CONNECT with Sheila Botelho Podcast

From Corporate to Creative - How One Woman Discovered Her True Calling | EP 436

• Sheila Botelho

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In this solo chat, I reflect on a powerful experience with a client who thought she knew exactly what she wanted—until she found herself on the brink of her dream and was surprised by what happened after she was about to take the leap.


We worked together through my signature "reverse engineering your future" process, uncovering the real reasons behind her initial vision and breaking free from old patterns of success.


This episode is a reminder that the dreams we build might not always be the ones we truly desire, and it’s okay to pivot. Tune in to hear how you can apply some of the strategies we followed to look at what your next moves may be.


**Instagram (& all social media): @sheilaabotelho - DM “Growth” to learn about The Seasons Growth Accelerator**





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https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/connect-with-sheila-botelho/id1527363160 I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

Sheila:

This is the gift that we give ourselves when we take those steps. We'll never have to wonder what would have happened had I trusted myself and taken that step. Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botelho podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of this season's self-care app. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your well-being and build your version of a happy, successful life. On today's solo chat, we're talking all about pivoting and creating a new vision for the next phase of your future.

Sheila:

Have you found yourself ever in a place where you are doing the day-to-day and realizing there is something more for you to do in your work or just in your life in general? You're not quite sure exactly what it is, but you need to take some space to actually uncover that. Well, these are the types of people that I typically work with a lot People who are wanting to either expand where they are at right now or they're wanting to make a complete shift altogether. And I'm tapping into a story today from one of my former clients who was doing some beautiful work in her corporate job and she had climbed up the ranks. She had a prestigious office, a prestigious position, and she realized it was time for her to make a shift and when she went about doing that, she thought she knew what she wanted and she started going full force into that and realized she needed a little bit of guidance through the journey, because everything started coming at her so quickly and she started having some conflicting emotions. Now you're going to learn obviously you've probably learned this already as you've tried to move into different careers or different new things in your life. It's not always comfortable, even if it's something that you want. So sometimes the distinction is is this discomfort that you're feeling something that is just because it's brand new and you have to be a beginner again, or is it that it really isn't aligned for you? Well, in this case, I'm going to tell you that it was something that was not in alignment, but this was very you know, not easy to pinpoint. It took a little bit of time for us to get through this.

Sheila:

So, to give you a bit of context, this client of mine had a very prestigious role in an organization on a very prestigious street in a prestigious town, and she was in a leadership position. She loved what she did for many, many years and she guided people through to success in the arena that she found herself in. Obviously, I'm not going to give details specifically, because this is a former client. I do have permission to share this story, though, and what ended up happening was when she came to this point where she wanted to make a shift. She came to me and she wanted to have some guidance, through coaching, on where to go next. She had many ideas, and the challenge that she faced is one that a lot of my clients face, and that is she has been an expert in one thing for many years, but along that journey, has gained so many tools and learned so many skills that for her to decide what was next was really challenging for her.

Sheila:

So we went on a fact-finding mission together to uncover what is the thing that she's really meant to be doing next, knowing that this could be just a stepping stone to something else, because how do we really know until we take action right? And that was the thing that really was the key to her reaching out to me, because she was trying to figure it out on her own and she wasn't taking any actions to make changes, because she felt very confused and stuck with all of the beautiful skills she had achieved over the years. Have you ever found yourself looking at your life this way, right, where you've done so many things, you have such a variety of skills that you've acquired over the years, a lot of connections? You've done beautiful things, but deciding well, where would you go next? Like, how would you ever decide that? It takes some time. And so we uncovered that one of the highest values that she held was something that had to do with design and style and art.

Sheila:

And after we did some research on this with her, from her past life, from the things that she enjoyed the most, from the things that lit her up the most in her life, we realized that art was the thing that she really wanted to focus on. And so she started to think on her own, and we took a little bit of a two to three month process going through this, where she hadn't completely exited her corporate career yet, so she needed some space to be able to work this out, and she really wanted to take the time so that it was a really aligned decision for herself, and so I gave her little bits of homework to do, and then, as we would get together for our coaching calls, she would start to share with me what was coming up with her journaling sessions and what she was noticing when she was out and about and when she was in meetings, what was really resonating for her. And art kept coming up, and beauty and curating beautiful things and things that created pleasure. She just found herself attracted to that and she realized that there was this piece of her at a young age that always loved art and she was going at this as a potential way forward in her life as a career.

