Tech Exec Wellness Podcast: Conversations to Reignite Your Soul

Ep. 11: Interview With Elissa Shuck

Melissa Sanford & Erika Eakins Season 1 Episode 11

When Elissa Shuck, a powerhouse of leadership and career coaching, dropped by the studio, her stories of navigating the corporate labyrinth with tenacity and heart captured us completely. The Love your Work Life podcast host not only regaled us with her transformative tales from young manager to acclaimed coach but also shared an unexpected bond over Bruce Hornsby tunes and the kinship of concert camaraderie. Elissa's journey is a beacon for anyone staring down professional hurdles, proving that with the right mindset, your career obstacles might just be the stepping stones to your greatest achievements.

From visualizing your way to the top to sailing through the stormy seas of a layoff, Elissa unpacks the suitcase of strategies that have propelled countless clients—and herself—toward career fulfillment. She doesn’t shy away from the emotional toll of job loss, instead offering a roadmap through the wilderness of worry and straight into the sanctuary of self-empowerment. Elissa's philosophy isn't about slapping a band-aid on bruised ambitions; it's about tuning into the universe's frequency and aligning your professional desires with the cosmic currents that shape our destiny. Join us for an episode that's less about climbing the corporate ladder and more about constructing your own.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of Tech Exec Wellness. I'm Melissa, I'm Erica. Today we are thrilled to have Elisa Shuck. She is a leadership and career life coach and host of the Love your Work Life podcast. Her corporate career journey includes losing her job three times due to corporate restructuring, transitioning industries four times, pivoting role direction six times and achieving 12 career promotions, including middle management, executive and being invited to co-found a startup. Her Clifton Top 5 strengths are strategic responsibility, maximizer, positivity and developer that all come together in a coaching practice that uses a mix of strategy, self-awareness and recognition of professional value to help people get out of toxic workplaces, pivot to new industries and be the effective, influential leader they want to be.

Speaker 1:

A career isn't just about surviving. Elisa is a living example of overcoming obstacles, finding a sense of purpose and getting everything you imagine and more throughout your work life. I personally have been following Elisa for a while and when I wanted to do this podcast, you were on my list of people to contact Elisa before we get started. Welcome to the show. What Erica and I ask in every podcast episode is what is your favorite music genres and artists and can you share a memorable concert experience with us? Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I'm so excited to be here. Music genres I'm eclectic. I listen to just about anything. There are certain genres like rap, techno, dance music, things that you would hear when you walk into a conference or a convention and they're just blasting this really peppy, motivational music. I listen to that stuff when I'm working out or when I'm ready to get myself out of the doldrums. Of course, 80s I can't help it. I'm an 80s girl, so give me some Fleetwood Mac or Journey. Yes, I'm good there too.

Speaker 2:

But as far as concerts go, we don't go to a lot of concerts. But we've been to see one person twice and I was thinking I wish he would come to town again, and that's Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. There's something about Bruce. I have lots of his albums that I listen to. He's such a good storyteller and I love all of his stories In concert. He does the whole thing. He flies by the seat of his pants. His band doesn't even know what is coming up next in the set list. He'll just start playing the piano, riffing, improvising and somehow, through the energy, through the vibe, whatever's going on up there, they all figure it out and it all comes together. It's an amazing experience. It's hard to describe, but so cool.

Speaker 1:

That is really cool. So he just gets up there and they don't even know what the set list is. It's just hey, we're going to survive and see, Wow, I don't think I do well with that, Erica, would you? I mean just kind of going in there and ad-libbing it. I don't think I'd do good with that.

Speaker 3:

So I'm the queen of ad-libbing it. I feel like when I over-prepare I stumble and stutter and do all kinds of things, but I think I could do it.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. I might try that next, then, and let y'all know how that works out.

Speaker 2:

I love it because there's energy. You know it's. I'm a big believer. I just recorded a podcast episode today and I love the intersection of neuroscience, spirituality, quantum physics, all these things like they come together and it's energy and like somehow and I'm sure it's because they played together a long time and they know each other and they know Bruce but I'm sure there's also just something about the energy that suddenly everybody picks up on, probably like jazz. I've never listened to jazz live, but you know that's kind of what's going on up there, like somehow they're playing and one person catches the energy and they play and it just. It's so cool how it all comes together.

