Everyone Needs a Coach

I write often about having a powerful, personal developmental network. It becomes more important as our online selves move to the center of our careers and our business lives. The fact is that with so many profiles and relationships forming and so much visibility we become a “product” of sorts. Our reputation, our business-life brand, will long outlast any product, service, or job.

When you’re in the system, you can’t see how the system works.
Likewise, you can’t be the brand and see the brand.

You just can’t.

Meet Angela Gower-Johnson. She coaches folks to tap into their personal energy. Her methods are non tradtional, yet individually tailored to each client. She works with individuals, professionals, corporate teams. You might have read about Angela in Gail Goodwin’s piece about questioning in the Huffington Post.

I find her fascinating.

Hi Angela.
I know you have many kinds of clients who come from many working lives and distinctly different profiles, what do they all have in common?

All my clients are business people and have experienced some level of success. They all dream bigger than the average person and despite challenges and obstacles continue to desire bigger and better. They also enjoy moving quickly and having new information that will support them in reaching their targets. These are committed professionals who are open to new strategies that grow their business. People come to me when they’re stressed out or at a low energy and they’re ready to try something new. They’ve tried many traditional methods and are willing to consider more innovative strategies, which is my specialty.

You’ve helped me keep my focus on learning to receive as well as give. Why is that important?

Gifting is a huge part of being able to receive. It’s my belief that it is much easier to live life and just be when I am gifting and receiving. I get the feeling that a lot of people are unclear as to what gifting is. Gifting IS not ‘I will do this in hopes that he does this’. It is about being you and giving what you are willing to give freely and expecting nothing in return. It is also about doing it only when it feels good. I see some people that believe gifting is being someone’s personal slave. That just doesn’t feel good to me.

The more awareness I have the more I realize just how easy it is to gift. I am always asking people now “How can I be a contribution to your business/life?” It continues to amaze me how easy it is to be a gift to others. When you own your talents and abilities and are being the greatness of you, it is so quick and easy to gift.

The amazing thing is that when you are the gift, you are also able to receive.

Often if find my clients come to me stuck in slavery and not receiving because they are unwilling to gift from their natural talents. One of the greatest gifts you can offer is a willingness to receive. Let me give you an example…

One of my clients was very frustrated. She had been developing a new business and seemed to hit road block after road block. For every tiny bit of progress, there were two or three barriers. Have you ever experienced that feeling? It’s very stressful. It may be a high energy situation, but it doesn’t feel good, does it?

I helped her shift her perspective, open up and be confident in who she is so that she could receive the wisdom that surrounded her. It turned out that my client’s prospects were asking for specific things, but she had her heart set on a different path. Once she was willing to listen and truly receive the gift of their insight, she was able to give them the services they needed.

Gifting and receiving are two halves of one whole. When you realize that you can effortlessly gift and receive – often simultaneously (!) – your energy goes up, you feel lighter, and stress is a thing of the past.

What would it take for you to do gifting and receiving so that you can live the life of your dreams?

You often talk about staying “in question,” what does that mean?

When you understand how your brain works you realize that questions are the most powerful tool we have. Your brain operates on questions. Whenever you ask yourself a question, your brain tries to find an answer for it.

Now consider that your brain actively forgets in order to avoid overload. It uses filters to remember only what is most important to you. You direct your memory by asking it specific questions.

The questions I teach my clients to use are questions to their non-conscious mind, to the Universe, anything that isn’t the logical mind. Your conscious mind can only pay attention to so much, but your non-conscious mind can grab all kinds of useful information and bring it to your attention. I teach my clients how to stay in question because it opens you to far more possibility. The entire Universe operates off questions. Use the right questions and the possibilities are unlimited. Use the right questions and you feel lighter, more peaceful, you have more energy – it’s a really amazing strategy that most people don’t use effectively.

It’s interesting how some of my clients take to asking questions and getting into the space of being free of thought, while others like to come up with answers. Asking the questions is not about coming up with the answers. Answers bring you back to being finite, questions allow you to expand. Maybe not right off the bat, but after a bit of questioning you will expand.

To be out of question means that you are in judgment, conclusion, computation or decision, these four states are finite and lock you in.

A question unlocks the doors and frees you.

Say you get up one morning and the coffee maker isn’t working. It would be natural to go into some sort of conclusion. It could be something along the lines of having to go get coffee and how that is a bad way to start the day, doing that will in fact lead you in the direction of having a bad day. What you perceive you receive is the thinking behind this. If you simply ask: ‘How does it get any better than this?’ You can switch the energy dynamically. Another set of questions I use as a mantra when things go a bit pear shaped is:

What is this? What can I do with it? Can it be changed? How do I change it? What energy is required here? Who can contribute to this? What can contribute to this?

For me being in question is about the amount of freedom and space that I can experience. I get free from stress, anxiety and obstacles quickly and easily. The results that come from being in question are the icing on the cake!

What do you consider your best value to your clients?

Liz, I use non-traditional methods to open business people to their full potential, ability, and awareness. In the book, How We Decide, the author describes the neuroscience around how the emotional and logical parts of the brain work. He describes the emotional brain as having had millions of years to evolve – it’s really a very sophisticated mechanism. The logical brain is a very recent invention and still has some bugs to work out!

Many people rely primarily on their logical brain. They don’t know how to harness the power of their very sophisticated emotional brain. I just love to see the transformation in my clients when they go from stumbling in the dark to a vivid, Technicolor extravaganza of skill by adding the power of their awareness; some would call this the emotional brain.

I guess the best way to describe the value I create is that I help you acquire new strategies to the world in a much more open way. You learn a comprehensive tool box of strategies to blast through all barriers and magnetically attract opportunities. You just enjoy life so much more. You discover that the true richness of what’s possible for you is so much greater than what you ever imagined.

My mantra is: All of life comes to me with ease and joy and glory!

What I love is how people contact me to say: ‘My life DOES come to me with ease and joy and glory!’ now that I have been following your questions.

Thank you, Angela! You’ve been a good friend, a partner, and a guide. It’s been fun to have you on my blog.

I make connections. It’s what I do.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!