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Welcome to The People of Work, the podcast where we explore the unique journeys that bring people to their careers. Every episode is a deep dive into the twists, turns, and surprises that shape how individuals find their career paths—whether they’re engineers, artists, baristas, CEOs, or anything and everything in between.
It’s not about the destination; it’s about the story. Through honest conversations, we’ll uncover the moments that define careers, the challenges overcome, and the lessons learned along the way. These are real stories from real people, celebrating the diversity of work and the individuality of the people behind it.
Join us as we break down stereotypes, embrace the unexpected, and shine a light on the human side of work.
[00:00:00] Marci Coppola: I'm not practicing or saying anything or coaching anybody around anything that I haven't dealt with myself because I've worked in corporate America for so many years. I was one of those people, and I look back on that and I think, oh my gosh, I really was operating in this just terrible dysregulated state off mind half the time, you know?
[00:00:18] Marci Coppola: And I have such calm. Decision making, creative decision making now because I've allowed myself that space to just chill out once in a while. It's been great.
[00:00:30] Ami Graves: You are listening to the People of Work, the podcast that dives into the real stories behind what people do for a living and how work shapes who we are.
[00:00:42] Ami Graves: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the People of Work. I'm your host, Amy Grave. Super excited to have Marci Coppola here today with us with Seshen Coaching. I'm thrilled to have this conversation with Marci, partly because I think that the work she's doing is transformative and I can't wait to talk about that. But also because Marci has an HR background, so like we were just discussing before we hit record that we're both just.
[00:01:04] Ami Graves: HR misfits, or we're gonna start calling ourselves the un HHR HR people. So we are here to dig in, talk about all the things, don't know where the conversation's gonna take us, but I can't wait. And, uh, we're happy to have you here. Marci, thanks for joining me today.
[00:01:16] Marci Coppola: Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited and, and I love free flowing conversations, so let's just dive in and see where we go.
[00:01:23] Marci Coppola: Let's do it. Let's do it.
[00:01:25] Ami Graves: I like to take things back 'cause this story's about the journey and pivots we make along the way. So I wanna take it all the way back and talk about Marci. As a young person, you can decide what age, but I'm interested in your first job, your first introduction to work, what was the conversation around work?
[00:01:43] Ami Graves: In your home? Growing
[00:01:44] Marci Coppola: up, when I first got to college and I started studying, I realized very quickly I was like, oh, I'm gonna drive my parents nuts because I had so many interests in life, and holistic wellness and fitness and all these things were what spoke to me first. So I started to go down the path thinking, oh, I'll do personal training for a little while, I'll.
[00:02:05] Marci Coppola: Get maybe physical therapy. And then I was like, oh, no, wait, maybe I wanna do psychology and then no, wait maybe. And so I remember my dad being like, you need to pick something. And rightfully so, right? They're, you know, helping me and supporting me at the time. And so I remember that was my first introduction to knowing that I had the type of brain that wanted to try so many different things.
[00:02:27] Marci Coppola: And the root of it was holistic wellness, but. You know what started to happen is that hustle and grind culture was within my household. You know, my dad did not have a glamorous upbringing and he didn't come from a lot. And so he wanted to give my brother and I the life that he didn't have, and he really wanted better for us than what he had, which I wholeheartedly respected.
[00:02:50] Marci Coppola: And you could tell, like it came through in his heart led messages to us. But what happened was that societal conditioning around that grind. Started to really infiltrate my thoughts around what success looked like. So I graduated college and I was working multiple jobs and I was thinking, oh, I'll, you know, stick with holistic wellness.
[00:03:10] Marci Coppola: But then that thought of, yeah, but what about making money, you know, started to enter. And that's what I would say was the pivot is it pushed me into that corporate world and that hustle and grind mentality. And that's. Really what started is, is then next thing you know, I'm in recruiting and I'm in the corporate setting.
[00:03:31] Marci Coppola: And then, and then HR grabbed me and I remember having that thought like, well, at least it's keeping me within the psychology realm. Well, at least it's, it's scratching the itch of things that I do love when it comes to working with people. I really got sucked into that hustle and grind culture. That's what happened.
[00:03:48] Ami Graves: Was your dad saying. You're gonna go to college or was it like, what do you think you wanna do with your life? Yeah. Or, or get a job right after high school and make money? Like what was the message you were hearing?
[00:04:01] Marci Coppola: He wanted us to go to college. Like he really wanted us to get an education and my dad put himself through school.
[00:04:05] Marci Coppola: My dad worked and put himself and got his education and then he went further and even got his master's. It just wasn't within the family. Like he really was the first to trailblaze that. And I was so proud of him. I remember thinking like, you know, my dad's a badass. Like, this is great. You know, and so that was my, that was my blueprint.
[00:04:23] Marci Coppola: And he wanted, again, like it kept this message around, I want better for you guys. I really want you to understand this is the way the world works. And he really worked a lot of hours. He was constantly hustling. He was in sales and marketing. Um, he traveled a lot and that's. What I saw growing up was that if you wanted to be successful in life and earn a living, you had to work hard, do something that you love and you're passionate about, but you also have to pay your bills and put
[00:04:49] Ami Graves: food on the table percent,
[00:04:50] Marci Coppola: right?
[00:04:50] Ami Graves: Yes.
[00:04:51] Marci Coppola: And so that, that was like my first intro. And you know what's interesting too is I was such a creative child when I was moving. I found these short stories that I wrote as a kid. And poems that I wrote as a teenager. And so it reminded me of how creative I was back then. And I sort of squashed that and allowed myself to go down that path of going into corporate America where there's rules and Yep, yep.
[00:05:17] Marci Coppola: Red
[00:05:17] Ami Graves: tape and, yep. But if this is what, if you wanna make money and be successful, right. What we think successful looks like, whatever that is. Right? Absolutely. It's that societal kind of push that you gotta go into corporate America and and run the race. And by the way, I'm not suggesting that. That's not a great place to be because for a lot of people that's exactly where they should be and they wanna be.
[00:05:36] Ami Graves: Yeah. I I, I work in corporate America. I have for many years. It's blessed me in so many ways and it's made me a very well-rounded individual, but it's not for everybody.
[00:05:45] Marci Coppola: Absolutely. Right. It isn't. And the other thing is, I, as I often say too, is that. I have no regrets because I learned about myself and even though it was a full circle moment, because I got to this place of then deciding, well, you know, I don't know if this is for me long term anymore, but I have no regrets because I, I think about often what it gave me.
[00:06:06] Marci Coppola: Those experiences, it gave me how, it helped me learn more about myself, the people that I got to work with. And so I have zero regrets.
[00:06:14] Ami Graves: How did you make a decision and what was the final like decision that you made to major in, in college? And by the way, where'd you go? Where'd you go to college?
[00:06:21] Marci Coppola: I went to Rutgers and I chose psychology.
[00:06:23] Marci Coppola: And it's funny because I went back to Rutgers and I'm, I'm wrapping up my MBA in strategic leadership. So shout out to Ru. Grade school, great school. I keep taking my money, but, uh, that's right. Yeah. I, but I really, I really loved my time in college and the aspect of human design, the way humans function, mindset, energy psychology.
[00:06:44] Marci Coppola: It fascinates me. So that's why I felt strongly that working in human resources, like I said, it scratched that itch. I was like, oh, I get to work with all these different types of teams and the company that I worked for. Moved me around a lot. They gave me these opportunities to try different parts of the organization.
[00:07:05] Ami Graves: We often say at Bell Tech Logic's where I'm at, we say we're all in sales and we're all in recruiting. 'cause it truly isn't recruiting. I mean, it's, it itself, it's sales, right? So yes, I hear you. It's, it is that, that, I've never heard it called smile and dial, but smile and dial. I think so many people cut their teeth on the smile and dial.