Speaker 1:

Before we get started, I just want to say this. You know, erica and I met through Mutuals on LinkedIn and we immediately connected because of our love for dogs, edm, music you know we were talking about Techno earlier and I think there's something to be said about the whole spirituality, quantum physics thing. I think we are now meeting our soul tribe of friends out there and I think, like Erica and I, together, we formed this podcast and it was one of those things where I think, when you're meant to be around people or certain situations, it kind of comes together cosmically, I agree it is brain physiology, it's.

Speaker 2:

it is a little bit of woo-woo maybe, if you want to call it that, but I heard somebody tell a story once about how if you are in a concert hall full of tuning forks and you strike one, they all start vibrating at the same frequency just by striking one. And so I totally agree with you. I think like we're just putting our energy out there and it is quantum physics, it's particle physics, because like attracts, like, so it's just happening. It's so cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I totally agree with that and I think we'll jump in here and ask you because I want to kind of go backwards but can you walk us through your career journey and then kind of up to how you got involved in this podcast? Because I think there's I mean, I feel it right now there's this sense of positivity that radiates from you that Erica and I both like with our guests and we're very mindful about who we select for these shows. But can you kind of walk us through that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, my career journey started. I actually was a put into a management position when I was 21 years old. I won't, it was a while back. Let's just say that I'm too old to share what my age is, even though I kind of think we're ageless At 21,.

Speaker 2:

I was put in charge of a daycare center and I encountered so much adversity. I mean, there was a lot of really cool things. I was promoted from being originally a teacher and then an assistant director and then a director. But talk about a young person who is dealing with parents, parents of little children dropping their kids off and most of them were older than I was because I was, you know, 21 and they had two or three kids, kitchen inspectors coming in, all kinds of stuff going on. But for some reason people always thought I was just more mature than my age and it was a really cool job. But the promotion I gave myself while I worked there was hey, I can do this job by myself, I don't need an assistant director anymore, and I worked from open to close. That's just me, I just kind of go all in.

Speaker 2:

That led to other things, including some pretty harsh environments. The job that I got after that might not have been the exact the next, the very next job, but it was a job. After that, I worked for someone who I can only describe her as a screamer. She just yelled at all of us all the time. She actually told me after I was hired that I almost didn't get hired because I wore dress pants to the interview instead of a skirt or a dress. Okay, that should have given me a clue, right then Right. But here's the deal. In three months I was the senior employee, I was the office manager, I was doing payroll, I was writing checks. When I left, I wrote my own check and walked up to her and asked her to sign it so I could quit. That's how bad it was.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty bold. I've never heard that before. That's cool.

Speaker 2:

Well, sometimes you got to take control what can you say? But anyway, yeah, so that led to, you know, we got transferred from Arizona to California, worked everything from receptionists to sales eventually. But the biggest thing that happened in my career well, I'm going to backtrack one little step here, because this is leading to the biggest thing is I was working for a great company. They actually had lettuce transfer from Sacramento down to the Bay Area and I was in a job performance review and I expressed my desire to grow in my responsibility to move up in the company. At the time I was a showroom manager, so I had sales people reporting to me, but the general manager was doing my performance review and when I expressed this desire, he said well, you know what? You've gone pretty much as far as you're going to go in this company. That is not the thing to say to me. Within 30 days I was gone.

Speaker 2:

Nordstrom was opening a new store and then mall across the way and I went to their open interviews and I got a job. So let's just say that I'm pretty achievement oriented. I'm someone who sets a goal and then goes for it. Nordstrom was a great experience for most of that time, but I actually got fired for the first time in my life when I worked at Nordstrom, because something about retail is a little bit of a how what have you done for me lately? Kind of an experience. And the interesting thing about Nordstrom is, unless you get fired for theft, it's lost prevention or some kind of HR intervention. When you get fired, you don't actually get fired from the company, you get fired from your job. That was kind of rough because I had a buyer position. I was fired from that one and told I could apply for something else if there was anything I could find. Fortunately, one of my buyer counterparts asked me to join his team, which I did. But now I was an assistant and I was working for someone who used to be a colleague. It was just awful.

