Day 1: Herman Veitch

October 1, 2009 at 12:14 am, Category: Inspiration

“I think when I am who I am with all my good and my shallow sides, it is important for me to be true to myself, and by being true, I release people to be true to themselves as well, to be real.”

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Herman Veitch: Part 1

Herman Veitch: Part 2

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Toni Reece: Thank you so very much for this interview today.  Before we begin the questioning, could you please introduce yourself to us and tell us what you do?

Herman Veitch: Yes, thanks Toni.  My name is Herman Veitch and I am an ICC coach in Bloemfontein, South Africa, a small city right in the center of our beautiful country, and I mainly coach my clients with horses.

Toni Reece: Oh, that’s interesting…you coach your clients with horses; can you tell us just a little bit about that?

Herman Veitch: It is very exciting.  It is actually a privilege to co-coach with horses.  They are beautiful animals and they pick up the handler’s emotional space very intuitively and with that, we help our clients to get great breakthroughs in all parts of their life.

Toni Reece: Wow, that is really interesting.  I have to tell you I am thrilled to be interviewing you in South Africa this morning–my morning–I know your afternoon–and I want to start with my first question with you, which is:  Who do you inspire, Herman, and how do you do that?

Herman Veitch: Who do I inspire?  That is a bit of a difficult question because I think inspiration is a surge of motivational insight a person experiences, and it is not something that somebody externally can actually do.  So who I inspire?  I wouldn’t know; I hope a lot of people, but what I do know is that I have to be the best I can be, and that is inspiring, and I try always to focus on what can I do really well, and do it even better.

Toni Reece: I understand your definition of inspiration, and that is really interesting, and I appreciate that.  I am sure a lot of your clients might have a different answer to that as far as how you inspire them, but by being the best that  you can be, how would that possibly impact inspiring others, or helping them to be inspired by being the best that you can be?

Herman Veitch: I think when I am who I am with all my good and my shallow sides, it is important for me to be true to myself, and by being true, I release people to be true to themselves as well, to be real.   I think that is what is inspiring, to be real, to be authentic.

Toni Reece: So being authentic…

Herman Veitch: Yes.

Toni Reece: Okay, fantastic!  So just to recap for my understanding and for the readers of the interview; if you believe that you are authentic and you are real and show all of your sides, the shallow sides as well as the good sides, that that will help others that you are working with or you are around to be themselves as well and to show all of their good, bad, and ugly sides as well.

Herman Veitch: Yes, correct, that space where you can be comfortable being yourself, and I believe your inner beauty starts to shine.

Toni Reece: Thank you for that.  My second question, Herman, is:  What do you do in that same spirit to help explore the potential in others; how do you go about that?

Herman Veitch: I think one of my gifts is to see beauty, especially beauty in people, and when I sense or see somebody’s beauty, I dive in and explore with them different ways how to showcase that beauty to the world, and I think that is how I go about to explore people’s potential, to seek with them ways to be as beautiful as they are.

Toni Reece: Can you give us some examples of how you do that?

Herman Veitch: Questions.

Toni Reece: Okay.

Herman Veitch: I ask them questions.

Toni Reece: You ask questions…so do people come to you when you work with them?  Do you find most people do not seem to really understand where their inner beauty lies?  Is that something that you find?

Herman Veitch: Most of my clients come to me with the sense of “I need that little bit extra to really have a fulfilling life,” and together we explore what that is; and constantly I find that it turns back to their own inner authenticity, their own inner beauty, and to be comfortable to just be that.  That is the beauty of coaching with horses, because you cannot lie to a horse.  A horse senses your true nature, and he reflects it back to you, and that is why I love coaching with them, and through questions I ask them.  For example, what do you think the horse is trying to tell you right now about yourself, and then the clients start picking up what is really their true self.

Toni Reece: Wow, that is very exciting.  What do you need to be inspired, Herman?  What do you look for?  Where does your searching take you when you are looking for inspiration?

Herman Veitch: Well, beauty in all its forms; and it is very important that we understand beauty.  Beauty is in some sense the unexpected next to the expected, and so that is very important for me.  I need to be surrounded by beautiful things, gardens, paintings, photography, but also silence.  Silence inspires me, and nature, so I like to be outside.  I often put off my stereo.  But the most inspiring moment for me is that brief….

