Profile

A life coach is a partner in change who helps people get what they want in their life.

I help people identify what’s currently going on in their life that’s not satisfactory; what’s in their mind that’s keeping them from doing what they want; and then help them put a practical plan together to achieve whatever they’re interested in.

I have three distinct niches.

1. I am a weight loss coach.
2. I am also a coach mentor who helps life coaches set up their businesses.
3. I do a lot of career coaching for people who earn a lot of money but feel very dissatisfied and unfilled with what they are doing. I coach people to figure out what else they might be interested in doing and put together a transition plan to help them transition out of an old career and into a new one.

I love my work environment. I work from a great home office off my living room. I work alone but I make sure I get out and talk to people because I’m extremely extroverted.

The cool thing about working for yourself and working from home is that most days can look different if I want them to. On average, my workday begins about 8:00 a.m. During my day I may have telephone coaching calls with clients and face-to-face meetings. I do email coaching and write articles for my blog.

I also spend time working on my business by creating new programs and marketing pieces. My workday typically ends around 2:00 p.m. when I pick up my kids from school. One of the cool things about my business is that I can blend my family life together with my work life.

I work Monday through Fridays and I don’t work weekends.

The skills important for a life coach include:

• The desire to help people have a better life.
• Active listening.
• Empathy.
• Fascination with human behavior.
• The confidence to tell your client your hunches if something smells fishy.
• Intuition.

There is a different skill set necessary to be an entrepreneur and have an independent business as a life coach:

1. Confidence. You need to believe you have a valuable service.
2. Organization.
3. Motivation.
4. The interest and ability to learn new things quickly.

I sometimes joke that being an entrepreneur is like jumping into a moving car. It’s like you are trying to do your craft and learn a lot of other stuff.

I love witnessing change. There’s nothing better. It’s so much fun.

I don’t like administrative work.

Two people have dramatically influenced my career. First, Martha Beck, a life coach, best selling author, and contributor to O magazine has been a big influence. Her book, Finding Your Own North Star, lead me to her and is brilliant. Second, Brooke Castillo, a Martha Beck life coach and author of the book, If I’m so Smart Why Can’t I Lose Weight?, has really helped me.

To not hide. People are waiting to be served.

Trust yourself. Trust your own instincts. Listen to your gut reaction to things because it really does not matter at all what other people think you should be doing. What matters is what you think you should be doing. Your gut reaction will never steer you wrong.

Absolutely not. There is nothing I would be change—even things that have been traumatic in my life. I can see how it happened for me and not against me.

• I graduated from college with a degree in political science with the intention of going to law school. I never did go to law school. My first job was working in DC for a public relations firm that had all government clients. The creative side of things really struck me and I loved that. I worked in public relations for the next nine years.
• When I became pregnant with my son, I decided to stay home for a few years. I wanted to transition back into the work force but I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted a career where I could set my own hours.
• I landed on residential real estate. I had a great career in real estate. I was able to set my own hours but even though I was really good at it and made a lot of money at it, it still wasn’t fulfilling for me. That’s when I hired my own life coach and started reading Martha Beck’s books. I felt like someone had knocked me over the head with a lightening bolt. It was the best material I had ever read and I went to her website to learn more about her. I saw that she trained people to do what she does. I just listened to my gut reaction to that and signed up for life coach training.
• My experience in marketing and PR coupled with my experience of running my own business in residential real estate was a great training ground for me to be able to promote my own business. Although that experience is not directly related to life coaching, it benefited me greatly.
• It’s important for girls to know that it’s OK to transition, evolve, and change. The statistics about how many people change careers can be a little scary because change can frighten people, but it’s all good.

• I am a rape survivor.
• At a young age of 20, I experienced a very traumatic thing and went through several years of processing that experience.
• I’m not really a survivor. I’m a rape thriver. Something traumatic happened to me but I’m not a victim. That life circumstance didn’t take anything away from me. It created a deep person in me. I can now look back on it, as traumatic as it was, and see how it has benefited me greatly.

• Therapy. I had an excellent therapist. Therapy is very different from coaching. There was a wound there to be healed. I had a great therapist that helped me do that. Having the belief that I’m of worth, I’m of value, and I have a great life to live helped me.
• While for a brief moment someone had control over my physical body, no one but me has control over my future.
• As a coach, there are lots of my female clients who have survived sexual abuse, and I can totally see how my experience has helped those people tremendously.