THE IMPERFECT SHOW NOTES
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Achim, welcome to the MY FOURTH ACT PODCAST. I’m your host, Achim Nowak, and I have conversations with exceptional humans who have created bold and unexpected lives. If you like what you hear, please subscribe on any major podcast platform so you won’t miss a single one of my inspiring guests, and please consider posting an appreciative review. Let’s get started. Hello and welcome to the MY FOURTH ACT PODCAST. I chuckle as I do this introduction, because I do have a guest. It’s the esteemed Rosemary Ravinal, who’s a extraordinary communications professional from Miami. We are longtime professional colleagues and friends who are going to turn the table a little bit that I made some big changes in my life. And people ask me all sorts of questions about, How did you do this? How did you do that? And I thought, well, I have this extraordinary communicator friend. He has already been a guest on the podcast. I urge you to go back and listen to that conversation. But today, Rosemary will ask me a few questions about how I make decisions, about the big changes in my life. So rosemary, welcome and go ahead. Thank
Rosemary Ravinal 01:28
you, Achim, I am delighted to do a second appearance on my fourth act. I was honored to be part of your first inaugural season, and now you’re about to enter your fifth big accomplishment and a momentous occasion. But you know what? Maybe because you have been the host, your listeners may not remember exactly your esteemed background, because it needs to come into perspective, because I know you’re also at the cusp of starting some interesting new ventures. So let me remind the audience exactly where you have been. Achim Nowak, citizen of the world, really,
Achim Nowak 02:15
I’ll take citizen of the world. Rosemary, thank you for saying that. Yes,
Rosemary Ravinal 02:19
almost a brother, and with all of the lived years of experience, I think that we have earned a place in the esteem of the world. But it’s always nice to hear it from someone who loves you. So here we go. Achim, you are, what I would say is serial entrepreneur right in the personal development field. You know you are executive coach. You’ve been an executive coach to me when I started my business five years ago. But you also work with top tier CEOs and C suite executives all over the world in a variety of industries. Now. You also launched, built and grown, a successful global training firm, and you have a thriving international mastermind business, of which I’ve also been a beneficiary. You have been hosting this wonderful my fourth act podcast, which is about is already in his fifth season, which is tremendous. And you’ve had a to z of notable guests from a variety of fields. It’s worth going back to the first, second, third seasons to catch up on all the notables. And you’ve also authored four books in personal excellence. I am honored to have co edited an anthology of essays on loss, courage and personal transformation with you. Now it’s two years ago. Is it already? Two years already? Yet it’s called the difference, and it is still available. It’s available on Amazon, and it is a an extraordinary collection of 10 essays, of which two are one is yours and one is mine. Besides all of the above, you are a professional theater director, and you worked in that field for more than a decade, and you have taught acting in New York City and been a certified professional mediator at the court system of Brooklyn, New York. To add to that, you are a TEDx speaker, as I am, I took that cue from you, and you’re about to present your second TEDx talk in your new home of Portugal. So with all that said, I personally want to know, how are you managing all these career pivots, which clearly are not ending. You’re not going to settle into just one thing. You’ve taken on various endeavors all tapping into your deep expertise, your wheelhouse of personal development coaching. So tell me what’s next on your agenda. Where do you see yourself, and particularly on a now, how is your Portuguese? You.
