The Coaches' Chronicle is a monthly feature spotlighting one coach, one philosophy, and one meaningful conversation.
The Coaches’ Chronicle is a recognition-driven editorial platform devoted to highlighting coaches and leaders who are sharing their work with depth, integrity, and heart.
Each month, we feature one coach and go deep into their philosophy, lived experience, and the work they are here to do in the world. No noise. No filler. Just a conversation worth your full attention.
Matt Evans - Strip Away Everything That Isn't Truly You
A feature interview with Matt Evans — former global supply chain executive, coach, and the man who found a completely different life through the most unlikely of doorways.
The Coaches' Chronicle FEATURE STORY
Interviewed by Jonathan Carroll
Introduction
There are conversations you prepare for and conversations that take you somewhere you didn't expect to go. My sit-down with Matt Evans in Ecuador was the second kind.
Matt spent twenty-five years building and running supply chains across the globe. He was good at it. He was also quietly falling apart. Depression, anxiety, alcohol as anaesthesia, a marriage on the edge of collapse, and a night in a police cell that became the unlikely doorway to a completely different life.
What struck me most was not the severity of what Matt went through. It was the simplicity of what came out the other side. No elaborate framework. No twelve-step brand strategy. Just a man who learned to strip away everything that was not truly him, and who now helps others do the same with an honesty that borders on confrontational.
Matt does not soften his questions to make people comfortable. He does not pretend that more certifications will solve a crisis of identity. And he does not believe the story you have been telling yourself has to be the one you carry forward.
This conversation is for coaches who sense there is something deeper underneath the frameworks they have collected. It is for anyone who has used achievement, substances, or busyness to avoid the question they are most afraid to answer. And it is for every leader who suspects that the gap between who they are in a room and who they are when the door closes is wider than it should be.
I will let Matt's words do the work.
The Catalyst
Jonathan Carroll: You spent twenty-five years in supply chain and operations management before making a radical shift into coaching. Was there a specific moment, or an accumulation of moments, that made what you were doing no longer sustainable?
Matt Evans: It was a sequence of events you would never have seen coming. Coaching was completely unknown to me. The catalyst was a night in a police cell after being very drunk. That moment changed my life.
From there, I started helping other people change their relationship with alcohol. One of those people was a coach. At the time, I knew nothing about coaching. I built things, ran supply chains, managed operations around the world. Coaching was never on my radar.
Then someone said, "Why aren't you doing this? This is what you do." Another friend, Ben Buckley, told me, "You're a coach. Everything you've ever done has been coaching, whether with teams, kids, or people around you."
From there, it just unfolded. I got involved with people like Steve Hardison and others. It wasn't planned. Life handed it to me and said, "Go this way." I followed it, and I loved it.
What People in Crisis Actually Need
Jonathan Carroll: You've been open about depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and alcohol as a coping mechanism. For coaches listening who may have clients in a similar place, what did you need from people around you during that time, and what did you absolutely not need?
Matt Evans: Alcohol was covering up everything. Shame, self-doubt, inadequacy, grief, anxiety, depression.
What I needed was compassion. I needed people around me who said, "It's okay."
What I didn't need was judgment. That sense of "you should know better." That stigma makes everything worse.
Compassion and forgiveness clear the way forward. People do things they're not proud of. But if you hold that against them forever, they stay stuck. When there's compassion, it creates space for change.
Jonathan Carroll: Your marriage was on the verge of ending, and now you describe it as recreated. What does recreating a marriage actually look like in practice?
Matt Evans: It's brilliant, and at times it's still messy.
I'm grateful to Kate every day for standing by me through the worst times. What came out of it was a new phase. Almost like a honeymoon period again.
But growth didn't stop there. I kept asking, "What's possible next?" That created some tension because I was pushing forward while we were still stabilising. That tension led to deeper discovery for both of us.
There's always more to uncover. You can have honest conversations, and there will always be something to work on. But that honesty is what allows things to evolve.
Strip Away Everything That Isn't Truly You
Jonathan Carroll: You're known for being very direct. In a world full of frameworks and strategies, how do you reconcile that with your approach?
Matt Evans: Nothing is off limits for me.
People come to me for a reason. Often they've been trying to live up to expectations that aren't their own. I don't play that game.
I'll say, "Let's get honest. What do you actually want?"
That often leads to uncomfortable silence. But that's where the real work begins. The system most people live in allows avoidance. That's how I ended up where I was.
So my approach is simple. Strip away everything that isn't truly you.
Jonathan Carroll: What's your way in when helping someone rewrite their narrative?
Matt Evans: I go to what they're avoiding or what's causing the most pain.
One of the most powerful questions I use is: "What do you really want?" Then, "What do you really, really want?"
What are you afraid to say out loud?
That's where the truth is. Especially for men, there's often fear around expressing what they actually want. But once they say it and own it, everything shifts.
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What's Missing in Corporate Environments
Jonathan Carroll: You spent years in corporate environments. What's missing there?
Matt Evans: Corporations focus on process, metrics, and results. But they neglect emotional intelligence and honest conversation.
Leaders often think they're more approachable than they are. There's a disconnect between perception and reality.
These human elements are treated as nice-to-haves, when they're actually catalysts for better performance.
Jonathan Carroll: You've helped many people remove coping mechanisms like alcohol. For coaches who don't feel equipped to handle that, where's the line?
