Meet Pamela O’Leary

We recently connected with Pamela O’Leary and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Pamela, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I am a recovering insecure overachiever. I am a recovering perfectionist. I was addicted to ambition. I still am. I am also a recovering alcoholic, so I do not use the word recovering lightly. While I do not have such a clear start date from when I took my last drink from the cup of ambition addiction, my journey really began when I hit rock bottom and was fired from my dream job. At that point, I had equated my self-worth to my job title. My identity was shattered when I lost the job. My self-esteem was tragically dependent on external validation.

Since then, I have been on a deep empowerment journey of learning how to love myself, a never ending commitment to becoming an evolving version of my best self. I have created a ginormous self-care toolkit, utilizing a plethora of healing modalities. My toolkit includes community support, classes, coaching, therapy, travel, as well as physical, emotional, and spiritual healing work. Here’s more details: https://olearypd.medium.com/whats-in-your-self-care-toolkit-cf68d7925803

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?
I am in the process of building the Global Empowerment Lab, an organization curating empowerment journeys with individual and group coaching, workshops, and retreats. I am also currently writing a book about my personal empowerment journey.

While I found many guides along the way of my healing journey, I wish I had a version of Google Maps for my empowerment journey! I wasn’t even aware of the variety of modalities that even existed, yet ultimately proved tremendously instrumental in my personal growth. I was privileged to have friends who could recommend a great therapist, coach, or new modality. Yet so many people don’t have access to such information. When there are so many incredible entrepreneur healing practitioners out there, I want to better connect them to the people who need their help. When we live in a world where so many people are stuck in unresolved trauma, I want to make healing and empowerment more accessible.

In December 2023 and January 2024, I’m excited to be hosting a series of workshops and a new group coaching program to help everyone start their new year right! Here’s more information: https://www.pamelaoleary.com/services

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Overall, we all need to find our own ways of processing and reframing our unresolved traumas. We need to discover new ways to shift our mindset to overcome negative patterns and develop new habits and ways of being. Coaching, therapy, and transformational programs have been instrumental in my healing. While reading books and listening to podcasts can help build awareness, you can only take yourself so far. Therapists, especially those specializing in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), helped me process my unresolved emotions from the past. While simultaneously working with a coach, I had someone holding me accountable for implementing new habits to reach my goals. Transformational programs, especially from Landmark Education and the Hoffman Process Institute, forever rewired my brain to see the world and myself from a new powerful place of possibility.

How would you describe your ideal client?
I love coaching, designing, and facilitating learning programs for highly ambitious leaders, especially women and those from various underrepresented communities. As a recovering insecure overachiever, workaholic, and perfectionist, I love connecting with others who struggle in these regards, those who are too hard on themselves and are on the verge of or currently in a state of burn out. In my journey, I often beat myself up and struggled on my own, telling myself there was something wrong with me and I was not good enough. It’s so important we embrace vulnerability and talk to each other about our challenges. Empowerment is not a solo endeavor. At the Global Empowerment Lab, I am seeking to create more spaces for these conversations and connections to happen.

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