From Mechanics to Mindset Coach: A Journey of Transformation
Haim, a midlife transformation and business coach, is living proof that reinvention is always possible. After immigrating to the U.S. with limited English and working four decades as an auto mechanic, he rebuilt his life at 50—rising from homelessness to hope. Now, he helps others find purpose, possibility, and the power to change. His journey is a testament to grit, self-belief, and the courage to start over.
🌟 *Welcome to the Age of Reinvention Podcast* 🌟 Hosted by Emily Bron, this episode tells the extraordinary story of **Haim Ohayon**, a man who transformed his life after 40 years as an auto mechanic. Facing challenges, integrity dilemmas, and personal crossroads, Haim reinvented himself in midlife by embracing his new role as a personal and business coach. Learn how universal principles like imagination, belief, and habit reshaped his path—and the lives of those he’s guided ever since. 👉 Discover how you can redefine your purpose at any age! 🎧 *Tune in now* for inspirational insights and actionable steps toward personal reinvention.
TIMESTAMPS:
02:01 Haim’s Journey: From Mechanic to Coach
03:44 Facing Ethical Dilemmas and Career Shifts
06:20 Discovering a New Path: The Holistic Approach
06:49 The Birth of a Coaching Career
10:33 Building Confidence and Achieving Dreams
13:27 Principles of Success and Reinvention
18:55 Overcoming Fear and Embracing Faith
22:37 The Power of Support and Non-Judgment
23:29 Unique Coaching Philosophy and Client Relationships
Listen to part II of the podcast episode here:
Watch Part II of the interview here:
Emily Bron: Welcome to the Age of Reinvention podcast, where we explore how to redefine freedom, lifestyle, and purpose at midlife. I am your host, Emily Braun, and today we have inspiring guests. who embodies the spirit of reinvention. Chaim Ohayon emigrated to the U. S. at 40 plus years old without proper English, and spent 40 years as an auto mechanic before he completely transformed his life to become a personal and business coach at 50 plus for the past 11 years.
Hi, I’m been helping others meet their life goals and embrace the change from being homeless in Israel to starting a new life chapter in New York City alone. And wrenching to wisdom, Haim’s journey is a testament to the power of reinvention at any age. Get ready for the enlightening conversation about ethics, transformation, and finding fulfillment in your second life.
Let’s welcome Chaim Ohayon. Hello, Chaim. I’m happy to speak with you at the Age of Reinvention podcast.
Ahim Ohayon: Hello, Emily. Thank you for having me on your show. I’m enthusiastic a little bit to be on your show and I’m ready to go.
Emily Bron: Okay, let’s go. And. I have plenty of questions to you, and let’s start a little bit from your biographical details.
Chaim, you spent 40 years as an auto mechanic before becoming a coach. What was your turning point when you realized that your vocation actually to be a coach?
Ahim Ohayon: In 2008, there was a recession here in the state. Now, I used to work in a gas station and before the recession, we used to make about 100, 000 a month, which is a lot of money back then.
When the recession came, there was, the jobs started to slow down. So the profit was, came down to about 60, 70, 000 a month. And the manager start to put pressure on us, the employee to make the number up. Which is mean, sometime it’s illegal, sometime it’s immoral. Which is mean, you bring your car to the shop.
We need to find something wrong. And if we don’t find something wrong, We need to make something wrong. So I just said to the manager, look I’m not a kid. I’m already 50 and I’m not young. I never did that in my life and I definitely not going to do it now. It’s not me. And he say you’re going to have more money in your pocket.
I say, you don’t do me any favor over there because you don’t teach me how money work. You just give me more money to spend. That’s what you do. Now you’re going to give me the money when you make it. So if you don’t make it, I just don’t get anything. And then I sell myself for something I’m not comfortable.
No, I’m not going to do it. So he show me the door and say, out. I don’t want you here. I said, I will go out. So I step out. I took my tool and I start to search for other place to work as a mechanic. Cause that’s what I know. I become overqualified. Nobody want to take me. Nobody want to touch me because they need to pay me because of my skill, my knowledge, my tool, my experience.
Yeah. So this is either they didn’t have the job. Or they say, look, in your price, I can take two people. Why to take you? You already have your way that you work. I get nothing to train you. All your experience. I realize. When one door close, the other one open and what’s happened to me, that’s happened to me and many people like me, we still staring in the door that close.
We don’t see the one that’s open, but I didn’t stay there for a long time. After a while I, I stop and I say, wait a minute, I’m not so crazy about this profession and now nobody wants to hire me. So let me see if there is something else for me in this world. So I went holistic way and I start to to say, Who am I, what I’m doing here on a face on the earth?
What is my purpose in life? And I find two things. I find that I love people and I love to help people. Okay, I don’t know what to do with that. I know that, but I don’t know what to do with that. As I was searching. I stumbled on coaching. I don’t know, it came up, coaching. I said, let me see, what is that? I don’t know.
Let me see. I took a course. Yeah, they said to stay two years. To stay one year, I stayed two years. I didn’t graduate. Because I have disagreement with the school. They say, if you want to graduate, you need to bring person with problem. Fix it and move on. I say, wait a minute. That’s therapy. I don’t want to be therapist.
I have different way to work with people. Different ideal. They say, okay, what is your ideal? I say, I want to take something good and make it great. That’s more fun for me. That’s the way I want to work. They say, we don’t teach that. I say, okay, that’s what I want to do. They say, you’re on your own. You can do whatever you want.
