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What Happens When You Learn to Coach? | Real Stories from CPEC
What actually happens when you decide to learn how to coach?
In this special episode of Rewired: Neuroscience Meets Real-Life Change, Tiffany sits down with six members of the Certified Professional Empower Coach (CPEC) community to talk about the experience from the inside.
No sales pitch. No polished testimonials. Just real people having an honest conversation about what brought them to coach training, what they’ve learned, what surprised them, and how the experience has influenced the way they lead, listen, connect, and show up in their lives and work.
Together, they explore what it’s like to navigate an intensive coach-training program alongside careers, families, and full lives; the power of practicing and being coached yourself; the role of feedback, mentor coaching, and community; and the unexpected personal growth that can happen while learning to support the growth of others.
You’ll also hear six very different answers to an important question: What can you actually do with coach training?
From leadership and public service to nonprofits, advocacy, trauma response, career development, and private coaching practices, these conversations demonstrate that becoming a coach doesn’t have to lead to just one destination.
Whether you're considering becoming a professional coach, pursuing an ICF credential, bringing coaching skills into your current work, or simply wondering what might change if you learned to listen and lead differently, this episode offers a candid look inside the journey.
Meet the Coaches
Debbie Radie
Debbie is Chief Quality & Stewardship Officer at Boardman Foods and a Certified Professional Coach. After more than 35 years in executive leadership, she has developed a passion for helping women step into and thrive in leadership roles.
Through coaching, Debbie supports established and emerging leaders in gaining confidence, discovering their strengths, and creating meaningful impact within their organizations and communities. She believes leadership is about service, stewardship, and empowering others to become the best versions of themselves.
As Debbie describes it: “My life’s work is helping people discover what’s possible, find the courage to pursue it, and become leaders who positively impact those around them.”
Connect with Debbie:
[email protected]
Hiroko Lee
Hiroko is a former revenue leader turned coach who offers cross-culturally competent, neuroscience-curious coaching to mid-career professionals.
Her practice, Variance. Explained Coaching LLC, brings together her leadership experience and curiosity about how people think, grow, and navigate change.
Connect with Hiroko:
[email protected]
Jen Amistadi
Jen comes to coaching with a background in public health and advocacy and is now building a coaching practice centered on helping people reconnect with parts of themselves they may have learned to quiet, question, or set aside.
She is especially drawn to coaching around identity, self-trust, neurodivergence, boundaries, and midlife transitions, helping people hear and trust their own voices a little more clearly.
Robbi Thornburg
Robbi Thornburg is a 2026 CPEC Certified Professional Empower Coach who also holds certification as an arts trauma therapy responder and facilitator. Based in Northern Oregon, she is actively exploring ways to bring these two fields together in service of people whose lives have been upended by difficult life experiences, war, and other human-caused or natural disasters.
With a lifelong love of the arts, animals, and the natural world, Robbi finds joy in contentment and gratitude.
Sarah Chenven
Sarah began her career in the mid-1990s working for the International Rescue Committee in post-war former Yugoslavia before earning her law degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She went on to lead local and national nonprofits dedicated to economic justice, including Innovative Changes, Credit Builders Alliance, and most recently, Working Credit.
Throughout her career, Sarah has been particularly curious about how our nervous systems influence the way we show up as leaders, colleagues, and friends—both professionally and personally.
Earlier this year, Sarah launched Chenven Law and Consulting, where she offers consulting, legal services, and coaching to nonprofit and other leaders. Having spent much of her own life navigating the experience of living in a bigger body—and the pressure to fight against it—Sarah is also interested in coaching people seeking greater acceptance and relief from society’s unrealistic and relentless expectations around physical appearance.
Connect with Sarah:
chenvenlawconsult.com
[email protected]
Tricia Olson
Tricia has spent nearly 30 years serving others through a career in public service, primarily in human resources. Supporting people through growth, transition, and life’s challenges has been at the heart of her work.
A mom of three adult children and grandmother of two, Tricia lives in rural Oregon, where she enjoys gardening, caring for her small farm, hiking, and exploring the mountains.
Tricia is preparing to launch her coaching practice in early 2027, with a focus on women in leadership and those seeking to advance in their careers. Her mission is to help people gain clarity, confidence, and momentum as they pursue their goals and create lives aligned with their values.
Connect with Tricia on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-olson-shrm-scp-ba330964/
Ready to Explore CPEC?
Our next Certified Professional Empower Coach (CPEC) cohort begins October 1, 2026, and registration is open.
CPEC is an ICF-accredited Level 1 coach education program, providing the coach-specific education required on the pathway toward the ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential. CPEC is offered in partnership with Oregon State University Professional and Continuing Education, bringing together rigorous professional coach education with neuroscience, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, positive psychology, and extensive opportunities to coach, be coached, receive feedback, and grow.
If listening to these six coaches has you wondering what becoming a coach—or becoming more coach-like in the work you already do—could make possible for you, we’d love to have you explore the next CPEC cohort.
Registration is open now for our October 1 start.
Learn more and register for CPEC:
https://yesempower.com/coach-training-academy/
Sometimes the best way to understand what coach training can become is to hear from the people who are living it.
This is CPEC—from their perspective.
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Empowered people empower people. Live intentionally. Lead thoughtfully. Grow through awareness.
