Okay, let's start with the most obvious your posts you give loads
Rob:of information and loads of insight in your posts, but they're almost,
Rob:all of them are dragon themed.
Rob:Yes.
Rob:What's the dragon theme and where does that come from?
Rob:Why is it so important to you?
Sarah:The dragon is my brand.
Sarah:It's important for people to identify with the brand.
Sarah:In the way that When people see dragons or even the dragon emoji, they think of me.
Sarah:So that was the what is my brand is where it started.
Sarah:And why did I choose dragons?
Sarah:I, my Chinese new year is the dragon year.
Sarah:So fire dragon specifically, I actually have, I can't pull out my
Sarah:arm, but I have the tattoo here, which is actually the basis of my logo.
Sarah:When I decided to have a logo, it just seems natural to use my tattoo
Sarah:and simplify it because my tattoo is, of course, a lot more complex.
Sarah:And why do I identify with dragons?
Sarah:Like I said, I am a dragon in my Chinese New Year, but dragons also In a way they
Sarah:are introverted they, they hang out in their cave they can be quite protective
Sarah:of their trove, their treasure trove, and they're also known for being loyal.
Sarah:If you look at like traits of dragons, you have dragons of different sorts
Sarah:that bring out different aspects.
Sarah:The fire dragon in particular is actually known in Chinese astrology for leadership.
Sarah:So they are quite powerful and they let's say take care of their flock in a way,
Sarah:if you call flying dragons, a flock.
Sarah:And what I really especially when I'm teaching and coaching people, I
Sarah:usually like to get people when they're trying to figure out who they are.
Sarah:yoU have all different types of terms and words for the inner child or let's
Sarah:say your inner demons or monsters.
Sarah:I usually talk about monsters that we have monsters in our lives and
Sarah:when we are younger, we are taught to actually when we're really young,
Sarah:we love these monsters, so we play with them a little bit, but at
Sarah:some point we learn to fear them.
Sarah:And we throw them out of the room we get angry at them, we
Sarah:yell at them, or we ignore them.
Sarah:And monsters that are ignored, they get ferocious they want
Sarah:to burn you they get louder.
Sarah:It's not like you can just ignore.
Sarah:them.
Sarah:What's also very interesting is when you learn to recognize and see and let's
Sarah:say, love these monsters in our room.
Sarah:That's where I believe the real power of people come from.
Sarah:So if you look at my monsters, one of them is very obvious.
Sarah:If you have followed anything about me is that abandonment.
Sarah:And I could, if I wanted to ignore that I've been abandoned or I'm
Sarah:not going to feel this bad feeling.
Sarah:I'm just going to feel like I'm accepted and embraced wherever I am,
Sarah:I could Get shameful about having abandonment, it's a hot because
Sarah:of my past or something like that.
Sarah:Or I could say, hey, I've got abandonment.
Sarah:What does that mean?
Sarah:How does that evolve into who I am as a person?
Sarah:How does that make me react in certain ways or even in a way?
Sarah:It's a basis of a lot of my convictions.
Sarah:So people that have abandonment at least if I refer to myself that
Sarah:also created other monsters in my life of unrelenting standards.
Sarah:Because I want to be accepted, I have subjugation because
Sarah:I'm afraid to be abandoned.
Sarah:So what happens, I get into this slave mode, like you
Sarah:are the master and the slave.
Sarah:I lose my control.
Sarah:I, there's different aspects of my personality that evolved in,
Sarah:let's say hyperdrive because I have this abandonment monster.
Sarah:In my room.
Sarah:And when I learned how to embrace it and to love it and to recognize like,
Sarah:aha, right now subjugation is here, or unrelenting standards is here.
Sarah:I am able to, let's say, speak sweet words to these dragons and
Sarah:get the power from them instead.
Sarah:So instead of this fire burning you, you've got the fire to heat up your soul.
Sarah:So in my case, I have hyper empathy and it's something which not all humans
Sarah:have an opportunity to develop to the extent that I was gifted by my past.
Sarah:When you have a past which is full of let's say trauma, in my case,
Sarah:I had to be hyper vigilant, hyper aware of everyone around me, making
Sarah:sure that they're okay, which in a way, created a superpower in me.
Sarah:Now, this superpower Can be toxic if I'm not aware of the
Sarah:dragons in the room behind it.
Sarah:When I become aware of these dragons and I use their power for good,
Sarah:this thing that can be toxic is my power, which helps the world.
Sarah:That's something which I, in every leadership course or one on one coaching,
Sarah:or even when I've coached engineers.
Sarah:And so it's about recognizing these and of course it starts with
Sarah:vulnerability and it's a long journey.
Sarah:It's not like that easy to get there, but dragons are my visualization so
Sarah:I have next to me, my sweet dragons.
Sarah:And you can imagine when I'm feeling something, I can look at my dragon
Sarah:and be like, ha, yeah you're sitting here with me and that's okay.
Sarah:I'm going to sit in this feeling of I'm going to be abandoned
Sarah:right now and I'm okay with it.
Sarah:And because I'm okay with that and accept that.
Sarah:I get the power that comes from it, that helps.
Sarah:Love
Rob:that.