Achim Nowak 05:00
Follow the Bucha weapon there. Thank you for that wonderful list. And my first thought was, I can’t keep doing everything, so as I want to explore something new, I have let go of things, you know, and sometimes I’ve let go things that I’m really, really good at, but I almost feel like I’m good at it. I know I’m good at it, but I don’t want to keep doing the same old thing. Let me give you example. When I founded international training and coaching firm, which is called Influence, that was a very specific moment, and this may seem very banal, but had about eight or nine facilitators working for me. We worked all over the world. We customized our programs for people. A lot of my job at some point was to just change slide decks and adapt them and do something new. And I’m sitting I remember sitting my office in Hollywood, Florida, thinking, I don’t want to change one more darn slide deck, and I realized it meant for me, the work was very meaningful to the clients, but I had done enough of that. It was time to let it go. And because both you and I are spiritual people, you know that when we create room by letting go something, the universe wants to fill the void and gives us other ideas and other opportunities, but letting go of something often things were very good at that was a big part of my journey. So
Rosemary Ravinal 06:29
you are being more selective in where you invest your time, but you’re still working within what I would call generally your wheelhouse, right? You’re not venturing into painting or some other form of personal expression, because I think that the personal development field really has this broad range that you can, you know, it’s a big, big, big sheet of cloth. You can cut it in many different ways. So how are you challenging yourself to find a fresh approach to your work? It’s
Achim Nowak 07:01
interesting. Yeah, I’m speaking to you. You are somebody who you’re a very good speaker. I’m a skilled speaker as well. You know, I’ve done the TEDx talk, I’ve done other things, but I’ve never really had a great hunger to be on stage. I think that’s the difference. Now, ironically, in the last years, I’ve gotten more requests to be a quotation marks keynote speaker than I did before. Because I’m in a period of change. I have a new home in Portugal. I said, Just say yes when the invitation comes. And whenever I’ve said yes to something that I’m skilled at but never really yearned for, it’s always gone really, really, really well, which led to me saying yes to doing another TEDx talk. Because why am I doing another TEDx talk? Well, the new part was, I’m going to do it in a very sexy part of Portugal, the Algarve. I will be one of the few international speakers with exceptional Portuguese thinkers. So that’s exciting to me. I get to be on stage with all of these people and normally wouldn’t meet the
Rosemary Ravinal 08:04
approach to Yes, and I find fascinating, of course, that comes fundamentals of improvisation, but it’s also an interesting approach to to life, right? It’s the mindset of keeping that door open and saying yes. It’s a little frightening. It’s not exactly where I am most comfortable, but it does fit into what I love to do, it just in a different channel, in a different medium, to a different audience. And I think that that’s exciting, because we both have a lot of knowledge to impart, and sometimes the coaching is just limited to one individual or to a small group, but when you have a forum like a TEDx stage, it’s it really reaches 1000s and 1000s of people, not only on that occasion, but in the replay. So you are really amplifying the impact that you have on the world, and that’s really a great use of your time.
Achim Nowak 09:01
You phrased that beautifully. And the spirit of end, a bigger question also is, how important is it for me to have a big impact in the world? I want to be honest, I’m very happy with a one on one, very intimate relationship with the very powerful people into code. It’s a privilege to do what I do. Having a bigger impact on the world is not a huge motivator for me. It’s a wonderful one. So when I say yes to public speaking, for me, initially, it’s about the energetic experience with the people that are in the room at the same time. Now I am not stupid. I know a TEDx talk, and reach a lot of people, and we get nice messages from people who’ve been moved by it. And I get that a lot, and I’m proud of that. But as I’m talking again, we get to reframe how we think about all of these things and why we do them, and why they matter to us, right? And I’m the middle of still. Reframing why I do what I do, and why I say yes to something, because every time I say yes to something, because my energy is limited, I have to say no to a few other things, yes precisely.
Rosemary Ravinal 10:11
Now you also have sort of a special perspective, because you’re now looking at the world from the other side of the Atlantic, the environment that you are now working in is giving you a different dimension on where you were before. And I think that’s a window that is fascinating. It has a different tint, perhaps, and it also refreshes your knowledge of personal development. And I think that that’s really enriching. How are you shaping your offering, the way you approach coaching, based on your experience living in Portugal?
