Guest Bio
Terez Rijkenberg is an executive coach to C-suite leaders at organizations around the world. Before she turned 30, she had already served as a chief people officer, led customer experience, and run teams of more than 80 people. Her coaching runs on two signature tools: the RAFT formula and the Radical Adaptability framework, giving leaders practical models they can put to work in their next board meeting, their next tough conversation, or their next leap into the unknown.
She is also director at Tuitive AI, where she built AI Amplified Exec, a system that gives senior executives a simple, safe way to use AI that drives real return on their personal productivity. She helps leaders build workflows around their actual role and the decisions they actually make, handling the prep, the analysis, and the first drafts, the work that never needed a human brain, and handing leaders back 10-plus hours a week.
Her belief is simple: AI strategy has to be led from the top, and leaders have to use AI themselves to understand it and leverage it as a competitive advantage.
Questions Yanique Asked
- In your own words, how did you get from where you were to where you are today?
- What does RAFT stand for, and can you give us some real-life examples of it in action?
- Can you break down the Radical Adaptability framework for us?
- Can you share an example where you put RAFT and Radical Adaptability into practice and the person was able to manifest change?
- What does a leader’s week look like before and after you work with them using your AI tool?
- What’s the one online resource, tool, or application you absolutely can’t live without in your business?
- Are there one or two books that have had a profound impact on you personally or professionally?
- What’s one thing going on in your life right now that you’re really excited about?
- Where’s the best place for listeners to find you online?
- Do you have a quote or saying you revert to during times of adversity or challenge?
Episode Highlights
From the Corporate Ladder to Executive Coaching
Yanique: In your own words, how did you get from where you were to where you are today?
Terez was climbing the corporate ladder, leading large teams and being groomed for a CEO role, when she hit a crossroads. Feeling out of alignment with the culture and sensing she needed a fundamental change, she left to start her own business, began an MBA, and became pregnant, all around the same time.
After her son was born she went through postpartum depression and a profound identity shift, moving from a high-powered, driven professional to a mother holding many roles at once. A coach helped her through that transition, and the experience convinced her to help others the same way. Today she coaches leaders not on one narrow angle but on building the whole life they want, because, as she puts it, it’s all connected.
The RAFT Formula: Results, Actions, Feelings, Thoughts
Yanique: What does RAFT stand for, and can you give us some real-life examples of it in action?
Terez favors frameworks and mental models because they’re easy to remember and quick to bring to mind. RAFT is rooted in cognitive behavioral psychology:
- R – Results: the outcomes you’re getting, which are produced by your actions.
- A – Actions: what you do, which is driven by how you feel.
- F – Feelings: your emotional state, which is driven by what you think.
- T – Thoughts: what you believe about the situation, yourself, and others.
To change a result, work backwards through the chain. The same words spoken from motivation land very differently than the same words spoken from frustration. The power of RAFT is that it focuses you on the only three things you can actually control, your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions, not other people or circumstances.
Radical Adaptability: How Change Actually Happens
Yanique: Can you break down the Radical Adaptability framework for us?
Radical Adaptability explains why we get stuck when we try to change, whether we’re changing ourselves or coaching others. It has five steps, three mindset and two action:
- Safety: the brain reads anything unfamiliar as unsafe, so you must create internal safety before you can move.
- Clarity: “clarity is underrated and confidence is overrated” – once you’re clear on what and why, nothing can stop you.
- Belief: belief is a dial, not a yes/no. Rate it 1-10 and ask how to move it up a notch.
- Experiment: frame the next step as a test, not a must-succeed, to take the pressure off.
- Integrate: look at what’s already working and do more of it, using skills and evidence you already have.
The Frameworks in Action: Coaching a Frustrated Leader
Yanique: Can you share an example where you put RAFT and Radical Adaptability into practice and the person was able to manifest change?
One client struggled to get his team to engage. The recurring thought, “this is taking too long,” made him feel frustrated and pressured, so he stopped coaching, asked fewer questions, and told people what to do. The result: a team that waited to be told and never learned to think for itself, which actually made leadership slower.