Rob:What often happens is someone who's been in your someone who's gone
Rob:through that kind of experience will often have those and they may not
Rob:even be aware of what's going on.
Rob:When they are, they'll probably just suppress it and just let it go on.
Rob:And what you've done is not only embraced it, but you've brought it right out where
Rob:you can deal with it and you've manifested it as a like actual physical thing so
Rob:that you're able to manipulate and that's enabled you to go from what was, internal
Rob:conflict to being an external strength.
Rob:People don't always recognize that, someone's strength usually it comes from
Rob:a dark place and that creates a fear.
Rob:So like I've posted, the Enneagram is one way of looking at it and so
Rob:like I'm a type 5, and a 5's fear is Not knowing or being incompetent.
Rob:And so that's led me to seek lots of knowledge, which
Rob:is then like I have a base,
Sarah:that's a skeptic, right?
Sarah:Type of investigator.
Sarah:It might be just in my mind, trying to figure out which one that was.
Sarah:Yeah.
Rob:Do you know which one are
Sarah:you?
Sarah:I'm type one, a reformer.
Sarah:Okay.
Sarah:So my core fear is being defective.
Rob:And you mentioned that unrelenting standards.
Rob:Have you ever come across the work of Dr.
Rob:Mario Martinez?
Sarah:I don't know.
Rob:Basically he says that everyone has one of three core, the three
Rob:core wounds and it's abandonment abandonment, shame and betrayal.
Rob:And one of those will be most.
Rob:Dominant.
Rob:So you're quite clear and most people aren't aware of that.
Rob:And so there's a whole aspect of how they are, how they orient
Rob:to the world and how they are in relationships that they're not aware of.
Sarah:So I'm familiar with something similar, probably
Sarah:not with exact that work.
Sarah:But.
Sarah:I think it was called reinventing your life and it refers to 11 lifetraps.
Sarah:And those three are part of those lifetraps like defectiveness
Sarah:and failure abandonment.
Sarah:So there's 11 of them which are there.
Sarah:So it might be some kind of parallel work or something.
Rob:Yeah, I think, there's lots of different ways of getting to
Rob:it but basically the same idea.
Rob:Okay, so what would you say that has led, so if abandonment is like
Rob:the trigger deep dark situation, what is the strength that gives you?
Sarah:It's very interesting because early in my life, Before I became self aware.
Sarah:I believed my core strength or what set me apart from others was my resilience.
Sarah:I was, and still am very resilient.
Sarah:I'm flexible I can stand on my own two feet.
Sarah:I can shift in any environment and make it work.
Sarah:I have this crazy drive to live and believe in myself that I will
Sarah:live and make it through this.
Sarah:And that's coming from needing to rely on myself from such a young age.
Sarah:And so I had this strength of resilience and this ability to take on everything.
Sarah:I don't have this fear of that I'm going to fall apart or something,
Sarah:probably because I had so much happen to me in my life, which.
Sarah:Should have destroyed me and I made it to the other side.
Sarah:So I, I got this power to dissociate and to step out of the moment into the
Sarah:future, which is always nicer or better.
Sarah:So I thought that was my strength.
Sarah:And of course that still lives with me.
Sarah:I have that, that's something which lives with me still.
Sarah:But it turns out that's also my biggest weakness.
Sarah:That was the, my biggest blocker for me to find my real power because I
Sarah:am so fully resilient and independent and I, I guess you can imagine most
Sarah:likely avoidant attachment style.
Sarah:I had a very hard time to accept.
Sarah:help bring someone really close to me because I've always had this wall,
Sarah:this and it's interesting because I evolved this kind of empathy, but
Sarah:I wasn't able to connect with it.
Sarah:So I had this superpower deep within, underneath the This other, let's say,
Sarah:fake power that was built above my core abandonment issues, which was
Sarah:hiding the most valuable aspect of me as a person, because without being
Sarah:able to let people in because of my walls, I couldn't create the connection
Sarah:which comes with hyper empathy.
Rob:So you could understand what someone was going through, but because of the pain
Rob:of feeling it, you couldn't step into it.
Rob:I couldn't step
Sarah:into it.
Sarah:And it's very interesting because people in my whole life, since I was even a
Sarah:teenager, I don't know how to explain it.
Sarah:It was like I had a lot of energy vampires in my life or people which really
Sarah:enjoyed my presence because I made them.
Sarah:better or they gained from me, but they weren't walking with me.
Sarah:I kept myself at a distance.
Sarah:And I felt drained and I felt more abandoned in a way, like
Sarah:why do all of these people need from me, but I still feel alone.
Sarah:I still feel I don't exist in this space.
Sarah:So that was a very hard.
Sarah:Emotion to understand, and to find out that feeling of alone and really it was
Sarah:within me and it's something which I didn't, there were people in my life that
Sarah:most likely would have loved for me to have my walls down and connect with them
Sarah:in those moments, but instead I could only give to them and keep them for me because
Sarah:I wasn't able to let people into my
Rob:core.
Rob:because the fear is if you let them in they would see who you
Rob:are and they would abandon you.
Sarah:Most likely.
Sarah:It's in the mind, of course when you say it like that it sounds like I, I would
Sarah:sit in that room and oh, I've got the fear that they're going, but no, it's so weird.
