I’ve been reading Florence Scovel Shinn with a group over the last few months, and her teachings are changing the way I see my words.
In 1925, Mrs. Shinn couldn’t find a publisher for her book, so she just published it herself. The Game of Life and How to Play It became one of the foundational texts of the New Thought movement. Her core idea was simple: “whatever man voices, he begins to attract.” Not just what you say out loud, but the internal dialogue you repeat to yourself.
Around the same time, there was this woman Elsie Lincoln Benedict who was drawing crowds of 3,000 people to her lectures. Over 100,000 paying students attended her programs. She spoke to over three million people by 1920, traveling to 55 countries. And this was the 1920s, when most women’s career options were basically secretary or teacher.
Building Businesses, Not Just Movements
What gets me about both of them is they weren’t just writing or teaching. They were building businesses. Mrs. Shinn had been an artist. Mrs. Benedict started something called the School of Opportunity where she taught people how to understand personality types and use that knowledge. They charged money. They built followings. They created movements.
When someone asked Mrs. Benedict how she could hold a crowd of 3,000 for a lecture, she said: “Because I talk on the one subject on earth in which every individual is most interested—himself.”
Smart.
Mrs. Shinn focused on the power of deliberate thought and what she called the Law of Substitution – catching a destructive thought and replacing it with something constructive. Mrs. Benedict was more psychological, teaching people to identify their strengths and actually capitalize on them. In How to Make More Money (1925), she told women to “stop selling yourself short” and “capitalize on your type.” Direct economic empowerment advice, in 1925.
Why This Still Matters
Here’s what I keep thinking about: they both knew that understanding yourself changes everything. How you build partnerships. How you communicate. How you show up.
And they figured out how to build businesses around ideas that mattered to them. Mrs. Shinn self-published when no one would touch her work. Mrs. Benedict created a school. They both lectured constantly, wrote prolifically, and influenced everyone from Louise Hay to Napoleon Hill. Though they rarely get mentioned.
If you want to read their work:
- The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn
- How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict
Here’s a good video that breaks down Mrs. Shinn’s philosophy if you want to learn more.
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About the Author
Dana C. Arnett, Founder and CEO of Wicked Bionic, spent 30 years in the entertainment business before starting the agency in 2015. Los Angeles-based multicultural communications and advertising agency works with government and private sector clients on strategic marketing and engaging media campaigns. Dana has always loved learning from other cultures, and that curiosity became the foundation for the Wicked Bionic approach to culturally responsive marketing – building authentic connections between organizations and the communities they serve.
