We recently connected with Sharlee Lyons and have shared our conversation below.

Sharlee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

Changing a Life “I don’t EVER want to do that again, and I don’t know what to
tell my parents,” Caitlin told me as she stood in my office,
where she had briefly dropped by to see me.
She had just returned to campus from her summer internship.
All I had done was ask how her summer had been, yet I could
already tell something was wrong—she was on the verge of tears.
For a moment, all she could do was shake her head. If she spoke,
the tears would come.
She obviously needed immediate attention. Checking the
schedule on my phone, I saw with relief that I had some time to
devote to her. To get her out of the building and away from others
she knew who might see her looming tears, I whisked her away to
a coffee shop that was off the beaten path and had outdoor seating.
As we sat in the warm sunshine of early fall, she fidgeted,
seeming ready to explode from the pent-up stress and emotions.
But finally, she opened up.
The problem, it turned out, was her summer internship. She
was a top-tier student in the undergraduate management program
and had landed her internship at a Fortune 50 company. She was
on the fast track to an accomplished corporate career. But despite
being very capable, she had found the experience miserable. Now,
she wondered what she was going to do. She had thought she had a
plan for herself—one her parents stood solidly behind. What now?
I knew I had to let her work through the explanation and, more
importantly, her emotions. I listened for quite some time until she
got everything out.
After she finally took a deep breath of relief, we sat in silence for
what seemed an eternity, even though it was only for about thirty
seconds. Finally, I asked, “What do YOU really want to do, Caitlin?”
She responded with a long explanation of what her parents
wanted and expected of her.
When she finished, I asked again, “What do YOU really
want, Caitlin?”
She sat back in her chair, took a big drink of her now-cooled
coffee, and said, “What I really want is to own my own fashion
boutique where I can make women feel beautiful and empowered
to cultivate joy around themselves.”
Wow. It was articulate, succinct, and so well-rehearsed. She
had obviously been thinking about this for a long time.
We talked about steps she would need to take if she really
wanted to pursue her own boutique—and how she would have to
overcome her parents’ expectations, perceived or otherwise, that
she go into a corporate career. She would have to be brave in communicating her plan and getting their buy-in.
As we talked, she put together steps to pursue her dream.
Initially, she did have to deal with her parents’ opposition and
uncertainty, but after several coaching sessions with me, she eventually won their support, and they even gave her a few thousand dollars to purchase a plane ticket to a show where she could purchase inventory.
She was encouraged that her mother attended the show with
her and was starting to buy into and get excited about her boutique
idea. Our work together, combined with Caitlin’s determination
to succeed, was paying off.
Caitlin opened her online boutique about six months later and
ran it while attending school and pursuing other development
opportunities that would support her dream. She completed an
internship I had suggested that focused on leadership development.
That internship was a huge growth experience for her as well. We
had worked together to develop a strong leadership foundation
that supported her dream.
She owned her boutique for several years before taking on
a full-time position at a dynamic women’s brand that has revolutionized its industry. And with the recent sale of the majority of the company, the CEO gifted Caitlin and her colleagues
with two first-class plane tickets to anywhere in the world, along
with $10,000.

Sharlee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a multi-dimensional professional and my entire career has focused on developing others. As a former Division 1 athlete, I bring my love of leadership coaching to the corporate, non-profit, and higher education sectors. I have served more than twenty years as an expert in developing authentic emerging leaders and leadership teams. I am the bestselling author of Average to All-Star and have been seen on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and the CW. I serve as an inspirational speaker, success coach, teacher and consultant with a passion for working with individuals and teams to develop future leaders in all settings. My passion is emerging leaders typically between 18-28 years old and helping them understand their authentic selves because when they do they can start strong and go further faster in their lives in careers! I truly believe everyone can go from average to All-Star and that’s why my teenage son has affectionately given me the nickname, All-Star Shar

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

On the verge of burnout, I decided to leave my home of over 20 years in higher education in October 2019. College schedules and programming had me working crazy hours, my kids had a wacky middle school schedule, and my husband worked a 24 hour shift as a fireman. I was barely keeping up and felt like my head was continually “down” as I kept up with it all. I asked my administration for a flexible summer schedule as my son played travel baseball, but my request was not granted. So I decided to pursue my already developed business full-time. I left higher education in October 2019 and purposefully took the last 3 months of the year to decompress and rest. In January 2020 I started pursuing my business full-time and it all came to a screeching halt as the pandemic came full on. I was working a lot with schools and my kids couldn’t even GO to school,let alone me work with schools during that time. So I went into homeschooling my kids (they loved mom-school) and supported my front-line worker husband, and we all worked on what it means to be and stay “well.” We came through the pandemic with much success and I’m actually thankful for the time we had as a family and the many life lessons learned during such a pivotal time in our lives. Coming out of the pandemic I knew I needed to pivot my business. That’s when I wrote my bestselling book, Average to All-Star, which estabished me as a thought leader in developing emerging leaders. I love the work that I do and am able to have time independence to work with my two favorite emerging leaders, my son, Noah, and daughter, Sarah.Helping them achieve thier dreams and becoming our leaders of tomorrow (I’m happy to report that Noah had the dream to play collegiate baseball and has signed a NLI to play at Bethel College next year (the summer travel baseball was time well spent) and Sarah dreams of being a feautre twirler (baton) in college. She is well on her way as a 3 time state champion.) These are my two most cherished emerging leaders, but I love serving as a success coach for many, using resources and processes I’ve collected in my personal and professional life.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The book “The Last Arrow; Save Nothing for the Next Life” by Erwin Raphael MdManus has been pivotal recently in my life and career. I have read it multipe times, refer to portions of it daily, and have gifted multiple copies to colleagues. The Last Arrow is a roadmap to a life that defied odds and alters destinies. That’s all I’ll say becuase you need to buy and read the book! The Last Arrow is supplemental to the Bible which serves as my #1 instruction manual for life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sharleelyons.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%E2%AD%90%EF%B8%8F-sharlee-lyons-37b0ba16/