We recently had the chance to connect with Marlo Lyons and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Marlo, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
Most people assume coaching is about fixing problems or supporting individuals who are struggling. But coaching isn’t remedial. It’s not a punishment. That’s one of the biggest misconceptions about my work. When done well, coaching is actually a strategic business tool that strengthens culture, accelerates leadership capacity, and directly impacts performance and retention. It’s a proactive investment in culture, capability, and organizational longevity.
Organizations bring me in when their leader requests to work with me, or the company wants to invest in elevating a high-performing leader’s capabilities from executive to strategic leader. Today’s workforce expects leaders to know how to communicate, coach, influence, and build inclusive environments where people feel seen and valued. Yet most leaders were promoted for technical excellence, not for their ability to lead other humans. And leaders don’t have time to focus on how to be better leaders when they’re laser focused on their goals.
But in one hour a week, they get to stop, think, learn, and grow. They call it their “me” time to dig in deep. My work mainly focuses on listening and challenge leaders to think differently, consider new perspectives, feel confident in their business decisions, understand how to influence without authority, and leverage/manage relationships inside and outside of their companies. With that comes confidence in navigating complexity, understanding how to inspire their teams, helping their direct reports lead through constant ambiguity and change, being more adaptable in the face of uncertainty and so much more. The higher you rise, the lonelier it can be. It’s not nearly as lonely with an executive coach behind you.
So, to be super clear: Executive coaching isn’t for leaders who are “broken” or “don’t know what they’re doing.” My clients are all accomplished high-performers in the C-suite or at the top levels of their organizations who want to be more intentional about their own growth, be more self-aware, and be even more effective than they already are in their fields.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an executive and career strategist who has spent my career at the intersection of business, HR, and human development. Before becoming a globally certified executive, career, and team coach, I spent a decade as a TV news reporter honing my storytelling and executive presence. While in that field, I completed law school and became a CA licensed lawyer, which I leveraged in leading teams in overseeing production risk on reality shows at entertainment companies. I then pivoted again, this time to HR, where I coached C-suite leaders on talent strategies, organizational design, change management, and transformation inside fast-moving and scaling organizations.
My life experience combined with that dual perspective—understanding both what drives a business forward and what its people need to thrive—is what makes me unique as an executive coach. Today I partner with executives, high-potential leaders, and organizations who want to deepen leadership capability and prepare their workforce for what’s next. My coaching is rooted in real-world business experience. No theory here. I have been a leader inside high-pressure environments where results are expected while navigating constant change. I bring that lived understanding into every engagement, whether I’m coaching a senior leader through a major transition, developing emerging leaders, or facilitating workshops that engage employees to optimize their performance and productivity.
My brand is built on clarity, candor, and practicality. I’m not interested in helping leaders become a different version of themselves. I help them become a more strategic version of who they already are and help them navigate the workplace and their work with confidence.
What drives me is simple: when leaders grow, organizations transform. And when organizations transform, people stay, perform, and thrive. I am fulfilled every single day in my work, and I want them to find that same fulfillment in their work and their lives.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
In my work, I’ve seen that it’s rarely one dramatic event that breaks the bonds between people. It’s the accumulation of what I call the “mis-es”: miscommunication, misinterpretation, misperception, misalignment, misunderstanding, misjudgment, and misplaced assumptions. Small gaps widen over time, and before people realize it, they’re no longer reacting to each other’s words. They’re reacting to the story they’ve created about those words.
What truly deteriorates relationships is that people stop feeling safe enough to say what they really mean or ask what they really need. Silence, avoidance, and assumption become the norm. And when resentment builds quietly, collaboration collapses loudly.
My background in HR and as a team coach has shown me that this dynamic becomes especially visible during workplace conflict. For example, when someone files a harassment or discrimination complaint that ultimately isn’t legally substantiated, both individuals are typically sent back to work together as if nothing happened. But something happened. The feelings that led one person to file the complaint are still real and raw. And now, the person accused carries their own fear, confusion, and embarrassment. Productivity drops. Communication shuts down. Neither wants to be alone with the other. And the organization is left with two employees who are technically “resolved” but completely disconnected.
This is where team coaching becomes transformative. (Team coaching is simply more than one person.) What restores bonds isn’t forced harmony. It’s guided understanding. In a safe, facilitated environment, people finally say what they haven’t said, hear what they’ve never heard, and see the human being behind the behavior they once judged. I help teams surface the friction points, unpack assumptions, explore emotional triggers, and understand the “why” beneath each person’s reactions.