Sarah:I was smiley and I was the one which was the source of so many people,
Sarah:like I fixed relationships and I made people better in their careers
Sarah:and I was the source of making other people better, but I wasn't truly
Sarah:connected with them in a way in which they could walk with me on that path.
Sarah:And therefore there, my real power was blocked.
Sarah:There was something blocking me from really being able to transform.
Sarah:And being a reformer.
Sarah:It's all about transformation.
Sarah:So I was stuck leveled down instead of leveling up until I could access that.
Sarah:I wasn't even aware.
Sarah:That.
Sarah:I had trauma because I was so resilient.
Sarah:I always thought that I worked it out and I'm so strong.
Sarah:So I think people like me are even harder to shift into that
Sarah:vulnerable state because I was like the anti of vulnerable in a way.
Sarah:I was like, even if people asked me about my abuse as a child or trauma,
Sarah:I would always say I got over that because I worked it out myself.
Sarah:I'm strong, it doesn't bother me, it doesn't affect me those
Sarah:are the kind of words that I had.
Rob:And when you come from that looking from the perspective of the
Rob:one when you come with that frame, the fear of, I must be defective.
Rob:Is the hardest thing is going to be to actually look at it.
Rob:It's very easy to make yourself think that you're over it
Rob:and you've worked through it.
Rob:But it's so hard to look.
Rob:And I also think Not having a good start, like not being around people who
Rob:you can trust and where you feel safe.
Rob:pEople who will give you that strong foundations.
Rob:It's so difficult because you're starting from a place where you don't
Rob:know who to trust or what to trust.
Rob:Whereas if you grow up and you grew up in a loving, safe.
Rob:environment, you learn that you have something to relate that to.
Rob:But if you have nothing to relate from that it's always hard that there's
Rob:no, you've got no reference point.
Sarah:Yeah.
Sarah:Trust was, it's so weird.
Sarah:Because in there's something about me, which was always a bit like, I
Sarah:remember my mom, she's my adopted mom, but she said I was like a carpet
Sarah:that people could like, Put their feet on or wipe their shoes on in a way.
Sarah:And I have this kind of never ending.
Sarah:It looks like trust because I was always a bit vulnerable or very open
Sarah:in a way, but I actually wasn't.
Sarah:On the surface in that space of being defective, even the road to strength
Sarah:if you have that core belief is really hard because even the process or the
Sarah:road you want to be perfect at it.
Sarah:You want to do it good and be a good girl and not make any mistakes and you
Sarah:so even you can go into unrelenting standards on your healing path.
Sarah:Now that I'm a coach and a trainer, I've encountered people that a
Sarah:bit like me, a couple of them.
Sarah:They're the hardest.
Sarah:They're the hardest to actually help because they are just like me.
Sarah:I remember gosh, there was a therapist once and the therapist
Sarah:said you don't love yourself.
Sarah:And I got in an argument with them like, what do you mean I don't love
Sarah:myself of course I love my, I was really like if someone would say something
Sarah:like, You're having a fake smile or you're hiding, I would get so angry
Sarah:because, you don't understand me.
Sarah:I really care, but I didn't get it.
Sarah:I didn't get like there, there was something that I was hiding from
Sarah:myself, even so I couldn't see it.
Sarah:But it's a hard journey to get there.
Sarah:Like the one therapist that said, I didn't love myself.
Sarah:And then another therapist that asked me, it was such a simple question.
Sarah:And it was, what do you like?
Sarah:What do you like to do?
Sarah:It made me fall apart because I didn't know who I was at all.
Sarah:I didn't know what I like.
Sarah:And it was so weird to be in my late thirties or something and not
Sarah:know who I was or what I liked.
Sarah:Like, how could I?
Sarah:Was everything I do, was doing until then for other people?
Sarah:I remember having this crisis of, do I not exist?
Sarah:Am I not a person?
Sarah:I started then also looking at my patterns.
Sarah:I also learned that I can't change other people.
Sarah:And that was probably the biggest learning.
Sarah:I can only change myself.
Sarah:So if I want to make this better for my children, I want to make my life better,
Sarah:I'm going to have to find something in myself that I need to change,
Sarah:once I started let's say I got pointed in the right directions.
Sarah:I ended up taking schema therapy and diving into my past traumas and
Sarah:it's almost like it became this ball rolling snowball rolling down the hill.
Sarah:Like I started making more and more connections and everything
Sarah:just started to make more sense.
Sarah:And everything in my life just started to get better.
Sarah:I learned how to step out of the drama triangles.
Sarah:. I learned how to set boundaries.
Sarah:I remember my therapist.
Sarah:Was talking about people and boundaries and you have a wall in between and
Sarah:people usually have their boundaries here and the other person has theirs
Sarah:and once it crosses the wall, then people move away like toxic people.
Sarah:They explained to me that I'm, they called me this pure altruist.
Sarah:With zero boundaries.
Sarah:And so I have this but very strong wall there.
Sarah:Like you have this really tall wall, but you have where people have normally
Sarah:the line you're like right here.
Sarah:So people can cross over the line.
