Niche in the Spotlight: Dyslexia Coaching

We love to celebrate the success of our coaches here at The Coaching Academy, many of whom are doing great work within particular niches.

Today we interviewed Jennie Lockley, to discuss her coaching niche as a Dyslexia Coach.

What made you decide on your niche?

My niche found me. I have seen first-hand how having Dyslexia can decrease your confidence and bring about limiting beliefs.

My husband has Dyslexia, and before we married, he felt that he had to tell me about his Dyslexia in case it made a difference to our relationship. He worried that he wasn’t good enough because he couldn’t spell or read well.

My daughter also has Dyslexia and struggled through school. Despite those struggles, she went on to receive an unconditional offer to study physics at Leicester University. On the day she graduated I was a very proud parent, she doesn’t let anything stop her from achieving what she sets out to do.

This is why I am passionate about coaching in my niche- I see so many people who lack the confidence to challenge a system that has encouraged them to think they are not good enough to do what they choose to do.

Many people have come to me to tell me quietly and in confidence that they aren’t very good at spelling and reading. This takes a lot of courage to say and shows that they trust me.

Where do you find your clients?

I use a Facebook business page and am having a website built. I am also on coaching directories, and I leave business cards wherever an interest is shown.

How do you help your clients?

I have had success in coaching people who have concerns about their confidence; who want to move on in life but think they don’t have the ability to be any good at anything. These often are people who are successful at what they are doing but cannot see it. They feel their success and achievements is a fluke and that someone will find out. They believe that this will be the end of their career, or that they cannot move forward and achieve further success. This can often be because they lack the whatever it is that they think they need to be successful, such as reading and writing, remembering names.

I help people to find ways around, through, over or under challenges and to see difficulties as obstacles rather than barriers to success.

I also help them to find the determination to succeed even when others are happy to allow them to ‘fail’, because they don’t think they are up to the challenge.

One of my clients told me that she realised she didn’t have to be the best at what she did to enjoy and make a living from her work. I love seeing people blossom as their confidence increases, as they think around a subject and as they realise that there are many ‘options’ and their ‘limiting beliefs’ are just that, limiting their lives.

Jennie saw her daughter and her husband overcome the seemingly “barrier to success” that Dyslexia brought them. Inspired by their achievements, she went on to help many others to challenges their limiting beliefs, to build their confidence and to achieve their full potential.