We had the good fortune of connecting with Henna Pryor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Henna, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
My relationship with risk-taking is what evolved to become the entire basis for my new book – Good Awkward: How to Embrace the Embarrassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become the Bravest you. All of the career success I’ve had so far, including two total career pivots, has been because of the willingness to place small bets and take small, strategic risks. I can count so many times when I felt I wasn’t ready, or didn’t have the qualifications, or wasn’t sure if this *thing* I wanted to try would be well-received, but early on I developed a mantra: Do it awkward, but do it anyway.

The willingness to take a risk – to jump the Cringe Chasm, as I call it – especially when the outcome is uncertain, that has become the singular catalyst for so many good things in my life and in my professional growth. Combining that with a community of incredible, supportive friends and colleagues has been a force for exponential leaps.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My business is called Pryority Group – it both includes me as a keynote speaker and author, but also a team of executive coaches and trainers that I partner with to help improve the mindsets, actions, behaviors, and habits of hungry high achievers. I also have several partnerships, one with a company called Limitless Minds which focuses on teaching mental skills to “corporate athletes” and another called Chief, which focuses on women in leadership. What I’m most proud of is in all of the work, we take a really modern approach – the world has changed significantly in the last 5 years. None of us are the same person we were before the pandemic, and the ways we learn and grow need to change as a result. Most of my team’s content is deeply rooted in human behavior and psychology, which is really behind everything when it comes to personal growth and development.

Growing my own business has been a labor of love, but a ton of fun. To grow something from nothing, you have to enjoy the work. It becomes too easy to fixate on the outcome, but if you’re a high achiever, the goal post on that “outcome” is always moving anyway, so better to enjoy the journey. It’s been a tale of experiments and trial and error for the last 3.5 years, but one I wouldn’t change a bit. I went from an idea in early 2020, to now 2 TEDx talks in the span of 90 days, a book that just published to phenomenal reviews (Good Awkward: How to Embrace the Embarrassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become the Bravest You), a great speaking career, but above all of that – a circle of friends and mentors that I couldn’t do it without. The community around me really is the best part of all of it.

Really grateful for where we are now, and all that’s yet to come!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m not from ATL – so assuming that’s for this area? I’ve visited ATL a number of times and the one stop I try to ALWAYS make is Poor Calvin’s. Asian-Southern fusion food that is TO. DIE. FOR.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s hard to narrow down to just one (or even a few), but I’d love to shout out my friend Karen Wright. Karen is a brilliant Executive Coach and founder of Parachute Executive Coaching, but in my life, she has been the person that first saw the sparks of potential in me when I started my new career as a keynote speaker and executive coach.

Sometimes, chasing success can feel like a “chicken and egg” scenario – some clients look for experience, but how do you gain experience without a chance to work with clients? In my own life, I’ve seen that all it takes are a few people to truly see your skills and potential to help kick things into motion, and Karen was that person for me.

She saw how my previous 14 years of experience could add value to my career turn, and those early partnerships helped me build the confidence I needed to take every risk – micro and macro – since then.

Website: www.hennapryor.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/hennapryor

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/hennapryor

Facebook: www.facebook.com/hennapryorcoach

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@hennapryor

Image Credits
For headshots only (just Henna solo professional shots) – Laurel Harrish Photography

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutAtlanta is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.