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<p style="font-size: 0.85em; color: #999; letter-spacing: 0.02em; margin-bottom: 5px;">By Rachel Cline · October 29, 2026</p>
<p style="text-align: center; margin: 0 0 18px;"><img src="https://radiantlyrootedyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Ep-40-Blog-Banner-1.jpg" alt="Shannon Baird in a black top against a red arch, with the title Leaving Corporate Without Blowing Up Your Life" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 10px;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.2em; font-size: 0.78em; color: #4d727c;">Episode 46 · Radiantly Rooted with Rachel</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><span style="float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 3.4em; line-height: 0.78; color: #4d727c; padding: 6px 10px 0 0;">L</span>eaving corporate doesn't have to wait for a layoff or a breakdown, and Shannon Baird, founder of The Clean Exit, shares how she went from being laid off on Valentine's Day to building her next chapter on her own terms. If you're burned out, bracing for what comes next, or already sensing the cracks, this conversation covers giving yourself permission, taking messy action, and building your plan so you keep your income.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Welcome back to Radiantly Rooted with Rachel. I'm your host, Rachel Cline, and I have a very special guest with me today. I'm excited to introduce you to Shannon Baird. Welcome, Shannon.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Thank you for having me. I'm really excited.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> So Shannon is a corporate exit strategist and founder of The Clean Exit. So after 11 years in corporate, she got laid off on Valentine's Day. She says it was the best thing that ever happened to her, and now she helps burned-out corporate women build a clean exit, replace the paycheck first, and then leave so that nobody has to blow up their life to get their life back.</p>
<div class="rr-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SGIRiDi78zQ" title="Burnt Out in Corporate? Here's How to Leave Without Losing Your Income with Shannon Baird, Radiantly Rooted with Rachel Episode 46" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p style="text-align: center; margin: 26px 0;"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2JGTPqOkdtS44m6A7KdiGW" style="display: inline-block; background-color: #4d727c; color: #f9f4f0; text-decoration: none; padding: 13px 30px; border-radius: 30px; font-size: 0.9em; letter-spacing: 0.06em; text-transform: uppercase;">Listen on Spotify</a></p>
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; font-style: italic; color: #777; text-align: center; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">This is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation, with filler words removed.</p>
<div style="background-color: #f9f4f0; padding: 22px 28px; margin: 28px 0; border-radius: 6px;"><p style="margin: 0 0 10px; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.12em; font-size: 0.78em; color: #4d727c;">In this conversation</p><ol style="margin: 0; padding-left: 20px; line-height: 1.9;"><li><a href="#origin" style="color: #4d727c;">Shannon's Origin Story</a></li><li><a href="#layoff" style="color: #4d727c;">The Layoff</a></li><li><a href="#burnout" style="color: #4d727c;">Starting Over & Burnout</a></li><li><a href="#birth" style="color: #4d727c;">Birth of CleanExit</a></li><li><a href="#parallel" style="color: #4d727c;">Rachel's Parallel Story</a></li><li><a href="#permission" style="color: #4d727c;">Permission to Leave</a></li><li><a href="#journaling" style="color: #4d727c;">Journaling with AI</a></li><li><a href="#tapas" style="color: #4d727c;">Tapas & Surrender</a></li><li><a href="#process" style="color: #4d727c;">Process Over Outcome</a></li><li><a href="#who" style="color: #4d727c;">Who Do You Want to Be?</a></li><li><a href="#work" style="color: #4d727c;">Shannon's Work & How to Start</a></li></ol></div>
<h2 id="origin" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Shannon's Origin Story</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> That's a pretty powerful message and story behind it, Shannon. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what brought you here today?</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yeah. So it started about, I would say about six months or so prior to when I actually got laid off. I started to feel the cracks. I had been a stay-at-home mom for about a decade. My kids were getting older, all in school, and I realized I needed to do something outside of the house. And so I went back to college thinking, "Okay, I need to get a career and be this woman that I had been in my early 20s." And so I went back into corporate and was just turning and burning, doing the thing.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And then I was on a conference call, and it was my project that I was handling. I was really excited about it, and I was presenting it to my boss, and we had vendors on the call also. And he had this wonderful idea that went against just marketing 101. It was shocking. And so I was like, "No, well, I think we need to do it this way because of yada, yada, yada, yada."</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Don't get so excited, Shannon</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And he said, "Don't get so excited, Shannon." And I, in that moment, was like, "What did he just say to me?" It was like I was his wife that he was trying to handle. And so as soon as I got off the call, I stared at my computer screen for a couple of minutes because I was like, "Did this really even happen? What was that?" And that was the moment where I felt like the cracks started forming. The passion that I have for what I love to do is never really going to be fully appreciated because I have to constantly manage all these egos.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">In one unemotional sentence</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And so then fast-forward a few months later, I had taken on another project, massive project, executive level. The executive had left. Nobody else picked it up, and it wasn't even in my department. It was IT. Anyways, long story short, I had been asking for a raise because of this particular project, and I kept getting pushed off and pushed off. And so I had a meeting, and I knew that it was either going to be a raise or they were probably gonna fire me, something like that. Yeah, so I was like, "Okay, maybe I'm getting a raise." 'Cause there had been one really small round of layoffs, more of a restructuring. And so I was like, "Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm safe." As soon as I walked in, it was the new CEO, the HR lady, and the COO, and I'm like, "Okay, we're doing this." And in one unemotional sentence, I got laid off.</p>
