Client Stories

I go home each time with a curiosity for more.

I chose a coaching program because Paradise Shaper was recommended through an acquaintance of mine. The introductory meeting felt right away. Paradise Shaper's distinctiveness lies in its approach. I have had the opportunity to work with several coaches. When you peel it off, there is a line in what coaches contribute to your own development. The important thing is that it comes to you in a way that resonates with your personality.

It is a gentle non-coercive approach/viewing method in which the focus is on yourself. You are the key. For transformation you have to dare to look in the mirror. In my view, trust and being seen as a human being are important in this and not insisting on a certain matter. It is like a tailored suit to transformation.

My challenge is as follows: Who am I, what do I want and what do I have to add. Not finding myself but creating myself and what I can add in this world. I experience the process so far as very pleasant. Having longer sessions is new for me.

I find that the sessions resonate in the unconscious for a long time and cause me to experience more peace and especially to have better conversations. In addition, it gives me confidence for the future. I notice this because I experience fewer doubts. After each session I go home with a beautiful insight. I really change as a person and find the setting very inspiring. I go home every time with a curiosity for more.

I am more aware of the consequences of my behavior and its effect on my immediate environment.

I chose Paradise Shaper because during my introduction to Rob Laarhoven I became convinced that he was the right person to help me in my quest to make the right business choices. I was looking for confirmation that I was on the "right" path as a person and as an entrepreneur. And in Paradise Shaper with Rob Laarhoven as my coach I found a sparring-partner who can take a critical look at me and my business. I have experienced the trajectory so far as very instructive and positive.

Working with Paradise Shaper has given me a number of things. For example, I have come to know myself better as a person. I am also more aware of the consequences of my behavior and its effect on my immediate environment. With Rob's input, I have been able to make the right choices in the right order, whereby we have increasingly influenced the behavior and attitude of all employees. We also organized ourselves differently and started a re-branding process. In short, it has given me positive momentum.

The aspect that I found most valuable is the fact that Rob, as a coach, possesses in my eyes the gift of offering me criticism without putting me in resistance mode. The effects of the process with Paradise Shaper have positively influenced multiple dimensions / layers of my organization and challenges in my specific situations. If I had not worked with Paradise Shaper through a coaching program, I would have stood still and in all likelihood I would have lost employees.

The awareness was already there on many fronts. Rob helps me to actually do something with it.

I went for a coaching program with Paradise Shaper because I was stuck with entrepreneurship. I saw this happening but didn't know what to do to get out. Then Rob sent me a message via LinkedIn. We went to lunch and I immediately realized he was the one who could help me move forward. It felt right and I decided to get coached. My concrete challenge is to get the scale-up phase I'm in in order. Defining my own role and getting my pitfalls like control and my own insecurity under control.

I am very happy working with Paradise Shaper. Rob brings peace, order and overview and helps me through my pitfalls.

The collaboration has given me many insights. Small steps forward. Light at the end of the tunnel. I am confident that a stable organization will emerge and I myself will come into my own.

What I find most valuable is that these coaching sessions also involve working on the solution. The awareness was already there on many fronts (but also many new insights were gained). In previous sessions, it remained just that. Rob helps me to actually do something with it.

Another advantage of working with Paradise Shaper I experience is that there is expertise on several fronts. I am very much looking forward to the phase in which all processes are scrutinized. The cooperation keeps me reflective and vital. That is worth everything to me.

The awareness was already there on many fronts. Rob helps me to actually do something with it.

I chose a coaching program with Paradise Shaper as a result of a workshop conducted by Rob Laarhoven at Evoke. This workshop on leadership inspired me enormously. Rob talked about his view on leadership, which encouraged me to invest more time and energy in it. I could immediately identify with the methodology used by Paradise Shaper, but chose to focus on the person.

My concrete challenge is defining who I am and want to be as a leader. Together with Rob I started reflecting, looking at myself and especially my own behavior and beliefs. This has given me many interesting insights. Another huge challenge is organizing the tasks and goals for my team at Evoke. Where do I want to go and how do I get others to go with me? How do I increase my ability to influence?

I experienced the trajectory as very good. It goes further than I had expected. Every time I come to new insights and every session I look in the proverbial mirror again. Besides the method with models, we deal with concrete examples, which makes it tangible and directly applicable for me.