There’s no regulation on coaching.
Emily Bron: But you could have find different school, different method.
Ahim Ohayon: It doesn’t matter to me. I’m still don’t have a diploma for that and I don’t care. So I went out and I start to work as a coach and he worked for me from the first day.
Emily Bron: So people didn’t ask you about diploma.
Until
Ahim Ohayon: today, nobody ask. Nobody ask about diploma, nobody. There is no regulation on that. There is no any government say about that. No, no government, but people, customers. People look for the result. People look for resume. People look for past job that you did. Now, is the way you present yourself, that say a lot about if the person like you and will working to work with you or not?
Emily Bron: But at the beginning, usually it’s very hard. When you start a new direction and you don’t have yet recommendation or experience that you can Rely on people asking about diploma or references. Yes,
Ahim Ohayon: I understand. So what I did right in the beginning I used to have friend of mine. She died Two years three years from the corner, but when we start What she was receptionist for event, so she was sitting in the front, she collecting money and data from every person that come to the event.
So we become friendly and then one day I will ask her, do you like what you do? She say, I love what I do, I wish I could do it for myself. I say, you know what, that’s exactly the person I’m looking for. I want to check if what the way I want to work with people have some value, it’s working. So I’m looking for guinea pig, that’s what we call guinea pig.
And it’s gonna cost you nothing. I just want to test my program on you.
Emily Bron: Case study, you say? Case study, not guinea pig. Case study.
Ahim Ohayon: Case study, yes. So we start to work together. So in all, in matter of three years, she become the president of the chambers in that town. She was create monthly event with ten vendor, which is mean people that came, they bring the table, they bring the merchandise.
They put on a table and for me and to sell it to people plus a guest speaker for every meeting in three years. I say what I’m doing, it’s working.
Emily Bron: So how did you achieve it? So actually for three years, you’ve had only her. It was the only
Ahim Ohayon: what I was fine, what I was looking and until look, and this is the way I’m, I see, think, I see, that’s what you want to do.
Yeah. What’s involved. What’s in there. I give you recent thing that happened yesterday. Yeah. And today I call myself as a dream maker. Share me your, share your dream with me and together we’ll make it happen. So I was talking to some guy yesterday. And before you know it, we start to talk about Frisbee.
There is Frisbee, there is a tournament that goes on Frisbee. And he say, he love that, and he play that, and I ask him, do you have income from that? He said, no, I wish I knew how to make it. I said it’s very simple what you have to do to make that happen. I know it’s gonna be huge, but there is a business model.
That’s a fit very well to what you want to do. Take basketball, take soccer, take football. There is a business model. Which is mean there is team for every town, or two team in town, doesn’t matter. You create tournament, but team play against other team, and you make trophy in the end. It can be championship, it can be, that’s the business model.
Now let’s see what’s in there, in that model. You need to arrange judges, you need to arrange places, you need to arrange TV. Now when you make it, that. That magnitude. Yeah. Now you’re going to have sponsor because they want to put the logo on the shirt of the team. First, they’re going to build arena.
They want the name on their arena. That’s the, that’s this world. All of a sudden the guy said, it’s not so complicated, but he’s, he now started to see himself is doing that.
Emily Bron: But where did you learn it? Because, different type of business, different business models and different ideas behind it. How did you learn it?
It’s not,
Ahim Ohayon: It’s something, that’s something that I have in me. I tell you another story. It’s again, I, she called me today. She want to meet me again. She’s a single mother. She used to sell insurance for a living. And we communicate like that. We talk, and she said to me, I don’t know what is that about you, but I believe with you.
I can be and do what I want to do. I don’t know how much you charge. I don’t know if I can afford you. I say, okay, before we go to money and procedure, I want to know what is that you’re looking for. Maybe I said no to you. I don’t say yes to everyone. And she say, okay, fair enough. I want to be actors in movie.
I say, okay, what are you willing to do to make that happen? She said, whatever you take. That’s intrigued me. I say, you know what? Leave the money aside now. I never had something like that. Leave the money aside. Let’s start to work. When you have income from the movie, we’ll talk how you compensate me. In the second month that we work together, she start to go to audition.
In the fourth month, she got picked up in audition. Last year, she called me, she said, I finished my first movie.
Emily Bron: So do I understand that you just instill confidence in people? You just provide them assurance in whatever they’re doing will gonna work?
Ahim Ohayon: There is principle in life, Emily, there is principle.
The principle said everything in the universe created twice. The first time in a person mind, the second time in a physical reality. Look around you in your room, all what all what you have. If we go back in time, it was not exist. Someone has to think about that and build it. The principle never change.
The application is different from person to person.
So I, I got to look at that’s what you would love to do. I don’t need to tell you what to do. I don’t need to give you advice. I don’t need even to help you. I need to assist you, and I need to support you.
Emily Bron: But sometimes people have unrealistic dreams, something which impossible to achieve, maybe in this lifetime, or too complicated.
Ahim Ohayon: I find out, it’s very rarely that something like that happen. Because the way people educated, the way people thinking, they thinking about what exists. They’re not thinking about what’s not exist. Now I work with those people also. I work in with guy. It was for short time in inventor. He invent machine.
Yeah. You take shower from the heat of the water that you take shower. Six other people can take shower. Just the heat of the water. It’s invented. He invented that machine. So he invited me to his house to see the prototype. I signed the NDA, the non disclosure agreement, that I’m not going to talk about that, and he showed me the product.