<h2 id="layoff" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">The Layoff</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And it was such a mix of emotion because it was a really toxic workplace, and so I was relieved. But at the same time, I mean, there's bills to pay. And now I have to go into this really, really rough job market and find a new job. And so there's a little bit of struggle with emotion on both of those sides of relief and stress. And so I came home, started applying right away, just jumped right back in, and three weeks later my husband got laid off.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Oh my gosh.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And so we're like, "Okay, maybe this is a sign that we're supposed to finally start something together." And I'm like, "Okay. Okay." And so he went on the ChatGPT, and he's like, "Okay, what are the businesses that we can start?" And one of the top ones was a marketing agency. And I had told him I don't know how many times that I saw it from the inside, I don't want a marketing agency. And he's like, "Okay. Okay. Okay." And a couple days later I came back to him and I was like, "You know, maybe that's what we're supposed to do." And so we started that marketing agency, and it's funny how we can leave corporate but the conditioning doesn't leave us until we actually deal with it.</p>
<blockquote style="background-color: #f9f4f0; padding: 28px 34px; margin: 34px 0; border-left: 4px solid #4d727c; border-radius: 4px; clear: both;"><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.4em; color: #4d727c; line-height: 0.5; margin-bottom: 6px;">“</div><p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.22em; line-height: 1.5; font-style: italic; color: #4d4034; margin: 0;">It's funny how we can leave corporate but the conditioning doesn't leave us until we actually deal with it.</p></blockquote>
<h2 id="burnout" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Starting Over & Burnout</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> So I went back into being productive and trying to find my meaning through numbers, and being busy, and doing all the things. And six weeks after that, after we had started, my body just said, "No." I could hardly get out of bed. It was really bad. And so I had to go to him and say, "I just can't do this. I just can't do it."</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And he was really disappointed, but he understood. And so then I was like, "Well, what do I really want? What am I going after? What am I trying to accomplish here?" I was 46 when I got laid off. I had turned 47, and I'm like thinking, "What do I want the second half of my life to be about as I'm about to be an empty nester?" And I had lost my way so much that I had just defined myself by my job, by my position, by being a mom, being a wife, that I didn't know who I was. And so I took the month of August just to sit with my journal and a pen and answer, "Who am I really, and what do I really want out of life?" And that's where CleanExit was born from.</p>
<h2 id="birth" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Birth of CleanExit</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> I'm a chronic over-thinker and over-planner, and I have to have all my ducks in a row before I even do anything. And so I was trying to figure out what were the major decisions that I would have needed to start something so that the transition would have been a lot smoother, and I could have already had something on the side that wasn't as stressful.</p>
<h2 id="parallel" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Rachel's Parallel Story</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> So that's the story and where CleanExit was born from.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> That makes so much sense, and I can relate to so much of your story myself, because I did the same thing. I checked all the boxes. I did everything I thought I was supposed to do, and then I found myself in this job, and I actually enjoyed the work. It was just the stress that was getting to me. And so when I had an opportunity to walk away, I did, but I thought that I was stepping away in time. Before I hit the level of burnout. But as soon as I slowed down, that burnout hit hard, and I was the same as you. Like, I had to slow down. And I am glad that you shared that, even though I know you went through a hard time, because I think it is so powerful for women to hear. We need to slow down in order to be able to get away from that conditioning, to reconnect with our inner voice, to remember what we sound like, to remember what we want. And to your point, to remember who we are, 'cause I've been in that spot too, and it is uncomfortable.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> It's incredibly uncomfortable.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">That liminal space</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> And then that liminal space of, "Okay, well, this part of me is done, but what's next?"</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yes. And that liminal space is so incredibly uncomfortable. My husband always says, "We have to slow down to speed up."</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Exactly. Exactly. That's what one of my coaches said too, and that's exactly the spot where this podcast is designed to meet women at. And so I think your message is going to be especially powerful today, because I know that there are a lot of women out there who, whether they are concerned that they may be getting laid off and wanna have a exit strategy in the background just in case, because I know it can be a very volatile job market, or whether they are sensing those cracks and feeling that they are going to, for their own wellbeing, need to walk away.</p>
