We are thrilled to spotlight Suzanne Simmons Lewis’ powerful book, Who Am I? Swap Your Straight Jacket for a Bespoke Suit. A thought-provoking exploration of self-discovery, identity, and empowerment, this book has received glowing praise for its authenticity, wisdom, and ability to inspire transformation.
Readers and critics alike have described Who Am I? as:
"Raw and impactful—a guide to rediscovering yourself."
"A deeply insightful and courageous book that challenges you to reclaim your identity."
"A must-read for anyone ready to break through barriers and step into their truth."
Who is Suzanne?
Suzanne Simmons-Lewis (MA, BA Hons) is a qualified executive and personal performance coach with more than two decades' experience in journalism and communications strategy. She delivers a holistic and integrated approach to achieving personal, career and business success through bespoke coaching programmes and consultancy services.
Suzanne works primarily with ambitious, high performing women using her signature 'Core Identity Model' to enable her clients to swap their metaphorical "straight jacket" for a bespoke suit. This helps them to connect with who they really are and create alignment with what they genuinely want. The process is essential as it helps to eliminate stress, burnout and inner conflict, allowing women to gain the insight the confidence they need to reinvent themselves with intent and step into their unique purpose.
Suzanne uses warmth, humour, storytelling, spirituality, intuition and creativity in supporting clients to accomplish sustainable, authentic transformation.
Let’s dive in.
What inspired you to write Who Am I? and why do you feel it’s a conversation that needs to happen now?
I trained as an executive and personal performance coach and started primarily offering career coaching. I didn’t have a particular niche, but I soon discovered how vital a holistic approach was for my clients – to succeed in their careers, they had to succeed in their lives as well.
Then I began to notice a recurring pattern – regardless of the coaching issue - at the very foundation, my clients’ true understanding of who they really were was unclear.
Therefore, their goals and achievements were empty victories. A sense that something was missing. As a result, they were only operating on a fraction of their true potential. A recurring theme was identity and an unhealthy focus on who they thought they “SHOULD be’ to fit in. As a result, they were making poor personal and professional choices that were causing stress, burnout and inner conflict.
Although they were high performing women - my clients were bending themselves out of shape to fit in, rather than find out who they really were at the deepest level and how this would supercharge their progress. They needed tools to break free from the mask of acceptance.
So, I developed a blueprint to firstly define the key aspects of what makes a person unique and then created a model to unlock the core identity, which became the basis of the book. It started with a few case studies to help clients and grew from there. Not everyone can afford coaching sessions and I wanted to reach more women to equip them with this transformative approach.
This conversation is important because your uniqueness is your superpower! Unlocking your core identity is the foundation for women to connect with who they really are, to take off their mask and go after what they truly want. This method is the basis for sustainable and authentic transformation and has enabled numerous women to achieve success and fulfilment in their personal and professional lives.
The book invites readers on a journey of self-discovery. How much of your own personal story influenced this work, and how did you find the courage to share it?
Even as a young girl I always had this inner dialogue posing questions about who I was and what my purpose was. Without the true answers, I built the idea of my identity around what I thought I should be, with five-year plans, my career as a journalist and who I was in relation to others i.e. wife, daughter etc. But I always felt something was missing.
My questions around identity amplified when I had a major life changing event and became a mother. My career was on hold as I’d resigned from my job and no longer had that identity to define me. There were so many changes all at the same time which was the beginning of my own identity crisis. I felt lost and unsatisfied, I knew I could be more and do more, but I felt like something was blocking me, I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Like my clients and readers, I have gone on my own journey of self-discovery and transformation, there is a chapter about my journey in the book. Sharing personal information can feel exposing but I didn’t feel particularly courageous. It’s a freeing experience to share authentically, knowing it will resonate with and help others.
Identity is central to the book—how do you define identity, and what challenges do people face when trying to uncover their true selves?
My blueprint of the core identity has five components all unique to an individual:
Core values
Personality
Strengths and natural talents
Passion and motivation
Guiding beliefs
Although these attributes are innate and part of the DNA of an individual, a number of obstacles get in the way and suppress the development of an individual’s true self. They are: people pleasing, limiting beliefs, skewed values, un-forgiveness, fear of change, rejection, communication filters, insidious influence and unbalanced relationships. When these obstacles are dealt with the true person emerges. The mask comes off!
The reviews describe Who Am I? as ‘raw and impactful.’ How important was it for you to maintain vulnerability while writing, and how do you balance this with empowering your readers?
People connect with authenticity and real personal stories. I view vulnerability as a strength rather than a weakness. I could not ask my clients or readers to open up and become vulnerable without doing the same myself. I consider vulnerability as openness and transparency - what lies behind the mask.
To keep the integrity of the case studies, my clients’ names and identifying details were changed, that way I did not have to sanitise their experience to the point that it became inauthentic. Women are going through some real issues out there and often feel like they are the only ones. It is empowering to learn from the experiences of others; how they overcame challenges in their journey to transformation.
When I run workshops and speak about my personal story and what prompted the book, it creates psychological safety for participants to share authentically and get much more out of the session. A workshop participant recently thanked me for my honesty and openness in sharing my story, which enabled her to lower her own mask can share authentically.
You tackle themes of self-worth, societal expectations, and empowerment. What do you hope readers will take away from this journey.
