EPISOODE 71: The Power of Emotion: Reconnecting to Your Inner Compass with Christoffel Sneijders

Well, welcome back to the Awakening Potential Show. It's your gateway to the extraordinary. I'm Karen Rudolph, your host, and I'm here to support you in stepping into your sassy confidence, your classy wisdom, and your bold, badass brilliance. Because awakening your potential isn't just a moment, it's a movement. Here we dive into powerful stories, soul-stirring tools, and game-changing strategies that spark your transformation in your life and in your work and the world around you. So grab a notebook, open your heart, and let's light the inner spark. Today, I'm really excited to have a guest who embodies the journey. You know, we've just had a little brief conversation behind the scenes here, and I'm just so inspired to introduce Christoffel Sneijders. Sneijders. Okay. I should have said it 20 times before, but may I call you Chris? Because I heard—

Absolutely. My mom always explained to me, my name is Christoffel. So that's why I keep it. But I call myself also Chris. If I talk to myself, I talk Chris. So it makes totally sense.

Okay. Well, I heard you say that and I thought, oh, that would be an interesting name to look up, like the meaning of, because it's It's almost like you're full of whatever that is. Now I'm curious. I'm gonna look it up unless you wanna—

Christopher, Christoffel, was— has 2 stories. One is the, the saint of the travelers. And the, the biblical story is he was the Jesus carrier. Exactly. So Christoffel was a big guy who was carrying people across the water and was actually a non-religious guy who believed that he was now super Until, say, Jesus came along and said, can you bring me to the other side? And he said, yeah, I can. And during that walk, he was just not— I will not say bragging, but at least saying how, how he was and that he didn't believe in whatever. And Jesus said, you don't believe? No, that's okay. But just imagine you would believe. What would happen? He said, no, nothing would happen. And Jesus say, increases his own weight. So the strong Christoffel has like, whoa, oh, I'm that, that he becomes heavy. And at one moment, he's, the water is going up until his nose. And I make it a little bit more popular story, but on that moment, he comes aware, hey, there is something more divine than just earthly powers.

Hmm.

And he became, say, a devout Christian after that, or a devout believer. So, um, my mom is not, say, uh, Catholic or Christian by that, but she just found it a beautiful name and a beautiful story.

Yeah, and it has such a beautiful sound to it. It rings. So thank you for explaining that, because I do want to share that you are a Master Certified Coach and you're a visiting professor at the IE Business School and Georgetown University in Qatar, where you are right now, right?

Absolutely.

And the creator of 3 Brains Intelligence Method. And I'm really excited to hear about that. You have, uh, you have over 25 years of global coaching and leadership experience, and He supports people in aligning with their head, their logic, their heart, their emotion, and their gut, their instinct to live, lead, and love with purpose. I love that because I am all about that. So I'm really excited to dive into a conversation with you. But I do want to give you a warm welcome, Chris. Welcome to Awakening Potential.

So happy to be here, Karin, because when I listened to your podcast and read your story, I thought, this is a podcast I'd like to be on. And I thought, okay, but I like to be on it. But does she like me back? So I'm really happy that you say yes to that, to that one.

You got the thumbs up, thumbs of approval. All right. And I love interesting conversations. So I'm fascinating— I'm fascinated, excuse me, to hear what your journey was like. Where did you start in life and what brought you to where you are today? We all have a story. Like, what's yours?

If you had the short story, say born and raised in Amsterdam, that's why I have this beautiful Dutch accent.

Love it.

My mom, uh, lived in Indonesia, is Dutch, but lived in Indonesia during the Second World War. So she was sent back because she lived 4 years in a prison camp, uh, thanks to the Japanese who conquered Indonesia. Indonesia was former Dutch. So she came back, now you could say partly traumatized when she was 18. And it didn't really influence my upbringing, but somewhere My mom was always a little bit spiritual, a little, a little witchy, as they called. And probably this because if you have some near-death experiences, as she had in the camp there, yeah, that opens the gateway to whatever it is. So in my early upbringing already, I, I learned that there's more between heaven and earth.

Mm-hmm.

