20 Years Today.....

Today I celebrate 20 years in business as a transformational coach and coach trainer.

To be honest when I set up the business, I never expected to be still going strong and to reach such an epic milestone in my career and business.

I remember sitting in a coffee shop, a year earlier, I’d been made redundant from my HR job in 2003 wondering what I would do and what my life would look like. In those moments of despair, I found the tiniest of adverts in the newspaper – (we didn’t have the internet in those days) but as I looked through the job pages, I found a very small advert asking if ‘Do you want to be a life coach?’ 

The question did not take me long to answer, it was the calling I was looking for. I embarked on the training and within 6 months I was fully qualified and accredited.  I remember the trainer asking me what the biggest learning I’d taken from the course. We were asked to write it down on a florescent card star (which I still have) and my answer took me by surprise, it was not like the other students, talking about the skills of becoming a coach.  As I stood up and read aloud what I’d written, I heard myself say “I love me for being me” this was not easy to say out loud but as the words passed over my lips, they deeply resonated. I knew becoming a life coach had already changed my life.  I was, of course, emotional, and it took me many weeks to process my learning.  My learning had been profound, and I was astounded by where it had taken me.   I unlocked a new part of myself, one I’d only just discovered, and like any new relationship; I was tentative, apprehensive and curious about myself and where this new journey would take me.

I’d already worked with people for over 12 years in recruitment, HR and Learning and Development before becoming a life coach. I was passionate about helping others grow and develop, yet, what I realised after my training was; there was something much more significant and meaningful that could be gained by supporting a person in a coaching relationship.  Beyond transactional actions and a quick fix, to a deep transformation of internal change that would lead to lifelong sustained change. 

Like me I believed that people could make significant changes to their lives, careers and relationships.  I believed that they could reach more of their potential and genuinely transform their lives for the better.

I nervously set off on my new career path and, 20 years later I can say I have never looked back.  I am not sure if I found coaching or if it found me, but it has been one of the most profound relationships I have ever had in my life.  It has helped me so much over the years in become the person I am today.  It helped ground me in times when I’d lost my footing, it has anchored me when I was adrift, and it helped me find the shore when I was lost out at sea.

In 2004, I wrote the Certificate in Professional Coaching Practice programme and 20 years ago to this very day, I delivered the first ever programme to a group of 12 willing students at the Ramada hotel on Princes’ Street, Edinburgh.  I was nervous and had only just finished writing the coach training manual that I’d proudly printed out, carefully hole punched and placed in 12 pristine white A4 binders.  It was in that moment, when all 12 women were looking on, waiting for me to begin teaching them how to be a life coach did I step into a new phase of my growth and development.  The coach in me, met the teacher in me. 

I was the only ICF coach training school in Scotland and only the 3rd in the UK at the time, and the course I’d written was different from what the other schools were teaching.  This was a truly transformational programme, giving the skills and techniques required to be a great life coach, but it also took each of the students on a personal transformational journey, where they learned about themselves, overcame their fears and barriers to success, they figured out who they were and what they wanted.  Over 60% of those students are still coaching today and are still running their own successful coaching business which blows me away.

From the very first minute of that Certificate in Professional Coaching Practice programme I knew I was here to coach and teach.  I later discovered that through the coaching process I could also help my clients heal from their past and move beyond the conditioned patterns that held them hostage.  I could help them find their courage, truth and strength to go beyond what they thought was possible and, as I took my life coaching clients on this journey, both my training courses and I evolved.

When I look back on my 20-year career of being a coach, a teacher and healer I have a deep sense of achievement and, with that, a profound acknowledgement that what I have created is very special and unique. I knew early on that I could only help so many people – I’m just one human being and only have so much capacity, but I have fulfilled my vision of creating a ripple effect through teaching others to become coaches.
Like a stone being skimmed across a pond, each newly trained coach, has rippled far and wide and those I have taught have gone on to coach others. It’s extraordinary, really.

I am thankful for all of you (10,000 coaching clients and 8,000 students) who have trusted me over the last 20 years, who believed in me when I wasn’t sure if I believed in myself, for choosing me to be your coach and teacher.  For connecting with my philosophy on transformational development.  For doing the work – and we know that is not easy to do.  For not giving up at the first hurdle and for making an impact far greater than a ripple in a pond could ever do. 

You are my heroes and my inspiration.  I salute you for your compassion and commitment to a career that requires a remarkable act of duty and responsibility and one that requires you to go beyond yourself, using yourself only as the instrument to enable deep change in others.

My 20-year career in coaching and coach education has been remarkable.  I am not the same person who stood in front of those 12 wonderful women in 2004.  I have learned so much about who I am since then. I have learned how to get out of my own way and, in pursuit of self-mastery, have invested thousands in my own development, sharing what I have learned with my students so they-too can achieve mastery in all they do.  Coaching has changed how I live my life and has taught me how to live my life on purpose.  I couldn’t have asked for any greater gift.  Coaching has been my guiding light, that has led me home to my true self and has given me a richness in life, money just cannot buy.

I am humbled and grateful for the business I have created and the amazing people I have had the pleasure to meet and work with.  Thank you for being you, and, thank you for letting me, be me.