[00:07:23] Ami Graves: The tricky part about smile and dial though is. There's, it's often commission based, so Definitely. So you, you get a taste of, of dollars that is, is a little tough to walk away from if you decide to go in Oh yeah. Into more of a generalist type of an HR role, you almost kind of feel like you're starting over again.
[00:07:40] Ami Graves: Not from an experience perspective, but from a financial perspective. Yes. As an entry level HR job that's gonna want you to have a kind of a robust HR background. They'll gladly take people outta the smile and dial agency type roles. But there's a lot to learn and you, and you're not. Commissioned anymore.
[00:07:56] Ami Graves: So it's a different Exactly. Way different salary experience
[00:07:59] Marci Coppola: It was, and it was definitely a change, but I liked the stability of it, and I liked the opportunities that it gave me because I think I got burnt out just doing the same thing every day, and that's what I, you know, so from college trying to figure out could I do holistic wellness, personal training, going into talent acquisition and working within agencies, and then that led me to corporate America with working a more corporate HR job versus.
[00:08:24] Marci Coppola: Like I said, that smile and dial of constant fast pace because there I wasn't, I didn't feel I was developing long-term relationships. It was just, you know, you place people in a job, you move on, you place, you move on. And I was like, I want more than that. Absolutely. So let's talk about your
[00:08:38] Ami Graves: time at j and j.
[00:08:39] Ami Graves: You moved out of like staffing, like kind of real fast paced. Yeah. People placement, talent placement. What was the first role you took at j and j?
[00:08:46] Marci Coppola: It was talent acquisition. I worked with commercial leaders, sales and marketing leaders in the consumer division at the time. And I did that for a few years and I realized that I wanted to expand more into hr.
[00:08:58] Marci Coppola: Mm-hmm. And I liked the idea of being a business partner with HR Solutions. That's what I said. Yeah. I was like, you know, I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm at the table with you guys. I just specialize in hr. And so that's ultimately what, what led me down the HR path.
[00:09:14] Ami Graves: I just recently. Shifted the nomenclature of our talent acquisition function, which we've been calling recruiting at Bell Techlog for many, many years, and I just recently.
[00:09:27] Ami Graves: Shifted that over to talent acquisition and talent advi, like the title being a talent advisor. Right. Love that. Because what I see and have seen for a long time and just apparently I'm late to the party in terms of acting on it, but here we got there is really saying, you know what? This talent on this team, they're not just out here sourcing resumes and we're.
[00:09:45] Ami Graves: Recruiting. Mm-hmm. Like what we think of standard recruiting. Yes. They really are advisors. They know our business, they know our operation. Yeah. They know the kind of talent in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities that you need that's gonna help you accomplish your goals on that particular team and within the business.
[00:10:01] Ami Graves: And they really are advisors and, and what's so great is that it's an easy sell when you're changing the name to talent acquisition. If you have the right people in the roles, because they're. Client, their internal client as a hiring manager, for example, or the leader of a, of a business unit. They're already engaging the talent acquisition team as advisors.
[00:10:24] Ami Graves: Yes. They're already saying, Hey, what do you think about this? And I really need this skillset. And our team can say, Hey, if you want this, you're, here's the what you're gonna, what we're seeing in the market. And it's just not a, Hey, here's a resume. Yes. Do you like it or not? Yes or no. Lemme go find more.
[00:10:38] Ami Graves: It's so much more than that. It really is. You get it. And I know and J approaches
[00:10:43] Marci Coppola: talent acquisition like that as well. And that's why, and that's why I, I ended up leaving that agency setting to go into J J's environment. 'cause that's what I wanted. I was like, well I don't wanna just make these fast placements or stare at 200 resumes on a daily basis.
[00:10:56] Marci Coppola: I actually want. To help people find a place where they can feel really good because it matches everything that they said that they wanted. And to understand the ins and outs of a company dynamic. It's fun. You know, you really get to understand, you know what that business strategy looks like, and then it becomes a marriage, okay, here's your business strategy, and now we can meet.
[00:11:17] Marci Coppola: With the talent strategy and it's a nice marriage between the two. So I did, I did really love it for several years and I worked around some really amazing people. So I have zero regrets and I will, I will always have love for j and j Yeah. And for what j and j did for me.
[00:11:32] Ami Graves: Yeah. It's a fantastic company.
[00:11:34] Ami Graves: We both know one of my close friends. Your close friends, I know Latoya Davis, who has spent many years at j and j, and she's now over at Kimberly Clark and spent some time on this show with me not too long ago. Great. And she's, she's wonderful, but also speaks just. Very positively about j and j. So shout out to j and J for being a great employer.
[00:11:50] Ami Graves: Hundred percent for everybody, but for HR people specifically. So yes, we love that. I really wanna talk about what you're doing now because I am so intrigued. This is the kind of stuff that we could nerd out on for hours. We're gonna give ourselves 30 minutes to nerd out on it or something like that today, but we gotta dig in.
[00:12:08] Ami Graves: So tell me first. Absolutely. Before we talk about the very specific details about your coaching business, I wanna. Go back a little bit and talk about where you were, like what was the mind frame when you started thinking about, is j and j the, I mean, I've been here 12 years or 11 years or however, and you'd been there when you started having this, this desire, this kinda right, this itch, right?
[00:12:30] Ami Graves: So talk to me about how you were walking through that and navigating that, and when you decided to pull the trigger.
[00:12:35] Marci Coppola: Yeah, I would say, you know, it's interesting, it started during the pandemic and I was working remote and I was working with global teams and I joked, I was like, I feel like I'm HR in a box.
[00:12:46] Marci Coppola: 'cause I was like, this is all they say, hi, I am your HR partner. You know, and I didn't get to travel it and get to meet any of them in person. And it was a, a big challenge for me, but a great one because I had to really effectively help these teams navigate. During a pandemic, during a time of uncertainty, and I had leaders that really needed help around helping them truly lead during times of transformation.
[00:13:10] Marci Coppola: So what I started to notice was I really came online, almost felt myself energetically coming online when I was coaching a leader through difficult. Time periods and I was like, wow, I'm getting really good at, uh, helping other people get to their sense of clarity. How about me? And, and that I realized, I was like, there's something missing.
[00:13:29] Marci Coppola: And so that was when it started. It started around 2020 where I started getting the itch of, you know, I have all these areas in life where I'm passionate and things that I really love to do. And some of the aspects of HR wasn't. It just wasn't feeling fulfilling for me anymore. You know, those operational side of things and things that we were doing.
[00:13:49] Marci Coppola: Although I loved where I was and the people that I was working with, I was like, wow, I just, I'm starting to feel a little bit misaligned with. The type of work that I was doing, and I hung in there for a few more years because again, I loved j and j and I loved the people that I worked with. So it was a very difficult decision in the end.
[00:14:07] Marci Coppola: I mean, I got to run a veteran's leadership development program. I got to work as the head of HR for our neuroscience division and work with some amazing people. There was just this voice that just kept coming up saying, you know that you want more. You know that you're ready for. Your own business, your own way of life, your own inner alignment to come online again, and that's when it started to happen.
[00:14:31] Marci Coppola: It was keeping me up at night, honestly. Yep. It really was. If
[00:14:35] Ami Graves: it's keeping you up at night, you can't stop thinking about it. Yeah. It seems almost criminal to not answer the calling, you know what I mean? Absolutely. And respond to your,
[00:14:44] Marci Coppola: your internal desire, right? Absolutely. And here I am coaching leaders because it started, I mean, I've been coaching for years.
