International Speaker, Facilitator, Coach, Podcast Host Chief Listening Officer
Hello! I’m Coen and I’m most passionate about helping individuals transform their struggles into their greatest strengths, so that they can sparkle and flourish. I believe that everyone deserves to be seen, heard and appreciated.
Growing up as an highly sensitive child who suffered from physical abuse and bullying, I’ve often struggled with my sense of safety, belonging and worthiness. Having felt silenced, I isolated myself and fell into depression at a time when mental health was never spoken about.
After a long journey of inner work and personal healing, I’ve been able to turn my pains into my passions:
And today, I aim to bring these gifts to serve people I speak to, train and coach.
My Journey as a Speaker, Trainer and Coach
In my final year of University, I attended a personal development and coaching program that transformed my life. It’s inspired by my dream of becoming a speaker, trainer and coach. With this focus, my early corporate experiences have been in Learning and Development, taking up roles from training coordination to marketing, curriculum design to assessment design, and finally as a corporate trainer.
At the age of 28, I was inspired by a mentor to leave the corporate job to become a trainer, and at the age of 30, I founded my training and consulting business, Ministry of Influence Pte Ltd. Over the last 13 years, I’ve spoken to, and trained over 50,000 individuals, inspiring them to reclaim their voices, set their hearts free and flourish.
Professional Background
A believer of lifelong learning, I’ve taken several professional certifications to equip myself with tools and approaches to my work.
Having been certified in personality profiling instruments like the MBTI and Enneagram, I meet my workshop participants and coaching clients where they are, helping them tap into their innate strengths and intrinsic motivations to flourish, in business, in their careers and in life.
I am a certified Cultural Transformation and Values Assessment Consultant from the Barrett Values Center. I am also a certified Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner from the Case Western Reserve University. I bring these tools to help organizations transform their workplace culture and increase employee engagement.
I have also embarked on a journey in Toastmasters, taking part in speech competitions and winning over 30 trophies at various levels in my journey. In 2015, I was conferred the Distinguished Toastmaster award, the highest title being conferred on a Toastmaster.
I have also learnt Improv Theatre and Method Acting to further hone my skills in Storytelling, so that I can tell compelling stories, and coach people to do the same.
My Unique Approach and Methodology
I combine my various experiences and training in theatre and method acting into an engaging approach that’s best described with the following:
I don’t believe in Role Plays, as they are often seen as gimmicky and not representative of real life work situations. Instead, I design and create immersive activities that let participants have an embodied experience of the skills that they’re learning. Through this, they get to overcome their psychological limitations, build muscle memory and confidence in critical skills.
I believe that growth happens not in comfort, but when there’s slight discomfort. I will compassionately challenging my participants out of their comfort zones, but not too far that will cause them to give up. This will be done while maintaining psychological safety. I believe that safety is a non-negotiable condition where people can take risks and challenge themselves.
Having been brought up in competitive Singaporean education system, where mistakes and weaknesses are highlighted, I know how demoralising a deficit-based approach can be. Being appreciative inquiry certified, I aim to bring a strength-based, positive psychology-based approach to help my participants to embrace and bring out their strengths.
Areas of Expertise
I combine my various experiences and training in theatre and method acting into an engaging approach that’s best described with the following:
