About Luc     

Like you, I journey through life in a palette of changing colors. Sometimes in rainbow, sometimes in black and white.

Life is beautiful.

My name : Luc Barthel.

My passions : photography, piano, traveling, reading, ballroom dancing, organic gardening. 

My living environment: I thrive within the lush Alsace vineyards in France, accompanied by my wife Joëlle. 

Our couple's happiness: our four children are gradually flying the nest, building their own lives and households. 

I was born into a family of artisans and have descended since the French Revolution from hairdressers, truck drivers, candy production workers, nursery workers, carpenters, joiners, cobblers, maids, farmers, winegrowers, vineyard workers, midwives, shepherds, weavers, coopers, innkeepers, tavern keepers, bailiffs, wheelwrights, rural policemen, footmen, and hatters. The Earth is my crucible. 

This ancestral soil has forged my values :  humanism, a sense of work and responsibility, pragmatism, authenticity.

As a middle and high school student, I evolve in an elitist environment of a private school in Strasbourg, France, shaping within me a studious and introverted character. 

At the age of 18, I am a shy teenager, entirely focused on the success of my engineering studies which I pursue in what becomes my beloved city, Angers. 

It is there, by chance, that I discover the book "Unlimited Power" by Anthony Robbins. This book is a revelation to me; it opens me up to an unsuspected world. In a few chapters, I discover bad news, then good news 

The bad news : I must change my way of thinking, the way I see myself, and approach life in a positive manner. 

The good news : There is no failure in life, only opportunities to learn and grow. 

As a graduate engineer and business consultant, my early professional career leads me to missions for internationally renowned clients in various European countries, the US and Brazil. I gradually take on the responsibility of teams in France, Germany, and England. Initially, I oversee IS/IT projects, then organizational transformation programs. 

I become aware that the success of projects in business depends primarily on the human aspect rather than technical skills. 

In 2002, my employer notices my interpersonal skills and enrolls me in a training program for communication and management trainers. I then contribute to training consultants and salespeople within the company. 

In 2003, I am designated among the top five project managers in France. My employer supports me in my project by financing my professional coaching training. Eighteen months later, I obtain my certification in Coaching and Team-Building at the 'Transformance' school founded by Vincent Lenhardt, a pioneer of coaching in France. 

I work as a trainer and coach as a self-employed entrepreneur from 2007 to 2021. 

In 2009, I co-founded the association "ACTOE - Action Objectif Emploi" alongside business leaders. Our mission is to accelerate the return to employment for executives in Alsace. I served as the president of the association until 2018. 

I also lead online and in-person workshops to teach job seekers how to "develop and animate their professional network with pleasure and ease". 

In 2024, a coaching friend introduces me to the League of Optimists of France; I join spontaneously. 

In 2021, after six months of total commitment to the transformation of a family business composed of 45 people, I am overwhelmed by burnout and depression. 

Despite the suffering, I find the fragile strength to bounce back immediately as an expert organization consultant, rebuilding myself week after week, month after month. 

I realize that I lack the essential: truly being myself. It is at this moment that I turn to shamanic experiences, discovering the laws of nature, the power of intuition, and letting go. Inspired by the alchemical writings of contemporary authors, I immerse myself in the symbolism and speculative alchemical practice. 

My personal journey is similar to a spiritual initiation, a deep immersion into the core of myself, resulting in...  my rebirth as a loving, awakened, and conscious man. 

In the intimacy of my being, I perceive with tender sensitivity the love, peace, and joy towards myself and others, a delicate perception of a sacred dimension. In the words borrowed from Madame Simone Veil: " I have enlightened myself ".

In my daily life, I observe my power infused with connection to others, mindfulness, and humility. 

I am strongly compelled by the necessity of establishing a coaching company that makes a significant impact, with a primary focus on individual coaching. 

My intuition and desire for authenticity lead me to conceive a concept and a brand that represent me. 

Thus is born the brand "The Alchemist Business Coach", drawing inspiration from alchemical symbolism which aims to reveal the divine part present in each of us. 

This alchemical quest aims to transmute lead into gold, which for alchemists does not refer to material gold, but to a Hebrew term meaning "Light". 

"At the moment when we least expect it, life presents us with a challenge designed to test our courage and willingness to change; then, it is useless to pretend that nothing is happening or to back down by saying that we are not yet ready." Paulo Coelho, author of the book "The Alchemist"