IAM1251 – CEO and Author Heals Her Clients from their Traumatic Experiences

Sandra is an intuitive trauma release and self-empowerment coach, Reiki Master/Teacher, Certified Traumatic Incident Reduction Facilitator, and published Author. Her passion and dedication to trauma healing was born as a result of her own traumatic past. Sandra studied the Art & Science of Coaching at Erickson College International in Vancouver, Reiki Level 1 – Master at Beaumont Hospital in Warren, Michigan, and Traumatic Incident Reduction in Windsor, Ontario.

• CEO Story: With traumatic experiences in the past. Got hit rock bottom. Her only way is going up. Found her own healing which took her 20 years for her healing journey, where she learned so much about Trauma healing and where she focused on and was so passionate about helping people heal.
• Business Service: Her book, Journey to Your Self How to Heal from Trauma – demystifying trauma. Coaching program after trauma healing.
• Secret Sauce: Leaning into her triggers which are negative emotions. Those emotions show us what needs to be healed. Once you understand why you feel that way, then you can let it go.
• CEO Hack: Growth. It’s okay to be scared. By understanding why we’re afraid thus you can eliminate them and can move forward.
• CEO Nugget: “If I could change anything in my past, would I?, I always say no.” Sandra continues, that she loves what she’s doing because she’s been through that trauma, and felt so amazing to be completely healed from the bondage of it. It gives her story a meaning. “Remember why you started your business”.
• CEO Defined: It gives you a purpose. You built something. Going for what you wanted.

Website: www.riseaboveyourstory.com

LinkedIn: sandra-cooze-733449b1

Book: Journey to Your Self How to Heal from Trauma

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00:27 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:55 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today Sandra Cooze of Rise Above Your Story. Sandra, it's great to have you on the show.

01:03 – Sandra Cooze

Gresham, it's so great to be here.

01:05 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Sandra so you can hear about some of the awesome things that she's doing. And Sandra is an intuitive trauma release and self-empowerment coach. Reiki Master Slash teacher, certified traumatic incident reduction facilitator, and published author. Her passion and dedication to trauma healing were born as a result of her own traumatic past.

Sandra studied the art and science of coaching at Erickson College International in Vancouver, Reiki level one master at Beaumont Hospital in Warren, Michigan, and traumatic incident reduction in Windsor, Ontario. Sandra, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out and getting to hear about all the awesome things you're doing. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:47 – Sandra Cooze

Yes, I am.

01:48 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I alluded to and read your bio, but I wanted to rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:57 – Sandra Cooze

Well, the story that got me here was a difficult one. I was molested when I was twelve, and sexually harassed when I was 14. I was bullied in school from 16 to 17. I was sexually assaulted multiple times between the ages of 19 and 25. I was raped when I was 22, and when I went to see a psychologist a couple of years after I was raped, he dismissed me after the first session by telling me, he believed I already had worked through all that he was supposed to do. So after that appointment, I literally hit rock bottom.

But the thing with rock bottom is that the only way is up. So, which means since modern medicine technically refused to help me, I had to find my own way of healing. And that's where my story shifted because I found my own way out of trauma. I released everything, and my healing journey took 20 years. But I've learned so much about trauma and trauma healing and what really has to happen for us to let go. It's really not that difficult. But we don't have the tools. We don't understand trauma.

We see trauma just as the story, but the story is not what matters. It's what's in here that matters. That's what we have to heal. We cannot go back in time and rewind the story. So I developed a passion for trauma healing because I could see in others what has to happen for them to shift. And even if I wanted to, there was nothing else I could do with my life, than really focus on trauma healing and help other people heal. Sounds strange, but it makes me insanely happy.

03:33 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, it makes so much sense. And of course, I'm sorry, you know, of all those traumatic experiences that you had to go through, but I appreciate you so much and sharing your story and telling your story and then, you know, taking it even, I'm not even gonna say a step further, so many steps further, because it sounds like you're also, like, helping people to, you know, understand trauma, understand exactly what it is, understand that story and how you can kind of move and take that journey away from that.

So I appreciate you for sharing that and, of course, doing that as well, too, because I think, I guess when you go through those experiences, let alone if you hear somebody say that, I can't help you, but I think probably in those experiences and probably, you know, years and years after that, you feel like you don't have anywhere to turn. You feel like you don't know what to do. So I appreciate you so much for doing the work that you do.

04:15 – Sandra Cooze

Thank you.

04:16 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So I know you touched on it a little bit and how you kind of, you know, help and serve and work with your clients. Could you drill down a little bit more and tell us a little bit more about what that looks like? Sure.