And I said that’s great. You know what you can do with that? It’s fortune. Because if you just sell it to one hotel, you need 600 units. Five, six hundred units, that’s hotel. So if you take few hotel, you set for life. Now imagine that. Every new hotel that’s came into the the world gonna use your product.
So I said let’s see what we can do here. You just invent the product. Yeah. You need to build it. You need to mass build it. And you need marketing to put it in the market. So I bring friend of mine guy. He have 50, 000 square feet in India. Yeah. And now India is a cheap labor. So I say, we build all the product in India.
We ship it into state. We assemble that in state, which is meant to avoid taxes. And now we, in the state, we sell it. Here is the guy that do marketing. It will do the whole job, which has been everything come to the place. I say that’s, he was. enthusiastic about that. He have a nephew that he was to market that the nephew want to market the product.
He disagree with what we do. And he said, look, for all your work, I will give you 5%. I say 5%, what you kidding? All the work that I do for 5%, and that’s only, it’s me, it’s the Indian guy, and the marketing guy? No, we’re not gonna, we’re not gonna be partner, I understand that. But don’t make fun of that.
Don’t give us 5%, what, we’re not kid here. So I just drop it. And that’s what happens with people that invent something that doesn’t exist. It’s their baby. They don’t let it go.
Emily Bron: No. If he invented it, it already existed for me. I was thinking about some other cases. I don’t know. People want to fly to Mars.
Ahim Ohayon: Yeah, so that’s what I meant by that. Usually people think about something that exists. But they want to know how is that going to work for them. Yeah, so in, in that case I’m a rare guy that the way I’m working with people. I don’t have programmed again for three months, six months, one year, two years program.
My programs go for one month. In one month, I will ask you to do one thing. Yeah, if you do the one thing, you will do everything else. If you’re not going to do the one thing, you’re not going to do nothing else.
Emily Bron: For example, what you’re asking are you meeting once a week person?
Ahim Ohayon: I will ask you to do one thing, which is mean, I want you to replace your self image for the person that you want to become.
If you’re going to do it, you will do everything else. If you’re not going to do it, you’re not going to do nothing else. So that’s give me indication who I’m gonna work with. Only people that willing to do what they said they’re gonna do.
Emily Bron: Sometimes people they want something, but they don’t have clear vision how it should be.
And just to see myself in this image, I need. To know, more.
Ahim Ohayon: I build a vision. I build a vision for people to to see it. Because people see in the people use visual, visualize all the time. But what they visualize is the wrong thing. Which is mean, you hear that many time, be careful what you wish for, you may get it.
When person say it, all the time means something wrong. Something bad. They not, they never ever referring to something good. So now when they say it, now they see it and wait for that to happen just to tell everybody I knew that I told you. Now take it to the other side. Think about something good that will happen and then go ahead and do it.
And then say, I believe in that. I make it. I did it. You see the difference?
Emily Bron: It’s a different. And I’m just wondering at what age did it happen to you? When you start actually practicing as a coach. After 50. And looking back at your journey since even you mentioned once becoming homeless and later immigrating to the U S.
When you’ve been already 40 plus what is the most valuable lesson you have learned about reinvention and personal growth that you’d like to share with our listeners?
Ahim Ohayon: When I came in 1996 to state, I was over 40, I was homeless and I didn’t speak English. So I was afraid to leave the house where I’m staying.
I say, if I get lost, I don’t know how to come back. And I don’t know how to, and I don’t have any way to communicate with people. I don’t speak English.
Emily Bron: How you made the immigration? I’m just wondering.
Ahim Ohayon: I don’t know how I make it. I don’t even think about that. Now but I figured that very fast. In English alphabet, we have the letter F.
How we use it. Do you live in fear or you have a fate? You need to be on one side. I have a fate in me. I didn’t afraid from anything. I’m still not afraid from nothing. I just have something, I go for it.
I have a beard. Here is story about fate. I have a beard. I never have a beard. I send you even picture without beard. I have another house in Pocono, in Pennsylvania. And we have me and my wife, we have two level. We have the first level and we have the second level. Second level, we have two bedroom and a big loft.
As my wife talking and she say, one thing missing in this house. Yeah. If we have bathroom in the second floor. I was going to be great because in case we have a relative or family or friend that’s coming to stay with us and they need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, they need to go down to the first level.
Now we have a dog, the dog going to start to bark because some stranger in the house, for him a stranger, he’s going to start to bark everybody up. So I say I can build bathroom. She said, you, what do you know? You’re not a builder, you’re not a plumber, you’re not an electrician. How you can do that?
I said I believe I can do it. So we go back and forth. She said, no. I said, yes. Until one day she said, you know what, go ahead, do it. I said to myself, I’m going to start. If it’s not going to work, I all the time can pay someone to finish that. So I took the vanity with the sink. From the first floor, I move it to the side to see where is the plumbing, all the hosing.
I open wall, I open window on the wall to see the plumbing. I drill to the ceiling, it’s a floor for the second floor to take all the plumbing up to the second floor because I need water, I need access. So I didn’t have a sink for two weeks, so I didn’t shave. My wife said, Oh, I like the beard that you have.
Keep it. I said, Okay, I keep it. So now I have a beard
Emily Bron: and I have a bathroom. Great. You could have used YouTube. Maybe it was before YouTube. YouTube?
Ahim Ohayon: I check YouTube only for one thing. What the measure from the toilet seat to the wall. This the only thing I check on YouTube. All the rest, it was in my head.
