spread across Australia, often meeting face-to-face for the first time. The process creates deep connection and understanding whilst aligning everyone around concrete business objectives and KPIs.

Uncovering Hidden Potential

One of the most profound aspects of The Elements Kit is its ability to reveal dormant potential—talents and qualities that may have been repressed through trauma, limiting beliefs, or societal conditioning.

Lisa shared a powerful transformation story of working with a 21-year-old autistic man who had lost confidence in himself whilst working in an unsuitable role. Through his Elements Kit discovery, he was able to understand and embrace his unique talents and archetypes, leading to a new role that brought him major fulfilment.

"This is very much about who are you in your own eyes, on your own terms, and what are the things that are not yet expressed within you that you want to bring to the fore," Lisa explains.

The Shadow and the Light

Like bamboo that needs both deep roots and flexible branches, The Elements Kit acknowledges that we all have shadow aspects alongside our strengths. Each archetype has a light side and a shadow side. For example, the Challenger archetype that helped me overcome my MS diagnosis and refuse to accept limitations can become problematic when it shows up as being overly argumentative or disruptive.

The key is developing awareness of when our archetypes are serving us versus when they're creating conflict—with ourselves, our teams, or our goals.

A Return to Self

As Lisa beautifully puts it, "The Elements Kit is a return to self—it's knowing what to let go of and knowing a way forward. It's understanding dormant potential that is often repressed from trauma or difficult times. It's discovering unseen treasure."

This philosophy aligns perfectly with the Bend Like Bamboo approach to resilience. When we understand our authentic creative DNA, we can navigate life's challenges with greater flexibility whilst remaining anchored in our core strengths and values.

Resilience Through Self-Knowledge

True resilience—the ability to bend like bamboo—comes from deep self-knowledge. When you understand your unique combination of archetypes, you can:

  • Make conscious choices about which aspects of yourself to bring forward in different situations

  • Navigate conflicts with greater awareness and skill

  • Align your work and life with your authentic nature

  • Unlock dormant potential that's been waiting to emerge

  • Lead others from a place of integrated authenticity

As Lisa wisely notes, "To know yourself is the key to designing a life that you love."

Moving Forward

Whether you're a leader seeking to optimise team dynamics, an individual navigating a life transition, or someone simply curious about your creative potential, The Elements Kit offers a pathway to profound self-discovery and authentic expression.

In our conversation, Lisa and I explored how this work supports people in designing lives they truly love—not through fitting into someone else's definition of success, but by understanding and expressing their unique creative DNA.

As we continue to navigate an increasingly complex world, tools like The Elements Kit remind us that our greatest strength lies not in conformity but in the courage to discover and express our authentic selves.

Lisa's Key Insights from the Conversation:

  1. Self-Discovery Over Categorisation - Move away from tests that put you in boxes and instead engage in guided self-discovery to understand your unique creative DNA

  2. Understand Your Archetypal Dynamics - Learn how your different archetypes work together and sometimes conflict, so you can consciously choose which aspects of yourself to bring forward in different situations

  3. Uncover Hidden Potential - Use tools like The Elements Kit to reveal dormant talents and qualities that may have been repressed through trauma or limiting beliefs



    Lisa's Tips:

    1. Create your way forward – Resilience is being able to flex subtly but strongly at the same time. How to create your way forward, when you know who you are, you know what to create and in alignment with yourself and who you are.

    2. Have a deeper self-awareness – Of your archetypes, their ebbs and flows, which ones need to be expressed at certain times, and which ones need to recede. This helps you to rejuvenate and to build your resilience, helping you to navigate and thrive in dark times.

    3. Keep checking in with yourself – Walk your talk and do the work so that you can optimise empowerment, performance and your ability to empower others.

    Discover more about The Elements Kit at www.theelementskit.com.au
    Ready to discover your creative DNA?
    Discover how understanding your unique archetypal profile can enhance both your personal well-being and professional effectiveness.

    Connect with Lisa Johnson:

Watch the full podcast episode on YouTube

 
 

Connect with Lisa Johnson

Website | LinkedIn 

Work with Amanda

Connect with Amanda
Amanda Campbell is a Sports Kinesiologist, Speaker, and Author who helps CEOs and leaders build resilience to thrive through life's challenges. She hosts the Bend Like Bamboo Resilience Podcast and offers programs designed to maximise performance whilst reducing stress and preventing burnout.

You are welcome to book a complimentary discovery call to explore how we can work together: ​https://calendly.com/amanda_campbell_/15min?month=2025-01​

 

Speaking & Events: Amanda delivers wellness workshops and keynotes both in-person and virtually. To book: hello@amandacampbell.com.au | www.amandacampbell.com.au

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Amanda Campbell
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Matt Rowe interviews Amanda about her journey, The Bend Like Bamboo Method and how she is helping thousands of clients globally to heal and thrive with the power of flexibility. Ep 56