Speaker 2:

The time leading up to the firing I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown because I was doing everything I knew to do but business wasn't turning around and I just had leadership breathing down my neck and I went to therapy and the therapist said well, we need to talk with you about how to get through this, which I agreed. By the second therapy session I had been fired and so we changed direction. Now it's about how to heal from this, and I'll never forget something he said. He said look, elisa, you can put a bandaid on your pain. Go in there and do your job. Get back in your car, take the bandaid off and be as emotional as you want to be, because I had put so much of my identity in work that going from a salary job to punching in and out every day felt humiliating because I had to punch in. I mean, that's how crazy attached to my job that my identity was.

Speaker 2:

I stayed with Nordstrom. Nordstrom transferred me up to another region. I called my previous division and said I'm ready to come back. They said it's about time. I had a tremendous amount of success in that next role which ultimately led me to. I look at that firing as the catalyst for where I am today, because had I not gotten fired, I never would have moved to Oregon, had more success been offered a job by my favorite brand that I was buying as a buyer, which ultimately led to promotions within that organization. And when that organization went out of business because the parent company shut us down, that's when the president of the company and I decided to start our own business. So sometimes there's that moment where, oh my gosh, the most painful, awful thing that you could ever imagine happening if it didn't happen, we wouldn't be where we are today.

Speaker 1:

I got a question for you and I'm going off script here, but do you say sometimes that the universe creates situations like this because there's something better? Like I don't know if either of you have heard this before, but you keep knocking on a door. It doesn't open. Do you keep knocking on that door or do you just take a leap of faith? I mean, can you talk a little bit about that, the inspiration you got from leaving and doing this?

Speaker 2:

I think what you just said is absolutely true. I do think we have to look for it, though, and every promotion I ever got and I got several promotions at Nordstrom, every single one I got was because I decided to have it in the moment, like I just thought, ok, what does a manager do? How does a manager act? Ok, I'll do those things, I'll act like that. What does a buyer do? Ok, I'll do those things, I'll act like that.

Speaker 2:

So I think sometimes it's the act of having it is, in a way, kind of telling the universe that I'm with you. Bring it on, and then we manifest those things. And then there's other times when and this is probably my last corporate job, I'm not kidding you I was typing in as a password on my computer. I'm a life coach, and that was my past. Every day, every time my computer shut down, throughout the day, I would be typing that in. So when I got laid off, like the last time, it was a layoff, it wasn't my choice to quit and hey, great, I have a business, I've made my money replaced my income, now I'm going to do my own thing. It was not like that at all. It was 100% the universe saying you've been telling us this is what you want and now we're going to give it to you. And I believe that even that firing, sometimes the universe has to slap us upside the head.

Speaker 1:

I like what you said, though, Erica. You and I have talked about this before, but writing things out, and that's a way of sending a message to the universe manifesting, as you said Before, Erica, you jump in here, do you still manifest, Do you still do things like this?

Speaker 2:

Oh me, yeah, yes, I do. Yes, I was actually thinking about it yesterday. What are all the things that I have manifested in my career? Some things. It takes a while.

Speaker 2:

I remember in college I was an art major and I was sitting in art history and this was back before PowerPoint we had. It was a big auditorium and they would show slides on the projector and I remember thinking that would be so cool To stand on a stage and speak to a whole giant group of people with beautiful slides, pictures behind you. That's just like that was the image, like that. It would be so cool. And I don't know how many years later, but I got a promotion of a company restructure and I took over for the job of presenting the new product line and I remember the exact moment.

Speaker 2:

I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to do that presentation and I got this total anxiety attack for a second and then it hit me. This is exactly what I pictured when I was in college standing up on a stage and sharing beautiful pictures of beautiful things and talking about them, and I suddenly relaxed oh well, yeah, I manifested that. It took a while, but I do believe that those things come, and I think they come quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes that's up to us how quickly it happens.

