S2 Ep49. Unlocking Joy & Personal Power: Pursuing Excellence on Your Hardest Days with Karel Mc Intosh

In this uplifting episode of ABWilson's Heart of the Matter, host Aderonke Bademosi Wilson welcomes Karel McIntosh, a joyful, spirited and analytical team coach from Trinidad and Tobago. Karel shares her remarkable journey from childhood resilience to becoming a transformational team coach who helps individuals and organizations discover their hidden potential.

Karel opens up about her natural joyfulness, describing how it manifests as warmth, generosity and an ability to see the world through a positive lens while remaining grounded in reality. She explains her love for deconstructing and reimagining things, whether it's transforming old furniture or helping people recognize strengths they didn't know they had.

Listeners will be inspired by Karel's story of pushing through illness at age 10 to excel in her common entrance exam, a pivotal moment that taught her she was capable of excellence even when not at her best. She reflects honestly on both the empowering and challenging aspects of this lesson, including learning to honor her body's needs as she matured.

Karel discusses her intensive 10-month journey to become a certified team coach, describing how the experience expanded her internal capacity and transformed her approach to working with groups. She shares the powerful Avengers analogy for team dynamics and explains how team coaching differs from individual coaching by treating the entire team as one entity working toward shared goals.

The conversation explores Karel's passion for helping others advance in their careers and lives, her role as a connector who sees potential in people and her commitment to asking for nothing in return. She credits her late father with teaching her sovereignty and the courage to forge her own path, lessons she now passes on to her 10 nieces and nephews.

Karel reveals her hidden creative side, including her love of singing, her history as an aerobics enthusiast and her talent for writing and performing rap songs. She shares her self-care practices, from electrolytes and intentional sleep schedules to starting each day by asking what her heart, spirit, gut and mind need.

With warmth and authenticity, Karel describes life in Trinidad and Tobago, the natural beauty of her island home and the joyful, supportive spirit of Caribbean culture. She discusses her excitement about expanding her team coaching work throughout the Caribbean to build courage and confidence in communities, schools, governments and businesses.

The episode concludes with Karel's powerful invitation for listeners to conduct a research project on themselves, to discover who they are at their core beyond societal expectations and to take one small step toward embodying that authentic self. This conversation is a celebration of joy, resilience and the transformative power of believing in yourself and others.

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Transcript

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (00:01.124)

Welcome to another edition of ABWilson’s Heart of the Matter, a podcast that uses overwhelmingly positive questions to learn about our guests, where every episode uncovers extraordinary stories of triumph, growth, and empowerment. Hi, I’m Aderonke Bademosi Wilson. My guest on today’s show is Karel Mc Intosh. She is joyful, spirited, analytical.

Welcome to the show.

Karel Mc Intosh (00:32.888)

Thank you for having me.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (00:34.664)

And so I want to start with your descriptors. Let’s go with “spirited” first. What does that look like for you?

Karel Mc Intosh (00:39.374)

Mm-hmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (00:42.922)

It looks like a free-flowing person who is imaginative, optimistic, very open and curious. That’s what it is for me.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (00:57.821)

And “joyful.”

Karel Mc Intosh (00:59.554)

Joyful, I think when I was born, God said, bring her back, you know, throw a few more joy drops there. But I’m naturally joyful. I tend to be joyful in even hard situations. And I think it’s my resilience factor. It’s one of those natural things that I have that make me me.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (01:21.416)

And how do you express joyfulness? How does that show up for you?

Karel Mc Intosh (01:27.384)

People tell me I’m warm, as if it’s like alien, but it shows up as warmth. It shows up as me being generous, having a generous spirit, looking on the bright side of things, and not just looking on the bright side of things, like literally seeing the world in a positive way, while being very realistic about what is around me. But my joy is intrinsic, and so it shows up as me spreading good vibes in whatever room I enter.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (01:57.576)

Hmm.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (02:01.957)

And “analytical.”