I never was, never was really interested in it, but I came aware there's something like, it brings me on in my, in my That was a beautiful Dutch guy. And they both had, say, their heart in the right place. So they almost always taught me, you know, first human beings and then the rest. It's nice to earn money, but it should not be your purpose in life. Your purpose in life should, should be something bigger.

Exactly.

So after my studies, I did commercial engineering, started to work in, in sales, marketing, uh, software. But that calling from helping people always came back. And when I was just 30, I joined a training company, the number one in Europe, to really follow my passion. And it really, and that really has some like opened my eyes, went, oh wow. And during the journey, I came aware while working with people, coaching people, that people want to change, but they're so hard to change. Yeah, you can logically make a change. I don't like this anymore. Like we all do. And with all the techniques and they understand they have to change, they understand why they are blocked. They understand what they need as resources and still they get stuck. So that drove me also on a journey what's happening. And after 10 years working for the company, I got a burnout because I was divorced. I was a team leader, I was partner, I was, uh, working with the people who were not successful. So I put everything on my little plate because I also did triathlon. So, you know, physically extremely strong. So I thought logically, I thought I can do everything. Almost like I would say, if you now look at the story from my name, it's almost the guy who walks in the water with Jesus. Like, I can do everything. And I also drowned. If you look, make the parallel. And I thought, okay, there, there is something more I don't know. So maybe I should drop my arrogance that I work for number one in Europe as a training company and start coming aware what it is. So I learned, say, the art of feeling. So you can, you can call it sometimes Reiki or somatic or somatic trainings. But I, I came aware of that. I thought, Oh wow, this is amazing. So the body knows.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. I immigrated to Australia a few years later, became a clinical hypnotherapist, psychotherapist. I already had done NLP and I started working with Judy with real clients, you could say. He would come in and say, the first people for hypnotherapy, psychotherapy come in, I like to stop smoking. And I, I was extremely good in that. But based on that, people come in, hey Chris, I have got a nephew who has PTSD. Can you work with that? Yeah, of course. And I thought, PTSD, let's— how do we do that? So I became specialist actually in PTSD, depression, and, and other kind of things. And I became aware, you know, people come with stories, they have 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago something happened.

Mm-hmm.

Because in one moment I became expert also in sexual abuse history, really What people do to each other sometimes is horrifying. And then people who walk already 40 years with that, with that crush on the shoulders of what happened when they were teens.

Exactly. Exactly.

And that really sparked me from, okay, I like to know more. How do I really help them? Because it is. And then I learned to say, actually, on, on the journey from, hey, we have a head, we know that.

Yeah.

We also follow your heart. Or listen to your gut instinct. And I became aware when I was reading a book, actually, The Intention Experiment, that goes about, say, energy healing, because I also became at the time already a Reiki master. We have 3 brains. And that moment, say, the logical, physical part of the human being felt somewhere. For me, this is it. We have 3 brains, and most of us work on one brain when we like to change.

Exactly.

But just imagine if the trauma is stuck in the heart and the gut also. Then maybe we should find a way how we can work with that. Now, that is somewhere that sparked my interest. That's something like 8, 9 years ago. And from there it went on. So now, past, future, and what would I love? And that's really my big passion. I also love to be on your show.

Yeah, well, I'm curious.

There's so much, so much negativity. But the moment you teach people we have a heart and a gut, And you know, the heart is all about love. And we have 3 brains. It becomes harder for people to become really, say, nasty people because then the heart is also talking.

Exactly.

So my mission, vision, passion is if we can bring 3 brains to the world, then the world should become a better place because we cannot deny anymore the voices, the waking, the extraordinary from within our heart who is talking.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I believe in my heart of hearts, and where I come from, when I'm out there coaching as well, I believe that it always begins with self. What was that pivotal moment that you experienced that, that you knew in your heart of hearts that this is where you were meant to do that, that awakened potential within you? What created that?

Um, what created, say, 2 things. Um, one, from already early age, say, for me, uh, nastiness doesn't exist, huh? You see sometimes little boys then killing a fly by pulling out the wings, and I always get angry about it. For me, if you like to kill a fly, just give it a big slap, but don't torture it.

Right.

