Happy Monday! Today I want to take you on a little journey - my journey into coaching, a bit on why I chose to become a coach and how I stay curious while normalizing some of the fear that surrounds being a coach. 

The first time I’d ever heard of coaching I thought it was a load of crap - a bunch of smoke, mirrors and rainbows coming out of a unicorn’s butt. I was less than impressed to say the least. I was skeptical of what it could help and do for me. I was objecting to it even before I knew what it was about. It’s like when your four year old tells you they don’t like the meal that you put down in front of them before even taking a bite. 😬😬😬😬 

How could talking about your problems with someone else solve your problems?!?! Isn’t that just talk therapy?!?! No. Coaching is not talk therapy. Coaching focuses on the future and paving the way forward. Therapy usually deals with the past. Both are beneficial and necessary in their own ways. 

I encountered coaching in Bali while I was on a yoga retreat as the staff photographer. I was able to sit in on all of the modules, learn and observe how life coaching worked. It was fascinating to watch the process of coaching but I still thought it was wayyyy to crunchy and “woo-y” for me. Just like my four year old, I made up my mind that I didn’t like it before even “taking a bite”. 

I fell in love with Bali. I did not fall in love with life coaching , in fact I swore that I would never become a coach. LOL universe, L-O-L. 😉

Fast forward a couple of years to when I purchased the yoga studio and then began searching high and low for ways to grow the studio. I was showing up everywhere and was EXHAUSTED. I was trying to be everything for everyone and had nothing left to give myself. And nothing seemed to be working to grow the studio despite my best efforts.

So I posted an SOS in a facebook group - I was desperate for help and willing to try anything.  As luck would have it, a woman who would wind up being my coach commented on that post asking if she could DM me so she could learn more about my struggles. I honestly didn’t know that she was a coach, I was just excited to have someone that would listen to my woes, tell me I wasn’t doing everything wrong and that I would in fact be able to make money as a yoga studio owner 🤣. 

She asked if I’d be open to getting on a zoom call and chatting more about what I was doing and where she thought I could expand. I quickly agreed and within a few days we were working through my “issues”. That first call was so mind opening for me. I was answering my own questions and realizing that there were things that I could do in order to shift my thinking as well as free up my time so I wasn’t chasing my tail with no energy left. 

I knew I needed more of whatever my coach was dishing out. When it came time to talk about investing I knew I didn’t have much money to put forward and told her I needed to think a bit about it. Mainly because I knew I needed to reassure myself that more income is always coming. I literally invested the last of my savings into coaching not knowing if I would be able to pay the next month’s rent. 

Sometimes as business owners it’s hard to put money forward when you’ve blocked your thoughts around money - as in, you can only see the money that you have in your accounts. Your mind isn’t allowing you to think that there’s always more coming (even when it doesn’t feel like it 😉). Your brain is really good at keeping you safe. 

My coach helped me to get curious about my thoughts, validated my feelings that coaching felt “weird” (all new things do!) and assured me that “yes, I can do this”. 

Coaching helps you sort through your mental junk and rearrange those thoughts so that you open up new pathways to grow. 

In just 12 weeks of coaching I doubled and then tripled the monthly income. My mind was blown. I could not believe my eyes. By showing up to a weekly call, talking through what was working and what wasn’t - I was able to rework my thoughts around success and failure and experience massive growth. 

The difference between the first time I encountered coaching and the second time - I acknowledged my objections, I embraced the unknown and I validated my fears. 

Did I know that I would double my studio income? No. At first I really thought that would not be possible. However, coaching helped me see past that thought and into the option that it could be possible. 

Remember, I’m not a special unicorn with a magic blue check mark on socials. Yes, I’m special in my own ways - but at the end of the day I’m actually pretty “normal”. 

What I’m saying is that if coaching works for me - it will work for you, if you let it. 

Stepping out of, “I don’t know if this will work.” and into, “yes, this is working - even if I don’t see it yet.” is the switch I needed to make. And often it’s the switch a lot of my clients need to make as well. 

My job as a coach is to hold space for your questions and concerns about, “will this work?!” and give you the opportunity to see how your business can work for you. 

Do I know without a shadow of a doubt that coaching will work? It can, 110%. I’ve seen it work and I’ve lived it. But are you willing to put in the work? Coaching helped me grow my confidence, create automations in my business (so that my business was working FOR me) and build a work/life balance that wasn’t continually keeping me away from my family. I put in the work in order for it to grow the way I saw growth. This is why I continue to invest in coaching. I know the growth potential even when it doesn’t seem like it will help. 

And that is where people can get lost. We’re all concerned about the ROI (I was too, I still am when I invest in my business!). How much will I make if I invest this money?! Why is it important to invest this money?! What happens if it DOESN’T WORK?

What if you just told yourself that it will work. What if you’re willing to believe it, even when there isn’t a whole lot of proof. That is where the magic happens. Believing that it will work even when the proof isn’t slapping you in the face.

It’s no secret that what you tell yourself grows. What if you started telling yourself that you are successful? Celebrate the little wins, friend. They matter just as much as those big wins. Sometimes those little wins can be getting out of bed and turning on your computer. Don’t underestimate the small stuff. Those small wins build you up to the big wins.

What if you started telling yourself that you are worthy of clients purchasing from you? 

What if you started telling yourself that customers are everywhere all the time and you just need to tell people about your business?

What could all of those thoughts do for you?

Think about all of the growth you could experience from simply shifting your thoughts!!! Did you sit up a little bit taller when you thought about being successful, worthy and open to growth? 

If you shift those thoughts, think about all of the growth you could experience from a coach helping you navigate those thoughts! It’s exponential friends. What you sow (positive thoughts), you reap (business growth). This also does not mean you need to be happy and positive 110% of the time. That will also not produce the results you want (trust me 😬🤣). But understanding what’s going on when those not so great thoughts start surfacing can help you prepare yourself to navigate through some of that crap. 

So what does this all mean for you?! I’m inviting you to book a free coaching call! I want to hear what you have going on, what isn’t working (or where you feel stuck) and where you want to grow! 

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