‘What’s Next For Me’ With CEO, Poet And Executive Coach Florian Brody
The Destiny Awakening Interviews is a podcast with Andrew Wayfinder and his guests.
Every week (sometimes more) we have a short focused interview with an expert, author, speaker designed to bring you powerful insights, inspiration and ways to break free, live life by your vision and values, and make a difference in our changing and challenging world.
Listen to the podcast at: https://www.andrewwayfinder.com/blog/DA0030
Andrew Hryniewicz
So hello, everyone and a very warm welcome to another edition of the Destiny Awakening Interviews.
I’m Andrew Wayfinder Hryniewicz and I’m joined today by Florian Brody, executive coach, mentor, and business strategist, TEDx speaker and poetry lover.
A very warm welcome to you, Florian. And where are you hanging out today?
Florian Brody
Hello, Andrew, thank you so much for having me on your show.
I’m based in Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. Just a few miles away from Stanford University.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, great.
Well, let’s dive into your work. Florian is a certified transformational life and leadership coach. Originally from Vienna, Austria, Florian has lived and worked in Silicon Valley for more than 20 years, where he’s co-founded five startups.
His broad international background includes fashion photography, film, archive, software, engineering, marketing, academia, and 30 plus years of Zen practice. Which allows him to work with his coaching clients in a uniquely compassionate, and multidisciplinary way.
Florian has given multiple TED and TEDx talks, and has taught Multimedia studies and Digital Business Management at Universities in Europe in the US, since 1988.
So thank you, Florian, for your time today. And the title we’re working with is, “Are You Ready to Ask: What’s Next for Me?” And Florian is going to unpack that idea for us by answering six questions.
Florian Brody
Sure.
Andrew Hryniewicz
So the first question, Florian is, who is your ideal client? And what’s the transformation you help them achieve?
Florian Brody
Thanks for that question. I think it’s very important to understand, when you work with people… What’s your client? Who’s your client?
My clients are executives and professionals, ready to take the next step. And those are almost always people who are already successful in their field, on an outside perspective.
So they may have studied in the area of technology or business, and they got into the work process. And then they had to earn money, whether it’s for a house, family, whatever their personal needs are.
And then it comes to a point where they say… is this it? Or reach for the next level, for something entirely different.
Very often, those are people that are kids grown up, which means there’s a new phase of life. And they suddenly realize that this question, “What’s next for me?” always goes hand in hand with the question, “Why am I doing all this?”
And people come to me to work, not so much with me, but work with themselves. And I support them in that transitional process to realize what can be next.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, and what’s the nature of the transformation, of the change that you see them accomplishing?
Florian Brody
We all have a personal narrative, a story of how the world shows up for us. And there may be something that’s getting in the way from our path.
And to understand that… and to be able to create a more dynamic, more expanded narrative that allows you to actually go for what you really want to do.
And to build this transition is a very clear process.
And that’s one of the beautiful things of coaching: that you work on a very well defined goal and a well-defined timeframe.
And it’s over and over again. I interview people. I speak with them and do an extensive intake.
And then I develop a plan and then I come back and say, “What do you think? Do you see yourself like that? Are you the hare in the race, flying back and forth, back and forth? Never knowing where you are?”
Oh, yes, absolutely. And how will it be, if you would be the caretaker of the garden and step above and then you can see the maze.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, so I think that ties in with question number two. What’s the biggest challenge they’re facing when they come to see you?
Florian Brody
I think their biggest challenge is, very often, they try to be somebody else…
They’re stuck, and where they’re stuck… They’re stuck because they’re not fully present.
And they’re not really authentic in their being. And that requires them to accept…
And I’m not talking about accepting your flaws, this comes all the time. But really accept who you are… and understand how the world shows up for you.
And that allows you to be more authentic, and more present.
And when I say take the next step, that doesn’t mean that you have to change jobs. Very often it can mean that you stay in your job. But you fully accept it.
I had a very senior communications executive, whose idea was he’s going to open a surf shop. Because all he wants to do is get away.
After nine months he landed an executive vice president position on a PR agency, and he loves it. He still loves surfing. But, it’s this openness. It’s this presence, we often miss.
Andrew Hryniewicz
So question number three, then is, and I think this will connect, what’s the number one insight you would share with people to help them right now?
Florian Brody
Right now, it may sound silly, but don’t forget to breathe…
Take a moment right now in our podcast. And consciously breathe in, feel the air coming in.
Let the air go out.
And then cherish this one moment of emptiness
Give it two seconds before you breathe in again, and realize how much breathing in is life.
And it’s amazing how we forget to breathe. And the power it gives us in a difficult situation.
