What if the advice you keep giving people is the reason nothing is changing?

In this episode of Dorset Business Matters, I sit down with Sam Stone, founder of Life Coaching with Sam, for her very first podcast appearance. Sam spent 11 years in the NHS, children's social care, pupil referral units and schools — giving advice for a living. Then she discovered coaching, handed in her notice, and within a week was running her own business.

It's a brilliantly honest conversation about what it actually takes to back yourself when the salary stops.

What you'll take away:

• Why counselling looks backwards and coaching looks forwards — and why that distinction matters for anyone who feels stuck
• The difference between giving advice and asking the right question (and why the "advice monster" is sabotaging your team and your kids)
• How reflection and awareness are the two most under-used skills in business and in life
• Why confidence doesn't arrive first — opportunities do, and confidence follows
• How Sam built her entire client base through Instagram from her kitchen table, with nothing more than a laptop and Zoom
• The "what if it does work?" reframe that gets new business owners off the fence
• Why group coaching, school-age coaching and coaching in job centres could change the country
• And the line every business owner needs on a Post-it: your business should fund your life, not consume it

Whether you're running a £10m business or thinking about leaving a salary to start your own, Sam's story is a reminder that the person most likely to hold you back is the one in the mirror — and that a good coach, in sport or in life, is the fastest way to get out of your own way.

Listen, share it with someone who's stuck, and let me know what lands.

Follow Dorset Business Matters for weekly conversations with the people shaping business in the South West.

Find Sam: lifecoachingwithsam.co.uk | Instagram @lifecoachingwithsamFind me: simonellson.com | westdorset.actioncoach.co.uk