Sarah:And get really close on to you until they're like right on and that's when
Sarah:your walls start coming up, but it's a bit too late because at that point,
Sarah:they're like that big, around you.
Sarah:And I was told to set fake boundaries at first because I said, I don't
Sarah:understand about setting boundaries because I don't have a problem with the
Sarah:situation like if I don't care then why would I set a boundary, like they said
Sarah:just start doing it even for fake, I know you don't care, but just do it.
Sarah:Set a boundary here, set a boundary there.
Sarah:It was life changing.
Sarah:I started to realize I do care, but I had to first do it before I could
Sarah:understand that I cared about it.
Sarah:My, when I dived into my past and the stuff I went through,
Sarah:it's my past was really extreme.
Sarah:As a process.
Sarah:I learned to survive in this world by making everything great for
Sarah:everyone else around me and making sure that no one is bothered.
Sarah:But I didn't exist.
Sarah:And so I was the problem.
Sarah:I allowed that to be like that and it's not that I did it on purpose because
Sarah:I remember going into arguments, but I don't care, no, it's not on purpose.
Sarah:That's how I evolved and it can change.
Sarah:And it starts with that, creating those fake boundaries.
Sarah:And I remember expanding into that space over time and liking the feeling,
Sarah:liking the people that were now in my life, like somehow those toxic people
Sarah:started to not want to be with me because the, they had the wall in the
Sarah:places like, Oh, but she's not somebody I can, and so they went away from me.
Sarah:So that started to change my life, but the moment was I, it was around my children
Sarah:and wanting to make their life better, not wanting to recreate what you call
Sarah:the multi-generational traumas in them.
Rob:It's funny how it can be someone else's needs still that is the stimulus.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:I Always think with relationships, you can, like everything is out
Rob:there and every kind of relationship, and it's how you navigate and.
Rob:Here's someone who is very giving someone who is very concerned with
Rob:other people is going to be the person that's going to attract people who
Rob:are going to take advantage of that.
Rob:oKay.
Rob:One last question on that, but I'd like to move on to what you're doing.
Rob:But one last question is you talked about how hard it is when you're
Rob:looking at The fear of feeling that you're a bad person and how that is
Rob:a key to the growth and acceptance.
Rob:Was that about your children or what was the link that made?
Rob:you let go of that?
Sarah:That happened a few years later.
Sarah:I've taken so many leadership courses and stuff.
Sarah:I was always over addicted to personal development.
Sarah:One of those people that go to that section, the self help
Sarah:section at libraries and stuff.
Sarah:And always trying to fix myself.
Sarah:Anyway, in one of my leadership courses Not quite sure if it was
Sarah:because it finally was at that point in my evolution that I got to it,
Sarah:or if it was that course in itself.
Sarah:But at the end I had to write a we had to write a synopsis for
Sarah:back of a book or something and we had to do it very quickly.
Sarah:So I've shared it.
Sarah:The poem water that I wrote.
Sarah:I wrote it in 30 minutes and it poured.
Sarah:From my pen.
Sarah:So the one that I shared on my LinkedIn post wasn't even edited.
Sarah:That's just what came out of my pen.
Sarah:So like the castle and the barren lands and there being life in it and
Sarah:Being able to finally get into that castle and that well deep within and
Sarah:not wanting to rot the air around me and like somehow my mind's very visual.
Sarah:I'm a poet in a way or I've always been I speak in metaphor often.
Sarah:Anyway
Sarah:there was like a moment when I realized that You know how
Sarah:everyone has that one fear.
Sarah:Some people have that fear that
Sarah:they will die alone, or they will people have different people.
Sarah:End of life fears, for example, that they will die in pain or they will, whatever.
Sarah:And what I realized is that I will evaporate, that I don't exist, that
Sarah:I'm just water that evaporates in the room, that I'm not there at all.
Sarah:And I related myself to water in the way that I'm the water which nourishes life.
Sarah:I make you live.
Sarah:But as soon as there's like heat or something, then I'm just gone.
Sarah:I'm not there at all.
Sarah:It's just, I'm not existing.
Sarah:And that happened in that leadership course.
Sarah:And I remember making a vow to myself that I'm not going to be
Sarah:the water that evaporates anymore.
Sarah:I'm going to be the water that nourishes.
Sarah:And by doing that.
Sarah:I'm going to stand in my power and exist.
Sarah:I'm going to exist in the room even when I get that fear of conflict
Sarah:or that fear of I'm not good enough or somebody by the way, writing on
Sarah:LinkedIn like I do now, I would not have been able to do 10 years ago.
Sarah:I was the one that made everyone else successful, but I would have never stood
Sarah:up and said, I'm the one that did it ever.
Sarah:Like I was, I remember the fear I had, even in writing my first post,
Sarah:like that people are going to say that it's stupid or where did I get
Sarah:my ideas from, or, like I had all of this fear that I'm a defect or that I.
Sarah:I don't exist or shouldn't exist.
Sarah:And that I just wanted to be not in the room at all.
Sarah:ThE realization was in that leadership course.
Rob:That's so powerful on so many levels that I really like the the water can
Rob:be vaporized or it can be nurturing and that speaks to me because I always say
Rob:like, All kinds of relationships are out there and it's how we navigate them.