Speaker 3:

Speaking of manifesting, anne, your story is so powerful. I'm so inspired right now and I'm getting a little emotional because I feel some of the things that you've been through. But I have to ask how do you manifest what's?

Speaker 2:

your way. My way is to write things down. Write them down in the present tense. I do think it's important to put as much detail, imagination into it, one of the things I love best about working for Nordstrom. At the time I worked for them, the company was very decentralized and the region I was in had a wonderful leadership development program. They brought in an organization and we went through their whole manual and I learned that principle.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if he talked about it as manifesting at the time, but he did talk about the science of it, our reticular activating system, how what we focus on is what actually we see. If you decide to buy a new car and you keep thinking about it and you're visualizing it and you're imagining it, pretty soon you'll start seeing it everywhere. You'll start seeing all these other people driving that car. And it wasn't because those cars weren't there, it's just because your brain said, oh, this is important to you, let's focus on that. And one of the things he shared, the formula he shared, is imagination plus vividness equals reality, and so part of the manifesting isn't just, it's not magical, it's just when you put yourself in a state where you believe and my definition of belief is a thought you keep on thinking, so you just have to keep repeating that thought. It's not something that's far away, it's the thoughts inside of us that when you start imagining things, adding some vividness through your imagination, through feelings or whatever, it can't help but become reality, because that's when the ideas come, that's when, oh, I bet if I talked to this person that would happen.

Speaker 2:

I just had a little mini manifestation yesterday because I was thinking, gosh, I really could use a comparison chart between this and this. And guess what happened? Like, the comparison chart showed up in my inbox. I was like, oh well, there it is, and they didn't think of it at the time. But last night I was like, oh my gosh, I totally manifested that thing. So there can be tiny things, but it's more about not being resistant and being open to receive. I think it's really hard when you're in corporate life and you're working your ass off and you're just give, give, give. So much effort. It feels very counterintuitive to just be in receiving mode, that that's actually more normal than striving.

Speaker 1:

I like that. We're talking about this. I don't know if you've heard any of our other shows, but Eric and I have talked about TikTok and there's this baby pebbles I think her name was. But Eckhart Tolle would say yeah, you've got these limiting beliefs you're trying to manifest and you start thinking well, I got rejected from this job or I didn't get an interviewer selected. And instead of dwelling on it, there's a word or phrase he uses or advises to use, which is what is my next thought? So you automatically throw that thought into the garbage. But have you and I'm sure you have but have you studied any of Neville Goddard's teachings or anything like that?

Speaker 2:

I haven't, but I love Eckhart Tolle. I really enjoy him. He can chill me out so fast just his cadence and the way he talks and the way he smiles. If you're watching him on video, I think sometimes that's, it is okay. What's the next best thought? We're not always gonna go from feeling awful and toxic work, environment, backstabbing, whatever the kind of things are that we experience, unfortunately, at work. We're not gonna go from feeling like that to unicorns and rainbows. But we can always find the next best thought, the thing that, just if I could feel better, what would it be I love the way Tony Robbins puts it If I did know what to do? What would it be If I did know how to feel better? What would I be thinking? So you're just kind of like playing games with your brain a little bit, hacking your brain a little bit to leverage what it's capable of, instead of going into default mode of flight, fight or freeze.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I totally agree with everything you are saying. This is an amazing episode. But I do wanna ask you about layoffs. How can somebody or yourself recover from a layoff or stay positive or put yourself in a good mood? How did you do it after the layoffs?

Speaker 2:

Well, one thing that I do is I tend to go into action mode right away. Like to me it's like okay, the last one. I literally said to them you've got to be kidding me. And I remember thinking this is more to the universe than it was to them. It's like here we go again. But for me, I like to take action. And some people are that way. They just like boom.

