I really built that trust bank with myself that this is my journey, this is my vision, this is what I wanted, and I would take action every day and I loved it! I loved the learning, I loved the people, I loved the community
Q. How long have you been a student for at The International Coaching Institute?
22 Months actually, they have been phenomenal I’ve loved every moment.
Q.What do you do right now and what success have you created for yourself as a result of doing the course?
I have left full-time work and I am coaching full-time. I've got a wide range of clients which I’m loving. I’m literally loving my life and I’m living my dream of serving people and I am enjoying every moment! I can wake up and I can balance my family life and then get straight into it! I’m coaching a lot of people on zoom so it's really easy for me. I have certain days where I’ll have like five clients but other days, I might do networking, or I might have some time for myself. So, I’ve got a great balance in my business which I’m loving, and I am attracting some beautiful clients who I’m loving working with!
Q. I love that coaching is a vehicle to allow you to live the life that you want to live, tell us a little bit more about what you love about being able to do that?
I start my day with beautiful walks and beautiful routines, and I feel like I’m giving self-love to myself! I spend time with my husband I’ve got two older teenage children so I can support them and be with them and then I can schedule in with my clients when it suits me. Sometimes I might have a bit of spare time in the day, and I might see some clients later at night after I’ve had a beautiful family dinner so, it's a really great balance, I’m loving it, it's awesome.
Q. Take us back to when you first started as a student. What was going on in your life and how is it different to what you're doing right now?
When I first started I knew that I had this ability to help people and I was helping a lot of people that I knew had an addiction and so I wanted to get a qualification to be able to help people but I didn't realize that along that way I actually learned the most amazing thing is how to develop myself how to grow self-love for myself how to develop as a person.
When I first started, I was working full-time but I took action straight away. I wanted to learn, I wanted to get my qualifications, and I wanted to be able to help people. I was teaching and then I’d come home and I’d do pro-bono clients. I wanted to learn as much as possible and I wanted to build momentum so the minute I got into the International Coaching Institute I wanted to learn, and I wanted to grow.
I made a commitment to myself that I would just say yes and figure out how, and I would commit that every single day I would do something for coaching. If I had extra time I’d do more preparation, see if I could get more clients, study more, and if I didn't have any, I would just read one page in a book. I really built that trust bank with myself that this is my journey, this is my vision, this is what I wanted, and I would take action every day and I loved it. I loved the learning, I loved the people, I loved the community, and I could also balance my family but I definitely made that commitment to put time and effort into it into this!
Q.What was it in your mindset that you used to be able to create the time for all of this?
There were two things, first of all, I was like I know there's going to be self-doubt and I knew from my learnings and from speaking to people that I could feed the self-doubt in me or I could build the self-trust. That was a really big thing for me to actually just keep building my self-trust, that I could do this.
I wanted to keep working and I wanted to keep learning so I started putting a structure in my day that the minute I came home if I came home at 4:30 I would fit a pro bono in or I would make sure that I was learning something.
So, I put time towards my learning, and I adopted that I was going to be a learning machine this was something new and for me, I had to learn all the techie stuff because I’d spent a lot of time teaching kindergarten. I didn't feel I was able to be doing much on the computer and instead of like thinking of that as an obstacle, I actually thought you know what? If someone else can do it I’ll model off them. I will build this muscle every single day and it did help. My son actually said mum look at it like the teach a man to fish story, you've got to learn little bit by little bit.
Q.What was it in your mindset that you used to be able to create the time for all of this?
I also took away that success is a strategy. That was a change in my mindset. I was from the belief that some people are lucky, some people are rich and then I realized success is a strategy and if I want to be successful as a coach then I’ve got an adopt a strategy that works.
Q.How much of a different person are you now to who you were two years ago?
The funny thing was I thought I was a good person two years ago and now after personally developing I see it's a journey and I feel I was loving everybody else and I didn't have self-love. So for me to go on a self-love journey and understand it, and develop it, and know who I am was just a phenomenal extra.
I never realized that was going to be something I could learn. I have such amazing relationships with people in the community which has been phenomenal and I’ve loved my own growth and seeing who I am now and I’m going to say this out loud that I love me. I just love me. I never used to even think I was beautiful and it was only in the college that I sort of learned and realized. One day I had this awareness and I was like wow I’m beautiful and I could tap into that and people keep saying to me you look younger like I’m heading 50 and people are like saying wow, what are you doing and it's like it's from inside.
You’re allowing it in which is beautiful I love that because it does it starts with us I really dig what you're sharing. I think that must be like 90% of people's stories that we're unaware that there is another level there for us so isn't it it's just amazing to think about how many people out there are unaware that there's another level of self-love they don't even know exists. They come into this course they learn how to help other people and then as students we apply it to ourselves and we go hey wow actually my life can be even better and I find it hard to put in words are you the same?
I just look at it like it is a gift it's the most amazing gift that I have ever given myself. I mean I look at it and think like wow, I’m loving myself I have that relationship with myself and I want to like keep up-leveling myself. I never even thought that was possible now I want to. I want to keep up-leveling, I just want to keep growing and I know that I can and I know that there's no end to it's completely a journey and I’m loving the journey that I’m on. I’m just so grateful for being involved in the community and the learning that I’ve had I just think my life is now phenomenal and I love it.
Q. You've been in here just under two years, you already have a full-time coaching business working with individuals and businesses a little bit on business you've done that in under two years you've transitioned from full-time employment to full-time coaching and that is a wonderful achievement to be able to do it I imagine you must be very proud of yourself.
I’m really happy I just wanted this dream and I just kept going for it and looking for the support.
Q. What was it for you that you were like that was what helped me the most?
I think I’m going to go with everything is a package a conglomerate. You need everything that the community and that The International Coaching Institute actually offers. The biggest thing for me was the training. I sort of feel like with the trainings it was just pouring into me and after I’d done a training I sort of felt like you know I went in with my cup empty and then I realized that my cup was so full and then I could give out so much to everybody else so after training. I learned so much I changed I basically had a metamorphosis and I upgraded every training and then because of the training I was inspired. Then I went and used the strategies or used the approaches or the frameworks on clients and I felt like I’d up levelled my coaching and then I would go to the knowledge papers or go to the Moodle or the library we have access to and I would just find out more information around that. Then I would share it with my community with people that I knew from the college and I would just talk about it and we would go into little groups and we have a little group where we sort of keep each other accountable and help each other grow. I don't think there's any one part it's amazing the way it all comes together but I loved the trainings just pouring into me up-leveling and moving forward.
Q.What would you say to someone who's thinking about getting started as a coach starting and their journey with us here at ICI?
Give yourself the gift, just get in and do it. It's beautiful, the best journey of my life.
From School Teacher to Professional Coach