<h2 id="permission" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Permission to Leave</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> And that's something you and I were chatting about a little bit before we hit record, is that permission to leave. Do you wanna dive into that a little bit more?</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yeah. As women, we're always looking externally for permission to be who we are, I mean, in this context, to have something of our own, to leave corporate if it isn't fitting for us. And we're constantly waiting externally for someone to be like, "Yeah, it's okay, girl. It's okay. Go ahead, take the leap," when really, we need to focus on giving ourselves permission. Permission to slow down if we need to slow down, permission to speed up if we need to speed up, permission to leave an environment that isn't working for us, rather than waiting for it to get really bad or waiting for something externally like that layoff to happen before we even make the leap.</p>
<blockquote style="background-color: #f9f4f0; padding: 28px 34px; margin: 34px 0; border-left: 4px solid #4d727c; border-radius: 4px; clear: both;"><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.4em; color: #4d727c; line-height: 0.5; margin-bottom: 6px;">“</div><p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.22em; line-height: 1.5; font-style: italic; color: #4d4034; margin: 0;">Permission to leave an environment that isn't working for us, rather than waiting for it to get really bad or waiting for something externally like that layoff to happen before we even make the leap.</p></blockquote>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Harder on ourselves than anybody else</h3>
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<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Right. Right. And that's so much, I feel like we're just so hard on ourselves, like harder on ourselves than we are on anybody else. And that internal self-talk and the loops of self-doubt that, you know, it's just hard to step out of that and slow down enough to really reconnect with, "Okay, this is where I'm at right now. This is what happened or what's happening. This is what I want." But if you don't know what you want, it's hard to take that next step. And so often we want confidence before we take action. And action comes from... I mean, confidence comes from taking action. And so it's really hard to put one foot in front of the other. And I think you made a really valid point, that it's okay. Like, if you make a decision, you're not locked into it for the rest of your life. You can make a choice, see how it fits on this new person you're stepping into, and if it doesn't fit, you can make a different choice. And so I'm glad that you shared that with our audience as well.</p>
<figure style="float: right; width: 40%; max-width: 300px; margin: 6px 0 16px 26px;"><img src="https://radiantlyrootedyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/RR-Ep-1-Podcast-Pinterest-Quote_.jpeg" alt="Handwritten quote on lined notebook paper from Shannon Baird about only needing to figure out what's next" style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0 8px 24px rgba(77,114,124,0.18);"><figcaption style="font-size: 0.78em; color: #aaa; font-style: italic; text-align: center; margin-top: 8px;">Save this on Pinterest</figcaption></figure>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yeah, that's one thing that we tell our kids. We have four kids, and three of them now are full adults, and one of them is just about to be an adult. And we've always told them, "You never have to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life. You just have to figure out what's your next."</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Embrace the messy action</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> I think we get caught up in this, that has to be this perfect plan, when really we have to embrace the messy action. Because we don't know what we don't know, and like you said, confidence only comes from the doing, and if we're not doing and making the... You know, we make this grand plan and it all falls apart, then we fall apart. I like... So I read, what is it? Reality Transurfing, and one thing that I really like to talks about is the importance that we put on things. And the more importance that we put on something, the more likely it's to go off the rails because we're so attached to that thing and that it has to work this specific way, when in reality maybe it wasn't meant for us or maybe the way that we're going about it isn't meant for us and we have to figure out what actually is, and we take off the importance and just embrace that messy.</p>