Karel Mc Intosh (02:04.278)

Analytical. I like to deconstruct things and put them back together or create something brand new. So imagine taking a chair, there’s an old chair, it’s sentimental, your granny used to sit in this chair, and you want to reuse it, and I’ll be like, hmm, I’m going to build a bookshelf, which is literally what I’m going to do with an old bed of mine that I was sleeping on since I was four years old that broke apart, but it has really good old-time wood. So I like to, I just see things and I dissect them, and then I move them around in my mind, sort of like Iron Man in the movie when you see him throw things out and pull them back and move them around. That’s me.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (02:46.706)

And so I take it you’re creative at the same time. If you’re able to reimagine a bed, how do you do that? Do you actually make it yourself? Do you recreate with the new pieces of wood, with these old pieces of wood? How does that work?

Karel Mc Intosh (02:52.352)

Yes.

Karel Mc Intosh (03:04.994)

I come up with the concept and I leave the wood-making to the experts. So I believe in “go by the expert.” I have this vision, let’s go by the expert. So yeah, I will immediately see something and I think really what it is as I’m talking to you, it’s seeing the potential in that thing that looks like there’s no more use for it.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (03:28.938)

So essentially recycling.

Karel Mc Intosh (03:31.062)

Yeah, yeah, and even looking at what is there inside of this thing, inside of this person that can be regenerated because it’s already there.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (03:41.300)

Hmm, thank you. So I’d like our listeners to learn a little more about you. Please share three interesting things about yourself that our listeners may not know and your friends will be surprised to learn.

Karel Mc Intosh (03:54.607)

The first thing would be I love to sing. If I could be anything outside of what I currently do, it would be a singer. I have in fact started singing lessons. It’s something I started about a year ago and I love it. It’s part of me. I used to sing a lot when I was younger in music festivals, in church, solos, that kind of stuff.

So singing, and I’m a pretty good singer when I have not slept in A/C and I’m well hydrated. And I also know when I’m sounding like a chicken. So singing is one of those. What’s the other thing? That I used to be an aerobics freak. I attended St. George’s College in Trinidad and we had extracurricular on a Friday afternoon, and we had a teacher, Dr. Jean Campbell, who led a whole aerobics movement. And so I used to be this skinny little thing in aerobathons every Friday and in the national stadium doing aerobathons. So singing, aerobics, and what else?

This one is not necessarily that much of a secret. Actually it’s a secret to most people in my professional circle but I have been known to write songs, write rap songs and sing them. So I’ve made rap songs about Christmas and they’ve been very popular on Facebook within my small protected account. So yeah, all of those are very creative, expressive endeavors. I like to just, you know, be.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (05:39.507)

So when you sing, what type of music do you gravitate to?

Karel Mc Intosh (05:44.207)

Uplifting music. I sing gospel, I sing, you know, “You Gotta Be,” that’s my go-to song in coaching. “Listen As Your Day Unfolds,” as we renamed the song. I sing reggae, I sing in workshops. Like people who attend my workshops know that they are going to get at least a James Brown, a Buju Banton, a Whitney Houston, whatever it is.

Sound and music, I love. So uplifting music. I might make up a song just for fun. My nieces and nephews know that I make up songs for them and about them or in response to situations. So yeah.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (06:28.275)

So let me say as we’re going through this conversation, if you want to break out in song, please, please don’t let me stop you. So can you tell… And so I’m going to encourage you and I’ll wait as we go through our conversation. Can you…

Karel Mc Intosh (06:35.266)

I will, I will.

Karel Mc Intosh (06:41.902)

I don’t need much, you know, Karanka.

Karel Mc Intosh (06:49.134)

Yeah.

The pressure’s on!

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (06:58.579)

Can you tell us about a recent accomplishment or success that you’re particularly proud of?

Karel Mc Intosh (07:02.734)

Mmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (07:06.574)

I’m particularly proud of my journey as a team coach. I completed that course last year and it was 10 months of attending class every single week and applying it in the real world. And it took a level of commitment that at the time I didn’t know I was capable of, because I did see the course in the past and I said, they want me to go to class every week for two hours? I’m a big woman. I have things to do. And then I experienced the lead trainer and I was like, okay, I need to do this. And it really has been transformational for me. It’s not really about the credential. It’s about the change I experienced in that process, how it expanded my internal capacity, my wisdom, my trust and understanding of my natural intuition, as well as the difference I’ve been able to make with teams and with progressive leaders who are open to trying something different. Because team coaching is newish for a lot of companies, not even just in the Caribbean, but around the world.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (08:19.015)

And so what does team coaching entail? What does that look like for somebody who may not be familiar with that?

