Cornelia Koeppel

Full transcript: Cornelia Koeppel on London Real

0:00 I am here with Cornelia Koeppel, recent graduate of the Life Accelerator. Tell us about yourself, where you’re from, what do you do? I’m from Switzerland. Have been living in the Swiss-French part for the last 20 years or so, so I always kind of talk about being an expat in my own country. I’m originally from Basel.

0:28 So, something that I think was kind of a thread through that is I grew up in a border town and I was moving to an exporter town. So that’s my background in terms of where I’m coming from. Otherwise, I’m a woman in probably the middle of my life. And one of the reasons why I actually took the Life Accelerator is because I’m in the midst of kind of re-orientating where I want to go for the next half of my life.

1:01 And what was your career up until now? Well, for the last 20 years I was in marketing communications. But I ended up here really more by accident. Because I started off, going through school, through university, with the intention of becoming a teacher. And got a job offer after university to work for an internet start-up, an e-grocery business.

1:28 And I remember it was like early January in 1998. I went to see them. They had this grand idea. It was not for me, so I travelled. That was why I actually moved into the Swiss-French part. But I took the train, went to see them. They showed me what their concept was. And I had no clue what they actually wanted to do. So I travelled back home.

2:01 And I sent them a fax. I didn’t have an email address, so I sent them a fax and said, thank you but no thank you, that’s not for me. But the interesting piece was that a week later, I got a phone call, where they basically said, well, we received your fax, but we’re not accepting that you’re turning us down. And so that was for me kind of the moment, it was like, oh, hmm, I seem to have something that they’re interested in, that they need.

2:27 So we met up the next day in Lausanne. And in the meantime, I had 24 hours kind of to come up with my criteria of why would, or under what circumstance would, I accept this job for an internet startup that I had no clue what they really wanted to do. And the next day, I went through my list in terms of the salary that I wanted. I didn’t have a car.

2:51 So I was like, you know, if you need to recognise a car… So did they hire you? That’s what I want to know. And so in the end, everything was a yes, and so, yeah. So one of my conditions was, I’m gonna come for three months and see what this is all about. Okay, and you stayed… And then after a month, I signed, yeah. And I stayed, and it was the best three and a half years, I think, that I had, yeah.

3:12 Now, what was going on with you to make you consider taking this course? What were you struggling with internally to make you think about it? So I was 20 years into my career. And I got to a point where it didn’t kind of fascinate me anymore. And I felt that I spent my days with people that were not really inspired by what they were doing.

3:42 I always say, kind of, you need to be able to surround yourself with people that take pride in what they do. And I didn’t feel that anymore. And with that also came kind of the routine, and probably also with age, kind of the need to feel that at the end of the day, I spent my time well. You know, have I given back? Have I contributed to a bigger something than just go through the day, go through my two to-do list and get it done? Same thing next day.

4:17 And I’ve known probably for about a year that I needed a change. But it kind of, it was gradual, for me also to recognise that. Actually, if you want to change something, you actually need to change something. I mean, your life is your life, nobody else is gonna kind of help you through, serve it to you on a silver platter.

4:45 So, I got to the point where I took the decision to say, well, I can wrap this up. It’s a good time now. But I was also, I mean, whether it was scared or I had a lot of respect for this transition phase. Because it’s one thing to be full in your daily train of things that need to happen, and not quite knowing what comes afterwards.

5:14 And when I got your email, it was really kind of this, like a recipe to say, oh, there is somebody that helps me structure this transition phase. And that’s why I finally signed on to the Life Accelerator. Because I really felt that it was going to be a structured transition helping me to the next, you know, it’s like, helping me prepare the next step. Because this is by far not over, it’s the beginning of an entire phase that starts.

5:46 But for me, that was it. And I think what resonated mostly was afterwards, it was the content. So it was the content of the modules. Because my getting to the point where I knew that I wanted to change was something that didn’t happen overnight. So for me, it was always also a transition from a life that was really dominated by my work, 150%, in all the time, which also meant that I didn’t have time for a lot of other things.

6:17 And I think the most sort of obvious things for me were, I didn’t have time to move. So in terms of movement practice, being active, something I always delegated to the weekend. And then what do you do? I mean, it’s like you’re out of shape, you try to accomplish stuff that you’re not physically able to do because you’re not training for it. So, that’s frustrating.

6:41 And then the other thing was just, I never took the time to actually eat healthily. And that is, I mean, I never took the time to really learn and to build it into my daily life. And I think that is something that probably kind of triggered. So, bringing these two elements into my life about two years ago, gradually, these were the trigger points that maybe also then realised that actually I need to change something in my life, and much more fundamentally.

