Meet Jessie Douglass-Smith McGraw: Transformative Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessie Douglass-Smith McGraw and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
To be honest, I’ll never forget the first time someone said to me, “How does it feel to be running your own business?” and I turned around to see if they were speaking to someone behind me. While I was working away at my last job (which I initially thought was going to be the career I was going to retire from), I would spend my lunch hours journaling about how I could teach what I share with my clients now. Initially, I thought it would be in a movement class setting, combining my love of dance to help folks get in their body, with a TED talk-esque presentation at the beginning and a guided meditation at the end. Once I felt I had gotten a grasp on what that would look like, I waited for my gut to tell me it was time to take the leap and leave my job. I didn’t have a business plan, I didn’t have a backup plan, I didn’t have a wild amount of savings or a solid sense of how it was going to turn into a profitable career. I just knew I had to teach what I had seen about how we use our mind to create our experiences. It had freed me. In the speed of an insight I had gone from lost and depressed to feeling free and hopeful for the first time in months (if not years). When my gut told me it was time, I gave my one months notice at my job and onward I went. After only three months of teaching my work in a class setting, I realized I had more people asking if I was willing to coach them in a one on one session then I did signing up for the class so I pivoted and started my coaching practice. I’m incredibly grateful for the process that led me to where I am because the organic nature of it all allowed me to let life show me what my business was going to look like as opposed to me having any expectations that I could have potentially felt weren’t being met.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What I love about my work is that it empowers the people seeing me to begin to trust their own answers, as I said earlier, their own Wisdom. Not only do we have information flowing through us 100% of the time about how to move forward, one step at a time, but we also can get clarity on our limiting beliefs when we get curious and have patience for the answer to bubble up. Often times we feel stuck because we’re believing things about ourselves or about life that we made up many many years ago, and once we see it, we can see the innocence in why we made it up in the first place and choose to leave it in the past and move forward with a change of heart. Was growing my business easy? One part of me says yes, the other says no. I know it’s my Wisdom that answers yes because I’ve trusted it the whole way and it hasn’t steered me wrong. My mind is what’s saying that it wasn’t easy because it’s remembering all of those days when I would feel insecure about income, client load, and the constant state of vulnerability that you’re in when you’re an entrepreneur. However, if someone out there reading this is interested in starting their own business, I encourage you to consider that there are two types of difficult (thank you to Glennon Doyle for articulating this) – there’s the difficult where you stuff your truth and do what society or your family or friends think you should do or there’s the difficult where you own your truth and show up to life as your whole self. I don’t know about you guys, but I tried the former, and the latter is far more enriching and exhilarating.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well, I’m in LOVE with Los Angeles, so this could be long, but I won’t make you suffer! I was born in Northern California and it will always have my heart, but the sheer diversity of Los Angeles and all it has to offer from the different terrains to the nightlife to the people watching to the food makes me tear up just thinking about it. If the plan was just to go on a drive, I would absolutely be sure to take them through Topanga Canyon (which is it’s own wonderful nook to explore) to get to the ocean, then drive up the coast on the PCH to Santa Barbara – the views and the food and wine along the way are immense, especially if you catch magic hour on the way home. I would be sure to take them out to Joshua Tree and before tucking in for the evening, stopping in to Pappy & Harriets in Pioneertown for incredible BBQ, margaritas and music (this is where a bunch of incredible (and headline) artists will do one-off shows on their way to or from Coachella AND we had our wedding reception there 10 years ago, so it holds a special place in my heart). Of course you can’t forget the mountains – Idyllwild, Mt. Baldy, Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead, all incredible destinations. In town, I would have to take them for tacos at Cactus tacos on Vine (the little hut to be exact!), or a delicious bolognese at La Pergoletta on Hillhurst. We’d have to make some local artist purchases at my friend’s incredible store in Burbank, Mindfulnest (currently re-named Stay Home Friend (.com) for obvious Covid reasons). I can’t forget the Getty to take in the gardens, architecture and art and the Hotel Cafe or the Baked Potato to hear incredible up and coming artists or iconic jazz, respectively. There are so many more pockets around town I’m in love with, but for the sake of length, I will end with how wonderful it feels just to walk around my neighborhood of Beachwood Canyon. The quaint Beachwood market (circa 1954) serves up delicious deli sandwiches (and is my god send when I’ve run out of eggs on a Sunday morning), the Beachwood Cafe next door is absolutely delightful for a glass of wine with a friend while you watch hikers make their way up to the Hollywood sign, and the pure magic of the canyon is magnificent to take in on walks. So much history lingers from the Old Hollywood days, you can’t help but feel renewed and inspired after your stroll. After this interview I will remember a million places to eat, drink, and be merry that I didn’t mention, but I hope the taste of LA that I gave you was satisfying enough for your palate!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
First and foremost, my husband, Mike McGraw (an incredible guitar player who has been featured here in VoyageLA!) The support of my family, both blood related and chosen. Elsie Spittle and Sydney Banks, both my teachers from afar through their teachings and books. And finally, the intelligence behind life that flows through each and every one of us and manifests as a gut instinct or what I like to call, Wisdom. We all have it, no matter our age, background or education, and it’s accessible the moment we get quiet and listen for it, inside. What I’ve experienced in my life that has brought me to where I am today is available for each and every person reading this – I am an ordinary person living an extraordinary life purely because I’ve listened to that quiet yet very honest voice inside of me that has gently nudged me along my path. I am so grateful for it all.

Website: https://whatmovesyouwithjessie.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatmovesyouwithjessie/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessie-douglass-smith-mcgraw-b5475077/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatmovesyouwithjessie

Other: What Moves You with Jessie the Podcast on iTunes and Spotify!

Image Credits
Lauren Hurt, Veronica Crawford