Meet Carmell Clark

We recently connected with Carmell Clark and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Carmell, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

That moment of awareness when my purpose clarified for me? Well, my purpose had been there inside of me all my life, waiting for me to fully commit myself to the invisible yet fully-aligned path of it.

I had a partner and a business, a mortgage, a financial foundation to keep up–excuses. Then New Year’s Eve 2004, I was sharing an incredible Sauvignon Blanc with my friend Marin who had fiercely put her stamp on the globe by, among other things, going after and getting herself on the Italian Women’s Pro Cycling Team. Marin asked me, “Carmell, what do you want to DO?!” I took that question and started telling her all the dusty dreams placed carefully on the shelves of my ambition. She interrupted me abruptly and said, “I don’t care. Decide what you’re going to do and Do It.” I started back in, only this time to explain to her why I hadn’t been able to play college soccer, travel around the world, get my doctorate and join academia, become an author… so many dreams… And Marin cut me off mid-sentence and said tersely, “I don’t f****** care. Decide what you’re going to do and DO IT.” That was when the desperation began rising up inside me and I tried in earnest to get her to understand me, and understand my *justified* failure to achieve these dreams. She only cut me short with the same brutal statement. After two more attempts, with her same short two-sentence response, I was reduced to tears. Emotionally eviscerated and naked, I was sobbing and unable to hide from my own truth.

I knew she was right.

After a month of depression, I woke up February 3rd and started doing exactly what Marin had challenged me. I began going after my life. I began facing my fears one by one and reclaiming or reinventing one dream after another.

I was on track now. Big things were happening in my life–or at least bigger than I’d ever had happen. Five years passed.

And then, my world fell apart. The life I had built for 20 years disintegrated overnight right under my feet. I lost everything and had to start over from scratch over the next few years.

And as I stepped into the complete unknown–letting go of my home, moving to a new city, no community, reinventing and restarting my business from scratch, putting everything on the line including my financial security–I was utterly heartbroken, lost and lonelier than I’d ever felt in my life. Yet something inside kept drawing me forward, even when every day I couldn’t see or understand it at all. It turns out my solitary path was the perfect incubator for creating what would turn out to be a global life’s work, an international business, and an influence for what is possible for women that would reach across the world.

But in those first painful terrifying years of my reinvention, I needed to find the expression of my purpose so I could see it myself and so I could intentionally communicate all my work from this purpose. It was already inside everything I was doing but I couldn’t name it–and I needed to name it.

That’s when I happened upon Oprah Winfrey’s interview at Stanford Business School one hot summer afternoon in my 450sf apartment in this new city. I was suddenly electrified, as she spoke–there it was! As she extemporaneously expressed her answer to the moderator’s question, she unexpectedly spoke the words of this absolute power inside of her–her purpose in life and in the world.

At that moment, she full stopped. And so did I. She realized what had just come out of her mouth. What had she just expressed? Well, it was the closest wording to what I felt inside of me driving my life and the work that I do. I grabbed the closest thing I had–a used envelope–and replayed the clip. I wrote everything down she’d just said so I could see the words that so closely expressed my own heart and purpose.

I then carried that envelope around with me for the next two months, looking at it so many times a day, reaching inside myself to find my own precise words. What were they?! The center of the bullseye in my soul. At the same time, every day, I was taking actions to create what I couldn’t see for this bigger life’s work that was in me. Every day I risked myself “all-in” with new clients, with my book writing, with fumblingly marketing myself and my work, with creating my programs, with what my bigger vision really was. Bit by bit as though I were drawing an alive golden thread out of me, my purpose came. Until one day, I had it.

When I finally came to that clear expression of my purpose inside, it felt like I had been sliding this key puzzle piece across the Puzzle Of Myself for years searching for the exact place that it fit. And then, all at once, it popped into place! A perfect fit. The result was this unbelievable center of power, fully turned on. –And it has not turned off since.

So… It started from the point my life fell apart and I lost everything. I had no previous experience and no person or model to follow–coaching didn’t exist as a major profession like it does now. I blindly trusted myself inside as I reinvented my work from a small, local session-based model into a national and international clientele with programs, experiential weekend events, certification program for my coaching method, and the most comprehensive 2-year self-actualization curriculum available (Core Self Discovery). I built and continue to run international adventure and transformation retreats for women. And I developed a corporate women’s leadership program–Building Women Influencers–to bring this work into business at all levels and to advance women to executive/C-Suite.

My purpose inside it all? I am here to expand and elevate consciousness–beginning within ourselves. And through this greater self-awareness, linking us to one another to see and elevate the greatest expression of each other for the benefit of our world.

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?

The core of my work and my brand is building self-awareness as the most effective way of raising our consciousness as people. This is the passion inside everything I do every day. Conscious people leave others better than we found them. We build and improve instead of tear down. We choose the path of legacy–what benefits those who come after us and the planet we live on. We use our resources to grow good things and to better those in our influence, instead of using our resources to consolidate power and money and hold control over others. These are some of the effects of greater conscious awareness, and they all begin with awareness and development of the self.

