Niiamah Ashong coaches a podcast host and self-described knowledge broker in an Outlier to Trailblazer coaching session on the Outlier's Edge Podcast. The guest wants to know their purpose not only intellectually but with every cell of the body. What emerged is that the guest's own question needed to be rephrased with emotion, and Niiamah Ashong offered tools to bring purpose into the body: literal feel questions, a personal manifesto and a daily priming practice.
Episode at a glance
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released October 20, 2021
- Format: session, 43 minutes
- Topics: Purpose beyond the intellect, From reserved to public speaker, Asking emotional questions, Answering feel questions literally, Writing a personal manifesto, Saying a purpose out loud
What this session is about
The guest hosts a podcast on personal development mastery and describes the guest's purpose as facilitating humanity's shift, helping people change, adapt and grow, in the capacity of a knowledge broker and podcaster. That path began in 2016: after finishing a master's degree, the guest realized the field didn't hold the guest's passion, and a conversation about passive income led to one event after another, revealing how highly the guest values learning. At a personal development event, the guest recognized the limiting belief behind being a reserved person who wouldn't speak to anyone, and over the next few months came to see it as past conditioning rather than personality. Less than a year later, the guest delivered a first public speech on the stage of the same networking event where the guest once wouldn't speak to anyone, and today the guest hosts a podcast and holds live conversations with people the guest doesn't know, something the guest once found unimaginable.
What emerged
The guest arrived wanting to know the guest's purpose with every cell of the body, on every level and not only an intellectual one. Niiamah Ashong noticed that the guest navigates life by holding a question open and letting the path reveal itself, and invited questions with an emotional component: what scares, excites or saddens the guest about the purpose, and what would be the courageous thing to do if the guest were living it right now. By the end, the guest realized the original question had been approached from an angle that was difficult or impossible to answer, and that it needed to be completely rephrased, invoking emotion.
Questions this episode answers
How can a leader move a sense of purpose from the head into the body?
Niiamah Ashong suggests asking questions with an emotional component, such as what scares or excites someone about their purpose, and what would be the courageous thing to do if they were living it right now. He also asks for feel questions to be answered literally, like a tingling in the feet or a tightness in the chest, because if someone is not feeling their body, they can't tell what their cells are doing.
What is a personal manifesto and how is it used?
Niiamah Ashong describes a manifesto as a declaration of self into the world: somewhere between five and 15 written statements about who someone is and how they navigate the world. He takes 12 minutes to go through his own, spending time with the breath, He also describes a daily priming practice that was instrumental as he stepped into his purpose.
How did Niiamah Ashong learn to state his purpose with conviction?
Niiamah Ashong says it took him over a year. At first he was embarrassed to say it out loud and afraid people wouldn't take him seriously, so he put himself in environments where saying it felt uncomfortable, with his heart beating fast and his palms sweaty, and still said it without any disclaimers.
Can a reserved person become a confident public speaker?
The guest was once a closed, reserved person who wouldn't speak to anyone, and came to see that this was a limiting belief and past conditioning rather than personality. Less than a year after that event, the guest delivered a first public speech on the stage of the same networking event, and today hosts a podcast.
Why would a coach help someone question their own question?
Niiamah Ashong says the real gift of coaching is often when people answer a question he didn't ask, because that is the question weighing on their heart. His goal is to help people get such a different perspective that the problem they think they have becomes minimized or irrelevant altogether, so they can move toward what they truly want.
In their words
When you are driven by your very soul, then you are really at a completely different league of doing actions.
A participant
My soul's purpose in life is to champion the leaders who shape the next era of humanity.
Niiamah Ashong
I think the best questions provoke more questions. I think that the best answers are lived experiences.
Niiamah Ashong
Key moments
00:35 – Only the person in front matters
03:41 – Knowing purpose with every cell
09:26 – A purpose to facilitate humanity's shift
19:51 – A limiting belief, not a personality
25:03 – Wonder rather than fear
29:13 – Asking emotional questions about purpose
33:20 – Answering feel questions literally
36:26 – Writing a personal manifesto
37:58 – Saying his soul's purpose out loud
40:36 – Rephrasing the original question
About Niiamah Ashong
Niiamah Ashong is a coach to outlier leaders, host of the Outlier’s Edge Podcast, and founder of the Trailblazer Collective. He coaches leaders who are creating something only they can make: a company, a body of work or a movement. Make a difference with your difference.
Work with Niiamah: 1:1 with Niiamah | World of Difference
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