We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shelby John. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shelby below.

Hi Shelby, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents taught us values that were not only important for “being a good person”, but carved the trajectory for our moral code and ability to be successful and productive humans. They consistently honed in on the importance of honesty. We were taught not to lie steal or cheat. This placed honesty on the highest pedestal. I can remember my dad repeating this regularly, and in the event we were caught in any of these, it was a HUGE situation. They also taught us how to set goals for our lives. Every year we would come together in a family meeting with our goals and share them. They might be educational, physical or spiritual. I can still see that loose-leaf paper with several lines of pencil-written goals with the date on top. These lessons are transferrable to all areas of life, most especially success in a career and in relationships. If you aren’t an honest person, sooner or later it will catch up with you. And so often like we have seen with famous career white-collar criminals, the lies can snowball out of control and suddenly you are so far in you don’t even know what are lies anymore.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Shelby is a licensed clinical social worker with a private practice where she specializes in trauma, addiction, and anxiety. With years of experience in the field, she founded Shelby John Coaching and is the happy host of the Confident Sober Women podcast. After getting sober she became a fresh, authentic voice in the sobriety space, showing women how to build confidence and love their lives beyond recovery. Shelby is the mother to three, the wife to one loving man, and has been sober since July 1, 2002.

Shelby is a clinical social worker in private practice, a coach for sober women, and the host of the Confident Sober Women podcast. Shelby shows women how to build confidence beyond recovery. Shelby is a mother, wife, and sober since July 1, 2002.

I am most proud of my family. We went through some difficult times in raising our teenagers and we fought HARD for this family. We put the time and money and energy into it and made our marriage and children a priority. Now they are older teens we are seeing the fruits of our labor. This experience is something I share with my clients as a message of hope and the power of doing the work of long-term recovery from substance abuse. Sobriety is only the beginning, when we do the work of emotional sobriety we get reacquainted with the power of making our own choices. The power of living in your truth.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Lived experience. I deeply value my education and training and I believe it is critical in professional arenas for understanding history, strategies, and systems that help people have success. However, I believe my lived experience as an active addict and then a woman in long-term recovery is even more valuable in serving my clients. Being able to show up authentically in my space gives me credibility for my community that no educational experience can match. In addition, being married for decades, birthing, and raising three other humans has also helped me be successful in my field. I know the joy and pain of little ones who are so demanding and time-consuming and emerging young adults who are puffing out their chests and establishing themselves in the world around them. The selflessness of being a parent allows me to understand the challenges of people who walk through my door in a different way. To have compassion for their personal struggles and support them as they heal their own trauma.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Trust, reliability and authenticity are qualities that people not only notice in me, but keep them coming back for more. In doing my own personal work I learned to honor and respect myself which of course permeates into my business. I have built an ethical practice that I am proud of. I show up for my clients in the ways I tell them I will and always have their back. When I share my story in an open and honest way it is attractive to other people. They can relate and appreciate the truth in it. It is also important to maintain integrity on social media platforms and in networking situations. I don’t speak badly about people in my field, or other professionals who are in the arena. Showing up and doing what you say you will do is the key to building a reputation in the market.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shelbyjohncoaching.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shelbyjjohn/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shelbyjohncoaching
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wholisticliving/