Howdy!
Thank you for your interest in my life coaching service. My life coaching consultations are meant to help you optimize your life journey and/or provide spiritual guidance along your existing life path. Everyone’s life and spiritual journey is different and not everyone progresses at the same pace, thus the guidance given must be custom-tailored to create the greatest improvement to your life quality. Let me guide you through tapping into your inner spirituality so you can unlock your true potential and reach the goals that are most important to YOU.
Why Become a Life Coach?
My decision to become a life coach originated from a calling from God that I’ve held as a child – to be of service to others. I’ve always wanted to help people because as a child, I felt that there was no one to help me evolve in the ways that I wanted – I was forced to grow in a way that was “acceptable”. I strongly believe that everyone has the right to decide (independently) what the best version of themselves looks like and my goal is to help you reach that in any way possible – whether that is to help you determine what life goal(s) are most important to you or to help you create a better game-plan for execution. I’d love to share with you the wisdom I’ve gained through my life lessons so that I can help propel you forward while helping you avoid some of the pitfalls and mistakes that I’ve experienced, thus optimizing your path for success.
Further, I come from a background of people who envy my accomplishments but do not take my advice. As frustrating as that has been, I’ve learned that it’s not my job to teach and/or save everyone so I’m working on getting out of the “free” advice business and now wish to only give advice to those who see true value in the wisdom that I can provide.
What Qualifies Me as a Life Coach?
I’ve learned from many great people in my life and I firmly believe that what makes a great leader is an individual that has been in a variety of life situations – triumph or fail – and has grown wiser as a result. I’m a 1st generation Nigerian–American man who was born with a birth defect that impacted the development of my right hand, causing me to have fingers that are half-length. To further pile on, I persevered through a childhood where I was both physically and mentally abused and needed to integrate into American culture with little guidance all while maintaining my Christian faith.
Despite the odds stacked against me, I ended up achieving my level of success prior to exiting corporate America. Coming from an abusive childhood where I wasn’t given the adequate leadership skills to reach my goals, I allowed the “streets to raise me” and developed a balance between being book-smart and street-smart with Christianity being my north star. With this unique approach, I’ve been able to navigate through life’s pitfalls and give my inner-child the life he always wanted to live by overcoming several obstacles in my life and checking many items off my bucket list such as:
- Building my first computer at age 9 and being the “go-to” computer guy for a multitude of individuals including family and friends for decades.
- Mastering home-row typing despite my disability and being able to type ~90 words-per-minute.
- Failing four classes my freshman year in high school but successfully recovered and graduated with a ~2.6 GPA. [Ref1] [Ref2]
- Survived failing out of both LVN and RN nursing schools despite spending 6 years on the endeavor. [Ref1]
- Quitting my part-time tech job to start my first trading company and ended up losing ~45k and over 150 points on my credit, but recovered from massive debt and suicide ideation. [Ref1]
- Switched to my dream career in Cybersecurity and graduated with a degree in IT – Security from WGU where I served as the commencement speaker for the School of IT. [Ref1] [Ref2]
- Becoming a Fortune 150 Cybersecurity consultant and winning numerous awards during my tenure. [Ref1]
- Served as a day-one responder to a Fortune 80 organization affected by NotPetya, one of the largest cybersecurity attacks in history. This was a multi-month engagement where our team of three conducted a full-investigation concluding with a final report/debrief to the C-Suite and Board of Directors.
- Graduated from University of Houston with a Masters in Information Systems Security, obtaining a 3.94 GPA and graduating top of my class from an in-person program all while traveling, often coast to coast, for my Fortune 150 Cybersecurity Consulting job. [Ref1] [Ref2]
- Solo-traveling around the world and learning more about my favorite cultures. [Ref1]
- Solo-traveled to the Maldives islands during the Covid-19 pandemic and was able to experience my best vacation (to date). [Ref1]
- Fulfilled my childhood dream of owning a motorcycle and steadily gained experience until I was comfortable enough to learn advanced riding techniques at the motorcycle track. [Ref1]
- Created my Budget, Save, Invest (B.S.I) system and executed it systematically over 7 years which allowed me to quit my Fortune 150 consulting job and pursue entrepreneurship. [Ref1]
- Started my second trading company “C Still Capital” where I trade options as an investment vehicle. [Ref1]
- Created the hashtag #StartedFromPaylessShoes to highlight my struggle of “starting from the bottom”. [Ref1]
- Overcame my social anxiety and started embracing my creative dance expression through the hashtag #DanceTherapy. [Ref1]
- Created the #StillMaxims hashtag where I share the life principles that have helped guide me through life. [Ref1]
- Made significant contributions to the #PositiveMasculinity hashtag where I share advice that battles toxic masculinity and instead encourages men to embrace the healthy parts of masculinity. [Ref1]
- Answered the call from God to be used as a vessel [Ref1] [Ref2]
- Created an IT Tutoring business where I leverage my 25+ years of IT experience and 14+ years of professional experience to deliver training to professionals looking to expand their knowledge to reach their educational and/or career goals. [Ref1][Ref2]
- Endured 9 months of homelessness while running business operations [Ref1][Ref2]
*Refs contain links to supporting content
After achieving all of these goals for myself, I have strong belief in my ability to help others reach their goals by giving them that extra “push” that they need. While I am a man who has spent extensive time in therapy and will sing its praises, I will also say that I am not a therapist. With that said, your coaching requirements may extend past my expertise or you may wish to cross-reference my recommendations with your mental health professional (if applicable) as this is a territory that I truly do leave up to the professionals. My goal is to give you holistic advice that will help push the needle forward in your life but mental health issues add additional complexities that may inhibit the effectiveness of the advice that I provide.
Lastly, I will be forthright and admit that my advice will often come with a spiritual component, as I am a spiritual individual. While I am respectful of everyone’s faith and beliefs, there may be times in our journey where there is a clash of ideals and I will always respect your desire to refuse my advice – I invite everyone to take the part(s) of my advice that are fulfilling and throw away the rest as appropriate.
Areas of expertise in Spiritual Life Coaching:
- Healing Childhood Trauma: Growing up in a childhood where one was physically, mentally, and/or sexually abused can lead to long-lasting issues such as (social) anxiety, depression, self-sabotage, and low self-confidence. In order to reach your full potential, you must address and heal from these traumas to remove the blockages they have created.
- Healing Church Hurt: Many people have sought God through the church only to experience condemnation and rejection. Healing church hurt involves healing the trauma of rejection and developing a personal, direct connection to God. Your connection to God is meant to be strengthened by, instead of reliant solely upon, the church home of your choice.
- Developing a Spiritual Path: Your spiritual path begins with connecting to self, and then exploring your innate interests and talents. Through embracing these interests and talents, you discover your PURPOSE, which allows you to create something greater than yourself that can leave a positive impact in this world.