Meet Sam Wigan
benefiting from some mentorship advice
Today we are benefiting from some mentorship advice from Sam Wigan, who is both an executive life coach and internationally selling sculptor. Himself has been blessed by incredible mentors in support of both endeavours - the great sculptor, David Wynne, and spiritual mentor and friend Dr. John-Roger.
Sam co-founded ‘Beluga Bean’, a wellbeing enterprise pioneering new strategies to work better and live better, together with Renée Elliot who had pioneered the UK’s first organic supermarket, Planet Organic, which became a cherished multi-million-pound brand.
Understanding very well the roller coaster of joys and challenges that face start-ups, entrepreneurs and business leaders, they mentor them on strategy, resilience and purpose, empowering people with skills that could be compared to a beluga bean, a nutritious lentil that packs a nutrition load way above its weight and size.
1. We are going through times of big transformations especially after the Covid year in 2020 and also times that require big transformations. I am thinking especially of the climate crisis with many people now finally raising to the awareness and acknowledging we need to evolve what we do and how we do it.
Are you seeing this same need for stepping change with your clients today? Does what we see happening in the outside world translate into your clients’ personal requests? Are people ready for change? Asking for it? Willing to look into it and do the inner work?
Covid has been transformational in many ways and obviously there have been vastly differing experiences of Covid-19 depending on your economic, accommodation and social circumstances, your geography and whether you or loved ones have been personally affected with the illness. So it’s a huge range of experience, including both positive and negative. But at a global scale, it has shown that there are certain seemingly impossible things we as a planet will do collectively when we’re motivated to do so. This is significant in terms of the environmental issues of today that must surely (eventually) become another galvanizing circumstance that leads us into new ways of being and doing together.
From a client perspective, again there has been such a range in experience and response to the past 18 months. I think it’s fair to report a general increase in anxiety. Also a request to find meaning, which is perhaps a natural response to the necessarily more insulated lives we’ve all been living i.e. less external distractions and activities. I’ve also observed an obvious need to be adaptable. An ability to embrace change and look for the opportunity, whether personal or professional, is always a good skillset and even more so lately.
The other thing that has been interesting in terms of the services we offer is the almost complete collapse of boundaries between personal and professional life. We’ve always said that work, like life, is a ‘whole-person process’, so in some ways it has been welcome that clients can now more readily relate to that idea, if they didn’t already.
2. It has been reported that many people in 2021 will probably look to do a career change as the economy restarts. For many people this will probably mean starting a new business or doing significant changes in their lives. A new chapter in life means new challenges. What would be your advice for people who are taking the plunge and starting over? Would you have any words of wisdom for them as they start something anew?
Oh my, that’s a big question too. And again, there are so many personal circumstances and conditions to consider. If I were to suggest one idea, maybe it’s to slow down and be thoughtful. We like to say: “there is usually a smarter, more effective and more enjoyable way”. For business owners or launchers specifically, we deliver the BOSS programme that helps entrepreneurs to be smart about their strategic plan and have the personal confidence to do it. Part of that is also to put yourself at the heart of your business. People are usually in a rush, having been sold an idea that you have to ‘go!go!go!’ to be successful, but that’s often very ineffective. So I suggest: slow down, be thoughtful, be strategic, and equip yourself with the personal skills to meet the inevitable challenges that are coming your way.
People are usually in a rush, go!go!Go!
Slow down, be thoughtful, be strategic
3. You put the accent on wellbeing in different spheres of your life in your coaching practice. Please could you tell us more about this particular pioneering strategic approach to create success in business and life and what it entails?
Sure. It’s called BeYourSelf. The big idea is self-awareness. We say ‘self-awareness is good for business’, which includes both your personal and your professional business.
As part of BeYourSelf we talk about your Six Spheres of Wellbeing, which are: Physical, Occupational, Psychological, Economic, Social and Spiritual. Everything in your world will sit across one or more of these spheres.