Karel Mc Intosh (08:24.278)

Yeah, team coaching is partnering with a team, a group of people who have a shared goal and helping them to generate their own synergy, their systems, their processes in a way that’s sustainable. You know, a team coach’s goal is to be fired, for them to say, you know what, Karel, we’re good. We can engage in conflict productively. We can, we feel as if we can face future challenges together. We understand our patterns. We understand what happens and we may not always get it right, but we know how to course-correct. So it’s a true partnership with treating that team as one person.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (08:58.172)

Mmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (09:02.400)

As opposed to individual people. So there, I use the Avengers analogy. It’s like being an Avenger and realizing I might be fighting with the Hulk, but today our shared goal is to send the aliens back from whence they came. So now we know exactly what role Hulk plays, who fits into where, and we move as one entity.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (09:23.833)

Hmm, I love that. I love that analogy. I love the Avengers. I think I’ve seen all of the movies more than three times. So, you know, I can definitely see that analogy. And please tell us about a time when you made a difference in another’s life. What were the circumstances? Paint a picture for me.

Karel Mc Intosh (09:42.510)

Hmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (09:47.291)

Hmm. Hmm. Let me try to remember, because I tend to be that person who wants to help people all of the time. One of the common threads I find is that I often help people to move from one level to the next in their careers, in their power, in what’s possible, and seeing the world outside of the world that they know. So what comes to mind, and this is just one example, is someone who had a job, and it wasn’t the best paying job, and it was a bit limiting. And people always call me to ask me for recommendations, you know, who would be a good fit for a position, or is there someone you know for a project?

And so I put that person’s name forward and they had to go through a full interview, grueling process with other candidates. I was operating as a headhunter. I was asked to be a headhunter in that specific instance. And that person showed up, did their preparation. They were a little doubtful, but they got the job. And along the way, along the career, you know, I give people advice, especially when they start to say, well, I can’t do that. I’m not good enough. And to see somebody move from a lower income status to moving higher up, and now they can do more for their children, they can expand their world. I think that’s one of the things that people would remember about me, that I always try to help and I ask for nothing in return, because I believe that we’re here to help each other and help each other to move forward.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (11:21.373)

What were the key strengths and qualities you relied on to make a difference in this situation?

Karel Mc Intosh (11:28.342)

I think my natural generosity is a gift and it allows me to immediately see what’s possible for someone else without thinking of what’s in it for me, so that that person genuinely benefits from something that is for them. Secondly, I’m able to analyze things. You know, people come to me with their resumes at times and I’m like, this person on this resume, I don’t know this person. This person is not as smart as the person I know in real life. Sell yourself. You know, you haven’t spoken about a bunch of things you’ve done, because sometimes it’s easy to listen to the voice in you that says, that’s not good enough, or that’s not special. And so people remove the things that actually would make a difference in how they show up and the opportunities that they get. So I think that analytical ability to sense in other people what is special about them and present it to them helps to boost confidence.

And I think too, people call me a connector, like I know a bunch of people. I’m just, you know, that’s just how I am. So those strengths support me with supporting other people.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (12:48.297)

Can you recall a situation where you overcame a challenge that led to personal growth? What did you learn from that experience?

Karel Mc Intosh (12:56.814)

Mmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (13:02.478)

I’m trying to think of something. And what comes to my head is something around schoolwork. I mean, I’ve been blessed, like honestly, I think I’ve been blessed to have a life where I haven’t had that many challenges, or maybe I’ve had challenges, but my positive outlook allows me to walk through them with a brighter step.

But one of the things that I always recall is when I had to do common entrance exam. I was 10 years old. People typically do it at 11. And I was ill. I was vomiting. I was sick. And my mom, my both parents are teachers. And my mom said, she can’t go and do the exam. We have to ask for the makeup. And my father said, no, ask her what she wants to do. And I said, I want to go to do the exam.

