147 | Why Success Doesn't Always Mean You're Fulfilled featuring Anouk Brumfield

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What does it feel like to achieve every career goal and still feel something is missing?

Shannon Fox 0:00
What happens when you've achieved everything you thought you wanted, but still feel like something is missing? In this episode, I sit down with former IBM executive, speaker, author, and leadership coach Anok Brunfeld to discuss ambition, leadership, career growth, and the difficult questions many high achieving women eventually face. Together, we explore how success evolves over time, how to recognize when it's time for a pivot, and why fulfillment often requires more than titles, promotions, and professional achievement. Are you ready? Let's dive in.
Shannon Fox 0:50
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, welcome to the show. My guest today is Anook Rumfeld, and what I love about her story is it spans both achievement and reinvention. Anook didn't come from privilege or a career path to executive leadership. She was raised by a grandmother who made tremendous sacrifices so she and her brother could have opportunities that previous generations didn't.
Shannon Fox 1:41
Watching those sacrifices shaped her understanding of. of hard work, resilience, and what's possible when someone believes in you. That foundation carried her through more than 30 years at IBM, where she ultimately became an executive vice president and senior partner, leading global teams, major transformation, and billion-dollar portfolios. But what makes her perspective especially relevant for this audience isn't just the title she earned. It's what she learned along the way about ambition, leadership, identity, and what happens when. Success you've worked so hard for no longer feels like the full story. Today, Anuk coaches, speaks, writes, and mentors leaders who are navigating growth, transition, and the questions so many high-achieving women eventually face.
Shannon Fox 2:29
What's next? We're talking about leadership, reinvention, career growth, and how to pursue success without losing yourself in the process. Anuk, welcome. I am so So excited for this conversation. I am
Anouk Brumfield 2:42
super excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Shannon Fox 2:46
Yes. So I want to start from the beginning. You you talk about the sacrifices that your family made for you. So how did those early experiences shape the way you approach ambition and success today?
Anouk Brumfield 3:00
Yeah, I saw my grandmother who only had a third or sixth grade education. Um, but she was such a hard worker. She was the wisest woman I've ever met. And she taught me so much about hard work, about building relationships, about making sure that your word is your word, that people could bet on your word. And so growing up Um, I began to have lots of questions. I began to really dream big and I knew I wanted more than what I saw, but what I saw from my grandmother was I saw that hard work and I saw that determination and I saw how she was so accomplished, even though she had so many. challenges or limitations and she still overcame so that I knew that if I was positioned well with getting the opportunity of education and being connected to the right people, that I could do whatever I wanted to do.
Anouk Brumfield 3:55
So I'm pretty excited about what I was able to witness and then how that then helped to springboard me to my next.
Shannon Fox 4:03
Yeah. I love that. I love grandmas. Yes. They are so precious. You you spent thirty years at at um IBM and climbing the ladder. And so looking back, what what do you think um helped continue helped you continue advancing uh You know, when I feel like s a lot of people that are talented or are high achieving women, they sometimes seem to plateau, but you seem to keep climbing. So what do you think helped you do that?
Anouk Brumfield 4:36
Yeah, first it was my mindset. I really wanted to continue to progress. And when I was first in corporate America, I used to hear this saying that there's a glass ceiling for women.

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