Shavon Terrell-Camper of Leveraging Your Reality On
An Inside Look at the Benefits and Impact Of Working
With an Executive Coach
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
The softer/feminine side of me is just as powerful, if not more powerful, than the masculine side of me. In my family, women rule, and I was taught resourcefulness — to make things happen with whatever I have. This led to me charting full speed ahead into different career transitions. Once I found my career sweet spot, a different side of me was needed to nurture, grow, and evolve as a professional and business owner.
The competitive edge in business often comes down to a combination of strategy, foresight, and professional development. For executives looking to level up their skills, an executive coach can be their biggest asset. In this feature, we talk to business leaders who heavily invest in personal and professional development opportunities, coaching, and leadership programs. They’ll share why they invest so much and the impact it has on their life. Today, I had the privilege of speaking with Shavon Terrell-Camper
Shavon Terrell-Camper, renowned Mental Wellness Coach and Mindfulness Expert, CEO of Leveraging Your Reality, empowers leaders and individuals worldwide to transcend silent suffering and embrace genuine fulfillment. With a passion for catalyzing impactful change, she fosters vulnerability and introspection, guiding clients toward success through honesty and accountability. Her innovative approach has resonated with over 1,000 individuals and corporations, from Amazon to Uber, revolutionizing mindsets and fostering healthier lifestyles and families. Terrell-Camper, who holds a degree in Social Work from Iona University with a minor in Public Speaking and Human Communications and a Master of Social Work from Fordham University, is a Long Island, New York native, and now resides in Cartersville, GA, with her husband and children.
Thanks for being part of this series. Let’s jump in and focus on your early years. First off, can you give us a snapshot of your life before you started your career?
I grew up in Long Island in New York and my life was centered around family, church, and school. I grew up in the 90s — before social media, so my world and exposure were limited. I hadn’t thought about going to college until my junior year of high school when my mom said, “You are going to college, and someone at the church will help you get in.” For most of my life, someone was telling me what to do and I was the “good girl” who listened. When asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, the only thing that came to mind was a teacher because it was the profession I was most exposed to.
College blew my mind wide open. I had never been around so many white people in my life (The part of Long Island I grew up in, Freeport, was predominantly Black and Hispanic). Furthermore, my mother was no longer there to make decisions for me so I had to figure things out quickly. My first task was figuring out how to survive college, and it was difficult. I had never written five to ten-page papers before. It baffled me how people had more than four paragraphs worth of anything to say. In college, I learned I could survive without my family and church. This led mt to major in social work because social workers help navigate challenging situations. I thought I could help others to survive, too, since I had figured it all out at the tender age of 18. Little did I know, college was only the beginning.
What was it about personal and professional development that attracted you to start investing in yourself? Also, can you share when you started and what your first investment was?
At the time, I was in my second job as a social worker at the Queens Borough Public Library in New York. I remember landing that while unsuccessfully trying to transition out of the industry and settling for the grant-funded social work role until I could figure out another career option since I was displeased with the social service system. Another moment of amazement came when I saw how many people came into the library for books. I could count on one hand how many times I had been to the library as an adult.
In one of my “I have to figure this out” moments, I decided that if so many people were coming to get books, maybe one of these books would have the secret to unlock my next career. That week, I checked out my first book, “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. I was very green at research, but we all start somewhere. This book was my first investment in myself. I didn’t have anyone I could go to for guidance, and authors of books became my mentors. One book turned into reading dozens of books on leadership development while working at the library. The topic fascinated me, at the time, and led me to think leadership and developing leaders was the alternative to a broken social service system. From that moment on, I worked with my clients to help them become leaders in their own lives.
Can you think back and share one of the biggest blind spots you had that someone helped you see and something specific about what you learned and how it showed up in your life?
One of my biggest blind spots was naivety. There was so much I didn’t know, yet I thought I knew a lot because I was surviving. I remember working at the library when Hurricane Sandy hit New York; it was devastating. The library became a hub to provide services to communities without electricity and basic needs. The director of the teen library said to me, “What are you doing just sitting here?” My response was, “I have nothing to do.” She instructed me to speak with all the service providers that were set up in the library to help people in various ways. It was the most uncomfortable thing I had done, but it changed my life. In one conversation after another, I was able to learn more about what was happening with our patrons and where I needed to go for resources. That experience taught me a lifelong lesson about networking. With the right connections, you can go from complete ignorance to insider awareness in a short period of time.
How long have you had an executive coach and how would you describe your relationship?
Over the past eight years, I have worked with three different coaches. Each coach has offered valuable growth in my journey. The relationship with each of my coaches was very different. My first coach was an awakening experience; she had the most difficult job of working past my hardened exterior and narrow life experience. Initially, I was extremely cautious in our relationship because she was chosen for me. I was not sure that we would be a good fit, but I was wrong. She helped me to really figure out what I wanted in my career and life. Our relationship helped me to free myself from the mental constraints of following rules that were no longer serving me. My second coach was a more short-lived experience. I came in knowing I wanted to work on vulnerability and had, by then, several years of my own coaching experience under my belt. I wanted to go deeper than she could take me and ultimately decided we were not a good fit for the topic. It took a lot of courage for me to be okay with us not being a good fit and to terminate the relationship.
My current coach is amazing. We are very yin and yang. What I appreciate about her is she calls me out when I am out of alignment with who I want to be. Our conversations are like a dance; Even though I am leading, her presence is balancing and complementary. She brings a finesse to my thoughts that I would struggle to do on my own.