<h2 id="journaling" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Journaling with AI</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> One thing that I've started doing that has really helped is, so I'm a huge, huge journaler, pen and paper. I've tried digital, just not the same. But I like pen and paper. And then I have a few different people's perspectives that I really admire, and actually Transurfing is one of those. And I have in Claude a project and I upload, I take a picture of my journal from that day, and then I have it assess and say, you know, from each of those perspectives, giving their perspective on what I've written that day, and that has tremendously, tremendously helped because then I'm not in my own bubble, you know, just writing and writing and stuck there. I actually get somebody else's perspective on what I'm going through, and that's been unexpectedly helpful.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> That's a really cool idea. I never would've thought of that.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Somehow Claude can still pick it up</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yeah, I was actually really surprised. When I journal, you can, like, it's chicken scratch, and somehow Claude can still pick it up. And it reiterates, "This is what you have written," and then it gives each person's perspective on what I've written. And then I ask it if there's any tie-ins for my business so that I can have a story log or maybe content for my business or something like that. And so it's been really helpful to see that outside perspective on a personal level.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Storytelling is so powerful</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Yeah, yeah. That's really neat. And I feel like people can relate more to real-life stories than just, you know... So it's such a great idea because you have a well of stories that you can share down the road depending on the situation that you're in, and so that people can really understand the context and really get a feel for it. I just feel like storytelling is so powerful.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yes, it is very powerful. I always say at the end of the day, we're just cave people who wanna sit around a fire and tell stories.</p>
<!-- CHECK SPEAKER (about 14:46 to 15:25): assigned to Rachel by context (body-based, 'as well' after Shannon's digital comment); labels are mixed here -->
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Yeah, yeah. And I tried journaling on the computer as well, and it's just, I feel like it doesn't come, I get stuck in my head and I'm not able to stay in my body. And so the pen and paper actually just helps me so much with processing and with just, like, I need to get all this stuff out of my head. I need to be more body-based because I overthink too much too. And so it's so easy to get into those thought loops, and so just to get it all out is so helpful.</p>
<!-- CHECK SPEAKER (about 15:25): assigned to Shannon because she runs the Claude journal project -->
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yep, yep. I wholeheartedly agree. And then it's great, too, Claude will call me out, "You've been writing about the same thing for a week now."</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Oh, that's great. Well, they say what we resist persists, so maybe there's something in there that needs to be processed out.</p>
<h2 id="tapas" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Tapas & Surrender</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Oh, Shannon, I wanna go back just a moment to what you were talking about earlier and kind of releasing some of that or that strong grip or that attachment to the outcome. One of the things that I talk about a lot and that I work with is these yogic concepts of tapas, which is like a discipline of devotion, like inspired action. And then surrender. You take the action, and then you let it go, and you detach from the result of that action. And it's not easy by any stretch of the imagination because we want things to go the way we want them to go. Certainty is, like, not out there but it's something we crave so much. And so I just thought that that was a really powerful parallel between our work, that, you know, we're both sharing the same concept. Like, you take this action, you move forward, but you can let go of strong attachment to expectations or results from that.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Certainly. And I think we've been, in our modern hustle culture in corporate, we've been taught to go after the results. So we have to make SMART goals, and we have to have hit a certain number. And it's all about the end result, when in reality it should be about the journey. That's one of the things that I've been working on the last, I don't know, handful of months or so, is I'm very outcome oriented, and I realized that that's nothing I can control. I can't control any of the outcome.</p>
<h2 id="process" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Process Over Outcome</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> The only thing I can control are my actions in the process. And so I started creating process goals rather than outcome goals, and it's really helped that attachment, 'cause then I'm just attached to, "Okay, I need to do this today for this goal," not, "This goal needs to be here, and now I'm gonna beat myself up because I didn't hit that exact number."</p>
<figure style="float: left; width: 40%; max-width: 300px; margin: 6px 26px 16px 0;"><img src="https://radiantlyrootedyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Ep-46-Quote-B-Process-blog-1.jpg" alt="Shannon Baird quote on taped paper beside a green plant about controlling only your actions in the process" style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0 8px 24px rgba(77,114,124,0.18);"><figcaption style="font-size: 0.78em; color: #aaa; font-style: italic; text-align: center; margin-top: 8px;">Save this on Pinterest</figcaption></figure>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> I like that. That's a great shift in perspective.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yeah, and it goes back to what you were saying with messy action. Getting into the action rather than creating some massive plan that we have to go and execute. And we're really stuck on this massive plan when really it's all about the process.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Blinders on</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> I feel like when we get so attached to that path, it's almost like we're walking through our life with blinders on. You're not open to other potential opportunities or ways of doing things or ways of being. And so I think a much more powerful question at some point is not, what do I wanna do, but who do I wanna be? Like, who do I wanna become? What kind of person do I need to step into to live this life that I want to achieve these goals or these processes or whatever it takes me to get to the path that I want to walk? Because the path is always winding, and it's always, there's detours and curves and never a straight line.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> It is never a straight line. As much as we wanna make it and try to jam it into being a straight line. It's never ever, ever going to be a straight line, ever. I've started doing this exercise that I came across from a YouTube person suggested that she teaches her people.</p>
