Shannon Talbot

Shannon Talbot, a former high-flying corporate executive, dared to redefine success on her own terms. Fueled by an eye-opening comment from her young son, Shannon embarked on a quest to temper her anger and reclaim her happiness. From scaling the corporate ladder to coaching burnt-out professionals, Shannon shares how prioritizing her well-being, embracing authenticity, and pursuing her long-held dreams led her to a life of fulfillment and purpose. Tune in to Search and Replace and discover how you, too, can chase your happiness and make significant changes that resonate beyond the professional sphere into a more rewarding personal life. 

To view full transcript and expanded show notes: https://bit.ly/3Q0V3XL

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Support for the following podcast is providedby the user experience specialists at Johns and
Taylor. More information follows this episodeWhat if you had the power to choose
to just be less angry. I'mJoe Taylor Junior. This is Search and

(00:20):
Replace. Shannon Talbot thought she hadit all, at least on paper.
I had a fabulous career in thecorporate world. I worked for seventeen years
in corporate. I worked fifteen yearsin banking, two years in advertising,
rose the corporate ranks, you know, I was always getting that next level,

(00:40):
that next salary increase, and yes, on paper, everything looked amazing,
and it was the dream that Ithought I wanted when I was a
little kid. I was working inadvertising, which I loved, but at
the same time, it had unpredictablehours, long hours. I was in
client services, you know, wewere always putting out fires and I had

(01:03):
never ever managed my stress well.And in Shannon's world, that seemed okay.
After all, she was surrounded byother corporate ladder climbers who themselves had
pushed through a ton of big emotionsand made sacrifices to get where they got.
So it took someone with a verydifferent point of view to make Shannon

(01:25):
reconsider the path she was on.One day, I was pushing my then
five year old on the swing thatthree years ago, and he said,
Mommy, can I give you agoal for the year? And I said,
yeah, Bud, what's the goalyou want to give me? Give
it to me. And he lookedat me and he said, Mommy,

(01:46):
can I give you a goal tobe less angry this year? You are
angry all the time. And thatwas not the goal I was affecting him
to give me, But it wasthe goal I needed to hear because it
was true. And so him tellingme I was angry all the time was

(02:10):
the note for me to be like, ugh, okay, Shannon, something's
got to change. And it alsomade me realize even though on paper things
looked good, I wasn't that happyin my career. After that, Shannon
drew up a plan to break freefrom her present reality. I had three

(02:30):
steps I had to take after thatmoment, and really the first one was
to actually start prioritizing my well beingand looking after my stress and anxiety.
I was the type of person whoalways said I'm too busy. Oh,
I'll just push through or I'll getto it at another point, and I
never did, so in that moment, I finally had the motivation to start

(02:53):
to prioritize my well being. Thesecond step was I just I did to
finally show up more authentically. WhenI got married, I had an official
role and that role was wife,and then later my role became people manager,
and then later my role became mom. With each role that I got

(03:13):
throughout my career, I told myselfI should act a certain way, and
I put the expectations on pressure onmyself. No one told me to act
this way. It was all selfimposed, but it meant I didn't show
up authentically, and it meant Iwas always holding a piece of myself back.
And the third step I took wasI finally gave myself permission to chase

(03:37):
my happy. What I mean isI finally went for the career that I
had dreamt of in high school,that I had told myself was silly.
It wasn't a real career. Icouldn't do it, and I went for
that career. That dream career asan author also included a new role as

(03:57):
a coach to other burned out professionalswho I wanted to find personal and career
happiness. But it wasn't an overnighttransformation. The leap to finally do the
thing looked like me taking about sixmonths to prepare. And I started doing
coaching on the side and it litme up. You know. I was
doing it in the evenings after workinga long, full day, and it

(04:19):
would light me up and I wouldhave more energy afterwards than when I started,
So I knew I was on theright track. Like the reward outweighed
the risk, and I knew thatby doing that, I'd be a better
mom, I'd be a better wife, I'd be you know, a better
friend and professional. And really Ijust wanted to help make a difference in

(04:41):
people's lives and I wanted to helpthem chase their happy. I felt like
I broke free and it no longerwas just about the money I was earning
and the title, but really itwas about, Okay, how much time
do I get to spend with mykids. I wanted to spend that quality
time with them, and I wantedto be less angry, as my son
had asked me to be my relationshipswith my sons and husband or stronger than

(05:04):
ever. I followed my dream ofwriting a book, something I'd also dreamt
of since I was ten years old. And I'm finally in a routine with
healthy habits personally and professionally and managingthat stress, and overall, I am
happier than I have ever been inmy life. Through our coaching practice,

(05:27):
Shannon's held hundreds of professionals. She'seven worked with a few large companies that
want to improve the lives of theiremployees, and she often shares this advice
with her new clients. I don'tthink it's ever too late to go after
what you want. And our brainsmight tell us it's too late, or
we're not qualified, or it's tooscary or too risky, and I just

(05:50):
think that those are stories we tellourselves to keep ourselves safe. But if
someone truly wants to go after whatthey want, or wants their job to
light them up more, wants tofeel more present with their family, than
I think they should go for it. They should chase the thing. We
all have obstacles to overcome that willbe in our path to where we want

(06:12):
to go, but more often thannot, they're worth breaking through to get
what we want. If I lookback at everything I've gone through and where
I've gotten to today. I wouldn'tchange a thing. I wouldn't have started
a company earlier. I wouldn't havetried to be a motivational speaker earlier because

(06:33):
I needed these experiences and I neededthese successes and the failures to build who
I am today. I think everythinghappens for a reason, and it's all
about the right time, right place, and it all comes together when it's
supposed to. That's author and lifecoach Shannon Talbot. We've got links to

(06:53):
Shannon's work in our show notes andon our website at Search and Replace dot
show to these EPISODISO was produced byNicole Hubbard with help from the entire podcast
Taxi team. I'm Joe Taylor Jr. This has been a podcast Taxi Radio
production support for Search and Replace isprovided by Johnson Taylor User Experience specialists serving

(07:14):
media and technology companies that want theirwebsites to work. Learn more about how
top performing businesses eliminate barriers between customersand their goals at www dot Make the
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