04:26 – Sandra Cooze

Well, first and foremost, I'm helping people with my book. It's called the journey to how to heal from trauma. It's on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and in it, of course, I share my story, but it's only ten pages. The rest is about demystifying trauma and giving my readers helpful tips, room for notes, and really empowering exercises so that they can really work through their own trauma and their own time and really understand what's happening. Because knowledge is power, and once we understand something, it loses its fear factor. Trauma is nothing to be afraid of. For me, it's the beginning of a beautiful journey of transformation. It's only the first step and not the final step as most people think. They release trauma. And then what?

And I don't like this. Now what? Question. So, in my business, I help my clients through trauma, but then I take it further, because then it's a question, okay, now what do I do with my life? So then I have coaching programs to really help them figure this out, follow their passion, you know, figuring out who they are. Because who we are is already within us. It's just buried underneath all the pain. And the more we heal, the more it comes to the surface. So how to work with this new information that we're getting from within ourselves?

That's the next step that I help my clients with after trauma healing, to really eradicate every now what moment. So it's really a journey that I take them on. And wherever my clients are on their journey, I will meet them there. So if they're really still stuck deep in the trauma, we start with trauma release work. If they already worked through most of the trauma, I use coaching with them to help release the limiting beliefs of self-sabotaging behavior. Turn around all those fears into empowerment, and help them on their journey then. So wherever they are, I will meet up with them and then grow with them.

06:17 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets your part and makes you unique?

06:26 – Sandra Cooze

I always lean into my triggers. I mean, even though I have healed my intense trauma, there's always the odd trigger that comes out from childhood. I mean, we all have them. They always come at every stage in our lives. However we grow, we always have triggers. But I. Most people, well, we are trained to resent those triggers because they're negative emotions. However negative emotions are more important than positive emotions because negative emotions show us what needs our attention to heal. If there wasn't anything that needed healing, we wouldn't have those negative emotions.

So I'm leaning into them and teaching my clients how to do that on their own, which is very empowering because once you understand why you feel this way, you can let it go and you don't need it anymore. It's that simple. Then. In my business, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day of things, you know, like posting on social media. Okay, what can I talk about now? I need to make a live video. What is the next course I'm going to build? And you get overwhelmed, especially when you're a solopreneur. Keep it simple.

Always go back to why you started your business. I get rid of them. Everything. All the ideas that I have that I want to bring to the people that at the end of the day, my head is spinning. And then I say, okay, stop. Why did I go in this for the first time? This instills this immense feeling of peace and purpose within me, and then everything just makes sense, and I know exactly what I need to do next. So stay humble and remember why you're doing this. This is so important. And everything else will fall into place.

07:53 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this might be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. It might be something you touched on, but it's something that can make you more effective and efficient. Hmm.

08:07 – Sandra Cooze

Well, the growth, to lean into it, to allow yourself to be scared. It's okay to be scared. Yes, it is in your mind. But there's always a reason why we're afraid of something, and the question is why? By understanding why we're afraid, we can eliminate that and then move forward. So never run away. Question everything. Because whatever you feel is a reflection of your inside. So you have to understand how you feel inside in order to shift your outside world. And yeah, this is my Hackley. Because I used to run away. I used to be that.

You wouldn't believe that now, but I used to be a little grey mouse that ran away from everything. I don't want to be seen. And I'm now a completely different person because I kept on challenging myself, because I wanted this so much, being able to help people. And I can't help people if they don't know I exist, right? So I had to overcome this fear of being seen, which was from bullying in school. So I really had to overcome this and work through it. So always, we always have to challenge ourselves whenever we feel a negative emotion and understand its root cause, to release it. And this is the most empowering thing you can do for yourself, for your business, and for your personal life.

09:12 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that hacking and kind of alludes to it. Like, what we hear is definitely what I hear, and I should say is definitely the mission that you have as well. That's why we've kind of been talking about it. And a lot of times when you truly understand that why and you're leaning into that why, when you do come across those, you know, that fear, doubt, whatever it might be, you can be empowered to heart to inspect it, to ask those questions like, why do I actually feel this way?

And you start to really delve down deep into it, you realize it might be something, you know, 15, 2030 years ago, whatever that number might be that might be holding you back. And when you start to inspect it, to me, I think a lot of times it gives you power, but it also starts to minimize the impact that it can have. But we have to look at it and inspect it in order for that to happen. So I love that hack because I think it's something that, again, getting in that fight or flight, we can easily flee that situation and say, this isn't what I'm supposed to do now.

10:01 – Sandra Cooze

I should say if you get one roadblock after another into one path you're taking, it's possible that this path is not for you and then you have to redirect and go a different route. So, that's a total subject. So if it's just fear or resentment, look at it and understand why. But if it's like one roadblock after it doesn't work out, then stop pushing. It's not for you. Don't go the other way. Find a different route.