It's like, you know, it doesn't make sense, that part. We have to do something better. We have to make this world a better place. I got bullied at school. Now then you really experience the dark side of life because if you then the sweet small boy in the class, he gets, he becomes the punch bowl. It's like, why are people doing this? What is now the fun from a big boy to hit a smaller guy who actually is not, is not any challenge for him? Because I cannot beat up a guy who's 2 or 3 years older because he did these classes 2 or 3 times. So what is his fun in taking something who's really weak? Because there's no, there's no challenge for him in that. And it really was for me already an order moment not to become therapist. Why are people, what is happening with people that they, that they find their fun in this? Because what's not the fun of hurting somebody, humiliating somebody? So that was the first spark. And when I say it was in my end 20s, 30s, I was like, you know, And I was leading a team. I took, I took and say a sales team from somebody else and I was working with them and I thought, this is really, this is amazing. People said, Chris, it's so good when you coach me. It's so good when you help with me. And I thought, oh wow, I have somewhere probably talent for something. I'm good in something. And those 2 things somewhere now without conscious awareness somewhere melted together. Nice. And now I would say the rest is history. What I just said, then 25 years later, I'm still doing coaching therapy with a lot of extra knowledge and experience in my backpack.

So in your bio, you had mentioned that you were, you were recovering yourself from burnout, divorce, and open heart surgery. Was that one of the triggers that, that set you into coming home to your heart?

Coming back. The burnout after 10 years that brought me back with my feet on the earth and hey, there's more. Because in that company, it was really great, but it was also a high performance company. So it brought me back from what's really essential in life. So actually in my burnout, during my burnout or in recovery, I quit the company and said, you know, I'm going to do what actually brings values to more. I don't mind to earn less. Let's bring great things to the world. So that made an Piece of change. Hey, that's the first step coming home. When I look, say, my heart surgery, what was even a bigger impact because I'm extremely healthy. I sport, eat good, and do all the things that I tick all the boxes of actually becoming 140. The only thing is I had a genetic dysfunction heart valve. I would say genetically that for my gift for my dad, and I did not came aware of that until I almost pop. fell over.

Right.

And that surgery really got me back, or the recovery from, you know, maybe this is a sign that I really should use my talent and my gifts to do something with it. Because I always thought I become 140, I still have 80 years time.

Right.

But after the surgery, now maybe I don't have 80 years time, so maybe I should really start moving up and start doing what is my Calling in this life, because I don't believe something happens to us without a reason.

I love it.

Doesn't mean everything has a reason, and when there are really impactful things, what can it bring? How can we grow from that? And say that happened now a little bit more than one year, two or three months ago at surgery, and it really had me something like you know, I'm really going to do the things. that bring value. Yes. And it's nice if you get your paycheck and you can still pay your, your mortgage. That all makes sense.

Yeah.

It was already since my burnout, not mere my focus, but now it actually is even less my focus. And, you know, I will not wanna leave this earth before I somewhere can bring something good to this. And I always asked for some special talents, not using them. Why would I ask for them?

Mm-hmm.

Because that's actually asking for something that you never like to use. And that is really, and I would say that's an ego thing. Just make me amazing so I can show off. And I said, no, no, no. I asked for talents maybe when I was young to show off, maybe a little bit, or protect myself not beating, being beaten up. But actually, if you look at the deeper source, and when you say coming home, it is also my real deepness from, it would be great if we don't pull out the wings of little fly anymore. And what I had when I was 5 years old. And then also in now the big things that just happens outside, outside in the real world.

Beautiful.

Yes. So for me, that coming home was actually in almost like in a staircase. It was not one big moment where—

Absolutely.

Cascading. And I always say in my life, and maybe you know that from your stories in life, we get signals and we change. But if we don't change, maybe the signal becomes a little bit harder. Start listening more. So I always say, you know, maybe I should have listened with my burnout and I wouldn't have, wouldn't have gotten this. Maybe I should have learned quicker. And that journey with burnout and now gave me a lot of steps to go there. And so don't blame what you miss. Just look at the opportunities in the future, what you can do with it.