Because at the end of the day, understanding yourself is the gateway to understanding each other. When you know what triggers you, why it triggers you, and what meaning you attach to someone else’s actions, you regain control. And when both sides do that work, something powerful happens: people start relating from clarity instead of defensiveness.
When people are given a safe space to be honest, seen, and heard, bonds don’t just repair; they strengthen. Teams move forward not because they forgot the past, but because they finally understand it.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
Some of the deepest wounds in my life came from feeling unseen, unheard, or misunderstood, whether it was navigating early career uncertainty, being underestimated, or trying to fit into environments that weren’t built with me in mind. Those experiences shaped me far more than any title or milestone ever could.
For years, I thought the way to heal was to work harder, achieve more, and prove myself to everyone around me. That lead to overworking, overperforming, and constant “movement.” Finally I just stopped. I stopped chasing work, validation, things and I started chasing one thing: understanding myself. The healing came from finally turning inward and understanding my patterns, my triggers, the stories I’d been repeating, and the beliefs I inherited without ever consciously choosing them. I’m currently writing a memoir with meaning as part of that journey: confronting the truths I avoided, honoring the versions of myself I abandoned and misunderstood, and learning how to mother myself with the same compassion I give to others.
Understanding myself didn’t erase the wounds, but it gave them context. When I understood why something hurt or hit me wrong – no matter how innocent or unintentional – I could finally release the shame and speak the truth beneath it. And that’s been the real healing. Understanding yourself and finding that clarity is freedom. The glorious fulfillment and peace I feel today comes from understanding and witnessing my own story fully, without minimizing it, ignoring it, or running from it.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest friend, who I have known since the day I was born, would say that what matters most to me is peace, fulfillment and helping others find what I have found through understanding themselves deeply, honestly, and without judgment. She’d tell you I care fiercely about emotional truth, human connection, and the kind of growth that transforms not just careers, but whole lives.
She’s seen me at my worst. She’s seen me on my journey of understanding. And now, she is seeing me at my absolute best. She knows I am relentless in my pursuit to understand myself and others. For me, there is nothing more meaningful than watching someone shift from confusion to understanding, from fear to confidence.
She’d also say I value authenticity over appearances, depth over performance, and presence over perfection. I don’t care what someone’s title is, who they know or how much money they have; I care how they treat people, what they fear, what they hope for, and who they’re trying to become.
And she’d tell you I care about learning. Always. About the world, about human behavior, about patterns, triggers, meaning, identity, everything that makes people who they are. Curiosity isn’t an activity for me; it’s the lens I see the world through.
At my core, what matters to me is simple: helping people live, love, and learn in ways that make their lives fuller and their relationships richer because that’s where real fulfillment begins.
And she’d say pickleball really matters to me.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
Life is not about activities, achievements, or accolades; life is about living, loving, and learning. Most people spend decades chasing milestones, checking boxes, and collecting titles because they believe those things will deliver meaning. But achievements only validate you for a moment. The real substance of life and true fulfillment comes from presence, connection, curiosity, and understanding yourself.
The world rewards doing, producing, and proving, so it’s easy to mistake busyness for purpose. In my work with leaders—and even in my own life—I’ve seen how often people sacrifice joy, love, and self-understanding in the name of accomplishment. They climb ladders quickly yet feel disconnected from themselves, from others, and from the lives they’re supposedly “building.” We’re conditioned to believe that our value is tied to output, and we don’t pause to question that belief until something forces us to. But true fulfillment doesn’t come from external metrics; it comes from internal clarity.
Living, loving, and learning are the foundations of a meaningful life because they require presence, vulnerability, and reflection. Living asks you to be here, not racing ahead. It asks you to do things you truly love to do and be present while doing them. Loving asks you to see and be seen. Build meaningful connections with people and nurture them. Learning asks you to stay curious, especially about yourself. These are the things that shape your relationships, your leadership, your sense of identity, and the legacy you leave behind, not what’s written on your résumé.
But once you understand yourself deeply and completely, you realize how little achievements actually matter and how much the quality of your inner world influences everything else. When people shift from chasing accomplishments to pursuing understanding, everything changes: their leadership, their relationships, their confidence, and their sense of peace.
At the end of the day, life is not about what you accumulate; it’s about who you become. And becoming requires living, loving, and learning more than it ever requires achieving.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marlolyonscoaching.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlolyonscoaching
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlolyons/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marlolyonscoaching/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarloLyonsCoaching
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/work-unscripted/id1784374250
Image Credits
All taken by me (or husband)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