<h2 id="who" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Who Do You Want to Be?</h2>
<p style="text-align: center; margin: 26px 0; clear: both;"><img src="https://radiantlyrootedyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Ep-46-Step-Pin-Who-Do-You-Want-to-Be-blog-1.jpg" alt="Six steps for deciding who you want to be, from drawing a stick figure to revisiting it every few months" style="width: 100%; max-width: 500px; height: auto; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0 8px 24px rgba(77,114,124,0.18);"></p>
<!-- CHECK SPEAKER (about 19:13): 'Same. It's a stick figure.' kept with Shannon; could be Rachel -->
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And you draw a stick... She just does a stick figure 'cause she can't draw. Same. It's a stick figure. I cannot draw to save my life. But then you think about the thoughts, habits, and beliefs of the person that you want to be. And so then on that piece of paper, then you write down all of those thoughts, habits, and beliefs that that person would have.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Oh, I like that.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And then you start to embody those things. Then you can say, "Okay, well, I need... This is a linchpin. This will kind of domino the rest of these. I'm gonna work on this thing to be that person." Or, you know, mine said, I need to work on this particular thing, or whatever that is. I really like it, and I do it every few months to really point myself in the direction that I wanna go, to be able to show up as the person that I want to be, not necessarily who I am today. But at the same time, not getting stuck in that, I don't know how else to put it, but it's a toxic self-development where you're constantly achieving, you're constantly reading, you're constantly trying to be better, and you wake up at 5:00 AM, and you do your whole thing and that piece of it. But it's more of, how do I wanna show up in the world? What kind of difference do I wanna make? What do I wanna leave behind? Whose life do I wanna make better?</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Toxic self-development</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Yeah, yeah. I really like that, and I value that level of self-awareness and self-discovery, and being mindful and intentional about it so that, like you said, it's not that toxic self-development. I feel like we've been conditioned to just go and go and go, and do and do and do, and check more boxes, and do more things. And it's easy for us to take our personal growth and do the exact same thing with it if we're not mindful.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Productivity poisoning</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yes, yes. I call it, so I have, I call them STDs, socially transmitted diseases, and one of them is productivity poisoning.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Oh.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> That we are taught to just keep going and going, and the more productive we are, the more that we wear the busy badge, the more that somehow we're successful. But really doing all of those things is just like you said, it's just checking the boxes. It doesn't actually move us forward. It make us feel like we're doing something, but there's not really any purpose to it.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> No. And I find that sometimes it's a nice way for us to kind of hide behind it, because you feel like you're getting something done. You feel like you're checking things off your list. But like you said, it's not actually moving anything forward. It's busy work for the sake of checking things off and getting more done. But is it really helping you step into this next level of your being?</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">I blame hustle culture</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yes, yes. Yeah. And I blame hustle culture for that 100%. We've been taught and conditioned just to keep going and to keep going and to keep going, and never really to stop and take a minute and process where we're at. Even taking the time to be quiet I think is really incredibly important, even if it's, you know, on your commute to work, or while you're waiting in pickup line, you know? Or you're somewhere. It doesn't have to be this moment where you have to have the perfect music and you have to sit in this perfect posture, and it's about being aware in that moment and being okay silently with your own thoughts.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Yes, yes. And that takes some practice, especially us over thinkers. I think it's incredibly powerful, and I think it's incredibly important, but at the beginning when you're first learning how to do it, can be extremely uncomfortable.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> It is extremely uncomfortable. Yes, that is for sure.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Rewriting your own story</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> So you are rewriting your own story, and you have actually taken what happened to you, getting laid off, and now you are helping other women, other people prepare for that exit. Do you wanna talk a little bit more about that work?