We recently had the chance to connect with Shelly Leal and have shared our conversation below.
Shelly, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
I am really proud to have learned how to use my breaks and enjoy some quality time doing my hobbies or meeting family and friends. Recently I was hanging out with two close friends and their children. We went to a trampoline park – I haven’t jumped on a trampoline for over 10 years. We laughed so much, sometimes slipped and fell, took pics, and played around with the kids. It was a great time to pause and feel like a little girl again, just wanting to have fun, without worries or judgment.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am officially a data analyst, working in this area for 6 years, and I graduated as a computer engineer. I have worked for a long time in the travel industry, helping empower hotel owners to gain visibility while using third party platforms. Recently I wanted to try something different and join a smaller company, focused on sustainability and providing farmers with recommendation on how much fertilizant they should apply to increase their yields (volume of crops) and at the same time make sure we are treating the fields with care, and not damaging the soil with an excess of chemical application. What excites me the most about changing to this area is that, while I work in Germany, I am able to support the agriculture from my home country, Brazil, with some of the top partners in the cities of Mato Grosso and Parana. Recently we started launching a new project in Greece, and I am very excited to see how this project grows. Our small company is called Stenon, and we have a device that measures the nutrients of the soil on real time, while this is a big struggle for laboratories to measure. I am really proud of how each person of this company is really dedicated and transparent, and I can feel that we can always be honest and adapt together to build a product that is really relevant to the farmers we work with.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I had to let go of the idea of only growing vertically from position to position in the corporate world. I reached seniorship in my area and for some time had to consider if I would work harder to gain some different skills to become a lead. Turns out this role was not what I was looking for, and I was more passionate about moving to an area where I could get in touch with exploring my creativity in terms of having the whole business intelligence area for myself to build something beautiful and useful from scratch. When I joined this new, smaller company, I saw as if I could have this whole empty room for myself to decorate, and now I am building a big data structure that covers many of our questions about our regional performance how we are maintaining our devices and clearly see how we are causing a significant impact on the variation of nutrients in the farms around the world, depending on the agricultural method and all the steps involved in the cycle from seeding to harvesting.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I know each type of suffering has a different context. In my case, most of it actually came from making situations seem more complicated than they actually were. I learned that sometimes, what we see as big issues actually can be simpler from a different perspective. With that new way of looking at it, the solutions would come much faster. In fact, the most important thing I learned was to simply let go of a method that is not working and try to change it completely, even if I don’t feel confident enough yet to adapt to using a new tool or follow different directions. Sometimes when you are really focused on a single path, you end up not noticing others that were much easier to follow. And in other situations, what I actually needed to do was just take a break, switch topics, relax, and then come back to it refreshed and see how things go. The last piece of advice is to accept help and let people try their own way – this does not mean you are failing. It is much easier when you have someone there willing to support you.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
It is hard to admit it, but I used to deeply believe that my work would only be valuable if I saw it as a form of external achievement. Success would be only gaining a medal, having an online post with numerous likes, or receiving applause from an audience. When I started new hobbies, such as sketching and painting, I learned how to celebrate each creation, no matter what I expected it would turn out to become. I also used to believe that exciting days were only the ones where I was travelling the world or trying a new challenging sport. Now I see how it is important to integrate also little moments of happiness and thankfulness into day-to-day life, while just making your bed or cooking lunch. I promise this impacts so much on your career as well, as perspective is 99% of what you need to open new paths.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
We have this belief in Brazil that once you move abroad, you will become immediately rich and successful and have no worries in life. It was a reality shock when I moved to Germany for work—learning the language from scratch, dealing with the bureaucracy to get my visa, and seeing myself alone and far away from my family. It took me 3 years to start fitting in; I had to completely revisit how I see the world. I had to learn to take breaks and bring more quality to my free time, doing hobbies and adding events to my calendar to meet new people to hang out with, and slowly settle down. Now I have a lovely partner and a great community of people I can reach out to, with some very close friends. There is no boring day, and even when this immigrant life gets hard, I remember how much support I have from this hard work building this safe space for myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://medium.com/@shellyleal
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/engenheira.imigrante/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelly-leal/
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