And he said, okay, you’ll go and do the exam. And I was sick, I don’t know, I was sick. But I did the exam and I passed for the school I wanted to attend. And when I reflect on that, it reminds me that I am capable of excellence, even when I’m not at my best. And I believe it’s important for us to remind ourselves of how our genius, how our excellence can show itself, even in situations where it might look like you should give up, logically you should give up. And so it allowed me to tap into that self-belief. And I believe moments like that have shaped me as an adult.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (14:31.977)

So that was a very impactful lesson to learn at a young age. How has that served you as you’ve gotten older when you look back on that experience?

Karel Mc Intosh (14:44.226)

Yeah, well there are two sides to it, right? There’s a good side where, yes, I achieve, you know, I make it, you know, I make things happen. The other side of it too is sometimes it caused me to not pay attention to my body because I used to have this joke that when I’m really sick, it’s going to be magic because somehow I summon these powers, you know, out of myself.

And I remember an old boss telling me that sometimes our body remembers the conditions that created a certain circumstance. And sometimes we trick our own bodies into behaving a certain way because it associates an outcome with a certain state. And I mean, during my university years, I used to get sick at the end of every semester. And then I would push through because I don’t want to have to stay in university an extra year.

And as I got older, I realized, okay, Karel, you have achieved, you got your A despite being sick, but what was the cost over time? Because you know, when you’re young, your body doesn’t feel it. But as you get older, I’m in my forties now, we’re like, okay, yes, we’re feeling, we’re feeling that. So what it has done for me is it’s built my confidence because I know that I’m capable. I know I can do this thing. Just the other day I wrote on a sheet of paper, “I am fully capable of doing this,” for an engagement that I had talked myself into a state of anxiety for. And so for me, the lesson has been that I’m always capable, believe in myself, but also take care of my body, pause and take care of my body, and then get back up and go again.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (16:30.173)

Hmm.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (16:43.143)

You are listening to ABWilson’s Heart of the Matter podcast. Welcome back to ABWilson’s Heart of the Matter. My guest today is Karel Mc Intosh. Karel, we have talked about you being joyful, spirited, analytical, how you’ve been able to push through despite being sick and showing up with excellence. We’ve also talked about your work as a team coach.

What self-care practices or strategies help you to sustain your energy and motivation while navigating your journey?

Karel Mc Intosh (17:22.347)

Yeah, electrolytes. I believe in electrolytes. I learned that lesson during COVID. I also try my best to go to bed at an hour where my brain gets to clean itself. I will admit that sometimes I do stay up late, but I’m very much aware of being aligned with a natural rhythm, you know, of going to sleep, eating on time. I used to have a bad habit of eating breakfast late in the afternoon because I would just get to work. I’m so excited about my work that I forget about, you need to eat, you’re a human being. And so now I make sure I have my protein in the morning. You know, these days I’m very much into yogurt bowls with my fruit and aligning them and making them look pretty. So sleep, what I eat, as well as the thoughts I feed myself and being more intentional about the start of my day. One of the things I do is I play a Fred Hammond song, “This Is The Day That The Lord Has Made,” to rejoice and be glad, and it’s a very funky tune. And I wake up and I go, yes. But I also sit for some moments in silence and I ask myself,

What does my heart need from me today? What does my spirit need from me today? What does my gut need from me today? What does my mind need from me today? So that I’m a bit more intentional about tapping into myself and tapping into expanding who I am as a person.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (18:50.825)

So somebody listening, you said the thoughts you feed yourself, what kind of thoughts are they? What do you tell yourself so that maybe somebody who needs to have affirmations like that can hear how you do it?

Karel Mc Intosh (19:06.133)

Yeah. Yeah. How do I do it?

There are moments where I have to really talk to myself. And that talking to myself is, “Karel, go and do the people work.” You know, because sometimes as a consultant, you agree to things two months or three months in advance, and then the day arrives or the week arrives, and maybe that week you’re like, I feel as if I should be on a beach, just relaxing somewhere, somewhere. And then I remind myself that I love doing this thing, and I get excited about expanding somebody else’s awareness. So I remind myself of my why. Like, why do I love this? How am I when I’m doing it? And I know that I just shift into Karel and it just, like I’m in the moment and I’m happy and I’m enjoying it. So I remind myself of what I’m capable of. I remind myself that you are just fine. You’re going to be great.

