TAKE THIS PERSONALLY: "Just Show Up" How an Introvert Learned to Build Confidence, Community, & a New Life
The Bobby Bones Show
Premiere Networks
4.8 • 10.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when you finally reach the goal you’ve been chasing and it doesn’t feel the way you thought it would?
I’m joined by Nick Shelton, a U.S. Air Force veteran, bestselling author, and speaker who has lived multiple lives, sometimes by choice, sometimes by necessity. Nick opens up about growing up painfully shy, being mistaken for hearing impaired as a child, and slowly learning how to navigate social connection as an introvert by breaking it down into small, manageable steps. And on the flip side, Nick shares what no one really talks about: the identity crisis that hit after retiring early at 49, the quiet loneliness that followed “success,” and the unexpected grief of losing structure, purpose, and visibility. We talk about what it feels like to fade into the background, how relationships shape opportunity, and why reinvention doesn’t require a rock bottom, just a willingness to show up.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:21.8 | We're continuing the fresh start series to kick off the first personally. We're continuing the fresh start series to kick off the new year |
| 0:25.5 | Today's guest has a masterclass in introverts |
| 0:28.6 | Getting out into the world to try new things |
| 0:30.8 | And explore new opportunities |
| 0:32.1 | As well as starting over after retirement |
| 0:34.5 | I'm excited for you guys to meet him |
| 0:35.8 | So let's do this |
| 0:36.9 | Yeah over after retirement. I'm excited for you guys to meet him, so let's do this. |
| 0:51.0 | Nick Shelton joins me this week. Nick is a U.S. Air Force veteran. He's a former environmental specialist in the oil and gas industry. He's a speaker, a best-selling author. |
| 0:55.4 | Nick has lived a lot of lives. So Nick, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having to me. |
| 1:00.3 | It's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited to hear about all these lives you've lived and how those things |
| 1:06.5 | have now brought you to where you're at in your life now. So give us a little bit of backstory about you. |
| 1:11.8 | Started off as a socially awkward, shy, introverted kid and had to learn how to navigate through that. |
| 1:21.7 | And it wasn't easy. It was really tough. And I started off. The defining story is when we moved from Texas to Colorado and I was in |
| 1:31.7 | the second grade and started in in elementary school here, the teachers, since I didn't talk to |
| 1:40.2 | anybody because I was like, I don't know why, but I didn't. And for some reason, they put me in the hearing impaired kids class. They thought that I was deaf or hearing impaired. And it was great because you don't have to talk to anybody. We're just playing games, doing sign language and stuff. And then when my parents found out, they're like, what? No, you can hear. And things were different back then. They probably wouldn't have made |
| 2:01.3 | that mistake these days. But then I was thinking, okay, something's different. Something's off here. |
| 2:06.8 | And now I have to try to figure out of what this is. And I wanted to have access to these opportunities |
| 2:13.0 | because you'd see, and everyone sees as kids see it, teens see it, adults see it. You see somebody else just effortlessly going and making connections, talking to people, |
| 2:22.5 | and things are like, what? |
... |
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