We recently connected with Stacie Shifflett and have shared our conversation below.

Stacie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

Someone asked me a few years ago who the most influential person in my life was. My answer was my mom as she taught me everything to be and not to be. I still uphold this belief presently, however, my perception of it has significantly deepened after engaging in profound personal growth for almost a decade now. You see, I used to view my mom as controlling as she was quite persistent in her guidance which was continual. Stand up straight. Put your shoulders back. Speak clearly. “Ain’t” isn’t a word. Say please and thank you, yes ma’am and yes sir. Don’t interrupt. The list was endless. As a child, I complied easily and followed the house rules. As I grew into a teen, not so much but thankfully the foundation had been laid.

Although my mother was the one that could never let anything just be and was the more vocal of the two, she and my dad both instilled within me with a strong set of personal values including integrity, honestly, respect, compassion, independence, determination, and hard work, to name but a few. As I view that list, I am reminded that some of those values were actually quite contrary to complying with the house rules. I was doggedly determined to flex my independence as I got older and rebuffed their guidance instead choosing to figure things out on my own. Although they most certainly did not always agree with my choices, they never wavered in their support or their love.

I wove the values they taught me into my own set of beliefs rather than blindly inheriting theirs.  For example, they treasured the security that a government job provided and at some point I did, indeed, get an entry level position at a government agency manually calculating years of service for retirement benefits. I remember walking into a huge lackluster government office with dozens and dozens of desks all lined up neatly in rows, people sitting behind them, their heads down, shuffling their papers and doing their work. I lasted a week. There was no way I was spending my life doing that whether my parents viewed that as a path to financial security or not. There’s that value of self-actualization!

My first career was in the restaurant and hospitality business. After that I got what my parents considered a ‘real job’ for a small woman-owned government contractor. It wasn’t easy to find an office job coming from the hospitality industry (which is a fancy way of saying waiting tables and tending bar). My mom got me that job from a friend of hers at church. My employer kept losing staff and I kept stepping up to fill those positions. I soaked it up technology like a sponge and learned a lot. From there I stayed in the government contracting field and grew to be acknowledged as a subject matter expert in the field of federal acquisition. Then I had the idea to acquire a software and services company valued, at that time, at 50 million dollars. It took me nine months to acquire that company, but I did without investing a penny. Cashless investor they called me. I didn’t care. With the acquisition came a small stake in that company as ‘sweat’ equity and the title of VP of Services, a division that I grew substantially. When they sold, I cashed out and moved on and into a completely different field as I opened a carpentry subcontracting company that built four and five story apartment buildings in DC. After about ten years, I closed that and am now the Founder of my next entrepreneurial adventure, Modern Consciousness™. In between some of that I also had a home-based business when my son was growing up raising llamas which I showed all over the country. My mom couldn’t believe what she was seeing when she joined me one day at the barn while she was visiting as I assisted one of my ‘llama mommas’ deliver her baby. She was amazed and asked how I came to be able to do such a thing, having been raised in the city. I just winked at her and said “because you taught me I could do anything momma, remember?”

Stacie, 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?

Who am I? I’m an entrepreneur, writer and proficient student of life blessed with the gifts of insight, grit and optimism. I also have a remarkable talent for recognizing the fundamental source of a problem, organizing chaos, and making complicated things simple. These have been hallmarks of my success.

I received a series of promptings a few years ago to create my current company, Modern Consciousness™. The concept for the company flowed through me during meditations as did the need for it. I’m not alone, as many of us have been called to make a difference in our world. I believe that it all begins within and as individuals improve the quality of their lives, including and perhaps even more importantly their inner lives, the benefits gained by the individual expand outward to positively affect their relationships, the organizations and businesses in which they are involved, their communities, and eventually society at large.

To that end, as a start-up with a big vision, I currently offer an intensive program for individuals called Elevate Your Life™ which serves to align one’s life with one’s dreams, desires, values, and strengths with the ultimate goal of achieving inner peace, a fulfilling life, and more joy. I’m a pragmatist which means that I am devoted to and advocates for what is practical as opposed to what is theoretical and, as such, I focus on sensible approaches and meaningful solutions.

Some of my achievements include:

Three-time International Bestselling Author
Modern Consciousness Coach™
Certified ThetaHealer®
Certified Free-mE Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Practitioner™
Master Practitioner of Neuro-linguistic Programming
Professional Neuro-Shine Technology Coach™
Certified High Performance Coach™

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My advice is really quite simple.

First and foremost, care about your people. You wouldn’t have a business without them. You can demonstrate this by being authentic, kind, and compassionate, creating and maintaining a positive work environment, offering competitive pay and benefits, being genuinely interested in their personal and professional growth, ensuring they maintain balance in their lives and offering them recognition and appreciation.

Secondly, your people should care about you and your business. If they don’t, show them the door and wish them luck in finding a situation in which they can shine.

There is magic in simplicity, so why make it complicated?

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

In my forties, I woke up one day with the thought to acquire a software company valued, at that time, for 50 million dollars. The idea certainly seemed outrageous and impossible as I had no money to acquire that company, but I followed my intuition with action and fully stepped into creating this reality. The first thing I did was engage a partner that complemented what I was lacking. I had deep knowledge of that particular business as I had worked for them for years and was a subject matter expert in the field of government acquisition and contracting. He has some mergers and acquisition knowledge as well as connections within that field. He also had an MBA while I never finished college and I thought having someone with those credentials would lend credibility. He joined me on that adventure, and we proceeded for nine months to push the proverbial rock up hill. We created all the materials needed to pitch that company to numerous top tier investment companies and off we went doing what we called our dog-and-pony-show. While I cannot tell you how many times we were told that there was no way we could achieve such a thing with zero investment — even my partner expressed doubts and was ready to relent on numerous occasions –not me. I kept pushing us forward as I believed, without a doubt, that not only would this happen, but that it was meant to happen and, guess what? Every investor that looked at our presentation wanted in so we had our choice of who to work with after the deal was cut. We acquired that company, were placed into high level management positions under an employment agreement, and received an ownership equity in the form of sweat equity. When the investment company flipped the business five years later, I cashed out, leaving him behind. This experience has provided me with financial security to this day and allowed me to move on to other adventures!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://modernconsciousness.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modernconsciousness/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ModernConsciousness
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacie-shifflett-7b5a8922/

Image Credits
Arianna J Photography Sarasota Florida