choice Magazine

Garry Schleifer

5.0 (3)
Entrepreneurship
Updated Semiweekly

choice Magazine is the vehicle that forwards the global conversation about professional coaching by providing: diverse perspectives, thought-provoking commentary, insightful discussion and access to services, tools, resources and practical information.

1d ago

Episode 209: The Loving Gaze with guest, Christi Byerly

Send us Fan Mail The fastest way to change might be the last thing most high-achievers want to hear: stop trying to fix yourself for a moment and let yourself be loved. We sit down with master certified coach and Awaken Coach Institute founder Christi Byerly to talk about her Choice Magazine article, “The Loving Gaze,” and the lived reality behind it: what happens when a coach meets a client in the now with compassion instead of performance. We unpack the Jung paradox, the tension between goal-focused coaching and the subtle message of “you aren’t enough yet.” Christi shares why resistance often shows up when we lean too hard on outcomes, and how returning to rapport, witnessing, and unconditional positive regard can make change feel almost effortless. We also talk about the pressure many coaches carry to be more healed than the people they serve, and how being imperfect, honest, and present can deepen trust rather than weaken it. You’ll hear a vivid origin story from Nairobi where three simple coaching questions created a breakthrough, plus a thoughtful look at spirituality in coaching, the difference between organized religion and spiritual direction, and why “presence” can be understood as a boundless awareness that holds both coach and client. If you’re searching for practical tools to strengthen coach presence, build a more trauma-informed coaching stance, and reconnect with the heart of professional coaching, this conversation is for you. Subscribe for more conversations with choice authors, share this episode with a coach friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway: what helps you feel truly seen? Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Christi here. Gift: A 4-lesson journey that changes how you see yourself, your path and what's possible. Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
Oct 7

Episode 208: The Presence Problem with guest, Gloria Custodio

Send us Fan Mail Your best coaching is not the moment you land the perfect question. It is the moment you stop performing and actually meet the person in front of you. Garry Schleifer sits down with social leadership coach Gloria Custodio to unpack what she calls “The Presence Problem” and why coaching presence is less a trait you have and more a practice you return to, over and over, in real time. We talk about the quiet ways coaches lose the room: over-preparing, clinging to frameworks, and running an internal scorecard while the client is still speaking. Gloria shares how self-monitoring can spike during the ICF credentialing process and recorded sessions, where “hitting markers” can feel rewarded even when it pulls you away from human connection. We also dig into the line between healthy self-awareness and the kind that turns the session into your show. Then we get practical. You will hear a story where one offhand comment about a client’s dad becomes the thread that opens a deeper, more valuable conversation about motivation and choice. Gloria offers simple tools you can use immediately, like taking a breath, pausing, and tracking after the session when your attention drifts, so you can rebuild trust in yourself and in the coaching relationship. If you care about better coaching conversations, executive coaching presence, and sustainable leadership, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a coach who needs the reminder, and leave a review so more listeners can find Beyond the Page. Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Gloria here. Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
Sep 30

Episode 207: Listen Beyond Words with guest, Cheryl Procter-Rogers

Send us Fan Mail Some clients say all the right things and still leave you with a quiet feeling that something is missing. That gap is where real coaching happens, and it starts with how you listen. We sit down with master certified executive coach Cheryl Procter-Rogers to unpack her core idea from choice Magazine: listening beyond words. Together, we walk through the three levels of listening, from tracking the story to hearing meaning to noticing the signals underneath the language. Cheryl shares what it looks like to coach with your entire body, how breath and pace can shift the quality of presence, and why restraint is often the most powerful move a coach can make when the urge to fix shows up. We also get practical about intuition in coaching. Instead of treating intuition like a verdict, we explore how to offer it with curiosity, invite the client to confirm or reject it, and protect psychological safety. Along the way, we talk about timing, well placed interruptions to surface patterns, and why leaders who listen deeply recognize misalignment faster and build trust more quickly in meetings and high stakes conversations. If you want stronger coaching skills, better leadership communication, and more effective deep listening, hit play. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts, share this episode with a coach or leader who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Cheryl here. Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
Sep 23

