Marnix Pauwels is a Dutch transformative coach and author of eight books -mostly- about mental health, living in Amsterdam with two cats. He has worked in advertising as a copywriter and Creative Director for 30 years, is a singer/songwriter, and has extensive knowledge of addiction/compulsive behavior, depression, and anxiety, deepened by personal experience. Marnix has always been fascinated by what drives people, and more in particular, what drives them crazy. He’s read over 5.000 books on self-development/improvement, life-hacks, and spirituality viewed thousands of videos on the topics, and kept on exploring the depths of the human mind and how to navigate our psychological storms with grace and respect. As a transformative coach, Marnix has helped thousands of people find a more playful, exciting, creative, and liberated life, living from a clear mind and a deep trust in their personal resilience. Marnix is a curious world traveler who loves to meet new people, write, wonder, and keep fit and happy.
Marnix Pauwels, Transformative Coach / Author
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I am 54, single, an author (8 books) and a transformative coach. I live in Amsterdam with two cats and a deep desire to be of service in a truly creative and dedicated way. After many years of alcoholism, chronic depression and extreme anxiety, grace casually walked by and woke me up to my true nature. In a practical sense, that means being happy and content most of the time, and feeling inspired to write and coach and touch as many hearts as I can. I have an amazing daughter and love to travel for my coaching. Flyfishing was supposed to be my hobby, but I have been a bit sloppy with that one. I am obsessed with simplifying life and ways to explain the unexplainable
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
I don’t have a business name. My business is simply me :) I help clients by inviting them to let go of what doesn’t serve them, and reconnect to whatever it is we are all made of. Sometimes I call it consciousness, sometimes love. It’s the magical stuff that creates everything out of nothing. In fact: we know the power of this. It was there when we were young, and sometimes, when we are experiencing flow, it’s back again. I guess I show people that it is always there, and always ready to guide and create and fill us with childlike joy. It’s what we are all looking for!
What kind of audience do you target your business towards?
Mostly very successful, smart people who are exhausted or deeply frustrated with all they have achieved, and are ready to ‘pop’. There’s a whole new world of deep fulfillment to explore and life can be lived from a place of exciting peace and deep appreciation. That is what most people (who have everything) are missing. And I somehow ignite that forgotten world. Or, well, it’s essentially pure co-creation.
What are your current goals for your business?
Having tremendous fun around the world, and awesome, transformational conversations with amazing human beings. I love it when people feel inspired by life, and start to ooze that really good, really powerful stuff. Something like that :)
What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?
I am not really that interested in plans and goals. Almost everything that was really interesting and transformational in my life, was not what I anticipated. In other words: I just seem to follow my bliss. It knows the way!
Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
There’s no who. But there is life itself. And love. The love that is just there, everywhere. The love that is unconditional, pure, giddy, spacious, warm and curious. It’s like a buzzing fuel for life that lifts me up and penetrates all experience. Awesome stuff, and there’s an endless supply!
What is your work inspired by?
Feeling really good in the moment. Especially since I know very well how it feels to feel really bad. I love living in flow and I am actually really good at it!
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
Well, this is actually my fourth career. I guess I am very proud of the whole process, from all the parts to the sum. Going from working in advertising for decades, to writing books, composing and performing songs, and finally to coaching. I have always been a pretty creative person, in love with the moment of conception, and it feels like coaching brings out the best in me. Even compared to all my previous or other professions, I see coaching as an extremely creative endeavor. It allows me to rest in clarity, get out of my mind (pretty much) and work really intuitively. Makes me truly come alive, and that energy seems to be pretty infectious!
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
Well, I am a big fan of letting people do and say and feel whatever they want, and this also goes for the coaching profession. I love doing it my way and I have no intention of converting anyone. It’s really good that there are many different flavors of coaching out there! That said, there is ONE thing I don’t really appreciate very much, and that is the amount of lies that are out there. I know a lot of coaches who outright overstate their success and the money they are making, and I don’t like that at all. Not because I think people shouldn’t lie (that’s none of my business), but because it paints a portrait of the coaching profession that is deeply unrealistic. If coaches who hardly earn anything pretend they are making hundreds of thousands, they create an image that is very much skewed, and I know this will lure people in, only to find out that it’s just very hard to earn a living through coaching. Of course this is a universal problem, where most people feel somehow forced or obliged to pretend they are incredibly successful and flawless all the time. I think it would be great if we can kick that stupid, unhealthy habit.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
When I quit my alcohol addiction of almost 30 years and was in the third month of abstinence, I wanted to die. Life was so horribly frustrating and boring when I stopped using drugs, that it drove me crazy. One day I was in my bed, screaming at the ceiling for a solution, for mercy, when I had an insight around my years of depression and anxiety. I always thought that I somehow WAS all that crazy stuff, and now I saw that it was merely a passing experience. In that moment I realized that I couldn’t BE something that is not always there. And this marked the start of profound change. I began to read many of the spiritual classics, studied most of the gurus, and slowly saw the suffocating idea of being a purely mental creation disappear. That moment in bed cracked the system, so real change could happen.