7:16 I mean, I cannot continue with my job. My job needs to go because it doesn’t fit anymore in a kind of lifestyle that I would like to live. And so, it’s all of these elements kind of coming together. And then culminating in this email that I received from you at the right, literally at the right time. I think, I mean, this is for me. I need to sign up.

7:35 And why London Real? Why were we on your radar? Because I was, so, probably about a year or two years, a year and a half ago, I started doing CrossFit. And I mean, if I maybe go back another couple of years, in 2012, I had back surgery.

8:04 And for me, that was kind of really sort of a moment when I realised, I mean, I was always kind of an active person and always physically active during the week. But I mean, I had that mindset. And I knew it from when I grew up. So it was kind of always there. And then came this back injury. And, you know, for probably about a year, I was immobile, I couldn’t do anything anymore.

8:32 And so, I started, you know, once I was fixed, there are certain things you can do just by getting fixed with a surgeon. But I had to find my way back. So going back was just really like walking, expanding my time before. Okay, so what episode… Swimming, et cetera. And then I got to the point where I was like, I’m ready physically, and psychically, and I’m eager to try out new stuff.

8:59 So, I got into touch through CrossFit with a few names, and I started Googling names. You know, Callister, Ido Portal was one. And then through these names, I ended up on your website through the interviews that you had uploaded on YouTube. And so that was how I found London Real. Okay.

9:23 And in the beginning, I literally just watched whatever content you put on to YouTube. Okay. Because I wasn’t ready to kind of declare and give you my contact details. Right, I understand. And so that was kind of, it took a while. And then I discovered, I mean, just a breadth of contents that you actually have out there.

9:45 And so, that’s when I kind of felt the responsibility always to say, it’s like, you’re giving out all this material, I’m giving you nothing. And that’s when I committed to actually, I’ll subscribe, with my name and contact details, instead of just being one of those people that watch anonymously. Right, just observers. And I think that’s what…

10:10 And when you made that decision in December that I’m gonna go ahead and invest in this Life Accelerator, what’s the thing that just made you say, okay, I’m gonna trust London Real, go ahead and do this? What pushed you over? I saw the level of professionality of everything that you guys did. So it’s kind of the standard of, it sounds maybe a bit bizarre.

10:34 But, you know, for me it’s like you’re either in 100% or more, or you’re not. I don’t have this middle ground. So I have a lot of respect for people who kind of, they find their passion and they just continue to improve over time. And that’s what I saw with you guys here. It’s not something that stagnates. There’s always something else that comes on top.

11:03 I mean, I’m kind of a late adopter to the entire thing here. But watching just the content that was produced a few years back versus what was live and new and fresh when I first started watching, towards now, it’s just an ongoing evolvement. And with that, I think there is this fundamental expectation that you deliver quality. For me, that resonated with me.

11:30 And that for me was the quality stamp that I needed to say, I’m gonna be in good hands. I know that no matter what, what we will get out of this course will be solid. Okay, that’s really good feedback for me. You take the course, we start off January 3rd. What are those first two weeks like? What do you remember? It was intense.

11:58 Because it started off really with stepping outside of the comfort zone. And I mentioned that before, but it was this push from the start to do something that I’d never done before. And, you know, it started off with sitting in front of a camera. You know, basically recording yourself. And presenting yourself to an audience that you had no clue who these people were. And that’s scary. That’s really scary.

12:25 But then, you know, we did that. And one of the ads that you put out there was to say, well, watch the videos of everybody else, and comment and welcome them in a constructive way. And I think that was intense because you had to basically, without being in touch with these people, but you got to know them one-by-one, and you take the time to listen, listen attentively, and then not just walk away.

12:58 But really find a few things that resonated with you in each of the presentation videos and leave a comment. So that was kind of the preparation, and then, you know, the other two weeks, it was again, it’s just play along, play along. And that’s for me something that resonated from the beginning, you said, it’s like, trust this process.

13:21 And I think that was for me an important message, because it kind of took a little bit of the responsibility to judge away. And I could just ride along actively, because you have to do a lot of things. But it kind of, it was, in French we say, it’s like an… So you were well taken care of. And that allowed you to really focus on the content.

13:50 And then obviously, the content in terms of first week, you strip away all elements of distraction. And you are allowed to take time out of the day for yourself, you meditate. You are allowed to leave this bloody cellphone in the corner. You don’t need to look at it. I mean, low media diet, 60 minutes.

14:15 Yes, of course, it was kind of saying like, you can’t consume media for more than 60 minutes. But in reality, it was a relief. Because you don’t need to do it. Because it’s not something that is, I mean, we don’t need to be exposed to most of the contents that we expose ourselves to anyway. Because we have zero influence over what comes our way.