Toni Reece: I’m sorry Herman; because we are on Skype there was a bit of a delay there.  You have said that the most inspiring…

Part Two

Toni Reece: We are back on for the second part of the interview.  Part of what you were talking about during your interview is keeping things real and authentic, and because we are using a Skype service and depending on the fickleness of the internet, calls will drop during the interview and we will just pick it right back up and continue with our interview, if that is okay with you.

Herman Veitch: That is 100% okay.

Toni Reece: Okay, fantastic.  I would like to clarify the question that we left was “what do you need to be inspired”, and you had talked about beauty and you had made a statement “the unexpected next to the expected”, if I heard that correctly;  could you please clarify that a little bit for me?  What do you mean by that?

Herman Veitch: It is a green plant growing next to a dust bin.

Toni Reece: A green plant growing next to a dust bin?

Herman Veitch: Yes.

Toni Reece: I see…you also were about to explain about what the most important thing is that inspires you, and that is where the internet went down.  So if we can pick up from there as well?

Herman Veitch: Yes, I think another important element for me is silence.  I like to be in nature and I like the silence of nature, but most of what I like is that moment of silence just before a client gets an insight.  It’s as if right then, the world stands still, and in a fraction of a second there is this beautiful, beautiful silence, and that is very inspiring for me because I anticipate this “wow” experience in the client’s life to come through; that is inspiring.

Toni Reece: And you actually feel that moment?  You know it’s there?  You are in that moment with the client when it happens?

Herman Veitch: Yes….it is awesome.  Sometimes it is very small, and sometimes it is profound; it goes for a whole second or something, but I have the privilege of seeing it.

Toni Reece: That is incredible!  What do you need, Herman, to explore your own potential, to continue to look for inspiration and ways to explore your own potential to be the best that you can do and to be the best that you can be?  What do you do?  What it is that you look for?  What do you need?

Herman Veitch: For myself, I think it is buckle down and start looking.  It is very hard to be authentic, because we have been conditioned to conform to the norms of society, and that is not always very true.  Hard work is what I need.  I need to work very hard on myself to be authentic, to be truthful, look the negative part of myself in the eye and make friends with him and say, “okay, let’s see what can we do about this and make it better.”   And hard work on the outside as well.   I think we are a person because of other people, so relationships are also very important, so working hard on relationships, because true friends mirror back to you who you truly are.

Toni Reece: I see.  That is inspiring in itself, and it is hard work to be authentic.  When you are exploring different avenues or ways to remain authentic and not to conform to society and to remain truthful and to look that negative part in the mirror, what it is exactly…are there lessons you look for that you explore?  Are there resources or tools that you use?  What have you found that helps you to keep that true, to explore your own potential?

Herman Veitch: Some of the tools that I use are meditation, to be coached myself, and to be aware of what is happening and asking myself questions of what is really presenting itself now, and how can I connect it to what I know about myself?  I think the most important tool might be questioning; that and meditation.

Toni Reece: So meditation is a very important tool for yourself personally; questioning seems to be your tool of choice as well with the horses to help others be inspired and explore the beauty and potential within themselves and to keep things real.  My final question to you is, how do you use the horses to inspire yourself or to explore your own potential, and do you do that?

Herman Veitch: That is a very good question.  Maybe I need somebody to coach me with my own horses, eh?  I think just being with the horses allows me to be myself.

Toni Reece: I see.  Herman, you have been an absolute joy to interview and I so appreciate the fact that you are giving us this little sound bite into your world of helping others to be inspired and also helping others to explore their own potential; as well as what you need to be inspired and continue to explore your own potential, and I am so grateful to you for participating in this Get Inspired! Project and sharing that with others.

Herman Veitch: Thank you for the opportunity, I am pleased.  Thank you.

Toni Reece: Thank you very much Herman, and I hope that we talk soon.

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For more information about Herman Veitch: http://www.livepositive.co.za/

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This interview was recorded in Skype.  To download the audio for listening on an mp3 player, iPod, etc., simply right-click the green player image at the top of this post and select “Save Target As” to save the mp3 file to a folder on your computer.

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