To get a coach or not get a coach...that is the question...many of us have asked ourselves as small business owners. Since one of our main traits as an entrepreneur is to do all the things, we tend to brush off the idea of a coach. So this week I wanted to dive into this topic with my business best friend, Carolina, to chat about our experiences with coaching.
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What's Perspective?
I honestly believe that coaching is what got me to where I am today. There is this amazing cycle that occurs when you work with a coach- what you’re learning coming in, goes out to who you are working with.
It’s a big commitment that is able to unearth things that you may not have thought about before. Like Carolina mentions in our live talk, it is so different when you get an opinion from someone who is subjective. She uses the example in our chat of talking with her family about things, and as most families do, they tend to side with her and leave objectivity at the door.
Carolina has worked with a someone for years now and while she’s not technically a coach or therapist, she is a knower of all things :) Carolina has turned to her throughout her career, dating, marriage and the life of Yogaleena Yoga Studio & Boutique.
As she discovered, when you work with someone, you have a safe place to share, but also a space where someone can share their unbiased opinion and point out things that will help you grow. We all have so many things going on in our lives- our clients, our families, our own self-care, our business duties- that it’s so easy to stay stuck in our thought patterns and lose sight of things. This is where a coach comes into play.
They have different perspectives and resources to help us uncover our best business selves. Simply put, they help us see blind spots. Yep, just like driving! When we’re driving, we can look to see where we’re going and where we came from, but sometimes the in-between can get a little fuzzy and maybe we don’t see that old Cadillac sitting in our blind spot.
Einstein Weighs In
There is this amazing quote by Albert Einstein where he says “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
This is so true! Often, we don’t spend enough time thinking about what’s going to fix the problem. We just start throwing things at the problem and when that solution doesn’t work, we try throwing something else at it. This not only wastes time and money, but our energy. A qualified coach could help you avoid this and grow quicker.
A Perfect Example
In our chat Carolina talks about the early days of Yogaleena...the very early days, about 8 years before she even opened. She started thinking about if and when she needed to quit her corporate career to start pursuing this new venture, but Bonnie stopped her and asked, “Is it feasible?” Feasible, why does that matter? Carolina thought.
Carolina had already forged ahead to quitting her job before even taking a minute to sit down and think about whether is was actually a viable business or not. (Luckily for us, it was :)
But, it just goes to show you how we can get carried away with our excitement, ideas and emotions, but we need someone to (gently) pull us back down to reality and help us create a blueprint to get us there.
What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There
People change. Our hopes, dreams and aspirations change and evolve- which is great- it’s what we’re supposed to do as humans. But, we need to be mindful of these changes and realize when it’s time to adjust our patterns and routines to fit where we are at this moment. For instance, Carolina was still cleaning toilets at Yogaleena long after opening (like years) and I remember asking her why she was still doing that. In her mind, she hadn’t noticed that her role had shifted. Instead of doing all the things and leading from the ground up, she realized that she needed to lead from the top down. Instead of cleaning the bathrooms, she needed to focus on her team of teachers that had grown from 1 to 16!
Coaches help us see these shifts much quicker than we tend to do on our own. Our society has a belief that busy = productive. That’s just not true. We don’t need to be stuck doing tasks when we can use our strengths to build a better business.
Like I mentioned above, I used a coach to grow my private practice into a thriving business. Now, I’m using a coach to help me grow The Inspired Therapist since they are two different businesses. The tools that I used to grow my first business aren’t applicable to this one.
Do You Need a Mirror?
As people, we tend to bring our emotional baggage into our business. A coach can help us look in the mirror and pull that out to see it for what it is. They are a great sounding board that can help us move through our emotions, while getting back to focusing on our business.
Since I’ve gone through coaching (and still am :), I am such an advocate of it! I would love to help you infuse your practice and yourself as a clinician with new energy, inspiration, and momentum to move your practice forward! If you’d like to talk about coaching, contact me today!