Or in a wonderful, absolutely not difficult situation.
Just to stop for a moment, and breathe.
And there are many, many breathing technologies, which you can practice. Or just stop and embrace from all totally normal.
And be aware that you are alive. Because being alive is so obvious. But it’s actually the chance that you being alive is very small.
There are all these interesting mathematical models… You know that the chance of a life is one to 47 trillion, but that doesn’t help us with life.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah, well. It’s like… my Dad turned 90 last week and you know, when he sometimes complains about this or that, or the other, I say “Remember Dad, by the time most people are your age, they’re dead.”
Florian Brody
Yes. And we have to be aware that we are going to die. Dying is not something…
Andrew Hryniewicz
That’s a given. But often when people ask me, how am I doing?
I say “Well, you know, I woke up this morning and not everybody does.”
Florian Brody
Yes. Just being alive is a lot.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah, it’s great.
Florian Brody
It’s wonderful. And I’m happy to be here with you today,
Andrew Hryniewicz
Even amidst the madness and the chaos.
Okay, great. So question number four. What concept, book, program, talk, or experience has had the greatest impact in your development?
Florian Brody
Well, there are multiple things.
There are two books I always carry with me — they are electronic books. One is the novel by the American author Paul Bowles, “Sheltering Sky” that was made into a movie. But I really liked the book.
It’s about a couple that travels through Morocco, and ultimately gets lost in the desert. It’s close to my heart, because it’s the first book that I turned into an electronic book. So it really started my career in that field.
And the other one is “The Out of Memory”, which is a theoretical non-fiction book by a researcher called Francis Yates. And it’s about “Memory Palaces and Artificial Memory”.
And it covers the last 4,000 years. And there are so many insights that are also helpful when we work with digital media today.
But then, of course, there are the children’s books that I read to my daughter. I’m a single dad, so they were very influential to me.
And for practice, I think my Zen meditation practice over the last 30 years really helped me found so many different things to tie them together.
And to be of service as a coach. That’s very important.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, so that ties into question number five, what’s a free resource you’d like to share with the audience to help them?
Florian Brody
I think the free resource that I can offer: I can be of service.
And on my website, at brody.org/next, I’m offering a free coaching session to everybody who listens to our podcast.
And in addition, I will make available a questionnaire that is not so much one of those questionnaires that you get from your eye doctor.
It’s more of a questionnaire that has questions that you answer for yourself and that allows you to think a little bit where you, yourself stand. And maybe it allows you to open up to the idea of coaching.
Because — and you are in an adjacent field — coaching has this very strange quality…
When coaching is offered to a CEO of a company, it’s a perk. Anybody below, it’s the sort of thing that the human resource department does to you before they fire you.
So it’s ‘The Last Red Flag’. But when you’re the CEO, it’s a perk.
Andrew Hryniewicz
That’s really a very, very strange dichotomy.
Florian Brody
Yeah. So I’m happy to offer a free coaching session. And this is where, this is not like a sales program. This is because I believe, yes, it takes longer than one session to really work.
But if you get an understanding what coaching is, and no matter how you decide, you learn something about yourself.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, great. And I think that ties in perfectly with the last question is, what should I have asked you that I didn’t? And I think you wanted to talk about, why you do what you do.
Florian Brody
I’d be happy to talk a little bit about that, if that helps, because I think it puts into position, what I do and why I do it.
I was always interested in a wide range of things. I always consider myself as somebody who put things together that nobody else would put together.
And take things apart that everybody believes they belong together. So always put different things together.
And when I had the chance to put together my interest in media, with my interest in computers, when digital media start to appear in the mid-1980s.
For those of us who run around long enough, remember CD ROM, which I remember when it started, I remember when it died.
So it’s very strange that, working with so many different fields, teaching in Universities, I have always cared for people. Working in Europe, I worked for many years in the National Library, in software engineering, and then coming to America.
And again, seeing a different culture, really gave me the breadth and the depth to work with people who are ready to take the next step.
And so when the opportunity arose that, I could actually really train as a professional coach. I really felt that I’m ready. And I took it. It’s a one-year training. It’s like… it’s pretty hard. Yeah.
Maybe not as hard as what you did in therapy. But it’s an intensive training. And I’m very happy that I did it. Because it allows me to offer the service to my clients and people I’ve worked with, in a very professional way.
And I think that’s important. Even in a field that is not as highly regulated as therapy. Even more.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah. Okay.
Anything else?
Florian Brody
No, I think this is wonderful.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, well, that was perfect. Florian, thank you so much for your time today.
Florian Brody
Well, thank you for having me.
