Meet Rachel Krall

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Krall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel, so happy to have you on the platform with us today and excited to chat about your lessons and insights. Our ability to make good decisions can massively impact our lives, careers and relationships and so it would be very helpful to hear about how you built your decision-making skills.

I’ve always had a strong gut instinct. The kind of intuitive knowing that whispered “yes” or “no” before I even had the facts. But for most of my life, I didn’t trust it.

Instead, I lived in my head.

I struggled with anxiety, OCD, and overthinking. My logic and intuition were constantly at war. I’d make pros and cons lists. I’d seek advice from all the “right” people. I’d choose what looked good on paper; more money, a bigger title, a prestigious connection. And every time, my body would scream “no” while my brain insisted this makes logical sense. I silenced my body. I overrode my intuition. And more times than I’d like to admit, I’d end up in something I had to dig my way out of.

The worst was about 11 years ago. I had a complete nervous breakdown. Panic attacks, insomnia, spirals of fear I couldn’t escape. I was hospitalized. It was the scariest time of my life, but also the beginning of my healing.

I tried everything: traditional therapy, EMDR, yoga, mindfulness, breathwork, diet changes. Each tool helped in some way, but none of them fully reached the root of the issue. The root was in my body. Not in my mind. Not in a checklist or a coping technique.

Ironically, the thing that seemed to help for a while was running…literally. I outworked my anxiety. I trained for marathons. I did CrossFit and lifted heavy. I chased the next goal, the next achievement, the next “fix.” I looked strong and successful on the outside. Inside, I was still fragmented, using productivity to numb my nervous system.

Then, about seven years ago, a friend introduced me to a man named Umar, an NLP practitioner. I didn’t know what NLP was at the time, but I was desperate. She told me he helped her daughter overcome a deep fear after a trauma, and that was enough for me.

What Umar did was unlike anything I had tried. He didn’t just talk to me, he introduced me to my subconscious mind. He didn’t tell me what to do, he guided me toward myself so I could connect with my inner voice. You see, like most high achievers, I was raised with discipline and programed to have a fear of failure. Fear of uncertainty keeps us safe. I only chose the path I knew would lead me to success. And when I didn’t know, I surveyed everyone I trusted for their input. I wanted others to make the decision for me so I wouldn’t be the only one to “blame” if I got it wrong. Many of us look for validation when making decisions. “What do you think of this outfit?” “Is this shade of lipstick too much?” “Should I apply for this job?”

It was through NLP, and later hypnotherapy, somatic practices, and nervous system work, that I finally learned to feel the difference between fear and truth. Between anxiety and intuition. Between trauma response and inner wisdom. This self-work taught me how to know myself well enough to make decisions that are best for me, not what others think are best for me.

I learned how to pause and ask myself if this was fear or uncertainty. Is this decision coming from guilt and people pleasing or is it aligned with my values and identity? I learned how to tap into the layers of my mind, my breath, my body, and make decisions that feel good, even when they are hard. That doesn’t mean that fear doesn’t try to stop me from making the right decisions; it means that now I am able to tell the difference between fear and discomfort. It means that now I can look in the mirror and decide if this outfit is me or me pretending to be someone else.

Now I am trained as a practitioner of all the tools that helped me, and I teach people how to make decisions from a place of alignment; not fear, not logic alone, and definitely not people pleasing. I don’t believe in “just think positive” or “do what makes sense.” I believe in listening to the body. In calming the nervous system so your inner knowing can guide you in the right direction. I believe in expanding our comfort zone so fear can get a little quieter, and we can make purposeful moves that will lead us to where we want to go. I also have shifted the way I parent so my kids can learn to be independent thinkers and decision makers, something that surprises other adults in our life when we allow our kids to make big decisions about school and sports and activities.

Decision-making isn’t about getting it right all the time. It’s about gaining clarity on what you really want, being unapologetic about feeling worthy of it, and trusting your inner guide to get you there.

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’m an Embodied Success Coach helping high-achieving women reconnect with their bodies so they can make better decisions, create lives they don’t want to escape from, and experience joyful success on their own terms.

My work is rooted in the belief that true success isn’t just about achievement; it’s about alignment. As a former productivity coach who helped high producers achieve bigger goals, I realized the work I was doing no longer fit my lifestyle. I was practicing what I preached, and burning out. I was “successful” on the outside, but on the inside I was unraveling. After years of struggling with anxiety, perfectionism, and people pleasing, I realized that I was chasing success that looked good on paper but felt completely wrong in my body. That realization led me down a path of nervous system regulation, somatic healing, and embodiment work, tools that helped me make peace with myself and find my own definition of a life well lived.