[00:14:50] Marci Coppola: I just was doing it within the HR umbrella in a company, but I've, I've been coaching for a very long time. Mm-hmm. And here I am helping leaders align to their truth and what they want out of life. And so I was like, well, I gotta, I gotta walk the walk, talk the talk myself. I have to actually do this for myself too.
[00:15:06] Marci Coppola: Right? So it just, it kept coming up for me. It really did. And I realized that the performance reviews, the titles, the, you know, the things that I was chasing, although. Externally, it looked amazing internally. It wasn't satisfying me anymore. Yep, yep, yep. You can only chase that
[00:15:24] Ami Graves: stuff for so long, I think.
[00:15:27] Ami Graves: Especially when, again, when you're meant for something bigger and deeper, whatever that, whatever that is. Right. Absolutely. I can't wait to talk about Seshen Coaching. Yeah. Tell me, I wanna understand the timing of this. Did you develop Chen coaching prior to leaving? Obviously you had the concept, you knew you were gonna do it, right?
[00:15:45] Ami Graves: So I'm imagining you would like. Test it out, make sure you make sure it's gonna be, you know, fruitful and you're gonna be able to be able to, of course, feed yourself and pay your bills, right? And all those things. So I'm interested about the actual transition from j and j to your coaching business and when you pulled that trigger and what led you there.
[00:16:04] Ami Graves: And I also wanna talk about the name.
[00:16:06] Marci Coppola: Yes, absolutely. So it's interesting 'cause people ask me this a lot and I say It wasn't this lightning bolt moment. It was almost like this quiet unraveling that started for me where I was looking at my life and starting to realize that I've built a lot of my decision based on the foundations of external drivers and people pleasing and doing things that I quote thought I should be doing versus what I really wanted to do.
[00:16:32] Marci Coppola: So it's funny because the name came to me. And I started studying energetic healing and energetic alignment and mind, body, soul. I started to geek out a lot around the science of change and how humans react to change. I got certified in change management and I started to realize, I was like, wow, I really am a nerd for both.
[00:16:53] Marci Coppola: I feel like it's the bridge between the practical. The spiritual, you know, stuff that people think is woo woo, right? Whereas me, I'm like, no, there's science behind this too. So I started to geek out around, around both, and I realized that's what I wanted. I wanted mind, body, soul as a business. And that quiet unraveling started where I just felt, if not now, when.
[00:17:18] Marci Coppola: I always kept saying, if not me, who? Exactly right. And I kept saying, maybe this is my retirement plan. Maybe this is down the line. But then I kept thinking to myself, but why do I wait for that? What is that actually doing for me to have that mindset of, oh, I'll wait till later. And what is later? What does that even look like?
[00:17:38] Marci Coppola: So it started off on the side where, to your point, I was like, let me just advertise. Let me see who comes to me. It's funny, right? And I joke, and I say this all the time, it's almost like the universe puts you through the paces so that you can learn from your experiences, you can grow, you can gain this knowledge and this skillset, and then you turn around and you help others.
[00:17:58] Marci Coppola: You're just, you're, you're sending a ladder down for others and saying, here's how I did it. And those are the types of clients that I seem to be attracting, the ones that are going through those transformations that are at a crossroads in their life. And so it started to gain traction and I finally said.
[00:18:15] Marci Coppola: If I'm gonna do this right, I gotta go all in. It was scary at first, of course. You know, you meet fear in the face when you, when you're making a big shift in your life. But I often ask people, what choices? Honor who you're becoming, not who you've been. And that's what I had to ask myself. What are my choices that really are gonna honor where I'm going and who I wanna be?
[00:18:37] Marci Coppola: And it was just, it kept coming back to Marci, you gotta go all, all in on this. Yeah. You're meant to do this. That's right. When did you leave j and j? It's actually only recent, I wanna say. I think it's only been like nine months, eight or nine months. Okay. So yeah, pretty recently. Yeah, it's pretty recent.
[00:18:53] Marci Coppola: So nine, nine
[00:18:53] Ami Graves: months in. Yeah. Full blown entrepreneur running your company. Tell me overall, nine months in, how's it
[00:19:00] Marci Coppola: going? It's going amazing. Yeah. And here's the thing too, is the one thing that I'm noticing is that you can have all the plans in the world. You could be like, oh, I'm gonna plan out everything I got.
[00:19:11] Marci Coppola: When you surrender to it and you just let it flow and you just allow it to be what it is. I'm getting types of clients that I didn't think that I would, and that is what's been the most fun for me. So to go back to who that kid was, who that teenager Marci was around, wanting to do many different things and not wanting to feel pigeonholed.
[00:19:34] Marci Coppola: I'm getting it now because the irony is I have leaders of all different levels coming to me. Veterans, people who are doing some amazing things within the spiritual community who need extra assistance. And I'm like, wow, this is pretty awesome. I have a diverse client group and now I get to gee out over different things.
[00:19:53] Marci Coppola: That's funny. 'cause one of
[00:19:53] Ami Graves: the questions I was gonna ask you is. Who is your ideal client, but it sounds like you've got such a wide variety. So did you go into this thinking you had an ideal client and then mm-hmm. You learned that? I did. You don't have an ideal client? I did. Yeah. Tell me about that.
[00:20:10] Marci Coppola: I was like, oh, well, you know, as a female who you know is.
[00:20:14] Marci Coppola: Trying to do this from an entrepreneurial standpoint, who has had high levels of leadership, who has, you know, I've been a people leader in my past. I was like, you know, I really probably will resonate a lot with women who are women in leadership and, 'cause I've coached a lot of female leaders. But then I laughed because I was like, hold on a second.
[00:20:31] Marci Coppola: You've also coached a lot of veterans and a lot of men, you know, within that community. So I started to realize, I was like. Girl, I don't think you have a niche. I think you're, I think, I think you need to be open, and that's ultimately what I've allowed myself to do. But if you were to ask me specifically, Hey Marci, do you have an ideal client?
[00:20:51] Marci Coppola: My ideal client is the person that is going to come to me and realize that, don't come to me unless you're ready to transform your life. The ideal client is somebody that is like, I am ready. I'm willing to go all in and we are going to work through this transition in my life or what I'm facing. People who need to be so clear on their goals and they're like, Marci, I need help with an action plan.
[00:21:16] Marci Coppola: I truly need somebody that's gonna hold me accountable. Those are the people that end up coming to me when they are so ready and they know that when they come to work with me. It's like, get in guys. We're leveling up in here. That's that's right. That's it.
[00:21:31] Ami Graves: And they're ready to do the work, not just let me pay you the fee and meet with you X number of times over, over over X span of time.
[00:21:40] Ami Graves: Yeah. And you are gonna. Tell me what I need to do and I'm gonna do it. And it's like, no, the actual work is with you, the client. Absolutely. And I'm here as a, as a guide and I'm gonna ask you some tough questions to kind of get you thinking about some really, IM important things to help you get to where you wanna be.
[00:21:56] Ami Graves: It's. I love the work you're doing. It's interesting because we, again, both of us HR backgrounds, HR practitioners currently and in your previous life, um, you know, we talked about this before we started, got on here, but it's like I get annoyed by traditional HR type of things. So as an example, I get annoyed by like, what feels like check the box type of, I'll just say language like.
[00:22:23] Ami Graves: Culture. And now obviously the word culture is an important, it is word. And we, we understand what we mean when we're addressing that, but oh my gosh. Can we please, I am begging, can we please find, I, I don't have the answer. Okay. I'm just gonna admit that right now. But can we please, as a function or just as business leaders, I don't care who comes up with it, who can we come up with a new word?
[00:22:48] Ami Graves: That'd be great. It loses so much meaning it's words like culture, vulnerability, like I like the concept. I get it right. I'm a hundred percent in on the concepts that that are behind these words. Yes. These words have lost their meaning and a hundred percent agree. I swear I'm an HR person, but when I hear an HR person say something, culture, culture, culture, I'm like.
