Meet Santana Inniss

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Santana Inniss. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Santana, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

My relationship with purpose has been less about finding and more about allowing and refining. Consciously or unconsciously, I believe we all come into the world already knowing our purpose. Along life’s journey, we either lose connection to purpose or we lose the ability to confidently live in purpose. When I reflect on my childhood, my essential nature was clear: kind, confident, curious, determined, and generous. I was happiest when I was exploring the world around me, tinkering with a problem, and sharing what I learned with others. I was also born with a deep value for justice. So I always imagined I would grow up to help people in some way. But along my life’s journey, I lost connection with the confidence to live in my values and nature. As I found myself climbing higher on the corporate ladder, I felt father and father away from my essential nature. There were so many moments where I felt the call of myself but rationalized my actions. I can’t change paths now. No one gets to be fulfilled in their work. Helping people won’t earn me enough to pay the bills. I found ways to ‘scratch the itch’ of purpose without living it. I volunteered, tried working in non-profits, volunteered to lead employee resource groups, you name it. But after more than a decade of stuffing down the quiet voice of purpose, I suffered a severe burnout. When your health fails you, you’re often called to take a close look in the mirror. I got serious about the work of going inside to reconnect to my values, essential nature, and the quiet call of purpose. And then I got even more serious about the internal work of allowing the difficult emotions that came up: fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear I couldn’t hack it. Now I live squarely in my purpose every day. I didn’t find it. But I had to find the courage and internal resourcing to allow it.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Once I found the tools to allow my purpose, the path became clear. I left a decade + career in digital strategy and marketing to become a life coach. I reskilled by completing extensive training and certification in the practice and ethics of coaching. Now, I’m a Master Certified Professional Coach, practicing Alignment Coaching. Every day, I work with driven professionals who, like me, climbed the ladder only to find burnout or disillusionment at the top. I help my clients reconnect to their values, excavate their purpose, set new visions for life, and then build the inner and outer tools necessary to bring a purposeful, fulfilling life to fruition.

What’s most exciting about the field of alignment coaching is that it is so new. I get to lean into my sassy, justice-oriented facets to help spread the message that people actually get a choice in how they live their lives. For so many of us, our cultures, countries, religions, or families have placed a lot of pressure– implicitly or explicitly– to live in certain ways. For folks in the US, that’s often looked like the narrative that to succeed, people need to go to college, rack up debt, get a job, pay their dues, play the game, climb the ladder, and suck it up. We grew up in grind culture and the exultation of hard work. For people of color, especially those from immigrant families, there can be even more pressure with the work-three-times-as-hard-to-get-ahead ethos. Some professions are valued above all others (doctor, lawyer, CEO), no matter the interpersonal (or financial) cost.

So part of my work is the activism of saying, “No. You deserve to be well. You get to chart a path unique to you. That is an option. And it’s ok to want it.” It may sound obvious, but it’s really quite radical.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The two most important qualities along my journey have been resilience and curiosity. And the most important skill I have acquired is the ability to be with. My life began in poverty and violence. There has always been a fire inside me that has called me to get back up, to try again, to keep going. Curiosity has been my most constant companion in life. When a situation seems dire, when someone is very different than me, or when I experience something new or unexpected, curiosity is the calming salve that asks, “Ooh, what’s this?” or “What can I learn here?” Which is a very different lens than say, defensiveness, hatred, or fear. I am incredibly grateful for these two gifts because I have very little fear of failure. Problems are puzzles. Knock me down and I say, thank you, I needed a rest anyway! Then I get back up and let my curiosity guide me to new pathways.

The skill I had to learn, and am continuing to hone, is the ability to be with. For example, to be with difficult emotions without pushing them away or avoiding them. This skill is absolutely clutch for anyone who wants to grow as a person or change their lives. It has changed my life.

How wonderful, that curiosity, resilience, and being with can be practiced? My advice to anyone who wants to develop or improve these is to do just that, to practice. I laugh as I write this, becuase someone said it to me at the beginning of my journey, and it felt so cliche and trite I felt anger. But I can say now that practicing is the only way to grow any skill. Believe it is possible to grow a skill, show up a little every day to practice, and in a few years you’ll be giving the same advice.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

When I first picked up The Untethered Soul, I read the first chapter and thought, “This hocus pocus ain’t for me.” I put the book down and didn’t pick it up again for several years. Now, I reread it yearly and I’m still finding nuggets of wisdom in it. It’s played such a pivotal role in my development as a human being and my capacity to open my heart. One nugget that always sticks out for me is about the heart as a source of energy, and the power we have to allow that energy to flow or to block it. Michael Singer says, “Basically, we are programmed to open and close [our hearts] based upon past experiences…But closing your heart doesn’t really protect you from anything…By closing, you’re actually making the choice not to feel openness and love…Let go of that. Dare to be different. Enjoy all of life.” When my human heart gets scared and wants to close, this book reminds me I have a choice, and calls me to be with and allow instead of closing. It’s a really powerful idea with applications for every aspect of our lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.flofoundations.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flofoundations/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/santanainniss/