131 | Why High-Achieving Women Must Redefine Success Before It Breaks Them featuring Valérie Demont
episode
Career Growth for Working Women | Career Advancement, Visibility, Promotion, Raises
19 min
1 speaker
2 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Have you ever wondered if the success you're chasing is quietly burning you out? In this episode, Valerie DeMont shares what happened after experiencing two major burnouts before the age of thirty. We talk about the pressure many high achieving women carry to the Why constant effort is not sustainable? And how learning to slow down, listen to your body, and trust your intuition can completely change how you lead and live. Are you ready? Let's dive in.
Welcome to Career Growth for Working Women. If you're feeling tired in a way rest alone won't fix, or successful on paper but unsure what's next, you're not broken. You're not alone. I'm Shannon, a promotion and compensation coach, and this space is about helping women grow their careers with clarity, confidence, and sustainability, not pressure or hustle. Take a breath, settle in, and let's talk about what's really going on beneath the surface. Hello and welcome to the show. My guest today is Valerie Damont and her story begins in a place many high-achieving women quietly recognize. Before the age of 30, Valerie experienced two major burnouts. From the outside, she was the high performing performer doing everything right, working hard, checking the boxes, proving her value, and following the traditional path to success.
But internally, something felt increasingly misaligned. Those early experiences, combined with personal challenges, including IVF and the loss of her father, pushed her to begin questioning a belief many high performing achievers carry. That success must come from constant effort, pressure, and proving. Today Valerie writes, speaks, and mentors around a different perspective on leadership and success. one that focuses on presence, clarity, and sustainable ways of creating impact, rather than that constant overdoing. Valerie, welcome. I am so glad to have you here with us today.
Thank you for having me, Shannon.
So okay, you experienced two burnouts before the age of thirty. When you look back, like what were some of those early signals or signs that you had that this wasn't gonna be sustainable? Um
Um Contraction in my body? Upper belly um just here on the sternum between my solar plexus and my heart. first thing. Then I was not uh sleeping very well, always up around two and three in the morning writing some ideas and the thing I have to uh Um show to the board the next morning and stuff like that. So I was really, really not I I was very anxious. Always, you know, my my hand were wet. Um I was spending really too much money on shoes and and bags.
Hey hey, I like to do that.
I like Sue, you know, but I realized that it was just to feel something inside me that was not sustainable because uh
Yeah, totally. I understand that. Um, so many high achieving women, they feel like they're rewarded for for pushing really hard and doing more at work. And what when do you feel like that actually it hurts them and that that's a mindset shift that they may need to change instead of thinking that they have to be like superwoman at work and even at home?
Oh my god. That's the question ever all of my clients are asking and they they they yeah, they need at at a point there is you know there is uh you know a point in their life when they realize it's it's not them. Either it's when the first child is born or when they get married or divorced or you know sometimes it's around menopause or you know those those used shifts in life that yes it happened and make them realize they are not at the right place or sometimes it's some illness or the loss of people and Um because otherwise it's like they are, you know, the the frog boiling and just not feeling that it's really get hotter and at one point they will not yeah, they will die because they don't realize it's harder.
Right. So yes.
Yes. So you talk about presence versus pressure, like living you wanna be in more being present. So how how does that look for these working women?
Um they have they are thinking really less, you know, they have less thoughts because when they are under pressure, you know, the this constant, you know, inner critiques and ego or whoever it is here somewhere is constantly coming back, you know, and at one point they are here within their body, they feel stronger.
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Chapters
2 chaptersSpeakers
1 identifiedMore from Career Growth for Working Women | Career Advancement, Visibility, Promotion, Raises
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