There comes a point on the transformational journey when our attention naturally begins to shift from healing ourselves to serving others. In this episode, Jonathan explores the three stages from seeker to guide—and how to step into service in a way that feels authentic, embodied, and aligned with who you are.
There comes a point on every transformational journey when our attention begins to shift—from healing and understanding ourselves to feeling called to serve others.
In this solo episode of The Deep Coach Podcast, Jonathan Hermida explores three stages of this journey: healing, learning, and serving. He looks at what happens when we get stuck in endless learning, the temptation to compare ourselves to more polished voices, and why stepping into service doesn’t require becoming an influencer or having everything figured out.
Ultimately, the transition from seeker to guide begins with something much simpler: connecting with others, trusting what has been cultivated within you, and finding the places where you feel genuinely called to serve.
Jonathan: Something inevitable happens for every single one of us on a transformational journey. After our awakening, after the crumbling of many aspects of our life that we've come to hold dear, friendships, partnerships, careers, jobs, after our sense of self has been questioned, resisted, cultivated, evolved
After the healing, or even in the midst of the healing, because as we know, healing is never really ever complete, eventually we get to a place where we want to give back, really where we need to give back. There's this newfound energy within us that feels compelled to serve other humans, that feels compelled to make a difference in this world.
this is a really beautiful and pivotal moment in our own transformational journeys. It's the transition from self-focus to other-focus. So I want to take a moment in this episode to talk through the three stages that take us from the seeker to the service provider, from being the student to becoming the guide
first stage is the [00:01:00] healing journey itself. an awakening is often the catalyst that propels us onto this journey. And the reality of this journey, whether we consider it a healing journey, a transformational journey, or a spiritual journey, is that it requires a significant amount of introspection and time within ourselves
there's an immersion that needs to happen where the totality of our attention is called inward so that we can really sift through the rubble, so to speak, our trauma, our pain, our confusion, our yearning, our desire, in order to find that diamond within, our truest sense of self
So I would say that the beginning of any transformational journey is simply a call home from that deeper sense of self within us, calling us to embody it more fully. So yes, this requires all of us and all of our attention, but eventually we get to a place where our sense of self is sufficiently stabilized and the impulse to serve becomes loud enough that we begin turning our attention outward toward others
Here we enter into stage two, learning mode. What typically happens next is that [00:02:00] we look toward the modalities that have served us along the way, yoga, meditation, therapy, coaching, sound healing, body work, fitness, whatever it is
And we begin learning how to become teachers and guides in those modalities. So there's another period of learning that takes place, courses, training, certifications, apprenticeships. This is another beautiful and pivotal moment in our own transformational journeys, where we begin acquiring the skills and the abilities to truly serve others
Our heart is there, our soul is yearning, and now our skillset is catching up. Now, a few things can happen here. Sometimes there are individuals who get to this point who haven't fully processed and integrated their own healing. I'm sure you've run into some of these people on social media. They move into teaching mode, sharing things from a place of knowing, But there's not really a true sense of embodiment there. And what's interesting is that oftentimes some of the loudest voices on social media can be the least integrated or least embodied. They just happen to be really good marketers
Then there are others who never leave student [00:03:00] mode. They jump from modality to modality, from certification to certification, accumulating this wealth of knowledge and training, but never making the leap to truly serving others
What holds them back here is fear of still not being good enough, of not knowing enough, of not being ready. It holds them back from taking the bold leap of offering their gifts to the world. Their hearts are in the right place, but they ultimately don't feel ready to step out.
And finally, there are the ones who are in the full swing of integration, focused on embodiment, alignment, and authenticity, and who begin taking baby steps out in the world
They begin offering their services, sharing their ideas, having conversations, leaning into the journey of making this something viable for themselves. And that brings us to the third stage, serving others. This is the part of the journey that can feel difficult because ultimately our natural inclination and desire to serve is there, but so are all the signals and noises from the outside world
we see others who seem more polished or who have more experience. They're out there making videos, posting every day, building audiences and not only do we [00:04:00] compare ourselves to them, but we also begin questioning whether this is really for us
They seem to be doing well, but their methods may not feel aligned with who we are or how we wanna show up
It's important to slow down here and recognize that running a service-based business, in other words, sharing our gifts with the world, is not about becoming a social media influencer
It's about connecting with others
And connection is actually one of the lowest hanging fruits for everyone on this journey
Because it's what we're already called to do, connect with others. Now, that could mean connecting with people on social media, but it can just as easily mean connecting with them in real life or in smaller, more intimate virtual spaces
connecting means finding the places where you and another person or you and a group of people can bring their full selves into a space in order to uplift, support, inspire, and transform
you can enter into spaces that already exist in order to connect, or you can create and host your own spaces. Meetup groups, for example, workshops, circles, conversations, community gatherings. The important thing is that you start in the spaces that [00:05:00] feel aligned for you and that connect you with the people you feel called to serve
A good exercise here is to think about the spaces you yourself have felt called to throughout your journey, the places you've been able to meet and connect with your tribe, so to speak those are the actual spaces, or at least the types of spaces you can begin with.
so my invitation to those of you who find yourself in this third stage, the stage of service, is to use this episode as your permission slip to begin. Not to have everything figured out, that takes time.
Not to have the perfect website, that's not needed, and not to post every day, also not needed. And certainly not to build some massive audience or become someone you're not. The invitation here is just to begin connecting. find one person you can serve. Find one space where you can contribute.
Create one gathering where people can come together have one conversation you might not otherwise have had. Because ultimately, the journey from secret guide isn't about becoming someone you're not
it's about allowing everything you've lived, everything you've healed, everything you've learned, and everything you've [00:06:00] become to begin moving through you in service of someone else
And there's an important shift that happens when we do this. we discover that service itself becomes part of our transformational journey
The people we serve become our teachers. The spaces we hold reveal the places where we still have room to grow. and the gifts we offer to others deepen within us as we offer them. so the journey doesn't end when we stop being the seeker and become the guide.
We remain both. We continue learning, we continue healing, we continue becoming But at some point, we stop waiting until we feel completely ready and we turn outward
Because maybe the question is not, "Am I ready to serve?" The question is more likely, "Where am I being called to serve now?"
And then we listen, and then we take the next step, and the next step, and the next step until we start building something that is for us ultimately.
Thank you for listening. New episodes on the Deep Coach Podcast drop every two weeks. Normally, I'm interviewing someone who has gone through the three stages I mentioned in this video and are now giving back to the world in some really extraordinary [00:07:00] ways.
Every now and again, I record these solo episodes. So I invite you to subscribe and keep up to date on these conversations. You'll find lots of inspiration and insights for your own transformational journey. Until next time, be well and continue taking those baby steps towards your future.