Sheri Salata on embracing the beauty of No
"I’m dedicating myself to really inhabiting slow."
Sheri Salata
One of the many, many highlights of hosting the poggie is that I have the opportunity to regularly talk with passionate, intentional, conscious, self-aware people. People who have decided to go deep in to their own lives and really do the head and heart work of figuring out what's important to them, then digging deeper to work out how they're going to create a life with more space for those important things.
I'm so thrilled to bring you this week's episode, where I chat with the utterly delightful human that is Sheri Salata who has done just that - digging deep in to her own life and doing the work of reprioritising - despite working for one of the most high-profile and well-loved brands in the world in a high-pressure, high-stress (and maybe even high-ego) job.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Sheri in person when we were in LA on the book tour last year and am so excited we finally got the opportunity to chat on the poggie because while not all of us get the opportunity to work with Oprah, we do all get the opportunity to slow down and really consider what's important to us as individuals. And we also get the opportunity to gradually start putting those things at the centre of our lives by letting go, saying no, making space and getting clear on our why.
Sheri was the executive producer of the final five seasons of Oprah and Co-President of OWN before she decided to walk away in 2016 and pursue a simpler, more values-aligned life and, hoo boy, friends, does she have some knowledge nugs to drop on us this week - specifically on how to embrace the beauty of "no" both given and received, and how we can choose to view those "no's" as obstacles or invitations.
Sheri is someone I admire a lot, because she has this incredible ability to strip things down to their very core and chooses to make her life decisions based on what she finds there, regardless of if it makes her uncomfortable or not. In today's episode we discuss why she decided to walk away from her job with Oprah, how she knew it was time to listen to her inner-voice and what that first day of unemployment felt like after a career of high pressure work.
We also look at the role ego plays in our constant stories of busy-ness, how to get comfortable with discomfort, whether it's necessary to reach a crisis point before making positive changes, her approach to living a spiritual life (and what it's like to have Deepak Chopra on speed dial!) as well as her philosophy on living a full and glorious life in to her fifties and beyond. Particularly in a world that likes to make women believe that once we hit fifty we become irrelevant.
I can't wait to hear your thoughts on today's episode and hope you enjoy Sheri's story as much as I did.
Questions featured in this episode:
- You've changed your life significantly over the past few years - what was the catalyst for those changes?
- You talk about going through a process of 'reckoning'. What did your reckoning look like?
- How do you balance finding joy in the present moment and working towards the next thing?
- Do you think we need to reach a crisis point in order to reevaluate our lives? Or is there a way of manufacturing that awakening without hitting rock bottom?
- How did you learn to make ‘no’ a part of your vocabulary?
- What can people do to start their own process of reevaluation, excavation and reinvention?
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Things to Check Out After Today’s Episode:
- Sheri’s website: The Pillar Life
- Sheri’s podcast: The Sheri and Nancy Show
- How to reset life: Episode 62 of The Sheri and Nancy Show featuring Brooke
- Sheri’s book: The Beautiful No
- The Beautiful No website and free workbook
As always, thank you for listening!