why I hired a coach

I recently hired my first coach.

I’ve read the studies, heard the interviews, and know that most “successful” people have a coach they work with. Before this week it wasn’t that I never thought I could benefit from working with a coach; it’s that I never felt comfortable forcing my Self into a coaching relationship because that’s what I was “supposed” to do.

As I look back, there really were two main reasons why I never hired a coach:

1.) I didn’t feel like I needed one—felt like I could find my way, had success, maybe a little overconfident.

2.) I didn’t feel like I saw any that I would work well with (this was the main reason). I always had the impression that most coaches would try to tell me how I need to change, what I’m doing wrong, or why what I was doing wasn’t going to work. I know I don’t know everything, but I also know the way I need to do certain things and how I can’t do things that don’t feel right and authentic (and I knew this way before I started talking about the authentic Self and life)—I needed a coach who would work alongside me, support who I am, and help me see some blindspots, but not try to change what makes me special.

While I never worked with a coach, I was ready to hire a coach on two separate occasions, but obviously neither worked out.

The first was a woman who was a guest speaker in The AGC™. After leading the conversation with her for the community, I felt a strong connection with her and felt like she would be the type of coach I could work with while still being able to be my Self. We had a meeting about what the working relationship would look like and shortly after I let her know I was ready to sign up, she let me know that she had been hired by a large company in our profession. She would no longer be able to take me on as a client because she could only work with the advisors within that firm’s network.

A year or so later I asked an extremely successful advisor and entrepreneur if he’d be my coach; I knew he had the knowledge and skillset to help me become a better entrepreneur and advisor. Plus, he was a friend and someone I looked up to (and still do); if he could help me have a fraction of the success he had, I’d be good.

He politely declined due to his demanding schedule, which I kind of expected given his balancing of his fast-moving professional and his personal life. But, he did meet with me for a few months (for free) and gave me some transformational exercises that would be very important in my Pursuit—specifically, planning out my ideal day.

So the two times I felt I found my coach, they both didn’t work out.

Thankfully, I was able to navigate my way through the first twenty years of my career without a coach thanks to some amazing mentors—some were official mentors, but many were mentors from afar and may not have known I made myself their mentee.

As great as mentors can be, they can only take you so far.

Enter my first coaches.

About a month ago I hired a coach to help me learn how to make beats—specifically, lo-fi hip-hop beats. This was an easy decision because it is something I have to learn how to do and I quickly realized I can’t figure it out on my own…or the time it would take to do it on my own is more than I’m willing to dedicate. I found this coach by asking my network. It didn’t take long because a friend of mine’s brother is a professional producer, who just happens to work in hip-hop. After talking to my soon-to-be coach and knowing his brother, it was an extremely easy decision to make.

Most recently, I hired I guess what I’d call an executive or life coach, although I don’t really consider him a coach—more of a partner in my Pursuit.

When I was introduced to him, I did not expect hiring him to work with me over the next year. If you saw my social media this week you saw that I participated in a session of breathwork and cold plunge-sauna rotations; this is why the introduction was made. An advisor friend of mine knew I was going to be in Huntington Beach for a few days and this coach is just up the way in Costa Mesa. My friend knew I was interested in exploring breathwork and that I’ve been known to hop a cold plunge from time to time, so he thought we should meet—he also thought my coach and I would hit it off.

He was right.

We had a quick call to meet, which could not have been better, and hung up with the expectation of meeting for a personal session and that was it.

Fast forward to Monday morning and after meeting my coach, talking with him (the “coaching”), doing some breathwork, two rounds of two minutes in 36-degree water followed by 10 minutes in 240-degree heat, and a final controlled drip in the water I knew that I was going to work with him.

It wasn’t the breathwork, cold plunge, and sauna work that sold me on working with him; although I love how he incorporates those as a tool to helping his clients—but I’m in Indiana and he’s in California so it’s not like I’d get to swing by each week for an in-person session.

It was his energy, his understanding of who I am and how I operate, and his commitment not to change me but to help me continue to grow and evolve as I need to stay aligned with my authentic life.

I know he operates on the same frequency as I do and so do his clients, so I know he’ll be able to work alongside me, rather than be an expert trying to tell me what he thinks I should do.

At the end of the day, it was an easy decision to work with him—and it’s not an insignificant investment of time or money.

I find my Self at a stage where I know having someone who can help me identify the shadows that might be holding me back from the next wave of growth, hold me accountable, and guide me to finding my own answers is a huge value.

I think I’ve also matured, evolved, and realized that as well as I think I know my Self, I can’t know all of me without someone helping me to address the areas I can’t see, or subconsciously chose not to see.

At the end of the day, I’m finally ready and naturally, the Universe brought the right people into my life at the exact time I needed them.

I also think being on the other side of the coaching relationship is going to help me become a better life planner and advisor—the relationship I have with my coach will be very similar to the relationship I’m hoping to form with future clients in my LifeDesign+ relationship.

I’ll be able to stand more firmly on the value I provide knowing that I’m investing my time and money in my own coach.

So that’s why I finally hired a coach—twenty years into my career.

I’m excited about kicking the relationship off in October and I’m sure I’ll be sharing what I’m learning about my Self along the way.

Until next time…keep pursuing,

JC