Speaker 2:

I was cleaning out my inbox not too long ago and I was like oh my gosh, I was taking action, like applying for jobs the same night that I got laid off, like how crazy is that? So I'm guilty of not giving myself the space to process, and I do recommend that people do that, because if you don't do it right away, don't make the mistakes I made and jump right into action and then two weeks, three weeks, four weeks later I'll still be dealing with the guilt and the betrayal and all of the grieving, the things that we feel when we get laid off. It's important to just be with those feelings and not be afraid to feel your feelings, because it's by feeling them and acknowledging them that we can process them. I love speaking of Eckhart Tolle. I love what he said is that sometimes it's just about inviting them in as friends. Welcome, welcome anxiety, welcome fear, welcome betrayal. And as soon as you welcome them, as soon as you stop trying to resist the feelings, then their power over you dissipates, like they don't have the power over you, like they would if you kept like resisting. Like you know, when little kids are in the car and they want your attention, they, or in the store, they just giving louder and louder and louder until you just acknowledge them. Sometimes that's all that has to happen and I think it's that way a lot with our feelings.

Speaker 2:

So when you get laid off, just accepting the fact that this really isn't about you and you can choose whatever story you want about that situation that's the beginning Is processing your feelings and then being super-duper intentional about what story you're gonna tell yourself about that. So you don't tell yourself the right story, a story that serves you, a story that at least gets you to neutral but hopefully eventually gets you feeling really powerful and in control. If you don't go there, then you're just. You end up dragging around a bunch of baggage. We talked about energy earlier. People can feel it. So if you're dragging around hurt, pain, grief with you, it's taking up space in your brain, is taking up energy space, and people can feel that.

Speaker 2:

I found a lot of the clients who come to me who are getting invited to a lot of interviews but not getting offers. That's a big part of the reason, because they're still carrying around some of that baggage from the layoff. So you gotta make it not about you, because it really isn't. Companies make decisions like that for all kinds of reasons, and for me, even the firing I eventually had to say you know what? That really wasn't about me. It was about business results, it was about things out of my control and a decision was made. You know, at the time they can tell you, oh, it's not about you and you wanna, like, you know, smack somebody, but the reality is that it was true, it wasn't about me and it never is. We can all choose to believe that in those challenging situations with layoffs or demotions, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1:

Question Erica and I talk about LinkedIn a lot. I have a love hate with it because if I'm busy I'm not gonna be on LinkedIn, I'm gonna be doing what I'm doing. But when you tell someone who has been laid off and they're constantly getting a bombardment of your resume should be ATS, this should be this, and they've already got that low self-esteem, maybe that baggage from the firing or the layoff, how do they keep a positive mindset when they're being hit with so many different opinions?

Speaker 2:

Well, I encourage clients to bypass the news feed. If they're there to apply for jobs and they're there to reach out to recruiters, bookmark the jobs page, the jobs tab, and just stay out of the news feed. Because the news feed can get so I agree with you, it can get so discouraging, even me. I look at stuff and I'm like, okay, as soon as I'm getting annoyed I know it's time for me to get out of there because it's not helping my energy, it's not keeping me positive. But it might sound a little counterintuitive, I do believe. I'll state this first.

Speaker 2:

I do believe that everyone owes it to themselves to present themselves in the best possible way, the most authentic way, with quality, with a resume that is easy to read, that showcases their value. Make sure that your profile is really telling the story of your career in a compelling way, so that people understand the impact and the value that you bring to the table. So let's just assume that all of the other stuff is noise. And if it feels authentic to you, if you're listening and you're wondering what in the world all these different things, it's kind of like if it feels right to you, if it feels authentic to you, then it's probably the right thing. You can edit your resume over and over again and tailor to every single role, or you don't have to.

Speaker 2:

I do believe that it's more about what you believe feels right for you than it is all of these crazy tactics and stuff, because, yes, there are bazillion opinions out there about it, but if you take a strategy that just like, yeah, I think this is going to work for me, thinking it's going to work for you is half the battle. We've already talked about that. Rightly, you want to manifest a job. Well then, do the strategy that feels right to you, do the strategy that feels like this is going to lead to something. It's more about intention than it is about getting it 100% right all the time. I don't think we can say there's 100% right or wrong way to do anything in life, especially not when it comes to what a resume looks like or reaching out to apply online. Don't apply online network. Do informational interviews, try all of them. See what works for you, see what feels like you're getting some traction and then follow that momentum. That's amazing advice.

