My 5 Teachers: Influences That Shaped My Coaching Practice
How Ram Dass, Kae Tempest, Julia Cameron, Michael Singer, and Amanda Norgaard rewired the way I live and coach
We are all students in this grand classroom called life. Every person we meet, every book we stumble upon, every dark experience we go through—they all carry lessons, if we are willing to accept them.
But some teachers are different. They arrive just when we are ripe, changing us in ways we don't even realize. The Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society kind.
As a career coach, I've found that the right teachers appear exactly when we need them most. In this post, I want to share the five influences that didn't just shape my coaching practice—they fundamentally rewired how I live life.
In This Post:
Ram Dass & Be Here Now
Kae Tempest and his music
Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way
Michael A. Singer's The Surrender Experiment
Amanda Norgaard and her THE MUSES
Finding Your Own Teachers
So, what did they teach me?
1. Ram Dass & Be Here Now
Ram Dass is an American spiritual leader and ex-Harvard professor who blended Eastern philosophy with Western psychology. After experimenting with psychedelics for a few years during his last period at Harvard, he embarked on a journey to India to find a guru waiting for him.
Once back in America, he published Be Here Now—a quirky spiritual classic exploring consciousness, meditation, and living in the present moment in a funny and simple way.
I remember hearing about Ram Dass at the yoga studio where I practice, but it took me some time to land on his book. Once I did, it opened up a whole new world.
Finally someone was able to express in words what I felt inside me for all my life. I felt like I arrived home, that someone understood me.
It became my Bible, so to speak.
It taught me to trust, to listen within, and live in the present moment. It was my light out of the tunnel when I was trying to find my path. And I use his low-key wisdom often with my clients when they find themselves in the dark of the woods.
2. Kae Tempest and his music
I consider Kae Tempest a modern prophet.
He is a British poet, playwright, and musician known for raw, urgent work exploring identity, social inequality, and contemporary life. He uses different art forms, but always create something visceral, emotional, honest.
I listened to his album The Book of Traps and Lessons and I thought it was about my life—I really thought that! It felt like we lived the same life, had the same experiences.
Kae's use of words and tempo inspired my own writing style: raw honesty about struggles, transformation, and the courage of moving forward and seeing the beauty even when times are darkest. To always speak your truth.
Finally I found someone who would express all these beautiful truths without the woo-woo of modern spirituality, but with straight-up simplicity.
This is the kind of language I use with my clients during our sessions: simple, direct, matter of fact but no less rich in emotion or truth.
3. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way
Julia Cameron is an author and creativity coach who developed a 12-week program (The Artist's Way) to unlock artistic potential. Her workbook teaches techniques like morning pages and artist dates to overcome creative blocks.
I picked up her book during a time when I wondered if I was born without creativity at all. And thought about giving this a try.
What can I say: 3 months later, I started writing my own screenplay. The idea, motivation, inspiration came suddenly, in a dream actually. Feels kind of magical, but it is what it is. Magic.
Julia taught me that we are all creative: it might come out as a screenplay for some, or music, or painting. But not necessarily. Creative life is a life where we choose to create, instead of simply consume. But modern society cuts us off from those practices that keep our creativity alive.
Essentially, we need to be bored, spend time with ourselves, play instead of always being productive.
I started doing the Morning Pages 3 years ago, and I can't see a life without them. In those pages, there are all my dreams, aspirations and ideas (mixed in between a few meltdowns and existential crises).
Morning Pages, or journaling at least, is one of my coaching practice staples which I always recommend to clients when they don't have ideas about what career transition path they want to pursue.
4. Michael A. Singer's The Surrender Experiment
Michael A. Singer is an author who chronicles his life experiment of surrendering personal preferences to life's flow, leading unexpectedly from a life of solitude and meditation to building a billion-dollar software company (not that he really was looking for that!).
It's funny to see the impact that his book The Surrender Experiment had on my own career transition.
At the time I was reading it, I was coming to terms with the fact my career as I knew it till then was coming to an end. I felt like I already had a foot out the door.
Then I was offered a promotion in the company, working with an even tougher manager and with higher expectations. At the time I thought "Why would I even dig deeper into this, when I want to leave instead?"
But reading The Surrender Experiment, I thought to run my own experiment and see if it would work out well for me to just surrender to what life brought me.
What happened is that within a few months of taking on this new role, which actually was much less stressful than expected (first win!), it was made redundant while I was off on a sabbatical. So instead of leaving the company empty-handed, I got to leave with a severance package and benefits which supported me financially for over a year.
Had I gotten stuck with my idea of quitting or not taking that offer, I would not have had what I had.
The book taught me to trust, be patient, and let go of trying to control everything. Sometimes the universe has a better plan than our fear-based strategies. And that's what I remind my clients when the controlling patterns come up: it's scary, but sometimes surrendering is the best choice you can make.
5. Amanda Norgaard and her THE MUSES program
Amanda Norgaard is a writer and the founder of ILLUMINATION.
It's a pretty new addition to my list of teachers, as I used to lead life following a very masculine approach that says set goals, make plans, execute, achieve.
But when I got to know Amanda, something shifted in me and I realized that something crucial was missing in the way I approach work: the integration of intuition, cycles, and soul-centered business ownership. A more feminine approach.
And she is my inspiration for authentic communication too. How to be out there with all of yourself, all your quirks, spicy ideas and big bold dreams. Not everyone might like you, but thank God! I can’t be everyone's cup of tea.
That's also the message that I pass to my clients: reclaim your thoughts, your rhythm, your intuition. Shed the conditioning from the past and stop pushing harder to fulfill someone else's expectations. Just be yourself and trust that will lead you out of the woods and through a wonderful journey.
Finding Your Own Teachers – that’s it?
No, that's not it – the list could go on and on, as I stumble on teachers every day.
From a friend, my parents, the memory of my grandparents who passed away. Colleagues, ex-colleagues, even strangers you meet on a plane and never see again.
Sometimes, teachers are the people who trigger us most.
But also music, movies, books (I consciously decided not to include Eat, Pray, Love in the list, but to be honest, that book is a gift that keeps on giving – a proof that pop can be deep).
Teachers don't tell you how to live your life. They simply show you how they live theirs, and it's up to you to recognize yourself in there—in whatever part of you that wants to be lived.
So: have you found your teachers yet?
Want to discover your own path with guidance from someone who's walked it? Whether you're exploring a career transition or seeking deeper clarity about your direction, I'd love to support you. Book a free discovery call to explore how coaching can help you find your way.