Rob:And that speaks to navigating to where you can be nurturing and not where you can be.
Rob:It
Sarah:means what kind of environment I can thrive in.
Sarah:If you want a leader that's with, I don't know, all fire and everything.
Sarah:That's not me.
Sarah:I'll evaporate in that environment, but I'm also very
Sarah:powerful when I can be water.
Sarah:So it's a self acceptance.
Rob:Yeah, and water is the most powerful.
Rob:When you look at, like the caves and you look at the structure of a cave that has
Rob:evolved over millions of years, it's just from a drip of water, just continuous
Sarah:drip of water.
Sarah:The waves that ripple from a drop, if you think of a reformer, like it's a
Sarah:drop of water and it's making these waves of change around it and water
Sarah:nurtures and water flows and shifts.
Sarah:Yeah, I really resonate with being water, but it also means there's
Sarah:some environments I don't thrive in.
Sarah:You put me into a really hot place,
Sarah:I don't thrive in.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:The irony though is you've gone from water to dragons, which is a very hot place.
Sarah:It's very interesting that I'm a fire dragon, but I am water.
Sarah:You have to really make sure that flame isn't destroying that you can be sweet
Sarah:with your dragons and instead make some ripples from a bit of heat and warmth.
Sarah:There's a difference between the warmth of the passion in your soul
Sarah:and the heat that comes from a fury.
Rob:Because fire is nurturing as well.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:So that's been fascinating.
Rob:Now we know you, how does all of that what do you do and how does all
Rob:of that come into your work today?
Sarah:Right now, I'm a bit at a I'm a bit at a crossroads in my career.
Sarah:So I have come from being a software engineer.
Sarah:So I was a software engineer for some 20 years and I had all different hats in
Sarah:my career where I was an agile coach and business leader and transformation coach.
Sarah:And team lead engineering manager.
Sarah:Now I'm a director of engineering at a company.
Sarah:And now that I.
Sarah:Recognize my power and where it lies and where it is.
Sarah:I am finding myself wanting to help others, which I mean,
Sarah:what do most coaches do?
Sarah:They take themselves from 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and they help
Sarah:them get to where they are today and.
Sarah:I want to help other leaders step into their power too and use the
Sarah:talent that I have of seeing people.
Sarah:"You have to be a leadership that coaches" kind of person.
Sarah:A lot of people are very like single minded in their
Sarah:approach "this is how I do it.
Sarah:So this is how you need to do it in order to succeed".
Sarah:And instead I can see people, I even can see a red leader and help them
Sarah:embrace their redness and become an effective leader and stand in the
Sarah:environments that are best for them.
Sarah:sO I want to help people step into their core power and their
Sarah:ability to lead themselves.
Sarah:And ultimately, if you also can lead yourself, then perhaps
Sarah:also lead others and help.
Sarah:I see so many bad leaders out there.
Sarah:I've had a lot of bad leaders.
Sarah:I see, and it's not that they're bad people.
Sarah:They're great people.
Sarah:They're loving they want to do good and they just don't know how to they're stuck.
Sarah:And right now I have ABAGASA coaching as a side.
Sarah:business.
Sarah:I don't earn any money yet with Avogadro coaching.
Sarah:And now I figured out that's a real background and not a green screen.
Sarah:So great.
Sarah:wHat happens next?
Sarah:I don't know.
Sarah:Either Avogadro coaching will end up being my future business.
Sarah:Maybe I end up joining another venture along the way.
Sarah:I do know that just being a leader of one group.
Sarah:Is not going to be enough for the impact I want to make in the road.
Sarah:Like I want to be able to make bigger change.
Sarah:That's broader and helping more people than I could.
Sarah:If I just lead one group in one place.
Rob:It seems that you've learned you've now done it.
Rob:You've seen the skill, you've got the skills that you know that
Rob:you can help other people do it.
Rob:And so it feels like teaching is how you finalize your knowledge, isn't it?
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:You apply it.
Rob:It's
Sarah:how I embrace the reformer in me.
Rob:Would this be like first time managers or just generally anyone
Rob:who's feeling challenged who needs to step up a level in order to lead?
Rob:When I
Sarah:first started with Avogadro I didn't have a small niche.
Sarah:iT was like, I can help anyone, which is having a trouble
Sarah:self leading in their life.
Sarah:And part of me still wants to do that, but in order to succeed as a business, I
Sarah:have niched it down to helping leaders.
Sarah:But
Sarah:I still don't know if that's the right decision yet.
Sarah:Like I'm still trying to figure out if I because I feel like if I look at myself
Sarah:having been this woman software engineer that wanted so bad to do well in my job
Sarah:and to grow in my career and I had this.
Sarah:The ceiling like on top of my head and I would work harder and I would
Sarah:work more hours and I would do great work and I somehow couldn't get that
Sarah:raise or that position I wanted or there was something really blocking
Sarah:and to find out that was myself.
Sarah:And once I could unblock myself.
Sarah:I just soared.
Sarah:I mean I just went from one level to the next level to the next level I
Sarah:feel like I could help so many people in that, like there's so many people
Sarah:that are with that blockage that they can't, they don't know what it is.