If I’m not fine, I ask myself, what am I feeling right now? How am I feeling? And then I look for very rational, logical ways to course-correct that. So I do public speaking training as well, and I tell people, listen to your body. What do you need to eat that day? Did you hydrate the day before?

It’s only on the morning that you will say, I need to drink water. And then you want to run to the bathroom because you’re nervous. So you have to really think through from a very meticulous domino effect. I use a domino effect. That’s what it is. What do I need? I’m feeling weak. I need electrolytes. I need vitamin B. Maybe I need to eat sweet potato because it makes me feel balanced. You know, those very logical things, because I believe the world is constructed in a way that causes us to disconnect from ourselves and our fundamental needs. So I think of fundamental needs. What do I need as a person to feel balanced so that when I stand on my feet, I feel grounded and sure of myself?

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (21:08.590)

Now you mentioned being on a beach somewhere and I know you live on an island. Tell me about that island. Tell me about your country. Tell me about how you feel living there.

Karel Mc Intosh (21:25.263)

I live in Trinidad and Tobago. I love living in Trinidad and Tobago. I was abroad for a bit. I did my Master’s in England. And every day I would dream of the hot sun. I would dream of being on Maracas Beach and floating, because I can’t swim that well. So I would dream of floating and the sun is just burning me, burning me because England was cold, right? And I’m not a cold-climate person. I love the warmth of the country. We have a natural warmth.

We have a natural joyfulness for life. Like any country we have issues, but the people, at their essence, they love life, they love supporting each other. And you know that there’s someone you can reach out to to support. I live on the bigger island, Trinidad, which is much more infrastructurally built up. It’s like, call it the city then. There are country areas, of course. So I don’t get to go to the beaches as often as I’d like to. When I was studying, I remember I came home to do my dissertation from Trinidad to interview people in person and so on. And my lecturer told me, no, Karel, don’t go. You won’t do your dissertation. I’m like, you know how much money my parents and I are paying for this? And I FedExed it up. And so what I try to do is I go to Tobago. I might take a day and go to the beach. I go to the Caroni Swamp to watch the flamingos and the scarlet ibis coming back in from their adventures in the day and it’s the most gorgeous thing and it’s a nice reset. So I just love, I just love Trinidad. I love Trinidad, I love the people, I love our culture, I love what we represent. We represent so many races and ethnicities living together, a church next to a mosque, respect for other people’s cultures and that curiosity about other people’s cultures. At the core, that’s who we are when we’re not blinded by different things happening in the world.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (23:26.002)

Hmm, thank you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Trinidad. It sounds absolutely wonderful. How might sharing your experiences of success and growth create a positive ripple effect in your family, community, the world?

Karel Mc Intosh (23:33.348)

Yeah.

Karel Mc Intosh (23:47.546)

I’m an aunt. I have 10 nieces and nephews and I always try to support them with— I want to remove that word “try”—I support them with who they want to be and their potential and reinforcing for them that some of their unique quirks are theirs and, you know, they are strengths. And the other part is showing them that there is a way to create a pathway for yourself. And I credit that to my father. He passed away 11 years ago. One thing that he did was he always allowed me to choose the path that I wanted to choose. Even if it was leaving a well-paying job, he would not say, ooh, you know, don’t leave that job. He would say, he would be like, if you want to leave, leave. And if you need 40 dollars from me, let me know or whatever it is. And I believe my father built so much courage and confidence into us by just giving us sovereignty. He was teaching me sovereignty. We hear about sovereignty in coaching and all of these things, but he was teaching me that I am in control of myself and that I don’t need permission from somebody else to be and do the things that I want to do. And so in all of the training and coaching that I do, the ultimate goal is to help people to unlock their personal power.

Who are they? Who is this awesome king or queen, however you want to put it, that is inside of them that has been pushed down through the rigors of adulting, because nobody tells us as children and teenagers about the realities of adulting. And so the main thing for me really is lighting that spark, reigniting that spark of belief that I can do this. It might be hard, it might be challenging.

