Step Into Your Higher Self

Speaker 1: [Music] hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in shaa shu is a high energy thought leader lifetime Adventurer and skilled executive leadership coach she is a lifelong Seeker with a master certificate in neurolinguistic programming shaa has experienced working closely with top organizations such as Nike Colombia sportsare and Fashion Group International she also has two tedex talks to her shaa please tell us more about who you are and about your early career experiences before you became the

Speaker 2: founder of shaa Shu thank you it's a great honor to be on your show the best thing I did when I was about 18 I went on the road with showbands and I travel all over the United States and the Caribbean I learned things and I think for your audience and how we build things I think that there is something in a person you for having this and your business that you're growing me in that I was willing to take risks I didn't know a soul I just went down to Vegas and started taking auditions as classes I traveled all over and I went to Europe for eight months and I just was willing and I think that's another super good way to think about what do you have people who build it or people who are out there doing things it's because number one they're willing and number two they're willing to take that risk to make a fool of themselves or whatever they have to do I always say the first step is the hardest the first step can be the most challenging once you start you're in it right and it's not always going to be perfect but sometimes it's that first step that can be the most challenging towards a project towards launching a business towards anything in

Speaker 1: life we want to do well said you know I just got off a horse I'm a horse woman today I was riding and the it's getting on the horse and then when you get on you're like okay I got I'm balanced and I'm strong enough and all the things you say to your s but it can be quite

Speaker 2: intimidating when you begin I agree with you I use a lot of the analogies of animals I do executive leadership coaching yes and I work with people all the time and we are in love with animals in general humans love other species I wish we treated each other the species we are together as well as we do our animals sometimes but in my tedex talks I use a lot of animal analogies as well because they can teach you without ever talking to you I think a lot of leaders talk to people I told them I talk to

Speaker 1: them they're directing a lot and I think if we listened more or we paid attention to some communication that wasn't talking at each other and so my horses have taught me lessons huge it's a good a good thing for a leader to have an animal I actually believe I think every leader should have one that's the other thing with an animal like children we raise you put all your time and effort into them so that they go and have a great life outside you that's the real goal here of course you're going to know them and love them all their lives but it's their in-laws that are really going to benefit from how good you're you uh you worked for them but an animal is like one of our team we should be investing and taking care of it because it's going to stay with us and I think sometimes we don't invest in our team we don't give them the coaching they need or we don't get our own coaching so that we become a better leader but they're staying like the investment I can make is to make sure my dog gets well trained now old animals have already trained us we think it was the other way around and I think our teams train us as well or they learn how to work around us once they figure stuff out and I think the best leaders are ones that go after continual Improvement they want to get coached and they want to take your master mind or whatever it might be it's so true how can we gain that additional knowledge and go to the next level a lot of people you know you're like oh you coach so and so they don't tell anybody right it's difficult for people like us that that do great work and we know we have huge success with our clients because the clients don't necessarily share it because they're at a level who are they going to ask for help they're not going to ask the people who put them in that position whether it be the board or their leader they're not going to talk to their peers and lose reputational Capital they're not going to talk to their teams and their family does this oh you'll figure it out the Smart Ones actually figure out who can help them and of course everybody's got their own energy so it's got to be somebody you know you feel that can help

Speaker 2: you can you tell us about what you do in

Speaker 1: your coaching business thank you I love to talk about my coaching business and the reason I do is because it's my sweet spot I do professional speaking I'm a certified speaking professional and and I love that too but when I get to work one-on-one with people the way that I do it different and I I mean I have an online course and all of us do these things but one on one I'm really their Advocate I am their listener I am their word Watcher one of my clients said you know things that I've not said so then I can challenge a belief like people leak their beliefs right you hear this they say something and you go oh that's where the challenge is so instead of correcting them you just ask them a question about is that really what you believe most every one of us can fix our own problems if we have somebody on the

Speaker 2: outside that's willing to listen and ask I'm sure that's what you do as well I love what I do and I work with people ongoing and it's always interesting because they'll say well how long will it take you know and I'll usually say well you'll need to give me about six months because you're GNA hate me in the middle of that maybe or whatever but let's make sure and I absorb them I do what accountability call and I have a goals call but after they see results with humans and I'm sure you see this in your business and they do something they they have something going on with their team we talk about it they go and use the tool and immediately see results this works and if it works of course you

