"The Empowermentor"

Morgan McKean Interview

Thanks for agreeing to take time from your schedule to share your experiences and talent with our readers. Your bio is very impressive and it looks like your coaching career has been evolving nicely. Looks like there has been no shortage of opportunities to spotlight your talents. Are you pleased with where you are in your career so far?

That could very well be a ‘loaded question’. (Laughing) A large part of me is pleased with the amount of people I have been able to help and I am grateful for many of the experiences I have had as a result of my career choices. However, I would be amiss to say that I am satisfied, as I am continually working towards opportunities to expand my practice and to reach an even larger audience with my message of personal empowerment and emotional health.

Earlier in your career you were a marketing consultant, television producer and record label executive. Tell us about the kinds of things you were working on. What did you find most challenging? How did those experiences develop into what you do today?

While still in college I became a marketing consultant for a small firm just outside of Los Angeles and it was there that I had the unique opportunity to get a good look at the way many types of companies run their business and staff. What I noticed, particularly about the sales staff, is that they constantly had to work on their self-esteem in order to be able to deal with the level of rejection that goes with that line of work. Then moving into the entertainment industry, I spent some time in front of the camera and the better part of seven years behind it. I worked on several reality shows, some sitcoms and was the executive producer for a few music videos. There too, I found that regardless of the position or talent, individuals I encountered suffered from varying degrees of low self-esteem and that no matter what my ‘official title’ was, I spent much of my time up lifting the people around me. So, I feel like I have been coaching people most of my professional life.

As a coach, leadership skills are very important to your overall success, how did you develop those skills? Are you comfortable in a leadership role? What has surprised you about your own endeavors in leading people and positively influencing their lives? 

I have had an interesting relationship with ‘leadership skills’. Upon entering this earth my mother said I had not a shy bone in my body, that I would introduce myself to strangers, converse with them on end and lead them in games and activities. Upon elementary school age however, for what could be several reasons, I took a back seat to many of my peers, though not adults, because being liked and having friends became more important than being the leader. Conversely, when school was over and the real world was upon me I realized that I wasn’t going to get the results I wanted by waiting for people to hand things to me, so I begin to redevelop that part of my personality within my own peer group and found that it’s quite effortless role for me to be in.  

I feel that in order to lead people or positively influence them you must lead by example and show that you have similar, if not the same human frailties that they do. That your efforts to overcome them, whether through education or personal experience have helped you and that by applying the same efforts, they can accomplish what they choose.

Another important aspect of inspiring people to live their best life is to withhold moral judgment. Each of us knows what feels right or wrong for us, therefore I never take the position of moral authority over another individual. What I do, is ask them if their current lifestyle or their goals are for their best and highest good for a productive life, then help them to establish choices that will benefit them.  

Morgan, your star is rising; you’ve been quoted a number of times and have been a guest on several shows. As well as hosting a talk show, writing a column and public speaking. Tell us about your involvement in these projects.

I currently host a weekly talk show called ‘Morgan The Empowermentor’, which your readers can listen on the web at http://empowermentor.podbean.com where I dispense empowering self-help advice, interview other self-help experts and answer listeners email on air. I am also an advice columnist for Be Me Magazine (Balanced Enlightenment Made Entertaining) and I frequently do public speaking engagements for various organizations and produce about four to six workshops a year on subjects such as Self-Esteem, Quality Relationships, The Law of Attraction and Happiness. 

I would like to touch on some terms that may be new to our readers. First of course is “Empowerment “. What does the word mean to you?

For me the word refers to increasing or helping to develop an individual’s personal confidence in who they are, their capabilities and their self-worth.

Can you spot an empowered person in a crowd? Do empowered individuals have similar traits or behaviors? Is empowerment learned and developed over time or is it in every person waiting to be called on?

There are times that I can spot an empowered person and not necessarily the way one might think. It’s not because they are the center of attention nor have a lot to say, more often it’s because they resonate with a confident energy that is quite noticeable.

I think some of the more similar traits that are shared among those who are personally empowered are confidence in who they are and a healthy self-esteem. They don’t seek outside opinions for validation and they are not plagued with thoughts of self-doubt and worry. One of the most noticeable things for me about a commonality about empowered people is that their life is filled with being a contribution to others and they are more other centered than concerned with self.

 I think that empowerment is both inborn and learned. Some of us are born without reservation as to who we are and are raised in an environment that continues to cultivate this part of our being. For others, I believe it is always present however, if not called upon or cultivated it may take some challenging life experiences to see it in action. For someone who doesn’t feel it readily available to them I would suggest looking for opportunities to practice it, because as with any skill we acquire, practice is essential to perfecting it.

Please introduce us to “Life Coaching” What is it and how is it different or similar to Empowerment?

Life Coaching and Empowerment Coaching are very similar to one another; the differences have more to do with the coach’s approach in handling a client and their particular goals then anything else. In either case, a coach is trained to constructively listen to and objectively observe the client. Then together in tandem with a client’s goals, coach and client create a strategic plan design to empower the client to commit to the process and act.

Collectively, the coach and the client will go through a quantifiable process to identify and then clear out any limited thinking or emotional resistance the client may be holding on to that’s keeping them from reaching their goals.

An Empowerment Coach does not work by focusing energy on past events or by analyzing perceived failures. Rather, they focus their efforts on achieving a more balanced lifestyle for the client by having them commit to the execution of reasonable goals, which sequentially builds a healthier self-esteem.

How does Life Coaching help people? How do people know that they need coaching? What do you look for in an individual that tells you they are coach-able? 

If you observe any successful person, the results are usually the same; they have been given advice or guidance from a mentor or coach to reach a desirable goal. An Empowerment Coach partners with a client in a constructive and creative mentor relationship in order to help the client facilitate personal growth and behavior modification in order to achieve their desired results.

As with anything in life, taking responsibility for your own happiness is an inside job and you must be motivated towards taking action that are for your best and highest good.  

Someone interested in coaching could ask themselves the following questions to know if coaching is right for them...

• Am I ready to clarify my life purpose and achieve my personal goals and professional ambitions?
• Can I commit to a more powerful and authentic life at home and work and leave the fear and limited thinking behind me?
• Am I ready to accept and take responsibility for who I have been up until now, give myself unconditional love and embrace positive change?

Mentors have positively influenced many successful individuals in business. Did you have a mentor/s in your own career? Tell us about it.

I feel that I have been fortunate enough to have several mentors over the course of my professional career. Each of them has been either the head of the company or department I was working for and I watched them diligently. I not only sought out their advice for how to be successful in that particular field, I observed how they handled situations, delegated responsibility and conducted themselves in a professional environment.

One of the best gifts you can give yourself if you are looking to reaching new heights is to seek out someone who has achieved success in an area you would like to see improvement in your own life. Patterning yourself, within in your own uniqueness, after some of their behaviors will almost inevitably produce similar results.

When we talked earlier, you mentioned the role that personal responsibility and self-esteem plays in a person’s life. What do those terms mean to you? How and why are they important to a person’s success in life?  Can you get by without them?

Personal responsibility and self-esteem are essential to the well-being of everyone and they play off of each other. When your self-esteem is in tact, you do take responsibility for your life. You do not blame others for the outcomes of choices you make and you realize that you are the only one who can create happiness in your life. When you suffer from low self-esteem you tend to blame the world for your misfortune and often times don’t feel ‘good enough’ to have a life of your dreams. 

Once again, I want to say thank you for taking time to share your insights and talent with us.

 Visit www.morganmckean.com  &  http://empowermentor.podbean.com