Once they unpicked that core belief and he saw that coaching was the faster path, he became more patient, asked better questions, and released the pressure his team could feel. They grew more creative, came back with solutions, and engagement shifted dramatically. Terez frames Radical Adaptability as the zoom-out tool to find the biggest bottleneck (safety, clarity, belief, or action), then uses RAFT to zoom in and work it.
Before and After: AI That Hands Back 10+ Hours a Week
Yanique: What does a leader’s week look like before and after you work with them using your AI tool?
Terez’s team built a plugin that works within Claude, prepackaged with skills so a leader can input a spreadsheet, transcript, or corporate documents and generate an output, like a fully branded board pack, in about five minutes, repeatable every month.
The before is doing manual work from scratch every time, even with a template. The after is a system and workflow that removes the manual input entirely, freeing leaders for the thinking, judgment, checking, and analysis that actually need a human.
What She’s Excited About: A First Mountain Together
Yanique: What’s one thing going on in your life right now that you’re really excited about?
Setting AI aside, Terez is most excited about family. Her 10-year-old son has reached an age where he’s keen on tougher hikes, so they’re climbing their first mountain together, Mount Snowdon in Wales, which she hopes will be the first of many longer walks and adventures as a family.
Key Takeaways
- You can only control three things: your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. Everything else is outside your control.
- Results flow backwards from thoughts: what you think drives how you feel, which drives what you do, which produces your results.
- The same words land completely differently depending on the emotion behind them, so manage the feeling, not just the message.
- Before anyone can change, their brain needs to feel safe, because unfamiliar automatically registers as unsafe.
- Clarity is underrated and confidence is overrated; when you’re clear on what and why, confidence follows.
- Treat belief as a 1-10 dial and focus on moving it up one notch rather than waiting for total certainty.
- Frame change as an experiment to remove the pressure of having to get it perfect the first time.
- Always integrate what already works: you have more usable skills and evidence than you think.
- AI strategy must be led from the top; leaders should use AI themselves to leverage it as a competitive advantage.
- Build systems that eliminate manual, repetitive work so your time goes to thinking, judgment, and analysis.
- In high-stress moments, grounding self-talk helps: “This is not an emergency, and I’m not going to die.”
Timestamped Topics
- 00:00 – Introduction and Guest Bio
- 02:06 – From the Corporate Ladder to Executive Coaching
- 05:22 – The RAFT Formula: Results, Actions, Feelings, Thoughts
- 07:46 – Radical Adaptability: How Change Actually Happens
- 11:57 – The Frameworks in Action: Coaching a Frustrated Leader
- 15:31 – Before and After: AI That Hands Back 10+ Hours a Week
- 17:58 – The Tool She Can’t Live Without: Claude
- 19:09 – Books That Shaped Her Thinking
- 20:11 – What She’s Excited About: A First Mountain Together
- 21:43 – Where to Connect with Terez
- 22:26 – Guiding Quote and Resilience
Featured Resources
Books Mentioned
- The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
- The Freakonomics series by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (her gateway into behavioral economics and psychology)
Tools and Platforms
- Claude (Anthropic) – where Terez builds her processes, systems, and personalized client dashboards
- AI Amplified Exec – her Claude plugin that turns spreadsheets, transcripts, and documents into branded outputs like board packs in minutes
Terez’s Venture
- Tuitive AI – where Terez is director and built AI Amplified Exec, helping senior executives use AI safely for real gains in personal productivity.
Connect with Terez Rijkenberg
- Website: terezrijkenberg.com [please verify spelling]
- Weekly email / blog: terezrijkenberg.com/blog [please verify]
- LinkedIn: Terez Rijkenberg (most active here)
Terez’s Guiding Quote
“This is not an emergency, and I’m not going to die.” When stress spikes – even walking on stage – Terez reminds herself that what she’s feeling is just chemicals in her body, that she’ll be okay, and that she can handle anything no matter what happens.
About Navigating the Customer Experience
A globally recognized podcast hosted by Yanique Grant, featuring leaders and innovators sharing insights on leadership, business growth, customer experience, and exceptional service delivery.
Follow Us
- X (Twitter): @NavigatingCX
- Facebook: Navigating the Customer Experience Community
- LinkedIn: Yanique Grant
- Website: yaniquegrant.com