Speaker 3:

It is great advice. You're right, speed can overwhelm people. Linkedin is a great tool, but when you're looking for a job, it's definitely overwhelming. But with all of that said, what wellness practices do you use to stay healthy? Elisa?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm not an athlete so I don't do a lot of, like you know, working out things or hiking or anything out of speed. Real about that. My workout is a whole body vibration machine. I don't know if you've ever heard of that, but the brand I use is called a Zazz and you just get on there for 12 minutes and you can set. You know how fast it vibrates and others kind of reads out about how many calories you might be burning or steps you might be walking. I don't know what. I don't know what all that means and I don't really care. I just know it feels energizing and it is good for bone density. So I have done bone density tests before I started using it and after I started using it and it did make a difference.

Speaker 2:

But other wellness things for me are just taking time to sit outside, to sit and relax, to listen to the wind. I do like listening to music. I have more recently started listening to different frequencies. You can find some videos on YouTube for binaural beats and there are different frequencies for different things. I had some dental work done last summer and I was in such pain I decided, okay, there's got to be a way for me to get something going besides pain reliever to tackle that, and Frequencies for pain relief worked really well.

Speaker 2:

And there's frequencies for everything. There's frequencies for creativity and focus and studying and abundance, and that's more of a practice that I've had. And then also just being grateful. I think being grateful is a good. It's a good practice for manifesting, for sure, but it's also a good practice for wellness, because we can't feel bad and be grateful at the same time. It's just not possible for those two things to be happening at the same time in our brains. So if you want to feel better more of the time, then being grateful more of the time is a great wellness practice.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I don't know about you, erica, but I think we're going to need a part two, because we're over here like, oh my gosh, we're totally into like the frequencies, binaural beats, and I have this home playing on my sonosystem because I got crazy dogs and I'll put on some meditation or some soft music or the frequencies. I do sleep with the frequencies at night. I've been doing the astral travel at night, so yeah, that sounds cool.

Speaker 2:

What's it?

Speaker 1:

doing for you. I'm just going to speak freely, but one of the things I'm doing is I'm shifting my reality. So I do believe we are moving into 5D earth and that is one of gratitude and positivity. So I've been doing that nightly.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, I'm going to have to check that out. It's just another thing on my research list. Thank you so much. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1:

Erica and I, like I said you know when you started off the conversation about spirituality, and that I mean I do believe in secretities and I do believe that we're all here together today to talk about giving people hope and resilience, but also it's okay not to be okay. It's okay to, like Eckhart Tolle, feel the anxiety, feel the fear. I don't want to live there, but I need to acknowledge it to move on.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, Michael Singer. He did an interview with Oprah on her Super Soul Sunday and he talks about leaning in or leaning back, Like these negative thoughts, these different situations will kind of, if we allow it, they'll just pass by. They don't stop unless we lean into it. And so he actually. I'm pretty sure he was talking about like lean back in your mind, away from it. But he said actually, even if you have to physically lean back, like, ooh, here's something's coming, lean back and just let it float on through so that you don't engage it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I'm going to have to remember the serica, so I'm going to have to bookmark this episode All right, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

This has been a great episode. I am so inspired and you've dropped a ton of knowledge, elisa, so I want to thank you for coming on the show, or we want to thank you. Do you have any last thoughts before I wrap up?

Speaker 2:

No, it's been so much fun. You guys are giving me a chance to talk about the stuff I'm passionate about, so thank you for that. Oh, I love it.

Speaker 3:

We love that. Yes, I think we might have to do a part two. We'll see, but I want to thank you again for coming on the show. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on a variety of platforms and check out our website at wwwtechexecwellnesscom and like, share, subscribe. Thank you for coming on the show and thank you for listening.

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