Henrico Small Business Spotlight: PassionFruit

Lifelong learning can mean a lot of different things – mastering new recipes, researching your family history, picking up a new sport. But Sara Shelton created PassionFruit Leadership Coaching to push others towards learning about themselves.

Shelton is a 47-year-old Henrico local with a passion for helping others in their careers. She created PassionFruit after decades of talent, consulting, human resources and change management experience with a goal of making professional development more accessible.

The name she chose was an ode to her secret recipe for a successful and happy professional life: combining passion with potential.

“I started kind of playing with the name passion, and I thought of how passion fruits are so ugly but they're delicious,” Shelton said. “So the idea of kind of helping people uncover their hidden talents, their hidden strengths, was really appealing to me.”

Today, PassionFruit is a one-woman show that provides both professional coaching and HR support services. When it comes to coaching, Shelton tries to help people find balance in their professional lives.

“While most people are not going to find anything professionally that they love to do every second of every day, I do think we can rightsize where we're spending our hours,” she said. 

Shelton’s clientele spans all industries. And the goals of her coaching clients vary greatly. Some people are job searching, some are navigating a difficult relationship with a boss, some are trying to feel more confident in a new position, and others are looking to make a career change. 

“If you feel like you're at a crossroads or a pivot point and you aren't sure which path to take or what comes next, that's a great time to engage with a coach,” Shelton said.

But how does Shelton actually get her clients to achieve their goals? She says it’s not a cookie-cutter approach.

“Everything is custom and tailored to the client,” Shelton said. “I frequently will first meet with someone and just listen to them talk about what drew them to the idea of having a coach, what does their ideal work day look like in the future, what are they kind of struggling with today.”

If the answers to these questions makes Shelton think you’re a good fit for her coaching services, the next step is to create a plan. Typically, her coaching services are offered in three to six-month packages through which she meets with the client in-person or virtually twice a month. These packages can be shorter, however, especially for those in the time crunch of a job search.

“Through that, we have specific goals that we're trying to achieve in that time period,” Shelton said. “And I help my clients try new and different ways of achieving their goals, as well as providing feedback along the way.”

To help clients with self-reflection, Shelton employs a variety of tools like strength assessments and personality tests. Shelton says these create a “common language” that can help us “build a deeper sense of self awareness.” 

“The language of each of these assessments, the terms that it uses to describe your behavior or your skill, because it's coming from an external source. . . it's less personal and, therefore, it's more approachable,” Shelton said. “It provides us ways of talking about our strengths, our natural talents, and what we might want to work on.

“And a lot of times. . . these assessments provide them these ‘aha’ moments where they might have gotten feedback in the past from a manager or coworker that they just didn't understand.”

Speaking of colleagues, why not just turn to them for professional advice and development? Shelton says coaches can provide a safe space for honest feedback. 

“With my clients, my only agenda is to help them achieve their goals,” Shelton said. “I'm not dually wearing both a corporate hat and a hat for the employee.

“What success looks like is different for every person, and when you work with a coach as an individual, a good coach understands that and is not trying to push you towards something that they or others define as successful ‘you.’”

Friends and family members might be another place to turn for career advice. But Shelton says those who love us most aren’t always the best suited for these conversations.

“They don't always give us some of the tougher nuggets of feedback that we might need to hear,” Shelton said. “So it's good to have someone who can be professional but focus more about holding you accountable, rather than, you know, ensuring that we're still best friends at the end of the conversation.”

In addition to individual and team professional coaching, Shelton also works with clients on their HR needs so they can meet their business goals.

“I focus more on the talent side of HR, so I'm happy to look at benefit strategy, compensation strategy, those sorts of things,” Shelton said. “But where I think I bring an exceptional value is how do you get the most from your technical and people and process parts of your organization.”

Company packages from PassionFruit are all custom built. So, it’s important to connect with Shelton if you’re interested in what a potential partnership would look like.

“It's going to depend on if you want a package of hours to do some general HR support as needed or you have a specific project that we can outline deliverables that you would like to see from me,” Shelton said. 

Shelton says affordability is a top priority.

“If you were to go online and do a search for executive coaching, you will see some pretty astronomical fees – and those are not my fees,” Shelton said. “Mine are significantly below that because it really is more important to me to be able to reach people, and I am very flexible with people on payment plans and number of payments to be able to meet them where they are.”

Shelton offers potential clients a free 30-minute consultation to learn more about their needs and so that they can learn more about what she does.

“The initial conversation is just a kind of, get to know you, get to know what you might need, and if I can help, I'm happy to do so,” Shelton said. “But it's not a hard sell.”

Even if Shelton’s not the right fit, she’s more than willing to share helpful, free resources or refer you to another professional. It all goes back to her love of helping others achieve their goals.

“PassionFruit, honestly for me, is the combination of my passion and potential,” Shelton said. “This is what I want to do all day, every day. . . So it's a blessing, I think, to be able to do this work and to really see how people can grow.”