But what are the things about myself that can help me? What are the strengths that I have? And who are the people around me who want to see me shine and who would be extremely happy to help me with that? We sometimes forget that we do still have a village.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (25:57.161)

Absolutely. And what exciting opportunities do you see on the horizon? How do these opportunities align with your passions and aspirations?

Karel Mc Intosh (25:59.001)

Yeah.

Karel Mc Intosh (26:10.544)

As a team coach, I mean, I do a lot of things. You know, I do leadership coaching, which also ties into team coaching because often you have to prime the leader and coach the leader to support the process. I do public speaking, emotional intelligence, resilience, confidence. And for me, one of the things I’m excited about is expanding more into the Caribbean.

I used to, like you know, I’ve been to Bahamas working in disaster management in my marketing days, teaching social media and working with different stakeholders to expand their awareness of how they can communicate with the communities. But really expanding into the Caribbean to build confidence, to build courage. Across the Caribbean, we tend to have that very joyful, happy spirit. And sometimes it’s a great thing and sometimes it’s a mask for dealing with some of the hardships that are in front of us. And so building courage into people. I tell participants in workshops, the biggest thing to teach your children is courage. And that fear is a natural part of courage. You need to have fear in order to even feel the need to be courageous. So I’m excited about using my capacity and expertise as a team and group coach, not just an individual coach and trainer, but also looking at communities, looking at groups, looking at teams, because if you can work with numerous people, then you scale change and change happens faster. Because sometimes when you’re doing individual coaching, you might feel as if I’m more enlightened. So now you’re seeing what’s not working, but everybody else is happy. But when we have the team, we have more change and you have more people, of course, growing at different paces, but everybody’s inching forward and it makes things more of a reality. And we need it in schools, we need it in communities, government, business, but not just the business place. You know, so looking at how I can contribute in that way as well.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (28:19.814)

Mmm.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (28:23.954)

What brings you joy? And I reflect on the fact that you said you are joyful as one of your descriptors. When you think about that as a descriptor and then you think about your daily routine and how you show up in the world, what brings you joy?

Karel Mc Intosh (28:32.271)

Mm-hmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (28:40.204)

Mm-hmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (28:45.199)

Freedom brings me joy. I feel free. I get a kick out of being able to go outside in the yard on a Monday morning, when I know I could be in traffic or stressed out, and being able to choose a point of the day and it be up to me to decide how I spend that time. My family brings me joy. I’m the only girl, I just have brothers.

I love music, so I would walk around singing or play music. Yeah, music and sound is a big part of that. I think it’s just a natural part of me. And I just think I have this source of joy that just comes from being me, but I also sustain it with, you know, what fills the glass up even more then. Just singing a song makes me happy. It could be nothing, you know, but I like, I just love music. I just like creative, creative things. I recently learned about SoulCollage from a coaching friend of mine in Japan and we did a collage session cutting out magazines, but using it in a coaching way. And it was so interesting and introspective and reflective. So Tia, if you’re listening to this, shout out to you. But yeah, those creative activities, I think they keep my joy, they sustain my joy.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (30:17.052)

Okay, so I want to go back to two things. You said freedom brings you joy. I want to know what that looks like. What does that feel like? So when you think about freedom on a day-to-day basis and then when you look at it long-term, what does that look like?

Karel Mc Intosh (30:34.800)

Freedom looks like me being able to choose, being able to talk to you right now. And that if there’s a competing interest, I can make the decision to say, no, I prioritize being with Aderonke at this point in time. That if it is that my mother needs something, that I can say, choose to dedicate that Friday to taking her around to get what she needs, and there’s—nobody can tell me that I can’t do it.

Or that if it is that maybe I do have to make a choice about an engagement that can only happen on that day, I can choose to say I give up the option to make money that day because I’m prioritizing family. So I think being able to make my own decisions, myself, and not have to get the okay from someone else is freedom.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (31:42.034)

What is a SoulCollage? What does that look like? What does that feel like?