Now, I blend modalities like clinical hypnotherapy, somatic coaching, and yoga to help other ambitious women do the same. I work with clients 1:1 and in group settings to help them recreate their success strategies, move out of survival mode, release internalized pressure, and reconnect with their own wisdom. What excites me most is seeing a woman go from doubting herself to trusting herself, and watching what unfolds when she makes choices from that grounded place.

Right now, I’m focused on expanding my work in two big ways:
1. I’m launching a 66-day embodiment challenge that blends habit formation with nervous system support, designed for women who want to feel good in their bodies while also building lives filled with purpose, wealth, and freedom.
2. I’m also writing my next book, a soulful guide to embodied reinvention for women in their “mental pause” era. Midlife on purpose.

At the heart of everything I do is the belief that your body already knows. You don’t need to hustle harder, you just need to come home to yourself. That’s where the real success begins.

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?

Looking back, the three qualities that have shaped my journey the most are self-awareness, resilience, and identity.

Self-awareness was the skill that reshaped me over the past 10+ years, and helped me achieve aligned success. I spent years making decisions based on what looked good on paper…chasing titles, money, and external validation. It wasn’t until I realized that everything I was chasing was outside of myself, that I realized I didn’t even really know who I was or what I wanted. Most of who I was, and what I became was a product of microdecisions designed to impress other people. I was a product of my upbringing, my environment, and the people I surrouned myself with. Developing self-awareness means learning to pause, observe, learn, and get radically honest with yourself: your values, your beliefs, your skills and capabilities, your behaviors, and your identity; not just what you want, but why you want it.

Resilience came from doing hard things, not just once, but over and over while staying connected to my purpose. I’ve rebuilt my life more than once. My identity shifted after every major life event. I was a single ambitious woman, to a married ambitious woman, to an amitious working mom, to entrepreneur. With each shift came confusion from other people in my life. Each move challenged my self-worth, my self-confidence, my self-trust. Shifting from a W2 job to self-employed came with it’s own challenges. My advice? You have to have delusional self-belief. When everyone else (and your bank account) is raising doubt, you have to have certainty that you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Learn to sit in discomfort without rushing to fix it. That’s where transformation lives.

Identity is an “I am statement”. It is how you view yourself and how others view you. It’s the highest layer of the mind (on a human level). As a yoga teacher, and someone who values the ancient wisdom of yoga, this one may seem a bit incongruent, as we learn that our identity is not our “self”. However, for me, I have learned that on a subconscious level, I have to become the person who achieves the life that I want before I have it. This means I am an author before I have written the book. I am a CEO before I have employees. By embodying the identity of the person I want to become, by installing the values of that person, modeling their behaviors, adopting their beliefs, strategies, and physiology, I attach this identity to my highest value, integrity, and I wake up every day believing I already have it. In hypnosis, we learn that our body is a robot. It will go where our mind tells it to go. And our mind only guides us to where it believes it is capable of going, or where it has already been. Life is a series of choices. And when we anchor those choices to the identity of the person we want to be, our body naturally follows. This is how consistent habits become effortless. Not by force, but by alignment.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

As a life-long perfectionist, I have always been a bit of a self-improvement addict. I would work on my weaknesses to be more well-rounded, and to fit into more boxes. I thought if I could check all the boxes and close all the gaps, I’d finally be “ready.” That mindset served me well in generalist roles, where being adaptable and good at a little bit of everything was valued.

But once I became an entrepreneur, it started to hold me back.

I was spending so much time improving my weaknesses, that I was blending in, instead of standing out. I believe we all have superpowers that separate us from others and make us uniquely us. It’s why you could hear several motivational speakers passionately discuss the same idea but only one sinks in for you.

So many people have a scarcity mindset when it comes to competition. It’s easy to use saturated markets as an excuse, but I truly believe that no matter how many others are offering the exact same product, the person who brings their unique genius will be the one who succeeds.

People are looking for belonging. They are looking for their own group of like-minded individuals. They are looking for community and connection. They are looking to connect with real, authentic people, not people who are faking it to get customers, likes and follows. Mastering our unique strengths is going to set us apart from others, attract our people, and help us enjoy our careers more and make more money. We are in a unique time where technology is growing at a rapid pace. I truly believe that anyone can make a living in this economy when they truly own who they are and what they love. Anyone can turn their strengths into profit today. Don’t be like everyone else. Be uniquely you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: rachel_krall