Matt Evans: The substance isn't the issue. The thinking behind it is.
People use substances because they're not where they want to be, and the gap feels too big. So they numb it.
If you address the thinking, you address the root. The substance is just the symptom.
Jonathan Carroll: So transformation can happen without needing to merge coaching and therapy?
Matt Evans: Yes. You meet someone where transformation begins.
People will tell you stories about their past, and those matter. But at some point, the question becomes, "So now what?"
Everyone has a story. But the story doesn't have to define who they are moving forward.
Identity, Tools, and Choosing Who You Are
Jonathan Carroll: So it's really about identity.
Matt Evans: Exactly.
Even labels like "alcoholic" can become limiting identities. I disagree with the idea that someone has to carry that label forever.
People get to choose who they are. At any moment.
Jonathan Carroll: You're described as someone who gives tools rather than answers. What does that look like in practice?
Matt Evans: It's about equipping people.
In those moments where things feel like they might fall apart, they have something to come back to.
Identity is key. If someone sees themselves as strong, capable, and able to handle anything, that overrides negative thoughts.
You still feel everything. In fact, you might feel more. But instead of numbing it, you allow it and move through it.
Service, Events, and the Business of Giving
Jonathan Carroll: You created and led a major event in Birmingham, raising nearly £40,000 for charity. What do you wish you knew before doing that?
Matt Evans: Be all in.
It's one of the most challenging and rewarding things you can do. It will test you in ways you didn't expect.
There were moments I was awake at 2 a.m. wondering how everything would come together. At one point, we had to cancel a venue and were threatened with a £150,000 bill.
We rebuilt the entire event in five months. It worked out brilliantly.
The biggest lesson is to have good people around you and trust yourself.
Jonathan Carroll: Service seems to be a through line in everything you do. How do you see the relationship between service and business?
Matt Evans: Service is the business.
You go into coaching to serve. Everything else comes after that.
If I can't serve someone well, I won't work with them. Sometimes the best service is referring them to someone else.
The Inner Work, Certifications, and What Coaches Get Wrong
Jonathan Carroll: What separates someone who has done the inner work from someone packaging pain as a product?
Matt Evans: Timing and awareness.
Everyone has pain. No one is fully healed. But if someone steps into coaching too early, they may project their own issues onto clients.
You have to be able to hold yourself first. Then you can hold others.
Jonathan Carroll: If a coach is stuck collecting more certifications and tools but not getting results, what would you say?
Matt Evans: Stop trying to be someone else.
Learn, yes. But apply it through your own way of being.
Clients come to you because of you. If you're trying to follow a script or process, you lose that.
Let the client lead. Be with them.
Jonathan Carroll: If you could sit across from your past self, not to give advice but just to be with him, what would he see in your eyes?
Matt Evans: He probably wouldn't believe it.
I couldn't see a way out back then. I couldn't imagine things getting better.
He would see disbelief, and a lot of hope.
Jonathan Carroll: I just want to honour you for the work you've done and the way you show up in service. It's powerful. Thank you.
Matt Evans: Thank you, brother. I appreciate it.
Jonathan Carroll: Last question. For new coaches beginning their journey, what's one piece of advice?
Matt Evans: It's not about you.
If someone says no, it's not about you. It doesn't make you inadequate. It just means it's not the right fit.
Go have conversations. Be of service.
None of this is about you.
Closing Reflection
There is a moment in every interview where you stop thinking about the next question and just listen. With Matt, that moment came early and never left.
What stays with me is not the drama of his story, though there is plenty of it. It is the quiet conviction underneath. Matt Evans does not coach from theory. He coaches from scar tissue. And the difference is audible in every sentence.
His message to coaches is disarmingly simple: stop performing, start being. Stop collecting, start serving. Stop avoiding the question you are afraid to answer, and ask it anyway. The people who are meant to find you will find you when you are finally, fully yourself.
That is the kind of truth this profession needs more of. Not louder. Not more polished. Just more honest.
And if there is one line from this conversation I will carry with me, it is this:
"You have to be able to hold yourself first. Then you can hold others."
That is the work. Everything else is noise.
~ Jonathan Carroll, Founder | The Coaches' Chronicle
Watch the full interview with Matt Evans and Jonathan Carroll below (42 min).
Jonathan Carroll, Founder
The Coaches’ Chronicle
Jonathan Carroll is devoted to elevating the art and profession of coaching through depth, mastery, and conscious impact. As the Founder of The Coaches’ Chronicle, he curates conversations that invite reflection, integrity, and a more mature expression of leadership within the coaching industry.
Through his work as a coach, author, facilitator, and strategic partner, Jonathan supports conscious leaders who feel called into greater alignment, coherence, and purpose. His approach emphasizes presence over performance, wisdom over tactics, and the long view of meaningful, sustainable expansion.
Jonathan’s work is rooted in energetic alignment, intuitive leadership, and an ongoing exploration of infinite possibility. He is particularly drawn to the intersection of time honoured mysteries and modern day mastery, where inner development and real-world leadership meet.
He is also the founder of The Dragonfly Club™, a global community and experiential ecosystem offering private alliances and immersive retreats for visionary leaders at pivotal moments of evolution. Across all his work, Jonathan creates space for clarity, refinement, and a more grounded expression of what it means to lead in our modern world. Click on Jonathan's photo to connect with him on LinkedIn.

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