Absolutely. You know, it's so interesting you say that because one of the things that I've observed in patterns as well is I had a near-death experience in my 20s. And I believe that most people who have something significant happen to them will come back and say, I have a higher purpose. And I know I was— it was like a switch that went off for me. And I knew it was there. I just didn't know what it was. But to your point, you called it, you know, what do you— what do we learn with this, right? I'm always saying, what can we build with this same thing, constant contact? So I'm always asking myself, okay, there's— I'm experiencing this. what can I build with this? What can I learn from this? And how can I apply it moving forward? And you and I are both on the same pathway when it comes to the emotional truth, right? Because I believe from a nursing perspective, I started out as a nurse who went into a holistic realm. What can I build with that, right? And emotions, the emotions are always— your body is always talking and your body doesn't lie. So what can I build? What can I do with this? And I know you support others in releasing a Old patterns as well, and embracing your emotional truth, and unlocking their potential. You're in the right place, right? Because we we're talking the same language for sure. And I'm curious, you're you're working in corporate now, are you not?

Still, I work both. Say, I train coaches, and why I like to train coaches is if I train coaches and do the things that comes like a like like a little. wrinkle in the water, it just spreads out. I do still some, I do still do some corporate work. And why is that? Because toxic leadership is a normal world.

Yeah.

And for me, it's not a normal world. I think, how can, and if you look at engagement statistics of companies, if you hit 40%, you're doing, you're outperforming 90% of 95% of all the companies, if you have an engagement of 40%. So just imagine 4 of the 10 people are engaged, 6 of the 10 are not engaged, and you outperform 95% of all the other companies. You should not be proud of that. You should actually dive under a stone and shame yourself, be shamed about it.

Right.

So I love also to work with those companies from, you know, just imagine, and I love sports. That you could just be like a real good baseball, soccer team or whatever kind of team, you would have all your people engaged.

Absolutely.

If I say to a CEO, say that's impossible. I said, what's your favorite sport? Baseball, handball, basketball, soccer. I'm European. Okay. So how can you become champion of the league? How do the players be on a team on the field? Yeah, of course, all engaged. I said, okay, so it's possible there. So what makes you say it's not possible in your company? Or is it not possible for you? And maybe that's why it's not possible. And then they have like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. How do you mean? Could it be me? I said, I don't know. When your team is not performing, we sack the coach. Who's the coach in this company? And I was like, Chris, are we really going to hire you? I said, I don't know. I said, I love to tell the truth. I'm not here to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to polish your ego.

Exactly.

I'm here to help you to make your company and your flourish and hopefully have less sick leave, less people who leave because the manager is not good and just create a company that brings value to the world and where people are willing to work and happy to work.

Yeah.

That's why I also love to work in companies because most of our time for people, they spend time at work.

Yeah. And that's where it was. My next question is like, how is it being received from an emotional truth perspective? How is it being received in the corporate world as opposed to just the coaching world? I shouldn't say just, but as opposed to the coaching world.

It's an amazing question. As I told you, I'm also a Reiki master, so I believe in energy and you can feel energy. Now, if I combine that with the business world, they have something like, oh no, no, no. Do you have your purple shirt on, Chris? No. Okay, then they make the joke. So it is, you're not being serious. The beauty is of the 3 brains, that is scientifically truth. It's not invented by me. 100,000 brain cells in your heart, 500 million in your gut. Look at the research. So they have 3 brains. The moment you bring it from there, then it becomes more acceptable because then you could say, you know, um, based on the test, based on assessment, hey, you're more in your head, more in your gut, the average CEO. I said, could you explain me one thing, dear CEO? So say you have 3 brains and you only use 2. How smart is that?

Mm-hmm.

That you don't use one of your 3 wisdom centers. And they're like, uh, you know, they don't like to give the answer because the answer is not smart. But that means vulnerability. So from that part, from the science part, they're open to it and then they're open for the next step. So I use it almost like the Trojan horse, you could say. Let's bring science in and okay, now you brought science in. Okay, I open the gates in your mind.

Exactly.

And based on it scientifically, they can sell it to themselves. Because they can say, oh hey, that I'm now getting a little bit more emotional or a bit more whatever. I listen more to my feelings. It's because I'm going to listen to my own body and my own wisdom centers and to my own brains. So they're going to explain and justify it to the people around them. And that makes it true because then they are not afraid of it because they say, you know, I let my biology work for me instead of stopping it.