My background is philosophy and social theory, health and wellness, and a life-long path of my own self-actualization. I was born a feminist. Truly. From my earliest ages, I was challenging narrow gender roles in my family. I fought and argued against the systems that relegated women to some form of second class citizen. Many of these norms were implicit. Invisible. The water I was swimming in from the time I was born, as with all of us. But I was never comfortable or accepting of these norms. I didn’t learn this at all. It was already inside of me which is why I say, I was born a feminist.

As a girl, I knew I mattered–that I was equal to men. And I mean, men. I sensed the double-standard before I could even name it and I never stopped pushing back against it.

This led me through many different iterations of working for women’s parity and equality to where I am now. As an executive coach, I work with women and men. My programs serve all people. And I specifically focus with women on dismantling our unconscious acceptance of all the forms of inequity around us. This is what I call “What was never ok to begin with.”

For example, I help women see that a true partnership with their families doesn’t mean they take 100% of the responsibility of home, family, and career while their male partner takes 50% of home and family and 100% of career. Rather, both partners must challenge our enculturated gender roles to both hold 100%/100% of the care and responsibility for all of life every day. What does this look like? I’d love to dive into that with every person in a partnership and see how they can create this. Work/Life balance for women should start with a clear understanding and commitment to this mindset of equity in relationships.

Women’s equity and the way that it elevates our greater consciousness as human beings, translates into my Building Women Influencers Program: This is a series of customized corporate trainings and a coaching program that I lead through which conscious companies can support their high-performing women in career advancement.

Companies who are interested in bringing this kind of training and women’s advancement into their organizations can schedule a discovery meeting where my team and I learn key things about them and their specific needs. We then tailor the trainings and solutions we bring to fit their growth, including capturing ROI data on our trainings that empower the participants as well as support the company’s profitability and retention of top talent.

In addition to our corporate offerings, I lead international adventure retreats for women. These came out of my own inadvertent ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ journey in the world. What I found was that I could travel as a woman alone, making my way, carving a space for myself, learning on my feet, building lifetime friendships across language and culture barriers, creating my own safety, and finding myself as big as the world I traveled in. Imagine that.

And then imagine coming back to the life with all the people who expect you to be what you’ve always been for them. The career you pursued because it logically made sense instead of fulfilling your soul. The daily routine that made you numb to the fire in your belly, to the bigger vision for your life. All that has lived inside of you from so early on, competing head-to-head with the expectations of parents, culture, religion, friends, boss, partner and kids… And you come back from traveling and discovering that you are the world…

How do you fit yourself back inside that small box?… You can’t.

So my international adventure retreats are life-changing–in every sense. They are nearly all-inclusive, with every detail accounted for. The experience of true freedom that women have never felt in their lives–where they matter utterly, and every detail and need is handled for them. And all that is left is for them to explore themselves freely, to adventure out of their comfort zones, to be held and trusted and safe in an experience that is all about them. And an experience that shows each of them, they are as big as the world.

Whatever has been waiting in the wings for you, if you take this leap of total trust and head with me out into the wider world, you will not return the same woman who left. And the woman who returns will be the most authentic you yet. Those dreams and the inner nagging to the greater endeavors inside of you? You will be unable to hold them back after our adventures. They will come in and reshape you and your life in the most profound ways.

That is how I created location independence for myself. It’s how I ended up leaving behind two brick and mortar offices and transitioning to working online before remote coaching was a thing. I worked with clients from all over the world. Sometimes sitting on cobblestones in a storm outside an internet cafe for wifi. Sometimes working in 90% humidity in an open-air co-working space in Bali. Sometimes, sitting in the lounge of the most prestigious hotel in a tiny village in India to have the wifi to run my groups and client sessions. In all of this, I was undeniably, precisely and wholly myself.

Living our truth requires intense courage and profound honesty. The life that wants to live itself out through us may grow quiet as we ignore it over the years… but it is never gone. We can bring it back to life with a single brave act to take the risk for what we most long for.

Don’t live in the margins. Be the main character of your own story. Every single day.

My next all-inclusive international retreat will be in Italy, September 13-20 followed by a 4-day VIP Adventure on-and-off-train with a tiny backpack.

I also book smaller tailored adventures for clients. This summer, I am taking 3 of my clients, professional women in their 50s and 60s on a deep-dive 10-day, 2-country adventure through Portugal and Morocco. Reach out to me to start your own adventure!

Finally, I will be releasing my first book this year: The Art of Discovering Who You Are. It leads us into a true discovery of ourselves that is neither academic, nor prosaic. It is simply the actual exciting work of self. My intent is that we will challenge all ideas and constructs that build barriers–inner and outer–to find the self that we trust deeply, that builds from compassion and understanding and not from judgment or protectionism. I want us to discover our own sovereignty, the inner power of our self that does not need validation from others and at the same time forms true deep connection and intimacy. I hope this book leads us to form a friendship with the shadow parts of ourselves as we learn from these parts, instead of waging a war, or giving into them. I am not here to tell anyone who they should be. My work is about helping us excavate who we already are. It’s about figuring out our principles, not just following someone else’s rules. It’s about owning our own power – yet… not drinking our own Kool-Aid.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back at my path, I can identify three particularly impactful qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge: rebelliousness, clear vision, and a fundamental respect for myself and all beings.

