Tell me about your vision.
Well, Harry, I have been sensitive to my potential from a young age as a teenager.
And I now am looking at the people in retirement as being, what about their potential?
With so many people coasting, playing golf or being a couch potato,
that to me, is there meaning in that? Is there fulfillment in that?
What could you or would you love to be doing if somebody inspired you or lit a fire in you?
And so I am both a spark strategist, a retirement coach, and a behavioral scientist.
So I want to bring out the best in people.
And all this free time in retirement sounds to me like untapped potential.
And in fact, a lot of people kind of get lost in retirement when they don't have their business card anymore
that tells them what their title is or who they work for.
We're not taught that we're in charge of our – we get to live from our heart now
instead of from our brain and our brawn. And nobody tells us about that.
So we get lost with our structure. Why do we need to get out of bed?
The alarm clock does tell us that we have a job to go to anymore.
So the – in fact, my last job at Boeing, they said – somebody told me that a lot of people put off –
yeah, put off retiring because they know they'll be dead in three years.
Oh, man, that hurt to put off retirement because apparently their whole life is made up of work, work, work, work, work, work, work.
And to not have work, they would be a drifter.
So they become bored. They become depressed. They become suicidal. They become addicted.
They – traveling – a lot of people dream of traveling as long as their health is good, and I understand that.
But a great way to add purpose to your life quickly out of the door after you leave your job is to volunteer.
And I wrote a course in May of make a marvelous transition into volunteering because it gives you a reason to get out of bed.
It gives you people to socialize with. It gives you something to learn and to feel like you're contributing still to society, that we still need you.
So my vision is to inspire, and I teach – just any day now, I will have on the Great Discovery platform my secret sauce.
It's called Discover Your Spark, Rekindle Your Joy.
And it's a little late getting done because of vacation and illness, but I've got a young lady that's working with me to finish that up.
And it's just momentarily ready to go.
So here's the spark that I learned about myself right after retiring.
It was the first thing I learned in coaching school, and it goes like this.
Well, okay, so I mean, first set the stage.
After we finished writing our essence, our spark, they had to stand in a circle and read our spark to each other.
And as it came my turn, I kind of sucked in my breath and I thought, nobody's ever asked me to define my soul before.
Wow, it was amazing feeling.
And here's what I had developed.
I am precious jewel of wisdom.
I am colorful collaborator, motivator, and learner.
I am tranquil, authentic, and pure inspirer.
I light fires.
So, Harry, my vision is to teach 10% of the boomers what their spark is, their invisible assets, defining their soul.
Because then they have meaning, they have better health, and they have fulfillment.
That's a big job facing me.
Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
I think you already answered it in a way.
But what is your advice, Sharon?
Like why do you do what you do?
Yeah, yeah, I did answer it, and that's I mentioned the feeling of potential.
Now, during my career, I every now and then would jump at the chance of helping people revise their resume
because oftentimes I can see some strengths in you that you can't see or you think, oh, everybody can do that.
So revising your resume to bring out more strengths and look better to your potential new job is something that I find easy
and kind of tickles me because I actually did that for my friend that's seven foot tall.
I helped him revise his resume, and he wound up moving to California and doing a job that he enjoyed quite a bit down there.
So the potential in, you know, I remember maybe I was 14, and I wonder what my potential is.
It's kind of like a mystery to me, and I think that's a good thing to keep us drawn, you know, walking towards our future.
Thank you for sharing that.
Thank you for being authentic about it.
My next question for you is, Sharon, then what held you back all those years ago?
Oh, well, that's a difficult story, but it really does play in a lot of my story.
I had wanted to be invisible as a young girl.
There was sexual abuse going on in our home, and I hundreds of times said, thank heavens he keeps his hands off me.
But I was a lifelong learner even.
I had helped my brother and sister with their flashcards, you know, three plus two equals five,
and I knew their flashcards before I started first grade better than they did.
But that lifelong learning actually helped save me, I think, with my own focus and my own office,
just that even there was this abuse going on.
And I figured if I kept obedient, don't rock the boat, focus, and maybe I'd be safe, and I actually felt invisible my whole career.
I didn't really realize that, but down deep in my gut, there was something about not being seen or heard, but especially heard.
Until I started some of my college classes that people started helping me.
I'll never forget somebody offered me a couple free counseling sessions,
and I had to tell them why they would do that for me, and I had to say I was worth it.
That was tough to admit, but their generosity was a sense of love.
So it's not been since I learned my SPARK, my Essence Statement, that, well, at about the same time,
I got a profile back in the mail that said I was an influencer.
You made a mistake. You got this wrong. I'm not that person.
And yet, it kind of planted you seed, and I thought, well, let's take some baby steps, act as if that was true.
