Giovanna Capozza bridges success and relationship coaching for career-driven women who struggle juggling to have it all. She’s a self-mastery mentor and women’s empowerment teacher. Her work as a transformational coach, blogger, and host of the She Rises podcast is anchored by GiovannaCapozza.com. With more than 12 years of leadership and business coaching experience, Giovanna is a sought-after seminar and workshop coordinator and host across North America. She took a moment to answer a few questions for The Edge.
You’ve worked with lots of people from different walks of life. What can a new client expect when they begin working with you?
Women and men seek coaching for many different reasons. Mainly, coaching is for high achievers and go-getters who are always wanting to grow, learn, and become better versions of themselves, whether it’s to improve their business, leadership, or relationship skills. The women that are drawn to work with me are definitely career-oriented and focused, at times to their detriment, as burnout and fatigue are often a primary reason for them reaching out.
Working with me involves diving deep into yourself, your fears, and what holds you back, with the distinct outcome of having you becoming an improved version of yourself so you can have the life you desire. I always say that I work towards helping my clients move towards their greater becoming, and we’re all in a process of a greater becoming if we put time, attention, and focus on improving all areas of life. Clients often report improved business outcomes and relationships as a result of our time together.
Why do you focus on women’s empowerment specifically?
Simply put, I’m a woman, so I know all too well the struggles imposed upon women by themselves, culturally and societally. A woman these days puts so much pressure on herself to be a success in all areas of life that she often suffers in silent shame when she can’t seem to make something work, especially in intimate relationships. Women take on a lot of the blame, shame, and responsibility around the “shoulds” of life, and of course, I understand this intimately. I’ve been driven by significance and certainty for most of my life and I’ve had this drive that determines everything from career choices to partner choices, all with devastating consequences. When a woman can unapologetically decide her life, set healthy boundaries, and live freely and wholly herself, then she can truly rise and help others rise as well.
I believe bringing in more of these “feminine” traits to the workplace will radically transform leadership and company cultures, and ultimately, productivity and innovation. I work to empower women to bring their whole selves to work and to their intimate relationships, because I strongly believe that we can feel truly fulfilled with one or the other.
My favourite quote is by Lao Tzu; “When sleeping women wake, mountains move,” and never in our history has this been truer.
In your experience, do issues like burnout affect women differently?
Yes and no. Women, like men, ignore and push through at the cost of their health. Women will often sacrifice self-care and nurturing themselves in order to take care of everything and everyone else first. Often the issues that come up for women are ignored or brushed aside as simple stress by their primary health providers. Antidepressants and antianxiety meds are far too over-prescribed for what are issues of mental, physical, and spiritual burnout.
My background is in alternative and complimentary medicine, having had a clinical practice for eight years before moving on to my current work. What I’ve seen is that women tend to feel like they have to “man up” to be taking seriously to succeed. This has become unconscious; we don’t even realize we’ve taken on this very patriarchal notion. We’ve tossed aside traits like mindfulness, nurturing, allowing, and just being in order to get it all done. And this is coming at a cost to the health of both women and men. In business, we’re seeing this come at the cost of creativity, innovation, team dynamics, and productivity. Specifically, for women, we see a lot of hormonal disruptions and issues with chronic fatigue and weakened immune systems from burning the candle at both ends for too long. We see a lot of numbing with foods, shopping, and more overdoing things. Very often we also see the effects on relationships and mood, including depression and anxiety.
Can you tell us about the book you’re currently working on?
Lovesick: Confessions of a Love Junkie is the story of how I tried to externally source my sense of self, success, validation, and love my entire life through my addiction to romantic love and the devastating consequences of my choices and my ultimate healing and reinvention. It chronicles my journey back to self and learning to take radical responsibility for my life and myself. My book proposal is currently in circulation and I hope to publish by 2020.