Achim Nowak 10:51
That is such a rich question. But the first thought I had rosemary and that it relates to the work you and I do, my experience of the Portuguese people and the Portuguese culture. I say this broadly because the culture is made of individuals, subcultures. All the stuff we know from the United States is the biggest different I experience is that Portuguese people are non performative. Meaning when you meet them, they don’t act nice to impress you. They’re not cheery. Then whatever they are, who they are, they’re soulful. You feel like they’re authentic. And real, and authentic is an overused word, but it’s really refreshing to be an environment where people don’t work to be like they don’t work to impress you. They trust who they are a little more when I’m on stage doing a talk, there’s a measure of performance I do. I channel a larger energy, and the challenge is, how do I channel a larger version of me without losing who I am? Right? So this is the stuff that you and I coach people on, but my experience in Portugal reminds me of the beauty of not putting on a show for people while at the same time honoring that in a larger context. I need to bring a larger version of me. Since you asked about how else is Portugal shaping me? I facilitated masterminds for eight or nine years, I was facilitating two I said, let me stop offering masterminds and see what happens. What else my sense was, something else wanted to come in, but I didn’t know what it was, Rosemary. I had no idea. This is spiritual law. This is how literal it was. There was a Tuesday where I told you go, who you know us, Sanchez, who helps me run my business. And you go, these last two masterminds are the last ones we’re going to do the following day. I’m swimming laps and my swimming pool and stubal severa pool, and I’m swimming my laps. I swim took the long Achilles at times long, and I get this thought, what I want to do next? It’s wild. I mean, the connection couldn’t be more obvious, but I had totally forgotten be that before the pandemic, I had this little offer where, and I said, Well, just come to Hollywood, Florida, we spend a day together, and let’s look at your business. Let’s figure out what you really want it to be and what’s preventing you from having it? And people showed up, but when the pandemic came, I said, nobody’s going to come in person. I don’t want to do it virtually. Let’s stop. But part of the attraction was, I said, I live in Hollywood. It’s a beautiful place. People want to come to Florida. Let’s spend a day here. Then I said, Wait a minute, I live in a very sexy city in Portugal. People want to come to Portugal. I love helping other coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs do to figure out how to have the right business for themselves. I have the tools to do it. I’ve done it. Let me offer that here in stupa. So that’s what that is. But the evolutionary part I want to convey to our listeners, when I moved to Portugal, this was not in my consciousness. This only came to consciousness because I let go of something that I love, and I had to create space for something else that I didn’t know what it was. Yet,
Rosemary Ravinal 14:19
that’s a valuable lesson, if I can paraphrase it’s you need to be in pure thought as you are when you’re swimming, as many people are in the shower, or when people are taking a run, when your mind is clear and open and receptive to new ideas. And the clarity of that information that you received at that time really has inspired you to create the what I love sounds delightful. Lisbon sessions. That’s just a sexy sounding name. I
Achim Nowak 14:47
want to ask you a question, because you and I have both done similar things. And let me start with maybe telling a story. This is about me, and then I want to throw it to you. When I started my first business, I remember being at a cocktail. Party in Manhattan. And I was speaking to this fellow, you know, how people say, what do you do? What do you do? And he said, Well, I have a temporary staffing agency, and I have an office in Brooklyn and an office in Tampa. I said, I could never do that. And he said, Of course you could. So he called me out, and I thought to myself, Wow, what did you just say? But I realized I had a deep, held belief that I could not be an entrepreneur. Now, when I got a book deal to write my first book and decided I had to build a business around it, the gift was that I had articulated my fear, and it was in conscious form, because and the fear was not unrealistic. I really didn’t have a clue about how to grow a business. So there are things I had to learn. But what are some things that you had to face when you went from a very high profile job being ahead of public relations for a major media empire to saying, Oh, I’m I’m going to do my own thing. What did you have to face within yourself? Yes,
Rosemary Ravinal 16:04