Episode 206: Deep Presence In Coaching with guest, Nancy Hauschildt

Send us Fan Mail You can be a technically solid coach and still feel that something is missing and your client can feel it too. That subtle gap is what we dig into with leadership and executive coach Nancy Hauschild, author of “The Observed and the Observer: Stripping Away the Layers to Find Your Deepest Presence,” from Choice Magazine’s theme on The Gift of Presence. We talk about the difference between the observed and the observer: the surface identities we can list on a resume versus the meta-awareness that can watch our thoughts, urges, and “coach persona” in real time. When the inner performer shows up as the fixer, the expert, or the relentlessly helpful coach, it can contaminate the conversation and quietly pull us out of true coaching presence. Nandi shares how noticing that impulse without acting on it changes how we listen, how we build trust, and how clients feel genuinely seen. From there, we reframe presence as transmission. It is not only what we think we bring to the session, but what the client actually receives from the quality of our attention. We unpack the “glass pane” phenomenon where a session can check all the ICF boxes but still feel disconnected, and we map three layers of presence: being with another, being with yourself, and creating an environment where deeper client insight becomes possible. Nandi also makes it clear that trauma is not the price of admission for depth; the real doorway is willingness to do your own work through curiosity, mentoring, and supervision. Listen through, try the five-minute presence exercise we link in the show notes, and then tell us what changed. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a coach friend, and leave a review so more coaches can find it. Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Nancy here. A Free Gift from Nancy: A one page reflective guide titled "How Present Are You, Really? A Five-Minute Self-Inquiry for Coaches" Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
Sep 22

Episode 205: Active Presence~ How to bring yourself and your client fully into the now with guest, Susan Weiss

Send us Fan Mail You can hear it when someone is technically “on the call” but their body is still sprinting. That gap between showing up and actually arriving is what we dig into with executive and team coach Susan Weiss, author of Active Presence: How to Bring Yourself and Your Client Fully Into the Now. We get practical about what presence looks like in real coaching sessions, why it slips, and how to rebuild it without pretending we live in a distraction-free world. We talk about the difference between self-awareness and self-management, and why awareness alone is not enough when you’re coaching senior leaders under pressure. Susan shares simple transition rituals and a fast “clearing” practice that helps clients move from scattered to strategic in minutes. We also explore her favorite concept, a somatic treasury: collecting embodied memories from nature, travel, or everyday moments you can recall to access groundedness, expansion, or calm on demand. Then we go one level deeper into the neuroscience of trust in coaching. Presence is not just philosophical; it affects nervous system safety, empathy, and connection through mechanisms like mirror neurons and oxytocin. If you want stronger rapport, clearer thinking, and better outcomes in executive coaching, leadership development, and team dynamics, this conversation gives you a clean starting point you can use between back-to-back sessions. If this helps you, subscribe, share the episode with a coach or leader who needs a reset, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What practice will you try first? Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Susan here. Gifts: Meditation for Coaches - The Gift of Presence on SoundCloud Reflection Guide for Coaches - a PDF for coaches Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
Sep 9

Episode 204: Holding It Together Is Not The Job with guest, Maria Wade

Send us Fan Mail Your best leaders can look calm and still be in trouble. When uncertainty stops being a short-term disruption and becomes the water everyone swims in, “stay strong and push through” turns into isolation, second-guessing, and a constant fight with their own internal signals. That’s the heart of our conversation with executive coach and coaching supervisor Maria Wade, author of “Holding It Together Is Not the Job: Coaching Leaders in Prolonged Organizational Chaos.” We dig into what changes when the world moves from complicated to complex to chaotic and why senior leadership challenges stop being technical problems you can solve with more expertise. Maria shares how coaches can use presence and interoception, the felt sense of what’s happening inside the body, as real data in a session. We talk about why the goal isn’t to calm a client down, but to help them get accurate information from a system they’ve learned to override, and how neuroscience on constructed emotions informs a more careful, respectful approach. From there, we zoom out to the identity shift leaders face after promotion: more autonomy, fewer guardrails, and often less honest support. We explore vulnerability with boundaries, breaking isolation without oversharing, and bringing the system into the room through psychological safety and accountability. Maria also points listeners to a practical Chaos Guide and explains how her leadership integrity framework connects inner awareness, relationships, and the larger organizational system. If you coach executives, lead teams, or work inside fast-changing organizations, you’ll walk away with language and practical moves for staying grounded while everything shifts. Subscribe, share this with a fellow coach or leader, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Maria here. * Gift – When Holding It Together Stops Working: A Field Guide for Coaching Leaders Through Prolonged Chaos. A free four-page companion to my Choice feature, written for coaches who work with senior leaders when a crisis stops being a moment and becomes the weather. It lays out four moves for those long engagements: reading the body in the room before you trust the briefing, noticing when a leader is solving the right problems at the wrong level, finding the isolation hiding inside hard-won autonomy, and coaching the identity underneath the performance. It closes with five questions to ask yourself before your next session, because you cannot ask a leader to stop performing composure while you perform it back at them. Download it free at chaosguide.mariawade.us. Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
Sep 2

