Coaching Couch feat. Nikolai

Welcome on the Coaching Couch Sebastian Reinhard. Sebastian is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in the Sporting Goods and Outdoor industry where he had positions in Brand, Marketing and Sales. He was responsible for large accounts, large teams and throughout his journey he moved to different countries while his personal life was undergoing the biggest change that you can imagine - becoming a father. His experiences, his motives, his leadership style and the learnings that he shared with me are truly one of a kind and beyond inspirational.

Introducing Christine Exelmans who does not need a huge introduction because of her inspiring career journey through the ranks of well-known brands, such as Starbucks, Swarovski and Nike. Christine talks with me about the importance of fun at work and what it can unlock for you. Furthermore, she shares insights how personal circumstances influenced her journey and what was the main challenge with it. She elaborates why she started on a journey that - in her words - "she never thought she would do". And, of course, we dive deeper into her coaching areas on Energy Leadership, what that means and who she is targeting.

Tomasz Pekala is a former professional football player from Austria who transformed his life in many ways. Being a professional football player made him achieve his big goal in life very early on and Tomasz tells us in this inspiring interview how he transformed his own life to become a coach of fathers. His mission is to enable all of us - but specifically fathers - to be at their conscious best every single day. He shared an amazing journey about how he connected his past experiences, passion and interest to build the business that he is now running.

Welcome Steven Arthur George on the Coaching Couch! Steven Arthur is an absolute expert in the cannabis industry and moved to Europe from the USA to build a career in the upstarting industry over here. While settling in his new home in Portugal, he discovered LinkedIn and what personal branding can do for your development - both personally and professionally. His journey is one that is best characterised with the word "determination". Steven Arthur is working in the industry, building a personal brand via LinkedIn and pursues his further passion through being a solopreneur. All while settling and enjoying the new life in Portugal. Another inspiring example that proves that anything is possible!

Alex Verlek is a great interview partner because his journey took many "funny turns" until coaching found him and gave him the purpose that he was looking for. He started working in a local post office following the food steps of his father and found coaching in 2007 which was a life-changing moment for him. Since then he is a mentor, coach, supervisor, consultant, trainer, workshop-facilitator and team builder and loves bringing inspiration to other people around the world. Additionally to this, he wrote two books where he gives back his experience and perspective to the reader. I needed to know more about him, his journey and how it happened.

Moe is a true entrepreneur and founder who started 12 different businesses in London and Dubai from which 2 of those became big, so that he could exit to pursue other adventures. In 2012 his life changed significantly and since then he lives his best life with purpose. His perspectives on leadership, trust, his journey in his ProjectMe, the idea of freedom and independence were all part of the conversation next to highlights of his incredible journey.

Dionne stands for transformation and her life and professional journey are completely connected. She was a professional singer, had a successful business as vocal coach in England, shifted professionally to become a virtual assistant and coach for other virtual assistants before shifting again to help people to identify their self sabotaging and how to conquer this to live a better, happier and more successful life. Dionne tried out the corporate world, but realised very quickly that she is only happy when she is her own boss - a true entrepreneur.

Nicole is an amazing professional and leader that comes across throughout the whole conversation. Her almost 20 years at Nike shaped her in every way imaginable and she achieved several dreams of hers through her professional life. Nicole is an ambassador to find your passion and follow it with everything possible - either in your personal and professional life. Her corporate career and her dream to become an entrepreneur which she made true recently are both great inspirations.

Markus is a former Sales VP of Asics, was CEO for Sport2000 in Germany and is now a successful CEO of ARION. His career journey was a great inspiration and he shared a lot of insights into what was important for him to grow and build that amazing career. Markus' views on leadership, people management and mentorship are truly inspirational.

The former Nike leader, Kate van der Graaf, spend some time with me to talk about her journey in the company where she went into several different functions which was instrumental for her career. Kate touches on the importance of thinking about where you want to go, how life and work need to be in sync, how she approached leadership of her teams and what impact mentors had in her life.

Ralf is a legend in the Sporting Goods industry - and beyond. His leadership style and his ability as being a strong and guiding mentor has influenced hundreds of people and has contributed to the careers of each individual. His experience and perspectives on mentorship are inspirational and will spark new ideas for everyone.

Silvana Bonello is a Supply Chain and Operations leader that started her career at Nike. After 18 years with the brand, she took the courageous decision to leave the brand to fulfil her ambitions. Currently she is COO of Superdry in the UK and she gives a lot of value-packed insights how her journey went, which challenges she had to face and what is important to her today.

Shenin is owner of Hustle & Hearts Consultancy where she focuses on empowering women in business to use their full potential. Before that she was a professional at Nike, a film maker and owns her own film and TV series production company. How she all did this is part of this episode and she shares valuable insights on what to look out for.

Alli started in the corporate world in Sales in an area that she knew and where she felt comfortable - and her career just took off. She met her former boss at a conference to which she nearly did not want to go and her biggest failure in the professional world has brought her to coaching. First as a client and then as a side hustle, she built her very successful coaching business that she is now running full-time. When you want to learn more details of this incredible journey and what she does to conquer your imposter syndrome, tune in and listen!

Ger Wright is a former professional of Levi's and Nike and has made her career up from designing shopping windows for Clery's in Dublin to the board rooms of Nike. Her creativity, courage and strong networking skills benefited her along the journey and she developed an open, caring and transparent leadership style that all teams she lead point out as her top treat as a leader. If you want to learn more about dreaming big and achieving anything you want, this is for you.

Sophie is a globetrotter and a multi-national and cultural connector with her Greek roots, having lived in the UK, USA and Netherlands. Her career journey is a constant thrive for learning experiences, for putting herself out of the comfort zone and for following her "gut feeling" despite of all the planning she is passionate about. Learn what makes it necessary to grow personally and professionally at the same time and what sometimes is necessary to progress.

Michael graduated High School with me and after that went on an impressive journey to build his career in the sports media industry. He is currently Director of Communications at the biggest free-TV Sports TV and multimedia station in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, so I certainly wanted to know how he made his way through his career. Listen to an amazing journey that started with the love of sports and currently peaked with the job of his dreams.

Kelly Pheelan has seen the world because throughout her career journey, she worked for Disney, Cesar's Palace, became a lecture and professor for universities in the US and various countries in Africa until she found a new assignment in Brisbane, Australia where she has now settled. Her journey is a great testament of the positive impacts change can bring to the professional journey and to her personal life.

Benjamin is a fellow Nike colleague and a true Servant Leader. He was a pioneer in founding a true omni-channel business before the big players, such as Amazon and Ebay were in the German market and lived his true professional passion in Retail opening up the pinnacle Nike Store in Berlin. His passion for serving, leading and inspiring people really stands out and he will share all of this in this episode.

Audrey is an amazing woman who has completed her first bucket list before she turned 35. She worked for over a decade in corporate before realising her true purpose that made her found her own company coaching people to live the life of their dreams. Her amazing journey around the globe, her experiences and what did not go well give inspiring insights and inspirations.