Empowering Others Through Emotional and Career Coaching
By Antonio Gutierrez | Photography by David Teran
In 2016, Michelle Raza felt her personal life was spinning out of control. Her marriage was failing, she was overweight, grieving the loss of her mother, who passed away from Alzheimer’s Disease, and was generally stressed out with work.
“I wasn’t focused on self-care, and I felt like I had hit a wall,” she said. “I had no work/life balance.”
Despite the burdens and mounting pressures, Raza still recognized the good in her life. She was blessed with a beautiful daughter and had received a strong academic foundation, earning three fully-funded degrees in six years: dual bachelor’s degrees in Economics and International Affairs from Florida International University, and a master’s degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University.
Raza also had built an impressive, professional resume while working at two renowned international organizations: She had been employed at the U.S. State Department as a Thomas R. Pickering and Pamela Harriman Foreign Affairs Fellow, working in various offices, including a rotation at the U.S. Mission to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Office of International Conferences, and the Office of Israeli-Palestinian Affairs.
She also completed a stint at the World Health Organization, working with the ministries of health of member states on the procurement of vaccines, reagents, and pharmaceuticals, as well as with the Office of the Legal Counselor. “I am so grateful for those opportunities I would have never dreamed of,” she said. “I got to see the inner workings of both government and non-governmental organizations as they work to help humanity.”
But it was one job in particular at Accenture, a global IT management company, where she found herself “career coaching” others, discussing their dreams, hopes, and aspirations that ignited a passion for empowering others. “This was the part of my job that brought me the most joy. I thought, ‘let me expand on what I know to broaden to a whole-life focus for coaching.’ “
And so to round out her 20 years of business knowledge, she began studying the works of major self-help authors, Dr. Lindsay Gibson, Dr. John Gottman, Melody Beattie, and Dr. Judd Brewer, to give her the knowledge she needed to feel confident and comfortable in coaching others.
Based on her professional and personal experiences, Raza developed a model designed to elevate the whole person and launched her coaching company, Finding Yourself SATX, where she and her team coach individuals to reach their potential professionally, mentally, and physically. A key component of her coaching firm is in Executive Presence coaching: “If you don’t have confidence, you don’t have anything,” she said.
Raza also has achieved an important personal goal of her own through sheer determination, grit and countless hours in the gym. Recently, she lost 65 pounds. “Through a combination of diet and exercise over a period of two years, I finally, for what felt like the first time in my adult life, got to a healthy weight.”
If she can do it, she said, so can anyone – even if that means finding a friend to go with you to the gym if you’re not comfortable going by yourself, or hiring a personal trainer to assist you with your fitness goals. “This is where our company can help you stay on top of your goals and achieve them,” she said.
Although Raza is an inspiration and example to others of what you can achieve or conquer if you truly put your mind to it, she doesn’t see herself as a role model. “I don’t try to be a role model, but I have strong values and integrity, and I live by those values,” she said. “What you do when no one is watching is the most important thing.”
For more information, visit findingyourselfsatx.com.