Episode 203: Courage, Compassion and Curiosity with guest, Marcia Reynolds

Send us Fan Mail Chaos has a way of shrinking our thinking. One tough email, a headline, a sudden change at work and we grab for the fastest fix, the familiar answer, the script that used to work. Then the brain locks onto worst case scenarios, confidence drops, and even strong leaders start feeling stuck. We sit down with Marcia Reynolds, Master Certified Coach and pioneer in the ICF community, to talk about how a coaching approach can activate resilience when uncertainty is the only constant. Marcia introduces the “murky unknown” and the messy middle of change, where people are transforming but nothing feels stable yet. Her core practice sounds almost too simple until you try it: coach slowly. We unpack how slowing down creates emotional connection first, why clients need to feel safety before they can access insight, and how the real topic often emerges naturally when we invite story instead of rushing to goals. You’ll hear how to listen for repeated phrases and hidden rules, then reflect them back with compassion, even if it sparks frustration, because that emotion often signals a breakthrough. We also dig into why old solutions can be harmful when applied to new problems and why so many leaders burn out trying to be the one who knows. Marcia challenges us to let go of the expert identity and to “give it back” so clients build agency. Finally, she explains the difference between listening and receiving through therapeutic presence, opening head, heart, and gut to create felt trust that goes beyond confidentiality statements and into real connection. If you want practical coaching tools for uncertain times, subscribe, share this episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more coaches and leaders can find it. What part of coaching slowly would make the biggest difference in your next conversation? Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Marcia here. * Gift – Introduction and First Chapter to Coach the Person, Not the Problem 2nd Edition. This document looks at what makes coaching so powerful in these times of chaos and uncertainty, what it takes to impact people and trigger transformation beyond what AI can do, and what are the key elements of a coaching conversation. Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
Aug 26

Episode 202: Coaching At The Threshold with guest, Michael Shoultz

Send us Fan Mail Feeling stuck is not always a sign you’re failing. Sometimes it’s a sign you’re crossing a threshold where the old version of your leadership no longer fits and the next one hasn’t come into focus yet. That space can feel restless, urgent, and confusing, which is exactly why many of us try to force clarity and rush into an action plan. We sit down with leadership coach and organizational consultant Michael Schoultz, author of “Coaching at the Threshold: Supporting Clients in Times of Uncertainty,” from choice Magazine’s Coaching in Chaos issue. Together, we unpack how to tell the difference between avoidance and real transition, what patterns to listen for beneath a client’s words, and why familiar coaching tools like goals and next steps can suddenly feel ineffective when identity is shifting. A central takeaway is simple and surprisingly powerful: regulation before clarity. When anxiety and overwhelm tighten the nervous system, options disappear and decision making becomes reactive. We talk about slowing the conversation down, framing uncertainty as transition rather than failure, holding complexity with steadiness, and helping clients choose aligned action instead of rushed action. We also explore the Goldilocks question of timing so reflection doesn’t become another form of hiding. If you coach leaders through complexity, organizational change, or high-stakes decisions, this conversation will give you language, mindset, and practical moves you can use right away. Subscribe, share this with a coach or leader who needs steadiness, and leave a review with the moment that changed how you’ll handle uncertainty. Watch the full interview by clicking here. Read the full article here. Learn more about Michael here. * A gift for Beyond the Page listeners, free and no sign-up required. A one-page set of "threshold-safe" coaching questions for those moments when a client is between identities — designed to slow the rush to clarity and help them find orientation before outcome. Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/

5

out of 5

3 Ratings

choice Magazine is the vehicle that forwards the global conversation about professional coaching by providing: diverse perspectives, thought-provoking commentary, insightful discussion and access to services, tools, resources and practical information.

Creator

Garry Schleifer
Years Active

2022 - 2026
Episodes

209
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 choice Magazine
Show Website

choice Magazine

Careers

Careers

Updated Weekly
Self-Improvement

Self-Improvement

Updated Semiweekly