Emily Bron: Okay, Chaim, but it’s a very valuable story. Coming back to my question. What did you learn about, what you can advise? And share with other people who starting something new being at 40 plus, 50 plus with zero knowledge previous experience.
Ahim Ohayon: I understand. What you ask, what you want, find someone that gonna, that you can trust, that not gonna violate your feeling.
Somebody that give you support on what you want to do without judgment. That’s what people want.
There is two kind of fear that people have that they don’t pay attention to. But they don’t even talk about that. Is nobody want to be bullied. Nobody want to be embarrassed. So when you by yourself, it’s very easy to bully you. And you can be embarrassed just like that. When you have somebody that support you, and believe in you, You will never be bullied, and you’ll never be embarrassed.
Emily Bron: Your approach is unique. You say you don’t tell people what to do, but rather what will work. Can you elaborate a little bit on your philosophy, on this philosophy?
Ahim Ohayon: Yes. We have that phrase that said, You can take the horse to the water, but you can make him drink. That’s not my job. My job is to show and tell to the horse where is the water.
When he feel thirsty, he gonna go and drink. And he will remember who show him the way. Which is mean my job is to make the horse thirsty. So if I make you thirsty, now you search for the water. I don’t need to take you to the water.
Emily Bron: But you need direct support, somehow provide assistance, as you mentioned?
Ahim Ohayon: That’s come after. That’s come after that. That’s the how. How to do what you want to do is come second. First, you want to know what you want to do. When you know what you want to do, now you figure out how to make that. And that’s what people mix between them. They want to figure out how to do things.
That’s come second, that’s not come first. First decide what you want to do. And then it’s easy to find how to do it.
Emily Bron: How do you know what will work in general for this person, this other person?
Ahim Ohayon: Everything. Here is another universal principle. He said, they said like that, if you want to have something that you never had before, you need to do something that you never did before.
Now, here is the magic. There is a lot of magic in there. When you do something that you never did before, you will never fail. It’s impossible to make mistake and nothing will go wrong.
Emily Bron: So why some people are failing? Why some people are failing if so?
Ahim Ohayon: They don’t want to be bullied. They don’t want to be embarrassed.
Emily Bron: So they don’t have enough strength to go till there.
Ahim Ohayon: Yes. There is another thing and I say people don’t know how to make decision and I will take it in a bigger scale. Nobody in the world make the right decision. Nobody. What people do, they make their decision right. When you decide to do something, it starts with ideal.
Now, the ideal, you don’t have it yet. You make decision to go for it, right? You make it happen. Now, when you share it with someone else, see what you got. Either you got somebody that partner, he enjoy that, he take it, and he run with that, and you left with nothing. Or you’ve, you meet a negative Nelly.
That people gonna talk you out of that. Why do you need to listen to those people? I don’t know. It’s your ideal. Go ahead and see how is that good for you. How is that working for yourself? What kind of results you get? What kind of experience that’s going to give you?
Emily Bron: Sometimes people looking for partner who has different skills because the project might be so big that, you need different skills and you need.
Ahim Ohayon: You don’t need partner. You need support, not partner. You need support. You need assistance, not partner. Partner is a different story.
Emily Bron: Okay you’ve worked with various professionals, as far as I learned about you, starting from lawyers to entrepreneurs, and I have a couple of questions at this point.
What is your explanation, and maybe they shared with you, why are these professionals were coming to you? But we’re not working with, professional licensed psychologists and other professionals because lawyers and entrepreneurs, they usually like, people with certain diplomas or, titles.
Ahim Ohayon: It’s the way I deliver the message, which is mean I’m not a regular coach. They give you a program that for run for three months, six months, one year, two years program, they develop their program that believe it’s work. And they, Charge you a front big chunk of money and you pay them now if the program working for you great if the program not working for you now you start to fight either to get money back which is mean there’s not an option and now you’re stuck you pay money and you don’t get anything so i don’t have that i don’t provide that i give you one month you pay for one month if in one month we have good relationship and you get result i will work with you if you don’t get result i quit I’m not going to wait for you.
Emily Bron: How often do you meet your client? Like once a week?
Ahim Ohayon: There is client that I meet once a week. There’s client I meet once a month. It depends on their budget, which has been, I make it easy for people that I work with. I charge you for one month. If we work in every week, I charge you for one month fee. When we go to the second month, the fee dropped 50%.
I want you to succeed. I don’t want you to the money going to be better than on you. So I lower the price. Now there is no contract. You can quit anytime you want and I can quit anytime I want. If you don’t like what I do, if you don’t like what I say, you’re not going to pay me. So why I need to stay with you?
I don’t want to have this kind of relationship that based on money. I want to have a relationship that based on result.
Emily Bron: Sometimes you cannot see results in a month or two. It really needs to take some time.
Ahim Ohayon: The result that starts, it’s in your mind, the way you think it. The way you go to sleep at night.
Now you’re thinking about the next day, what you can do the next day. Which means what kind of result you create to yourself. There is things that take time, I agree with you. But in your mind, the shift is right away. That’s the reason I say, if you’re going to replace your self image, You have one month to do it and I will assist you.
I will support you to think that way, which has been, I will ask you, take the image that you have in your head, put it down on paper. When you put it down on paper, now you have contract between you and the universe, you and God, whatever you want to call it. I want you to reread it multiple times a day. It take you about two, three minutes to read it.
