An Interview with San Diego Voyager
Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Clowminzer.
Greg, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was a stressed-out young professional who was disillusioned with my career path and lifestyle back in the day. I was on a fast track at the time and became a partner and vice president of a commercial investment real estate company specializing in sales and acquisition of multi-family properties. I was very active in the community and held several leadership positions at both a local and state level.
The good news is I was making a decent living which afforded me to invest in myself. As I begin learning about myself and what made me tick and I started to get really excited about what I was learning and couldn’t wait to share it with others. Although I was quite shocked that others didn’t share my same enthusiasm for my new understandings.
It took me about 2 years to build up the courage to leave my career and start the next chapter. I will never forget the day that I handed in my letter of resignation and spontaneously began crying uncontrollably, tears and snot rolling down my face ruining my silk tie and splashing off my Italian shoes.
It was at that moment that who I thought I was came to a crashing halt. It was like falling into the abyss. I hadn’t realized how much my ego identity was wrapped up in my titles and career until that moment. My resignation didn’t come with a well thought out plan, it was more like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. I figured it might take me some time to reinvent myself but then I had a little help.
After I resigned I spent much of my time hiking and rock climbing. Until one day I was out rock climbing and fell 35 feet without being tied into my rope. Luckily, I am still alive to talk about it but did end up breaking both my ankles and fracturing my pelvis and spent the next 5 and a half months in a wheelchair.
To say this event was life-changing would be an understatement. Something cracked open inside of me that completely changed how I experienced life. For the first time in I don’t know in how long, I experienced a sense of quiet and beingness that had somehow gotten away from me. It’s like a whole new world opened up for me.
As I healed and allowed myself to be, I was inspired to teach and support others to live a life of no regrets. I originally created a one day program called Passion For A Change which was designed to help people get in touch with their dreams and passions. The program was a real hit and people started making significant changes in their lives.
This was back in 1994 when coaching was in its infancy I had this idea about offering to coach to people who had attended my program to help them transition from where there were to where they were headed and about 30% of them said yes. And, coaching was born. As I began to call myself a coach I got a lot of blank stares or comments like what sports do you, coach.
I was fortunate enough to have crossed paths with a guy name Thomas Leonard who was starting up the first coaching certification program called Coach University. Most coaches these days don’t realize the impact of Thomas’s work but he is also instrumental in the founding of the ICF which is the International Coaching Foundation.
So, a big part of my professional coaches training comes from Coach University along with hiring my own coach. As my coaching visibility grew I ended up helping professionals much like myself get clear on both their personal and professional goals.
My clients were mostly professional service provider, attorneys, dentists, loans officers, financial planners, insurance, real estate, chiropractors.
At the same time, I had a growing interest in eastern philosophy and esoteric teaching and stumbled upon some unknown but remarkable spiritual teachers who took me under their wings. I started to share these teachings with some of my clients and they were really interested, in fact, they were more interested in the spiritual teachings then the how to make more money stuff. As my understandings and insights deepened I found myself hosting weekly gatherings where people would come hear what I had to say and it grew to were 40-50 people would gather each week.
After about 8-9 years of teaching, I notice that people were not looking within themselves for wisdom but looking to me. So, I pulled the plug and stopped teaching for about 3 years. I still had a small coaching practice but I took some time to reflect and looked deeply into the nature of how to serve people in a way the truly empowers them. I gradually started to invite people to meet with me and learn how to tap into their own innate wisdom.
Fast forward to today and that’s all I do these days is teach people a new way to think about thought and how to unlock their innate wisdom and human potential. These days I am dedicated to inspiring, educating and encouraging high-performance professionals to look within as there primary goal in life.
Greg Clowminzer is a pioneering transformational business and life coach who has a unique way of helping professionals by educating them how their minds work and how human beings create their experience. He offers year-long coaching engagements, live events, and webinars to professionals and entrepreneurs who are dealing with business challenges and performance related issues.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The first challenge is when you are the first one to the party and no one is there yet. What I mean by that is that when I started coaching wasn’t even on the map so I had to go around town and educate people about what coaching was. People didn’t take you to serious back in the day.
The second thing that I ran into is people would see thier friends and family start to change and they would wonder who is this guy and what kind of therapist is he. I actually had people giving me a hard time in the beginning say that I was practicing therapy without a license.
Back in the day company’s were very freaked out about anything that was spiritual or non-linear. Having been at this for so long, I was one of a very few coaches in town.
Nowadays everyone is seemly a coach and with the help of the internet, it’s sometimes hard to find out who the real deal is until you speak to someone in person. Having a home based business is not for the faint of heart as it can get lonely at times.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I have been in the coaching and training business since 1994 and have coached a wide range of clients and situations.
These days my coaching practice is focused on working with high-performance service providers who have a business, personal or life challenge that’s impeding their quality of life and or a performance related issue.
I am part of a global community that is dedicated to bringing forth a new paradigm for understanding human performance that is revolutionary. This new understanding is so simple yet so powerful that and teaches people how their minds actually work not how they think they work.
Apart from one on one coaching my favorite thing to do is work with small groups of people sharing the inside out understanding of how peoples minds work, and where people experiences are coming from. I find a tremendous amount of joy witnessing the awakening of the human spirit.
What were you like growing up?
I loved the ocean and grew up surfing in Point Loma and Ocean Beach. I had some very difficult challenges growing up, having to do with loss at a pretty young age, which was a major set backs for me. As a result, I feel like I was kind of a late bloomer.
Most of my youth I was dealing with a lot of personal issues leaving me feeling quite lost, confused and very insecure and I covered it all up by pretending to be a tough guy.
Today I am honestly grateful for my past as it is what has led me down this path of helping and serving others.
If you would you like to discus how we might work together, book an appointment on my calendar below.
I look forward to speaking with you.
Greg Clowminzer
San Diego Business Coach