We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alison Schuh Hawsey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alison below.
Alison, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?
We all begin our careers somewhere. When I found passion in my work, I genuinely felt my life and career begin.
In the early to mid-90s, I began my “adult life” working in the non-profit world with positions at the Denver Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement Rocky Mountains, and Northern Colorado AIDS Project until I shifted into the corporate realm and became the Community Resource Officer for First National Bank of Northern Colorado in 2000.
During my time at the bank, I spread my wings and engaged with several projects, from internal and external communications, to donation disbursement, event planning, marketing, and project management. Since leaving the bank in 2006, I have worked in the Marketing, Communications, and Project Management field for Allied Air Enterprises, a Lennox International company, and Blanchard Machinery in South Carolina.
In the summer of 2010, I gave birth to my first son, which was a complete surprise and a dream come true since I had given up hope after multiple miscarriages and being told by doctors that I couldn’t have a baby.
As a young girl growing up in Wheaton, a suburb outside of Chicago, I had the typical dream of meeting Mr. Right, having two kids, maybe working part-time but being 100% available for my kids, as I grew up with two working parents who were fantastic providers of food, clothing, and shelter but were tired from their own careers which didn’t leave much time for the only child they had. And I always thought if I ever had children, I would do my best to stay home and be available to participate in their early days.
By the time Evan, our first son, arrived, I was a 39-year-old woman knee-deep in a career path of advancing in corporate America, trying to survive my personal life as a wife and step-parent. My feelings for staying in the “rat race” wavered between staying on course with my career and staying home with this sweet bundle of diapers and motherhood experiences to come. So, after many conversations and support from my husband, we decided that I would stay home and be a full-time mom. I was over the moon in love with my son, but about 3 months into my new role of “stay-at-home-mommy,” I desperately missed the daily 8-5 adult interaction and all the drama that comes with an office job. Still, the constant craving to use my brain for more than organizing, feeding, changing, and cleaning drew me back into thinking maybe this stay-at-home gig wasn’t for me.
Just when I was about to call my former boss to see if his offer still stood for me to return to work, I found out I was shockingly pregnant once again, and baby #2 was due just a few weeks after my current #1 surprise boy’s 1st birthday. Now approaching 40, pregnancy #2 was deemed just as tricky as the first, so it was out of the question for me to return to work.
After a few years and many diapers, tears, and whining that led to drinking several bottles of wine later, I was approached by a friend who was a small business owner to consult on how she could improve her sales with marketing and simplify her process. I jumped at the chance to work with her, and this interaction led me to begin consulting with 12 additional small businesses near where we lived in Lexington, South Carolina. I started my business to support and train small businesses to develop and promote their brand, simplify their processes, and enhance their confidence by owning their talents and charging what they were worth. In addition, I selfishly enjoyed the adult interaction and watching my clients begin to thrive in ways they didn’t realize they could.
When 2016 rolled around, my husband was provided an opportunity to pursue a new position that would level up his career and take us to Little Rock, Arkansas. Until then, he had only lived in South Carolina, so moving to someplace new was exciting but a bit more terrifying for him, as I had lived previously in Illinois and Colorado.
When we decided to take the new position in Arkansas, I felt an abundance of gratitude for him for allowing us the chance to live in a new positive community that accepted others rather than living in a place where southern hospitality only exists if you visit, not if you move there.
In 2018, after living and loving our upgraded life in Little Rock, I was still trying to find my footing. What was next for me? I took the first few years in our new home state to make sure our boys were settled in school, getting to know the community, and developing new friendships, all while slowly training and transitioning my consulting clients to take over their marketing agendas.
I took on a few additional clients here in Little Rock to keep a gentle stream of income and adult interaction, and my final client was a newly certified Life Coach. I worked with this client to develop her brand, wrote content, and created her website. Throughout the process, I was perplexed at how unsure she was in her newfound career. Out of the gate, I knew her socially and was excited when she told me she was shifting into Life Coaching as she seemed to exude the personality. But when we started to get into the meat of creating her brand, it was as if her confidence began to waver, and she struggled with the simplest of decisions from color to website clicks until she polled a handful of friends.
As a creative person, I understand feedback and asking for advice. Still, at the end of our time working together, I was exhausted by the multitude of edits and the lack of confident decision-making. I realized I was providing more Coaching for her along the process than assets delivered.
This experience made me pause to recognize that I had been coaching and mentoring folks since I began working at the Denver Chamber of Commerce in the Relocation department, providing support for individuals and companies moving to the Denver Metro area.