Absolutely.

And so they, they have, say, an explanation that is not, cannot be, say, uh, seen as not true because it's biology. So they have some, like, you know, I have a truth in my hands. So from that truth, I dare to make that step because actually, yeah, it is science. So that, that makes it better. If I, I know before I had the 3 brains, it was much harder because then you talk about emotions, connections, feelings, sensations. Now talk to the efforts Um, say, um, um, more, uh, real traditional male-educated person and who learned from young age, big boys don't cry. They talk about feelings. There's like, no, no, no feelings. I tucked them away after my dad said, don't start crying. So, and that is 50 years ago, Chris. So we're not, we're not going there.

Yeah.

Now when they talk about the heart, I don't, we don't care about what your dad said when we were 5 years old. You have a heart and your heart speaks. And I can do some little tests with them. They come aware, hey, my heart does speak. I can feel it. So the only thing you have to do is from this moment onwards, start embedding that extra, that extra wisdom or their gut or their head. But let's say the average is heart. But for females, if you take the other side, it's most times more embracing their, their selves, their gut, their own identity, their own proudness, their own I care to skip out most females or many females. Let's say like that. Many have the I'm not good enough feeling because they always portrayed you're not good enough. You don't look like Barbie. You're not so sweet as Barbie. You don't support me enough. Well, I'm say there's one. Now there are multiple. As a man, it's so much easier to be in this world than a female because we have much less standards we have to apply to. A female has at least ten times as much standards they have to apply to to be perfect, and even if they do all of them, they're not perfect because then they are too female for the business world. If then to apply to the business world, they're actually too male to be. So a female can almost never win.

Yeah.

So, and if you then bring it back to the gut brain, you say, ladies, you don't have to be more male. You don't. The only thing you have to do is start listening to your guts. where your self-confidence, your self-power, your chi energy is. And in that moment, females say, okay, you know, I just listen to my own inner power. And at that moment, they don't say it's masculine or all those kind of crazy words. They just listen to my inner power, my chi power, my gut brain.

Yeah.

And for females, it comes out much more easier, what I see also in the business world, to show that behavior that is connected with when you listen to your gut brain. And they don't see it anymore as masculine. They say, no, I listen to my own biology.

Come on. I love that.

Long answer, short answer, long answer, Karen.

Excuse me, I have a tickle. Um, so my next question to you is, I like to call them pearls of wisdom. What pearl of wisdom would you like to, that you live by, that you'd like to leave with the listening audience today?

Uh, what I live by is, okay, we always say listen to your inner truth. The pity is our inner truth is a lot of times a compass that's totally out of whack. It's almost like a compass with a magnet next to it because based on our life, as I said, I've been bullied, I've got a burnout. Our compass actually gets derailed by, let's say, you can call it traumas or high impactful events. What I would love as a pearl of wisdom is Start really becoming aware. Start really listening to your own heart and to your own God. But both of them only have one real objective: to make your life beautiful. They have different kind of strategies, but they like to make your life beautiful. Start listening to them. Absolutely. In the moment you start listening to them, I would say sometimes you will. Have maybe that you have to solve. Oh wow, that is an emotion. Boom. That did not see that coming. But it is beauty.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, and that's a pearl of wisdom. And I, I heard it saying, uh, uh, this week, one of my dear friends in Australia, she got her funeral. She's 50, she's got a heart attack. She, she left behind 3 beautiful kids. And then you hear the oldest one who's 20 talk in the funeral about his mom. And what was the most beautiful of the whole story? He was talking from his own inner truth, his own— he dared to open his own heart, he dared to open his own mind, his own gut. So he kept the strength to keep standing there, to gut his heart about the love from his mom and how he misses her. And the logic— he made a beautiful story. And I think that boy, which is 20 years, gave me and many others an example How can you live your own truth and don't be ashamed about what is coming out? And I have to say, during that funeral, not because she passed away, I cried. I passed away based on the beauty of that, what, what that boy was showing.

Yeah.