Karel Mc Intosh (31:47.664)

So think of it as…

You know vision boarding, but it’s not vision boarding. It’s literally, get maybe some magazines, some pamphlets, whatever it is. And this is me explaining in layman’s terms, because I’m not a trained SoulCollager. But you just look at images and anything that speaks to your spirit, you just take that out. And then you make a collage, you layer things. It doesn’t have to have rhyme or reason.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (31:52.808)

Mm-hmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (32:18.200)

And then we look at that and now we see what is coming to you as you watch this collage. Right, because you’re not choosing images based on any criteria except positive feelings. Like you see something and you feel something positive. Now seeing that on the outside of yourself, what is that telling you about the space you’re in or what you need or what’s calling to you?

And it’s very relaxing because you’re just there, you know, cutting out pictures, glue stick. We don’t get to do those things a lot as adults, right? And sticking it on your cards and then looking at this thing and being like, I can create meaning from this. What is this card telling me that I have not been able to articulate on my own? So that’s why they call it a SoulCollage, because it’s like an expression of your soul on a piece of paper.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (33:16.774)

And then, do you keep the collage? You keep the card nearby and you look at it regularly? What happens to it?

Karel Mc Intosh (33:23.002)

However you want to do it. So some people might put it on their wall, you might keep it in a book. Your SoulCollage is for you, because it’s your soul that you’ve put, I guess in a way, I mean that’s what I think, on a piece of paper, but it’s a very personal thing. It’s a personal thing and it’s something that you can come home to, because let’s be honest, sometimes we get busy, sometimes we forget that we have this intention of being a certain way or achieving a goal, and it’s good to have something there that reminds you.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (33:37.724)

Mmm. Mmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (33:52.667)

That hey, this is what I want to feel or be in life. And I think it works as well if you’re a visual learner. Some people process things visually. Some people will not use a journal to write their thoughts and reflect and so on, but it might be, I’ll choose a symbol. And so SoulCollage is a way of doing that. And I truly enjoyed my first experience of doing it. And I plan to do more. Yeah.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (34:18.202)

Okay. And the way I’m understanding it, it feels as though each time you do it, you’ll have different images. You’ll have however you’re feeling at that time, those images will surface and speak to you. So yeah, I’m going to look into it a little bit more. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. What book recommendation do you have? It can be a book or books that you’ve read recently or something that has stayed with you over the years.

Karel Mc Intosh (34:26.616)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Karel Mc Intosh (34:36.932)

Yeah. Yeah.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (34:46.222)

Over the years.

Karel Mc Intosh (34:48.367)

Hmm.

I love Kei Miller, a Jamaican writer. He has several books, Augustown and The Same Earth. There’s also The Last Warner Woman. He does a lot of poetry as well, but Augustown, I love, I love, I love. It’s based in Jamaica and it’s a story about a—it looks like a story about a boy, but it’s also a story about a community, about potential, about choices, and it makes you laugh out loud. It makes you rock back. I love writing that makes you feel things and react physically to the writing. And he’s an amazing writer from the Caribbean. And so I recommend him to everybody. So, Kei Miller, Augustown, is my recommendation.

I love a lot of African literature and Indian literature, a lot of heavy literature, as well as Caribbean. Like, oh, I’m a book lover, so it’s hard for me. I’m starting to get a bunch. So yeah, Augustown. I like A House for Mr. Biswas from V.S. Naipaul, who happens to be a Trinidadian author. But what I love about it is it shows the progress of somebody trying to achieve a goal all of their life and the reasons for why that became a need for him, but also how he dealt with the situations and all the challenging situations. A House for Mr. Biswas starts off very slow, but it’s extremely funny. And then when it comes to a book, a nonfiction, let’s say a business book—

Karel Mc Intosh (36:40.483)

I would recommend, because I’m a serious woman, I would…

Karel Mc Intosh (36:49.977)

I would recommend From Tension to Transformation by Janet Harvey, who happens to be one of my master coaches. And it speaks about the relationship that people have with conflict, recognizing conflict before it even begins and being able to engage with it in a productive way and not have that fear. So that would be one. I also love, love—because I’m a marketing girl at heart—so I would recommend books like, let me show it to you here, I have it right here:

A Smile in the Mind. I don’t know if it’s clear to you, yeah, but A Smile in the Mind.

