I'd never met Canel properly before, but her work had come up in conversation more than once. She's a coach, but it became clear quickly that what she really does is help people see themselves more clearly. We talked about journaling, handwriting, cultural identity, and the distinction between a forced answer and a true one. What struck me most was how she moves between roles without losing her center... everything she does comes from the same soul's work.
The journal as mirror
Canel works as a business and leadership coach, mainly with women entrepreneurs. She journals constantly. Morning reflection on energy and intention. Evening reflection on the day. She loves the act of handwriting... the slowness of it, the way it connects hand to thought. She pulls old journals out and reads them, watching who she was at twenty, thirty. That loop of reflection and witness is central to how she sees people. A typical day loops through deep one-on-one coaching, group workshops, content creation. She moves between all of them because the underlying pattern is the same... helping people see patterns in themselves they couldn't see alone. She's even done meditation teacher certification and trauma studies, layering her toolkit over years so that when she shows up with a client, all of that knowledge sits underneath the surface, ready if needed.
The body doesn't lie
When I asked her to reflect on what the world needs, she listed happiness, purpose, and meaningful lives. Then she listed better leadership. When she said happiness and purpose, she lit up visibly. When she said better leadership, she closed off a little. I asked her to feel the difference. She acknowledged it immediately. The body always knows first. The mind catches up later. We spend so much energy on answers that feel like they should be true that we miss the ones that actually land. This is the work she does with her clients... teaching them to listen to what their body is already telling them before the mind rationalizes it away.
Evolution, not destination
By the end, she said something that stuck. Don't lock yourself into one thing. Your role, your expression of purpose, it can evolve. It doesn't have to be one job forever. She's been a consultant, a coach, a workshop facilitator, a content creator. All those roles are expressions of the same soul's work. That flexibility is freeing. You're not failing because you're not doing the one perfect thing. You're living fully because you're expressing yourself across different forms. For her, the common denominator is always the same... it's about helping people see themselves more clearly and move forward with intention.