Because I thought, you know, that boy dares to be in his own inner truth, his own inner wisdom, dares to listen to his own 3 brains. What am I going to share here? And that's, it's, it's in that part.

Love it.

To your own inner, inner truth.

Yeah, Chris, I get— that's a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing that. I get that you have a gift for our listening audience, which will be in all of— all of Chris's information and contact links and such will be in the show notes for sure. But why don't you tell us a little bit about the gift you have?

I wrote, say, an ebook and that ebook is all about, say, what stops us from being happy. And so it's not so solution-oriented, but actually gives us biologically the reasons why we stop in chains, why we got stuck. Because most people, we get frustrated when we like to do something, first of January resolutions, and now we don't do it. And before you know, we have 2 issues. One, you didn't achieve. And secondly, Uh, what you ever thought you wanted to do also didn't happen. So you have 2 things. Biology, and I talk about the 3 brains, and actually stops us from changing. And the moment you read that little ebook, I don't like to give you an excuse, but I like to give you a reason why it is sometimes hard and where you can just actually love yourself and still accept yourself even if you don't succeed right away. Because it's not because you don't want, it's because your biology says in that moment, your 3 brain says in that moment, no, no, no, you're not barking up the wrong tree. I need something else to say yes and really find that inner power to do so. And when people become aware of that, when people read it, I hear some people say, you know, this is really great because sometimes I've thought myself as a failure because I didn't succeed. Actually, your little ebook made me aware I'm not a failure. I'm just— my biology said no, and I was not listening to my biology. What do you actually need to say yes? I thought I have to push harder, I have to do micro habits, I have to have more willpower. It's not about— and he said, beauty is not about that. Actually, your heart— my heart was stopping me because it didn't want— it didn't align with my values. Hey, my gut was stopping me because it didn't fit with actually my inner purpose of also being alive. Oh, that's okay. So I have to change the— what do I like to achieve? Does it align again with my inner truth? So that's a little gift I like to give, and it's free on my website. I put it on as an— it is a download. You can just— it is purchase $0, €0. People start reading it because they have something like, okay, I've got a reason. You could say it's an excuse, but it's not as an excuse, These are the reasons why it doesn't work.

Yeah.

And from there I can find the solution how to make it work.

Yeah. Beautiful. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to, to having the feedback from our listening audience as well. Christoffel, it's been just such a pleasure connecting with you today and having you here on the show. I thank you so much, Christoffel Sneijders, For sharing your journey and insights with us. The story's been a beautiful reminder that transformation begins the moment we become aware and continues with those brave, badass steps to choose to take. And you've obviously taken— it's fabulous. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for being here. And every time I'm looking at the sentence behind you, Awakening the Extraordinary Within, is that That's actually an amazing sentence in my opinion, because that's where it starts.

Yeah.

And where we say it is that listening from the inside, because from there the change is. And yeah, that's all about, that's what it's all about. So now I'm really grateful to be on your show because I know you're right. You hit the audience, you talk to the audience who really have that deeper purpose from, you know, I like to awaken that extraordinary inside me. How do I do that?

Yeah.

And there are multiple ways to do so. So I hope that this way actually gives some people that, that, that little tool for, okay, this I could help. Yeah. Because then if we help 5 people already, our life is beautiful.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's so interesting. And thank you for bringing the attention up because when I started, I wanted to create a podcast and I didn't know what I was gonna call it. And I just got silent. And I believe that most people don't get silent long enough to listen and hear. And I remember this, Lee, was an intuitive hit that said awakening potential. And I went, okay, you know what that's gonna look like? And it's awakening this extraordinary within, because I believe we all have gifts. And once we awaken them, then that's when life starts really happening. Because when we're awakening for ourselves within, then we're able to awaken them for others. So thank you for pointing that out. And to our listening audience, Remember, the bridge from ordinary to extraordinary is built with small steps of change and big leaps of faith. You are more powerful than you know. So keep showing up, keep rising, keep awakening your potential. If today's episode sparked something within you, within you, let's explore that next step together. DM me, we'll put the word awakening in, in the chat below and I'd be happy to, uh, connect with you. And again, Christoffel was willing to connect with you as well. Until then, make it an amazing day, and thank you. Thank you.