Johanna Lyman (she/they) is a dynamic, energetic, multi-talented, trauma informed, somatic Womxn’s Empowerment Coach (she also works with a few good men!), Executive Coach, Leadership and Culture Consultant, Certified Diversity Professional, and SHRM CP with over 15 years of experience in leadership and personal development, and 10 years in culture change. With a background in both money and relationship coaching, she’s poly and kink aware and an ally to all folk with marginalized identities: a truly judgement free space holder.

Yup, that’s a lot! And there’s one of those invisible red threads that tie everything she does together with one through-line: she works to ensure that all of her clients learn how to feel a profound sense of belonging, inside and out. Meaning: she helps her clients become the best version of themselves, be comfortable in their own skin, and be kind humans to others. All of this is in service to shifting the cultural paradigm from scarcity to sufficiency, from fear to Love. 

 As she likes to say, (Abraham) Maslow* was wrong! Physiological needs are NOT at the bottom of the Needs Pyramid, Belonging is. Our cave-dwelling (or nomadic) ancestors understood this: if you were to be kicked out of your tribe, it was a death sentence. No way could you survive for long without the support of community. You’d either freeze to death, starve, or become the saber-toothed tiger’s next meal. Belonging matters a LOT. 

Yet thanks to our patriarchal, capitalist society, we’ve not only forgotten what our ancestors knew in their bones, we’ve bought into the Lies of white supremacy and capitalism, believing in the zero-sum game of “there’s not enough to go around”- the root of NEGAtive thinking. We believe the Lie of rugged individualism– I mean, tell the truth to yourself: how hard is it for you to ask for help? Go ahead, I’ll wait…..

In case you couldn’t tell, Johanna is one of the “rare breeds” that Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger talk about in their best-selling book, Rare Breed: A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous, and Different. She’s “Audacious: bold, ambitious, visionary, unstoppable, and daring.” Her “unshakable conviction in a crazy vision unlocks futures that don’t exist (yet) and inspires people to attempt the impossible.”

*Maslow lived with a Blackfoot Indian (Siksika) tribe for six weeks in 1938 and may have appropriated their communal structure as the basis for his Hierarchy of Needs.