"When you were running your financial planning business, how helpful would it have been to have someone like you to talk to?"
My friend Nick asked me this question a few years ago. It stopped me in my tracks. We were both chewing the fat about what we were going to do having each sold our respective financial planning businesses. He, like me, was considering coaching. We had both participated in an excellent coaching course during the pandemic, but I was hesitating. Unsure if I saw myself as a Coach.
Nick had nailed it in one. It would have been invaluable.
Ruth the Coach
This is a post I've been procrastinating on. Mostly because I'm a little bit fearful. Fearful of failing, of 'crickets', of being judged, of being a cliché, of not being good enough.
But Nick's question keeps coming back to me.
Invaluable
I recall when I was in the thick of running my financial planning business I worked with a Coach. She was brilliant. She was someone I could offload to. Someone to think with. Someone to challenge my thinking. Someone to support me when hard decisions needed to be made or tricky conversations needed to be had. Someone to hold me accountable. Someone to help me see what I couldn't see myself.
I found her by accident almost. She was a speaker at a conference. Her subject? the power of our own minds. For good and not so good. Two weeks later I met her for a coffee telling myself I didn't need a Coach but she'd be a good contact to make...until I started to talk. In that moment I experienced the value of being with a non-connected individual who just held the space and listened to me whilst I unfurled the barrage of things I was dealing with in my business.
That experience changed everything for me. Her guidance was, indeed, invaluable.
The best kept secret
Since that conversation with Nick I have been honing my skills. Doing more courses. Attending a monthly supervision group. Reading coaching books. Listening to coaching podcasts. Being coached myself.
And over the past three years, I've been working with financial planning business owners, and those aspiring to be, to help them navigate the business (and mind) challenges we all know so well.
One client went from being a senior team member to buying and leading the business. Another finally had those difficult conversations with underperforming team members they'd been avoiding for months. One set up their new business. Another started to plan their business sale.
However, the crazy thing is I have barely told anyone this is what I am doing. I slipped the word ‘Coach’ into my LinkedIn profile and that's it!
Ready
For whatever reason, the time now feels right (even if my Linked In profile and Website need a tad of attention!).
I have the confidence, time and desire to do this. Most importantly I feel ready to own the role of Coach.
But let's not get hung up on a title. You can think of me as a Coach, Thinking Partner, Mentor, Critical Friend or Guide. My role is to be of service and value to you, and all I may work with.
I understand the pressures of client expectations, leading a team and building sustainable practices whilst balancing your life and health because I've lived them. I know what it's like to juggle cashflow concerns while trying to deliver exceptional client service. I've been there when regulations and business practices change (hello AI) and you're wondering how to adapt without losing your mind.
You
As ever, I'm interested in you.
Tell me your experiences of working with a Coach, or if you haven't, yet,
What's been your hesitation in doing so?
Other than the fact you have your stuff nailed already which is of course great to hear 😉
Do drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you.
This isn’t a pitch; it’s about putting myself out into the world. But if you're curious about coaching, let’s have a mutual no-obligation 30-minute conversation to explore whether it’s right for you.
Finally, you're never going to be any younger than you are today, what, like me, have you been procrastinating about that you just need to put into the world?
Until next week my friends,
Ruth x
Ruth you should absolutely be a coach, a mentor, a guide. I think it would be amazing to work with someone who challenged me, dug around a bit for my strengths and then help me play to them. We all need this, whatever age and whatever industry. Accountability is key and we’re all left to our own devices tbh and therefore not reaching our full potential. Go Gurl! 😀❤️
Hi Ruth I had very good experience of a Mentor, not in finance, but in my Art Practice … after retiring from 25 years in Marketing
I wanted to have a solo art show but lacked the confidence .. my mentor a successful artist guided me and in 2008 I had a hugely successful show at The Courtyard in Hereford - over 200 attended the Private View - I was overwhelmed and exhausted!