E75: Coaching, Anti-Racism, and SOARing Beyond Limits through Personal Transformation

What makes Anita Russell with The Place to SOAR a good neighbor? 

What does it take to completely reinvent yourself after decades in a successful career? Anita Russell's remarkable journey from pharmaceutical research scientist to transformative life coach reveals the power of taking bold steps toward authentic purpose.

As founder of The Place to Soar (where SOAR stands for "step out and redesign"), Anita specializes in guiding clients through personal transformation – helping them bridge the gap between their current reality and desired future. Her approach centers on thought-provoking questions rather than prescriptive advice, creating those breakthrough moments when clients exclaim, "I never thought about it like that!"

While primarily working with established professional women seeking clarity in their careers and lives, Anita's impact extends far beyond individual coaching. Following George Floyd's murder in 2020, she launched the Inflection Point Podcast and developed an anti-racism workshop approaching this challenging topic through a personal transformation lens. Rather than confrontational activism, she facilitates gentle but honest self-examination, helping individuals recognize internal patterns and determine how they want to change – change that can ripple outward to transform organizations and communities.

"A life coach is not in the business of telling you what you should do," Anita explains. "A life coach is in the business of helping you discover what you should do." This collaborative partnership creates the space where development and growth happen, guided by each client's own desires and critical self-reflection.

Deeply rooted in faith and community, Anita balances her transformative work with family time and involvement with the Ujamaa Collective. Her ultimate mission resonates in her closing thoughts: "Whatever it is you're facing, that's what I will help you to walk through so that you can ultimately cross that bridge from where you are to where you truly desire to be."

Ready to discover your place to soar? Connect with Anita through her website (theplacetosoar.com), the InflexionPoint Podcast, or on LinkedIn and other social platforms. Your transformation journey awaits!

To learn more about The Place to SOAR go to: 

https://theplacetosoar.com

The Place to SOAR

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Lila Carter.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a personaltransformation expert?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am.
One might be closer than youthink.
One might be closer than youthink.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
anita Russell, with the Place toSoar.
Anita, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
It's going very well.
I'm very excited to be here.
I love doing podcasts, so it'sa great opportunity.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
We're so happy to have you and we're excited to
learn all about you and yourorganization.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
So please tell us more about your company.
So the name of my company isthe Place to Soar and that's
Soar S-O-A-R, and the companyactually came out of a very
radical decision that I madeback in like 2013,.

(01:09):
I had worked in thepharmaceutical industry for a
little over two decades almost23 years or so in the
pharmaceutical industry, andpart of my career was related to
research.
So I was a pharmaceuticalresearch, development scientist
and all of that.
But midway through my career Imade a dramatic decision.
So this was the first episodeof me sort of stepping out and
redesigning myself, which iswhat the acronym actually stands

(01:30):
for.
So I made a decision to comeout of the laboratory
environment and move into alearning and development role.
And then, about 10 years afterthat, I made an even more
radical decision by leaving thecompany and just kind of going
on this social entrepreneurshipjourney, and so again, the step

(01:51):
out and redesign kind ofreflected those really important
decisions that I was makingalong the way that ultimately
led to me establishing a companycalled the Place to Soar a
company called the Place to SoarExcellent and what are some
myths, or maybe misconceptions,in this industry?

(02:13):
that you'd like to address today.
I would say so, foundationally,what I am is a life coach.
So I'm a certified life coachand my focus is on personal
transformation.
And I think maybe sometimeswhen people hear the term life
coach, they're not exactly surewhat it means.
And so I usually, when I'mworking with a client or you

(02:36):
know a new organization, I'llkind of explain to them where
I'm coming from, who I am andwhy I do what I do.
But essentially, it's aboutpersonal transformation and it's
about moving people from theplace where they are in their
lives to the place where theydesire to be, and all of that
space in between is wheredevelopment happens, is where

(02:58):
growth happens, and all of that.
And so a life coach is not inthe business of telling you what
you should do.
A life coach is in the businessof helping you to discover what
you should do, and it's alldriven by your own desires.
It's driven by your owncritical self-reflection, so

(03:18):
it's driven by all of the thingsthat reside inside of you.
My job is to bring all of thatout.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Excellent.
Now, who are your targetcustomers and how are you
attracting them to the business?

Speaker 3 (03:31):
whenever we think of marketing as the heart of any
organization, so for the mostpart I work with women, although
not exclusively, and most ofthe time they are women who are
older, and when I say older Imean generally women who are a
little bit more established intheir careers.

(03:52):
So I've worked with women whoare at various levels within
their organization, butgenerally they're kind of older,
a little bit more mature, andalready have a strong sense of
where they are, where they wantto go, and they just need
somebody to help them refinethat as well.
But then, on the other hand,part of what I do in that

(04:16):
personal transformation work isanti-racism.
So anti-racism kind of goesacross an even broader spectrum,
but for the most part it'swomen but I say that not
exclusively that I work with.
It seems like it's women whowere drawn to me more so than
than men, and so what I loveabout the work that I do and how

(04:43):
I do it is that it's verycollaborative, it's a
partnership.
Collaborative, it's apartnership, it's a way for
myself and this other individualto lock arms together so that
they end up getting what it isthey want.
So if it's an individual that'scoming to me and I've been in my
career I'm feeling a littlelike I'm not really sure where I

(05:03):
am anymore.
I need some guidance.
What should I be doing?
And I step in and walk themthrough a process of discovery
by simply asking questions.
That's what I do for the mostpart is ask a lot of questions
that help people to kind of digdown deeply into themselves to
discover what is it that I'mlooking for.

