Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Tuazon.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The story of WonderPlay Coaching begins with me, Elizabeth Tuazon, an individual, whose life has been positively influenced by coaching. The intent of my business is to pass the positivity along with joy and ease of spirit. I use my attuned listening, deep connection, and keen intuition in the service of leveling up others’ lives and reflecting their own wisdom to them. That is to say, using my powers for good… or awesome.
I will briefly tell two juicy stories of personal empowerment I generated with two different coaches that were really impactful for me. My intention is to illustrate the kinds of transformations that coaching has had on my life and to pique your imagination about what kinds of effects coaching might make for you, dear reader.
One part of my origin story begins in my first career, in which I was a music teacher in the public schools on and off (mostly on) for about 10 years, and my content area and mission were really important to me: the lifting up of youth and encouraging them to express themselves and create community in and through the arts. I was traveling for a dance weekend and I happened to have a life coach host me in her home for the weekend. I expressed curiosity, at which she invited me to a free sample session, which eventually led to me hiring her as my coach in earnest.
The most significant revolution that I experienced within our coaching relationship was realizing that although public education was my past, it did not need to be my future. I could facilitate the same outreach and uplift through other avenues. And so at that point, I adjusted my primary professional identity to being an independent contractor in the performing arts. It was a liberating moment to see that my purpose in life wasn’t tied to a system about which I had become jaded.
And so, about one year later, when that coach asked if I would be interested in signing up for a coach training program, I was ready to say yes, since I had already practiced altering my perception of my work life in service of my higher commitments. A second win in my beginnings with coaching was while I was in my final short-term teaching contract. I was enrolled in my coach training program, but it had barely begun. Background: I am a competitive pole dancer, placing and winning championships and national recognition since 2013.
In this particular teaching gig, an administrator called me into her office and expressed admiration for my skill – and the next part of the story is predictable: one of the students had found videos online, their parent had called the school to express concern, etc. etc. The request that the administrator made was that I set my social media accounts to “private” while I was teaching at their institution. I agreed easily and readily at the moment – it seemed a small request, and it wasn’t like I was being fired, so – no big deal.
Pole dancing of any kind does not jive well with the public education sector in the US, and I have been trained to expect that. In a few short days, I got itchy about agreeing so readily. What I had realized was that I did not want to be put on mute: I was in competition training season, and I wanted to be open and available in the pole community. I also realized that I was deeply troubled by a tendency to hyper-sexualize an athletic female body (pole dancer or otherwise), especially combined with a tendency toward sexual repression, expressed in many ways in society.
I started seeing the act of setting my accounts to private as an act of hiding, which I began to equate with shame. And I am so totally proud of my creative art and the metamorphosis in my body and mind! Pole dancing, more than any other act of my adult life, freed me of the body dysmorphia of my youth. And don’t my students deserve a strong, approachable female role model who is comfortable and confident in her body and in the activities that feed and source her? Don’t these young boys and girls need the normalization of powerful physical identity that can live and thrive alongside a professional leader in their classroom? And couldn’t I be one of those people?
And so, with the support of my coach, I created the possibility of approaching that same administrator the following week with the intent of making the situation into a win-win. She approached HR with the proposition that I go back to public settings, and HR saw no problem with it. And so it was done. I could have done nothing and decided this whole encounter was best described as despair, repression, or condemnation – but instead, I got to have it be a connection, integrity, and full expression.
This is what coaching provided for me – and so I felt confident that *I* could provide the structure and support to appreciably shift my own clients’ lives. From the outside, the circumstances are not outstanding: boss asks a thing, employee agrees; employee reconsiders and renegotiates, boss agrees. But the emotional weight I had tied to the situation made it so much harder to see and act clearly. My aim in coaching now is to provide that outside perspective that supports people getting outside their story and in line with their higher commitments.
Thus was the beginning of my journey with a coach training program called Accomplishment Coaching, a rigorous 12-month program whose mission is to train world-class coaches and transform lives. I graduated from the Chicago program in January 2018. During the program, the leaders encourage us to start developing our business, so that we can gain experience and practice under the guidance of our Mentor Coaches. Here is where we get to the origin of the name of WonderPlay Coaching. The process of naming my business came beautifully to fruition in April 2017, and it speaks volumes about who I get to Be for my clients.
Accomplishment Coaching (AC) is an ontological training program, and ontology is the study of Being. One of the primary tenets of ontological coaching is: if you can acknowledge who you are Being about your life, and then you shift who you are Being into greater alignment with your intended future, then you can create your future. You can alter every part of your life, including the level of results are possible. According to AC, every human has a core, fundamental Being, called your “Essence,” which is: who you are Being when you are at your highest and best. I took two words of my own Essence and turned them into what sounded the most like a superhero name, and because Wonder and Play is who I want to be as coach and leader for my clients and the world.
“Being” can be a really esoteric subject – I find that the English vocabulary on Being is limited, and some people are skeptical of the ethereal or “woo-woo” flavor. I’ve realized, however, through my work as a coach, that when people are open to the possibility of having their lives changed, coaching can be stunningly effective, because the focus stays on manifesting the future vision of the client.
While I consider my primary work to be one-on-one with clients, WonderPlay Coaching also offers coaching workshops. I might not have done, had I not co-founded a second company in 2017 called The Sacred Circus (you can find out more about them at thesacredcircus.com!). We set an intention to lead our first retreat to Costa Rica in March 2018, in which my contribution was to be a daily coaching workshop on a declared theme, containing a series of exercises based in ontological coaching.