Sheila:

She was really discouraged to go into the art world because it was not one that was maybe going to potentially pay the bills. She was bought into that dialogue that many people around her at the time were saying the starving artist thing right, and I'm sure you may have heard of that, although now I mean, look around you. Where would we be without our art, like our old school art, the stuff from history or the stuff that's being created right now. Art is such a beautiful part of how we express ourselves, how we move through emotions and how we experience beauty in the world, and some people are just artists. We need our artists, and so when she uncovered that, it was really a big deal for her because she realized she had forgotten that and she hadn't really given it a whole bunch of thought back when she was making the decision of where to go to school or what next steps in her career were going to be after her higher education.

Sheila:

And so she stepped into the corporate space as well and it served her really well and she loved her career. She loved the people she worked with, she loved where it led her on her travels and she also felt a little bit like she missed out on something, because she realized she could have been nurturing this artist side of herself while she was building her corporate career. It just was never thought of as an option and life got busy and so those things she just let go by the wayside. And so, as we were talking about it and uncovering these things, she would go back into her workspace and do her thing. But she now had this idea in her mind and she had the awareness of the thing that she had loved so much and that she realized she really had a yearning to bring back into her life.

Sheila:

And so what she ended up doing was she decided to start going to different galleries and just spending more time in her free time to soak up the art, to learn about the artists, to meet some people in the artist space. And this is where she got her first idea to have a space that would be like an artist space, a curated gallery space where you could have events, where new artists could come in and showcase and exhibit their art. And it could just not only be art, it could be for music, it could be for a variety of things. Because she realized she was starting to get to know more and more people in the art scene that she just loved and she wanted to create this hub for people to come and for her to be able to have events. And but what she loved the most was how the art made her feel and she started bringing more art into her day-to-day life and into her workspace and into her home and starting to curate spaces in her own personal places, like even in her car. It became like there were little things there that just made her feel connected to creativity and she realized she started to be hunting for these things and curating little collections for friends, as gifts, and it just became a little sideline thing that she was doing for fun and she thought, okay, well, if I have this art space and I have this event space. It can be all in one. And then I have my own collection that I start to curate from different artists. This could be my next thing. And she knew there were people interested in this. It was really fun.

Sheila:

And then she realized she started to go to some of these events and get to know some of the people who were working behind the scenes. So she got to learn, well, what is the behind the scenes of doing such a thing? And that's when we had some more discussions and that's when it got real. I said, okay, so this is really what you want to do. And she said, yeah, this is what I want to do. And so she started to put feelers out there for locations and she had a few specific spots in mind in her town, in her city. That would have been a really wonderful showcase for this.

Sheila:

And when she started looking, she didn't think too much about it because she realized, oh, this is going to take a long time. At least this is what she thought right, because isn't this sometimes what we do to ourselves? Oh, the thing I really want. It's going to be really hard to do and it's going to take a long time. That's what she thought. So she still had not left her full-time career. She was just making a plan, like really smart woman, trying to make these plans ahead of time. So she wasn't like blindsided when she like actually left and then had nothing to do, right, because she was working on an exit strategy, and so she put it out there, didn't think much of it, didn't think she'd get a whole lot of information back about new spaces for a while.

Sheila:

And then literally two weeks went by and I got a text on my phone like can we meet? Can we? Can we get on a call? I really need to speak. And it was not a scheduled call, had not been on the books yet for our next meeting. And so I said, of course. So we set something up. And she said to me this event space opened up on this street. It's like a prestigious street, like she just loved where it was. It would gather all the right people, it was the right place. Even the price for leasing this space was something that she felt was in her budget.

Sheila:

Um, after she did all the numbers about what would be involved with putting this thing together and events to cover it, et cetera, right, looking at the business side, and I said, okay, well, wow, so are you going to go see it, what are you thinking? And she's like, well, I am going to go see it, but I'm feeling really uncomfortable right now. I mean, I'm second guessing myself. I said, well, of course you are. This is something brand new. This was an idea. And you, literally two weeks ago, said, I'm going to put some feelers out about a location. Now it's getting real. So of course, you're going to feel uncomfortable and just understand anything new is going to feel that way.

