I’m Achim Nowak. I help CEOs and C-Suite executives in global enterprises to show up with relaxed authority and amplify their personal impact.
My 3 books pinpoint the nuances of authentic success behavior: Power Speaking: The Art of the Exceptional Public Speaker (also published in German and Chinese), Infectious: Unleash the Energetic Leader Within and The Moment: A Practical Guide to Creating a Mindful Life in a Distracted World.
My most recent book, THE DIFFERENCE: Essays on Loss, Courage and Personal Transformation, is an anthology that features transformational life stories from 10 successful humans who have inspired millions of followers around the world.
On the MY FOURTH ACT Podcast, currently in its 4th season, I speak with brilliant humans who have created bold and unexpected lives. My guests have included luminaries like Tom Asacker, Jay Samit, Suzanne Evans, Chip Conley, Marta Sanders Cooper, Simon Bailey, Raj Raghunathan, among others.
Before I launched my current firm, I founded a successful international training and coaching firm, Influens. I bring an eclectic background to what I do. I was trained as a Mediator at the Brooklyn Courts, co-founded an acclaimed theatre company in Washington DC, and draw on decades of esoteric spiritual exploration.
When I was 35 I left Manhattan to live on the island of Tobago and become a windsurfer. I was a good one.
I hold a M.A. in Organizational Psychology and International Relations from New York University where I also served on the faculty for over a decade. My writing received a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. I am a 2024 MacDowell Fellow, a 2024 Ucross Fellow, and my work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, USA Today, and on NPR and NBC.
I reside in Setubal/Portugal.
I’m a citizen of the world who grew up in foreign countries. This had an indelible imprint on my psyche. My childhood years were spent in Germany, Portugal, and Turkey. English is the third language I learned, after German and Portuguese. When I arrived in the United States at the age of 16, I had fully internalized what it meant to be a foreigner and not always fit in.
My deepest personal journey has been the road from feeling like an outsider to becoming the one who belongs. I want to say fits in but that’s not actually what I mean. No, belongs and is wholly comfortable in his own skin.
While your story is undoubtedly different from mine, the journey you and I embark on in our coaching work is not that dissimilar from my personal quest. We will explore mindset shifts and micro-behaviors. At the deepest level, however, coaching is invariably about becoming more comfortable in our own skin. Showing up as the most luminous version of ourselves. Connecting more richly with others. And doing so with fully embodied skills.
