I was born in the hills of Yorkshire, England. My early life was spent exploring art with my parents, and trying to survive the experience of school, which never really suited me.

Music was my first love during my teens. I studied Community Music at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. I thought I wanted to be a professional musician – I wrote, recorded, and performed my songs – until one fateful day when my music coach asked me “Ewan, do you feel like you have to be a musician?”

At which point I cried yes and felt a great weight lift from my shoulders. I left music and threw myself into the spiritual philosophy and psychology I felt deeply called to.

I was introduced to spirituality through my father and his men’s group (which I attended as a teenager). In my early 20s I discovered the work of spiritual philosopher Ken Wilber, whose integral map of reality opened doors I didn’t know existed and confirmed things I had intuited but couldn’t verbalise.

Business and the work of the soul

I started my first business when I was 25 (it was highly idealistic and not very profitable). My second business was more successful — in fact it was a turning point. Waking Up the Workplace was an investigation into the nature of ‘Conscious Business’. Two good friends and I interviewed our heroes from the field, building a community of thousands of followers in the process.

My coaching journey began in 2013 during my third business. My business partner and I created an online academy for entrepreneurs called the Conscious Business Coalition. I taught our classes on marketing and at the end of each session, would do some small group coaching. When I left the partnership the following year, I knew I wanted to be a coach, and boldly stepped out onto the path and started working with clients. You can read more about the coaching I offer here.

For 10 years I helped build and run Coaches Rising, a highly respected online coach training school, founded in 2011 by two friends of mine. The company, still thriving today, runs advanced training programs with world-leading transformational coaches.

I have specialism in marketing, having played this role in all my various businesses. Though as an entrepreneur, I’ve of course played many other roles too. From the beginning I have stood for an approach to marketing that blends artistry with smart business — that reveals the soul of a thing, while elegantly persuading those who need it, to say yes.

I have been on a 20-year spiritual journey exploring the nature of the self and the soul. I’ve explored a great many approaches and philosophies. And I’ve practiced a wide variety of modalities over the years, from meditation to chi kung and energy work, from tantric-yogic practice to circling and authentic relating. I also have shamanic training and can work with spirit guides and other kinds of “magic”.

Coaching, as a guide on the journey

I think I chose to come here to play this kind of a role – as guide and coach. To teach about the nature of things and help others as they walk their soul path.

One of my favourite feelings in the world is hearing about the changes people get as a result of my help. “Hey that thing we explored, it totally opened things up and I went for it!” Or, “I loved what you wrote, it really helped me see something.” I just love that feeling.

My own training therefore has been learning how to walk my own soul path. Which means facing yourself, and the inner dragons. My entrepreneurial career, my artistic work and my spiritual path have always felt like things that belonged together. My development has been to learn how to practically and philosophically integrate these dimensions.

This is why I’ve also spent many years developing an archetypal model of the entrepreneur. The Artist, The Merchant and The Seeker represent fundamental but distinct dimensions of our work as entrepreneurs. This is a map I’ve lived first and written about second.

My soul feels like an age-old seeker. My human self has the constitution of an artist. It is by stepping into the marketplace as a merchant that I have learned the most about how to walk the path in this life.

I live in Amsterdam with my partner and children.