Rebelliousness: This quality, (which I refer to as the ‘Rebel Self’ in my Core Self Discovery curriculum), has been crucial in my resisting external expectations and control. From a young age, I often refused the expectations of others and expressed my own truth, ideas and perspectives. This inner rebellion, though it was frequently misunderstood and I got in trouble for it, comes from a core part of me that demands the right to be heard and respected. It’s about not settling for less than what is right for oneself. For those beautiful souls early in their journey, cultivating this means paying attention to those moments, whether fierce or quiet, where you draw on an inner center to stand up for yourself. Recognize and respect this part of you, even if society often frames it negatively. Ask yourself “Why,” when you find yourself pushing back–unaccountably acting against expectations–but it feels right. This awareness can significantly narrow your path of action to align with your inner truth. And it will lead you authentically.

Clear Vision: This involves developing a strong understanding of our Core Values and Core Principles. Core Values drive decision-making, while Core Principles define us more fundamentally as what we stand for and what we stand up for. Becoming clear on what you stand for and why you are driven by a particular principle is essential for true self-acceptance and inner confidence. For those early in their journey, take the time for self-awareness work to clarify both Core Principles and Core Values. This is a process of clarifying, not creating, what is already within you. Ask yourself what hits you strongly enough that you will say NO. Explore your values, perhaps listing your top values and then carefully distilling them down to your top three. Also, delve into your principles by reflecting on moments where you stood for something even when it was inconvenient or scary. This clarity of your inner landscape acts as a compass, guiding your decisions towards what truly fulfills you and centers you.

Fundamental respect for myself and all beings: This is the bedrock of Core Self Discovery, starting with the radical assumption that there is nothing wrong with us at our core. It’s about knowing and accepting our innate wholeness and value as a person–we matter. This understanding extends to recognizing the worth and value of every other person. For those early in their journey, the primary advice is to consciously embark on the path of learning to accept yourself from a place of deep responsibility, which is distinct from self-help. Begin with the fundamental intention to accept yourself exactly as you are, right now. This involves choosing yourself and your life exactly as it is and then giving yourself “full credit” for your experiences and who you are. This exits you from judging yourself. Understand that this journey isn’t about fixing yourself but about connecting with the whole being you already are. Learn radical self-responsibility, which is being responsibility to your ‘self’ and your own truth first before everything else. This foundation of self-acceptance naturally leads us to a deeper respect for the inherent worth of all beings.

These three aspects are interconnected and contribute to the ongoing path of our Core Self Discovery. Developing self-awareness–truly seeing and understanding yourself–is paramount. It differs from self-help’s focus on fixing perceived flaws in order to achieve a happy and fulfilled life, which is essentially a form or trying to control. Instead, self-awareness involves internal investigation and learning to listen to your own answers, challenging your own prejudices and biases to see a larger more objective view, and always making space in your heart for those you oppose, don’t understand, or don’t agree with. Alongside this, the conscious commitment to self-acceptance, rooted in radical self-responsibility, creates a powerful framework for navigating life with authenticity, integrity and deep compassionate resilience.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My ideal client is someone who is ready for profound self-discovery and personal transformation, moving beyond superficial self-help fixes to engage in the ‘unsexy but deeply fulfilling work of self’. They are likely ambitious and seeking more than just external success, valuing integrity and self-awareness in their endeavors.

These individuals are motivated by benefiting the world around them and supporting the best in others. They may find they have hit their ‘ceiling’ in growth, personal life or professional success, and want to break through that ceiling. Often curious seekers of deeper meaning and lifelong learners, they are dedicated to personal evolution, higher forms of leadership, and building a legacy that aligns with their principles and values.

Crucially, my ideal client possesses a degree of inner rebelliousness, a deep motivation to health and wellness, recognition of the philosophical foundations of our actions, a willingness to question societal norms and live authentically, and the drive to create a life aligned with their own values rather than reacting to external agendas.

This person is ready to take radical self-responsibility for their journey and consciously commit to accepting themselves exactly as they are, understanding that inner truth and growth stem from this foundation. They are interested in developing deep self-awareness, a process of truly seeing themselves that goes beyond the superficial and the quick fixes of traditional self-help. Ultimately, they are individuals who are prepared to trust their own inner guidance and embark on a deeper path of authority and power from within.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carmellclark.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carmellsadventures/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carmell.clark/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmellclark/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@carmellclark3054/featured
• Other: https://globalwomenfresh.com/

  https://carmellclark.com/gwfmember/

Image Credits

Oprah Winfrey: Oprah Winfrey Belief Series, West Coast launch