</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Sure, sure. It's giving that permission piece. We live in such a volatile environment with corporate, and with AI. And I see coming in this next era, if you will, this next massive movement is gonna be more about self-directed ambition, more than it's going to be about putting all of our eggs into one basket with a corporate paycheck. And I think that it's really important to not necessarily... You don't necessarily have to quit your job, especially if you like your job, especially if you like your environment. But having more eggs in our basket in case something happens, and to be more self-directed.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Everybody has something to offer</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> And the other piece of that is the reason that I started going down this road is that I kept seeing online so many women who were saying, "I don't like where I'm at, but I don't know what I would do. What do I even have to offer the world?" And it broke my heart. I was like, "Oh my God, I'm sure you have so much to offer the world." I truly believe every single person from the unhoused persons living on the street to a corporate executive, everybody has something that they can offer the world. And it doesn't have to be this massive startup company. It's just about taking your own slice of genius. What are you good at? What do you love to do? What do people come to you for? And take that one idea and begin to grow it, and that's it. It's as simple as that. It doesn't have to be anything over complicated or this massive business, but we all have some slice of genius that's inside of us that we can use and take control of it, rather than giving it over to the corporate world to exploit.</p>
<figure style="float: right; width: 40%; max-width: 300px; margin: 6px 0 16px 26px;"><img src="https://radiantlyrootedyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Ep-46-Quote-C-Slice-of-Genius-1.jpg" alt="Quote over a sunlit laptop and journal about taking your own slice of genius, from Shannon Baird" style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0 8px 24px rgba(77,114,124,0.18);"><figcaption style="font-size: 0.78em; color: #aaa; font-style: italic; text-align: center; margin-top: 8px;">Save this on Pinterest</figcaption></figure>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">A chronic over-complicator</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> That makes sense. That makes sense. And I love that perspective too, because I feel like I am a chronic over-complicator.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Yes. Same.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> I over-complicate everything.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Same.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> I overthink everything. And so to have somebody who can stand beside you and see it from a different perspective, like you have your project for your journaling. To have somebody who can stand beside you, walk beside you, and see it from a different perspective and say, "Oh, I don't think you quite see your level of genius. Like, you have so much potential within you," and helping open them up to their own potential. Because it can be hard.</p>
<h2 id="work" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Shannon's Work & How to Start</h2>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> We know ourselves so well. We hang out with ourselves all day, every day. It can be hard to see your own magic when you are just you. When you're just living in your everyday, you forget what you can do, and who you can be, and the things that you offer the world. They just come naturally to you, and so you forget that they're even there, that they're even important, that someone would even pay you for them. And so if somebody were interested in getting started with you, what would that first step be?</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> I am on Substack. That's my home base. There's a quiz, what corporate has forced you to abandon, which is super, super cool. So you go through the quiz, and at the end, it names the thing, and then it gives you your personalized first step to start to recover yourself and who you are. And then I also have the corporate exit launch path. So in two hours, you can go from, "I don't know what I'm doing here" to actually having a plan to execute and to start that messy action. And then I love writing. I've been a lifelong writer, and so I publish a lot on Substack as well.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">One last little nugget of wisdom</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> Awesome, awesome. And I have both of those links for our listeners. So I will share those in the show notes down below. Thank you so much for being here, Shannon. If there was one last little nugget of wisdom, one last little niggling on your heart, something you wanna share with our audience. Is there anything you'd like to leave our listeners with today?</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> I think it would be to give yourself permission to do that messy, and be okay in it. It's hard. Anybody telling you that it's going to be easy or promising quick results is just lying to you to get your money. It does take work. But giving yourself permission just to be messy and to go wherever that mess is going to lead you, down the windy path.</p>
<blockquote style="background-color: #f9f4f0; padding: 28px 34px; margin: 34px 0; border-left: 4px solid #4d727c; border-radius: 4px; clear: both;"><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.4em; color: #4d727c; line-height: 0.5; margin-bottom: 6px;">“</div><p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.22em; line-height: 1.5; font-style: italic; color: #4d4034; margin: 0;">Anybody telling you that it's going to be easy or promising quick results is just lying to you to get your money.</p></blockquote>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #4d727c; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Rachel:</strong> I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for being here, Shannon. And to all of our listeners, be sure to check out her links down below.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong style="color: #8a5a3d; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.08em; font-size: 0.82em;">Shannon:</strong> Thank you so much for having me. This has been a fantastic conversation.</p>