yes. Again. Our our careers have had sort of similar peaks and valleys, and this is not my first rodeo with entrepreneurship. I had a successful agency in New York for seven years, but my last gen was sort of a a glitzy entertainment public relations position heading the network public relations for Univision, now called Televisa, Univision, which is the largest Spanish language media conglomerate in the world. And I was dealing with celebrities, and, you know, very, very famous people. But it was 24/7 in a rather, I would say, more performative role. I was basically being the Traffic Director to make sure that people didn’t sort of crash into each other, and the messages regarding the programming and the people behind it was consistent and at the highest possible level of merit. But it wasn’t me. I felt that I was performing a role for other people and at the service of other people when I felt that I had a lot more to say. At the same time, I recognized that many of the people who I was helping be successful were limited in how far they could go because they were niched into their particular area, for example, Spanish language broadcasting, just in Spanish, where, if they were asked to be on a stage speaking in English, that was a totally foreign and very frightening environment for them. So I stepped in and said, Okay, I can coach you. I can take you and mold you and give you the tools so that you can adapt to these different environments, grow your career, grow your reputation and extend beyond the limits of just Spanish language. And that started me believing that I could really do this as a viable business, and that’s what I did. At the end of 2019 I stepped out, I called my friend, Achim Nowak, and I said, Where do I begin? And you said, my friend, make a list of 25 companies that you can pitch this business proposition to. And I said, Oh, no, I hate selling. And you sort of threw the ball back at me, saying, Yes, I rosemary. Have did my work. It’s not easy. You’re not going to do it for me. You’re going to lead me in the right direction, but I have to do the heavy lifting. And I think that that’s something that many entrepreneurs don’t recognize. They think, Oh, I’ve done this for 2530, years. I’m the best in my field, but now you’re in a different playground, and the rules are different, and you’re there at the steering wheel by yourself, no one’s driving with you, and that it can be a very frightening proposition, but your guidance helped me get over that and understand that it was going to be a long game, and one they had a lot of work behind it, but I benefited tremendously, and that’s the kind of support and guidance you give to your clients. So I am grateful for that, and I’m grateful to be here five years later talking about this
Achim Nowak 18:57
as you’re talking about that beginning switch. I remember when I started my first business, 20 years ago, I was put myself into a business think tank in New York, where I still live, and was forced to think about who all these basic questions like, Who are the clients you want to serve? What kind of companies do you want to serve? And I remember, this is a conversation I had many times. So one thing I came up with because, like you, rosemary, I don’t like to sell. So I said my business model will be and this took a lot of good spot. I had no clients whatsoever. I said, I’m going to only work with really big companies of 2000 plus employees, because if they hire me and I do a good job, there’s going to be a lot more need for my services, and they’re just going to keep calling me. Sort of seems really obvious now, over the years, when I would tell this to friends that would say, Well, yeah, everybody wants that. But I said, Yeah, but I decided that’s where I would play you. That was my choice. I didn’t know how to get that client, but the beautiful part was, we get to decide what our playground is, right? You talked about the people that you are so well suited for to serve. The moment I made that decision, it took me a year and a half to have my first client like that, but that’s where I played in my corporate career, and it started with that decision in that group, but I noticed all the other coaches who say it’s when they say, well, everybody wants that. What they’re really saying. I don’t think I can get that client. That’s what they’re really saying.
Rosemary Ravinal 20:35
Now, let me ask you a question about the obstacles, the mindset, blockages, the key people like you’ve described saying, I can never do that. I can never have a business like yours. I can never go a year and a half without landing that dream client. Is it that people are always comparing? And if you could address the downside of comparisons, because I’m finding a lot of that
Achim Nowak 20:58
I have, here’s something I say to our mutual friend, Hugo Sanchez, who’s already been mentioned in the conversation, because I always said to Hugo, I’m a really good executive coach, and there are lots of other really good executive coaches. I am very clear that I’m not the only one. So why would somebody hire me over somebody else? Right? Because there are lots of other ones. One differentiator is that I’ve written four books, but the other one is when they hire me, they hire me Achim over somebody else. So it’s my job to properly show up with my voice. People hire me, and you said so beautifully in the introduction, and I’m just offering myself as an example for everybody, because I am an international person. I’m from Germany. I grew up in Portugal, I lived in Turkey, I lived in Trinidad. My job is to own that part of me be able to articulate it, because there are people who need to be coached by somebody with this background. The other part, you will laugh rosemary, because I was a professional theater director for 12 years. Had a good career. I had to figure out how that part of my life adds value and infuses what I do now. It feels so obvious now, but I the judgments I had about my past and what I shouldn’t talk about was insane, because I get hired because I was also an acting coach at Big acting schools. How cool is that? It’s obvious to me now, but this is everything that I had to learn.
