MAKE PEACE WITH THE PAST & LET YOUR HEART GUIDE YOU IN NEW DIRECTIONS

A Quest for Well-Being Interview with

Claudia Garbutt

A molecular biologist turned mindset & high-performance coach!

1.  What makes you happy and what makes you feel successful?

I wish I could say that I’m enlightened enough to not need any external validation, but if I’m being honest, I love the moments when clients (or strangers) reach out to me to tell me that my work matters and has made a real difference in their lives. It makes me feel happy AND successful at the same time.

Moreover, my love language is “words of affirmation”, so no wonder this is making me feel great.

  

2.  What inspired you to become who you are and to do what you do today?

I think if I hadn’t had a near-death experience in the form of cancer when I was 28, I might be a completely different person today. While it certainly wasn’t fun, it was pretty transformative.

When you’re confronted with your mortality, it often allows you to shift your focus from all the things that you fear or lack to what you actually have or want.

It forces you to ask the tough questions and it puts things into perspective: Suddenly you understand that some things that seemed so important before were only ego-driven pursuits, while other things that you neglected were actually the things that fed your soul.

It allowed me to understand that there’s more to living a successful life than academic achievements, checking things off your to-do list, curating your CV & fulfilling everyone else’s expectations.

So today, it’s my mission to coach other people to live happier, healthier, and more creative lives without sacrificing their health, relationships, or happiness.

 

3.   Who would benefit most from your work and message?

The people who benefit most from working with me are the Type A entrepreneurs who excel at their work but struggle with the human side of entrepreneurship (emotional mastery, stress management, effective communication, burnout prevention, smart productivity, leadership…).

They are mission-driven and hard-working but realize that even though they might have achieved the financial success and status they were looking for, this external success came at a huge cost: They feel wired but tired, disconnected, restless, and strangely unfulfilled. They think that they should be happy with what they have achieved and feel guilty for feeling empty and numb instead.

I help them understand why they are feeling the way they feel and how to get out of that frustrating state so that they can create more with greater ease & flow.

  

4.  What is it like working with you from a client’s perspective?

I don’t believe in tough love because I know that my Type-A people are already their own toughest critics who put immense pressure on themselves.

Instead, I create a safe, judgment-free space for you that allows you to take off your mask and just BE yourself. No need to impress anyone. No need to protect anyone.

Even though I don’t believe in tough love, I will absolutely tell you the truth, even if it’s uncomfortable, so that we can work through the discomfort together. With kind curiosity, we explore your goals, motivations, triggers, mindset, personality, preferences, and routines to separate the things that are working for you from those outdated, maladaptive ones that are no longer serving you.

Research has shown clearly how important the mind-body-connection is for overall health & well-being and that’s why we leverage psychology & physiology simultaneously to get you into a positive upward spiral of improving holistic health.

Depending on your preferences and what you’re trying to achieve, we incorporate tools like cognitive behavioral therapy, neurolinguistic programming, or hypnotherapy to help you re-program your mind for success.

We’ll also explore simple daily biohacks that help you raise your energy level, focus & motivation and help you be happy, healthy, and productive in the long run.

 

5.  What are some of the misconceptions most people have about healing?

Type-A entrepreneurs often believe that if they let go of their tension - even just a little bit – everything will come crashing down like a house of cards. They hold onto everything with a very tight grip because they fear losing their competitive edge if they start to be kinder to themselves and others.

This is a myth. You do your best work when your mind and body are in a relaxed and nourished state, not when you’re run down, sleep-deprived, and stressed out of your mind. If you have achieved amazing things so far – how much more could you achieve if you optimized your systems?

  

6.   What does emotional freedom look like? How can your work help?

Emotional freedom is something that I’m still working on myself. To me, it’s the ability to not take things personally, to sit with the discomfort of facing an uncomfortable truth, and to stay open and responsive in an argument instead of becoming reactive.

By helping my clients understand their triggers, express their needs, and communicate them in a non-violent way, we work towards this goal of emotional freedom.

 

7.  What is the difference between the subconscious and the unconscious mind?

The conscious mind is characterized by explicit awareness, voluntary control, limited processing capacity, and relatively slow, sequential processing. It operates in real-time, allowing individuals to intentionally direct attention, make decisions, and engage in deliberate actions.

In contrast, the unconscious mind functions with implicit awareness, automatic processes, and a vast processing capacity that enables rapid, parallel processing.

The unconscious is the autopilot operating outside of conscious control, handling routine tasks, and utilizing associative connections. It stores a wealth of information, including memories and learned behaviors, often influencing behavior without direct conscious involvement.

