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Success Stories

Find out how the The artist and The entrepreneur benefited from working with a professional life coach.

The Artist

Diana, an outgoing, dynamic, highly intelligent woman in her early 50’s, contacted me because she was finally pursuing her dream of going to art school but was feeling overwhelmed by her responsibilities as a mother, wife, and entrepreneur.

Diana has an MA degree and had previously run a nonprofit organization. She’s married with 2 children, one grown and one younger, and at the time we started working together she was working part time in addition to attending classes. The stress of  keeping it all together—being a wife, mother, student, school volunteer, entrepreneur, artist, and chief household manager—was taking a toll on her marriage and her relationship with her daughter, as well as with her other personal relationships. 

The work

Initially, I worked with Diana to clarify her intentions and identify specific hurdles she wanted to work on. Articulating her primary goal didn’t take long: Diana wanted to go through school successfully while managing her responsibilities effectively and avoid burn-out.

Identifying the hurdles took more time. It often takes working with a coach or other professional to help us look beyond our habitual behavioral patterns and really see what holds us back, what gets in the way of being able to achieve our dreams. 

As our conversations deepened, we honed in on Diana’s key issues: 

1) Confidence:  Diana had never given herself permission to pursue her passion, to define her style, and to present herself in the world the way she wanted to be. Consequently, she tried to fulfill everyone else’s needs and always came up short.  She kept beating herself up for not contributing enough financially, for not spending enough time with her family, for not devoting  enough time to her art,  and, occasionally, for letting friends down.

2) People Judgment: Diana consistently put herself in situations that took too much of her time, drained her energy, and left her feeling resentful and frustrated. The more overwhelmed she felt, the more she took out her feelings inappropriately on the people closest to her.

3) Time Management: Overcommitted and overwhelmed, Diana often was late, missed appointments, and generally felt out of control of her schedule, causing even more internal conflict and stress.

Overall, Diana felt she had no control over her life. She allowed other people’s ideas about her life and her ways affect her deeply.

Strategies

Diana was amazed when she realized how often she set herself up for conflict, including agreeing to do things that she didn’t really want to do, letting herself be taken advantage of, and overcommiting herself. Our work on this issue centered on Diana identifying trigger situations and people, and taking action before things got out of hand. In particular, it was important for Diana to broaden and deepen her emotional intelligence skills in order to set boundaries and deal with difficult people without anger and escalating conflict.

Looking at how Diana could reclaim her power and stop looking at herself through the eyes of others was some of the most enjoyable work we did together. 

I worked with Diana to create a daily routine that allowed her to recharge and juggle her many responsibilities more effectively. Organization is not one of Diana’s strengths, and the artist in her likes to rebel. We experimented, trying different tactics to find a schedule that fit her personality and lifestyle. Critical to our work in this area was carving out time for Diana to relax, exercise, meditate, and recharge. Getting past the guilt in taking time for herself was not easy initially but the more she gave herself permission to be whole and healthy, the better and more protective of her personal time she became.

The results

Three months

After the first three months of working together, Diana had developed a time management system that allowed her to feel accomplished and more in control of her life. She had started to set time aside for herself and was feeling much more energized.  As a result, she began to feel confident that she could handle her daily responsibilities.

One year

After one year, Diana had taken charge of her life. She had become proficient in identifying the behavior patterns that put her in difficult situations and was dealing with the majority of them successfully. She regularly set boundaries, not allowing other people to determine her schedule or undermine her goals. She started expressing herself with more openness, allowing her passion and personality to shine forth. Diana was now able to meet her responsibilities to the other people and situations in her life without draining her or beginning another cycle of conflict and stress. Her relationships with her family and friends greatly improved. Her husband became her staunchest supporter, even baking Valentine cookies to show how special he thought she was.

Professionally, Diana started winning awards at school for her painting. And, being true to her newfound sense of self, she started down a new artistic path, one that expresses who she is as an artist rather than one her teachers had hoped to fit her into. Diana is also making more money in her part time work because she has more time and energy to invest in marketing her business.

Most importantly, Diana is now having a lot more fun in living her life!

Next step

Diana’s new coaching goals include creating a solid foundation for financial independence.

What is your next step? How can a professional life coach help you achieve your goals? Let’s find out! Contact me today!

