Welcome Shawn! Please tell us about your business and how you work with entrepreneurs.
I’ve been working as an online creator and coach full-time for 10 years. I work with business owners and creative entrepreneurs who are burned out or self-sabotaging and ready to uplevel and do what is necessary to take themselves and/or their business to the next level. I host a podcast called Brave Yes CEO. A lot of my work involves what I call the Brave Yeses of being a CEO as what we’re really focused on in coaching sessions is helping you move from survival mode or creator mode into CEO mindset — which is often what you need to do to get yourself or your business to its next stage of growth or joy. I am passionate about helping women business owners, in particular, find the clarity, capacity and courage to do the big, brave work necessary to be seen, take up space in your marketplace and to be more visible in your marketing and sales. Women tend to do a lot of hiding and letting self-doubt take over and so my work is centered around helping you make a bigger impact — all with less work in the end. I am committed to offering soulful and strategic business mentoring, wellbeing and capacity planning and fierce courage coaching so you can be the strong leader you need to be for your business and your awesome future.
We just entered the New Year and resolutions are so popular right now, do you recommend setting them and what tips do you have for keeping them?
I set what I call a single Brave Yes Intention — and I only pick one. And it’s usually very, very lofty. And then I run that one intention through one of my own Brave Yes Power Tools called the Brave Yes Goals Actualizer which helps me — and my clients — work backwards and reverse engineer the projects, goals and actions I need to focus on to see the Brave Yes through to actualization. I am not a fan of too many goals or too many small details in my planning process so I prefer to keep things really loose, bendy and filled with grace because ultimately the main goal is always to take our businesses to their next level this year. If we take on too many things, that’s really hard to do. I have learned that the hard way in the past.
Is there any piece of advice you find yourself repeating to clients the most?
Oh goodness, which one should I choose? There are so many. I think the biggest one is … trust yourself. Since my work is helping women business owners step out of survival mode and take bigger risks, self-trust is so huge. If you know something is or isn’t working in your current business — or your life, for that matter — trust yourself. And, it’s so easy to get distracted these days with numerous streams of gurus telling you what and how to run your business. Ultimately, you are the boss and you need to start acting like one and that begins with self-trust. This is actually my favorite coaching work to do with my clients. My relationship to self-trust has been a longtime feature of my work.
What are your best tips for work/life balance, especially working with home and kids?
Boundaries. Grace. Support.
Boundaries: Any work-life balance story needs to hold the main character of strong, bold boundaries. Everyone wants a piece of you and it’s your job to protect yourself and your creative energy. Setting strong boundaries with others — and with yourself — is crucial so that you aren’t working more than you should or doing more for others than you are getting paid to do.
Grace: Being human is a lot of work. Just keeping ourselves healthy and safe, especially these days, can feel at times like a full-time job in and of itself. Throw in motherhood and marriage or house responsibilities, and it’s no wonder we often feel like we can’t get ahead in our businesses. This is where I often prescribe a ton of GRACE to my clients. Give yourself a break. If you are a mom of young kids and juggling a business — it’s OK to not be perfect at everything. Slow down. Let good enough be good enough.
Support: Juggling life and a business — and staying super creative — requires a strong clarity and capacity game. The more support you have to help you run your business and make sound, grounded — and bold — decisions, the further you will go. We often think we need to DIY our way along the entrepreneurial path — like we should have it all figured out — except we’re actually so much more energized and resilient when we have a strong foundation of support to help us find clarity and perspective. Reach out and reach up to make sure you have a good place to rant, question, analyze, scrutinize and deliberate on your business (and yourself as the leader of your business!
Can you please tell us more about your upcoming presentation to the Textile Design Lab community?
This Masterclass is about the Brave Moves we need to make as business owners and CEOs. During our time together, Shawn will walk us through her Braver Leadership Model: BRAVER (Blueprint for Your Future Life, Resilience, Assert & Activate, Values + Vision, EmPOWER Yourself, Reclaim Your Courage)
Shawn’s presentation will be January 18th at 2pm, you must be part of the Textile Design Lab to join us.