How many two, three minutes in the day we have empty to do nothing. Plenty. So every two, three minutes that you have nothing to do, just take it from your pocket. Read it slowly. Slowly you start to see yourself doing that. You become that person. If you don’t see it, we have no ground to walk. Because you’re not going to do nothing.
Emily Bron: Okay, coming back to professionals like lawyers, who spend a lot of time learning and actually practicing. Entrepreneurs of a different kind. Maybe some other regulated professions, as they say. What common challenges do you see in this various professional fields regarding personal and professional growth?
I’m still trying to find why people coming to you and yeah. I understand. People
Ahim Ohayon: have habit.
We are habitual people, even the way we thinking is habitual. So we, which is me, we think the same thing again and again. When you start to replace the way you think, you start to challenge your belief. When you challenge your belief, everything is open up. What’s holding people many cases is habit and belief.
When you believe that this is the way it’s work, you’re the only person can change it. Nobody else can change it. But I can work with you how to replace that because you don’t change habit, you don’t change belief, you replace that every habit when you look close into, it’s built from time and activity.
So you replace the activity. Now you replace the habit. You replace the habit. Now your belief. Wait a minute. I couldn’t know. I couldn’t believe I could. I give you example. Let’s say you go to the gym every day from 7 to 8 in the morning. That’s it. It’s your every day. You go to the gym. It’s become habitual.
You wake up in the morning. You do what you do. You go to the gym. Now something came up and you need the time in the morning to do some different activity. So now you move the gym to the afternoon or the evening. You replace activity. You didn’t touch the time. The time stayed the same. Now you said to yourself, I couldn’t believe I can do that.
I couldn’t believe I can switch it from the morning to the evening. Because my belief was in the morning is the best time. Now when I shift it to the afternoon, it’s even better. Because I accomplish much more in the morning. So you see how the belief sit there? So now you replace the belief. Now, believe there is many believe that false belief or superstitious is belief.
If you say, I’m not going to open umbrella in the house because something bad will happen. That’s belief. So when you come to my place and I open umbrella in the house, and now I shock you say, wait, what are you doing? What? You open umbrella in the house? No, don’t do that. Something bad will happen. And I will say, who told you that?
I don’t believe in that. My belief is different. So belief is controversial. Unless I prove you that you can challenge that, you’re not gonna do anything. And that most of the work that I do is communication because we deal with people all the time. Habit
Emily Bron: and
Ahim Ohayon: belief.
Emily Bron: Okay, you mentioned that people want to learn better ways to communicate and build a relationship.
In your experience, what is the most significant obstacle people face in improving their skills? Why it’s so hard sometimes?
Ahim Ohayon: How are we learning? We use our five senses. We see, we hear, we touch, we feel, we bite. That’s the way we’re learning. How many times you take what you learn and you go to the sunset with?
Very rarely, if any. So many things we know face value. Now you meet with someone that is expert on the topic. When you start to talk about that, you look like an idiot, you lose credibility, you lose everything on the spot. Because, what are you talking about? You don’t know what you’re talking about.
There is very simple question to avoid that, that you will never go into that trap. If I ask you, what do you know about? And fill the blank. Now I know what you know, now I know what you don’t know. It’s even better. That’s communication.
So you will never fall into trap that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Emily Bron: You state that 90 percent of your clients achieve their desired results. What do you believe is a key factor in this high success rate?
Ahim Ohayon: It’s a three thing. It’s imagination, belief, and habit. Every person have imagination. How you use your imagination.
Which way you take it today. What that side or to the other side because we people say I don’t have him. Yes, you have. Yes, you do. Yeah, when let’s say you’re sitting here. I will ask you have refrigerator at your home. Yes, I have. Do you know more or less what you have inside? Yes. How do you know you’re sitting here?
You’re not at home. You need to visualize that. So that’s the way the world is working. If you want something, you visualize about that. When you visualize and you concentrate, you’re going to start to see in 3D. So you need to think different than what you think so far. And at the time is your capability of thinking.
And now we go to believe and have it. That’s the three thing that either make you successful or leave you stagnant.
Emily Bron: I am someone who helps. Other to reinvent themselves. Have you experienced significant personal reinvention during your coaching time experience? And how it shaped your coaching approach how your clients affected?
You reinvent your new method.
Ahim Ohayon: I educate myself. I educate myself. I learn. I learn about people all the time. And there is no people that you can say their identity twin. There is every person is different. Every person think differently, do differently. And it’s fascinating. I enjoy that.
There is many people that don’t even pay me. I give them the whole formula. I won’t work. I just put it on the table. Take it. Use it. People not going to do it because they love to hear it. But from one time, it’s not going to make any difference. They need to hear it more and more to hear it more and more.
They hire me. I talk the language that I use. This is language that they never heard before.
Emily Bron: And why? Here I feel that I understand. Maybe because in North America people didn’t use to such direct, approach, speaking. No?
Ahim Ohayon: No, it doesn’t mean anything. Doesn’t mean anything. This morning I was talking to somebody in England.
She’s not American. She’s English. Yeah, it was the same thing.
There is universal language that everybody uses that you’re more comfortable talking and using. When someone interrupts, when someone come with different language, they pay attention. And that’s what the, to build relationship. Yeah. The first thing I said, the first thing that you do is make people feel good.
When you make people feel good, now you start to communicate. But to stick out, you need to be different than the rest of the world. What makes you unique is because there is only one like you, and you need to show up. If people afraid to show up, that’s their challenge. And again, to show up, you need you want to find someone who assists you or support you in what you do, like you’re not going to be bullied and you’re not going to be embarrassed.
