It might come as some surprise to you, but I have only been running my coaching business for two years full time.
I trained as a coach YEARS ago – first I did a Coaching Diploma with Newcastle College in 2004 and then I went on to do further more intensive coaching training with The Coaches Training Institute in 2005.
And after my training I did go on to coach women, quite a lot of women over time, but in fits and starts and dribs and drabs. Always getting great results but never really getting anywhere myself.
So why did it take until 2020 and a global pandemic to do the thing that I have been called to do for so long?
Well, firstly, life got in the way. In 2009 after 2 years of trying and problems, we got successfully pregnant and had our baby boy.
So that pretty much took out 2007 – 2012, with the issues and investigations, the pregnancy, the maternity leave and then getting our child up to nursery school age. Annnnd breathe!
‘Yeah but Sarah’ you say, ‘that still leaves 10 years! What happened?!’
Well, put simply, I happened. I allowed myself to get in my own way for eight more years.
When I left my cultural marketing career in 2007, it seemed easier to start working with my husband in his established branding and design business and to add to his services with my marketing and PR skills.
And once all the 2007-2012 baby making and raising bit was over, it also seemed easier to keep doing this work. We had a good business, it used skills and knowledge I had had for years and it felt safe and comfortable and was quite enjoyable most of the time.
I also told myself a story that building a business as a coach was going to be hard and probably not possible. My training, though excellent in terms of coaching skills, had absolutely no focus on how to get clients, how to pitch yourself as a coach and remember, I did my coaching training before social media, before blogging really became a thing.
I didn’t see many coaches out there who seemed and felt like me. It seemed to be a space full of pushy, hustly, goal getter types with super sharp haircuts and big white teeth, full of slogans and positive affirmations, leaping around like Tom Cruise on THAT sofa and talking like they had Oprah on speed dial.
I guess also, deep down I just didn’t believe having a full-time coaching business that would cover or exceed my existing income was possible. I just didn’t see it out there in the wild. The coaches I met in real life in networking groups and at events were few and far between and none of them seemed to be crushing it business wise – usually the contrary was true.
I had a deep seated believe that people would think coaching was bogus in some way and certainly not something they would be prepared to pay for. So even though I fully believed in the transformational power of coaching to change a person’s life and business, I had a huge block about other people believing it.
I think this stemmed from a couple of conversations with friends where they really didn’t encourage me and one of them was really quite dismissive about the idea.
And a practical level, I also found it hard to commit enough time and energy to even trying to build another business, as the main business took up my working time and I still had a small child to care for too.
So I continued to park it.
But I also continued to read self development and mindset books, read articles and as blogging and then social media took off, to follow and consume the content of other coaches and people in that world.
And I continued to really want this for myself.
I dipped my toes in with a ‘side hustle’ approach. I ran some day retreats, I did some workshops for other organisations and I ran a gratitude habit project for a while. My friends and contacts noticed what I was doing and a few opportunities came my way and some doors started to open which gave me glimmers of possibility.
I also realised that in my marketing work with clients in the branding and marketing business, I actually WAS coaching and mentoring women, just by talking with them about their businesses, their fears, noticing where they were holding themselves back, offering them ideas , encouragement and feedback.
So maybe I WAS a coach after all, and perhaps I COULD make a living from it in a different way?
Still, I felt overwhelmed with everything else going on in my life and as work project after work project as a marketing consultant rolled in for me, with a reasonable fee attached, I just couldn’t see a way of carving out enough time to figure out what I wanted to do AND find the time to actually do it!
Enter the pandemic.
In March 2020, the bottom literally fell out our our design and marketing business. Lots of our clients were hospitality, pubs, restaurants, brewers, festivals, arts venues and events. Funnily enough, none of them seemed to have a need for our services in 2020!
Projects that had been started were shelved and those in the pipeline disappeared. We were left with a gaping hole in our income and in how we filled our days. This happened over the space of about 2 weeks.
Now the money side of this wasn’t great. But thanks to savings (we are thankfully very savings orientated!), a generous gift from a close family member, holiday savings for a trip to Sri Lanka that we would no longer be taking and a trickle of ongoing work, we were going to be ok – for a while anyway.
But what I did now have was TIME.
What I also had was an unquenchable desire for my own space – being in a small house 24/7 with my husband and son in a pandemic with social movement restrictions, no school, no external meetings or sessions with clients, no socialising with friends, I felt like I desperately needed a space of my own…
Enter the attic!
We cleared and redecorated our attic space which was just a dumping ground at that point. I bought some furniture, we set up the IT and bingo, I had a retreat and an office space to boot!
The perfect quiet space for thinking, planning and… coaching!
The time the pandemic gave me from April 2020 onwards and my beautiful attic were what I really needed to get my coaching business going.
Mindset wise, there was something about what was going on in the world that just tipped me over into ‘f**k it’ mode and I just started to put myself out there, build my list, use my social channels in a more focused way and actually create and start to sell coaching packages, workshops and courses.
I guess it seemed what I really needed was to feel that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain!
And the fact that everyone was now happy to hop online for zoom sessions, hungry for social media content to fill the void of no social contact and that many women out there needed to think about their business and life differently too… it created a visible market to me that I couldn’t see before.
So two years on, I am running a business that I really love and which gives me the income I want and fits into the lifestyle that I want too.
And I want to stop other women making the same mistakes that I did, which stalled my coaching business for a good eight years which were;
• Taking the easy, safe option instead of following my dreams and purpose
• Hooking into a whole load of stories about what was and wasn’t possible and what people would think
• Staying deep in overwhelm mode, never giving myself the time and space to get clarity on what I really wanted
• Setting for less than I was worth or capable of so I didn’t take risks or rock the boat
So yes, it took a global pandemic to give me a kick up the bum! And I don’t want you to wait for such extreme circumstances to start making changes for the better!
• If you know your business could be better and you could be achieving more, I’m here for you.
• If you are feeling overwhelmed with trying to figure out how to make your business work, I’m here for you
• If you are just starting out and don’t know how to put all the pieces together, I am here for you
• If deep down you know that YOU are what is stopping you from having the business and life that you really want – I am here for you!
Have a discovery session with me soon and let’s start to figure it all out together.