<h2 id="start" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Start Your Own Plan</h2>
<div style="background-color: #f9f4f0; padding: 30px 34px; margin: 22px 0 0; border-radius: 8px; text-align: center; clear: both;"><p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0;">If you'd like to see what a plan could look like for you, I'd love for you to take a look at Shannon's 2-Hour Corporate Exit Launchpad. It's built to take you from not knowing where to start to having a plan you can execute, all in about two hours.</p><p style="text-align: center; margin: 26px 0;"><a href="https://get.theshannonbaird.com/the-2-hour-corporate-exit-launchpad" style="display: inline-block; background-color: #4d727c; color: #f9f4f0; text-decoration: none; padding: 13px 30px; border-radius: 30px; font-size: 0.9em; letter-spacing: 0.06em; text-transform: uppercase;">Explore the Launchpad</a></p><p style="font-size: 0.95em; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0;">You'll find more of Shannon's writing on her Substack: <a href="https://shannonbaird.substack.com/" style="color: #4d727c;">https://shannonbaird.substack.com/</a></p><!-- QUIZ LINK GOES HERE: What Corporate Has Forced You to Abandon --></div>
<h2 id="about" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">About Shannon Baird</h2>
<figure style="float: left; width: 40%; max-width: 300px; margin: 6px 26px 16px 0;"><img src="https://radiantlyrootedyoga.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Profile-Image-Shannon-Baird-1.png" alt="Shannon Baird, corporate exit strategist, smiling with hands on her hips against a red background" style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 10px; box-shadow: 0 8px 24px rgba(77,114,124,0.18);"></figure>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;"><strong>Corporate Exit Strategist, Founder of The Clean Exit</strong></p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">After 11 years in corporate, I got laid off on Valentine's Day. Best thing that ever happened to me. Now I help burned-out corporate women build a Clean Exit: replace the paycheck first, then leave, so nobody has to blow up their life to get their life back.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">Substack: <a href="https://shannonbaird.substack.com/" style="color: #4d727c;">https://shannonbaird.substack.com/</a><br>The 2-Hour Corporate Exit Launchpad: <a href="https://get.theshannonbaird.com/the-2-hour-corporate-exit-launchpad" style="color: #4d727c;">https://get.theshannonbaird.com/the-2-hour-corporate-exit-launchpad</a><br>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theshannonbaird/" style="color: #4d727c;">https://www.instagram.com/theshannonbaird/</a><br>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonbaird/" style="color: #4d727c;">https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonbaird/</a></p>
<h2 id="faq" style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 44px; clear: both; font-weight: 600; border-bottom: 1px solid #ece4dc; padding-bottom: 10px;">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">What does a clean exit from corporate mean?</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">Shannon describes a Clean Exit as replacing the paycheck first and then leaving, so nobody has to blow up their life to get their life back. It grew out of her own layoff, when she wished she'd already had something on the side to make the transition smoother.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Do I need a layoff or a breakdown before I give myself permission to leave?</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">No. Shannon talks about how we wait for someone outside of us to say it's okay, when we can give ourselves permission to slow down, speed up, or leave an environment that isn't working before it gets really bad or a layoff makes the decision for us.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">What is messy action, and why does it matter?</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">Messy action means taking a step without waiting for a perfect plan. Shannon shares that confidence comes from the doing, and that a grand plan can fall apart and take us with it, so it helps to take some of the importance off the outcome and let yourself be messy.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">How do tapas and surrender apply to leaving a job?</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">Tapas is a yogic discipline of devotion, or inspired action, followed by surrender, where you take the action and then let go of attachment to the result. Process goals make that easier, because you commit to what you'll do today instead of the number you hope to hit.</p>
<h3 style="color: #4d727c; margin-top: 28px; font-weight: 600;">Where can I start if I don't know what I'd do next?</h3>
<p style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 1.8; color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0 0 1.4em;">Shannon suggests starting with your own slice of genius: what you're good at, what you love to do, and what people come to you for. If you'd like help turning that into a plan, her 2-Hour Corporate Exit Launchpad is built for exactly that, and her quiz, What Corporate Has Forced You to Abandon, is built for just that.</p>
<div style="text-align: center; margin: 48px 0 16px; clear: both;"><div style="width: 60px; height: 1px; background-color: #c9b9a8; margin: 0 auto 18px;"></div><p style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: italic; font-size: 1.12em; color: #4d727c; margin: 0;">One breath, one moment at a time, we return to ourselves.</p></div>
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