I would like readers to understand the importance of being unique and follow the guided steps to unlock their core identity and free themselves to be who they really are. The promise of the book is clear and readers who embrace and implement the steps will learn:
Who they REALLY are and why they act the way they do
What truly motivates and inspires them
How to identify and overcome the stumbling blocks that often enslaves them
How to unlock their unique potential while staying true to who they are
Their unique purpose and how to take the required steps to live an authentic, purposeful life.
Your writing clearly resonates deeply with people. Was there any particular reader feedback or testimonial that left a lasting impression on you?
Over the years, I have received numerous feedback from clients on a wide range of issues. However, one testimonial stands out as particularly memorable because it was the very first one I received. This feedback was not only a catalyst for writing my book but also a powerful testament to the transformational impact of my coaching model.
The testimonial highlighted the immersive, eye-opening, and positively challenging experience of working through the core identity model. It spoke to the profound changes clients experienced, both personally and professionally, as they navigated this journey.
This feedback underscored the effectiveness of my approach and reinforced my belief in the power of this strategy to inspire and drive meaningful change.
Receiving such a heartfelt and impactful review early on was incredibly motivating. It validated the work I was doing and inspired me to share my methods with a broader audience through my book. This testimonial remains a reminder of the positive difference my coaching can make in people's lives.
“I learned that the patterns of behaviour that affected my professional life were the exact same patterns that affected my personal life. When I explored and committed to making the best of one, I was given the gift of improving all aspects of my life. I have gone from doing the things that I thought I needed to do, in a very hurried, disengaged and driven way to being the person that I always knew I was and wanted to be but just didn’t think I could or should be.” - Anonymous
I was particularly proud of this book review because it highlights the immersive, eye-opening, and positively challenging experience of working through the core identity model. This feedback encapsulates the essence of my approach and underscores the profound impact it can have on individuals seeking personal and professional growth.
"Captivated by the image in the butterfly I was transfixed with what lay beneath the statement of ‘swap your straight jacket for a bespoke suit’ and immediately I saw the metamorphosis, but how would this impact me? This is a beautiful, honest, brutally courageous and spiritual book.
“Delving in, I was utterly consumed I identified with ‘the straitjacket that did not fit’ at a previous time in my life. This book speaks to the inner you, the areas you have felt, fought, questioned, ignored, feared, silenced, remonstrated, had aspirations but no drive, and commands you to deal!
To listen to yourself and if needs be ‘start again’.
Taking off the mask is incredibly hard to do when it’s the foundation you adorn daily but my word, does ‘Who Am I?’ metaphorically pull you- ‘kicking and screaming’. It demonstrates how to work on yourself and those values and refuse to accept less; with excellent worksheets and exercises which are almost immediately insatiable. Indeed no one dare walk their dirty feet in one’s mind after employing the tools equipping one for change! Must read book of the year and share on.” - Book exert
What was the most challenging part of writing Who Am I?, and how did you navigate that process as an author?
As a journalist the discipline of planning and writing was already there, but the process still had its challenges. The first challenge was self-belief, being able to think of myself as an author even before I embarked on the project. This was crucial to setting the vision and taking myself seriously to stay the course of the project.
The book took me a number of years to complete and during that time there were some life changing events like the death of my beloved father to navigate. I am passionate about helping women to swap their straight jacket for a bespoke suit and this motivation has propelled me. This book is within my purpose and I have been divinely inspired and equipped to do this work.
Many readers struggle with the fear of change. How does Who Am I? encourage people to confront that fear and embrace their transformation?
Change is linked to uncertainty and fuels fear. But change is where growth occurs.
We are comfortable with what we know and what is familiar, whether it is actually helping us or not. But growth doesn’t happen in the comfort zone. FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. We fear the unknown simply because it is the unknown and we perceive in our mind various scenarios fuelled by the things we seek to avoid that cause us discomfort. The human brain values certainty and predictability. The brain can overvalue the present and undervalue the future. The fear of change is such an important issue, that two chapters in my book are dedicated to navigating change.
Wholesale change can be overwhelming, so the book is designed to take the reader through incremental manageable steps, all while shifting the paradigms and barriers that hold one back from true freedom.
“If you are not in the process of growing into the person you were created to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don’t want to be.” Dale Carnegie’s quote illustrates the point, change is inevitable and even by virtue of doing nothing you are still moving, but not in the direction you’d prefer.
If readers could take one actionable step after finishing 'Who Am I?', what would you suggest as a starting point for self-discovery?
The book is written for readers to take incremental steps throughout. Each chapter has reflective and personal development exercises for readers to complete and integrate into their daily life as they move along. For real transformation new knowledge and insights must be followed by action.
I encourage readers to share their insights with receptive loved ones and close friends, this helps to embed learning and triggers thought provoking conversations. Keeping a journal to record your thoughts, feelings and learning is a powerful reflective practice which overtime enables you to gain clarity and understanding. It will also be tangible evidence of your personal growth.
For those who are hesitant to pick up a book about self-reflection, what would you say to encourage them to take that leap?
“The greatest discovery is self-discovery. Until you find yourself, you will always be someone else. Become yourself.” Myles Munroe
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Who Am I? Swap Your Straight Jacket for a Bespoke Suit is an immersive read packed with inspiring stories, thought provoking case studies, practical exercises and in-depth refection for a challenging but enjoyable read.
Join the Conversation: After reading Who Am I?, reflect on your journey of self-discovery.
What key message stood out to you? Share your thoughts and questions with us!
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To connect with Suzanne:
Facebook: Suzanne Simmons-Lewis Consultancy
Twitter: https://x.com/SimmonsLewis
To purchase:
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