We were lucky to catch up with Christine Sopa recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Before I started my business in 2003, I worked for a publishing company and had a very stressful job. During this time in my life I was a young professional, was married with two young children, working 50-60 hours per week, and was studying for my masters degree. If someone were to ask me at that time if I felt stressed, I honestly would have said no. I truly did not feel stressed because my definition of stress was a wigged out person who did not have control of their life. I over-controlled my life…which was part of the problem. After several months of severe stomach issues, I finally went to the doctor (who has time to go to the doctor when we are “busy?”) and I was diagnosed with chronic ulcerative colitis. I was admitted to the hospital for 5 days and the doctor wanted to do surgery and remove half of my colon. I refused, mainly due to fear and a gut feeling it would lead to more issues. I have always believed that our body and mind are connected so I reasoned that if I made myself sick that I should be able to reverse my condition and heal myself. I took 5 months off of work on short-term disability and spent time working on healing. I focused on my body, of course, but I mainly focused on my mind, my beliefs, and my emotional well-being. At the end of the 5-months, I had completely reversed (and healed!) my colitis. It was then that I realized that I did not want to go back to the corporate world so I decided to start my business. I knew absolutely nothing about how to start a business but I did believe in myself and knew that if I could heal my body the way I did that I could do anything. I took a huge risk by just up and quitting my job but in the end, I followed my heart. When you follow your heart, everything else falls into place!

Christine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As an industrial/organizational psychologist, I work mainly with corporate leaders and help them become more self-aware of their behaviors at work and offer them strategies and tools to improve the behaviors that will help them excel and thrive in their chosen profession and in life. Psychology and business have both always fascinated me but I did not want to become a clinical psychologist nor did I want to solely focus on business. When I found I/O psychology, it was a perfect blend for me and I feel blessed every day because I absolutely love what I do! Organizations and individuals hire me because I I have developed a holistic approach that integrates logic, intuition, emotion, and spirit to overcome challenges, changes, and fears. I leverage my expertise as an author, speaker, and researcher to share my insights and findings on topics such as women’s empowerment, imposter syndrome, and self-sabotage. I have published three books, conducted ground-breaking research, and delivered keynote speeches to various audiences and industries. My mission is to inspire, educate, and empower people to live the lives they were born to live.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Over the course of my life and my business (21 years in business) I had to learn that I could not control everything. This is a very hard lesson for a “control freak!” I had to learn to trust myself and that I would be able to handle anything that came my way because my fear stemmed from a fear of the unknown. I learned resilience by allowing myself to feel uncomfortable and rely on friends and colleagues for strength and motivation when I could not find it in myself. Over time, I learned that by trusting myself and the process of life, things always turned out as they were meant to turn out. I now consider myself a “recovering control freak.” And that is a good thing!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe the biggest thing that helped me build my reputation was being myself. I have never been afraid to do things the way I believe rather than following what others were doing in my industry. Not every client is a match for my style, but the ones that are ALL achieve success because I am able to click with them because I trust myself and they learn to see me as a trusted advisor. The more clients I worked with in this way, the more referrals I received and in the 21 years I have been in business, the majority of my business comes from referrals because my clients enjoyed working with me and achieve their objectives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chrissopa.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.travelingpsychologist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559520787144
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissopa/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chrissopaphd

Image Credits

Ken Levine Photography