Featured Coach: Karl Bovenizer

Each week FAM Features a coach from our community, so we can get to know them and learn from their experiences.

Fast Facts

Name: Karl Bovenizer

From: Ireland Primary Values: Service, Honesty, Communication

Area of Expertise: Entrepreneurs, High Performance

Q&A

Why did you get into coaching? I had a really difficult and stressful relationship with a business partner and coaching really helped me and changed how I viewed the world. So, I decided to learn more and became a certified NLP practitioner. In the midst of my training I had a road to Damascus experience. I loved what I was doing and the changes I was seeing. At that point I felt my reason for being was to help people.

What is your philosophy/style/approach? I believe coaching comes fundamentally down to two things: 1. Listening, really listening, and 2. Asking the right questions. The client knows much more about what they really need and how to get it than I ever will. My job is to facilitate them in getting there, adding in whatever tools may help.

What book had the biggest change in your life and what did you learn from it? A difficult question as there have probably been a number. I love 'The Prosperous Coach' as it is all about how if we first serve we can do our best for our clients and our self. 'Conversational Intelligence' by Judith Glaser gave me a passion for the use of language in conversations and how it all interacts with our neurobiology giving us insights into building trust. But I just love to read and am always looking for something new to learn from.

Describe your biggest failure and what you learnt from it. Not trusting my self and over complicating everything. I set up my first fulltime coaching practice just before Covid hit, believing it would just happen. When obviously it didn't I started overselling myself, forgetting to serve. Just as I worked that out Covid hit. My chief lessons were to go back to basics, and trust your intuition. Lots of extra tools can help, but you need to trust your instincts first. Don't try to put clients in a box. Coach first, tools second. Oh, and I got a coach!

Describe your biggest success and how you achieved it. When I completed my NLP training, I did a technique where I visualised presenting a program to a business on communication and moving them forward. I put this visualisation two years away. In eighteen months I was running a program for a major law firm who wanted to change direction. Visualisation lets your subconscious know where you want to be. I still had to put the work in, but I saw all the opportunities I otherwise wouldn't have.

What’s one piece of advice you think everyone should follow? There is no such thing as failure, only feedback. Look back and learn from everything.

How do you handle stress? Better than I used to! Seeing lessons in everything helps. But primarily, being aware that we operate from an inside out direction is how I manage most issues. When you realise that most of your pain and stress comes from how you think about a 'thing' rather than the 'thing' itself, life gets a lot easier.

How do you prioritise and manage your time? Have a plan, break in down into steps, then break them down into steps. Always remember to build self care into any plan. With direction it is much easier to drive the brain forward.

How do you stay healthy? Meditation, Yoga, countryside. Eat in moderation.

What does happiness mean to you? My family being looked after and where they want to. Being with the right people and enjoying what I do for the majority of the time.

What does success look like to you? Seeing people I'm with -work or social - getting what they want out of life with some help from me. Being able to live in the moment with what I've got. I have no desire for mega wealth, but financial success for me is to be able to do the nice things in life without having to worry about money.

Describe your future self. Helping more people making both them and I successful. I envisage having a holistic coaching retreat in the West of Ireland on the coast. A retreat there will encompass 1-1 coaching, yoga and meditation sessions, fine food cooked by a top quality chef and walks / horse riding in the amazing and spiritual countryside. That would allow me to serve all parts of my client needs.

What are some of your core beliefs/guiding principles? I think service is number one. I look for that in myself, but also in those I work with. It is important to put people first, not profit. But the amazing thing is, if you do that, profit will follow - allowing you to do even more for your people. You've also got to love and believe in the people you work with, you are their champion

Describe the best transformation you witnessed in someone. I worked with a lawyer in his own successful firm who was trying to change the way he did business. He was a hyper intelligent person who always had 101 ideas going around in his head but could never act on them. He was also a very tough and angry boss. He turned completely around, started working with his staff and co-creating rather than yelling at them, managed his ideas better, and actually started to look towards more service based work.

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