Speaker 1: want to do it I love how you say they might hate you in the middle because you're getting them to dig deeper right and sometimes that can be uncomfortable but sometimes that's what a leader needs in order to make that leap to go to the next level so true and the ones that are

Speaker 2: the best are the ones that actually instead of apologizing or or disagreeing with you they just say thank you and then because I have no other intent except to serve that person I'm just listening like even today I was just thinking before we got on what can I say that would be of benefit to your listeners what can I do to make you have the best show you've ever had I mean you're great and so how do I make it

Speaker 1: even better for you how has your early career experiences influenced you as a business leader in leading your company and how does that experience help your clients your leadership style and assist you in managing your business today lots

Speaker 2: of Juicy stuff in there and I think the biggest thing is learning all the things I didn't want to do when you work with people and you have leaders that you think to yourself what the okay well I'm never going to do that or boy that was painful they could have done that differently and I think that really impacts you how will you be how will you be as a leader how will you be as anything a parent or a friend and this is who we bring to the party so for me I had some people at the very beginning I had a woman who was seven years older than me and she was better than me in every way and the hierarchy when I got into this particular organization was they always featured the star person you know she was the Starlet and she was leaving and replaced herself with this woman who was above me and I was the grunt and this gal one time came and helped me she goes well we'll get done faster and then we could go do something I was so amazed by this she sat me down and said I think we should do these together and can I trust you now if she had been the diva that the other woman was I may very well have turned into to a very bad Diva like The Other Woman instead God gifted me I have to say it the universe whatever you're understanding is with this woman who actually treated me fairly and believed in me and even though she was better than me to this day we are still very close says I was the best partner she ever had because if

Speaker 1: she was not having a good day I was constantly pushing to be as good as she was so if you can surround yourself with people better than you that don't squash you then you can shine and and they're all over the place you're that person I'm that person I can't wait

Speaker 2: to lift women up and Men yes and that's so great that she allowed you to grow within your role and she probably

Speaker 1: learned along the way too my favorite story about her is she would call me now this is years after we quit working together and she would say oh shaa just checking in and she would she would say hey have you read any books lately and I would go oh yeah she would say teach me and I would share everything about the book and all the stuff now I learned it again and she would ask really good questions and I felt great and afterwards we hung up and I was thinking about our call and I realized how smart she still was you know here she was got everything that I had paid to learn right right out of me and I felt great about giving it to her right so she's continuously teaching me because she's smart and Savvy and wise that's great and it sounds like you have a mentorship relationship within each other too to empower and encourage each other to go

Speaker 2: farther absolutely can you tell us about

Speaker 1: a particular life or business experience that is memorable to you and that you carry with you today what a great question first of all thank you I think I told you red hair white skin not a good-look kid and I was adopted at Birth so my folks were older and both of them had jet black hair I mean it I did not fit into this family we all have challenges we grow up and we're women and we don't know if we fit in I was insecure braces you know the whole thing and my dad one time I remember at that time of life there was a lot of people going after artificial insemination and they were using all kinds of invitro and and I remember thinking to myself that if my folks had had that chance they would have done that so I said to my dad one time I went Dad I just need to know this if you and mom had had all these options you would have done that right you would have wanted your own child right and I'll never forget my dad it was pivotal to me he said you know Shauna mom and I have been talking about this and here's what we think we couldn't have done as well is what we got with you I want to cry right now when I hear myself say that I mean my dad just let me know that I was vital and important and so amazing oh and you know what my dad was very instrumental my dad would ask my opinion about things instead of the boy does it or whatever it is he would say well shaa you're smart what do you think and so consequently I found value I'm like of course my opinion has value and men will want to hear it and I have never found that to be untrue what a great father and role model to encourage you and encourage that that's so wonderful they're both gone now but they were something else so yeah I was very blessed in my folks what gave you the

Speaker 2: courage to make your leap to launch shaa

Speaker 1: Shu and to decide to become a coach well and even before a coach my first foray was shuis Productions and I put a fashion production company together and I think it was because I realized there was a need in the market and I think that sometimes when we do follow our passion I think it's important but I also think you need to pay attention to what you do that adds value because if I write for me or if I speak because I think I'm so good well I'm not really bringing what the audience might need but the minute that I shifted to well there's a need here to have this fashion production company and then as I was speaking and realizing that the content that I had because I had taught finishing fashion and Commercial work for over 20 years people would say Well we'd like you to come and talk to our company and I was catching that there was a need and that gave you the impetus to take the leap that there's a client right there there and they they need you