Sarah:A lot of the time they're at that point still that they're angry at the world
Sarah:or they think it's other people that are blocking them or they think it's
Sarah:unfair they're a victim to their life or something like this, and I have
Sarah:their eyes opened not in a stressful.
Sarah:mean way, but compassionate way where, I'm walking beside
Sarah:them while they're unblocking.
Sarah:Those walls in themselves.
Sarah:Does that happen at the leadership level?
Sarah:I think there's so many high leaders that need this.
Sarah:I even find they may even need it more just because of the different
Sarah:personality types that can exist once people get high up sometimes.
Sarah:But are they as open to it?
Sarah:I don't know, there's a lot of people which have made it to the top.
Sarah:They're not doing that great, but they're surviving and they're
Sarah:not self reflective enough.
Sarah:to let in help.
Sarah:So that's my experience so far.
Rob:We have a frame, like our culture and all, everything we've bought has
Rob:given us what I call the operating system.
Rob:And that everything we've been taught has been stuff that's worked in the past.
Rob:And the problem is that the world has changed and leadership
Rob:is a level of change where.
Rob:Everything that works, like the frame that we're given is to be a follower,
Rob:we go to school, we're taught to follow, we're taught to be like
Rob:this, so we go to work, we follow.
Rob:And then to be a leader is suddenly to step out in that spotlight.
Rob:And if you're not comfortable with that, then that, it means that I think
Rob:what happens with so many leaders is.
Rob:They're doing things for for the sake of how they look and from their feelings
Rob:of what people are thinking of them.
Rob:And so if you imagine like 100 percent of your energy, it's probably 50, 60
Rob:percent is going on concern what other people are thinking about, which means
Rob:that you're operating on so much less.
Rob:And then all of the, and then there's the problem of what made you successful.
Rob:Is no longer going to make you successful and so you need to change the frame.
Rob:We've come from a logistical Business of making moving mining stuff and now
Rob:we're in something where it's about people and about insights And where
Rob:technology was the great unlock for that, now I think it's more emotional
Rob:intelligence and it's awareness and understanding of all these things.
Rob:So in a nutshell, what it is you do, I guess that what you're doing is
Rob:you're helping people develop their own frames for what makes them like 100%.
Rob:Able to focus on what they need to do.
Rob:Yes.
Sarah:You put the hammer on the head.
Sarah:Yeah, a lot of leaders they only have the example of leaders in their past.
Sarah:They try to copy what they saw.
Sarah:Very often it's not their leadership style.
Sarah:It's has nothing to do with them as a person.
Sarah:So they fail at it over and over again.
Sarah:If I would go in and try to be directive.
Sarah:It will always fail because I'm not that type, and you may have leaders, especially
Sarah:if you're in middle management that are telling you to be how they are, and
Sarah:you keep feeling like you're failing.
Sarah:This is not working.
Sarah:I don't get it.
Sarah:So yeah, I can help those people.
Sarah:Those people stand in confidence in their, in the way they are and
Sarah:stand in their core and embrace.
Sarah:And it starts, like I said, embracing those monsters in the room and figuring
Sarah:out what the real power is behind the power that they thought they had or have.
Sarah:And especially in technology, as you said.
Sarah:The majority of the leaders I've met, they were engineers and they were great at it.
Sarah:They were content experts.
Sarah:They were masteries at their craft, exactly what made them good leaders
Sarah:is making them or good in their craft is making them bad leaders because
Sarah:you have to let go being a master in the craft and empower others to
Sarah:be masters in their craft instead.
Rob:And when your identity is built on being the master, that's difficult to do.
Rob:It's very
Sarah:hard, especially when you've got ego wrapped in there.
Rob:I don't know if you follow soccer at all, but if you look at,
Rob:I'm sure it's true in most sports, but it's very rare that a great
Rob:player becomes a great manager.
Rob:Usually the best managers are players who are average or didn't really make it.
Sarah:They can empower others to be great at their craft.
Sarah:They know they need others to be great at their craft.
Sarah:And I even, had this argument at my last company because there were engineering
Sarah:managers and they wanted to hire only X engineers as engineering managers.
Sarah:And I said that's not the way actually some of the best engineering managers
Sarah:were never engineers before, because they know how to empower those tech leads.
Sarah:Which are made to be like they are present in technology right now.
Sarah:And I was an engineer for 20 years, but it doesn't mean what I knew 10 years
Sarah:ago is still valid today or, and if I try to keep up at it and keep up in
Sarah:tech and make sure that my coding skills are just as great all the time, then
Sarah:I'm not where's my time being spent?
Sarah:It's not being spent on being a better leader.
Sarah:I think, especially in tech.
Sarah:Leaders need helpers like you and me.
Rob:I always look at relationships.
Rob:And the key to great relationships is a shift in identity.
Rob:It's going from me to we and being able to shift and to function at two
Rob:levels or three levels at the same time.
Rob:And to shift from.
Rob:An engineer to be a leader is a shift in identity.
Sarah:Yeah.
Sarah:And you don't know how many times I have to say when I try to empower, let's say
Sarah:someone to step up and take ownership of a project or something that just
Sarah:because you have the accountability.
