True Balance

Shann Vander Leek

Each week Marigold honors a woman business owner who has demonstrated outstanding business integrity and unwavering support for women in business.  I am honored to be the recipient of the prestigious award.

Each recipient is honored with:

• Special Marigold E-Mail Salute to 2,000 area business women
• Radio spots on 106.7 YOU-FM telling her story to all of northern Michigan
• Is the featured guest on Mary in the Morning
• Receive an engraved award at the Williams Honda Salute to Women in Business Luncheon at the Marigold Business Conference in September 2009.

Who is Marigold?

Marigold celebrates women’s economic opportunities through entrepreneurship and career development. Marigold’s passion is serving and supporting women in business, bringing together the talents of many professionals to offer high quality training programs, support groups, marketing opportunities, and technical assistance.

Tune to YOU-FM at 106.7FM or 105.5FM this Friday from 7:45-8:15 to join in the conversation with me and Mary Rogers, founder of Marigold.  For show information, click here.

Marigold Excerpt

Shann Vander Leek was a powerful sales manager in the television broadcasting industry.  After 16 years, the high stress levels of being a corporate creature was losing its appeal.   After thoughtful consideration, moving forward on the path of her dreams was the ONLY option. Shann’s leadership abilities that made her such a huge success in the business world were now affording her the opportunity to follow her passion to inspire women in transition. Congratulations Shann!

“I think too often we as women put everyone and everything first,” said Shann.  “We forget that we can give the most when we are living lives we love.  We can be the best mothers, wives, business owners or colleagues when we are feeling nurtured, fulfilled, inspired and self expressed.”

My Story

I became a certified professional coach and business owner because it gave me the chance to be completely independent and allowed me to reinvent my life on my terms.   A rich and full life dedicated to personal freedom, creative expression and the opportunity to deliver a meaningful coaching service.

After 16 successful years devoted to sales and sales management in the high powered,television broadcasting industry, it was time for a significant change. The high stress levels
of being a corporate creature and doing business in someone else’s boardroom was losing its appeal.  Even though my career path resulted in the realization of many of my goals and
dreams, I became completely disinterested in corporate culture and, unwilling to jump through any more flaming circus hoops for power and money.

After thoughtful consideration, conversations with my family and confidantes; moving forward on the path of my dreams was my ONLY option. I prepared, planned, dreamed and
schemed for 12 months.  I covered all of the bases to allow for my transition from the corporate world. I love being an entrepreneur.  I am a natural leader and find that I am
thriving by following my passion to inspire women while honoring my natural rhythm.

The birth of my daughter inspired me to become an entrepreneur along with florescent lighting and corporate politics. :-)  My family, friends and clients keep me inspired to “Show
Up” every day and keep growing personally and professionally.

I enjoy inspiring women in transition to create a more balanced way of living.  A life filled with extreme self-care.  I think too often we as women put everyone and everything first.
We will start a new business when the mortgage is paid off.   We will take yoga or art classes once the kids finish school.  We will get healthy or fit when we have more time.

My goal is to inspire as many women as possible to be willing to put themselves first, take care of their bodies, nurture their dreams, and make the best use of their talents.

My never ending curious nature along with a good supply of creative energy keeps me motivated. My mentor coach Deb Martin and my business partner at Seize True Success,
Diane Helbig have both been instrumental to my success.

The advice I share with women considering or in the beginning stages of ownership is as follows:

Figure out what you want to create and allow for a minimum of 12 months (if at all possible) to put your plan in action.

• Consider working with a coach or mentor to help you navigate the transition

• Involve your family and close friends

• Allow for setbacks and second guessing

• Set clear and specific dates of completion for each part of your transition

• Be flexible and find humor in the difficult situations.

Everything boils down to several simple ideas. Allow yourself the time to work through a serious transition, keep your family and close friends involved, allow for setbacks, work on a
reasonable time line and find humor in the day to day journey. Before you know it, you will be where you want to be - By Design.  Being in the business of inspiring people to recognize their brilliance is a blast!  The focus for the rest of my days is about inspiring women in transition to set big goals, achieve extraordinary results and create balance in their lives.

Discovering your groove and creating a luscious life is all about allowing for grace through the transition.

Learn more about my story - Walking Away From The Big Bucks In The Pursuit of True Balance in my new Best Selling book, Wake Up Women BE Happy, Healthy & Wealthy. Grab a copy today at www.truebalancelifecoaching.com or at Higher Self in Traverse City or Brilliant Books in Suttons Bay.  10% of the proceeds will be donated to the Women’s Resource Center in northern Michigan.

Thank you Marigold!

“When you become truly selfish, you’ll have the extra reserves needed to really care about and be generous with others.” -Thomas Leonard

Click HERE to listen to a fun interview with me and Angie Jones the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and CFO (Chief Fitness Officer) of FitBusinessWoman.com.

We discuss the importance of taking time for yourself along with some creative ways to become truly SELF-ISH.

You can also right click and choose “save target as” to save to your computer and listen to later.

One of the definitions of overwhelm is to feel overpowered by your thoughts, emotions, or senses.

Feel familiar?

My particular brand of overwhelm is more like … suffocating skin crawling madness. I once was the mistress of overwhelm. The discomfort was intense and yet there was a rush involved with pulling off what felt impossible. It took years to get acquainted with the damage ripple caused by all of the needless stress.

The good news is you can learn to minimize this paralyzing feeling by facing what’s going on and taking action; like a gymnast on a balance beam, taking one step sure step after the other.

Sure steps with a Go … Be … Flow … attitude.

Most of the creative women and entrepreneurs I play with are passionate, talented and risk averse people who are really good at what I like to call, connecting the dots. Their ability to coordinate ideas, people, places, projects and synergistic energy is astounding. Their keen sense of knowing combined with pure unbridled feeling manifests great opportunities.

These fine characteristics and what seem like unlimited opportunities can be distracting.

Why?

Because people of this caliber can do ANYTHING.

Connecting the dots is a blessing if the entrepreneur is conscious enough to apply her connectivity talent to her own “in the weeds” life situation.

A HA!

Learning to go with the flow is a tremendous kick in the pants.

Practice moving through life with grace and clobber overwhelm by incorporating some these ideas:

Take deliberate action a by choosing and revisiting your priorities every week. A list of targeted activities will help you remain on your quest.

• Carry out extreme self-care. This may mean taking time out to get a haircut, massage or a soak in the bath tub. Take some alone time to read a good book, take a walk and get out of your head.

• Visualize your ideal accomplishment, and then make a list of tasks that can be addressed to bridge and traverse where you want to be in the natural flow of things.

• Determine what projects you can delegate. Asking for help is freeing.

• Eliminate any unnecessary tasks and activities. Do what you absolutely must, and junk what isn’t an absolute necessity.

• Allow yourself to say NO.

• Give yourself credit for all the things you DO complete.

• Talk to a trusted friend, life coach or mentor. Get clarity by being with people who you admire, who are good at managing stress.

The next time you are feeling overcome with a sense of impending doom,
take a deep breath, gather your thoughts and let the clobbering begin.

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