Emily Bron: You mentioned that education. Educating, motivating, encouraging, as you say, supporting and inspiring people. Which of these aspects do you find most challenging and why in your coaching?
Ahim Ohayon: All of them. All of them. It’s not it’s very easy to inspire people. Yes. It’s for me because yeah.
And
You ask about me. So it’s not so complicated to, to inspire people to to make to make them think. That’s basically what I do. I make people think, because I talk in language and I use Phrase and I use methodology that they never have before. They never heard that before. They didn’t think about that.
So now they hear it for the first time. It’s appeal to everyone? Yes. Is everyone going to take action on that? No. Why? It’s their issue. I don’t know what, because I’m not a therapist. What I’m looking is about what you can do with yourself on what you have. And how you can go further than that and do it better.
If you’re willing to do it, I’ll work with you. If you’re not willing, stay who you are, stay where you are. You’re comfortable with yourself. I’m not good for every person.
Emily Bron: So having experienced a significant career and life change yourself. What advice do you have for our listeners considering a major life transition in midlife?
Ahim Ohayon: Find, again, as I will repeat that again, find someone that will assist you and support you without judgment. When you have that, Now you have somebody that hold you, hold your back, hold you accountable to go forward in life because you’re capable. Every person is capable to do things. It depends how much you want it.
It’s may sound complicated, but it’s not. I didn’t have anybody to assist me or support me. I did everything on my own. I didn’t have, I couldn’t think about someone that can say, I am supporting you until I got married. When I got married, Yeah, that’s what we said behind every successful person.
There is the significant other. It can be male, it can be female, doesn’t matter. But when you have that, that the support that you need to someone believe in you and trust you. Otherwise you can do what you want to do.
Emily Bron: But I believe, and you mentioned that you are a life learner, that you’re still learning, I don’t know, from books, from some methods, from where’s the source of your continuing, self education?
Ahim Ohayon: I get a lot of emails from all kinds of professions around the world. Yeah, that have something to say. So I listen, I read. If it’s something that makes me feel good, I adapt it. I put it down on paper. I re read. Sometime I read back what I wrote and apply it. When I apply it, I see what the result I get.
And I developed my own program, which is mean the one, the most important thing when we communicate with people is to talk in the same language, which has been, I want to know what language you’re learning. Here is what I find out. I hear person that talk about metaphor, and he say as a human being, we use about six metaphor in a minute.
Every time that we want to describe something, we use metaphor to illustrate that. The metaphor that you using, it come from the way you learning. Because you bring something that’s close to you, that this is the way you understand that. Now, for me to understand how you’re learning, I need to break out the metaphor that you’re using one in four ways.
If you’re visual, if you’re auditory, if you’re emotional, or you’re detail oriented. Because that’s the way you’re talking, that’s the way you’re phrasing. If I don’t listen to the word that you’re using, I use the metaphor that you said. And that tells me how you’re learning. Now I can start to talk in your language.
Now we have understanding. Otherwise, if I don’t see what you hear, we’re not communicating.
Emily Bron: Gernheim, you proved with your own life example. The change and transformation are possible at any stage of life. What do you believe are the key ingredients for successful personal reinvention? What qualities in person?
Ahim Ohayon: There is few. First, again, I will repeat that again. You need someone supporting you. Someone not supporting you. Now, the second thing that you need is you take any decision that you have and make it right. You have decision to go ahead, do it. See what the result you get. Don’t afraid. I give you example from that area.
Let’s say that you at home and you’re dead hungry. You never cook anything in your life. What the simple thing to do. Scramble egg. Take the egg, you break it, you scramble two piece of bread in a toaster. Now you have a meal. Is that meal gonna come the same way that you serve in a diner? No, but you have a meal.
Now, you want it to be like the diner? Do it every day for two weeks. After two weeks you invite all your family, come, I do, you scramble egg, I’m better than the diner. What happen? You get experience. You do something that you didn’t know anything about. You got experience. Now you become so good that you invite other people to come and eat.
Emily Bron: Translating to the personal characteristic, it’s I understand curiosity. Consistency, lack of fear, as you mentioned. I’m just want to specify the qualities because again, people still confused many times, let’s say even they have support, but people cannot like adults all the time with support.
They need to rely on some kind of internal characteristics they have. You can support, For once in a while, it, this transformation or invention based on some internal qualities like a desire to do something curiosity, as example, yeah, or some people, I don’t know, they have ambitions to achieve something, or they don’t have, they want something, but they afraid or don’t know how to start.
Ahim Ohayon: It starts with someone that’s supporting you. When someone’s supporting you, now you replace your belief, you start to trust yourself. So the peop the person that’s supporting you is there, but you don’t use them a lot the way you used them in the beginning. Now you start to trust yourself. When you start to trust yourself, nobody can bully you, you never be embarrassed.
And here is the thing that people use. A lot. They say, I’m stressed. People don’t understand what is stress. There is stress, there is anxious, there is anxiety. Stress is something else. Stress is inside job. Which means people stress out from three different things. How does that make you feel when nobody like you?
Nobody care and nobody appreciate. That stress you out. So we use it in a way that not supporting us. Make us feel bad. But it’s like a switch. Let’s flip it to the other side. Which is mean, if you don’t like yourself, what do you want from me? If you don’t care about what you do, what do you expect? If you don’t appreciate the outcome.