10:25 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. But part of that, you know, that step that you talked about that we often will skip past, is that assessment, looking at it and understanding, like, why is this happening? Is it a roadblock or is it something that, you know, is internal? And I think once you start to ask those questions and really drill down, you get to say, okay, well, maybe I'm trying to go to the front door or maybe, maybe I can go through the side door because I didn't realize there was one there.

I should pivot rather than, you know, it being fear, but it might be fear. So understanding and having that assessment is absolutely huge. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call a CEO nugget? And you might have already touched on this as well, too. It's something that you might tell your younger business self if you were to hop into a time machine.

11:01 – Sandra Cooze

I'm always being asked if I could change anything in my past, would I? And I always say no, because I love what I do. Because I've been through that. I know how it feels to be traumatized. I know how amazing it feels to be free of it, to be completely healed. So now, if I would change anything in my past, I wouldn't do what I do today. And I think this would be such, such a bummer because I love what I do. And it gives my story purpose.

Way too often, we forget that our story has meaning and that our story can help someone else because we think it's our story. It's not important, not true. But we have to have the courage to go up on stage and tell our truth. I can tell you the first time I did that, I was amazed at the positive feedback I got. I was so terrified. But the positive feedback was incredible. So always go back to the root. And the nugget is, remember why you started your business. That's my nugget. Always remember.

11:59 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Yeah, I love that. And again, so many times I think when you're going through frustration, trauma, fear, I feel like those are isolating feelings where you feel like you're the only one and you're by yourself. But I love how you talked about telling your truth, telling your story, because I think often we realize that when we do that, we, for one, I think, feel that weight that's kind of, you know, taken off of our shoulders. But two, I think it also is an extremely human connection and the ability for people to realize that they're not by themselves.

You start to tell your story and realize your story has seeds that are part of mine and vice versa. And then you start to have that ability to connect and have that human interaction that's on. Sometimes it wouldn't happen if we didn't stand up and talk about our truth or our story. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're open to different, quote-unquote, CEO's on the show. So, Sandra, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:52 – Sandra Cooze

Well, as I told you in our pre-interview, I find the term CEO very intimidating, since I'm a one-woman show. But being a CEO gives me purpose. It tells me I built something. You know, when you come from a heritage of people who only worked for others and never had the courage to step out and do their own thing, it's an accomplishment. It means I'm changing the narrative of my family. It's just like ancestral trauma that's being passed down from generation to generation. I say that stops with me. I'm done with that.

I don't agree with this. This is not who I am. I do my own thing most of the time, makes you the black sheep of the family. But that's okay. You're not supposed to please your family. It's supposed to please yourself. So for me, it's really going for what I wanted. And really saying, I don't care if you believe in me or not. I'm doing this. And this is very empowering.

13:45 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I love that. And especially, you know, like we were talking about, like, you know, stepping into those shoes, stepping into the quote-unquote CEO shoes. And I think so many times we forget that when we step into shoes, sometimes the shoes might feel like they fit right. They may feel, you know, like they're too big or whatever it might be. But when we do that, as you said, we often forget about the impact that we can have. And the impact is not just within ourselves, as generational as you alluded to and talked about making those changes. And I think so many times when you step into those shoes, those shoes aren't necessarily for everybody.

So they're not going to necessarily understand that. They're not going to fit for somebody else. But when you step into yours, you start to make that impact, and you start to not only make that impact yourself and the people around you, but you also start to inspire people to find their shoes and step into theirs so that they can do the same thing. So I absolutely love that. Well, Sandra, truly appreciate that definition, that perspective. And I appreciate your time, of course, even more so, what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And, of course, how best people can get a hold of you, get a copy of your book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:51 – Sandra Cooze

Okay, well, people can find me on my website@riseaboveyourstory.com, and if how I work resonates with you, I offer a 30-minute free call where we can get to know one another and see if you resonate with me and if you would like to work with me and see how I can help you get my book.

15:11 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And to make it even easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well, too, so that everybody can get a copy of your book and, of course, get in contact with you to take advantage of that offer that you have as well, too. But I love your company name. I love everything that you're doing and building.

I think so many times we feel like we are at the mercy of our story but not realizing that we have the pen a lot of times or pencil in our hands and we get to rise above them. We get to rewrite, we get to do so many different things. So I love you, you know, helping empower people to do that. I love that you shared your story and everything you're doing today. Appreciate you so much and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:46 – Sandra Cooze

Thank you. Was such a pleasure being here.

15:49 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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