Michelle Stanton, the founder of Zone Culture was born in South Korea to exceptionally ambitious and perfectionistic parents, who had gone from enormously wealth to extreme poverty after the Korean War.
Raised to believe that education and hard work is the answer to success in life, Michelle grew up to be a competitive perfectionist. Having been told that there is nothing she could not do, if she set her mind to it, Michelle never experienced a glass ceiling at work. Ambition drove her to rapidly climb the corporate ladder, rarely stopping to enjoy her success, always unsatisfied and feeling not good enough because there was always a better position to aim for and more to acquire.
Michelle has a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Computer Science and mathematics, a Diploma in Education and a Graduate Diploma in Marketing. She worked for 10 years at ANZ Banking Group and ICI Australia in marketing and sales management, before setting up a training and development business for herself, using leading edge leadership and training programs from the United States.
Michelle first experienced the flow state on a trolley in the Emergency Department of a Hospital in Melbourne in April of 1995. Her bowel had ulcerated end to end and almost perforated. Michelle stayed predominantly in flow for about six months and dropped out of flow when she went back to work after taking six months to recover. At this point, the bowel ulcerated once again and she was then unable to work for 8 years due to internal bleeding which did not respond well to medication.
During this time, Michelle experienced the flow state from time to time but in short bursts and very intermittently.
What she noticed was that the internal bleeding would stop whenever she entered the flow state and start again when she fell out. Because this was happening spontaneously, she had no idea if the flow state could be induced and how to sustain it long enough to get her life back, but she was committed to finding out.
She started researching this state of being and found others who had experienced it, mainly in the East. After reading many of the spiritual texts from the East, she walked into a bookshop and “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle fell off the bookshelf onto the floor in front of her. It described the flow state Michelle was experiencing, but she was unable to use the methodology outlined.
Then in 2003 she discovered the Alexander Technique (AT) – an amazing process of expanding awareness. After 18 months of AT teacher training, Michelle had an epiphany and created her first Zone Tool, now called ‘Get in the Zone’. She started facilitating two-day workshops teaching people how to get in the zone and achieve extraordinary outcomes in intimate relationships. During this time, she found a process of questioning the truth of your thoughts from reading “Loving What Is’ by Byron Katie, and discovered that she stepped into flow when her erroneous thoughts were seen as untrue.
After working with hundreds of people using this rudimentary debunking process (Level 1 Zone Process), Michelle discovered the 3 core limiting beliefs that is responsible for all the limiting thoughts that arise in our minds. This short-cut created a breakthrough and the Level 2 Zone Process born. Then in 2017 the Visioning Process entered her life through another book “The Power of Awareness” by Neville Goddard. This powerful process was integrated into the Zone Training system and became the Level 3 Zone Process.
Ever since Michelle first experienced the flow state in 1995, it has been Michelle’s purpose in life to find a way to ensure everyone can and does experience this amazing state.
Michelle knows too well about living life in stress, anxiety and overwhelm… and how unsustainable this is. Too many of us are living our lives like this and it has to stop if we are to survive and thrive in the world of exponential, accelerated change that the Fourth Industrial Revolution has ushered in.
We either upgrade our Human Operating System from hOS 1.0 to hOS 2.0 or be overtaken as a human race by AI and automation, rather than being the beneficiaries of this amazing technological paradigm jump.
Having worked in the corporate sector, Michelle has been guided to bring this upgrade of humanity through the places people work. The most effective way for businesses to forge ahead in this Fourth Industrial Revolution is by ensuring that their people perform at their peak individual and as a team. hOS 1.0 is competitive and exclusive. hOS 2.0 is collaborative and inclusive.
