We’re looking forward to introducing you to Alecia Wellen. Check out our conversation below.
Alecia, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I am wandering, as you call it.
We spend the first part of our lives walking a path that is built for us by societal norms, parental guidance, education, and Corporate America, among other things. We get to a midway point where our lives demand to be more value-aligned and fulfilling. This is where the wandering comes in. I found myself being nagged by the Universe to do something bigger, better, and different. The life I built now supports the life that is being demanded to be lived. I have never felt more free, creative and fulfilled than I do right now in this stage of life.
That was a long way of answering that I’m wandering, but I’d go further to say I’m wandering and thriving.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a 26-year Wall Street professional who decided to incorporate professional coaching, business consulting, and energy work into the career I’m building for the greater good.
I work with national and international leaders and high achievers who seek to leverage their inflection points to reach their full potential, whether in their personal or professional lives. I help entrepreneurs, executives, and small businesses explore where they are now, how they want to accelerate and elevate them to where they want to go next.
Helping trailblazers optimize themselves in times of transition is where I thrive. The common denominator among all my clients is that they’ve reached the end of their socially conditioned lives and are called to be someone they’ve never been before and to exceed their own expectations of success in a more unique and value-aligned way that is not dictated by a training program, but instead comes from within.
I’ve been called a catalyst for change. My own education, corporate career, and coaching experience are what set me apart, uniquely, from other coaches.
I am currently developing a new age training program for corporations to utilize, which combines the realities of corporate leadership with individual leadership skills derived from each unique participant.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I was working at a financial services firm, and I had been tasked with building a new line of our business. When the building phase was complete, a new leader came in and decided not to promote me to the Director role of that business line. Instead, I was asked to train a peer to do the job I had been doing, so that he could head the department I had built, and I was to be redirected to another area to create something else. I quit on the spot. I had a new lens on life: sometimes, you can do everything right and still not get the result you worked hard for. Promotion isn’t linear, and a career path isn’t always “up and to the right”.
I gained a wonderful perspective through that challenging growth phase, and it centers on making space for opportunities to present themselves in highly unusual and uncomfortable ways. Remaining curious, rather than defining undesirable results as failures, has enriched my life in many ways.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
I changed my mind about failure itself.
Seeing failure not as a dead end on the road to success, but as a detour instead, is a valuable perspective that can enhance any experience. Failure is a necessary step on the path, and we can control how we perceive and define it. By letting go of outcomes and expectations, we can create a container for the unexpected and start to leverage what we might otherwise be inclined to fear or avoid.
Failure is an indicator that we are actually taking risks and doing something. If there is never a failure to experience it, it likely means we aren’t doing anything at all. The horizontal movements aren’t as sexy as the vertical movements, but they depend on each other nonetheless.
Adapting and moving on from failures helps us stay curious and discover new successes more quickly than someone who keeps dwelling on why things didn’t work out as they thought they would. A perceived “failure” says nothing about someone’s value at their job. On the other hand, their ability to persist says a great deal about their work ethic, character, and capabilities.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I am committed to continually learning to better myself. This is a journey, not a destination, that I believe has an implicit and explicit model.
I hope to continually improve and do better, all while staying true to my values and finding fulfillment at every stage of the journey. It serves me to live an extraordinary life this way, but I also hope it inspires my kids, and anyone else watching, to do the same.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
If I retired tomorrow, I think my clients would miss my quick wit that usually gives them pause, a belly laugh, and then a hard truth.
I hope that my quick wit and one-line responses, which often challenge my clients, will go with them wherever they go.
To this day, I can still hear my own coach’s and my parents’ messages when I’m about to do something, and they serve as great reminders and influences. I want to be that voice in their ears for anyone I have interacted with. A reminder that their hard work and my guidance are with them all the time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aleciawellen.com
- Instagram: aleciawellencoaching and _whatredsaid_
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecia-wellen
Image Credits
Jennifer Olson Photography
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