All of your burning questions about Ellen are answered in the Q&A below!
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Q: What did you do before becoming a coach?
A: I studied environmental studies and geology in college, completed my MBA in my late 20s, and went on to work in climate and energy for 13 years as an executive advisor and the senior leader in operations, finance and HR. I loved spending my days ensuring my organizations were thriving – strategically, financially, operationally, and culturally, but my very favorite part was always the people!
I learned early on that a thriving organization is reliant on the ability of each employee to thrive. To serve the individuals in the organizations, I looked at what was at the heart of the matter for staff – it was usually better communication and collaboration, trust and transparency, agreed upon frameworks and structures, a uniting vision and purpose, power with and not power over, and here’s the kicker – staff wanted to be treated like whole humans! Nourishing the human and partnering to meet both their professional and personal needs was the magical quotient that led to prosperity and success. Empowering others to reach their full potential was my greatest joy, so I decided to do it full-time!
Q: Why is climate your jam?
A: I was born with the initials EPA and thought I was destined to dedicate my life to saving the planet. I grew up with a close relationship with nature – camping, hiking, and canoeing from a young age. Global warming came into my awareness in 1992 and I knew that it was my cause – even at the young age of 11. It was obvious to me that the changing climate would define not only my future and my children’s, but the lives of every person on the planet, now and forever. My life purpose became finding out how I could use my unique abilities to best address the climate crisis.
Q: Why female leaders in climate and energy?
A: Well, I may as well get it out there now…I believe white patriarchal colonialist mindsets, institutions and structures in our dominant culture are the direct causes of climate change and the solutions thus far are rooted in the same place. How can the same approach solve what created the very problem? I believe that women have a greater aptitude to lead during this time – both in their superior leadership capabilities (HBR), but also because I believe feminine qualities like compassion, connection, and collaboration are essential requisites in climate leadership. Female leaders need to be nurtured, supported, and elevated to realize the transformation of our cultural narrative to one of connection, abundance, and joy–one where people and planet thrive.
Q: Why do you think regenerative leadership coaching is a solution to the climate crisis?
A: No generation in history has ever faced such complexity. The brain in our heads cannot solve the problems we face together. As a western society, we live in separation. We have cut ourselves off from the present moment, our own bodies, from each other and the world around us. By severing our true connection to all things, we’ve limited our intelligence and abilities to make decisions in our own best interest. To meet the complex challenges we face today, we must heal the separation within us and return to our true nature as embodied individuals to repair our connection to ourselves, each other, and the natural world. With regenerative coaching, transformation can begin on a meaningful, lasting level within the individual and is then reflected externally.
Q: How is your approach different from regular leadership coaching?
A: I draw on a unique combination of research-based human development science and methodologies as the foundation of my coaching approach. Rather than focusing solely on goal achievement and general leadership skills (as defined by the white patriarchy), I go to a deeper level, and combine conceptual and experiential learning to help clients achieve lasting transformation change. This includes developmental psychology, neuroscience & neurobiology, resiliency (managing stress at the level of the nervous system), complexity theory, presence cultivation, mindfulness, and somatics.
Q: What makes your coaching regenerative–what do you mean by that?
A: It’s regenerative because I put the framework, knowledge, and felt experiences into your hands – these capacities and competencies are ones that you can access for the rest of your life. Having a coach is like having a personal trainer – their job is to create a custom program for you to meet your health goals, teach you about the equipment at the gym, educate you so you know what exercises to do and how to do them. This equips you to go to the gym on your own for the rest of your life. Coaching is very similar, but focused on your personal and professional growth and-development.
Q: You say you’ve been on a personal journey into freedom, growth & joy – what is that about?
A: I’ve always sensed a higher-purpose in my life and have been drawn to teachers and guides that provide insight into a deeper, more meaningful way of existing in the world. The odd thing was, I always kept that side of me quiet and personal. In my work life, I was always sprinting in a marathon committed to my purpose. Until one day, after a particularly enduring sprint, my body said, ‘no more!’ The neurons in my brain zapped, I had a seizure, and my short-term memory took a three week break, leaving me without my rapid-fire, multi-tasking, super thinking abilities that made me, me.
It’s a longer story and pretty transformational (you can read about it in this post, My Journey into Freedom, Growth & Joy), but I was forced to live in the now. It opened me up to the fact that my life was not actually designed in my own best interest, that our society wasn’t designed in our own best interest. It rapidly became clear to me that our marginalization of people and the planet stemmed from our marginalizing ourselves. My personal journey rapidly accelerated and I chose to stop marginalizing myself and become whole–what I call my journey into freedom, growth and joy.
Q: What specialties do you have that lend expertise to your coaching?
A:
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Q: How would you describe your attributes and how you show up in the world?
A: ABOUT ME
★I am a seeker, sense-maker: Cultivating a path to the unlimited potential within.
★I am a servant wayshower: Guiding and uplifting those that are called to a higher purpose, creating a
better world for all.
★I am a disruptive unifier: Inviting new ways of thinking, being, and doing, inspiring unification around a
common purpose.
★I am a nurturing architect: Healing and reconnecting the ecosystem of individual, family, community,
and planet, finding balance and abundance.
★Orchestrating all of this, I am a galvanizing alchemist, in service to empowering the transmutation to a
new paradigm centered on care.
Q: What else do you like to do in life besides empower change-makers?
A: I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota (on occupied land of the Dakota and Anishinabe) with my partner Scott and two kids in grade school and we spend a lot of time being active ice skating, cross-country skiing, paddle boarding and hiking. We love getting out in nature whether that’s in and around our beautiful city or traveling. I love spending time almost anywhere outdoors, but my two favorite places to visit are the North Shore of Lake Superior and San Juan mountain range in Colorado. I’m a junkie for talking with loved ones, learning new things, mindfulness practices of all kinds, and baking.
Wishing you freedom, growth & joy,
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EXPERIENCE
ADDRESS
- ellen@freedom-growth-joy.com
- 3544 37th Ave S
- Minneapols, MN 55406
True freedom comes to those who choose it.
Land acknowledgement: I live on traditional, ancestral & contemporary lands of the Dakota people near Bdote, the confluence of the Minnesota & Mississippi Rivers.
