Day 356: Shann Vander Leek

September 21, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“… letting go is an arduous task, but it’s something that the more I learn about and the more that I can exhale, the more that I understand that that will provide a new space to fill with all kinds of courage and inspiration and opportunity.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Shann, for agreeing to be part of this Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Shann Vander Leek: Thank you for having me.  It’s great to be here.  I’m Shann Vander Leek, transition coach, Yogini, and author of the new book, Live On Your Terms:  The Support You Need To Follow Your Passion For Inspirational Entrepreneurs.

I fancy myself a Life On Your Terms accelerator.

Toni: Oh, I like that!

Shann: Thank you.  You can find me at lifeonyourtermsbook.net or at truebalancelifecoaching.com where I write about self-care, personal liberation, entrepreneurship, and clobbering overwhelm.

Toni: So, Shann, when you think of that word inspiration, who do you inspire and how does that happen?

Shann: I believe that I inspire powerful women in career transition.  More than anything, that’s what is … when I look at my shameless testimonials, that is what I get back from most of the clients that I work with and the people that I touch.  And the goal is to help these powerful women get focused now, follow their passion, create more balance in their lives, and all of this is done through coaching and yoga and creative expression.

Toni: Can you give me an example of what happens between you and one of these powerful women that you’re helping?  How does that inspiration occur?

Shann: Often it involves reminding them that they have permission to be curious about their lives and reinvent themselves any way they wish.  It’s a powerful conversation when you are just talking about something simple as well.  Who says you can’t?  Why not go for it?  Why not check it out and see what transpires?  It’s a wonderful “ah-ha” moment for sure.

Toni: Oh, it sounds like it would be.  How do you help them then to explore their own potential?  Where does that go?

Shann: It really begins with an honest assessment of what makes their heart sing, what makes them tick, what they really enjoy in the world around them.  So often, these incredible women are bumping around with their day-to-dayness, seemingly from one rule to the next, and they get to this point where they’re looking for more meaning, something more fulfilling.  And so we start to uncover what that looks like, and it’s an incremental process – it’s a lot of questions and a lot of honest reflection.

Toni: You know, I really believe in the power of what you do for women, and I would imagine that a woman may come to you and not even realize how powerful she is until she begins this work with you.

Shann: I see that more often than not.  And again, it comes right back to that permission.  When they look and they say, “Wow, I can really step into this power – this isn’t scary, this isn’t something that it’s for someone else, but this is for me.”

Toni: It’s interesting, because I’ve had some women lately say to me, “You know, I’m just an average Joe.  I’m not a rock star, but yet I want to make a difference.  I want to step into that.”  So are these the people that could explore their own potential with you?

Shann: Absolutely.

Toni: That would be amazing.  I think there’s very many women that could benefit from that.  So Shann, let me ask you – what inspires you?

Shann: I am inspired by so many things.  I often joke with my clients and friends and family about shiny lures and how anything can distract me when it’s beautiful and colorful and shiny.  But to get to your original question, I’m inspired by poetry.  The poetry of Mya Angelou or Kahlil Gibran.

Music is a big part of what keeps me happy.  Peter Gabriel is an incredible artist and my favorite.  Currently, I’m digging into brand new music by One Eskimo and a band called Dirty Vegas and the New Arcade Fire album.  Music is really big.  I think I have over 9,000 songs on my iPod.  So I spend a lot of time listening to music.

And a lot of time out in nature capturing images of this beautiful area that I live in in this North Country.  I’m blessed to be surrounded by lakes and streams and sand dunes – an abundance of nature – and that is truly inspirational.

And by my beautiful young daughter.  She is one heck of a teacher and quite inspirational.

Toni: How did you evolve into this place where it became important for you to help others, to help women find their own power?  Was this an evolution for you or was it something that you knew inherently that you were meant to do?

Shann: I think it was both of those.  It was an evolution for sure.  For many years, I enjoyed my career.  I was a powerful, corporate television saleswoman.  Television was my life from the time I graduated college until five years ago.  I was all about broadcast television, television advertising promotion, sales, leadership, motivation – that was my life.

Then it started to feel more like a prison sentence, and it was just that shift that we make, and I knew I had to find a way to escape.  And I decided that I deserved to follow my passion, and it was time to get real, face my fears, develop a critical path, and become a mistress of my own destiny.

In doing so, that’s when I realized I could share that story, my own story, with others and help them take a look at their own path and look at their own future.  And when they feel like their well is dry, I can show them, “Yes, my well was dry too, and here are some things that you might want to consider,” and then we walk together and explore and see what comes of it.

Toni: Shann, there are women that are listening to you and will listen to you and read the transcript all over the world, and the dialogue and conversation that has come out of the Get Inspired! Project is about passion and purpose, and there are … and this was an unintended outcome and it’s been amazing.  But there are a lot of women who don’t know what that critical path is but may be in that spot.  That spot, where you were, that said, “I want to do something different.”  That they know what they’re passionate about, they’re not sure what their purpose is.

