Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Michaël Cohen has been in business development and people transformation for over 30 years. He was C-Suite Executive in Corporates, SMEs, and startups and created his own companies. He is now helping people worldwide reach higher levels of wealth and success in any areas that really matter to them with his NeuroCoaching and RTT methods. Michael’s mission is to change the world one brain at a time and help driven professionals to reach the next level and achieve greatness.
You're a NeuroCoach, Consultant, Certified Hypnotherapist, and RTT Practitioner. Can you tell us more about your work and how you ended up where you are today?
I’ll try to make a long story short, after a BA in Computer Science and a Master’s degree in Management, and one in Technology I became an entrepreneur and C-Suite Executive.
I have been in business development and people transformation for over 30 years. I worked in Corporate, SME, Startups and created my own companies.
Throughout my career, I realized that you can't grow your company without growing your people. I learned as well that we are not taught this aspect at school and many people are challenged in front of “people development”.
It’s the reason why I decided to become a NeuroCoach and RTT Practitioner.
You say that you're not the typical "success coach" - What do you mean by that?
Sometimes I am a consultant; sometimes, I am a coach; sometimes, I am a therapist. When people need support, they call me.
When I started my coaching activity, I mainly focused on Business Coaching to help entrepreneurs grow and succeed in their businesses. However, I very quickly understood that what was preventing them from really reaching the "Next Level" was not only the lack of the right strategy. Most of the time, they were the ones in their way.
Most of the time, the things that were getting in their way were around self-image, self-esteem, self-worth, limiting beliefs, stories they were telling themselves, emotions, fear, and uncertainty.
However, they were mainly focusing on knowledge and skills. It's essential but not sufficient. Their own fears and belief systems prevented them from being where they wanted and deserved to be.
This is how I decided to add "tools" in my toolbox to help them overcome these missing elements and support them in unveiling their greatness.
I became RTT Practitioner and certified hypnotherapist and studied Neuroscience. I wanted to transform my clients' lives with evidence-based brain and mind science that help change lives and lead to excellence.
I do not always play by the book. I like to disrupt the standard approaches and the thinking of my customers. I find it essential to connect the dots and build bridges between mindset and strategy,
Success is not only a matter of strategy, operational excellence, or any other so-called "hard skills."
It's also not only a question of having the right mindset. It's about making both mindset and strategy coexist and find the right balance.
As John Assaraf is used to say it’s a Mindset, Skill Set, and Action Set game
And this is where I am not the typical success coach. My experience in business, in operational excellence, added to my expertise in coaching, neuroscience, and hypnotherapy, allow me to build bridges between those worlds and get out of my toolbox, the right tool when needed.
What do you think, according to your experience, is the biggest causative factor that holds people back from achieving their dreams?
We can identify ten things that hold people back from pursuing their goals. However, you asked me the most significant causative factor, but please let me develop, and I'll show you how I'm coming to it.
First, there is « Fear », fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of ridicule, fear of disappointment. Fear is one of the reasons why we don't go after what we really want in life.
Then you have “Excuses”. I'm not ready, it's not the right time, I'm not good enough, I'm too old or too young. So many people in life get hung up on excuses — feeling they can't go out for a better job, start their own business, or find their perfect life partner.
You can then add “Procrastination”. Putting things off till next week, next month, next year, and often forever.
You also have a “ lack of belief “. If you don't believe in yourself or your ability to achieve your goals, you'll never succeed. Our actions, or lack thereof, are influenced by the thoughts and feelings that swirl around in our minds. We may be preventing ourselves from having the life we truly desire because of the negative and self-limiting beliefs we hold.
The 5th element is a “Lack of Focus”. Every time you lose focus, it kills your chance of success. We lose our ability to concentrate on the most important tasks when we spread our attention too thinly.
I also, very often, came across a “Lack of a big picture”. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras refer to what I call a breakthrough goal as a BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goal. A goal is what you need to keep you motivated and drive you to achieve it every day. Start small and dream big. You'll need a strong enough passion to propel you forward. Your ambitions will not motivate you until you first dream big. For your goals to be beneficial to you, they must assist you in realizing your dreams. Those lofty ambitions. Goals can only motivate you, help you focus, and help you understand the sacrifices you need to make and provide you the fortitude to overcome difficulties as you chase your big-picture dreams if they matter to you.
Likewise, without a” plan”, you can easily get lost. Imagine driving from New York to LA without a map. While you have a rough direction, there is a lot of land to cover and many wrong turns and dead ends. A GPS will guide you. A plan provides a road map to your goals, helping you determine what you need to do to reach your goals. This is where you put in the work to plan out your steps, resources, and time.
Not “taking action” is also often coming in the way. There's a specific path you'll need to take before achieving your goals. That path consists of many steps. Steps you have to take. Choosing to take action pursuing your dreams, those specifically designed to take you on the right path, instead of indulging in activities that only bring temporary happiness but knock you off course. It's not what you do every now and then that counts, it's what you do on a daily basis. No action, no progress. It's simple.
Stop letting not taking action hold you back!
Not “reviewing progress and adjustments” - Goals by their very nature take a while to achieve, so it's important to review your goal progress. Anyone who consistently achieves their goals is also constantly reviewing their goals and progress.
