David Taylor-Klaus, a professional coach and the creator of Better Human Better Life, joins Niiamah Ashong on the Outlier's Edge Podcast to talk about what it takes to live a better life. He shares why he markets by giving people what they need rather than poking at their pain, and walks through the five elements of his approach: grace, space, flow, knowing and aliveness. What emerged is his core belief that the best way for a person to get better at what they do is to get better at being who they are at their core.
Episode at a glance
- Guest: David Taylor-Klaus, Professional coach and creator of Better Human Better Life
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released November 22, 2022
- Format: conversation, 44 minutes
- Topics: Being before doing, Life first, with fabulous work in it, Marketing without poking the pain, Grace and space, Flow and inner knowing, Expanding aliveness
What David brought to the conversation
David Taylor-Klaus is starting his 14th year as a professional coach, and Niiamah Ashong describes him as a masterful coach and a masterful human he turns to with questions about business, integrity and becoming a father. He introduces himself as a husband, parent and friend who gets paid to be a coach; he and his wife share offices, have been married over 30 years, and have three kids and a daughter-in-law. He has been involved in the advertising and marketing space since the mid-to-late 1990s, when he launched an internet strategy and web development company. Now he is creating Better Human Better Life, a framework and a community that make conscious the process he has been taking his clients through.
What emerged
The central idea is that being comes before doing. David Taylor-Klaus believes the best way to get better at doing is to get better at being who a person is at their core, and his five elements map how that happens: grace and space feed each other, flow lets inner knowing surface, and aliveness expands each time through the loop. Niiamah Ashong heard in it a principled path to aliveness he had not heard anyone describe before, and saw it as a light on a path people are already walking.
Questions this episode answers
What does it mean to be a better human?
David Taylor-Klaus says most people try to get better at doing what they do, but the best way is to get better at being who they are at their core. Better human isn't better in the eyes of anyone else, a culture or an influencer: it starts with where a person is out of alignment with their values and where messages from socialization or education are off target with who they are, and as that gets cleaner, everything they do in the world gets better.
How can a business market without poking at people's pain?
David Taylor-Klaus has worked in the advertising and marketing space since the mid-to-late 1990s, and he no longer wants to play the game of poking at what wakes people up at three in the morning, or marketing chocolate and then delivering broccoli. He wants to market, sell and serve by giving people who want what they need exactly that, and he frames it simply: everyone has their own language for what they want to be different, and all of it fits under a better life.
What are the five elements of Better Human Better Life?
David Taylor-Klaus names grace, space, flow, knowing and aliveness. Grace, a form of acceptance and empathy for oneself, for others and for one's circumstances, opens up space, and space makes room for more grace, so together they are the engine. Flow lets inner, somatic knowing surface, and as each element grows, aliveness expands in a loop a person goes through again and again.
How can a leader get into flow more often?
David Taylor-Klaus uses breath and meditation: he meditates every morning and takes time to breathe and get centered before every coaching call, podcast appearance or time on stage, because being fully present is when he creates the impact he is here to create. He also records client sessions so both he and the client can stay in flow instead of taking notes. Niiamah Ashong connected this to grace: giving oneself ten minutes to get ready instead of insisting on already being ready.
What does it look like to build your world around life rather than work?
David Taylor-Klaus introduces himself as a husband, parent and friend who gets paid to be a coach, and he says his greatest accomplishments live in his personal world. His world is oriented around having a life, and part of that life is doing some fabulous work out in the world.
In their words
I have a fundamental belief that blank space is the container within which, and the only container within which, we can create and co-create with the universe.
David Taylor-Klaus
I want to market and sell and provide and serve by giving folks who want what they need what they need.
David Taylor-Klaus
The best way to get better at doing what you do is to get better at being who you be, who you are at your core.
David Taylor-Klaus
Key moments
05:44 – Introducing himself by who he is
07:17 – A life with fabulous work in it
08:51 – Blank space as a container
10:56 – Marketing without poking the pain
15:36 – Being before doing
19:48 – Musical chairs for the right seat
23:27 – Five elements of a better life
26:05 – Grace and space as the engine
28:11 – How aliveness expands
33:53 – Breath as a path to flow
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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