I’m Suzanne
My personal mission is to
never stop opening up people’s lives.
MISSION
To help people build lives that sing to their soul
VISION
A world of possibilities that everyone sees
VALUES
Authenticity – Courage – Kindness
“Suzanne offers a rare and valuable approach to personal and leadership transformation.”
Mark Goggin
Sydney Living Museum
Founder of the In-spired Living
Movement,
Suzanne started her career working in equity derivative trading rooms, first in Paris then Sydney. Her transition to holistic developmental coaching was inspired by her own recovery from burnout, depression and acute anxiety. She’s a firm believer that recovering from burnout is about recovering lost authenticity.
With formal training in International Business (University of Richmond, USA), Economics and Finance (Sciences Po, Paris), Coaching Psychology (University of Sydney), Self-Leadership (University of Geneva) as well as being a certified coach, meditation instructor, Reiki, NLP and Enneagram practitioner, Suzanne has a unique blend of knowledge and rich life experience that she offers her clients. As a valuable “guide on the side,” Suzanne accompanies her clients on their unique path towards a fulfilling life and works in both English and French.
Suzanne lives in Sydney with her two daughters and three rescue pets. She enjoys regular gym and yoga sessions, as well as equestrian sports. She is currently writing a book and training to become an equine-assisted therapist, which she will practice one day in Toulouse, France.
What I believe to be true
The world does not need more people who measure their success by accomplishments and accumulation. However, the world does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, storytellers and lovers of every kind.
It needs people who live well.
It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane.
And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.
The time has come for In-spired Living.
My Path to this Work
I started my career in Paris in the equity derivatives industry, working for world leader SocGen. As a twenty something year old, I was travelling business class throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, spreading the word about our fancy widgets while.
My clients ranged from the Vatican to Greek shipping magnets, who invited me to their palaces to do business.
I helped banks in Lebanon and Egypt issue the first structured products in their markets. I pro-actively approached the stock markets in Spain, Portugal and Italy to get them to open warrant markets so SG could expand its reach.
At 31, I was sent as an expat to Sydney to set up their equity derivatives business. I was poached and sponsored by Westpac then poached again by CBA to do the same for their businesses.
If I were to complete a Profits-and-Loss review of my life in my thirties, the profits column would have appeared very full. According to society’s criteria, I “had it all:” Career, status, a lovely home, two beautiful daughters and a doting stay-at-home husband. Any notion of a loss would have been experienced as the price to pay for “having it all,” a sort of a pebble in my shoe that I felt obliged to keep as a reminder that I was lucky enough to have nice shoes.
However, as time passed, I began to understand the career
I had been pursuing didn’t align with what I wanted from life. Despite my accomplishments, I was unfulfilled and felt terribly stuck. I wanted to change things, but simply didn’t have the energy or tools to conceive a different way of living.
Looking back, I realise my soul had departed by the time
I reached forty and the evil step sisters, Burnout, Rustout and Depression, had moved in. At fate would have it, I was approached to run a very respectable non-for-profit organisation, but I turned the job down as I believed the salary was not sufficient for our needs. At fate would have it again, I was fired a few months. At 41, I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone. While I had not been happy for a while, the loss was devasting and the void damn scary.
My stay-at-home husband did not react well to the revenue stream drying up. As fear consumed him, the cracks in our marriage expanded and the façade crumbled. I really didn’t know what to do for a while. Mechanically, almost frantically, I started applying for jobs, something I had never done as I had always been head hunted. The negative replies, in the hundreds, only fueled the self-doubt, criticism and negative self-talk that engulfed me.
Later that year, I was diagnosed with extreme depression and medicated. I still remember my GP saying, “If you don’t pull yourself out of this hole, no one will do it for you.” So I started therapy and journeyed inside. I sat in my darkness until I finally saw my light. I didn’t want to be a banker any more. I did not want to be married to this man any more either. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to follow my passion. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired was the best thing that ever could have happened to me. I didn’t realize it then, but this loss was in fact a gain. Clearing out the old meant making room for the new. The heaviness of being a wonder woman was replaced by the lightness of being just me. Giving myself permission to be who I truly am sits clearly in the profits column of my life and its value far exceeds that of the loss of a banking career, status, “friends,” house and marriage.
