Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Mantrom.
Hi Shannon, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
When I lost my job in March 2012, my husband pressed me to attend a Launch Pad Job Club meeting. Well, I put up a fuss about it because I had been home raising our daughters for years, and when I did return to sales, I was let go six months in because I missed my sales goal that month. It was demoralizing. I did, begrudgingly, attend my first meeting in late May or early June. At a meeting, you are welcome, as a new member, to share a little about yourself with the room and what type of job you’re seeking. Since I had done volunteer work with my younger daughter’s school and choir, and was the “cookie mom” for Girl Scouts, I let the group know I had just come from high-pressure sales and was going to look at nonprofit work. After I finished, an older gentleman at the back of the room hailed me over, saying, “We’re doing this program where we work on pro bono projects for nonprofits, and I think we can use you.” I was intrigued. Here we were in a room full of people whose resumes would have me in awe, and knowing how much their skills would mean to struggling or even established nonprofits, I wanted to learn more. By the end of 2012, I was running the Leap to Success program of Launch Pad Job Club. Since then, the program has delivered over 120 projects to over 175 nonprofits.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
At the beginning of my volunteering with the program, I had to hunt down organizations and explain to them who we were/ what we could do for them. After delivering a few more successful projects, word of mouth spread, and we were able to take on even more projects for area nonprofits, with teams working on up to 15 projects at a time. Then the pandemic hit. It was then I realized how much Leap to Success relied upon the Launch Pad Job Club membership to staff our projects. B.C. (Before Covid) the job club met in person weekly every Friday. We would welcome a room of 50-60 job seekers, mostly older and more experienced professionals, just the type of folks needed to volunteer on our projects.
With the advent of COVID-19 and its slow passing, the job club has changed dramatically. We now only see about 25 max attending the weekly meeting, which is now split between Zoom and in-person meetings. That reduction in attendance has made it exceedingly difficult to staff projects. What used to take a max of 6 weeks to assemble a team for a project can now take up to 6 months! Yet, Leap to Success still hangs in there. Oh, and in 2020, I was named the first executive director of Launch Pad, so my focus has shifted greatly since I am now overseeing the job club’s daily operations and trying to keep Leap to Success moving forward. It’s daunting, but if I had no or few balls to juggle, I would probably be the laziest person I know watching HULU or Netflix all day or listening to podcasts. I must be the ringmaster to keep my mind active. Running this organization fully addresses that need and then some. Helping job seekers is the most fulfilling job I’ve ever known. Doing what is needed for this organization to continue to help job seekers and folks who often experience a “deer in the headlights” moment upon being laid off or let go from a company is now vital to my very being. As our motto says, “Job searching is too scary to do alone.”
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Launch Pad Job Club and Leap to Success are the longest I’ve ever worked anywhere in my professional life. Because I spent many years volunteering before being officially hired as executive director, I am most grateful to a patient and supportive husband. He knows how important the job club is to me. And since the founder, Kathy Lansford-Powell, moved to Indianapolis in late 2021 to be closer to family, I felt the heavy weight of doing everything I could to not allow the job club to die on my watch. Kathy is the light and warmth of the organization. She has forgotten more about the job search process than most recruiters and career coaches will learn in their lifetimes. That is due to her over 40 years as a career coach and trainer with Workforce Solutions. She still runs the Zoom meetings and our virtual afternoon classes. (That’s a huge weight off my shoulders.) On the other hand, I am on the operations side of the organization. And while my big personality (to go with my big and tall everything) loves the spotlight of running the in-person meetings, I simply do not have that depth of knowledge Kathy has and am ever-so-grateful she is still so highly involved. Launch Pad is her baby. She and a couple of others established the job club in 2001 in the wake of the .dotcom bust, so upon her departure from Austin, I was going to do everything I was capable of to keep this “little engine that could” on the tracks. So far, so good. *Knock wood*
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting?
I wish I knew then what I know now: trust your gut. If the role or company needs to be corrected, if you aren’t being treated with respect, find somewhere you will be treated in the manner you deserve. I’ve always been strong-willed, and as a tall, imposing woman, I could “make it” in a man’s world. But I shouldn’t have had to work twice as hard to prove myself, especially when the big boss was either a misogynist or a rage-a-holic. My early professional days began in the late 80s into the early 90s. The 90s saw so much change in how women began to view themselves. Riot Grrls, Madonna, and Oprah gave us strong role models to follow. The 2020 growth of the #MeToo movement has been another leap forward for women, especially Millennials and Gen Z, with their “We’re not gonna take it anymore” attitude and strength. I look forward to seeing this generation grow, trust their own inner gut, and make better decisions about their professional and personal paths in life. The same goes for people of color, new immigrants, and the LGBTQ community. This nation is a melting pot that must recognize and accept all others. Austin is better than most big cities about acceptance, but only once we get to acceptance with equity will we truly be considered the coolest place. (We are now, but we need to go further.)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.launchpadjobclub.org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/241010975380
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonmantrom/
- Twitter: @ATXLaunchPad
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ATXLaunchPad/videos
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