First, working with Paradise Shaper has given me great insight into what I myself stand for and what I want to steer towards. This, in my understanding, is the foundation. Standing for a clear and honest way of leading, where the team knows what they have to do with me and where they stand.

What I find most valuable from the coaching process is the focus, focused on the person and not just from a certain theory. It really looks at you as a person. This in combination with working on your vitality is what I find most valuable. During the sessions you get feedback and therefore insights that you would normally never get at the office within Evoke.

If I had not worked with Paradise Shaper, I would still be working "out side in" and not "inside out. Now I decide much more from my own values and desires what I want and do. I am no longer guided by an image I want to conform to. I had less concrete who I want to be as a leader. I am more authentic now and would never have set things up so well for my team otherwise. As a leader, I always thought I had to do it myself, but more importantly you have to organize it well.

I took ownership of my own doings.

I chose a coaching program with Paradise Shaper because I have positive past experiences with Rob Laarhoven. I had a conversation with him about job happiness, assuming a "victim role" where I was suffering from anger and frustration was surfacing. Rob recognized this and held up the mirror to me, "what was your own role in this?"

I have always felt that I wanted to work on myself. Knew there was still some cleaning up to do from the past. I had previously created the image that it was no longer necessary, but that turned out to be different. From the mirror I was confronted with the fact that my own solutions were not sufficient. It could be better and it showed.

It was really challenging for me to get to my feelings, to the inner world. What do you really feel? Rob helped me reflect. Do I really want and dare to be myself, or am I creating yet another reality for the outside world? Due to earlier lack of reflective ability, a lack of proactivity followed. As a result, I often ended up in a negative spiral and had absolutely no direction, no plan on how to tackle it in a positive way.

I experienced the process as pleasant. Based on a solid foundation of trust, it was transparent. We did it together, Rob as coach with me. Together we determined how we were going to tackle it. Sometimes things were touched that gave me a good uppercut. I know that's part of it now, without friction no shine. I have been very vulnerable and that has given me a lot. It has given me footing and peace of mind. I designed my own model together with Rob, which I use as support. I have taken ownership of my own actions. I reflect regularly and actions now come proactively from within myself.

I have found Paul Smilde's book "It's not about You" to be very valuable. I completely understand the underlying idea and fully adhere to it. In addition, I have experienced coaching in nature as very meaningful, it does people good. Nature invites you to get out of your head and reach your feelings more easily. Besides, it is also much more fun than sitting in a chair somewhere inside right?

If I had not chosen the pathway at Paradise Shaper, I would probably still be at the point where I thought it was all good. Now I am in it daily with an 8 and back then sometimes a 4 and sometimes an 8!

As a manager, I can now fall back on a solid foundation!

I had been working as an online marketer at Mark@ting BV for three years when we merged with Strong Brand Directors in 2022. I was put in charge of the new Digital marketing team. To properly integrate the two teams, our entire management team was mentored by Rob Laarhoven of Paradise Shaper. We are a team with mostly young and still inexperienced leaders. Leadership was new for me, I had no experience at all. How do I tackle this? Where do I start? The coaching was especially necessary for me to get the right tools.

My experience of the process with Paradise Shaper has been very positive. First of all it gave me a theoretical foundation for what leadership is all about. In addition, there was a lot of attention for reflection and we gained new insights in the workshops with many practical exercises. I now apply the theory concretely in practice. How can you best deal with certain people in certain situations? I found that difficult at first. Now I feel comfortable acting consciously and competently in these situations. I dare to tap into my intuition more. I use the theory I learned by directly applying my new skills.

The coaching program has made me stronger as a manager. I can fall back on a solid foundation. Rob Laarhoven was always there as a sparring partner to share and discuss specific situations with. He always held up a mirror to me and paid sincere attention to my development.

I found the Situational Leadership component to be the most valuable from the course. The concrete plotting of my team, engaging in conversation with my team members and getting to work based on this made it concrete and immediately applicable. It became clear to me as a young leader that everyone is different and everyone deserves a different approach. I learned and experienced that listening and asking "pointed questions" are tremendously important to increase my ability to influence as a leader.

I found it a great advantage to have a regular sparring partner who speaks from experience and has a neutral opinion. Rob is not part of our organization and I really liked that. He is independent and was mainly there for me. For example, he supported me with the cases that came up that I was facing as a novice leader. This gave me confidence at the beginning of my leadership career.