This was my impetus to begin a library of workshop content for WonderPlay. I adore leading and facilitating groups, and so this is a natural place for me to shine (and use all of that public school and leadership training!). I workshopped each topic locally in Chicago, so I felt confident with the material when we arrived internationally. Our first retreat was an incredible success, and so were the workshops – and so I am excited to share them with more people and expand my array of offerings in the future!
In this way, through the combination of workshops and coaching my individual clients, I see the effect I can have for people. I’ve come to identify myself as a life coach first, even though my career in teaching and leading in the performing arts has been much longer (and is ongoing). Coaching now provides an outlet as a career for not only significantly influencing people’s lives, but also it is my first career wherein I will be able to work remotely on a consistent basis. I do most of my coaching over the phone, so that is a huge win for the mobile and flexible lifestyle I am choosing to have with my husband Ryan and our future family.
Has it been a smooth road?
In some ways, coaching is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. The fact continues to reestablish itself that coaching stems from being in a relationship with someone. There is a lot more to it than that, but that is a fundamental first step. And I love connecting with people from service, reflecting their brilliance with love, and supporting them having the lives they want! Gaining the skill of coaching effectively is like any skill – trainable, and practice-able. And yet, one of the clearest obstacles for my clients is the same as what I deal with myself: getting out of my own way.
The year I spent training in Accomplishment Coaching was incredibly valuable because their program is designed for each trainee to have their own series of breakthroughs and transformations so that we can recognize all of our own “stuff,” and so our “stuff” doesn’t get in the way of supporting our clients. This is all to say, from an ontological perspective, I recognize my responsibility in being my own biggest obstacle in my career at the moment. All of the moments when I avoided stepping out of my own comfort zone are choices.
As an entrepreneur, artist, and person who has switched careers, I’m sure there are many folks who will be able to relate to that little niggling voice in their heads that says, “Are you sure about this?” In these conversations, I often refer people to a song from the musical called [title of show], called “Die Vampire Die,” in which artists face down the outer (and inner) voices that would squelch their creativity and expression. At the same time, I am the source of acknowledging all the greatness and beauty in my life as such! Disney’s heroine Moana asserts that “there’s just no telling how far I’ll go” – that is, if she dares to break free of others’ expectations of what is possible, safe, wise, acceptable, and so on.
Because the part of us that would keep us small, safe, predictable, and comfortable would never let us live big or bold or choose to commit to our dreams with reckless abandon. And so one of the practices that I have committed to is living an examined life, and also a big, bold, and beautiful one. Have I “made it” to the point where my coaching is a sustainably scaled full-time business? Not yet! Is that where I’m headed? Absolutely! Am I letting the fear of being “not enough” stop me? Only in moments, until I get centered in my Being again. The trajectory that I see for myself lands me far ahead of where I am now.
Another feature of the training program at Accomplishment Coaching is that each participant receives a mentor coach for the duration of the year. I would point out here that coaching is, by design, a confronting process – because you’re taking a look at places where you’re stuck or stopped, and declaring what it would take to bust you out of there. Explosions and reinventions are not always pretty or neat. They can get messy. That’s not to say that transforming is an obstacle, only that it can seem like a challenge when you’re in the midst of it. I value being responsible for my own transformation so that I can support my clients in doing the same. This year’s big breakthrough will be in my relationship to money – and am I ever excited about where I will be then!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the WonderPlay Coaching story. Tell us more about the business.
My name is Elizabeth Tuazon, and I am an ontological life coach and founder of WonderPlay Coaching. As a life coach, I bring my own Wonder and Play as I partner with clients to create awareness and inspire clarity – and set it into action. We look together toward the future and actively take steps in service of the client’s journey to maximize their full potential. Together, we increase alignment with the client’s commitments and values to encourage practices that create life-changing shifts and lasting results.
A life coach is someone who partners with you to see your bold and beautiful future, takes a look at what’s in the way, and gets you into action to create your life on purpose. WonderPlay takes life coaching to the next level with an inviting glow and creative curiosity, exploring “what’s possible” in your life. Stepping out of your comfort zone can feel like a stretch, and your coach will support you by reflecting what they see, hearing what you’re not saying, celebrating your wins, and holding you accountable for the sustainable results you are out to create.
The visual icon of WonderPlay represents the constant expansion of a growth mindset and the aspiration to explore every element of your life. Together through focused coaching calls, we target the aspects of your life you wish to “level up.”
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see that the coaching industry is growing, and there are many different companies, methods, and approaches that are available to people. I believe that everyone can get what they need as the field expands with ever more creative. At the end of the day, chacun ses goûts – some coaches lean more towards public speaking, writing, workshops, events, corporate clients, or individual clients. Most people have the potential to benefit from coaching at some point in their lives, and the more they see and hear of the industry, the more it is legitimized in public opinion.
I also see that with organizations like the International Coach Federation (of which I am a member), there are industry standards that set up coaching as a professional platform. This isn’t a guarantee that everyone who calls themselves a life coach has had training, or that all training is created equal – so I’d encourage interested clients to ask about professional coaches’ training and credentials if you’re considering hiring them!
Pricing:
- Monthly fee for one-on-one coaching (1 hour-long call per week): $550
- Package of 5 coaching sessions: $300 during May 2018 (normally $400)
- Package of 10 coaching sessions: $550 during May 2018 (normally $700)
- Human-Up! Monthly Workshop Series: by donation
Contact Info:
- Website: wonderplaycoaching.com
- Phone: 7083084715
- Email: wonderplaycoaching@gmail.com
- Instagram: @wonderplaycoaching
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wonder.Play.Coaching
- Other: Scheduling link for workshops and introductory sessions: https://www.schedulicity.com/scheduling/wpcfmx
Image Credit:
Sean Harris, Ryan Alan Jones, Adeoye Mabogunje, MC Photography, Stewart Wheeler
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