Pt. 1: Soul + Leadership: Leaders Gotta Heal
AKA: a psychic and a business coach walk into an organic smoothie bar.
In 2017, my dear friend Bree Melanson and I were chatting about our respective work. I had a new client who’d come to see me on a foggy spring day on the Sunshine Coast for a coaching session. They ran a seemingly successful startup in Vancouver and they wanted my help to get clarity around their vision and on where to invest in growing the business. As we settled in to our conversation and our mugs of chaga tea, the heart of the matter became clear.
So often I meet with leaders and entrepreneurs who think they need a plan to overcome some outward limitation only to discover limiting beliefs are what is getting in the way.
My client was stuck.
Not because of any concrete business constraints but because of their own personal leadership blocks, which we uncovered were clearly the result of unaddressed trauma, and the beliefs they carried about themselves as a result.
Not what you might expect to come up when you hire a business coach right? It happens more than one might expect, and this wasn’t the first time.
So I suggested she reach out and book a session with Bree (but more on that in a moment).
So often I meet with leaders and entrepreneurs who think they need a plan to overcome some outward limitation only to discover limiting beliefs are what is getting in the way. I don’t just mean in an intangible way; in truly measurable and material ways.
I realized… as my clients needed business plans and marketing strategies, they needed healing plans and self-care strategies.
Limiting beliefs are preventing them from seeking much needed financial investment to grow their business. Perhaps the brand is weak and diluted because they cannot connect to what makes it unique or authentic out of fear of being seen. Or a desire to have the perfectly polished product or service is paralyzing them from launching effectively. Often a belief that they can’t speak up or go it alone keeps co-founders in bad partnership or dynamics with colleagues for which the business and bottom line ultimately suffers. Further into leaders careers this can show up as ego-driven leadership, inappropriate outbursts and brand damaging behaviour. And on and on...
I had seen this first hand with executives in the corporations I worked in earlier in my career. How someone could go 30 or 50 years and never address those things that are just under the surface, influencing everything in their lives. In large companies the impact of this can lead to significant loss of market share and stock value, toxic corporate culture, high employee turn-over rates, and PR disasters can be traced back to poor leadership.
What I realized a few years into my coaching and consulting practice is that as much as my clients needed business plans and marketing strategies, they needed healing plans and self-care strategies. As much as they might need a business coach and a financial advisor, they needed healers and meditation practices. After a lifetime of personal development and conscious healing from my volatile childhood and ancestral trauma I tapped into my understanding of the multitude of healing modalities and practitioners - like Bree - that not-so-coincidentally are my community.
I met Bree as she was just beginning her work as a healer. One of my favourite things Bree shares when she tells her story of coming to her work is about while she was trying to make it as a professional dancer in Los Angeles. She received a download during meditation one day, soon after learning how to connect and ask for messages.
“You are a healer. You are a healer. You are a healer.” a voice repeated, to which she replied, “Nope I’m just trying to dance for Britney! (Spears)”. Sometimes we aren’t ready for the signs we are seeking ;)
In the years that followed our meeting, (with a little business coaching from yours truly) Bree quit her job and launched her business, working one-on-one, running online healing and intuition courses and leading breathwork workshops.
Bree’s work as a spiritual medium, channel and breathwork teacher has made her intimately aware of the stuckness I was seeing in some of my clients. Uncovering that stickiness was easy for me, and releasing and shifting limiting beliefs is the core of Bree’s work, so it only made sense that I began sending my clients to her.
And soon enough, the folks that were approaching her to sort out their life’s purpose or to find more meaning were unstuck and ready to create legacies and launch businesses. The way our work compliments the other’s was evident in the cracking-open our clients were experiencing.
Continued in Pt. 2
Photos by Ainsley Rose Photography.