Aimee Susan Bernstein

Instead of forcing my will to make things happen, I listen to my intuition and trust that whatever is occurring, even if it is difficult, is to my higher good. Thus, I follow the clues that life presents.

I also attribute my success to the supportive relationships I've created throughout my career. For example, I worked with an attorney at a law firm who referred me to Sports Authority. When the VIce President of HR from Sports Authority got the job at Dolce & Gabbana, she hired me to train and coach the senior executives. THE VP of HR liked my work so much that when she went to lunch with the Senior Vice President of HR at Chanel, she told her about me. This introduction led me to coach and consult the SRVP of R&D from Chanel and his senior team for six years.

The third element I attribute my success to is maintaining my integrity. Instead of telling executives what they want to hear, I speak my truth, in a way that is direct, gentle and kind, Those that can accept my feedback have led to long relationships that have no only provided me with a good income, but have satisfied my soul's need to make a positive difference in the world.

I've had three mentors who have helped my career significantly. The first was Dr. Matt Dumont, then Commissioner of Mental Health for the State of Massachusetts. I met him when I was interning for my master’s degree at Massachusetts General Hospital. Beyond the usual mental health approaches, he introduced me to gestalt therapy, biofeedback, hypnosis and Zen. His advice to me was to stay curious and open to new perspectives.

Dr Michael Kami the father of strategic planning, taught me to see how the components of a situation interacted and what outside forces were influencing them. Hi larger perspective to strategy was essential in my bringing management and union of a local EMS division together during a very difficult period in their relationship.

However, the advice that changed my life came from Robert Nadeau, an 8th dan aikido master. His advice came not so much in words but through experience and practice. Nadeau taught me to how to shift quickly from the endless thoughts in my head to my mind/body/energy field and how to stay centered, grounded and spacious during high-pressured situations. In these disruptive times, this experiential knowledge has been essential and life changing.  Nadeau’s experi4ential advice has not only enhanced my performance, wellbeing and creativity, it has taught me how to transform into a finer, upgraded character in minutes.

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I would say to get specific about what nourishes you and what it is you want to learn, because what you need to learn is what you need to teach. That means if you're a life coach and you want to deal with marriage or family, yes, you need to have some expertise in it, but it's a continuous evolvement to study. You need to have the curiosity, the courage, and the commitment to keep on learning, and to let it be embodied in your own self. Self-care is really important too - if you're trying to help other people, how are you taking care of yourself? These days, you can take a course for 2 months and you're a coach, and there are tons of coaches out there with all these programs promising you'll make ten or twenty thousand dollars a month. But what a coach needs to do is find what really nourishes them, where their spark is. Start to create relationships with people, because social media is wonderful, except it doesn't really get you work. You might get 10,000 followers and you're on the computer all day long. It's about creating relationships with people and sometimes giving a little bit more than you're charging for, so that you can begin to get that kind of reputation that you're a giver, that you really help. The money will flow as you develop yourself.

The coaching and training field is both expanding rapidly and becoming more complex and demanding. What used to be a relatively open, relationship-driven field is now evolving into a more sophisticated, competitive, and integrated industry. There has been an explosion of coaches, many of whom are unqualified. Thus, there is a trust and credibility issue. Although the industry is growing, many coaches are struggling financially. Thus, coaches now need to be excellent marketers. Furthermore, generalist coaching is losing ground while niche coaching has gained importance. In addition, some people are using Ai as coaches, eliminating the need for human contact.

From the perspective of opportunities, rapid change, leadership complexity stress and burn-out have increased the need for coaching. Coaching is this being built into leadership development programs and built into the organizational culture. This opens opportunities for: long-term contracts and internal programs. There's also a shift to mind/body integration, emotional intelligence and energy mastery to increase presence and resilience. However, to get contracts you can’t talk in terms of personal development or transformation. They are funding high-impact leadership development, change management and resilience, retention of key talent and performance under pressure.

To get work from major corporations, address a pressing business problem, be clearly differentiated and show a pathway to measurable outcomes.

Integrity, compassion, centerd/groundedness are very important to me. These values guide both my professional work and my personal life, shaping how I interact with clients, colleagues, and the people around me.