“It’s Never Too Late for a Transition: Chinazom Nwabueze"

Today I had the privilege of sitting down with Chinazom Nwabueze, a Nigerian-born performance psychologist whose journey from Lagos to London to the US reads like a masterclass in resilience and reinvention. We traced his remarkable path from those brutal boarding school days in eastern Nigeria—where he learned survival skills that would serve him for life—through his economics studies at Leicester, a successful banking career, and his bold pivot into performance psychology at 39. What struck me most was Chinazom's raw honesty about that pivotal moment when he looked in the mirror and refused to let fear of failure trap him in a career that was slowly killing his spirit. His insights on men's mental fitness are profound, particularly his concept of "real talk"—both with ourselves and others—and how most of us reach our forties having mastered spreadsheets but knowing nothing about our own inner workings. 

The conversation kept circling back to self-love under pressure, which Chinazom identified as the deceptively simple answer to the complicated question of high performance. His hiking group of Nigerian men and the transformative power of "banter" reminded me that healing happens in community, not isolation. Sometimes the most radical act isn't positive thinking—it's simply getting curious about what we're actually grateful for when life feels overwhelming.

Bio:

Chinazom (pronounced 'Chee-Nah-Zuhm') Nwabueze is a strategic and innovative C-level coach, consultant, advisor, trainer and facilitator, Chinazom delivers solutions at the intersection of business, people, and coaching strategy. As the founder of Dreamcatchers Performance LLC, he has dedicated his career to integrating high performance with mental fitness to unlock resilience, adaptability, innovation and sustained change. Through deep discovery, Chinazom creates innovative solutions that bridge the gap between business transformation and human capital, driving business outcomes, breakthrough performance, and best-in-class working environments.