Why I became a coach…
A friend suggested I write a post about why I decided to be a coach and I realize people frequently ask me just that so here it is.
I was never really the little girl who knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. I was actually somewhat envious of the other children that did seem to know with such conviction. But nope, not me. I will say that when I was around 3 years old I would constantly draw pretty pictures and then go peddle them to my parents and their friends for quarters and dollars. Although there were many other instances in between I’ll fast forward to one more example just prior to college when I sold around $5,600 worth of Cutco knives in just 2 1/2 weeks, so lets just say everyone always assumed I’d go into sales of some sort, like Dad. So, I knew I would go to college and thought perhaps I’d do something to do with sales but that’s about as far as my aspirations went.
College came and I decided to go to Rutgers – my brother’s alma matter – I guess I looked up to him enough to think this was really the place for me. I thought about doing the business school but after barely getting by in pre-calc I made a sharp left turn out of that trail of despair. I decided to major in Communication and minor in Psychology because I found them fascinating and I was always drawn towards learning about people. I leaned towards public relations for awhile – doing my internship at one of the best boutique PR firms in the country. I can’t say I loved it but it was fast paced and interesting and since it was the path I’d been heading down I figured I’d look for a job doing just that.
After a few interviews with PR firms my little sister in my sorority passed my resume along to her brother’s girlfriend – she worked at a large media buying agency. I got and went on the interview and decided I loved it there – it sounded like interesting work with a ton of great, fun people – they loved me too and I got the job.
Oh the youthful expectations of your first job. Lets just say it wasn’t what I expected. The work was tediously boring and many of the people were, well, lets just say we weren’t friends. I constantly felt like the odd person out and that I didn’t belong there. So after a year and a half I left.
I decided perhaps an advertising agency where they actually create the ads would be a better fit for me. If you haven’t noticed a theme here yet I was hop scotching through all sorts of marketing jobs because it was always assumed I’d go into the business world – and marketing was the only area of business that seemed relatively interesting to me. I ended up at a pharmaceutical ad agency doing account management. This time referred by an alumni of my sorority (from a different school) to her sister-in-law who headed up the agency. This was fun for the first 6 months or so while we were busy and I actually had new and interesting things to learn and do but inevitably it proceeded to turn, yet again, to even more boring and tedious than the last job. This one only lasted about a year. Hey, my Dad always said, choose something you love to do because you’re going to be doing it for a long time, so I wasn’t willing to settle.
BUT, it was while at this ad agency that I met Josh, Josh was a freelance art director and had been working there for a couple months before I happened to walk in on him having a conversation about coaching.
Now lets backtrack real quick. For at least a couple years I’d fantasized about doing something else entirely. Working with people, helping them live happier lives, helping them see the brighter side of life where opportunity and learning abounds. I’ve always been the optimistic one, the one friends would come to for advice or to get them out of their funk and I’ve always loved inspiring them to see their life as bigger than they currently could see. I’d had countless people suggest to me that I become a therapist OR a life coach. (“A life coach? What’s that?”) I looked into becoming a therapist – too much school, too much dealing with people’s problems and trauma’s. Not my cup of tea. Life coaching, on the other hand, sounded pretty perfect and I was definitely interested but per the usual, a la procrastinator extraordinaire, I put it in my back pocket and didn’t put any serious thought into pursuing it for some time.
SO, when I met Josh, and overheard him explaining what coaching was to someone, I stopped in my tracks and very excitedly the words just spilled from my mouth; “I’m actually seriously interested in that! I’ve thought about becoming a coach!”. His enthusiasm matched my own. As fate would allow, the coach training program he was participating in, Accomplishment Coaching, happened to be meeting that weekend and they happened to be the only program (at least that I know of) that allows people to come observe their training (that’s in about 250 programs worldwide) and offers a workshop in the afternoon.
I was free that weekend. I was NEVER free on Saturdays. But I was this time. Obviously I was meant to be there.
Within the first hour of the observation I fell in love. I just knew. This is where I’m meant to be. This is what I’m meant to do. I did the workshop and was even more blown away, even more sure that this was for me. I left that evening to go out with some friends and enthusiastically proclaimed, “I’m going to be a life coach!” Around 2 weeks later I sent in my deposit and was registered for the program.
When that program started, 4 months after I sent in my registration form, my life changed forever. I’d just quit my job at the ad agency to pursue coaching full time. And that’s where my journey of living a life transformed began…
Best thing I’ve ever done for myself. Hands down. Ever.
