Alert, Not Alarmed

My conversation with Rick Coluccio of Raymond George Consultancy on the Recruiting EQ podcast, episode 108: The Power of the Unconscious in Executive Coaching

Some of my clients come to me with a very specific request.

"Help me with my anxiety symptoms. But not all of them. They're what made me successful. If I lose them, I lose my edge."

I never argue. We work on the symptoms. And as they quiet down, something becomes visible: the belief that those symptoms were the recipe.

They weren't. They were clutter.

Underneath, there was a clear, grounded, focused person who had been doing the work all along.

There's a difference between being alert and being alarmed. Most situations ask you to be alert. Very few ask for alarm. The work is getting to choose, instead of letting the autopilot drive the car.

Rick recruits recruiters, and he's a self-confessed nerd about the unconscious. So we went deep.

Where it started for me

I spent 25 years in the corporate world. Talent acquisition teams, integrations, transformation after transformation. Then my executive position was abolished in a restructuring.

Three days later, I was in an interview for a VP role. I drew a blank. I froze.

Me. The one who had built hiring teams.

My body simply wouldn't go there anymore. I was probably burnt out, undiagnosed. I had an alcohol problem. I didn't need another corporate job. I needed a transformation.

I took time to take care of my health. Then I stumbled onto hypnosis, and my first session was so transformative that I knew. I was already an ICF certified coach. I put the executive, the coach and my own transformation together.

The coat

When you work for a strong brand, you wear it. It becomes your coat, and slowly, your identity.

One day the coat comes off. A restructuring, a retirement, a sale.

When mine came off and my calendar emptied, I felt naked. A big part of who I thought I was had been the coat.

Work for great brands. They're a real asset in your story. Just don't let them become who you are.

What we covered

• What hypnosis actually is (the zone where a painter looks up and six hours have passed) and what it isn't (the stage show)

• Why the relationship matters more than the method

• The sequence: thoughts create emotions, emotions create actions, actions create your life

• The "ticket to ride": the one criterion that makes candidates and employers stop their due diligence, and why I put it at the bottom of the list

• Being tapped on the shoulder, and why being chosen isn't the same as choosing

• Before you quit: stay, renegotiate, or leave toward something instead of running away

• Why entrepreneurs selling their business so often call me at due diligence time

• Shaving the title off a career to see what's really underneath

• The loss of meaning AI may bring, and why your why can be small, concrete and allowed to change

• Connection as the human skill that stays ours

Same why, different form

One of my clients sold her company and asked me: who am I now?

Under hypnosis, scene after scene, she was drawing, painting, writing. A year later, she published a children's book about how adults talk to kids about change.

When she ran her company, she wanted people to have a great experience. When she writes, she wants the same thing.

Same why. Different outcome.

We call ourselves human beings. Being is often the last thing we do.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/live/msLCpO32Oe0?si=58Vm98I8hZWmX_Nh

If something in here sounds like you, send me a little hello. I'd love to hear what you're noticing.

Hypnotiquement vôtre,Janylène xo