Meet Ashley Bourbeau | Life Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Bourbeau and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
There is a one thousand percent chance that if you don’t put yourself out there and take risks, you won’t make progress. Sure, failure can be scary, but so is sitting around later in life wishing you had taken more chances. You can take pretty big risks if you have confidence, a solid mindset and awareness on your side. You also can train yourself to view failure, or the potential for it, differently. The most successful people have failed miserably at so many things, even the things they inevitably become most known for. Scientific breakthroughs would never have been possible without pushing past barriers to successfully test a theory, olympians would never podium if they got too scared of failure, not once or twice, but hundreds or thousands of times before reaching their goals. It is likely no different for your journey, it will just be part of it, and it can be useful! We know deep down the things we want, and we spend a lot of time and energy convincing ourselves we don’t deserve it, that it’s not possible, or that it’s too scary. Stop. it. Give yourself some credit, lean into your strengths to help you improve your weaknesses, and pursue the things that drive you the most.

What should our readers know about your business?
I began The Higher Human officially last year. As I was previously progressing in my career as a mediator, helping people resolve their legal disputes, I felt called to help in a broader sense. While I love the problem solving exercises that mediation provided, I felt limited in only being there to help resolve a legal issue, and not help folks with the larger themes I could often see were at play. So, I began taking on coaching work on the side, and working towards making this transition. It was a relatively smooth career change to be honest. Many don’t see the connection at first, but mediation is very much about guiding people through some of life’s most difficult, stressful events and upheavals. Coaching is just an expansion of that, but one that allows me to improve my ideal work lifestyle, be more myself in the process, and most importantly, help as many people as I can. One challenge I’ve had as a professional is definitely putting myself out there, particularly on camera to distribute to the world on social media! However, I recognize that this is very much part of my industry, and it is vital for me to push through that discomfort and just do it.

I think what sets me apart is my directness, calmness, and authenticity. I don’t really know how to be anyone but me, so that’s what you’re going to get! For those looking for highly performative, full of frills coaching content, please do not torture yourself by following me haha. I am very neuro-spicy as the kids say, and I will literally never get anything done if I spend extra time on the entertainment aspects of social media. But, if you’re looking for simple, direct, and helpful advice from someone you genuinely might be able to relate to, then I’m your guy. I really feel as though there is an ego charged status and image problem in my field, similar to themes on social media of posting only images of perfection, status, and conventional ideas of “success”. I hope to be the antithesis to those patterns, because I feel they are out of touch with so many people, and are harmful to mental health on a larger scale. We need to make authenticity cool again!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Hmmm, it would probably depend on their interests. Certainly, LA has some great food spots, and the tacos – I’ll never turn down a good one, so I usually take people to Leo’s taco truck at the very least. I think it’s fun to drive around and show people different neighborhoods. The observatory at night is a great way to see the size of LA, but not on the weekend, you’ll regret the traffic! When I came here for the first time, I was stunned at how huge the highways are, how big the mountains are, and how the landscape seemed to change really vastly from place to place. My favorite spot is the mountains. I really picked up hiking when I moved here, so if I have visitors who are game, we usually get one in. The museums are fantastic as well!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Absolutely! For starters, I don’t know where I’d be without networking. It was difficult for me, being an introvert – I dreaded it, but someone invited me to a BNI group, and I ended up joining. I came in as the mediator in the chapter, and have remained through my move into coaching. It was really key for me in business, not just for referrals, but also has huge value in mentoring for entrepreneurship, promoting your business elsewhere, and learning how to network and build relationships with other professionals. I want to be able to give my clients solid referrals that I know I can trust. So, there’s certainly a whole group of people I have to be grateful for in my business journey. I highly recommend organized networking groups, chambers of commerce, rotary clubs, etc. as a means to grow a business and become a better entrepreneur.

In addition to feeling called to help people with the big changes in life, and going after goals, a large part of my journey toward coaching was inspired by increased interest in consciousness: what are we, and why are we here? That came along with quite a bit of research into the concept from many different angles. I started by reading “Many Lives, Many Masters” by Brian Weiss, on recommendation. For anyone curious about the possibility of life after death, and what purposes our lives might hold, I recommend the book, because it is written from the perspective of a renowned psychiatrist who did not really believe in the past lives he stumbled upon with his client at first, but eventually ran out of alternative explanations for what they were experiencing. It certainly transformed me from being a skeptic. From there, I continued to learn about hypnotherapy. I’m a big fan of Dolores Cannon’s work. I also became interested in other altered states of consciousness, such as meditation and psychedelics. “How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan is fantastic for insights into psychedelic experiences, and their short and long term effects. Paul Stamets, who is featured in the book, and in the documentary, “Fantastic Fungi” on Netflix, I consider to be a leading resource for information on psychedelic mushrooms in particular.

I feel like we are on the precipice of having a much deeper understanding of, and therefore mainstream acceptance of, some of the themes that present themselves in altered states of consciousness. In other words, what might seem like magic, or a mental construct that is a bit “out there” to some folks right now, will likely be shown to be scientific principles we simply didn’t yet fully understand. So, these topics have become something I continue to learn more about and follow closely. I do feel like our spirit, essence, consciousness – whatever you call it is important, and tapping into it helps us find more peace and purpose in life.

Website: www.thehigherhuman.com

Instagram: @thehigherhuman

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-bourbeau-2aa2607a/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086386823940

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCML4Z5PX1eRjWsrU8VE0f6Q

Image Credits
Professional photos: Brooke Mason