14:41 So, the first week was a fantastic way of just getting in the right mindset by just really slowing down. Yeah. Making space and room and breath. And what I realised after this one week is, giving myself this time and this space, I could over easy, kind of these, the creativity bugs pushing through in again.

15:13 And a lot of stuff that I hadn’t actually thought of because I didn’t have time. It was not relevant anymore. From way back when, it all started to pop up again. And that’s when I, it’s like, this is all, that’s also inside me. It’s all material that I can work with now. But I just had it shoved down so far and filled with all these other layers.

15:40 And here with just one week, it was ready to come up again. And that was fascinating to watch. And that’s kind of, I was able to fill my backpack for the next five weeks with this first week, and really getting ready to. For me, the tougher modules followed later on.

16:03 Right, okay, what was the big win for you, module-wise, or the big moment that was like, okay, wow, that’s a big kind of aha moment, or the best module for you? The best module for me. I think it was probably the last one, when we sat down and formulated the plan. I was shocked almost, but in a good way, by how clear things had become in these six weeks.

16:42 And we had to take a video of us, you know, December 31st, 2017. And I remember I was sitting on the train and I was recording the video. And I lived through that day literally, so for me it was, it’s a visualisation of something that’s gonna happen in the future. But the weeks and the work leading up to that moment just allowed me to just see it crystal clear.

17:13 So having, walking away after six weeks with a roadmap for the next year, and in my case, it’s actually a roadmap for the next 18 months, that blew my mind, and it’s ways more than I ever expected to actually get out of the course. Okay, all right. What did you struggle with? What was the module that was difficult for you, or any part of the process?

17:40 I think what I struggled with in the beginning was condensing thought and then formulating it in a way that hopefully was understandable for the rest of the group through video. And that in a way, you can argue, it’s like that’s a mechanical thing. And like, you know, you need to record a video and put it out there. But it’s getting to that point where you go through the thought process, try to make sense of something, and then you talk about it.

18:17 And so I didn’t have, I mean, it was not one thing that I thought was incredibly difficult. It was a good challenge all the way, but not overbearing. So I didn’t have a mountain kind of to climb that I didn’t feel that I would ever get to the top. It was just a constant kind of, you need this to be present and keep on working through it. But then, it’s still that kind of formulating.

18:47 But for me, it’s always kind of, once I’m able to put things into words, I know that I’ve, then I kind of, I was able to crystallise, and I understand what the issue was. Okay. And where I was gonna go. And I think that’s something that’s gonna continue. I mean, it’s not something that will end.

19:07 It’s just that the process of actually thinking about presenting or, you know, sharing something with an audience, and an audience can be family, friends. It doesn’t have to be kind of a London Real audience, or a Life Accelerator audience. It can be very well just your small kind of group surrounding you day-by-day.

19:31 But it’s important to get through that thought process to the end, where you can actually say, well, yes, I understand what I want, what my needs are, where things don’t work. And I think that’s also something that I learned, or I relearned, is it’s to break through resistance, and it kind of became a little bit of a game. Also with you on the calls. But it’s really taking this resistance seriously.

20:02 And I think this is also where I realised how important meditation was, to just acknowledge, when maybe before I would simply say, well, it’s not for me, and I go the other way and leave it be. Now, I feel like I have the tools to recognise resistance. And just take it, take it into meditation, whatever it is, just to think about it and see where it takes me.

20:35 I might get to the same point for the decision in the end; to not do something or do something might be the same. But at least, again, it’s a thought process. It’s the conscious process of knowing where you’re gonna go. Okay, tell me about the rest of the members of the class. Fantastic. For me that’s also a winner. And I didn’t know that when I signed up.

21:00 But realising how much of an opportunity it is to be together with a group of people that I would never have met otherwise in my life. So it’s kind of, it’s another, maybe, getting outside of your comfort zone scenario. Because usually, I think, most of us, we apply all of these filters. And we’re probably relatively picky in terms of who we actually want to interact with in a more meaningful way.

21:31 Here, you’re thrown into the pot with 50 plus other people that you have no influence over whether you actually end up with them in the pot. So, it’s almost like you have to work with what you’ve been given. But on the other side, it’s the discovery, again, that every single person has so much to bring to the table.

21:57 And it’s giving, and I think that’s the learning for life afterwards. It’s don’t judge. Yeah. Don’t judge, it’s just be open. And see what potentially is out there. And because everybody has potential. Everybody has something specific to bring. You just need to be able to sit back and listen and give them the space to open up. Yeah. Introduce themselves.