Ah-ha, moments are real. This is my intuition nudging me with a full-body “yes” moment. Yes, it’s time for you to shift into satisfying my craving for a career that fulfills my craving for adult interaction – it’s called listening to my intuition and acting on what I’m called to do so I can thrive forward.
So, in January 2019, I became a Certified Life Coach through Coach Training Alliance. In addition, I also completed my certification for becoming a Reiki Master and Teacher in February 2019 and recently gained my 200-Hour Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training in August of 2023.
Throughout my career journey, my personal life has been woven with highs and lows, right and left turns, and several light and dark moments. But these are all necessary as we gain wisdom along the way. But to help support my mind, body, and soul, I have continued my mindfulness practice that fosters the deepening with SHUG – Spirit, Higher-Power, Universe, and God. I believe we are surrounded by a team on a higher realm that helps keep us grounded until our time here is complete.
Besides working on my physical body, I make time to work on my mental, emotional, and spiritual self. A big part of this has been since the early 2000s when I had my first Reiki session with Zari while living in Fort Collins, Colorado. The work I did with Zari was transformational. She mentioned many times that I had the gifts to work with energy as she did, but I knew I didn’t have the capacity at that point in my life.
Since leaving Colorado in 2006, I have sought out a Reiki Master to continue supporting myself as I move through the various twists and turns of life. Each person whom I have worked with in the Reiki world continued to tell me that I had the gifts to work with others in the same capacity, if not more. I ignored the push from others until November of 2018, when I woke up one morning and felt overwhelmingly that it was time for me to tap deeper into myself and work with others and their energy.
Today, my career focuses on sharing through Intuitive Life Coaching, Reiki, and Meditation when working with clients who are consumed with daily clutter, overwhelmed with life, and want to reconnect with their vision and passion for maintaining what brings them happiness and prosperity. I have my practice where I see clients. I’m a weekly teacher on the Insight Timer App, where I can connect with folks worldwide, delivering messages from spirit and teaching classes on all things intuition. In addition, I’m currently finalizing a 6-Month Signature Program to support people as they Shift Towards Clarity and Deepen Their Intuitive Connection, which will launch in February 2024.
I am empathic and intuitive. This means I can feel what’s happening around me and pick up on insight from the people and places I’m associating with. Being empathic means I feel what’s happening around me. I can pick up on the emotional state of people and places. I continue to work diligently to protect myself from negative energies so that I can use my gifts to promote and teach positive energy.
Being intuitive means, I have a clear insight about myself, my life, and people and places I come in contact with. For example, I listen to my inner knowing my intuition, and I can deliver messages to people I come in contact with who are open to receiving the message. The top responses I receive after I have given a message are “How did you know that?” and “Thank you so much, this is the answer I was needing.”
The Intuitive Life Coaching portion of my business provides another level of joy. Being able to work with individuals, small business owners, and their teams, along with entrepreneurs who are consumed with daily business clutter and want to reconnect with their vision and passion for maintaining what brings them happiness and prosperity. Having a front seat to watch as my clients shift their direction from anxiety and loathing to thriving is beyond rewarding.
Being open with my gifts has been a new journey for me in recent years. Still, my only intention is to provide a positive experience for those I’m fortunate enough to come in contact with and to continue developing new ways to remove fear and replace it with loving energy.
Twenty years ago, I was in the best shape of my life, but today, I’m in the best place in my life, living via my motto of shifting today into a greater tomorrow.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
I wouldn’t go back to change anything along my journey to get where I am today. Our stories are unique to each of us, and so is our journey. Where I am today in my career is not where I ever thought I would end up, and who knows where I’ll go tomorrow. But the actions, the mistakes, the challenges, etc. were put in my path to help shape who I am still becoming.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I am who I am authentically and unapologetically. Whether you are the president or a janitor, you deserve the same respect.
I once had a “friend” take me to lunch, asking me if I was worried about how others would look at me if I kept posting Oracle card readings and hosting live intuitive readings. She continued to tell me that she was worried about my reputation because she didn’t want others to think I was weird or witchy.
I paused before I responded and asked her how she felt about what I did. She became visibly uncomfortable and said that she was just very worried that people would get the wrong idea about me and wouldn’t see what a kind, generous person I was, and they might get the wrong idea. I told her we all have a choice on how we feel and perceive another, and I choose to live by raising the vibration of life and supporting one another and that if someone else thinks I’m weird, then that’s their perception. She continued telling me that I needed to tone myself down or something might happen. Needless to say, we’re no longer friendly. I wish her well, but I don’t wish her back.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alisonschuhhawsey.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonschuhhawsey/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shifttodaywithalison
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonschuhhawsey/
Image Credits
Alison Schuh Hawsey