Today we’d like to introduce you to Olivia Pool.
Olivia, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story begins on a tiny dot of land in the middle of the Indian Ocean called the Seychelles Islands. Never heard of it? Most people haven’t but you should look it up. It’s one of the most gorgeous places on the planet. My journey has taken me to many different places (both literal and figurative) since, so let’s fast forward to today.
I’m a damn good coach who initially didn’t want to be a coach.
As a matter of fact, I did everything I could to avoid becoming a coach, but as I’ve learned time and time again, the Universe will put you where *it* wants you to be.
I had spent over a decade in the publishing industry and owned a successful art magazine. The creatives around me kept offering to buy me lunch in exchange for help with their professional and personal lives. As an entrepreneur, the need to make this a business soon became obvious. Four out of my five weekday lunches consisted of giving people free coaching, and I needed to create some boundaries around that if I ever wanted to have lunch by myself periodically. So, I created a side-gig coaching practice over 15 years ago, and now it is my full time job that I love.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Apparently, smooth roads don’t interest me much! LOL.
When I was 16 years old, I was making straight As at the top of my class AND I was skipping school every day because I was bored. Luckily, my mom quickly assessed that I was the type of person that would thrive on challenges. If I wasn’t challenged, I wasn’t really interested. So, she sent me to live with some distant cousins in a tiny village in the French Alps where no one spoke any English. I was thrown into a regular French school with other 16-year-olds and my French was nowhere at their level. Needless to say, I had to actually buckle down and study.
Most of my life has followed this same pattern of being presented with new challenges on a regular basis. I now understand that all of life is a school, and I see all of my experiences, all of my relationships, EVERYTHING really, as a learning opportunity. Whether it was learning how to negotiate to sell a business, pulling myself out of depression and anxiety, or dealing with the heartbreaking ends of relationships, I used all of it for my own growth and learning. Each challenge was followed with, “What is this experience trying to teach me?” Once I was able to answer that question for myself and integrate the lesson the Universe was brought forth, I found that I had moved on to the next level of my own evolution.
So, no, it’s not been a smooth ride. It’s been an educational ride.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve had so many titles over the years; trying to narrow it down to one thing has always been hard to do. In a nutshell, I’d say I’m a coach, and I specialize in helping people learn the life skills needed to navigate their own biggest challenges so they can get to an empowered place of transformation themselves.
I believe we all have our own best answers. No one knows what’s best for you more than you. I serve as a guide and facilitator, helping people to understand themselves better so they can make the choices that are right for them. Much of my work as a Spiritual Psychology Teacher is in teaching my clients and students different life skills so they can navigate the ups and downs of their own lives in more authentic and conscious ways that are in alignment with them. My goal when working with someone is always to empower them to rely on their own inner knowing. You are your best coach. You are your best healer. You are your best teacher. When you can learn the skills to help you access those parts of yourself, you become a very powerful version of yourself. I teach people the skills to get there.
In the past several years, I have become a PSYCH-K® Certified Subconscious Reprogramming Master Facilitator, which is a fancy name for saying I help people change their limiting beliefs. This work has been such a game-changing methodology for my clients and for me personally.
In addition to the Spiritual Psychology teachings and the Subconscious Reprogramming, I’m also trained in a variety of methodologies including: Person-Centered therapy, Rational-Emotive therapy, Gestalt therapy, Jungian Dreamwork, Depth Psychology, Shadow Work, Inner-Child and Inner Parent work, Self-Hypnosis, art therapy, conscious communication, Kundalini Yoga, meditation, and breath work.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Oooh yes. I’m a huge risk taker! I’m definitely a you-only-live-once and jump-and-the-net-will-appear type of person.
I’ve experienced this in massive ways with huge life changes and also in super simple ways like choosing bold hair colors and styles. For over seven years, I had dark teal hair and now I’ve let my natural grey hair grow. Since I’m still in my early 40s, I so often get the comment, “I’d love to have my hair like that but I’m not bold enough.” I always think to myself, “It’s just hair color – anyone can do that.” But then I realize that for many, these are bold risks. We are all different, and I honor where everyone is with taking risks.
As for me, I’m into it.
The more I have at stake, the more uncomfortable I will be, and the more personal growth I’ll gain.
That being said, I am always fully aware when I’m taking a huge leap into an unknown situation and always check in with my intuition/Higher Self before making the jump, so let’s say that the risks are at least thought through! I often say things to myself like: “Okay, you realize if you do this _____, there’s no way of knowing where this will actually take you and that you’ll likely never be the same again?”
And I get scared, just like anyone else, but if my Higher Self says “jump,” I jump. I do it scared because I know that my Higher Self is more trustworthy than my little human self.
I ended up living in Austin because I took a giant leap of faith. I had been living in Topanga, CA (a sweet little town in the Santa Monica Mountains in LA) for many years and something very clearly told me to move to Austin years ago (before the massive onslaught of Californians arrived). I knew nothing about the city, but I knew I was supposed to move there for a while, so I signed a lease on a place without ever seeing it, packed all my things in a giant truck, and me and my little poodle took off on yet another adventure into the unknown to start a new chapter of life in Texas.
I recently took yet another leap and have landed myself on a beach in Hawaii – which was also not planned! It’s a continuous Surrender Experiment over here in my world, and there’s certainly never a dull moment!
All of these experiences have brought with them just massive life lessons, and as I mentioned earlier, I’m grateful to be continuously learning and growing, and taking the risks accelerates that learning process for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oliviapool.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliviapool/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oliviapool7
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4ehlgYUKjAKwFxNYMEHYiw
Image Credits
Romy Suskin