You know, just to give you visual stimulation and ideas for how you want to represent yourself or your brand or your company or just even what you do. But you start to see space in things and how to line things up, even looking at your living room, you know, even if you’re not thinking about business-wise. So I like these kinds of visual things. So it would be Augustown, A House for Mr. Biswas, From Tension to Transformation, and A Smile in the Mind. I would also give, I know I’m giving you a whole list here—you started this—the The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (38:11.431)

That’s okay, keep them coming, keep them coming.

Karel Mc Intosh (38:19.845)

Again, African literature. Oh, there’s a bunch. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I’ll stop there because we’ll be here all day.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (38:29.553)

Thank you.

Well, thank you. Thank you for these book recommendations. Karel, is there anything else? Do you have any final thoughts?

Karel Mc Intosh (38:43.889)

Hmm. I think what I’d want to leave with people is, like, do a research project on yourself. Learn about yourself, learn about your patterns, learn about your habits and also ask yourself, outside of this—in the words of the movie The Matrix—outside of the Matrix, like who are you at the core and who would you be if you did not have to think about a job or all of the, you know, societal rules that have been put upon us. Who would you be and how would you show up in this world? And then ask yourself, what is one small step that you can take or what is one small thing you can do to feel, to have 10% of that feeling?

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (39:40.571)

Do you think people are willing to do that?

Karel Mc Intosh (39:44.252)

They want to. Some are not willing and some are willing, but they don’t know how. And they need people who can show them how to unlock it and crack the code because sometimes it feels hard and they just need support. And so we need to popularize the idea that you have support. You won’t get support from everyone, but there are people out there who are willing to support you.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (39:59.976)

Hmm.

Karel Mc Intosh (40:11.161)

Reach out to them. You either get—as my father would say—what’s the worst that could happen? You got a yes or you got a no.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (40:19.023)

Yeah, yeah. And have you done this? Have you done a research project on yourself?

Karel Mc Intosh (40:25.755)

I have. That’s the beautiful thing about my coaching journey. So I’ve done all the archetypes that I inhabit, my thinking styles, my feeling styles. I’ve also done things like looking at who am I at the essence, which is why I can say for certainty that I am joy, I am resilient. And I’ve seen it throughout my life, throughout the decades of my life. And just being able to remind yourself that this is who you are and who are you when things get hard? Who are you when things are easy? You need to remind yourself because when the stress hits and when the challenge hits, it will be very easy to forget who you are. And that’s why reminding yourself when you don’t need to remind yourself is the key to it so that when the challenge occurs, it’s easier for your brain to say, uh-uh,

You’re a lioness, you can handle this, right? And also when you’re happy, I tell people, stop for a moment and bask in that happiness. What does it feel like? What does it feel like in your chest? What does it feel like in your shoulders, in your feet, in your big toe? Right? And stop for a moment and capture that so that when you have situations and you’re trying to get back to that positive space, your brain knows how to recognize it. Because it’s hard to get back to if you can’t— We all recognize, we know, how do you feel when you’re stressed? I feel like this, I feel like that. Okay, how do you feel when you’re happy? You know, I don’t know. All right, check that out.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (42:03.601)

Wow, thank you so much. And the appreciation nuggets that I’m taking away from our conversation. And I’m going to start with your joyfulness, naturally joyful and resilient. And one thing that you shared, which you learned when you were 10 years old, capable of excellence, even when not at your best.

And that you help people to unlock their personal power. And this one really stood out for me, “need to have fear in order to be courageous.” And we learned about SoulCollages. I had not heard of that before. So we got to learn something new that we can research. Karel Mc Intosh, thank you.

Karel Mc Intosh (42:56.943)

Yeah.

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson (43:01.393)

For taking time today to join me on ABWilson’s Heart of the Matter, a podcast dedicated to asking overwhelmingly positive questions as we uncover incredible stories and wisdom of people you may know. Thank you so much for being here.

Karel Mc Intosh (43:18.235)

Thank you for having me.