Changing lives for the better, every day.
Jan, a Master Certified Coach, author, speaker, facilitator, passionate a cappella singer and high-performance coach, infuses her work with creativity, empathy, intuition, and inspiration. She excels in unlocking the innate brilliance, greatness and peak performance potential of both individuals and teams.
What Jan Believes
Jan’s philosophy is that we were all put on this earth for a reason – and that we are all unique and have different gifts to contribute to the world. It is our imperative to acknowledge, stand in, and express our individual signature brilliance to make our biggest contribution to the world.
For some of us, that signature brilliance is perhaps hard to identify or to own. Perhaps we have been taught to be humble, to hide our “light”, and that it is nobler to downplay or minimize our gifts. That one would be bragging or conceited to acknowledge one’s special qualities.
Jan’s thesis is the opposite. She feels that if one steps fully into one’s greatest gifts, the world will benefit the most – so it is actually a selfish act to keep those gifts to ourselves, to hide them or play small. We are meant to shine our light as bright as we can!
Jan believes in people, in everyone’s capacity and potential for growth. She believes that you are all you need and that WE each are the biggest things standing in the way of our own success (however you might define that word).
What might happen in your life if you had the support of a coach-thinking partner with no agenda other than to help you grow and live the life you want? And – have fun while doing it! Imagine!
The Serious Stuff!
Working as a professional executive coach since 2007, Jan is one of 4% of professional coaches worldwide holding the esteemed Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential with the International Coaching Federation*. This designation signals a culmination of intense study, professional development and breadth of coaching experience.
As Associate Faculty at Royal Roads University, Jan taught the personal mastery and foundations components of its esteemed Executive program for a decade and inspired and guided hundreds of executive coaching students through their learning journey of self-awareness and leadership.
She is the author of 2 critically acclaimed books, Harmony from the Inside Out and The Overtone Effect, that use musical metaphors to outline a practical, and easy-to-read system to maximize personal and organizational success.
As a Gold Medal Mindset Mastery Coach for a cappella singing groups worldwide, she has shifted the experiences of thousands of singers and created cultures of joy and possibility.
A former theatre director and producer, Jan is a creative catalyst as artistic director for the Lions Gate Chorus and performance coach of a cappella singing groups.
Her undergrad degree was in Theatre from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
*according to the International Coaching Federation Credentialing Fact Sheet February 2021
Jan’s Backstory
Born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Jan made her way west by train to Vancouver, BC, after graduating from university. She fell in love with the ocean, the mountains and the soft misting rain of the west coast and never left.
Does Jan have it all together? Nope! But she will tell you that her stumbles, falls, good life experiences, and the bad, have all led her here. And here is where she is starting and growing from.
Growing up with three brothers, she was forced to be tough. She was often the only girl out playing in the neighbourhood with a gaggle of older rough and tumble boys. She had to keep up – or (horrors)… be left behind! Well, you can guess what she did. That strength, drive and tenacity have allowed her to do a lot of cool stuff over the years for which she is truly grateful.
It also has gotten in her way as it quite naturally channeled her into leadership roles and subsequent patterns of being the one driving the bus. The one with the answers. The one in charge. That affected her relationships and her work roles. And, believe it or not, like so many leaders Jan has since worked with, though brimming with confidence externally, inside she didn’t have a ton of self-esteem.
That lack of self-esteem pushed her away from the creative life she yearned for in her first chosen area of Theatre – (specifically the vulnerable areas of acting and directing) - and into the safer, more stable roles of theatre administration and executive management. After many years working in the professional performing arts, she realized that though she was in an industry she loved, she wasn’t doing the work she loved. Instead, she was creating the space and opportunities for others to do the creative work.
One might call that her mini mid-life crisis. It was time for something else. Time for her to find where she could make her best contribution. After searching and searching, she discovered the world of professional coaching. Wow – here was an opportunity to really make a difference – to use a different part of herself, an important part, and one that perhaps got shoved down over the years by being the one always in charge. As a coach, she got to let go of that pressure of always having to have the answer and instead embrace the uniqueness of each individual – and hold them as being capable, resourceful, whole and having their own answers. She got to be a listener, an inspirer, a creative provocateur of people's lives – of team dynamics – of organizations. She had found her aligned place of contribution at last.
And yes, she also got to tap into her creative mind again – to use her words in print, her performance skills in keynote speaking and singing, and – to apply coaching principles to her love of music. To that end, in 2007, beginning with the a cappella chorus she sings with (The Lions Gate Chorus of Vancouver, BC, Canada), Jan became the Mindset Mastery Coach and started coaching singing groups around the globe of between 20 – 120 people to live into their potential as individuals and singing collectives – as they prepared for the high-pressured environments of international singing competitions. Her greatest satisfaction was in November 2023, in Louisville, KY, when her home chorus, the Lions Gate Chorus in Vancouver, BC, became the gold medal world champions in what is fondly referred to as the “Olympics of a cappella singing”.
Now, as a gold medal mindset mastery and performance coach, combined with her certification and training as a Master Certified Coach, she is bringing that same step-by-step system to maximize personal and organizational success to the corporate world and any high-performance team through workshops, keynote speaking, and coaching work.
So, back to the beginning of this story - Does Jan have it all together yet? Nope! But as a lifelong learner, she is walking her talk and is committed to growing as she moves forward and contributing through her life work to help you do the same. Jan looks forward to the opportunity to be your “guide on the side” for your path forward.
“Not only did Jan shine a light on my unique strengths, but she also helped me sharpen skills that I felt were underutilized.”
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