[00:23:12] Marci Coppola: Oh yeah. It used to drive you crazy. Yeah, please. And that's, that's ultimately the other driving factor for me is I just get so tired of feeling performative. I was like, I just wanna be authentic. I just wanna be me. And I understand that companies have specific ways of working and, and I get that, and I wholeheartedly respect that.
[00:23:30] Marci Coppola: But you get to this exhaustion point where you're just like, can we just honestly define what we're saying? These word salads have to go because. I remember I used to sit into meetings sometimes and you know, I would hear these word salads or these just buzzwords that we would use. And I'd look around the room and I would see people nodding and I'm like, but what are we actually saying?
[00:23:51] Marci Coppola: What does it mean, guys? Mm-hmm. So, I'm with you. I, I used to, I used to cringe sometimes with some of the corporate jargon I was using on a daily basis.
[00:23:59] Ami Graves: Well, and I think that it, it plays over into the work you do too, because you, me mentioned this a little earlier, but I. I understand that people who don't understand the kind of work you do could think, uh, this is just some wonky, what do you mean some mind, body, soul stuff?
[00:24:16] Ami Graves: No. No. Right. Really, like if you understood what you said earlier was the science behind it. This is real shit guys. Like this is, this really is real. I think that that's so impactful and important. So how are you? It is taking work that can be deemed what? Energy. Energy healing, what the hell are you talking about?
[00:24:34] Ami Graves: Exactly. How do you take work like that and words like that and really drive home the value and purpose and intention that it can make on particularly your. Your client. Right?
[00:24:44] Marci Coppola: Absolutely. I often joke and I say, you know, when I talk to clients who are interested in energy healing work, and I've had a lot of people who've been curious about it, and they're like, oh, actually I kind of want a session.
[00:24:53] Marci Coppola: I wanna see what it does for me. You know?
[00:24:55] Ami Graves: Mm-hmm.
[00:24:55] Marci Coppola: And when I watch a client be so calm, and it's like you watch, like their nervous system just like calms down.
[00:25:03] Ami Graves: Mm-hmm. And then
[00:25:04] Marci Coppola: that mind chatter shuts off and next thing you know they're getting all these answers. Like, actually, I think, oh, this is coming to me, and then I'll have a client come back to me the next session.
[00:25:13] Marci Coppola: They're like, Marci, I just took like five pages of notes. You know, I journaled for, you know, a few hours and all these things were coming to me, these ideas, I'm like, notice now the difference between when you're making decisions or when you're thinking about your goals, when you're in a state of peace and calm versus when your cortisol levels are spiking through the roof.
[00:25:31] Marci Coppola: Mm-hmm. Look at the difference between those two decisions. And it's absolutely. I'm like, that's what energy alignment is. It doesn't have to be mystical. Right. It could just, it could be a very practical approach to saying, because you,
[00:25:43] Ami Graves: you, you know Marci, what people are thinking. Right. Of course. Of course.
[00:25:46] Ami Graves: If they don't have, they're thinking Get out the sound bowls. I dunno. Oh, I know. I just did that like a mixing, like I was making a cake, but I don't know if that's what sound bowls really look like, but sound bowls and like, I dunno, I gotta have my hippie wear on or whatever. Exactly. The truth is, it's so much more.
[00:26:01] Ami Graves: It's so much more than that. It's so much more than that. Yeah, it's so
[00:26:03] Marci Coppola: much more than that. I even notice a difference in myself. Like I'll wake up in the morning, I meditate for about 15, 20 minutes just to clear my mind and like at lunch I'll go for a walk. 'cause at where I live, there's, you know, a ni, a nice nature path.
[00:26:16] Marci Coppola: And then I'll come back and I'm like, Ooh, I just had an idea for something. And then I laugh, I'm. Gee, I wonder why I was able to come up with this idea, maybe because I was calm versus being a complete psycho that's, you know, funneling their salad down their throat for 15 minutes because I only have a 15 minute lunch break and I have to hurry up and turn around and grab this phone call.
[00:26:37] Marci Coppola: And I, I started noticing a pattern. I was like, wow, we really are not making the best decisions when we're operating on this high stress. Yeah. You know. Crazy mentality of, you know, constant go, go, go. And so it's funny because I watch that and I invite the skepticism. I like it. You know, I'm just like, you know, curiosity is, is an awesome thing.
[00:26:57] Marci Coppola: Just allow yourself to be curious. But I don't try to convince anyone. I just say, just notice how your body feels when you're in those two states. Just notice it. Absolutely. Pay attention to how you function in life. Pay attention. When you're a high level executive and you're running on barely any sleep and your cortisol levels are spiking through the roof, and then you walk into a room and you know there's a big decision you have to make.
[00:27:22] Marci Coppola: How do you feel in that moment? Do you feel great? Chances are the answer no. Right? Right. Most
[00:27:28] Ami Graves: people don't even take the time to really know how they feel. In that moment because they're busy scarping down the salad. They're triple booked on their calendar. Yep. They're apologizing to this person because I can't come to your meeting because I have double booked over here.
[00:27:44] Ami Graves: So then that gives me stress because now I don't want you to feel like I'm not. Caring about the meeting or I'm, you're on the back burner, you're not important. But I can't beat in two places at once, so that's stressful. And we just continue this pattern
[00:27:57] Marci Coppola: all day long. It's a cycle. Yeah. And it's this loop that you constantly are putting yourself in and, and I've been there, and so that's the thing.
[00:28:03] Marci Coppola: The beauty of it is, is I'm not practicing or saying anything or coaching anybody around anything that I haven't dealt with myself because I've worked in corporate America for so many years. I was one of those people. And I look back on that and I think, oh my gosh, I really was operating in this just terrible dysregulated state of mind half the time, you know?
[00:28:23] Marci Coppola: And I have such calm decision making, creative decision making now because I've allowed myself that space to just chill, chill out once in a while. It's been great. How do you think,
[00:28:36] Ami Graves: I wonder how we could. I'm sure, I'm sure a lot of your clients are work, you know, in corporate America, but yeah. How do you take somebody that's living that life?
[00:28:47] Ami Graves: Right? This is what we do all day long. We just live by the calendar. We're moving things around all day. We're shoving a salad down our throat in the 20 minutes we have that I blocked on the calendar for focus time. That did not get focused time at all. It got ran over by something else, right? Yeah. How are you?
[00:29:03] Ami Graves: Like getting through to those people that this kind of work. I'm just picturing the, the skepticism because so much of that, that doing, we equate to our value and it feels performative at times, but I'd say it's even like it's productivity, right? It's how busy am I, I can get a little bit of my worth, how I view my worth through my, my productivity and my busyness.
[00:29:29] Ami Graves: Yeah. Which is. Such a fallacy, by the way. I know. But I'm curious how you are taking a person like that. Mm-hmm. And then add on top of the fact that they're probably SSP skeptical about energy work. Right. How are you getting through to them that this is good for them?
[00:29:47] Marci Coppola: Yeah. And that's the thing is I approach it very, in a very practical sense when I work with the leaders that are working in corporate America.
[00:29:53] Marci Coppola: If I come at them and say, oh, actually, here's what happens when you're balancing this, or, you know, this chakra system is racing and it's not, I'm not gonna say that, you know? Right. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna actually speak to them very practically because I understand their world, and I'm gonna say, let's talk about your most recent outcomes.
[00:30:10] Ami Graves: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:10] Marci Coppola: How did you arrive at those decisions? What were you doing when you made that decision? What was the feedback you received? And what starts to happen is they start to realize with me is that their inner world and their outer world is not matching. And we have to get to a place of that inner alignment because then your outer world will start to match your inner truth.