Sarah:Or you have the ownership of this deliverable.
Sarah:Doesn't mean you're the one that has to do it.
Sarah:You just make sure it happens.
Sarah:That's like something, which a lot of people think because they are
Sarah:the accountable person or the one that owns it, that they have to do
Sarah:it too, and that's just not true.
Sarah:Yeah.
Rob:And it's also a bit like, Oh, I don't want to put the burden on them.
Rob:It's down to me.
Rob:I'll take responsibility.
Rob:We're actually in doing that.
Rob:You're limiting someone's ability, prove themselves to grow.
Rob:And also
Sarah:You're not very good.
Sarah:We all aren't, I'm not good at it either at looking at ourselves and discerning
Sarah:if we're doing it really well or not.
Sarah:We're not, we have biases.
Sarah:It's hard for us to say, Hey, Sarah, maybe you could have taken a look at
Sarah:this in a different way, by having that oversight, you can ask the right
Sarah:questions to get people to think in different ways and empower them.
Sarah:You're not going to do that for yourself.
Sarah:You're not going to think of the right questions to ask yourself.
Sarah:You can try, but we're stuck in our own loops.
Rob:Okay, so trying to pinpoint typically what are maybe like two or three things
Rob:that people come to you with that are the key changes or the key changes
Rob:or the key problems that they face?
Sarah:I get asked often
Sarah:like they feel blocked.
Sarah:So they want to grow in their career and they don't know how to, like they they.
Sarah:And because I'm a woman engineer, I think this type of thing comes to
Sarah:me like it's because I'm a woman or there's some like external force that's
Sarah:preventing me from being able to be who I want or grow that happens very often.
Sarah:I've actually helped women see that's an excuse.
Sarah:I know there is sexism.
Sarah:I've experienced it throughout my career, but because I'm a woman engineer,
Sarah:they come to me hoping that I will just talk bad about all men, and I
Sarah:usually don't look at it like that.
Sarah:Another thing is.
Sarah:I am a single mom of three kids with two dogs and I'm a leader and I've
Sarah:always been a high professional working full time and still I have friends.
Sarah:So how do you get all of that done?
Sarah:Very often when they come to me, they'll say that for them it's impossible.
Sarah:I must have some kind of magic that they don't have.
Sarah:mAybe wanting some kind of reassurance that's true.
Sarah:And I usually help unstuck that.
Sarah:Another thing, which I was called in my previous company, the incubator.
Sarah:So I had engineering leaders come to me with their bad engineers
Sarah:often that I even got known for it.
Sarah:There's this person that's not performing bad team member, not a good engineer.
Sarah:I heard that you have this way of inspiring people or
Sarah:getting them out of their funk.
Sarah:And so they would give them to me to incubate them and even put them on
Sarah:the HR path out of the company, maybe.
Sarah:And I would instead light them on fire and make them somebody that
Sarah:everyone wants in their team.
Sarah:They weren't broken.
Sarah:Those are usually the reasons people come to me.
Rob:I can imagine how satisfying that is.
Rob:Yeah.
Sarah:It feels good, even when I have new engineers.
Sarah:Very often leaders will come to you and they're like, Oh, let me tell
Sarah:you all the history of this person.
Sarah:And I'll say, I don't want to know it.
Sarah:I want to develop it myself.
Sarah:I want to see this person myself.
Sarah:And I think that the seeing there's some people which maybe engineering
Sarah:isn't the right field for them.
Sarah:And that's what I end up seeing.
Sarah:And we open up other doors to go where they really will thrive.
Sarah:But I don't know where I get it from.
Sarah:I love people.
Sarah:I know a lot of people say they hate people and they think they're
Sarah:horrible, but I love people.
Sarah:And I think the majority of people, I know that there's.
Sarah:I've had some experience with people with personality disorders and stuff,
Sarah:but I think it's really 1 to 5 percent of the world and the other 95 percent
Sarah:are amazing, and they just need a little someone believing in them.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:And it's so powerful when someone does believe in them and it
Rob:can unlock so much for people.
Rob:If the fairy with the magic wand give you three wishes and you
Rob:could change what in the workplace, what would be those changes?
Sarah:The first thing that I would like to change.
Sarah:Is that belief that I hear coming from a lot of leaders because I've heard
Sarah:them say it out of their mouth that the people in their teams are not
Sarah:capable or they can't handle knowing a bit about business or they are lazy.
Sarah:I would like to change that.
Sarah:They see that they've hired.
Sarah:People which I mean, most of these engineers or people that they
Sarah:work with have university degrees and they're smart and they're
Sarah:intelligent and they're capable.
Sarah:I would love to be able to take a magic wand and get leaders to see their people.
Sarah:And what I would really love to do is to change the way people
Sarah:are hired and the way people work.
Sarah:In general I even have it in my mind that there needs to be a new way of mapping
Sarah:people to their next jobs around matching values so that people can thrive where
Sarah:they are and on people's talents and passions rather than job titles, and
Sarah:that people are empowered and encouraged.
