I’ve gone from designing mobile phone networks to empowering hundreds of coaches to make a living from making a difference.
How it all began…
“I think you might like this”.
Those were my husband’s words as he handed me a copy of “Coaching For Performance” by Sir John Whitmore.
I was standing in the kitchen of my home with my laptop whirring in the background.
It was churning out countless iterations of a climate model I was running as part of an Open University course I was doing to see if I wanted to be a meteorologist. (Yes, really.)
I was 32 and home with two under 2’s having left my engineering career in less than perfect circumstances.
I knew I needed more than coffee groups and toddler company.
I was also 4 years into recovery for severe depression and anxiety brought on by a lifetime of ‘people pleasing’.
I was actively searching for my calling.
People talk of a lightbulb moment 💡, of not being able to unsee what they have been shown?
That moment was it for me.
The processes in that book were exactly how I wanted to support people, so that they didn’t have to go through the pain that I had been suffering my entire life.
I had found my calling.
That led me to certify as a life coach, then an NLP Practitioner, then add more and more modalities to my skillset to ensure that I could help my clients accelerate their success without having to suffer, or be re-victimised in the process.
I was excited for the future, but I had never run a business before. In fact my only experience was watching my dad struggle all through my teenage years and beyond as he tried to be his own boss. It hadn’t ended well and so I embarked this new journey with an extreme amount of trepidation.
No-one tells you that starting a business is the biggest personal development journey you will go on. (There, I just told you!)
From learning how to talk about what I actually did, to dealing with rejection, low sales, learning marketing and that there really is no way around being visible in this work.
At times it all felt like it was too much.
But there was that constant thread of, “this is what I am here to do”.
My passion for quality coaching grew with the growth of the industry. More and more coaches were popping up, and more and more coaching training programs were promising the earth, but sadly many didn’t deliver.
That led me to start Coach School – an internationally accredited coach training program that was designed with the student coach at the heart of it.
I quickly gained a reputation as being transparent and honest about the coaching industry and spent countless hours helping coaches to identify their next steps.
The more I spoke to the coaches and clients that were having the greatest success from my coaching and mentoring, the more I found they had in common.
They were women who wanted more than anything to make a living from making a difference.
Far too often they would come to me defeated by the coaching industry, having spent their life savings on a program that promised the world, and failed to deliver.
They lacked confidence in their coaching skills, and felt like a fish out of water when it came to the business side.
All they want to do is make a difference to their clients’ lives.
The coaching models that were being taught weren’t working.
The business advice for coaches wasn’t working.
And the best coaches were leaving the industry which was resulting in a shift to more masculine coaching techniques.
I developed the SWITCH Coaching System® to give coaches a structure that they could use to bring all of them to their coaching, without losing the power of coaching itself.
And of course, The SWITCH Coaching Model is the approach that I use with my own coaching clients.
There are two main ways that I work with my clients; The Success SWITCH Course & Coaching to SWITCH on your own purpose and potential, and reignite your flame for coaching. And The Coaching SWITCH Training for coaches at all levels in this game-changing coaching approach.
I’ve gone all in on my work as a coach and coach mentor/trainer and I constantly get the inner whisper…
"This is what I am here to do"
I knew it was all worthwhile and working when I ran my first Coach School LIVE program in Los Angeles in 2021.
The bringing together of a small group of women, in a safe space where they could support each other as well as un-learn much of what they had been taught generationally was a proud moment.
And those moments continue now.
As each coach takes the time to do the inner work required to see external results they become a role model for the women who look up to them.
And THAT is how we will change the world.
I’d love you to be a part of it.…