[00:30:31] Ami Graves: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:32] Marci Coppola: And it's like, who do you wanna even be? And we always start there. I'm like, let's start at the basics. Like, who are you and, and what, what do you want out of life? I don't think a lot of people ask that question of themselves. They don't. Don't, they just go, we just go. They don't. They don't, I'll be the first to tell you a lot of my clients when I, I force them to slow down for a minute.
[00:30:49] Marci Coppola: I said, you came to me with 25 different goals. We're gonna actually do something that's gonna make you radically uncomfortable, and I'm gonna hit the pause button and we're gonna spend time on you first. And I watch you watch the spark come back online when you work with somebody where they have somebody that actually radically focuses on them for a minute.
[00:31:10] Marci Coppola: Because a lot of these high level executives, they don't get that luxury anymore. They don't. That's why they say it's lonely at the top, because they don't have somebody that's actually working alongside of them to coach them, to help them to say, hold on a second. We have to focus on you first, and you need to be your best self so that you show up in the world as your best self.
[00:31:31] Marci Coppola: And then people will start to notice that the next thing you know, the speeches that you give, right? The messages that you put out there, the decisions that you make. We'll start to resonate with your inner truth and people will start to look at you differently. They'll be like, wow, this is a leader that's actually authentic.
[00:31:46] Marci Coppola: This is a leader that is making decisions that have a, an amazing impact for the organization and for my life. And people will follow you more. It inspires more followership. But I agree with you, we don't, we don't do that enough. So this is why I say to people, you need a coach. You need somebody that can assist you.
[00:32:07] Marci Coppola: I got one myself. Yeah. I put myself through the paces as mm-hmm. Getting a coach. Yeah. And it was amazing for me.
[00:32:13] Ami Graves: Yep. Yeah, I was, it's funny you bring that up 'cause I was gonna ask that question. 'cause I think that that's another important element of it is. Coaches need coaches too. We do, right? I, we know I'm, I'm in hr.
[00:32:24] Ami Graves: I had an executive coach for myself like two years ago that I spent about a year with wonderful person here, local to Indianapolis, well known. Her name, her name is Patty Prosser. She's. She's a wonderful person and really kind of helped me, I think, work through some things that I was trying to figure out and navigate and she was wonderful.
[00:32:44] Ami Graves: A lot of just a real, really great leader and coach. And it's funny too because just the other day I was. Talking to my husband about just all kinds of things. And a couple, my kids have therapists and I'm all, I'm always, I'm a huge proponent. I feel like everybody should have one. Absolutely. But, but then I say that and I'm like, but I don't have one.
[00:33:03] Ami Graves: Yeah. So I'm like, what about me? Okay, so everybody should have one except for me. 'cause I'm too busy. And it's like, right. That is the problem. Inherently right there, Amy. Always. So now I'm, it's on my list and I'm, and not like the list that I'm not gonna get to, but the list I'm actually gonna get to. To find myself a therapist.
[00:33:17] Ami Graves: I think to just, again, because we go, go, go. We take care of everybody around us, especially women, particularly working mom, moms. We're juggling all the things, and I mean, everybody's juggling things, right? So I think that's not just working mom, but we
[00:33:30] Marci Coppola: all
[00:33:30] Ami Graves: juggle a lot. It's important though.
[00:33:32] Marci Coppola: It's so important.
[00:33:33] Marci Coppola: Yeah. And when you think about it is a lot of times when people come to me, it's, we talk about inner versus outer change, right? And a lot of times when people come to me, it's, here's my goals. And I'm like, well, that's great. You know, you want the title, you want the promotion, you want. Those are the external things that you can see.
[00:33:48] Marci Coppola: But we have to start with the foundation first. And what starts to happen, these breakthrough moments with my clients is when we, we start around the inner work. That is where the lasting transformation lives, because I joke with them all the time. I'm like, sure, you can pack up a suitcase right now and pack it up and say, I'm gonna go to this new place.
[00:34:06] Marci Coppola: I said, but you're packing the suitcase with the same mindset, the same energetic blocks, the same limiting beliefs, the same tiredness that you have right now. And I was like, you're just gonna recreate the same thing in a new setting. So how about we actually work and get to the heart of what it is that you want outta life and the root of what you're seeking.
[00:34:25] Marci Coppola: And then what starts to happen is your outer world starts to match because you're then going to be this aligned individual who has boundaries, who does focus on their wellness, who really, truly is gonna say, here's who I am and I'm not gonna compromise. Now on this. And next thing you know, you're gonna attract the right people, the right relationships, the right work, because you are saying, this is what I know, and now I'm not going to compromise that.
[00:34:48] Marci Coppola: And I love watching when that happens. That's my absolute favorite. And that is the type of coach I am. I'm like, hold on a second. Nope. Don't get in this car with me unless you're ready to transform your life. Like we're going, this is what we're doing in here. So I, and it's my most favorite thing, honestly.
[00:35:05] Marci Coppola: Yeah. That's amazing. Let's go back to the name. Tell me how you came up, up with the name for
[00:35:10] Ami Graves: your
[00:35:10] Marci Coppola: coaching business. So, it's funny because it came to me as I was studying the energy healing work. So, so the system that I, that I learned and what I do is, is second energy healing and people are very familiar with reiki and reiki uses.
[00:35:24] Marci Coppola: The geometric symbols to help balance the chakra system. Second, also uses symbols, and it basically is, it's more powerful. It goes where it needs to. So it works on the level of the soul. It works on the level of the body to really help with energetic blocks, and it's a coaching energy. And so it's funny because as I was studying it, the name came to me because I saw the Blue Lotus.
[00:35:49] Marci Coppola: It spoke to me. 'cause I was like, you know, the lotus is such a badass flower because it has to grow through mud. It's such a re Yes, yes, yes. Every time. It's so resilient. And, and that spoke to me. 'cause I was like, this is everything I'm doing right now. I'm, that's right. I'm battling the same things everybody else does with, you know, imposter syndrome with mm-hmm.
[00:36:09] Marci Coppola: You know, challenges in life. I've always come out of it stronger. And that was a sort of a credit to myself in that moment. And that self-love to say, you know, actually Marci, you're an extremely resilient person and you are going to be able to turn around and help others that, you know, really need it.
[00:36:26] Marci Coppola: And so the name just stuck. Yeah. And I was like, I love that. That's what I want for my business and for mm-hmm. For people to know that. Resilience in life shows up in many different areas, and people are actually a lot stronger and more badass than they give themselves credit for a lot of the time. Yeah.
[00:36:42] Marci Coppola: That's right.
[00:36:43] Ami Graves: What's the biggest challenge you're facing right now? Running this business or with a, obviously no, no proprietary details. Yeah, no client names, but I'm just curious like what's, what's going on right now that's got you maybe keeping you up at night?
[00:36:55] Marci Coppola: I think that competitiveness that I have.
[00:36:57] Marci Coppola: Within myself. And so I've had to work on my mindset and my reframing of thoughts. And the biggest thing that I push myself to do is not compare myself this comparisonitis game that we get ourselves into. Because sometimes you're, you're comparing somebody's chapter 12 to your chapter two. It's like, look, I'm on chapter two, you're, you're on 12.
[00:37:18] Marci Coppola: Like we're not gonna compare the two. So I work very hard to make sure that I remember that what I'm building is something that I wanna last. I'm not looking for this like quick, you know, fix or this quick overnight sensation. I'm building something transformational. So that patience, that inner calm that I help my clients with, I do the same for myself every day.