Sheila:

And so we worked through some exercises. I always love to do embodiment exercises with my clients and I just really gave her the space to share how she was feeling. And after that session she said, okay, I feel ready, I can do this and report back. Right, I'm like, please report back, I really want to know what happens. And so she made an appointment, she went to the space and you'll never guess what happened.

Sheila:

My next call with her was, literally she booked it for the next day because she says, okay, I want to talk about it right away, I want to see how it feels. And so she went it for the next day because she says, okay, I just, I want to talk about it right away, I want to see how it feels. And she, so she went to see the space, she slept on it and she had the conversation with me the next day, like later the next day, and she said you know what? This is not the idea for me, this is not the thing I want to do. I'm like what it seemed like a shoo-in. I was so excited. I actually thought, okay, I'm going to book tickets to fly there so I can go to the opening. I was all excited and I'm like okay, so tell me, what happened? What did you feel in your body when you were there? What ran through your mind? What was it like? She goes it was the perfect space.

Sheila:

The people who were leasing it were wonderful. They were even going to throw in, like you know, a free month because they loved the idea of what I was doing. And you know, just, there were some beautiful connections Like, oh, my goodness, who does that? That's amazing. Like, this almost felt like it was meant to be. And she said what happened was as I walked through the space and we were talking about the ideas and I was really saying it out loud. This is what it's going to look like. And I was sharing about how I was curating these pieces and sharing these, um, these types of art pieces with people and and lighting up their life with these little, these little curated sets that I was making of different designs and art and things.

Sheila:

The realtor was asking her some questions about it and saying, oh hey, you know, we have some new clients in town who are actually looking to furnish their penthouse and they're looking for some additional art and they're looking for really unique things because they love art but they don't want anything that looks like anything else. And this is when she realized what she really was meant to be doing. She said you know what? I'm not meant to be hosting events and curating these events in a space. I am meant to be doing what I love and going wherever the wind blows me around, wherever it takes me. I'm like what, what do you mean? What do you mean? Blows me around wherever it takes me? I'm like what, what do you mean? What do you mean?

Sheila:

And she realized just the idea of this person who needed the curated pieces for their penthouse. She realized how many other people around the world want to do that. And she loved more than she loved art we had uncovered this earlier on more than she loved art, she loved travel and she loved culture. And so what she really wanted to do was mix art, travel and culture. And she decided that instead her new business model was going to be curating art pieces and collections and curios, you know, like not just not just paintings and things like that, but like sculptures and like all kinds of sorts of things from around the world to people around the world. And curios, you know, like not just paintings and things like that, but like sculptures and like all kinds of sorts of things from around the world to people around the world. So going to different locations and curating from local indigenous cultures as well as local artisans to bring them to other places across the world to adorn the homes of the people who wanted to have something really unique.

Sheila:

And I said, oh, my goodness, this is so different than what you thought you were going to be doing. Well, maybe not that different, but it's not a space, it's more fluid. And she said one thing I realized when I was wanting to leave my corporate career was I wanted as much as I did some travel for the corporate job. She said I wanted to be able to have more freedom and flexibility to see the world and not be tied down to one specific location, like yes, I have my home, but I want to be able to travel and I want to be taking the joy of this art with me wherever I go, because I had not been able to really experience it through most of my life. And what we uncovered from this and I hope you pick this up from this story as well the only way she knew that that was truly the path she was meant to be on and she knew it in her bones and she literally took steps to get going on it right away. And, yes, there were twists and turns around that journey. That's another story. What she realized was she never would have known had she not taken that first step, taking the first step into the thing she thought she wanted, even though at the end it wasn't the exact thing she wanted.

Sheila:

Like. This is a lesson in our actions, showing us what our next steps are. How often do we find ourselves wanting to make change and we think about it and we postulate on it and we ponder it and we noodle, we are in our heads and then nothing changes and we don't do anything differently. We just think about it and time goes, and then certain opportunities come and go and we think I wonder what would have happened if I actually had stepped into that, if it actually tried. Well, here's an example of someone who didn't just wait, they actually stepped into it and it's just such a beautiful example of what can happen for all of us when we trust ourselves to step into our ideas and always knowing I hope this story will stay with you in that you know that things don't have to work out how you initially imagined. It could be better, it could be better.

