WTF happens when you hire a coach

Well, I don’t really know, but I do know this...

Where are the words?

This comes into my mind that there is a particular something I have failed to state. No, that I HAVE failed in stating. And it is, humorously, just one of the things I earn my living teaching and guiding clients towards - closing.

Oh, I can close, alright. I have a healthy history of working in sales. I liked sales. Really liked sales. The storytelling, the listening, the learning and problem-solving. Those moment-to-moment relationships based upon need, want, and what if. However, when it comes to ‘hooking’ new clients as a coach I use none of those retail hard won skills.

You see I get it, it is an odd ball thing, this coaching game. The term is tossed around a lot and there are a good deal of us in a great deal of generalities and specialties for curious clients to shop. Oh, and once you stop browsing and get on to talking to someone - the deeper and, depending on how far or deep you go, a real time suck! - other than price and personality - how do you choose?

Honestly, I don’t know. You see the thing, this coaching service thing, is infinitely beneficial, but is also super untraceable on the onset. It will help and you will get further along, and it will be informative and challenging, but how exactly that will look for you is very dependent upon you and your coach. Is that helpful? 

Ha! No, it is not, but it is both true and vague. I get it. Thus, the sale, as well as a lot of the learning that goes down in the coaching process, with me certainly, might best be delivered by way of storytelling.

On that tip, cuddle up, and here we go!

I want to tell you about Amanda.

Amanda (and thank you for the openness to me sharing aspects of your story!) had a pre-Law degree from a super prestigious college. She had a JD on her mind and in preparation for that undertaking moved to DC to do some office work at a lobbying firm for a cause she cared about. After the hullabaloo of getting settled in a new city, all the more exciting as she comes from a small town, was nearly and celebratorily single, a lover of food in a food choice abundant Capital, and high on doing a job that everyone in her circle kept reminding her was remarkable, it took her a good bit to see - she was not digging this very thing she had trained to dig.

Maybe it was the apartment? She moved twice. Perhaps the constant revolving door of social obligations? She pulled back and got busy nesting. Was she to read more? Watch less TV? Join a gym? Go vegan?

This is where we met. In this space of confusion and, to Amanda’s fantastic credit, courage, she thought - what the Hell?! And popped on a free intro coaching call with none other than me.

We were part of a MASSIVE professional network where I had recently posted free time to test drive SDYD Career Coaching - and BOOM Amanda popped into my calendar. Hi, nice to meet you!

It was not as if I knew what Amanda was to do, or the clear next step to getting settled and focused and content, but what I did know is that she has unpacked and repacked and unpacked again all her solo resources and that if she did not get an outside view, from someone other than a pal or family member, it was rather likely that she would either walk out cold on this gig or work herself out of her job. Not because she would have f’d up, but because she was at risk of offering a lackluster performance in a highly competitive role without any architecture to move her career and personal furniture on to the next. 

In all the frustration Amanda was experiencing, I saw and heard that, but I also saw this (as I see a lot of dissatisfaction as) a very positive thing. Positive as when we know what sucks we are very close to what can be sweeter, but also because we are so bothered, we become motivated ever more to seek and practice change. Good on you, Amanda!

Here is what we did. I said:

“Amanda, I got you

I don’t know specifically where we will go - what the next place you will find yourself to be in. But I will promise it will not be here in this stagnation. We will find you a more informative and better match, not a match that will be the forever fit - but a fit where you will grow and see better the way from this more positive next space towards following on and the one after that and so on and so forth.

You will, with me on your team, move from seeking to shopping what your professional energies might best go towards and whom they are to benefit. All along the way, the way you think about the process will change from frustration to wonder and a ‘what if’ way of thinking that shall and will serve you well in this process and whatever others you do undertake in ANY aspect of your life.

Add to that - you have to like me - because HELL I like you. I admire your adventurous, impassioned everything and the urge to make better on an intolerable mediocrity that has become your 9-to-5 and all thoughts associated. Your diggin’ on our connecting and conversation will allow you to speedily and easily do all the things stated above and more. We learn best from happy relationships - thus this must be so for you

Whatever became of Amanda? OMG, so much! We are still in contact, and she is doing strategy work for small food startups and project oversight with a few social impact organizations. She found her nimble way of thinking and desire to have greater agency over her time and way of working than the route government game plan allows is prime for entrepreneurship. She is still set on a Higher Ed route, but now more channels in business and policy and social justice are things we are exploring to expand vs reign in the possibilities at her disposal.

Amanda does a lot of traveling and time with family and friends. She still lives in DC, will be headed to New York soon enough and is a wonderful example of the benefits of coaching as each and every one of my clients are in their own super ways.

If you are bummed and hungry, and ready because all the other things have been tried or too much bother - hit me up, and you’ll soon hear me saying:

 Hey there [your name here], so nice to meet you. How can I help?