Why are you doing that? Now you eliminate the stress. Now you have when anxiety and anxious, that’s something that you have no control is outside of you. But for that, there is different way to work.
Emily Bron: Hi, when you speak about support do you mean coach, life partner? neighbor vis a vis, but what to do if person is single, lonely for some period of time.
Ahim Ohayon: Let me talk to him.
Emily Bron: Wow. Okay. So you can provide support to any kind of person.
Ahim Ohayon: I, I can make him think differently, at least for an hour, then we meet. And if he like it. Yeah, he may walk with me if you don’t like it, he can walk with someone else, but you can live by yourself. There is phrase that said, If you want to go fast, you go by yourself.
If you want to go far, you go with the other.
Emily Bron: Some people have issued to find this other who will help them to come together to the stage.
Ahim Ohayon: I understand the way they operate, which has been their belief and habit. It’s something that’s not supporting you. So you need to work on your belief and habit on place that will start to support you, which has been, you need to replace that, not to change, to replace.
And I recommend to people don’t change anything in your life. Don’t do that. It’s not good for you. When you talk about changing. When you agree to change anything, you agree, you admit that something’s wrong. Otherwise, why you change it?
Emily Bron: But how transformation might come? How reinvention might come?
Ahim Ohayon: You add.
You, you have one story building, you add another floor, and you have another floor. Now you have three story building. But you didn’t destroy it and start to build it from ground up. You can do it to building, not to human being.
Emily Bron: Sometimes we discover when we’re growing up, maybe the second, next floor, that whatever was serving us before does not work or does not serve us in a good way.
So we need to change it. We need to change it.
Ahim Ohayon: That’s great. That’s great. No, that’s great. Now you learn what doesn’t work. Now you can build, now you can put the ladder on the right building. That’s everything in life is education. You education your limitation and you educate your intention.
Here is another thing that it’s very important to remember. Reduce to zero your expectation about anything in life. When you develop expectation, you take some valuable that you have and you leave it very loose to someone else to fill that up. When you lower your expectation, your intention go high.
When your intention go high, this is something that depend on you. You not depend on anybody else.
Emily Bron: But what about this image that you’re helping people to build? You, me whatever I need to visualize, it’s actually expectation, for me to be this person to achieve. No, intention. It’s
Ahim Ohayon: not expectation, that’s intention.
That’s intention. That’s intention. You have intention to put yourself in a place that you want to be. That’s something that you do. You don’t expect that to happen. You intend to make that happen.
Emily Bron: Okay, so I understand that you really have your way of seeing things and approaching personal development and growth, and that’s why probably you name yourself life and business coach,
Ahim Ohayon: yes?
You can separate. Sometime life interfere with your business and you need to know when to put the line. I work with the lawyer. He got a big chunk of money. He got married and his father in law give him big chunk of money. And he asked me, I got this chunk of money. I don’t know what to do with that.
I can go build a house or I can invest in my business. What do you say? What do you recommend? I said to him, I’m not recommend anything, but I can tell you what you do with money. You can invest in your business. Your business can bring your house. If you invest in your house, not going to give you a business.
Now, how is that work? Now do what you want to do.
Emily Bron: But as you mentioned, sometimes it’s really hard to make decision, especially you might have three, four, five options and each of them coming with, different upside.
Ahim Ohayon: You make the decision, not me. I don’t make decision for you. I tell you what the option that you have.
I will tell you a story. I’ll tell you a story, Emily. I walk with some some middle aged woman. She was real estate. And she was in the area and that the commission that can come in three digit sometime. It’s very high commission. It’s very high. She was dating someone that one day she want to kill him.
The other day she can’t live without him. And she don’t know what to do. And she said to me, I don’t know what to do with that. Okay. Can you assist me here? I say, yes, I can. I say, you have a ring on your finger. What is that ring meant to you? She said, this is my mother. She passed away a few months ago.
And I will said, I will never take this ring for my finger because that’s remind me my mother, whatever I go, my mother with me. Say, okay, the other hand, you have another ring on the finger. What does that ring mean to you? Say, this is my grandmother. And again, she’s my mother, I will never take it off from my hand.
I say, okay, I want you to take the two ring and put on one finger. And then tell me, call me tomorrow and tell me what you did with your boyfriend. She say, what have to do one with each other? What the ring? I have to do my boyfriend, so just do it and call me tomorrow. So she put the two ring in one finger.
It was feel very strange. So she started to ask herself why it feels strange. So she said, because he asked me to think about my boyfriend. And she started to think about her boyfriend. I redirect her mind to think about something. to come to the conclusion and decision over there. She called me the next morning and she said, you don’t know what you did to me, but it was the best decision that I make is to get rid of him.
He was poison to me. I didn’t know how much until I started to pay attention to him. Before that, I didn’t pay attention to him. I put much attention to my work, not to him. When I shift my attention, I realize who I’m living with and I don’t want that in my life. But that’s what you did to me when you put the two ring on one finger, you make me think in a different way.
But did you anticipate this result when you suggested? I didn’t expect anything. It’s not my decision. I don’t have expectation. I have intention. My intention that you’re going to think about what’s in your life that either support you or not supporting you. You need to make the decision, not me. And you’re going to turn to me next and say, because of you that’s happened, and I wish I didn’t listen to you.
No, it’s not my decision. It’s your decision. You live with that person, not me.
Emily Bron: Okay, Chaim. Tell us please where and how people can find more about you, how to work with you, communicate with you.