(05:25):
So when I'm working with aclient, the best response that I
get that makes me feel like I'mreally on the right track is
when I ask them a question andtheir response is I never
thought about it like that, andso that's part of what I do is

(05:45):
getting that spark there.
So you start thinking aboutthings that you don't normally
think about or that you haven'tever thought about before.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, and whenever you're kind of confronting the
difference between where you arenow and where you want to be,
sometimes looking at that spaceand the progress that needs to
happen to get there is a bituncomfortable right.
Like having a mentor throughthat process can be so

(06:18):
comforting for people, I'm sureso.
Have you ever thought aboutpossibly starting a podcast to
help people through thatdiscomfort?

Speaker 3 (06:29):
I actually do have a podcast.
It's called Inflection PointPodcast, and my podcast was
actually birthed out of themurder of George Floyd back in
2020.
So, myself and two otherfriends of mine, we got together
and decided that we wanted toand kind of bringing my whole

(06:50):
coaching approach is that Iwanted to help people to get
into a position or a mindsetwhere they were willing to
examine themselves, and out ofthat work I also created an
anti-racism workshop.
But for the most part, ourpodcast is really centered
around the fact that in thatmoment we were propelled into a

(07:14):
different space, right, and inthat different space we can
either go up or we can go down.
And so I looked at that asbeing.
We're in this inflection pointright now and the question is
what are we going to do aboutthis?
How are we going to moveforward?
And so when I work withindividuals, as an example,

(07:35):
through the anti-racismactivation program, I do it in a
very gentle kind of way.
So I'm not a street tester, butI am an activist.
But I do my activism throughtransformation, personal
transformation at thatindividual level, which flows
into the organizational level,which can then flow into the

(07:59):
community level.
But it can be very challengingwhen people are kind of starting
to look at themselves withinthat kind of context, and it's
about me helping you to behonest about what you see but
also helping you to figure outdo you want to stay in that

(08:20):
space or do you want to moveinto something different, and
when, most of the time, peoplewant to move into something
different.
So that's always verygratifying to me because it's
very sensitive kind of work andbecause I'm presenting it from
that personal, that personalview.
I literally force people totake a look at themselves within

(08:40):
the context of some of thoseparameters, such as racism or
diversity, equity, inclusion.
I force people in a very gentleway to kind of take a look at
themselves and what is residinginside of me.
What do I want to change andhow do I go about changing it?

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Right, and it's one thing to say you want to change,
but it's another thing to takethe steps to enact that change
Right.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
From a life coaching perspective, I think that's what

(09:28):
kind of makes a little bit of adifference.
So I'm already in tune to thisperson, maybe going into some
spaces that they're notcomfortable with, or even spaces
they've never really been inbefore, and so that life
coaching aspect is a very strongpart of my approach to
anti-racism activation.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Absolutely.
I love that.
Now, outside of work, Anita,what do you do for fun?

Speaker 3 (09:56):
I have a lovely family.
I have a wonderful husband whois a landscaper, and I often
will go out sometimes on thetruck, as we say to help him.
I don't do it often, but I likedoing that, and he does a lot
to support me and my business aswell.
I love my family.
I spend a lot of time with myfamily.

(10:18):
I have two daughters and twograndsons One is almost 18 and
the other one is five and so Ispend a lot of time with them.
I do a lot of work in mycommunity.
I'm very much connected to theUjamaa Collective, and so that
whole community engagement is soenergizing for me.

(10:40):
So those are some of the kindof things that I kind of like to
do.
I love the theater.
I love, just like I said, justhanging out with family and
being around people and havingthat good energy around me.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Oh very nice.
Yeah, and I'm sure it'sgrounding also, sometimes to
help your husband with thelandscaping and just getting
outside too, it's very nice.
So, anita, what is one thingthat should stick with our
listeners about the place tosoar?

Speaker 3 (11:13):
The place to soar is exactly that.
It's a place where you walk inand you receive what it is you
need for your journey.
You need for your journey.

(11:39):
It's very customized.
Whatever it is you're facing,that's what I will help you to
walk through so that you canultimately cross that bridge
from where you are to where youtruly desire to be.
And I do that individually, Ido that from a community basis,
but I feel like that is what Iwas put on this planet to do.
I'm a very faith-based woman.
I believe in God.
God is my guide for everything,and so I use all that spiritual
energy.
I bring all of that into thework that I do with individuals,

(12:03):
because my goal is for them toget to the place where they feel
incredible about themselves.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Well, thank you for being a change agent for good in
our community.
We really need more people fortheir own self-development, so
thank you for that.
How can our listeners learnmore about the Place to Soar?

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Well, my website definitely the place to go is
theplacetosorecom.
You can find out a lot ofinformation about what it is I
do.
I have workshops that I offer,sort of self-driven learning
options that I have there aswell.
I also have the podcastInflection Point podcast, which

(12:52):
is on Transformation Talk Radio.
I'm very, very connected onLinkedIn.
I love that platform.
I do some Facebook, but mostlyLinkedIn.
If you want to really connectwith me, that's the place to go.
Those are there on Instagramand it's usually either the
place to soar or Anita D Russell.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
If you put those two things in, you will definitely
find information about who I amExcellent.
Well, Anita, we reallyappreciate your time today and
having you as a guest on theshow.
We wish you and theorganization the best moving
forward.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
It is my pleasure.
I thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Thanks for being here , Thank you for listening to the
Good Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnppittsburghcom.
That's GNPPittsburghcom, orcall 412-561-9956.