An Interview With Edward Sylvan
My purpose was revealed after my wife and I opened up a salon in 2004 and I became the go-to person for ‘the conversations’ and after I was addressed by a client referencing a conversation that we had as being the one that changed her life for the better that was the start of Randy want to be a life coach. The more and more I followed my passion to be a life coach I began to understand that the best way to live your best life is to live it in your own truth. This is when the truth coach was born and the passion was to work on this world one person at a time to make it a better place.
As a part of my series about leaders who are using their social media platform to make a significant social impact, I had the pleasure of interviewing Coach Randy.
In 2014 Coach Randy commenced his voyage of becoming a “truth coach”. By mere definition, a truth coach is a vessel that assists individuals to acknowledge and vanquish the elements in life that create self-inflicted mental illness. As a coach, his mission is to pilot others in living in true authenticity; their personal TRUTH. One can gain clarity of living in their authenticity by detaching from illusions embedded in one’s mind. When one lives in truth, all other areas of life will fall into place.
According to Coach Randy, truth coaching is not just a career, it’s his purpose. In the past, the coach himself fell victim to living in a facade of his past experiences; because that is where he was the most comfortable. Consistently residing in the past that no longer served his present the esteemed coach unearthed the feelings of to anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. In which, the lie was contributing to his stagnation and mental anguish.
Through his personal journey and perspective is where he unearthed the answers. Coach Randy faced vast emotional barriers without protecting others in order to free himself from mental bondage. “The truth hurts not only about one’s shortcomings but also the ones you recognize that come from others, especially those that are closest to you that you don’t want to lose. But there are sacrifices that must be made for your own peace. From my own healing and practices with others I created and copyrighted The SIMS Approach which focuses on the story, implementing change, manifesting results, and showing the world the new version of you. With this method, knowledge, and experiences the truth will be revealed and one can truly be set free.”
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My life cycle brought me to this point in my career. I was the individual that helped everyone around me while dealing with anxiety and depression behind closed doors. I was hiding my truth to protect those that were closest to me in the form of relatives and old friends. This was the type of behavior that had me neglecting my wife and kids of the full Randy due to the many truths I was suppressing. This suppression had a negative effect on how I was raising my kids and communicating with my wife. This was the final straw for me because if anyone knows me I am nothing without my wife and kids and that distance between us was killing me. I was utilizing the factors that haunted my past in my present relationships, I had to face my reality. So it was time for change and this is how the SIMS Approach was created. I had to face my story through my eyes and find resolutions for my issues in order to be the best version of me. I could not put my kids through childhood trauma because I felt my upbringing was stagnated from time to time due to trauma. I could not punish them due to my transgressions. I was neglecting their feelings, opinions, and point of view and that is not an option. They deserve to have input in the direction they would like to go as they progress through life and my wife always needs to experience life with the man she fell in love with, not the man that is dealing with issues that she was never made aware of at the beginning of the relationship.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
I don’t weigh stories, I seek results. But the most interesting moment for me was when I realized my gift was real and that my purpose was to use my gift of relating to people and their stories without bias to help them find resolutions and freedom. This part of my foundation lets me know that the beginning, the process, and the conclusion will be interesting as well as a staple that helps give this world some positive and productive structure.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t know if I would call it funny but it definitely was an eye-opener. As a coach in a group setting, I was actually trying to help everyone at the same time instead of being informative in a way that gives everyone a chance to benefit. See I was clouding my spiritual side trying to exploit my gift instead of using my gift strategically. Once I realized the importance of honing in on the gift and not everyone’s individual problems, the power of Truth Coach Randy became real and prevalent. I had to learn to limit myself daily as it relates to appointments and dealing with everyone’s energy because I can see and feel so much. I now give myself the time to recover before rejoining the real world mentally. Just as my clients need the Randy that gives them the best opportunity at greatness, my wife and kids deserve the Randy that they deserve. I had to learn my boundaries to ensure that just as I am helping others to live their best life I also have to position myself mentally and physically to live my best life as well.
You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
What is failure? Failure is not TRYING! So I say plan and go for it but I do not recommend going in if you are broken. I’ll use myself as an example: I started my coaching journey with the hopes of helping people heal but I was l broken from my past. That just does not work. I had to learn that before taking on the privilege of coaching someone, I had to take a step back and get myself together. The only way to avoid not only failing myself but failing others I had to literally practice what I preach, face and confront my demons and implement change in my life. See misery really does love company so I had to learn to enter as the light at the end of the tunnel.
Ok super. Let’s now jump to the core focus of our interview. Can you describe to our readers how you are using your platform to make a significant social impact?
Mental health is real and what I have come to learn is that many people have allowed themselves to fall into a mental health state due to an unconscious fear to stand in their own truth. What do I mean? It’s time for people to face their story from their perspective and start to assess who the villain, victim, or victors are in the story with a focus on awareness, acknowledgment, and accountability. Once these attributes of the story are discovered real decisions can be made with themselves as the sole beneficiary of the results. As difficult as decisions made from your story will be due to these types of ramifications. We all must understand that sometimes we really have to lose to win, especially when it comes to facing and conquering moments from the past.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted by this cause?