While the conscious mind is deliberate and focused, the unconscious mind operates swiftly, leveraging automatic responses and drawing on a wealth of stored knowledge and experiences.

The interplay between these two aspects of the mind contributes to the complexity of human cognition and behavior.

And annoyingly, oftentimes, the answers to the questions that drive you nuts and that you’re so desperately looking for are hidden in the unconscious parts of your mind. In order to access those answers, you have to slow down and give your mind the time, space, and right prompts that allow that information to surface.

 

8— Talk to me some more about your offerings and services… Do you meet your clients in person and remotely? Do you offer group and corporate coaching?

My coaching is mainly done online, either in a 1:1 setting, or in small groups. This year, I started to lean more into the health optimization/health tech/biohacking space and created a holistic business accelerator program for early-stage HealthTech entrepreneurs who want to stress-test their ideas & concepts, build systems for sustainable success, get expert guidance, tailored support & peer feedback in a supportive, tight-knit community. There are only 5 spots available for the next round, so if you would like to learn more and/or be considered for one of them, please apply here:

https://bit.ly/HealthTechCollective

The latest project I’m working on is planning a virtual summit for early 2024: The FutureFit Summit with a focus on Health Technology and Health Optimization. The mission is to reach 1M+ of health enthusiasts from all around the world who would like to explore the latest science, tools, and strategies for peak performance, wellbeing, and longevity.

I’ve just begun to select event sponsors and speakers, so if you’re reading this and you’re interested in learning more, feel free to fill in this form:

https://bit.ly/FutureFitSummit2024

If you prefer to work through content in your own time, I also offer a 5-day smart productivity course for entrepreneurs that teaches them simple, science-based strategies to get rid of the overwhelm and busywork so that they free up 1-2h per day for all the things that are important to them: https://wiredforsuccess.thrivecart.com/productivity-course-for-entrepreneurs/

 

9— Ultimately, what is freedom to you?

To me, freedom is being able to follow my curiosity, explore playfully, and curate my experiences without being weighed down by worries, financial limitations, or pressure from other people.

 

10— If life had one purpose, one purpose only, what would that be?

To leave the world a little better than you found it.

 

11— What three experiences you wish everyone to have before they die? 

1.   Travel the world to see all the beauty and to understand that there are a million different ways to live your life and YOU get to pick & choose what works for you.

2.   Take some time off work to focus on yourself and explore your inner landscape – go to the places you’re hiding from yourself so that they stop haunting you, make peace with the past & let your heart guide you in new directions.

3.   Get out of your comfort zone: Do something that is in your best interest and aligned with your goals yet scares the living daylights out of you.





MEET CLAUDIA

Claudia Garbutt is a molecular biologist turned mindset & high-performance coach who teaches ambitious, mission-driven entrepreneurs the fundamental mechanisms at the intersection of physiology and psychology that drive human behaviour, achievement & wellbeing so that they can finally ditch the hustle, overwhelm & busywork, show up as authentic & confident leaders and build their legacy.

She uses science-based approaches to teach them how they can work WITH their brain & body instead of AGAINST them to stay happy, healthy & productive and achieve their goals without burning out or sacrificing their health, relationships, or happiness. 

She’s also the host of the Top10 entrepreneurship podcast, the “Wired For Success Podcast” where she talks about all things science, self-development & entrepreneurship that help entrepreneurs build million-dollar businesses - without sacrificing their health, relationships, or happiness.

In her latest venture, the Health Tech Collective, a holistic start-up accelerator program for early-stage health tech entrepreneurs, she sets ambitious founders on the fast track toward sustainable success. 

Website:

www.wiredforsuccess.solutions

 

Claudia also hosts the Wired For Success podcast where we talk about all things science, self-development & entrepreneurship that help you get to that next level of success in your life & business.

Most of the episodes are interview episodes with amazing experts & entrepreneurs from all around the world, like David Heinemeier Hanson (creator of Ruby on Rails, co-founder of Basecamp & HEY), Kristina Mänd-Lakhiani (co-founder of Mindvalley), or Andrew Herr (founder & CEO of Fount). Expect a mix of inspirational stories & actionable tips that you can implement straight away.

The show is available on all major podcasting platforms and you can find it here:

https://linktr.ee/wiredforsuccess

Wired For Success Podcast:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wiredforsuccess

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-garbutt/

https://www.facebook.com/peartreepond

https://www.instagram.com/wired_for_success/

https://www.pinterest.de/wiredforsuccess_solutions/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfO-c_wLdeLH2LuwYNLTkdA

https://www.tiktok.com/@wired_for_success