If you were to really think about what advice you would give to those who are listening and saying, you know, you do have permission to go and seek it, what would be that first step that someone would take?

Shann: I believe the first step is to remain curious.  When we remain curious, we allow ourselves in a very safe way to explore and try new things and remain open to new experiences and to do so without judgment.  To just be curious again like a child; that’s the first step, for sure.

Toni: Now when you maybe have a day – don’t know that you do – but if you have a day where, you know, you need a little more inspiration than others, you’re looking for that to be inspired moment, are there tools and resources that you tend to reach for on a consistent basis?

Shann: I do have those days, and usually what I will do is get back in touch with my breath, get back in touch with my center.  I am grateful to be a Yogini and take the time to really go within again and recharge in that way.

I also rely on close friends and mentors when I’m feeling stuck and need somebody to listen or need somebody to kick me in the ass.  They’re there for me, and I know that, and I’m not afraid to ask for help.

Toni: So you created your own power team.

Shann: Absolutely.

Toni: So what are you doing now, Shann, to explore your own potential?

Shann: I am looking at what’s next on a level of creating a larger Life On Your Terms community.  What I mean by that is how can I continue to help people with their personal liberation?  How can I bring them together to share their stories so that they can support someone else who is considering taking the leap.  That’s really big for me.

The other thing is to continue to sit with my own dark and light, to continue to explore and let go and forgive and move on.  And that letting go is an arduous task, but it’s something that the more I learn about and the more that I can exhale, the more that I understand that that will provide a new space to fill with all kinds of courage and inspiration and opportunity.

Toni: Can you clarify for me what you mean by sitting with dark and light?

Shann: For me, that means to know yourself well enough to really be mindful of your behavior, to witness why you move the way you do, why you communicate the way you do, to understand that there may be some programming, some old conditioned programming that might pop up that no longer suits you, that no longer serves you, and to be strong enough to catch that, to witness that and say, “Oh, isn’t that interesting, but that no longer serves the purpose for me.  That’s no longer who I am.”

That could be in relation to anger or it could be in relation to failure.  It could be in relation to anything that you might look at and judge yourself harshly for, that you can back up and say, “Okay, this is part of who I am and part of what I’ve experienced.  Now let’s transition over here and let’s look at some of these other things and how have you grown, and how are you making a difference, and how are you going to be gentle with yourself today?”

Because the more that I can care for myself, the more that I can show up in the healthiest version of Shann possible, the better I can be for someone else, the better I can show up as a coach, as a Yogini, as an author, as a motivational person, just as a woman.

Toni: There’s so much value in the statements that you just made, and the thought that went through my head that others may experience as well is, “Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work!  How do I begin that?  I need to do that; I need to do that, and it sounds incredibly important.”  I know that there will be people who will be checking out your website to see how in the word did she do that?

Shann: Well, thank you so much.  And I’ll tell you that that curiosity that I talked about earlier … but also on my website, on the True Balance Life Coaching website, there’s a free assessment.  I don’t even ask you for your email address.  I don’t even … it’s just for you so that you can go there, look under free assets, and pull this wonderful survey that is titled “101 Things To Work On With A Professional Coach.”  It certainly could probably have a better title than that, but it is a wonderful tool to inform our time together or inform you on your own one-on-one, just taking some time to look at where you stand and where you’re at.  And then if you decide you want to do something else with it, great.

Toni: So that is incredibly refreshing to have something like that that is of value for someone to begin that process and to not have a catch to it, to build your list.  I think that’s one of the most refreshing things I’ve heard in a very long time.

Shann: Thank you.  I just felt like that was important, because not everybody is ready.

Toni: Yeah, I know.

Shann: But they might finally be ready to take a look in the mirror.  They might be ready to share some time with themselves and say, “Okay, I’m ready to do this inventory.  I’m ready to see where I’m at, to be honest with myself.”

It’s a dynamic tool, and I will tell you, I did not create this tool.  Thomas Leonard, the father of modern coaching, invented this tool, and it is copyrighted back to him, and it is something that my mentor coach made me aware of when I started working with her years ago.  So that’s … I’m not taking credit for Thomas’ work, I’m just furthering his mission, his movement, to help people uncover where they want to go from here.

Toni: And that’s just part of the way that you’ve described yourself and the work that you do.  And for showing up today on the Get Inspired! Project and being as honest and open as you were during the interview, people will find such great value in this interview, and we cannot thank you enough for being here today.

Shann: Thank you so much.  It was a pleasure to be here, and I’m so grateful to you for what you’re doing, and I wish you much success.

Toni: Thank you.  You as well.  Take care.

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For more information about Shann Vander Leek:  www.truebalancelifecoaching.com, www.lifeonyourtermsbook.net

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