How long are you going to allow the toxic nature of a situation, no matter the magnitude, to haunt you? It is time to set yourself free and the casualties have to as they may. Stop compromising your happiness, it is time to be free. I can not break confidentiality but I can walk you down the road I take to help people set themselves free and make a major impact on their lives. The S.I.M.S. Approach opens eyes to the reality the client has been longing for. During this process, relationships may be compromised or even lost but the good thing about them is they always have the opportunity to be reconciled. This is important because your life may not have the luxury of these relationships! Control of it is of the essence! Life is built on choices that lead to consequences. Everyone needs to know that they are worth being happy. How many have come to me and stated, I don’t wanna be alone so I just stay content in this space. My response is, Are you sure you haven’t been alone the whole time anyway due to the depression you have been facing. See, just because you have people around or in your life does not mean that you are included, maybe it just means you’re comfortable. Take control of the narrative and stop settling for comfort and let’s work to find freedom. You deserve it! Once we get to that point and decide on the next step to start facing things the impact always begins.
Was there a tipping point that made you decide to focus on this particular area? Can you share a story about that?
My purpose was revealed after my wife and I opened up a salon in 2004 and I became the go-to person for ‘the conversations’ and after I was addressed by a client referencing a conversation that we had as being the one that changed her life for the better that was the start of Randy want to be a life coach. The more and more I followed my passion to be a life coach I began to understand that the best way to live your best life is to live it in your own truth. This is when the truth coach was born and the passion was to work on this world one person at a time to make it a better place.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
1. Broken kids are always the focus when they reach out to a teacher, a counselor or someone of influence. I just don’t believe that is the right 1st step because if the changes do start at home and the environment that is in control the majority of the time how can the change ever start with the kid.
2. I believe having a trade is just as important as getting a degree. The degree can only enhance the trade and this needs to be embedded in our youth. An idle mind is truly the devil’s playground and one thing I know from my entrepreneurial journey as long as I was occupied with working on my trade I was focused on making something of myself by being as good as I could in what I was doing. Let’s start finding ways to push the youth towards things that are going to be beneficial to not only themselves but also to society whether the school is in the cards or not. A TRADE
3. Everything I am going to speak about involves the kids because they truly are the future. Every decision that is being made needs to be with the youth’s future in mind. As an adult that is a product of childhood trauma, I could only imagine if I had avenues to really voice myself and actually knew I was being heard. I was fortunate to make the right decisions. I just want more of the youth to have the same possibilities.
What specific strategies have you been using to promote and advance this cause? Can you recommend any good tips for people who want to follow your lead and use their social platform for a social good
As an old-school marketer, I was all about word of mouth but I had to start using other resources because the type of change I am destined to make I can’t do on my own. I have been blessed to be able to work with magnificent Public Relations that are placing my brand throughout the country, Promoting a podcast, sponsored ads on social media, posting posting posting on all platforms using all of the different possibilities, as well as just walking and talking in my purpose letting my light shine without boundaries.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
1. Remember to always strive for balance in work and life. It is more like a balancing act but there always has to be effort. You need to set your priorities and remember not to neglect any one of them along the way.
I’ll make this one short and sweet so you can get don’t let chasing money cause you to lose everything that is most important to you. Because if you do there is no level of happiness money can create to replace it.
2. Every opportunity may not seem as if it could be beneficial but don’t just run because it does not look right, always keep an open mind for jumping to conclusions.
You can learn from all businesses don’t be too prideful to get the knowledge needed from someone that is higher up the food chain.
3. No matter how good or bad things are along the journey there is always a bigger picture. Sometimes what is going on in the present has no bearing on the big picture, it’s just an unsettling moment. Stay focused and keep striving.
When my wife and I started our cosmetics line we jumped out and provided everything like the big brands and the support wasn’t there. It seemed like a terrible decision but this was not the case making that decision actually gave me the vision to realize we did not have a story. Your journey needs a story you need to have a ‘what sets me apart’ and when we made adjustments with our story in mind the line got back on track.
4. Future planning is important but the ‘now’ is important. Set a short term and go after them. Life is too short not to celebrate all accomplishments no matter the size.
No example for living your life to the fullest and celebrating along the way JUST DO IT.
5. Pay attention and learn from your mistakes, they might be the best thing that could have happened because they are actually lessons to be learned from to help prevent another misstep.
I could tell stories all day but what entrepreneurs need to know is that learn from the missteps, don’t cry too long (it’s natural) get back up, back at it, and don’t do it again. PAY ATTENTION!!
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Make learning the importance of learning a trade a higher priority. Tradesmen are needed and I was one of the lucky ones but I can only imagine the difference I would have made if I had acquired an early trade and had it to partner with my unstoppable purpose.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I grew up suppressing my feelings and ideas therefore to me I was living a lie:
My Life Lesson Quote is:: Don’t find comfort in the lies, Instead seek Freedom in the Truth.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Michael Vick is a gentleman I would love to have a conversation with. He did not let his story define who he was to be in life but it definitely has played a huge role in who he is. Second chances are available if you believe and work hard at getting it. Watching his story play out has been one of my biggest inspirations.
How can our readers further follow your work online ?
www.instagram.com/truthcoachrandy
www.facebook.com/truthcoachrandy
www.twitter.com/truthcoachrandy
This was very meaningful, thank you so much!
Stars Making A Social Impact: Why & How Truth Coach Randy Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.