Special Guest Feature: Sherry Walling | Purpose Fueled Saint Paul
Sherry Walling has a PhD from Fuller and years of clinical training behind her. None of it helped when she lost her dad and her brother within six months of each other.
That is the moment that rerouted everything. She found her way into circus to survive the grief, and these days she produces circus shows alongside her work as a psychologist for founders and high performers.
Sherry is the founder of ZenFounder. She is our Special Guest at Purpose Fueled | Saint Paul on November 5th.
Here is more about her, in her own words.
What do you actually do (in plain language), the way you’d explain it to a friend over coffee?
I’m a psychologist for people who do hard things: founders, leaders, high performers. Most of them are great at building companies and terrible at taking care of themselves. My life’s work is helping smart people do hard things with some joy and ease, not just gritting through.
What’s the moment or decision that changed the direction of your life or career?
Losing my dad and my brother within six months of each other. I had a PhD from Fuller and years of clinical training, and none of it helped me sit with my own grief. That cracked me open, and it rerouted my whole life. It’s why I do the work I do now, and why I ended up on a trapeze. I found my way into circus to survive the grief, and these days I produce circus shows.
I also wrote a memoir about all of it, Touching Two Worlds. The title is the whole idea, that grief and joy aren’t opposites, and you don’t get to have one without brushing up against the other. So now I’m far more interested in aliveness, in play, in surrender, in going off script and seeing what happens, precisely because I know how close loss always is.
What do you believe about people that most others in your field don’t?
That healing isn’t only in the mind. The body has to be part of it. I don’t think there’s real, lasting healing in the talk-it-out-only approach.
What are you most proud of, in life, not just in work?
My people. That I’ve built a life full of relationships deep enough to hold the whole range of me. That I raised humans I actually like.
And the circus shows. It makes no money, and I do it anyway because it’s some of the most meaningful work of my life. We gift tickets to folks in underserved communities, because art and beauty shouldn’t only be for people who can afford a seat. I’m proud that I make room for the things that don’t pencil out.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
My life has taken me places I didn’t know to want. But there was always a kid in me who loved being upside down and unafraid. She’s still around.
How do your closest friends or family describe you? Who do they say you are?
Warm, a little irreverent. Someone who’ll tell you the true thing, mostly kindly. Probably also someone with a slightly magical relationship to the time-space continuum and too many mugs left around the house.
What don’t people know about you that they should?
That alongside the traditional clinical work, I’ve spent years in the world of psychedelic-assisted therapy and consciousness work.
What does “purpose” mean to you personally?
Not one grand mission statement. It’s more like paying attention to where I feel most alive, and doing more of that, and being genuinely useful to the people around me. Purpose, for me, lives in service and in aliveness, not in achievement.
What’s the title of your next chapter, in life or in business?
“Permission.” That’s the whole next chapter. I’ve spent a life helping high performers who know exactly what they need (rest, change, a boundary, more joy) and just can’t give themselves permission to want it. Turns out I’ve been working on my own permission the whole time. I’m even making a podcast about it.
What’s one thing you’re hoping people leave your conversation thinking about?
That you’re allowed far more joy than you’re giving yourself. Most high performers are running on the belief that they have to earn their way to rest and pleasure and play. You don’t. You can start now. I hope that lands as permission, not pressure.
What’s a question you wish more people would ask you?
“What are you doing for joy right now?” People ask founders about growth, revenue, what’s next. Almost no one asks what makes them feel alive.
Come meet Sherry
Sherry Walling is our Special Guest at Purpose Fueled | Saint Paul on Thursday, November 5th. CHS Field, 360 Broadway St, Saint Paul. Doors open at 7:00 AM and the event begins at 7:30 AM.