The 10th and last point is “Giving up to Soon” - Too many people set a big goal but give up too soon. You never know how soon you might start seeing progress if you hang in there and give it a little more time.
Each of us has been confronted with one or more of these ten factors that prevented us from reaching our dream. But very often it all drills down, as Marisa Peers conceptualize it, to ONE thing:
I AM NOT ENOUGH.
I'm not good enough. I'm not smart, skilled, capable, talented, attractive, or thin enough.
When you dig deep you find out that this is a lack of "enoughness", the mother of all evils.
When working with a customer, my goal is to find the forest that hides behind the tree.
Find where the lack of "enoughness" stands, and erase, eradicate these limiting beliefs and implement new, more positive, and better serving beliefs that will propel my customers to the next level and help them unveil their greatness.
Have you encountered any major challenges during your journey and how have these affected you?
Like most of us, I have indeed encountered challenges in my life. I have been married and divorced, and remarried…and re-divorced, and remarried .. finally, happily. All this before 45!
I lost my dad before I was 30 and despite not being that young, it had a significant impact on my life.
At 30, I learned I could not have children, but I finally became the father of 4 boys thanks to my lovely wife who was a widow at 30 with 4 children.
I experienced two burnouts in my career. I had a major bacterial infection in my throat that would have killed me without emergency surgery.
All that affected me with an incredible desire to "understand".
To understand why after successful studies with one Engineering Bachelor, one master's in Technology and one in Business & Management; why after a successful career reaching top senior management level in major companies; why such a "successful" person can make two burnouts and feel so unhappy in his life.
I wanted to understand how I can change my OWN perspectives in my life and impact others' lives and pass on what I learned.
Tell us about a distinctive highlight of your career?
It’s not a single highlight, but It was instead a "2 steps highlight".
I was stuck in a job I hated. I had a great position, an excellent salary, from the outside everything, was nice and shiny. However, I was drying up and losing my fire from the inside.
So, I went to many events about personal and business development and realized that I wanted to become a Business Coach. I left my fancy job and started my "new career" as a Coach. But I felt like a "baby Coach", totally new in this industry with little legitimacy.
But one day, I was sharing this feeling with my coach Rich Litvin and he taught me a fantastic concept from Ken Wilber: leaps in evolution usually occur in a manner of "Transcending and Including," not by wiping out what came before.
He made me realize that I was not a "new coach", but that I was, as an entrepreneur, as a leader, or as a manager, already coaching for 30 years. This was really the 2dn stage of my career highlight.
It was pivotal and helped me to reach another level in my coaching career.
Is there something special that keeps you motivated?
Curiosity! I am a voracious learner, and I am well aware that I still want to learn a plethora of things.
I want to expand my knowledge in neuroscience and how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviours, and our health.
The human brain has been better understood for two decades, and neuroscience is more popular than ever. This is excellent news for coaches, but it makes getting the appropriate instruction even more critical.
I think that effective coaching is built on evidence-based neuroscience, solution-focused approaches, and client-centred capabilities. A wide range of disciplines can benefit from Brain-Based & Solution-Focused Coaching.
And as a father of four, I can attest that having four boys keeps you motivated to always stay "on top" and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
What makes you feel 'out of your comfort zone?' How do you handle these types of situations?
To be honest, almost every day I come across situations that make me feel “out of my comfort zone”. Whether it’s showing up on social media, answering this interview, or a podcast, “exposing” myself can be something challenging.
I try to practice what I teach my customers and I try to walk the talk.
Fear doesn't automatically correlate to panic when leaving your comfort zone. Fear can be an essential step towards learning and growth.
It takes bravery to venture out of your comfort zone. No way to build on previous experiences without a clear direction. This can cause anxiety. Continue long enough and you enter the learning zone, where you develop new talents and overcome obstacles.
After a time of learning, a new comfort zone is formed, allowing for greater heights. This is the growing zone.
Moving into the growth zone becomes more difficult without self-awareness, as with most behavioural changes.
So I try to remember the benefits of leaving the comfort zone: self-actualization, development of a growth mindset, resilience and antifragility, increased self-efficacy and I use these 4 tips:
I Reframe the stress and use it as a motivating element rather than a blocking one.
I Remember about neuroplasticity and realize that going into that “uncomfortable” zone will help me to grow and learn.
I Prioritize my actions to be sure that I take a big leap for something meaningful and important to me and not just for the sake of “going out of my comfort zone”
I take one step at a time because I remember how we eat an elephant…One bite at the time.
When you understand that the « threat brain » – our amygdala - is designed to keep us safe and desires certainty, you also understand how entering in « The Discomfort Zone » triggers the automated alarm system. That’s why reframing is a tool to deactivate it.
In modern times we need to retrain our brains to respond according to our higher goals, challenges, and calling.
So, what's the next big goal or project for Michael and how can someone get in contact with you?
My big goal, my great ambition right now, is, in paraphrasing Rich Litvin again, to stop being the best-kept-secret from the coaching industry.
So, I’m bringing all these skills together to help professionals reach higher levels of wealth and success in any areas that really matter to them, and I’ll be soon launching a unique brand-new program to help driven professionals reach the next level and achieve greatness.
Stay tuned and get in touch with me to know more. You can contact me, by visiting my website https://www.michaelcohen.co or contact me directly at contact@michaelcohen.co.