Ahim Ohayon: I have a, I have present on LinkedIn, I have a phone number and I have a website. I guess that’s going to be on a note in a, yes, I would like to have it on the episode.
Yeah. And will talk to everyone, to anyone. It doesn’t matter. I talk, I love to talk to people. If we’re going to work together, that’s, I don’t promise anything. We communicate. If it does sit well with us, great. If it doesn’t sit well, I, look, when I meet people, I look at two ways. Either I do business with them, or I make friend, so I never lose.
Emily Bron: But can you make a business with friend?
Ahim Ohayon: Oh, yeah.
Emily Bron: Okay, no controversy here.
Ahim Ohayon: Look, it is business that you want to make profit from. I assist you to make profit from what you do. That’s when I walk with someone, we become friends along the way. That’s the way I see it. I become friends with everyone.
Emily Bron: So I feel you’re really enjoying your work.
You get satisfaction. I
Ahim Ohayon: love, I love my work. I enjoy what I do. If I pay or I didn’t get paid, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to me.
Emily Bron: I think it’s a key to your success, to actually to your life at this stage, because you do what you like, you enjoy it, you’re learning every day from any interaction with people, and you help people, and you get satisfaction from it,
Ahim Ohayon: correct?
Yes. There’s one thing, I don’t help people. I just don’t. I will assist, I will support, I don’t help. You need to help yourself.
Emily Bron: Okay, I accept your definitions and thank you very much, Chaim. It was a lot of insights, and I believe our listeners will think about something in their life, maybe differently if they believe that they need to find the support, not help, just support, you can connect with Chaim.
Thank you very much. And today I was speaking. with Chaim Ahayon from New York City. Thank you, Chaim.
Ahim Ohayon: Thank you, Emily. I enjoyed the meeting. I enjoyed the conversation. I appreciate that.
Emily Bron: And there you have it, my listeners. Chaim Ahayon’s journey from auto mechanic to life coach is a powerful reminder that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself. His story of maintaining ethical standards, embracing change, and finding a fulfilling new path after 50 is very inspirational. Remember, as Haim said, change and transformation in your life.
Are possible no matter where you are on your journey. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the Agent of Reinvention podcast on Spotify or another your favorite platform. And leave us a review. Please store on episode notification and auto download so you will never miss out our news stories.
and conversations. Until next time, I’m Emily Braun, encouraging you to explore, grow, and reinvent yourself at any age. Thank you for the listening.
Haim Ohayon
Business & Life Coach
Haim Ohayon is a seasoned Business and Life Coach with a passion for helping people think more clearly, act more effectively, and build stronger relationships. Since founding his coaching practice in 2010 after completing training at the International Coach Academy (ICA), Haim has worked with a wide range of professionals — including lawyers, entrepreneurs, real estate and mortgage brokers, insurance agents, and start-ups.
Known for his practical, no-nonsense approach, Haim doesn’t tell clients what to do — he shows them what works. His coaching style is rooted in curiosity, empathy, and the belief that people learn best when they’re not being pushed, but guided. At the heart of his work is a simple promise: to help people discover better ways to communicate, connect, and grow — in business and in life.
Welcome to another insightful journey into the world of transformation and personal growth. On the Age of Reinvention podcast hosted by Emily Bron, we delve into stories that redefine freedom, lifestyle, and purpose, particularly at midlife. In this episode, we explore the remarkable life of Haim Ohayon, an individual who embodies the spirit of reinvention.
The Journey Begins: From Wrenching to Wisdom
Haim Ohayon’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. After emigrating to the United States at age 40 without speaking proper English, Haim spent 40 years as an auto mechanic. But it wasn’t until he was in his 50s that he discovered a new calling—becoming a personal and business coach. Haim has guided others toward personal fulfillment and achievement for over a decade through sheer determination and an unwavering spirit.
Overcoming Challenges: A Turning Point
Haim’s transformation story began during the 2008 recession. Faced with an unethical work environment clashed with his values, Haim chose integrity over convenience. This decision marked the beginning of his departure from his long-time profession. Despite initial setbacks and being deemed “overqualified,” Haim pivoted, seeking a career aligned with his core values—helping people.
Discovering Purpose: A New Life Path
The transition was not straightforward. Through introspection and a profound desire to find purpose, Haim stumbled upon coaching. Despite disagreements with traditional coaching programs, he carved his own path, focusing on turning potential from good to great. Haim’s approach, which prizes practical action over formal credentials, resonated with his clients, who valued tangible results over diplomas.
Navigating Obstacles: Building Confidence
Haim’s clients found his method refreshing. He simplifies life changes into manageable steps while focusing on results. By cultivating belief and habit, Haim has shown that changing one’s self-image is pivotal to achieving dreams. His philosophy preaches that transformation, at any age, is not only possible but also profoundly empowering.
Universal Principles: The Path to Success
Central to Haim’s philosophy are the universal principles of imagination, belief, and habit. These tenets underscore his clients’ journeys from conceptualizing to realizing their dreams. Haim has helped countless individuals navigate personal and professional growth by challenging existing beliefs and encouraging new habits.
Conclusion: Reinventing Yourself at Any Age
Haim Ohayon’s story is a testament to the possibility of reinvention at any life stage. He emphasizes the importance of having a support system that provides encouragement without judgment, encouraging individuals to make decisions and learn from their experiences. His transformative journey, underscored by ethical integrity and personal growth, inspires others to explore and redefine their paths.
