We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Angelique Atwell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Angelique, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I have played sports my entire life and even ventured into coaching volleyball which is what I had the opportunity to play in college. I have always loved helping people learn or see a different perspective in life. In 2020, I was a new mom with a 1 year old and I realized how tough motherhood was but also with the pandemic, my mental health was declining as well as self care.
I decided to start a small business with products that had self love or self care type of phrases as quick reminders for everyone that taking care of yourself is essential to our overall wellbeing. Then, I coincidentally read the book You Are a Badass by Jenn Sincero who started off as a life coach before becoming a author and speaker. I resonated so much with her story as well as having a couple of people ask me if I was a life coach based on the content I put out online.
I quickly realized coaching was more of my passion than a product based business. So I closed my first business, got certified as a life coach, began taking on free clients, and the rest is history.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Angelique Atwell and I am a certified mindset & life coach for millennial women of color, mother, crossfitter, and lover of all things chocolate!
I graduated from University of the Incarnate Word in 2015 with my BA in business marketing. And was also a collegiate athlete playing volleyball at UIW until I graduated.
While in college, I started to truly understand my struggle with self love and my mindset…
I have battled with my mindset, self empowerment, and self love journey for years until utilizing reflection, reading, and the realization that my life is too short to hate myself based upon unattainable societal standards.
I am 5’ 10” and have a muscular, athletic stature which is not as common for women of Hispanic ethnicity. I was teased for being “different” and felt as though I would never seem to fit in or be accepted for who I was and how I looked.
I decided that self deprecating and feeding into others opinions of me was not adding anything positive or of value to my life. And it turns out other people’s opinions has nothing to do with me and everything to do with them (but we can talk about that another time!)
Additionally, this all started with shifting my mindset and standing in my power as the woman that I am and accepting myself, all of me.
Enter 2020, I am a new mom and trying to navigate the craziness that came along with that year (we all know what happened😅) and so I decided to bring some light into the world.
I created my first small business PSMBS (plus sized mind, body, & soul) which was a self love and self care apparel and accessories brand. Sharing tips and ways to better take care of yourself and love yourself through the process.
I ultimately closed that business because it catapulted me into the life coaching and I’m SO glad it did!
I continued learning self advocacy, deep inner work, affirmations, mediation, and more I was able to become the confident, empowered woman that I am today. I deeply enjoy helping others achieve their goals, stand in their power, and love themselves through it all!
I have a brand new video training and a brand new podcast coming out for the women who are sick and tired of being sick and tired with their lives. These new additions to my business will serve as a way to break the initial barriers people might have when considering working with a mentor or coach like myself.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I firmly believe that persistence, trusting in myself, and curiosity have played a HUGE role in the overall development as a coach and business owner.
The best advice I can give to anyone is to trust yourself and the process. Also to focus on yourself as much as you can in the sense of not comparing yourself to others especially people in your specific industry. Because your chapter 1 could be their chapter 10 so you are doing yourself a disservice by being so hard on yourself when you just haven’t had enough time or experience yet.
Take what others are doing as inspiration and make it your own, not comparison or competition.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
My ideal clients are millennial women of color that are looking to expand their minds and be held accountable to new goals they are wanting to reach. Working women, moms, business owners, etc. A lot of my clients have an idea of what they want to do next but do not have the right type of support/insight from friends, family, or even their partners so having someone like a coach or mentor can be crucial to their overall growth.
Or some of my clients have NO idea what to do next in life. For example, they are nearing 30 years old and they feel like they are at a pivotal point in their job, relationship, or life in general.
I help come in as a neutral, third party type of perspective to help these women trust themselves and their intuition/gut feeling again because deep down we all have the answers inside of us but we need help pulling them out sometimes.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.coachangatwell.com
- Instagram: @coachangatwell
- Facebook: facebook.com/coachangatwell
- Other: Tik Tok- @coachangatwell Email- coachangatwell@gmail.com
Image Credits
Personal photo in black dress- Marissa Simon of Marissa Simon Photo All other images- Joseph Espino of On A Dime Productions