22:21 Tell me about Cornelia, December 31st. Who is she, who are you gonna be? She is gonna be the Cornelia again that takes her passions in life more seriously, is not a pleaser as much, at least as she’s been for the last 20 years. Not as kind of swimming with the flow, maybe going up against the flow out of deep belief.

23:04 Because I think that’s really something that I’ve become so mainstream. It’s like, function of the corporate world and you’re just one out of many. And I lost a piece of my identity. And I think that’s for me, it’s kind of this opportunity, and, you know, seeing that I’m well equipped now to make me, me again, by the end of the year. Good, I can’t wait for that call. Everyone’s gonna be on it, so.

23:38 If we walked outside and you bumped into the Cornelia who didn’t take this course, what’s she like? She’s living in her bubble. I think it’s, if I compare it to the way that I walked through London this morning, now I’m just, you know, it’s like I’m a kid with open eyes, just seeing all of this interesting stuff.

24:06 Before? I had my eyes on the floor. Stressing, pushing people out of the way. You know, just seeing where I wanted to go and not enjoying the way. So that’s kind of, when I see her, I would like to kind of shove her on the side. It’s like, slow down. Breathe. Take time out.

24:31 To someone listening or watching this right now, what’s like one major life lesson that you could pass on to them that you learned on this whole accelerator course, that maybe they can implement in their lives to have a better quality experience? One. Well, I think for me, it’s, you know, you need to take control and responsibility over your own life.

25:04 You’re the master of your life. You know, it’s nobody else. It’s your life, you’re living it. So you better make sure that you’re living it along your, whether it’s your rules, your interests, your tempo. You go where you want to go. Don’t let other people dictate that for you. I think that’s ultimately it.

25:30 And everything else, the modules and the topics within the course, kind of help you find that. But for me, this is really kind of like a life lesson again. It’s a remembering something that probably most of us think that they know. Right, right. Last question, to someone watching who’s thinking about taking the Life Accelerator, but they’re not sure. What do you tell them? Just sign up.

25:59 Honestly, I think what people take out of it is different. So you have 50, 60 different stories that people will tell you. But I’m sure that there is nobody coming out at the other end who feels that it wasn’t worthwhile. Because I think you have a course structure where we as members or participants, we are given this space in between to really, I mean, it’s, you fill your own space.

26:43 So you have all of these tools. You have all of the content. But what Cornelia takes out is what she was able to actually do with that. And that’s different from my colleagues. But I know, I know for a fact that just because you give, I think it’s the right tools for life. It’s the right elements that you need to ultimately live a fulfilling life.

27:19 No matter whether, you know, it’s like, you transport that into your family situation, into your career, business life, no matter what it is. But it kind of goes back to some very fundamental elements that, if they’re in place, your life will become meaningful.

27:40 And so that for me, kind of the reason why I say, you know, I said that for myself, and it was one of the titles of the emails that you used: don’t research this to death. Sign up. Six weeks, it’ll be a wonderful journey. And you can be assured that you will take some very valuable life lessons away from it at the end of that six weeks.

28:08 Cornelia, it’s been a pleasure having you in my team, getting to meet you. You are like crazy, and you’re almost four-dimensional in person. You have so much energy. You’re all excited and pumped up. I can’t wait to watch you this year, and to see you, you know, lead the team, and make sure everybody else just has amazing results. And I’m really getting excited for this live call we’re gonna have on New Year’s Eve, just to see what everybody else is doing.

28:33 And I think this is, so again, going back to quality, it would have been kind of okay to finish the Life Accelerator the way that you sold it to us. Six weeks, six modules. But to my point of quality before, you’re adapting on the spot, if there is a way how you can make it better.

29:00 And for me that was another one of these proof points, by saying, okay, well actually, we’re going to continue these Sunday calls. It doesn’t have to come from you. We’re all adults. We’ve now gotten to know each other. But we’re now keeping us accountable. And that’s another theme of the entire course. But it’s this group that will walk, all of our plans and our walks of life. But we’ll continue walking for the rest of the year.

29:30 And I think that’s also something that, you know, we have 10 months now to make sure that we actually do what we all promised ourselves that we would do. But you give us, again, a very simple tool, and that’s just one monthly call, it’s in our agendas, with an end-of-year call, December 30th, to see where we are. You are not kind of deserting us.

29:57 But you’re helping us in a simple way just to go through to the end of the year. And for me that’s another kind of stamp of approval why everybody should simply sign up. Because, you know, you give, and again, I use this French word again, it’s like the… where we have a framework. We need to do the work. We need to show up.

30:20 But the structure is here and it will take us all the way through to the end. Cornelia, I look forward to that call on December 30th. Thanks so much for being part of this course. Thank you. And kill it for me.