[00:37:44] Marci Coppola: Every day. I work on that balance of. Marci, you left the corporate America grind for a reason. So don't, don't do that to yourself. Don't impose that onto yourself because that's the reason you walked away. Yeah. So,
[00:37:57] Ami Graves: yeah. You mentioned a few minutes ago, imposter syndrome. It is another one of those terms that I'm like, I know everybody.
[00:38:03] Ami Graves: It's like everybody. Yeah. Everybody hear Steve at the table. One more time. Marci, I'm gonna pull my hair out. Oh, seat at the table. I can't even deal with it. I, Steve, I'm about to throw that fucking chair away. He's my Steve. Can't, cant. I can't take it. I can't. One more HR person says, seat at the table.
[00:38:20] Ami Graves: We're gonna do something about it. I dunno what we're gonna do, but we're seat at something at the table
[00:38:23] Marci Coppola: was my most favorite. That and executive presence. If I heard executive presence one more time, I was literally gonna flip a desk. I was like, this is the day. Yeah, this is the day. This is the day
[00:38:32] Ami Graves: today.
[00:38:33] Ami Graves: Is it? Today's it. But I do wanna talk about imposter syndrome and while I think I, it, we, it, I actually love that this, even though I'm kind of, you know, tongue in cheek, these terms annoy me sometimes 'cause they get overused. There is a reason that they're overused. And I understand the concept behind them.
[00:38:48] Ami Graves: And I myself have dealt with imposter syndrome and, and maybe, and by the way, just because you've dealt with it doesn't mean it doesn't creep up again tomorrow. Like it's just, you never, you can't predict it. It's constant. I wanna, I wanna talk about how you've experienced that and how you personally have overcome that.
[00:39:03] Marci Coppola: You know, so oddly enough, I'm actually writing a reflective journal and workbook around imposter syndrome because of the fact that I've dealt with it so often and I watched the way it shows up and for the record, it shows up even in the most successful people that you think. There's always this voice in the head that's gonna come in and it's either comparisonitis or I could do everything on my own, or it's, it shows up in different ways and I think the best thing to do is try to reframe the thought because the imposter syndrome thought was gonna come in and it, and it comes in like all sorts of negative right.
[00:39:35] Marci Coppola: It's always like, oh, well who am I to do this? And you know, I'm not, and so I, I play a game with it. I turn it into a game. I'm like, all right, this is the, the, the voice that's coming in. So I challenge it and I say, who am I not to, who am I not to do this? I have years of experience, not just in professional life, but in my personal life where I've experienced a crossroads in my life.
[00:39:58] Marci Coppola: I've experienced difficult times. I've had to be resilient. I've had to pick myself off, off the, off the ground from a personal perspective. Like, you know, I went through a divorce and it was really difficult for me. And I look at those moments and I say, I absolutely have something to offer. I absolutely.
[00:40:18] Marci Coppola: Have life experience or something that I've been able to work through that somebody else might need help with. And everybody on this planet does too, every single one of you. And that's what's amazing is that we're just, we're all very unique individuals and the more we remind ourselves of that and we stop comparing.
[00:40:39] Marci Coppola: It should look like, no, it doesn't. What it has to look like is what it feels right for you. How does that show up for you and how can you truly find evidence against that negative mindset? Because you do have evidence against it.
[00:40:53] Ami Graves: Yep, absolutely. These are like topics that are so, so important and I'm trying to in introduce them actually right now to my, I have four daughters.
[00:41:03] Ami Graves: My youngest two are twins that are 15. And I'm, we're talking a lot these days about, and in fact I was saying this to another girlfriend is if, if not me, then who or why not me? Why not you? And we talk a lot about, you know, the things we say to ourself. Would you say to a friend. Exactly. Like, why would you allow yourself to say that to yourself without grabbing it, like you said, and reframing it.
[00:41:26] Ami Graves: So, yeah. Hold on a minute. A negative thought comes in like, they're gonna come, you can't stop that him, but you can like grab 'em and say, I don't think so. It's practice every day. Right.
[00:41:39] Marci Coppola: It's, it's honestly, it's honestly every day and I, you know, I love the story around, you know, like everybody has the good wolf and the bad wolf inside, right?
[00:41:48] Marci Coppola: And it's like, who are you gonna feed? That's it. You're gonna feed the bad wolf or you gonna feed the good wolf because you know that that negative thought is gonna come up. You just don't feed it. And that's what I see is the people that are truly the ones that persevere in life and they push through.
[00:42:02] Marci Coppola: And I don't know any inventor or anybody who's done anything in life that has gotten it, nailed it on the first try. Right. So they've, they've dealt with opposition, they've dealt with hard times. The difference is, is they've picked themselves up and said, Uhuh. I'm not listening to that negative voice that says I can't do it.
[00:42:18] Marci Coppola: Yes I can. And they just, they just barrel right through it. And that's ultimately how you can overcome that imposter syndrome is with evidence against it. And anytime that voice comes up, you just have to reframe and say, actually, nah, not listening to you today. You wanna know why? Because I have plenty of evidence to show.
[00:42:36] Marci Coppola: I'm amazing and unique and cool, and there's people out there who will resonate with me
[00:42:41] Ami Graves: and I'm qualified, right? Yes. Or whatever. Whatever the word is. Absolutely. Yes. My husband and I started watching, starting five on Netflix. This is about the NBA, and at first I was like, okay, I'm just, I'm gonna watch this with my husband, okay?
[00:42:54] Ami Graves: He is gonna make me watch the basketball thing. I am obsessed. I love this show. What I love about it is it goes back to what you're talking about is you see a mindset. Yeah, that then, and these high, you know, high paid, but highly talented people, I'll use SGA A as an example. It's like, mm-hmm. Wow. If you think about his story, who just won a championship last year with, with Oklahoma, so pretty incredible.
[00:43:22] Ami Graves: But talk about the self-doubt or like Yes. What, what he could have, he could have listened to that. Right. Of course. What everybody around him was saying, he didn't have some of the opportunities that others and, and not just him, people that are very highly successful in a lot of different fields. This is just one example in the MBA, but they're in every industry and field and every level.
[00:43:43] Ami Graves: It's like you see these people that are. It's just a mindset. They just don't, it is, they will not accept that they could possibly not be the best. Yeah. Period. That's, that's honestly
[00:43:55] Marci Coppola: what you just said is what it is, which is why I joke and say like, we're not talking about mystical things. It's the same thing with affirmations and manifesting the life that you desire.
[00:44:04] Marci Coppola: You just have to so radically believe in it and embody it and show up every day. Have that version of yourself that you know you can be. How do they show up in life? What do they say? How do they hold themselves? How do they dress? What's their diet? Who are the people they surround themselves with?
[00:44:19] Marci Coppola: Because that's part of it too, is when you're doing mindset work, you also need to do a very deep audit of your life and say, how am I showing up in the world and who am I allowing around me to reinforce the life that I want? And a lot of times what happens, 'cause I coach people around this and sometimes people will come to me who are at a crossroads, even in their relationships.
[00:44:38] Marci Coppola: And I'm like. There's a misalignment because you know that that's not somebody that's bringing value to your life, to quality to your life. And those are the people, to your point, they have those types of people around them and they start to say, snip. Snip. Mm-hmm. Nope.
[00:44:53] Ami Graves: Yeah. Yeah. I had the weirdest experience in my twenties.
[00:44:57] Ami Graves: I was out in Overland Park, Kansas. I was working for the ncaa. I'd went out there for the job knowing we were gonna move the headquarters back to Indianapolis. So I, I was out there for nine months, but when I went out there, I was, again, I'm young. I mean, this is my first like job, job. I meet somebody and.
[00:45:14] Ami Graves: I was talking at the time about the person I was dating who happened to be my oldest daughter's father. He's deceased now, but he, at the time I was in, in and out with him, I'm in my early twenties. I can't cut it off. And I knew it wasn't good for me. And I remember her saying, asking me a question about him and about us and, and me saying, oh, I don't know.