Rosemary Ravinal 22:33
Yes, people hire us. I mean, I’m a public speaking coach, and there are many wonderful public speaking coaches, and each one of us has a different technique, but only I possess the depth of background and lived experience that I bring to the personalized service that I give my clients. And so they’re hiring me. There has to be a compatibility. They have to like me. There has to be a trust. And I think the trust factor is essential, right? It took because you’re opening up your vulnerabilities to someone who’s going to help you progress and break through those obstacles, but you have to trust the person who’s taking you by the hand. That’s what brings the great satisfaction to the work you and I do now. We’re looking at wonderful new ventures, Achim Lisbon sessions, a lot of more time spent in Portugal. Tell me, how does the rest of 2025 shape up for you?
Achim Nowak 23:26
The move to Portugal is huge. I still have a place in Florida. Sometimes I’m in Florida, but I consider Portugal my main home right now. Part of the other clarity that emerged for me was that I’ve written some books I’m very proud of. So last year, I tested the universe. There are these big they used to be called Arts colonies. The word arts colonies sort of class say now, but foundations that host artists and invite you, and you apply to get in. And let me apply with a project that’s totally different from my other writing. It’s a memoir, and let me see if I will get invited. I was invited to two those were truly transformative experiences. So part of my year is to work on these two writing projects to coach. But I remember my coach, Kathy, has said to me, when you have a client who’s been good to you for a long time, and they ask you to do something, you do it. But the Lisbon sessions are a wonderful addition to this that came to me in the swimming pool, but I’ve done them before in Hollywood, Florida, because the test is, do people want to just come and spend a day with me and work on their business? I know I have tools and techniques to help people figure stuff out. Me launching it this week. There’s a website called The Lisbon sessions.com It has its own identity, and I can’t stress enough about how different life is where I live compared to my life in South Florida, which I’ve also loved and trust that some very cool things are happening. I. And this is a pragmatic part of me as a business owner, rosemary, but I’m going to say it here is I realized by coming to spend a day and working with me, you can deduct your entire Portugal trip as a business expense. You can spend a day vacation, but at the same time you’re doing some work on your business. So that’s another thread in how I want to be a service that sounds
Rosemary Ravinal 25:21
fabulous. I am going to take advantage of that. I am I hear an invitation in there somewhere. So I certainly hope there will be a place for me sometime this year. Tell me again. Where do we find out information? What is the best way to connect with all these wonderful new projects? Achim,
Achim Nowak 25:41
up to now, you have been able to find me at Achim noak.com as of this week, you can also find me at the Lisbon sessions.com which is specifically about, how do you come and spend a day with me in the larger Lisbon area to rethink and reimagine your business, you will find testimonials of people I’ve done this with. Some of them are very successful people in the personal development space, and it’ll give you a really good idea of what that work looks like. It’ll also show you some amazing photos of the place where I live.
Rosemary Ravinal 26:17
Wonderful. Well, I am excited for you, and I’m excited for myself at the possibility of my joining you there sometime this year. So it’s been such a pleasure to talk with you and to learn more about the great work you’re doing, and look forward to future collaborations with you, my friend, thank you for this time together.
Achim Nowak 26:35
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