Speaker 2: can you tell us about the two tedex

Speaker 1: talks that you did first of all Ted itself is so crazy great and all of that and the fact that they decided to open it up and let people do Ted X's all across the nation there's so many and so here's the Nugget I've been speaking forever right I'm a professional speaker I get that but Ted isn't about professional speaking it really is about having an idea worth spreading and that's why some of the talks are they're almost all of them are so intriguing and they're short which is really great but it what was that idea I think that everybody should apply for a tedex talk in their lives especially people who are building their own businesses because what is that idea what is it that you're solving for someone else and mine was all around what animals teach us so it's what pets can teach you about leadership was my first one with three main lessons and then I was asked to do another Ted Talk and it was right as the pandemic was going and so we did it virtually the first one was in front of 2,000 people in Austin it was scary but it was wonderful and the second one was equally weird and scary and wonderful because it was virtual and I did that about why we have to stop pushing and that was all in the middle of the pandemic it was really interesting and what a pivotal way to say that's an idea we're spreading is

Speaker 2: we've got to stop pushing what is your strategy for management for staying on task to accomplish what you set out to do as well as motivating those around

Speaker 1: you great questions staying on task when you set up certain things that you're accountable for so years ago I was doing a full program called create your ultimate year and it was once a month and I would go down to California we had 70 people in it was wonderful however I was realizing that certain people were getting more things done and certain ones weren't so that's when you get a mastermind you have to do something else so at the time I developed something called the 5:15 so five days a week at 5:15 people would call in and on Mondays they would say what they would be accountable for Tuesday Wednesday

Speaker 2: Thursday we would just have a theme and on Friday I would read what you had said you would be accountable for in front of this group now if you don't think that's pressure and I remember remember you're going to laugh when you hear this because I I remember I did it thinking to myself wow and like 20 people signed up and I didn't realize that if I had to be there at 5:15 I had to get up at 4:30 I mean I was like I hate this I don't want to do and then I had to have a theme well what it taught me was because I'm leading this when you put yourself in situations where you've got to feed animals or you've got to lead this call I've been doing it for 15 years I get up at 440 I'm on that call at 5:15 and it has worked I have had somebody on that call for all 15 years they pay to be on this call that's how effective it is those are those things that we add to our life that keep us on the track we want and that's why vacations throw us all off you know because we sleep and then you're like why did I stop working out well because I took a vacation but accountability and what we put out to the universe is so important but when you take it a step further and you actually tell someone what you're going to do it's amazing what happens right other than just writing down a to-do list yeah it works magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that

Speaker 1: brings us joy what is one tip you can leave with us today about how you find

Speaker 2: and live your joy oh that's an easy one I wake up in joy every day because I have created my own environment I'm a believer of we are creating Our Lives they are not given to us we're not lucky I mean we may have lucky breaks but you create everything and I look around I live in a log house on the top of 20 acres and I am lucky but I built that house and so it brings me joy I wake up just what am I going to create today

Speaker 1: think about that I love that and it's such good advice because you're right we do create our surroundings and if that we're doing something can't always quit it but nine times out of 10 if we're doing something we don't enjoy there are

Speaker 2: options yes it feels like there's options every single minute and we just say make a different choice I mean you it sounds so simple but most of the most beautiful things in life are simple so true they just are it's enjoying those moments down to enjoying a cup of coffee saying I'm going to enjoy this cup of coffee and really feeling it so amazing

Speaker 1: right yes thank you so much for joining us today and to our listeners around the world can you tell us how and where we

Speaker 2: can find you absolutely the best way is just my website which is shaash sho.com and Shauna is spelled s h w n a and Shu even though it sounds exactly like the one on your foot is spelled s Chu I have a pre-quiz to find leadership blind spots sign up for a free clarifying call it's not a sales call so I'm very happy to do for people if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer Community memberships masterminds

Speaker 1: Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our sheb built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer she built it business Consulting and the shil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave [Music]