I accepted the opportunity to be a guest on a podcast out of New York City, and then started doing my own podcasting for a couple of years.
Little by little, becoming visible has started happening, and I'm becoming bold and courageous about it now,
because every week I put something out on Instagram that is Sharon underscore Queen of Courage.
And I love inspiring people and helping them embrace who they are and their invisible assets.
Thank you for sharing that. It goes directly to my next question, P. Sharon.
Then how did you get started in all this?
Well, it was April of 2016. Actually, in January, I got an email in my inbox at Boeing
that said Boeing was cooperating with a community college on a coaching program.
And at first, I just I thought, oh, good. Oh, good.
I'm glad Boeing's doing that. But then as I pondered it a little bit more, I thought, oh, yeah, I've been an employee involvement facilitator.
And it seems like the next natural step would be to become a coach, natural progression.
So I started coaching school the week before I retired.
All right. And how did you get started on the path that you're on today?
Well, I often say I'm the one that stops me.
You know, I I don't let closed doors be the last word.
And I've been plant and I also say I've been planting seed in my business.
I have been writing. I wrote a book, Fresh Courage in Retirement, Finding Purpose, Essence and Fulfillment.
And I it's basically a do it yourself for finding purpose because in retirement, purpose is the secret sauce that gives you a reason to get out of bed.
It gives you somewhat of a feeling of being useful still.
And it helps you live longer and healthier. What could be better than that?
And I'm 76 and I brag about it because people don't believe me anyway.
And I'm headed for 100. So I and another principle that's helped me embrace my job and my business is not living by fear.
Back when I was about 40 ish, I guess I I had just moved to Tampa, Florida, and I was kind of hitting the wall with finding new friends and and the whole adjustment.
And I did a little research and found a couple chapters in Joshua in the Bible that talked about do not be afraid.
Be of good curves, be of great curves. Do not be afraid. And I started stomping my foot and saying I refuse to live my life based on fear.
And I think that has contributed a great deal to my youthful appearance.
And we've got ingenuity. Let's use it for good, not for worry and fear.
So I've been planting seed for a number of years in my business with the writing and the podcasting.
And I just was on a in a class last week for being international speakers.
And I'm looking forward to that teaching the boomers globally, at least 10 percent of them to live from their spark and have that longevity and good health on their side.
So did you start on this journey?
I don't know if you started your business when you were still working or you retired or you already started your business a while ago.
Well, the principle, in fact, I meant to bring that out.
I had worked at a convention conference at my church for singles. And my director was somebody had already been doing the conference for two or three years.
And he he told me a great tip, gave me a great tip that when you have a big event like that finished wrapping up or as it as it's finishing up, have something else to go to.
And I didn't ask him how he learned that lesson. But I I think he probably had come some of those bumpy roads after you have so much focus and completion of something that I remember working in my front yard after the event I hosted
and was planning some bulbs or something. And I and just being alone and in my own thoughts was kind of settling and catching my breath for the next event.
So as I face retirement, I use his great advice to say, what else? What's next? And so while I was looking at that email from the community college in Boeing, I thought, OK, this could be that next step.
So that's that's that's good. Thank you for sharing that. Now I see the bigger picture.
Yeah, I have one more question for you before we enter a segment.
You are this is where you are at right now with your vision and this is the future where you see yourself going.
Oh, go ahead. Yeah. So where is the let me put it on there. So making sure it's there.
Yep. Where do you see yourself going with your vision? Well, in fact, I've been challenged two or three times this last month about having a bigger vision
and and especially adding the images that go with the dream, the vision.
And so I've been saying for two, three years that I want to impact 10 percent of the boomers to live from their spark and that allows them to give back with pleasure and fulfillment and meaning.
But now I need to make more.
Well, I only about 50 percent of the boomers are on social media, so there's 50 percent of them that will never hear the message I have been building on social media.
So I need to get out there and speak. And that is the the reason I took the course last week on getting better at speaking, but also getting paid well for speaking.
If there's companies that actually do help their older employees in that transition as a behavioral scientist, all this planning financially for retirement leaves another 60 percent of the equation not touched.
And that's all the emotional side of leaving a job and not knowing who you're working for anymore, what your title is and where are your team members.
You've got to replace all that. And I'm here to do that for you.
And having the emotional well-being of knowing what's inside and now being able to live from your heart is huge because I think it feels a little bit like heaven on earth.
How cool is that? And to live from your intrinsic motivation, you don't need somebody. Come on, let's get that job done.
No, you're probably working overtime because you're enjoying the feeling that comes from giving back.
So I've got a lot of work to do. And speaking is a big part of that, I believe, as well as keeping busy on social media.
And I'm finding that I was just on a podcast and this lady at 31 was really tracking with me about that being vulnerable and courageous and being your own unique expression of what and why you're here.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.