The events of 2011 freed me to enter one of the most fulfilling and truly rich periods of my life. I have built a business dedicated to helping others benefit from what has been the biggest struggle in my life. Every day I strive to help professionals reconnect with their authentic selves to be the best human they can.
I’m also pretty sure that none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes the Universe hits you in the head with a lightening bolt when you no longer heed (or even hear) your inner compass. When you let yourself to be lured by external signs of success, to the detriment of your internal contentment.
Don’t lose faith. You’ve got to believe in something. Your gut, destiny, God, karma, the universe, whatever. I’m convinced the only thing that kept me going was the belief that in loving myself and honoring my gifts, skills and passions that I would be successful.
You’ve got to love what you do. As you know, work fills a large part of your life. The only way to have an accurate P&L for your life is to identify what it’s costing you to keep doing something you do not love.
The only way to have a healthy P&L for your life is to honour who you are. Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said, “Love is the process of leading you gently back to yourself.” So love yourself. Honor yourself. And do it every day.
Listen to the wisdom that your intuition has to offer. And don’t mute out the noise. It’s trying to tell you something…
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University Qualifications
· Sciences Po, Paris – Economics & Finance
· University of Sydney – Masters Psychology of Coaching
· University of Geneva – Self Leadership Lab Certified Coach
Other Qualifications
· International Coaching Community (ICC) Coach for individuals and teams
· Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner (The Coaching Room)
· Certified Meditation Facilitator (The Awareness Institute)
· Reiki Practitioner (The Awareness Institute)
· Enneagram Practitioner (Integrative 9)
· Equine-assisted therapist, in progress
Maybe the idea of In-spired Living speaks to your soul and echoes your desire to lead a more fulfilling, connected life.
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
ANAIS NIN
WORDS OF PRAISE
In working with Suzanne, I gained clarity around where I wanted to go, both professionally and personally, which is very empowering.
Kim Neale
Creative Director Verge Technology
Suzanne has a highly personal approach to helping others grow, find personal success, achieve goals and manage life’s challenges with confidence.
Amélia Pereira Coutinho
Board Member at Tecnifar
Suzanne is a brave and generous leader. She openly shares her valuable insights and from her own journey to skilfully guide others towards a more connected and meaningful life.
Sandrine de Coetlogon
Director Al Safety
Suzanne helped me develop confidence in myself. Since working with Suzanne, I received three job offers!
Eric Poulos
Community Services Senior Manager at North Sydney Council
Suzanne helped me gain awareness around the habits hindering my personal and professional growth. She gave me to tools for change and I’ve since taken my business to the next level.
Raphael Matet
Owner French Fare Catering
Working with Suzanne helped me develop my human-centric leadership skills, which make me incredibly more effective.
Kim Neale
Creative Director Verge Technology
Although sometimes challenging, I truly enjoyed my journey with Suzanne and am better person and leader for it.
Eunice Sou
Financial Controller at Pfizer
Suzanne helped build my confidence in my own authentic leadership style. I realised that I do not need to be a ‘cookie cutter’ manager. More importantly, I realised that being true to myself was the best recipe for being an effective leader.
Cameron Paton
IT Network Director at UTS
When I met Suzanne, I was at a crossroads in my career, unsure about my next steps. Suzanne gave me the courage to listen to the niggling little voice inside. I embarked on a fulfilling, fresh direction.
Eric Poulos
Community Services Senior Manager at North Sydney Council
Working with Suzanne gave me the permission to honour who I truly am, rather than how I had been socialised to be, which is so incredible liberating!
Kim Neale
Creative Director Verge Technology