Sheila:

I love sharing stories like this. I have so many of my own. I will share another time, but this one just stood out to me today as one I wanted to share with you because it's an example of trusting yourself, and for years, for generations, we all of us men, women, everyone in the human species have been kind of socialized, trained to not trust ourselves, to look outside of ourselves for what our next steps are. But I invite you to really look outside of ourselves for what our next steps are. But I invite you to really look inside of yourself, find out, do some deep reconnaissance work of your own on what are your next steps, what are the next things that you really want to be achieving in your life or just experiencing? It doesn't even have to be business Okay, this is a business story.

Sheila:

I have so many others that have nothing to do with business and let me tell you this woman who was looking to shift her career and to pivot out of corporate into something of her own that she could just sink her teeth in into and really enjoy what she got from that was far greater than just a new revenue stream. It was a connection, a reconnection to her abilities, a reconnection to her desires. She was able to start trusting herself more. She took better care of herself. She felt like she could go slower in her life and speed up if she wanted to. She was living a life with more pleasure because she chose it, and it all started with just trusting herself to step, take the step forward. And what was beautiful was that she realized that for herself.

Sheila:

Now some of us can do this stuff totally on our own, but I have to say most people who I really look at as being self-made they're really not self-made. They have somebody there, at least one other person who is being a sounding board for their ideas. And so I really honor the fact that she reached out and she said, hey, walk me through this. Am I crazy to be doing this? I mean, she had a really amazing career already and so her friends, that people around her closest to her, didn't fully understand like what, why are you leaving this amazing career? Like, you have it made right Corner office, great connections. Like great vacation, you can travel, all that.

Sheila:

But she still had to show up and do the thing right and she was just ready for something different. It was kind of like the golden handcuffs that you hear about, right? And so she reached outside of her connected sphere of people to someone who was kind of third party here and say, okay, am I crazy? Should I really even be considering this? And all I did was provide space for her to be in the inquiry and then just to test the waters. And she was freed up to be able to take those steps and not be afraid because she still had her career going Like she could have done anything. She could have just stayed where she was if she realized. You know what actually, I realize this is what I want. I just want to stay where I am. But now I know because I took the steps, because this is the gift that we give ourselves when we take those steps. We'll never have to wonder what would have happened had I trusted myself and taken that step.

Sheila:

You could be like her, where the first thing she thought she wanted to do is actually not what she wanted to do, but now she's doing something beautiful and she's also open to the fact that when she's tired of doing that, if there's something different for her, she'll follow down that garden path Like it's okay, we get to change our mind. Different for her. She'll follow down that garden path Like it's okay, we get to change our mind. So I wanted to share that story with you because this is really the power of coaching and the power of connection with other people who are wanting to elevate in their lives, whatever that may look like. And so if you are in a space right now where you're like wanting to pivot and shift, I actually have a group program that is about to open its doors. It's the Seasons Growth Accelerator. If you want details about it, you can see the details either in the comments you can comment growth, or you can tap the link in the show notes, if you're listening to this on the podcast, and I'll give you the details.

Sheila:

It's just such a fun experience when we get to challenge ourself to something new, and usually it's not oh, what should I do next?

Sheila:

It's usually what I've found with clients.

Sheila:

It's ideas that have already been there for a very long time, or even a couple of years, and now it's just time to take the step into it. But you don't have to do it alone. I'd love to walk along the journey with you and in a circle, because in these group containers that I create, it's not so much about top-down leadership, where I'm just like, oh, let me tell you all the things you need to do, like, sure, I'm there to answer questions and guide, but ultimately it's more about let's see where this goes, let's just have conversation and let's consider what are the possibilities, and sometimes having someone ask you questions and help you reflect back what it is that you're wondering about, that is really all you need to move forward. But then it's taking the step. Who's going to hold you accountable to your dreams, right? So that's what this container is all about.

Sheila:

You can see the show notes for details, and I so appreciate you listening or watching wherever you are, and stay tuned for more mini-sodes and interviews coming up. I hope you go after the dream that is on your heart, because you are worthy of going for it. It's yours for a reason. It was planted there, so I wish you all the best and I'll see you in another episode. Big blessings, thank you.