Why coaching?
This year, alongside a global pandemic (oyvey), my story so far has been about developing my coaching business. What a time to restart my business, amiright?! Two years ago, when I qualified as a life and personal coaching practitioner, I pondered a lot about who I wanted to serve, who I wanted to help, what use can I be to people in the world. As with all coaches, I spent time looking within myself: what got me turned on to coaching, what did I gain from it when I first encountered coaching as part of my coaching certificate training?
For me, coaching opened up a different way for me to look at where I was in life, where I wanted to be and how I could get there. Sounds simple right? I’ve developed the way I look at coaching since then, way back in 2016, but there’s parts of my coaching practice that have remained at the core of what I do.
Leaving my main salaried job at the end of this January, I’ve delved into the purpose of my business, my vision, my business values and yes, looking at where I am right now and how do I get to where I want to get to in life now that I’m reaching that midlife, next phase point. Yes, I have three more years to go to get to fifty but no one can overthink the passing of time more than a Scorpio like me!
My Big Why and My Big Vision
That circles back round to who do I want to help? I had the great joy of guesting on Sally Garozzo’s podcast yesterday (https://www.sallygarozzo.com/podcast.html)*, and in amongst talking about my perimenopausal journey, HRT, Jenny Eclair and tinnitus, we chatted about my Big Why for my business and my coaching. It comes down to “I’ve been, and am going through, such a massive reframing of my life and what I want it to consist of due to starting perimenopause, that I want to help women going through the same thing.”
My bigger vision, utopian as it may seem to some, is the eradication of gender inequality in the industries I’ve worked in over the last 25 years (the public sector, media, publishing). How can I help to empower women so that each of us, in our own ways, can add to that big vision? As Marcia Reynolds says in her new book, “Coach the Person, not the Problem”, I can be a “thinking partner” to Gen X women, to give them the reflective space to look at what they’ve got going on right now and how they can find the answers themselves to change their future.
Although my story’s turning point is my perimenopause journey, that’s not to say I offer health coaching or menopause coaching, I don’t. I help prospective clients feel seen when I say, “this is my story, what’s yours?”. I admit it. I do miss my Riotgrrrl days of my twenties, before social media, before life’s pressures. I still am a massive fangirl and will happily chat about the acting skills of Timothée Chalamet or the feminist strengths behind Alien or Annihilation. Ask me about Buffy – please! I too struggle with relationships, ageing (though still exceptionally feisty) parents, losing friendships, gaining new ones, finding ways to stick to my values, not get ground down by microagressions, lockdown, life!
I hear you, I see you. What would you like to say?
As a writer, I will always be interested in other people’s stories rather than my own. That’s why I think it’s such a healthy challenge to be as open as possible about my story, whether that’s in podcasts or here in this #sprintchallengeday5 article. I’m glad I’ve done it but let’s get back to talking about you!
*My chat with Sally on her Menopause Mindset podcast, focusing on creating a business and my perimenopause journey, will be out in August.
