For most of my life, I lived for everyone else.
I was the dependable one, the strong one, the “low-maintenance” woman who made herself smaller so others could be comfortable. As a child, I was the one “no one had to worry about”…
I checked the boxes, played the roles — mom, wife, achiever, peacekeeper — and from the outside, it looked like I had it all together. The happy, contented home-maker.

But inside? I was quietly disappearing.
I didn’t recognize myself.
Not in the mirror.
Not in my voice.
Not in my life.

I remember feeling like “Shannon” was becoming invisible in my own life. If someone had asked me what I wanted out of life, I don’t know that I could have answered anymore.

What started as burnout turned into a deeper reckoning — a realization that I had spent years shrinking to survive… and I was done. Done playing small. Done contorting myself into smaller, more palatable versions of myself so others would accept me. One of the best and hardest lessons I’ve learned is that I would never be enough for the wrong people, but I would ALWAYS be enough for the right ones.

The journey back to myself wasn’t and hasn’t been linear or pretty, but it has been powerful.
And here’s the thing: I’m not here to speak as an expert.
I don’t share because I’ve figured it all out — I share because I haven’t hidden from the mess. For decades, I suffered in silence, and that took a toll on me in more ways than I can count. Giving the hurt a voice and letting the right people witness it let the hurt serve a purpose.

Turns out, my soul’s calling is to tell the truth of my journey — not for attention, but for connection.
Because every time I speak the raw, unfiltered parts of my story, someone else feels less alone.
Someone else finds hope.
Someone else sees a path they didn’t know was there.
Someone else finds permission to be who they always were meant to be.

That is why I do this. That is why I am an open book.

Whether I’m speaking on stage, coaching clients, or sharing on the podcast — my mission is to help women stop disappearing inside their own lives and start living as the most unapologetic, embodied version of who they were always meant to be.