John contacted me with what I call “entrepreneur syndrome.” Entrepreneurs like John go into business for themselves because they’re highly motivated, very creative, and like to work for themselves. Then, at a certain stage, if they’re successful, they hit a “wall”. John had hit the “wall”. Although he had built a successful financial advisory practice, business was not growing the way he wanted. He knew he needed to expand in order to achieve his goals, but all his attempts to do so had left him frustrated, swamped in paperwork, and stressed out. 

The work

Identifying goals and hurdles

John’s goals were very clear to him—grow the business and become a more significant player in the financial industry. John is very idealistic and he also wanted to have more financial resources and time to contribute to the nonprofit organizations he and his family are closely involved in. 

Identifying hurdles with an entrepreneur can be tricky! Because they’re used to being in charge and are usually very intelligent and confident, entrepreneurs often believe they know exactly what their issues are. I happen to love working with entrepreneurs because they thrive on challenges. Once John was able to see what was holding him back, his enthusiasm and determination took over. 

After several conversations and an on-site visit to see exactly how John ran his business, we uncovered several key issues that were affecting his ability to expand his business and increase his quality of life. It became clear that John needed to develop a much stronger foundation to support his dreams:

1) Management skills:  John had started as a sole practitioner and had added two people as the business grew. Typically, entrepreneurs run into trouble as managers. John was shocked to discover that the office manager he thought was indispensable was actually sabotaging his efforts.

2) Client service: The heart of John’s business is building strong relationships with his clients. Although on the surface it seemed like this was happening, once John started talking about the kinds of relationships he really wanted, it became clear that he needed to reevaluate his approach.

3) Details: John is a big picture thinker and a visionary. Details bore him and he finds it all too easy to let new and exciting ideas derail him. Before we started working together, John was unaware of just how much time he wasted and how not paying enough attention to details was sometimes affecting the quality of his work. 

Strategies

As John and I began setting the foundation for a really efficient office, he began to see that Sue, his office manager, resisted every effort to change. When he had hired her, John had been so grateful that someone knew how to handle the details of the business that he turned the running of the office over to her with little or no supervision. Happy to be relieved of so many details, John had become so dependent on Sue that it took several months before he was ready to let her go and hire a new person. 

To support John in becoming a better manager, we started from the premise that he needed to know how to do every task really well himself before he could turn it over to someone else. Doing that also meant working on his organizational and time management skills. Learning to be proactive became a central strategy, whether it was delegating and following up with staff, or developing a realistic yearly business plan. 

Over the first year of coaching, John delved deeper into learning what his clients really wanted from working with him. A lot of this work came from John looking into his own personal challenges in dealing with his clients on an intimate level. Learning to recognize how his clients’ emotional needs affected their decisions about money and allowing for their “story” to unfold while making the financial decisions that served them, became an ongoing process that we worked on. 

The results

Three months

• Formal employee appraisal system ( including job descriptions ), regular review process, and conducting interviews process, were put into place.
• Top-notch office manager was hired.
• Curriculum for training new employees and interns was standardized.
• System for handling all office procedures, from initial client contact through all compliance and follow up correspondence, was revamped. 

One year

• Business increased by 30%.
• Developed an in-depth process of working with clients based on an understanding and respect for each client’s unique story and personal hurdles around their finances.
• Staff trained to deliver superior customer service.
• Yearly marketing plan developed. 

Two years

• Business increased by 40%.
• Office manager becomes certified as financial planner and become associate advisor.
• New office manager hired. 

Three years

By year three John was ranking in the top 5% among his peers nationwide, 66% of his clients were women, and he had started to niche in Socially Responsible Investment Funds. Not only is he successful but he is alligning his business with his principles and values.

Overall, John has developed excellent organizational skills that support his big picture thinking. His yearly business plans have become valuable resources to help him stay on track. And, he’s having a lot of fun running his business. And, even though his business has increased substantially, John has much more free time–he and his wife have been traveling the world! Most importantly, by incorporating his values into his business he has found the way that supports both his financial growth and that of his clients. 

Next step

John has a five-year plan to sell the business. To do that, he’s looking for a 3^rd advisor to join the practice.

He’s continuing to become a more effective manager and mentor.

John has used the coaching relationship to remain inspired, focused and organized while enoying his life as a husband, father, friend, and, now, grandfather.

What is your next step? How can a professional life coach help you achieve your goals? Let’s find out! Contact me today!