What happens when the career and life you’ve worked hard to build no longer feel completely aligned with the person you’re becoming?

That doesn’t necessarily mean you made the wrong choices.

And it doesn’t mean you need to burn everything down and start over.

Sometimes it simply means it’s time to examine the story you’ve been telling about who you are, what success should look like, and what you’re allowed to want next.

In this episode, Shannon sits down with Laura Nespoli, founder of Mesh and Movement, strategic storyteller, and author of Threads of Me and You.

After more than 15 years helping organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to local nonprofits, communicate their stories, Laura found herself beginning a personal exploration of her own.

That journey led her to follow what she calls the loose threads, unravel old meaning, and intentionally reweave a life and career that felt more aligned with her purpose.

In this conversation, you’ll discover:
✔ Why a life that looks successful from the outside can stop feeling aligned on the inside
✔ How to recognize the “loose threads” that may be trying to tell you something
✔ Why purpose can become a North Star for career and life decisions
✔ How clarity around your story can create confidence
✔ Why owning your story can make thought leadership and visibility feel less uncomfortable
✔ How storytelling can strengthen trust, belonging, and connection on teams
✔ What Laura calls the vulnerability loop
✔ Why someone else sharing their story can give us permission to share ours
✔ How storytelling can help women realize they aren’t as alone as they thought
✔ Why changing your story doesn’t require throwing away everything you’ve already built
✔ How to begin exploring who you’re becoming with curiosity instead of pressure

As Laura reminds us, you don’t have to unravel everything to begin weaving the life you’re intended to have.

🔗 Connect With Laura Nespoli: meshinmovement.com

READY FOR YOUR NEXT STEP?
🚀 Start Here: Download the FREE 90-Day Raise Strategy and create your personalized plan to confidently position yourself for the raise you've earned. You'll also receive my exclusive Raise Strategy Coaching Series where I'll walk alongside you every step of the way.
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What if getting more done isn’t actually moving your career forward?

For high-performing women, productivity can become part of our identity.

We’re dependable.
Efficient.
Organized.
We get things done.

And those qualities matter.

But there comes a point in your career when the question can’t only be, “How much did I accomplish today?”

You also need to ask:
“Did I spend time on the things that move my career, my team, and the business forward?”

In this solo episode, Shannon explores the difference between being productive and intentionally preparing for your next level.

Inside this episode you’ll learn:
✔ Why more responsibility doesn’t automatically mean career growth
✔ How high performers become buried in execution
✔ The difference between necessary work and developmental work
✔ Why your calendar may reveal more about your priorities than your career goals
✔ How to evaluate opportunities based on the reputation you want to build
✔ Why saying no can become an important career growth skill
✔ How delegation helps create leadership capacity
✔ Why career development doesn’t have to mean adding more to your plate
✔ How to use Shannon’s Maintain, Grow, Release exercise to evaluate your workload

Your current responsibilities may be consuming all the space your future growth needs.

You don’t need to do more to become impossible to overlook.

You need to become more intentional about what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and whether it helps leadership experience you at the level you want to reach next.

READY FOR YOUR NEXT STEP?
🚀 Start Here: Download the FREE 90-Day Raise Strategy and create your personalized plan to confidently position yourself for the raise you've earned. You'll also receive my exclusive Raise Strategy Coaching Series where I'll walk alongside you every step of the way.
📞 Let's Build Your Strategy Together: Book a Promotion Strategy Review if you're ready to personalize your plan, strengthen your positioning, and create a strategy that works for your manager, your company, and your career goals.
📲 Join the FB Community if you want to connect with other ambitious women for career conversations, support, and practical promotion strategies.
💌 Become an Insider to recieve weekly coaching, career strategy, behind-the-scenes insights, and practical tips to help you become impossible to overlook.

🎧 LOVE THE SHOW?
👉 Subscribe & leave a review so more ambitious working women can discover these game-changing career strategies!

✨ New episodes drop every Tuesday & Friday! Subscribe and leave a review if this resonated with you.

...

What if some of the career decisions you think you’re consciously making are actually being made from stress?

One more project.
One more late night.
One more yes when you really wanted to say no.

For high performers, pushing through can become so normal that exhaustion starts to feel like evidence that you’re successful.

My guest today, Paula Houlihan, knows that experience personally.

After spending 15 years in the high-pressure insurance industry, including working as a senior claims specialist, chronic workplace stress eventually led to a serious health crisis. Paula says she was diagnosed one stage away from adrenal crisis and ultimately needed significant time to focus on her health.

Today, Paula is an executive coach, keynote speaker, author, and creator of the Choice Mastery Model. Her book, Hijacked, explores how stress can affect the way we think, react, prioritize, and make decisions.

In our conversation, we talk about:
✔ The burnout warning signs high performers often rationalize or overlook
✔ Why exhaustion can start feeling like part of the success formula
✔ What happens when you become emotionally detached from work you once enjoyed
✔ Why “this is only temporary” can keep you stuck in unhealthy patterns
✔ The hidden no that comes with every yes
✔ Why boundaries can trigger guilt
✔ How beliefs about what you “should” do influence your choices
✔ What Paula calls living in “Shouldtopia”
✔ How stress and the nervous system can affect your decisions
✔ Paula’s Power Pause and why creating space before reacting matters
✔ Why pushing through and working harder don’t automatically make your value visible
✔ The connection between self-advocacy, leadership, and career growth
✔ A simple exercise for recognizing where your time and energy are actually going

One of the questions I hope you’ll leave this conversation asking is: Are the choices I’m making under pressure supporting the career and life I actually want to build?

Because your career should support the life you want to build, not require you to sacrifice yourself to prove you’re capable.

🔗 Connect With Paula Houlihan https://paulahoulihan.com

READY FOR YOUR NEXT STEP?
🚀 Start Here: Download the FREE 90-Day Raise Strategy and create your personalized plan to confidently position yourself for the raise you've earned. You'll also receive my exclusive Raise Strategy Coaching Series where I'll walk alongside you every step of the way.
📞 Let's Build Your Strategy Together: Book a Promotion Strategy Review if you're ready to personalize your plan, strengthen your positioning, and create a strategy that works for your manager, your company, and your career goals.
📲 Join the FB Community if you want to connect with other ambitious women for career conversations, support, and practical promotion strategies.
💌 Become an Insider to recieve weekly coaching, career strategy, behind-the-scenes insights, and practical tips to help you become impossible to overlook.

🎧 LOVE THE SHOW?
👉 Subscribe & leave a review so more ambitious working women can discover these game-changing career strategies!

✨ New episodes drop every Tuesday & Friday! Subscribe and leave a review if this resonated with you.

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