Because your world of wellbeing is very individual and always in flux, it can be hard to stay on purpose amid the competing demands on your attention at work, home and life. The opportunity, then, is to become more aware of what’s in play for you at any given time, including what really matters, such that you can better respond to your ever shifting external and internal environments. We therefore designed BeYourSelf to function as a practice too, that you can refer to day to day as a shortcut to clarity and as a deliberate activation of the intention you have for each sphere of your wellbeing. If you’re challenged with highly demanding work or an intense chapter in your life, this becomes an extremely valuable tool to have available.
Another way to think about BeYourSelf is as a journey of self-discovery, based on practical principles of self-awareness and neuroscience, such that you can better know and activate who you are. When people embrace this journey they tend to perform better in all aspects of their life, including work. They feel more in control, calmer, more on purpose. And when teams do this together, they experience more meaning and purpose at work and greater connectivity and trust within the organisation, all of which goes a long way to promoting the wider success of the business.
A big driver for us is our observation that when the individual steps more fully into who they are and is able to activate that moment to moment, day to day, week to week, everyone else in their world benefits too. At the macro level, therefore, we see this work as necessary for the greater benefit of the planet. That may sound a little grandiose, but it really is a big part of why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Your world of wellbeing is very individual and always in flux
Become more aware of what’s in play for you at any given time
4. Having personal and professional alignment in your life can be a big challenge in itself, but once people reach that step and decide to be in perfect alignment, what would be your advice then for them to move forward with confidence? Because, let’s be clear, fears and limiting beliefs can still (and will) come creeping in on a regular basis, right?
Yes, and perfect alignment is probably impossible, because everything is always in flux. So maybe the greater opportunity is to develop the self-awareness to more quickly identify when we are out of alignment (in any area of our life or work) and then to have the skills to more easily come back into alignment… moment to moment, day to day, week to week. I love that you referred to beliefs too. We look at this in BeYourSelf and it’s one of the most joyful aspects of the work for me: that who we are is in fact something entirely positive and always available.
But the idea is not to eradicate all limiting beliefs about ourselves forever, nice idea though that might be. For as long as you are here on this planet, you will likely be navigating some version of limiting ideas about yourself. So it’s really more about developing the self-awareness such that you better understand the positive aspects of who you are and the ways in which limiting beliefs show up for you, so that those limiting beliefs don’t run the show and you can more easily and quickly re-align with who you are.
In my experience, that is the most effective, enjoyable and rewarding place from which to live life. The journey, then, is one of greater and greater awakening to that, rather than an end point of perfect alignment.
follow your heart, your joy, in whatever ways are true for you
Which doesn’t have to match what anyone else would think of as being joyful
5. Beside your coaching practice you are also a very talented sculptor. I am very curious about this other creative aspect of yours. Are there any synergies or similarities for you between your two passions that you have noticed over the years? Anything that would also be useful for people to know when wanting to live a balanced life and avoid corporate burnout perhaps?
Well, the easy way to answer that is that the work of sculpting and self-awareness are absolutely expressions of my Heart. Though I have tried to let go of these expressions at different times, it turns out that they are very much a part of what makes sense for me to do in the world - like, it’s very hard not to do them! And I do consider that to be extremely precious: that I have these things that speak to what is in my Heart to do. I realise that’s a huge blessing in my life. But I will also add that doesn’t equate with it always being easy. As in, I have felt in the past that it might have been easier on me if I had been able to be more conventional in my approach to my work.
But in the end, you have to do and be what is true for you. So my encouragement is to follow your Heart, your Joy, in whatever ways that are true for you. Which doesn’t have to match what anyone else would think of as being joyful. Your work, for example, may have meaning for you because it provides for your family or for those things that you do outside of work that create deeper meaning for you. So it’s not like anyone is required to ‘follow their passion’ as their career path. Indeed, that may not be smart at all. But what is important is that, whatever you do, you learn to bring more and more of who you are to that, because ultimately that is where meaning is found, which is also the most effective and rewarding place from which to live and work and play.
Like Mother Teresa said, really there are no great deeds to do, just small deeds with great love.
Perhaps another way to point to the same thing is that, ultimately, the discovery of who we are is Love.