[00:45:34] Ami Graves: And she said to me something so like. Not powerful in terms of the words, but they just stuck with me clearly to the point that I'm talking about 'em 25 years later on a podcast, or maybe 27 years later, whatever she said to me. Amy. Sometimes when people say, I don't know, they really do. You do, you do. And I was like, Ooh.
[00:45:52] Ami Graves: It just hit me like a ton of bricks because she was so right. I absolutely knew. Yes. I just was not accepting it. You just weren't listening. I wa I wasn't listening. To myself. I, I knew the answer. I had it already inside of me. That's why
[00:46:05] Marci Coppola: I see that quite often. And I, I say this all the time. I've kind of made this a little bit, my, my little mantra and, and I say this every day, I said, your ego will resist.
[00:46:13] Marci Coppola: The ego mind resists because the ego wants to keep you comfortable and safe, but your soul will insist. It'll push you, it'll nudge you, you know, and a lot of times it's, this is not a capability issue. This is a permission issue that I see quite often. You are absolutely capable of making these decisions for yourself.
[00:46:33] Marci Coppola: Sometimes you just need to give yourself permission to make that leap. You know what's right for you. You feel it energetically, and that's it. It's just reconnecting to that intuition. Again, it speaks to you. The mind is what keeps you in that loop. And so that's what I do with my clients a lot. It's like we have to get outta the mind because the mind is keeping you stuck in this loop.
[00:46:51] Marci Coppola: It's like that energy is speaking to you and saying to you exactly that point. This person's not right for you. That's right. You feel it. You feel it, you know. You know. Right. It's not, you don't know. You do know.
[00:47:01] Ami Graves: It's not that you do, you absolutely do. You're just not giving yourself permission to hundred percent, which is exactly what you said.
[00:47:07] Ami Graves: Absolutely. I feel like I'm getting coached today. I, Marci, thank you. I love this session that I'm getting right
[00:47:12] Marci Coppola: now. I love it. I love it. I absolutely love it. And that's why I said to you, it's just, it was very clear to me that. It was time for me to do this the way I wanted to. Um, and again, it wasn't a capability.
[00:47:24] Marci Coppola: I know I'm capable. I had to just give myself permission. That's right. And you did that. And you did, and here
[00:47:28] Ami Graves: you are. I wanna hear, tell me about, without obviously names or anything, but tell me about a, a story or an, an experience that one of your clients have had that has been transformative. That's what the business you're in.
[00:47:40] Ami Graves: And I know that, that there's probably all of them that have had, you've got stories for all of 'em. But tell me one that kind of resonates with you.
[00:47:46] Marci Coppola: Yeah, I think about this client often and she's just crushing it now, and brilliant. When we say brilliant, like on paper you look at the, and you're just like badass, right?
[00:47:57] Marci Coppola: Just total, just amazing, amazing person in terms of life, experience, work experience, and, and. What happened was that she didn't need me to help with some of the work aspect because the decision she was making and how she was showing up professionally, she was the SME in terms of what she was doing, just years of experience.
[00:48:17] Marci Coppola: But what I started to witness with her is that spark, there was just nothing there. It was like just going through the motions in life. It's like, yeah, I get, and I just started calling her out on it. I said, but again, like what is it that you want out of life? Who, like, who are you in the world? And I said, take work out of it.
[00:48:36] Marci Coppola: Let's talk about you personally. And it, we uncovered a lot around people pleasing around, just again, this need to feel that they're performing versus actually showing up the way they want to. And so we did some really deep inner work and when the aha moments came around. Wow. I do need to actually set better boundaries, or I am more capable than I realized.
[00:48:59] Marci Coppola: That's where that inner alignment started coming. And next thing you know, she's looking at her external environment and the world that she's in and she's like, this isn't where I wanna be anymore. I don't like this. This is, and so what, because we radically focused on the inner aspect first, she then was able to make this professional move.
[00:49:18] Marci Coppola: She got a promotion externally. She got this amazing job. She has work life balance now because when she went to to get that offer, I was like, well, how are you gonna accept that offer? What are you gonna talk about? What's important to you? She asked for every single thing she wanted this time, and she got it all because she did that in her work and she's like, wow, I actually need to be my own best advocate here.
[00:49:42] Marci Coppola: I need to show myself that I have the courage to make difficult decisions. Oh my God. She's thriving in life now. She's just
[00:49:49] Ami Graves: crushing. Do you find that, do you find that you work with men and women? So I'm curious about your perspective on this. You've coached men and women at all different levels of organizations.
[00:49:59] Ami Graves: Mm-hmm. But I have, I have, I have a personal experience where I might, I might've talked about this on the show before. I can't remember, but. Years ago, I worked at a company. It was a private company. It was bought by a large publicly traded company and life sciences loved it. Great company, great leaders.
[00:50:14] Ami Graves: I'll never forget at the time my COO, her name is Lori Ball. Lori is a fantastic leader and somebody I still stay in touch with and admire and have just looked up to pretty much my whole professional career. And I'll never forget her stopping by my office one day and saying, are you gonna ask for that promotion that you've been, that you know, you, you, you deserve it.
[00:50:35] Ami Graves: You know, you've been, been working towards it. And I said, oh, no, no, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna wait for her to like. See that I'm doing all this great work. I'm not. Part of it was like I didn't wanna toot my own horn. Part of it was, I know I'm in hr, so I kind of felt like I had this internal knowledge, which is so bizarre.
[00:50:52] Ami Graves: But like isn't it? I'm telling other people, nobody's gonna care about your career more than you. You have to advocate for yourself and ask for what you want and what you deserve. But yet I was not willing to do that for myself. I was gonna sit back and wait for it to happen for me. Yes. And when she walked by my office and said that to me that day.
[00:51:08] Ami Graves: Planted that seed. I took it home and I just stewed over it like. Maybe I should say something. I've been doing the work, like I, you know, I know I'm ready and so the next day I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. And I went into her office and I gave the whole spiel. I felt like I talked for 15 minutes, and at the end of the conver I say conversation, I just was at kind of saying all the things I felt like I, I needed to say.
[00:51:32] Ami Graves: She kind of pushed a paper over on her desk to me and said, yeah, I completely agree. And I was absolutely thinking the same thing. And she already had the letter. She already had it. And I was like, so she let me sit there for 15 minutes, like going through the spiel of, which is exactly what she should have done making, I was just gonna say,
[00:51:49] Marci Coppola: kudos to her for letting
[00:51:50] Ami Graves: do that because you did need to do, that's totally, that's Nan by the way, Nan another.
[00:51:56] Ami Graves: Friend and previous boss mentor. Wonderful. I love that she let human, I love that she let me do that. I didn't love it in the moment. In the moment I'm like, of course you had that letter sitting over there for that 10 minutes and you let me go through this whole script. Yes. But of course, looking back, it was a brilliant move.
[00:52:10] Ami Graves: It was exactly what I needed to do and what she, she knew I needed to do. Of course I got that promotion, which is, was very, I, I deserved it. Amazing. But I needed to go ask for it myself. Mm-hmm. And advocate for myself. Yes. And I think that's something that I, I, I, my getting back to my question with that story is, do you see that's mostly with women?
[00:52:29] Ami Graves: Do you see that with
[00:52:30] Marci Coppola: men too? So it's why I see that. I see that with men too. I've worked, I've coached a lot of veterans, for example, who are transitioning out of active duty service into the corporate world. And I do see that they often struggle with that a little bit, um, which I understand, right. It's 'cause they're stepping into this unknown, but mostly in women.
