Sherrie Laryse is an author, teacher and mentor with 12+ years working in human behaviour, neuro linguistics, grief, trauma, psychosomatics, mental illness, yoga and meditation. Sherrie’s fascination with the human psyche also has her studying a Bachelor of Cognitive and Brain Science.
Sherrie’s focus is teaching emotional intelligence. She does this via private consultation, public speaking, and written word. Sherrie’s debut book, On Path shares her personal experience and practical techniques for overcoming challenge.
Sherrie has witnessed profound transformation in her clients, and, as such, aims to share practical methods of self-help through retraining our thinking, through movement, meditation and the power of story.
Please tell us a little bit about your business – what is Sherrie Laryse all about?
I teach Emotional Intelligence, a concept that is fashionably thrown around a lot these days, yet, understood very little.
I’m all about teaching people the tools, rather than you lying back on the couch, so to speak. When I work with people 1:1, it’s always working directly on a past or current challenge in their life that is emotionally weighing them down or impacting their performance — be that in their professional or personal life. While the focus is on this particular aspect of life, you’re learning a new way to think about that experience, and literally rewiring your brain as a result. You’re learning a new way of thinking! It’s a very generalisable skill.
I also teach people how to access the physical aspect of their emotions. Most people are familiar with the physical sensation of being nervous —the butterflies in the stomach, the dry mouth, or the red face— but we don’t often register that all emotions have an embodied response. In these consultations, I show people how to feel the physical aspect of unwanted emotions, so we can process them on that level, rather than the story of how the feeling was elicited in the first place. I won’t lie, this process is weird the first time you do it! But also profound, very telling and deeply healing.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company.
I have a corporate background and a love of business. But I am also fascinated with the human experience and how we each move through life so differently from each other. Why do some people become overwhelmed with stress, while others bounce through life? I also had a crazy experience of fulfilling three goals within one week of setting them; that was to leave my corporate job, to obtain $50k cash, and to meet my future husband. When I achieve all three within the week, I started questioning human mindset and how much capacity we have to influence our reality. I threw myself into my education on all things brain and mind — neuro linguistics, counselling, human behaviour, meditation, and now neuroscience.
Along the way, I met my own life challenge of not being able to have children, despite the excellent health of my husband and I. It became a seven-year emotional rollercoaster where I needed to work every month to overcome the disappointment, despair, the desperation and, ultimately, the grief of losing the person I thought I was. I had always seen myself as a mother, expecting that this idea of myself would one day eventuate with my own children.
So it was through my lived experience of processing emotion after emotion to find a deep sense of peace and gratitude about my life path, using all of the techniques that I now teach, that launched me into wanting to share these methods with others.
Life happens! We need these essential life skills to move through them.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
My point of teaching, and not counselling, is so people can walk away with methods that they can apply independently, at home or on-the-go, as new challenges arise in life —as they will continue to do!
To be honest, this is how I now fulfill the need in me to mother… I want to teach people in the same way I’d want to teach my own child to grow up as an independent and wise person.
It’s really important to me that I to teach people the tools so these methods become their own skills to process emotions.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
My debut book, On Path, was reviewed by one Amazon reader as “A profound read that will unearth self-awareness and emotional intelligence in any reader.”
Because I talk through all the emotional intelligence methods that I brought myself through during my journey to motherhood, my book gives people a first taste of just how powerful these tools are. You’re reading the application of the techniques against my life story, however, I’ve found that people read themselves into the story and so you can’t help but start to apply the same thinking to your own situation.
So my book has been marvellous to share my offering with a broader range of people who I may not have reached otherwise. Clients get in touch with me from there and we work together so I can walk them through the direct application of these methods applied to their circumstances.
What are you learning now? Why is that important?
I’m almost finished my degree in Cognitive and Brain Science. I have completed extensive training in meditation, yoga, and human behaviour, and it’s really important for me to understand the hard science behind the soft science. The findings which support meditation are impressive and convert the practice from being something that ‘spiritual’ (or hippy or new age) people do, into an intelligent self-maintenance tool that every person with a nervous system would benefit from.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
I live by my calendar. It was one of the tips I learned when I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey.
It means that everything that I want to do, and even everything I want to have time to think about whether I want to do it or not, is given its own timeslot in my calendar. This means that I know that, in good time, everything will be done. I no longer have one million items cycling around in my head all pressing for my attention. I can schedule them, and then mentally park them until they pop up on the schedule day. It allows me to remain present to what’s at hand.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
This question, for me, is similar to the question I was asked as a kid: “If a genie grants you only one wish, what would you wish for?” And every time I would wish for an unlimited number of wishes.
This is kind of the same. I would invest in my mindset, because our thinking underpins all business ideas, the ability to think outside of the box, to problem solve, to see obstacles as a step up, to resolve any subconscious blocks about having wealth or being successful.
You can have the best idea, the best training and qualifications, and a strong network, but if you do not have the mindset to walk that road, then you will not find success easily (or you simply won’t enjoy it, and that’s not a great prospect either).
I would start with two key benders:
- A technique to engage your subconscious mind to value wealth. I actually have a DIY version of this as an online course called Healthy Wealth.
- Emotional Intelligence methods to clear out those so-called skeletons in the closet that otherwise have a way of impacting all decisions that we make, glass ceilings that we put above our own heads, how we value ourselves and the contribution we make.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
Keeping my vision and my purpose as top of mind. This is unique for everyone. For me, it’s about fulfilling my own need to mother, to nurture and guide others to have a better experience in life. The more I can mother other people, the more I feel the hole in me is filled. When you are intrinsically driven by your own innate needs to help other people, there is no need for external motivation ever again.
What is your favorite quote?
Warren Buffet once said, “If you can’t manage your emotions, don’t expect to manage money.”
Emotions change the blood flow in the brain and this impacts how you think. You will be more reactive, less decisive, and lose your clarity of thought. Managing your emotions is essential for clear, rational thinking as well as creative thinking which is used for problem solving. If you do not have access to these, you will stumble at every obstacle in both wealth and business. Knowing how to process your emotions is paramount.
What is your definition of success?
Not using an alarm to wake up in the morning! Success, to me, is living on my schedule, and doing the things that I find fulfilling. Period.
How do you personally overcome fear?
Obviously, I love this question, being an Emotional Intelligence Teacher. I have two answers. The first is a bit cute, the second holds serious power.
- If you’re setting yourself a big goal or task that is so daunting that it fills you with fear, then set yourself an even bigger, scarier goal or task that will occur shortly after the first one. It will make the first one seem like a piece of cake by comparison. Repeat. 😊
- Get specific on exactly what the fear is about so you have something solid to work with. For example, is it a fear of failure? If this were the case, define what would happen for you to deem it as a failure. And then find all of the upsides if that defined reality eventuated. Find the positives that you weren’t noticing, ie what you would gain. What would you learn? Which relationships may strengthen? Which potential new doors would open? There is an upside to every downside — every perceived failure — if you can uncover them up front, then you realise that the supposed failure options sounds quite appealing! And then you no longer need to fear it.
How can readers get in touch with you?
You can find me via my website www.sherrie.com.au or email me at
hello [at] sherrie.com.au
