Shawn Rooney

Shawn is a Certified Student Coach who also works as a financial advisor for a major financial firm. Before building and running his financial practice for the past 20 years, he taught at both the high school and college levels. While teaching college as an Associate Professor of English and Education, he was nominated as Faculty of the Year. Shawn earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University Chicago and graduated Cum Laude from the Honors English Program. He also earned a Master of Arts degree from Northern Illinois University. In addition to his English studies, he earned 20 credit hours toward his Master of Arts in Teaching from Rockford University.

Throughout his teaching career, Shawn has taught, tutored, mentored, and coached hundreds of students. In his financial career, he was a successful business coach responsible for several Financial Advisors and helping them to run successful and profitable businesses. For several years in a row, he won the top award for Most Successful Coach in his region.

His personal motto: “You’re at your best when you’re pouring into someone else!” His favorite quote is from Fred Smith, founder of FedEx: “You are the way you are because that’s the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now.” The speakers and authors who have influenced him the most are Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Malcolm Gladwell, John Eldredge, and Ray Dalio.

Shawn has lived in the Chicago area for most of his life and loves the Midwest culture: the four seasons, the Bears, the Cubs, deep-dish pizza, pumpkin patches, apple orchards, and down-to-earth people. He married his high school sweetheart who is a published author, teacher, and coach as well. They have two amazing sons who are professional musicians and entrepreneurs. As a couple, their favorite thing to do is watch their sons record original music in their studio. They also enjoy watching their sons’ live gigs in the Chicago area. As a family, they’ve traveled extensively throughout the United States and most enjoyed Colorado, upstate New York, and Big Sky, Montana. They’re always looking forward to their next live concert and have thoroughly enjoyed seeing various artists throughout the years.