[00:52:48] Marci Coppola: Like I, I literally created a coaching program. It's called Rise and the coaching program is to assist them. Okay. That is crazy. Yes. You and
[00:52:55] Ami Graves: I, we. We're just connected. 'cause I, yes, we are also have been working on a women's coaching and I called it rise work. And see, see we're just, this is why we're here, Marc.
[00:53:05] Ami Graves: We're here, we're here. This, this is that energy work that, that universe work in together. You know, I love this. It, it's
[00:53:09] Marci Coppola: so true. And I, I created an entire workbook and draw. I love for it because love that women, you know, really respond well to reflection after the fact. And so, yes, it still shows up. It's still like finding that voice.
[00:53:22] Marci Coppola: That's in there. And overcoming that fear of just advocating for yourself. Because even if it doesn't necessarily work out exactly the way that you hoped, you're showing yourself that you know, no, wait a minute, I'm gonna place a bet on myself and I'm gonna speak up. And that's really ultimately what it is.
[00:53:39] Marci Coppola: So I created that program for a reason, because it shows up very often at all levels. I bet I see as well. Yeah, I
[00:53:44] Ami Graves: bet. Yeah. Yep, yep. Oh, okay. This is so fun. Tell me where, I know you're nine months in. Tell me where you're headed. What do the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months look like for you? And for Chen coaching, I
[00:53:56] Marci Coppola: have such big dreams, and so I need to practice my own way of alignment and making sure that I'm slowing down before I speed up because my creative brain is on fire now.
[00:54:07] Marci Coppola: I've written two reflective workbooks and journals. I'm writing something around imposter syndrome. I'm writing a book as we speak around leadership and how it's evolving and, and where it's going in, in the coming years. And I see myself. Absolutely having a center someday, like I see myself working back in the veteran space and assisting veterans with healing and, you know, helping assist them with their transition back into the, you know, just the, the world corporate where, wherever, how that shows up.
[00:54:36] Marci Coppola: And I see myself really assisting leaders and how they're showing up and doing a lot of inner work with them. So I'm leaving myself open to how that manifests and just saying, here's what I know I can offer the world. I'm just gonna, not for once in my life, not have this giant sheet where it's like 25 goal.
[00:54:59] Marci Coppola: I'm just gonna say, you know what? What do I wanna do today? And just be in the moment today I, today I am on an amazing podcast, and that's what I'm doing today. And then later I'm looking at my book and I'm gonna start editing it. That's what I'm doing today. And then I'm just gonna let the rest unfold because.
[00:55:17] Marci Coppola: I'm so passionate about what I do that, how about I allow that passion to start to create and what that looks like. I'm completely open to. Yeah, I
[00:55:27] Ami Graves: love that. Love that so much. Couple quick questions and then we're gonna wrap. I wanna know. Coffee or tea? Coffee all
[00:55:35] Marci Coppola: day. It's all still, it's like, I mean, the star Starbucks and I are just, I mean, yeah, it's bad.
[00:55:43] Marci Coppola: Yeah, I hear you. Are, you're a reader. Are you a reader? I love to
[00:55:47] Ami Graves: read. I, yeah. Okay.
[00:55:48] Marci Coppola: Mm-hmm.
[00:55:49] Ami Graves: So many books on my bookcase that, um, so tell me, like what's a, what's a recent favorite or just like a solid go-to that you would recommend?
[00:55:55] Marci Coppola: So right now I'm, it's so funny 'cause I'm reading a book called Good Energy.
[00:56:01] Marci Coppola: Oh, okay. And, and then I'm reading Outlive, uh Oh yeah. Which.
[00:56:06] Ami Graves: I, yes. This is the, um, outlet. Is this the guy that's also, is this the guy, the doctor that talks about Peter Women? Yep. Peter Ada. Yep. Yes. Yep. Yes. I, I, I only know this because I recently got all my hormones tested and now I'm on this like, like
[00:56:21] Marci Coppola: thinking out over that.
[00:56:22] Marci Coppola: And then I started the thinking slow and, and, um, moving fast. So this is my problem is because I can read a book, like I'll rip through a book in like two days if it's really amazing. And so. I'm laughing right now 'cause I'm like, Marci, you have three books that you're, you know, so, but I love it and I love to write, so I'm, I'm a writer as well.
[00:56:42] Marci Coppola: I, I do have a blog for session and I blog on medium.com and I was like, well. Again, like this is something that I love to do, so why not explore it? So writing is the other outlet for me. I love that. I love
[00:56:54] Ami Graves: that. Yeah. How can guests, uh, listeners connect with you and learn more about your services and your company and
[00:57:01] Marci Coppola: yeah, maybe get coaching services with you?
[00:57:03] Marci Coppola: Yes, so I have an Instagram page. You can find me on Instagram at Seshen Coaching. I have a website, which is www.sessioncoaching.com. So find me on either two and my email address is listed. You can drop me an email. I offer a free consult call. So it's funny because I, I put it on for 45 minutes, but if we really get into it and you really wanna tell me more about yourself, like, I've ended up on those calls for like an hour with a client.
[00:57:30] Marci Coppola: So this way I'm here, you know, it's, it's because I wanna, I wanna learn more about you. So I'm the coach that's gonna get under the hood to say, no, really? What is it that you need me for? And I don't like, like you said, it's not just about the transaction. It's gotta be That's right. Quality.
[00:57:45] Ami Graves: I love that.
[00:57:46] Ami Graves: Yeah. For those that are listening, don't have an an Amy Graves moment where when you first meet Marci and you're like, Ooh, Seshen Coaching. I'm gonna look this up. And you type in session. S-E-S-S-I-O-N. That is not it ladies and gentlemen. It is Seshen Coaching. Let me spell it for you. S-E-S-H-E-N.
[00:58:06] Ami Graves: Seshen Seshen Coaching. You got it. Marci, thank you. It's been such, thank you for having pleasure. It's been such a great time. I think you've got a world and a wealth of experience and knowledge that you are gonna just bless every person that hops on the phone with you and spends time with you. And I just feel like this was my introductory call and I'll be calling you later to, to get on please so we can, so we can do this.
[00:58:29] Ami Graves: 'cause I need, I need this in my life. Yeah. And I see the value of it. Wholeheartedly. So thanks again, everyone being it.
[00:58:36] Marci Coppola: Yeah, absolutely. Everyone deserves it. Thank you for having me. It's been such a pleasure. I'm happy to come back. We can chat. All things hr. Yes. I feel like our HR stories are, they're
[00:58:47] Ami Graves: fun.
[00:58:47] Ami Graves: Yeah. For those who are listening, we are, we are gonna, you know, Marci and I and our, and our friend Latoya, we're chatting about a little HR series, uh, HR misfit series that we're gonna add to the People of Work show. So more to come on that soon. Marci, that's gonna be awesome.
[00:59:01] Marci Coppola: Oh, we're gonna have tons of fun people.
[00:59:02] Marci Coppola: Tons of fun People will see our
[00:59:03] Ami Graves: personalities. That great. That's right. They might love or hate us. We'll see. All
[00:59:06] Marci Coppola: right. Bye friend.
[00:59:08] Ami Graves: Thank
[00:59:08] Marci Coppola: you so much,
[00:59:09] Ami Graves: friend. Yeah. See ya. Thanks for tuning in to the People of Work. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow along and share it with someone who loved these stories too.
[00:59:19] Ami Graves: Do you or someone you know have a unique job or an inspiring work journey? I'd love to hear about it. You can find me on Instagram at the People of Work, or visit the People of Work.com, and if you're navigating a career transition or just need support in your work life. I'm here for that too. From personal coaching to leadership and HR consulting.
[00:59:39] Ami Graves: I'd love to help head to the People of Work.com to learn more and get in touch. Until next time, thanks for being a part of the People of Work.