Success Story - Sarah Shuel

Owner: sonder management | manager: Float Like a buffalo | co-founder: Rocky Mountain Virtual | co-Creator: The Secret speakeasy

I have had the pleasure of working with Randell since December of 2018…

and my time with her has honestly been one of the greatest gifts of my life, from both professional and personal perspectives. Since December of last year, I have come leaps and bounds in terms of knowing myself and in how I build, maintain, and interact in my relationships.

When I began working with Randell, I was trying to build myself back up from year of awful experiences in my professional life and in my personal life. I was dealing with a lot of issues concerning boundaries, including always being a "yes" girl with work projects no matter how much I already had on my plate, taking work home with me and working late into the night, and letting others' moods and actions affect my feelings about myself.

I was also dealing with a significant lack of self-confidence in myself both personally and professionally. I did not value my own perspective, outlook, effort, or contributions in the workplace, and was afraid to communicate openly with my superiors. Most of this stemmed from the fact that I function very differently from my superiors in my place of work and a growing feeling that that was unacceptable to them. Rather than try to communicate, I would stay quiet and "out of the way," and opt for silence in fear that my contributions would face opposition from higher up.

In one specific scenario, I, technically a Millennial, was struggling with my relationship with my previous boss, a Baby Boomer , who came down hard on me for not communicating, even writing me up for it. This made me extremely unhappy - to the point of losing sleep at night - because I do all I can to make sure I'm performing at my utmost. I felt that I had communicate effectively, and I was not only upset about being written up, but confused about why I had gotten in "trouble" when I had not done anything wrong. In this situation, Randell helped me take a step back and look at the situation from outside of it. From here, I saw that it wasn't necessarily that I didn't communicate - I communicated in a different way than my boss was expecting, and that's where the breakdown in communication happened. From here, I was able to learn about my boss's communication style and our relationship improved dramatically.

Today, I find that I'm confident in myself and willing to share my thoughts and ideas in the office and in my personal relationships. It was not an easy process to get here, but it's been so worth the effort. Because I was able to be open with Randell, she has been able to work with me one-on-one to address my specific needs and focuses. For instance, with the boundaries problem, Randell would help me think of specific things to say to other to help myself establish those boundaries. She helped me understand that my inability to create boundaries comes from fear of disappointing others - and that that fear is unfounded most of the time. Through Randell's lessons and workshops, I've been able to redefine how I think of myself and how I frame my thoughts to others. I'm greatly looking forward to what our continued work will bring!

If you’d like to learn more about Sarah and her business, Sonder Music Management, visit her website.