Shai Littlejohn

Wishing all of the sweet, loving, kind, strong, devoted mothers of the world a very wonderful Mother’s Day.

Your encouragement, support, guidance, and care are irreplaceable in the lives of all who love you dearly. I hope you feel special today and every day. Thank you for spreading joy, warmth, and kindness all around! 💐

Perfect ending to a perfect day. Graduation dinner for two at Toca Madera. My family is in DC for my two brilliant nieces who graduated this week from my alma mater THE Howard University. HUUUUU! We’re celebrating 4 graduations this year. I love my family and wish we were all in one place!

It’s official. I was conferred my Masters of Business Administration from Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business Executive MBA program 🥂 34 courses in 20 months, Fridays, Saturdays, evenings - long nights of studying…exams…all while working full time as a corporate attorney, distinguished professors, beautiful campus, many new friends. I am truly grateful for what I learned and how the program stretched me and tested my resolve.

Over 20 years into my legal career, I sought new territory. New ways of contributing. I had become an expert at seeing and mitigating risk for public companies, startups, but I needed to expand my vision and language to see opportunity. Now, I balance work through both lenses. I’m not only an attorney who has your back, I’m a business strategist who sees your opportunity and potential.

Thank you to my BFF and loving husband, Spencer, who always encourages me, supports me, and made sure I had dinner (and drank plenty of water) - during all of those long study nights (he’s a great cook ➕❤️)

I love these incredible women from my cohort and consider them friends for life. 💙💙💙💙💙 It’s not really goodbye!

Not all things go as planned. After 10 amazing days:

1- I have laryngitis and can hardly speak.

2- I broke off my cell phone charger (so the remnant is stuck inside) as soon as I sat down on the airplane.

3- After searching frantically, I remembered that my tweezers were in my checked luggage (so no cell phone repairs and no recharging my phone during the flight), and

4- then I went into a coughing fit for 15 minutes as the guy next to me ran to get a mask. I woke up after a few hours of sleep into another round of coughing!

Ten truly uncomfortable hours later I touched down in Atlanta. But the good part is that I’m back in the U.S.A.!

I’m grateful for the work of all the flight attendants, pilots, restaurant workers, hotel staff, tour guides, TSA agents, Rice University professors and staff, clients, and the good Lord who granted me safe travels and a wonderful trip. 🙏

Rio de Janeiro is full of inspiration: art, culture and music! Love love love! Escadaria Selarón is a tiled staircase in the Lapa and Santa Teresa neighborhoods. Created by Chilean artist Jorge Selarón as a “tribute to the Brazilian people,” it features over 2,000 tiles from 60+ countries. I even located the tile for my home state of Ohio. The staircase is a “living” piece of art that became world-famous after being featured in American music videos.

After working on a project to support some Brazilian brands over the last few months, I’m finally finished with research, and presentations, and meetings, and touching down on the warm sands of Rio de Janeiro!☀️🌊🏝️⏳

Someone posted that I look like I’m living my best life - and you know what, I am! At times, we can feel small and not know what to do. But when we work together, there’s so much more we can dream of and accomplish. I love working to help others live their best lives too. It’s all about less fear and more ex*****on. And while ex*****on is not easy, there’s something we all can do. More to come soon…

Still thinking about my visit to Belong Be this week in São Paulo 🇧🇷✨

What an incredible experience meeting one of the most exciting clients I’ve had in a long time.

Belong Be is a powerful expression of innovation, entrepreneurship, and true belonging. Simone is building something special: a platform that champions top-notch indie cosmetics made in Brazil by women, for the world. And more than that, she’s created a meeting place — a community — where you can discover fresh, emerging brands and see women come together, connect, and rise.

I loved the Be Lab where you can design your own lipstick. I named mine Samba Shay after yours truly and my new favorite dance. 💋💃🏽

It was just over a decade ago when I embarked on the journey of doing everything I've always wanted to do. This journey has taken me from the halls of Washington, to songwriting rooms and recording studios of Nashville, to a rewarding corporate career offering strategic counsel to leading, innovative companies. Thank you to Rice Business, Brian Jackson, JD, MBA, and the Owl Have You Know Podcast team for sharing my story. I hope you enjoy it and subscribe!

What do law, music and Starbucks have in common? For Shai Littlejohn EMBA '26, they’re all part of a fearless career journey guided by purpose. In this episode of Owl Have You Know, Shai opens up about feeling stuck in her law career and how a personal turning point with her mother’s illness inspired her to make a change. "I realized I couldn’t say I’ve done everything I want in life. From that moment, I knew I had to find a way to do what I love." 🎧 Listen to her story here! ➞ https://tinyurl.com/2vsax2xj