Who You Are Matters: A Woman’s Guide to Making Brave Decisions is for professional women who know that before they can do anything else, they need to lead themselves.
Chances are that something is bubbling beneath the surface, an unmistakeable feeling that something needs to change.
This book gives you a practical, reflective process to:
Pay attention to what’s happening within and around you
Untangle conditioning, doubt, and fear from your decisions
Align your choices with your values, not just expectations
Lead yourself and others with more clarity, courage, and confidence.
Through stories, guided questions, and actionable tools, you’ll learn to turn that “bubbling” feeling into informed, intentional decisions—about your career, your relationships, and the impact you want to have.
This isn’t about fixing you or turning you into someone else. It’s about understanding who you are, noticing what your life is telling you, and choosing your next steps with purpose.
If you’re ready to stop pushing aside what’s asking for your attention and start making decisions that truly reflect you, this book is your starting point.
Shannon Leppky
After 20 years in education and business, Shannon earned her way to the C‑suite of a large Crown Corporation in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As Chief Human Resource Officer and Vice President of Product, she made an unexpected choice - listening to a bubbling in her gut, she left the CEO succession path and walked away. In her book, Shannon shares what happned after that, how she had to find herself again and in the process, found the Red Chair, began partnering with horses as coaches, and now helps women, and men, lead themselves and others from a grounded, authentic place.
Shannon knows the pressures of being a woman in senior leadership: the constant scrutiny, mixed expectations, and the relentless pace that makes it hard to stay grounded. She understands how easy it is to over-function, override your own needs, and slowly drift from your values—while still looking successful on the outside.
At Red Chair Ranch, she partners with horses as co‑coaches, creating spaces where leaders reconnect with who they are and how they lead. Her work is rooted in the belief that leadership starts from within and is expressed through presence, courage, and choice.
In Who You Are Matters, Shannon invites you to take a seat in your own Red Chair—a safe, focused space she discovered on her journey. Through the Red Chair framework, she guides you to notice what’s bubbling beneath the surface, see your true self more clearly, and align your decisions with what matters most to you. Drawing on her experience in the C‑suite and at the Ranch, she offers a practical, compassionate roadmap to making braver, values‑aligned decisions in your career, relationships, and life.