Sarah:Even if you're an engineer, if you are a highly creative person, maybe you can
Sarah:help with the creation of the, let's say presentation for something or creating
Sarah:a new logo, or maybe you like working with events and sometimes you're the
Sarah:one planning the events, although you're also writing code so that people can
Sarah:be their whole selves where they work.
Sarah:And what I would really love is that.
Sarah:In every team that we put a line around that says this is a team.
Sarah:So whether it's a 5 percent team or 10 percent team that everyone's
Sarah:values in that team are honored.
Sarah:Yeah,
Rob:I always think, yeah, so for me the way you talk about dragons, my kind
Rob:of, when I've used the logo, it's like a spiral circle, not spiral circle, yeah,
Rob:a circle inside a circle, concentric circles and it's because there's me.
Rob:aNd then there's me maybe as a couple, as a family, as a team
Rob:and in the community and well.
Rob:Yeah.
Sarah:So impact circles.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:It is partly that, but it's also that my identity shifts from me to
Rob:being a couple, to being a family, to being part of a team, to being part
Rob:of the world, being part of whatever.
Rob:But all of them, I think it has to be fractal.
Rob:That there's you in all of them and you're the same and they are you as well.
Rob:Yeah.
Rob:And it's how relationships are the way that we express ourselves and achieve
Rob:and experience everything that we want to experience and we do it by joining
Rob:with others with the same in that.
Rob:So it's probably a similar view to you have because I think deep down
Rob:we're all looking at the same thing.
Rob:We think the same thing.
Rob:We just say it in different words and from different perspectives.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:So I'm going to sum up what I think I've understand of you and you can
Rob:tell me if I'm accurate or not.
Rob:So I think.
Rob:When it, to me, it comes quite simply is that I think you look at people and
Rob:you're able to see the seed of potential.
Rob:You're able to see like the blueprint of who they could
Rob:be or you maybe see the seed.
Rob:And I can really understand that water nurturing because what you are, I think is
Rob:like a plant needs the water and it needs the heat and it needs the soil to grow in.
Rob:And I think what you do in your coaching is that you provide that space, which is
Rob:like an incubator and you give the heat and the water that people start to see.
Rob:What they can do and what they can be.
Rob:And once they have that's like the unlock that you had.
Rob:Which from there, it can be anything and it will grow naturally
Rob:and organically as it should.
Rob:I think that's so needed because so often work has been fitted to you
Rob:have to fit this job's description and these are your roles and these are your
Rob:limits and people can't fit into moulds.
Rob:And what the world of work really needs is for us to.
Rob:Bloom and blossom and the organization has to be the thing that shapes and shifts
Rob:around the potentials of the people.
Rob:sO is that accurate?
Sarah:Yeah, it's a very interesting also how you stated because Even in my
Sarah:coaching course that I give, I talk about seeds and I talk about planting seeds in
Sarah:deserts versus in, to tropical forests.
Sarah:And I talk about pretty much the words that you came up with now to
Sarah:help people visualize and I don't tell you what kind of, let's say
Sarah:tree you're going to be or plant.
Sarah:That's you.
Sarah:I may help you figure out.
Sarah:The right environment to plant it in, but I'm not even going to tell you
Sarah:not to plant it in a desert if that's what you want, but you need to then
Sarah:be aware you're going to have to bring bucket loads of water every day to
Sarah:that desert, if that's what you want.
Rob:Yeah, I think you've done some Darren Brown tricks and framed it so
Rob:I'm going to say it in those words.
Rob:Yeah I think all you can see when it, when the seed is his
Rob:seed that's all you can see.
Rob:And it's only over time that you can see what it can
Sarah:become and I see seeds and Yeah, I believe in them But there
Sarah:they need to be they need to grow,
Rob:I think, I think that's so needed.
Rob:And I think it's can be so powerful, but for someone who senses that they might
Rob:have that little seed and they want that nurturing environment to develop,
Rob:how would someone reach out to you?
Sarah:I Have several ways that people can work with me.
Sarah:They can arrange a discovery session with me where it's all about
Sarah:figuring out what they need and how it can map to working with me.
Sarah:Because I only work 20 percent of my time right now for abacus.
Sarah:So my time is quite limited.
Sarah:So I usually choose to work with people which are more dedicated to the process.
Sarah:anD I think my biggest help right now is the group course that I give so
Sarah:that it's all about finding your core and moving forward with worthy goals.
Sarah:In the end, it's a leadership course.
Sarah:So I offer it in three month and six month Time periods.
Sarah:And unless Abagaso shifts and becomes more my main company, then I can
Sarah:imagine doing things more tailored to particular needs of leaders, et cetera.
Sarah:But the best way right now is to either sign up for one of the courses I have
Sarah:or sign up for a Discovery chat with me maybe one on one coaching is what you
Sarah:need, and we figure that out together.
Rob:Okay.
Rob:Thank you for your time.
Rob:It's been fascinating to, to learn more about the inspiring
Rob:work that you're doing.
Sarah:Yeah, thank you.
Sarah:And it's, I'm I feel honored to be able to have this talk with you.
Sarah:You're one of the people that I really admire on LinkedIn.
Sarah:I love what you write and how you speak and it feels like speaking to a celebrity.
Sarah:So that's really nice.
Rob:Likewise.
Sarah:Thank you.