Coaching - what is it and when you might need it
Coaching has become a really popular topic in recent times, and for good reason, too. I first learnt about coaching around three years ago, and I was curious how it could help me in my business. What I didn’t know then, was that coaching would be the window into personal development, and diving deep into my self limiting beliefs.
How coaching changed my life
For as long as I can remember, I’ve battled with self-doubt. When I first started my photography business, the comparison was through the roof. Even after months of learning photography, I still felt like a fraud when calling myself a photographer. Coaching gave me the tools to become more self-aware, and learn to unpick the underlying reasons for those feelings. My journey with coaching has brought about huge shifts, not only in my mindset, but my confidence and self-belief too. It’s had such a profound effect on me, both in life and in business, that I decided to share this work with others, too. Last year, I completed a Diploma in NLP coaching, and officially became a qualified coach.
What is coaching?
There is no one definition for coaching, but in a nutshell, coaching is about helping you to unlock your potential, and achieving goals you are striving towards. There are many types of coaching, from more general life coaching, wellbeing coaching, to career or business coaching, to name just a few.
Coaching is goal oriented, and it’s really about holding space for you to work through self-limiting beliefs, and the things holding you back, to help you to achieve your goals. Part of the coaching process may include clarifying those goals, too, as we don’t always have a clear idea of what we would like to be working towards.
My work as a coach includes holding up a mirror for you to recognise your own resourcefulness. Rather than teaching you what I know, which isn’t always helpful, I guide you to find your own answers and solutions that fit with your unique life and circumstances. How many times have you been given advice, only to find that it doesn’t apply to your business, or worse, that it really doesn’t fit with your values and beliefs?
The coaching process is a mixture of asking the right questions to help you dig a little deeper, and using powerful tools to go beyond the conscious mind to allow for long lasting changes.
Coaching vs mentoring - what is the difference?
Often, the terms coaching and mentoring are used interchangeably, and this can sometimes cause a little bit of confusion. Many of the marketing or business coaches are actually mentors. What’s the difference? Let me explain!
Mentoring is all about sharing knowledge based on lived experiences. This works great for marketing, for example, as the mentor can lead you through tried and tested methods that have worked for them. A good mentor will also allow room for you to see what advice is applicable to you and your business, and you’ll work together to find a solution to your problem. This is an important step as I’ve fallen for the ‘follow these exact steps and you’ll have a successful business’ kind of programmes, and sadly, they rarely work how you expect them to. Following someone else’s plan won’t guarantee a result, as it’s not tailored to your business.
You might consider mentoring if you need help with something specific such as building your mailing list, creating a marketing plan or setting up an online shop.
Coaching is different in that it encourages you to turn inward, and find what feels good to you. It allows you to work through any self-limiting beliefs that might be holding you back, encouraging you to make long-lasting changes.
When to work with a coach
As my coaching is geared towards women running their own businesses, I will focus on giving you examples within this space.
Working with a coach can be helpful at many different stages of your business. It might be that you have a side hustle and are getting ready to take your business full time. Having support from a coach during this time can be invaluable, as this is often when those self-limiting beliefs and negative self talk can really start creeping in, as you step outside of your comfort zone.
It might be that you’ve been running your business for a year or two, and all of a sudden, your future is looking a little less clear. Now that your goal of taking your business full time has been achieved, you are a little uncertain as to what your next steps should be. You’re looking for a little more clarity, and perhaps you’re ready to take your business to the next level, but you’re not sure what that should look like. You know that following someone else’s business model is not going to work, and coaching can help you to establish a clear plan of action that is unique to you.
Perhaps you know what your next steps should be. You find yourself doing all the planning, but when it comes to taking action, you freeze. You question whether you’ve got what it takes, whether people will care about what you have to say, and why does everyone else seem to find all this so easy? Almost every time we step out of our comfort zone, our self-limiting beliefs have a tendency to pop up and make us doubt it all.
That idea you were so excited about? Suddenly you’ve found a hundred reasons why you couldn’t possibly do it. Most often, that’s your self-limiting beliefs talking! Working with a coach can help you to challenge those beliefs, so that next time you are working on something that feels a little scary, you will have the tools to work through the self-limiting beliefs and actually do the thing.
Choosing the right coach
It’s so important that you choose the right coach for the kind of things you want to be working on. Not only is it important to consider the type of coaching you might need (e.g. wellbeing, health, holistic, mindset), it’s also crucial to making sure you pick a coach you connect with. Engage with their content, read their blog posts, look for the values they hold at the centre of their business, as these will inform how they approach their coaching work.
Follow your gut on this one, as your coaching experience will only ever be as successful as your relationship with your coach. Look for someone you feel you can trust and share openly with.
My personal style of coaching - my values, and the things I love to help with
I’m hugely passionate about working with creative women in business, whether that’s at the beginning of their business journey, or supporting them as they prepare to take their established business forward.
My coaching practice has formed through my own experiences of self-doubt, comparison, and questioning every step that I took in the early days of my business. It’s my goal to help you work through those blocks, and empower you to follow your dreams, whatever that may look like for you. I know how important it is to create a life, and business, that feels aligned with your values and beliefs. A business that works around your life, and not the other way around. My values are at the heart of everything that I do - honesty, respect and compassion are hugely important to me.
In a nutshell, coaching is about clarity, establishing clear goals, empowerment and allowing you to see your own resourcefulness, unlocking your potential by using that resourcefulness to achieve your goals, all the while giving you the space and tools to develop and raise self-awareness.
If you’re curious about working with me, head over here to find out more, and if you’d like to find out a little more about the difference between coaching and mentoring, you can listen to Episode 39 of the Fearless Hustle Collective podcast.
If working on your mindset is something you’re curious about, my 5 day Mindset Reset email series could be just the thing! Pop your details below to sign up.