If I was sitting down with your coach, and asked “what’s the one thing your client needs to work on more than anything else in the world” what would I hear them say about you?
My coach says all the time, “Shavon, most clients, I am trying to speed up, but you — we need you to slow down.” As a New Yorker, I have been groomed to hustle hard and fast. The older I get, the less hustle I need. More ease, flow, and intention are needed as I grow my business while being present in my personal life.
If you were questioned about your “ROI” (return on investment), is there anything you can point to that justifies how much you spend on being coached? If not, how do you justify it?
Long-term coaching services are costly when you look at the numbers alone but given the immense value coaching brought to my life, I would say the benefit outweighs the cost, and I can regard the service as cheap. The value I get pays dividends, making it a worthy investment. No price can be put on having peace of mind, learning to trust myself, strategizing how to take risks in my business, and stepping into my purpose. Having a coach has allowed me to awaken and become an active contributor to my life on my terms. In my mid-20s, I was a mom, wife, and full-time employee. Waking up to get the kids ready for daycare, going to work, commuting an hour, coming home to pick the kids up, cooking dinner, and doing nighttime routines was my life. One day, I realized this way of existing was not going to work for me, and I didn’t know how I would or could make the change. My coaches were right by my side, helping me own the life I wanted; now it is a reality.
Let’s dive into specifics. What are the top 5 things you’ve either gained or learned about yourself, where you specifically made changes, and have seen positive results. Be specific and feel free to give us either the background or story about each.
- I am a disrupter. For so many years, I did as I was told, but not until my mid-late 20s did I realize I was a disrupter. Whenever I was hired for a job, people were hiring me to shake things up. My blunt communication style and passion allowed people to be open to hearing my perspective and trying new approaches.
- The softer/feminine side of me is just as powerful, if not more powerful, than the masculine side of me. In my family, women rule, and I was taught resourcefulness — to make things happen with whatever I have. This led to me charting full speed ahead into different career transitions. Once I found my career sweet spot, a different side of me was needed to nurture, grow, and evolve as a professional and business owner.
- I have the power to set the standard. Somebody had to make up the elements of our culture; therefore, everything is made up based on a singular perspective that does not work for everybody. Even the concept of time and work and how we should spend time (i.e., the nine-to-five here in the U.S.). We often feel societal pressure to follow different constructs and norms for many different reasons. In my coaching technique, I decided I might as well design a few things of my own. This led to figuring out how to earn a full-time salary in part-time hours to spend more time with my family and be present in my kids’ lives. There is always more money to be made or a new title to acquire, but I have one time to see/experience my kids growing up. The traditional work structure plus commute time took too much away from everything else I valued in my life, so I made a new structure to follow.
- I must trust my intuition; I was among the first people in my family to complete college on the traditional route straight out of high school. Not having people to guide me left me figuring many things out alone. Every time I felt it was time to leave a job or transition careers, someone in my personal life was telling me to stay and wait. Even though I did not know where I was going, my intuition always told me when it was time to leave a job. It would seem that I always left at unconventional times, after having a baby, after being spared from a layoff, and even after having negotiated the “ideal” work schedule. I learned to leave good enough to take a risk at experiencing great things — things that better served me and allowed me to be a better professional.
- Starting small is better than not starting at all. Go big or go home did not work while building my business. I had to build slowly and steadily. Every time I tried to go big, I was knocked back several steps. Starting small allowed me to accept that being an entrepreneur with 10% of my time would have to be acceptable. Over time, 10% turned into 100% but I had to be willing to start at 10%.
What advice would you give other entrepreneurs who don’t think it’s worth investing in a coach or spending money to join a leadership program?
Pay now or pay later. At some point on your entrepreneurial journey, you will need a safe space to strategize with a professional trained to ask the right questions, challenge you, and remind you of what you said you wanted. Everyone, at some point, gets in the way of their own success, and a coach will help you identify it and move beyond holding yourself back in your professional and personal life.
Do you have any examples of how being coached had an impact on others who work around you? How has it spilled over to your team or your family?
Being coached has positively impacted my parenting style. My kids are growing up in a different world than the one in which I grew up. In today’s time, things change so fast that I am preparing them for the unknown. My start to parenting was similar to how I was parented: in a controlling fashion characterized by me telling my children what to do to keep them safe. Being coached has helped me to shift my focus to skill development with my children. I might not know how the world will be when they are adults, but I can teach them how to solve problems creatively, think for themselves, and navigate people. We have a lot of conversations filled with thought-provoking questions so I can understand their thought process and find ways to help them continuously develop mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
There are so many executive coaches out there. How did you go about selecting the right one for you?
My coaching journey began with a formal program, but it truly flourished when I connected with coaches through my network. I openly shared my quest for a new coach with my community of family, friends, and peers, whose recommendations led me to transformative experiences. I advocate for prospective clients to engage in initial conversations with coaches to gauge compatibility and define goals, ensuring a tailored and enriching coaching journey characterized by thoughtful questioning and growth-oriented challenges. If the connection isn’t there, don’t hesitate to explore other coaching options until you find your perfect match.
Lastly, where can our audience go to follow your journey and perhaps get inspired to make their own investment in coaching? Be sure to visit https://www.leveragingreality.com/, as well as connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram,
Thank you so much for joining us! We wish you only success.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Shavon Terrell-Camper of Leveraging Your Reality On
An Inside Look at the Benefits and Impact Of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.