OUR STORY

We left too. Now we walk beside you.

The Exit Generation™ was built by people who know what it costs to leave — and what it takes to rebuild.

WHY WE BUILT THIS

Because we needed it — and it didn't exist.

The Exit Generation™ wasn't born in a boardroom or a business plan. It was born from two lives that were shaped, silenced, and ultimately set free from high-control environments. We built what we wish had existed when we were finding our way out. A space that understood the specific grief of losing your entire community. That knew the difference between leaving and rebuilding. That didn't rush you or shame you or tell you to just move on. This is that space.

SHANNON'S STORY

I stayed because I was taught that leaving meant dying.

I grew up on the periphery of the Jehovah's Witnesses, but at 16 — sent to live with my baptized sister — I was fully immersed. Three meetings a week. Field service. A world with clear rules about who I was allowed to be.

At 20, I moved to Seattle. By 21, I was married. By 22, I was baptized — on the same day as my husband. I had convinced myself that faith would hold everything together.

It didn't.

What followed was years of domestic abuse — physical, emotional, and psychological — inside a system that told me to pray harder, submit more, and be a better wife. When I went to the elders for help, I was told: "What did you do to provoke him?" and "We've had other sisters show up with black eyes. What makes you think you're any different?"

I stayed for years. Because Jehovah hates divorce. Because I had nowhere to go. Because the system had taught me that my survival mattered less than my obedience.

The night my husband threatened to kill me and our children — I grabbed my kids and ran.

What followed was a rollercoaster ride of an eviction threat for calling the police, pressure from elders to reconcile, shunning, disfellowshipping, and the slow, painful process of finding myself again. A counselor named Pete was the first person who truly saw me and said: "Shannon, this is domestic violence." Those words changed everything.

Today I am a Certified Transformational Resilience Coach, HeartMath Mentor, and hold an MBA in Organizational Psychology & Development. I left a 25-year corporate career to walk alongside others doing the hard work of rebuilding. My lived experience isn't a footnote — it's the foundation.

JOHN'S STORY

They called me "rotten." I believed them for thirty years.

I was born in 1966 and raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. My earliest memories weren't of play or joy — they were of fear. By age five I was hearing descriptions of Armageddon that would haunt me for decades.

When 1975 came and went — the year the organization had predicted the end of the world — my family began to unravel. My father had already left. My mother remarried an abusive man. Most of my childhood was stolen — not just by fear, but by violence and emotional isolation.

By 14 I was labeled "bad association." By 16 I was publicly announced and shunned by nearly everyone I had ever known. I sat in one final meeting — a teenager, invisible in a room full of people who had known me my whole life — and nobody looked at me.

That rejection poured gasoline on what would become thirty years of addiction. Alcohol. Drugs. Meth. The spiral pulled me into crime, homelessness, and eventually prison. Three years. Eight months of that in solitary confinement.

I was released in August 2008. Three days later, I met Shannon at a book study.

Today I have been clean for over a decade. I am a Certified Transformational Resilience Coach, recovery mentor, and speaker. I am writing a book about my thirty years of running scared — and what it finally looks like to stop.

The label they gave me is not my identity. And the label they gave you is not yours either.

CO-FOUNDERS, THE EXIT GENERATION™

We left high-control worlds too.

Now we help others build lives that finally feel like theirs.

Shannon Avery Briggs, MBA, Certified Transformational Resilience Coach (CHPC)
John D. Briggs, Jr., Certified Transformational Resilience Coach (CHPC)
Co-founders, The Exit Generation™ — A Luminous Connections movement

Our work is informed by lived experience, trauma-aware coaching, and years of walking alongside people navigating the grief, relief, disorientation, and possibility that comes after leaving. We are not here to tell you what to believe next. We are here to help you figure out what YOU believe — on your own terms, in your own time.

Grounded, evidence-informed tools — no spiritual bypassing
Deep respect for your timing, boundaries, and beliefs
An understanding that leaving once doesn't magically undo years of conditioning

OUR TRAINING & CREDENTIALS

Lived experience informed by professional training.

CO-FOUNDER

Shannon

Certified Transformational Resilience Coach (CHPC)
HeartMath Mentor
MBA in Organizational Psychology & Development
25 years corporate leadership experience
Author
Lived experience: ex-Jehovah's Witness, domestic violence survivor, cancer survivor

CO-FOUNDER

John

Certified Transformational Resilience Coach (CHPC)
Recovery mentor and speaker
Over a decade of sobriety
Author (memoir in progress)
Lived experience: ex-Jehovah's Witness, addiction recovery, incarceration survivor