“If you could do this one thing, but weren’t afraid of failing, what would you do?” That’s one of the most compelling questions my life coach asked me. My answer? Start a business with my sister, Kathleen. For the first six months of Braid, we continued with Jay Pryor, our life coach who immediately “put us on the hook” for things we needed to do, and that he’d hold us accountable to doing before our next session. One of those “hooks” for us – which is kind of like homework – was to picture the kind of business we wanted to build, to begin visually tracking the kinds of clients we want to attract. He also put us on the hook to be grateful for each other – to take a second at least a few times a week to acknowledge each other (which we do all the time) for the really hard and new things each of us are tackling each day as creative entrepreneurs.
If you’ve never had a life coach, but have considered it, I’d say coaching, especially for creative entrepreneurs (or about-to-be’s) helps to: 1. steel your courage for big-picture changes, and 2. “put you on the hook” for the small but powerful actions you need to do, to keep you moving toward your goal.
Those are my feet in the video by the way. I love how the stepping across the logs shot kind of sums up how life coaching helps you take steps forward in work and life.
Jay describes his expertise life coaching / executive coaching, because he coaches professionals and business owners as well as businesses as groups, too. But I also think this title addendum of “executive” is for people who feel silly saying life coach. I think this self-consciousness people sometimes have about it depends on where you’re from. Another life coach we’ve been helping brand herself as of late, Kathy Funston, is really having to educate her new client base here in the midwest on what life coaching really is about (hint: NOT therapy), while in her previous city of San Francisco, having a life coach is a given, or even something to boast about – like having a personal trainer.
I think Kathleen and I will always cycle back around to having some sort of coach in our business or lives. Right now we’re acknowledging the heck out of each other as we continue to move forward helping other creative entrepreneurs, tracking our progress as we reach more and more of you all over the country – and just trying not to look down while we do it.
Have you ever had a life coach? Does it cause you an involuntary eye roll, or are you totally gung-ho for the idea – or are you on the bubble? Tell us on Facebook!
