I have been a leader for many years and always found that the part that I really enjoyed was helping other to develop, to be successful. I always read books about personal development, leadership, goal setting and success as those are the ones that inspired me on a personal and professional level. During my career, I also received leadership and coaching courses and I truly enjoyed without really understanding what a professional coach does.
After a turnaround in my professional and personal career that took me a couple of years to settle down (all good!) during summer 2016, I felt that I needed to refocus on my life and started meditating, reading again the personal development books that I always enjoyed. For some reason I got to one that had, what I know now, the Wheel of Life. I decided to go away for a week end to think about my life and the Wheel. It was very profound, and it did help me a lot to refocus in the areas of my life!
Doing research online about different courses, I found the Coaching Academy online offering a Free 2-Day event in London. I just came back from annual leave and I had my senior management coming the following week to visit me, but despite the jetlag and all what I had to prepare for the visit, I decided to invest the weekend and see what this course was about.
I did some coaching courses in the past, but they were more focused on coaching the teams I worked with. I didn't really know an awful lot about Life Coaching, but by the end of Day 2, I knew I had found exactly what I had been looking for all these years, a career (I thought at that time it was a hobby!) that I could feel a passion for by helping people to develop and transform the way organizations can create a sustainable and people-centered business.
So, my coaching journey began - I enrolled within the week, and the box of materials arrived. During the first 2 days, when we have to write down our goals, I had given myself 12 months to complete the qualification and have recurrent paying customers. Does it sound familiar?
I started a planner for completing the modules, webinars (most of them I watched at the gym!) and the Accelerator Days. Also, I started the coaching sessions 20 days after as I wanted to make sure I started practising as soon as possible. I was concerned about finding clients, especially because I am from abroad and my network in UK is limited, but thanks to the e-group I found excellent students willing to have reciprocal coaching sessions. Thank you all!
I have thoroughly enjoyed all the aspects of this qualification, especially meeting the trainers and all the fellow coaches as they have all a forward thinking and very creative mentality. I enjoyed every second of the coaching sessions as I could see how my colleagues and I were improving, session after session and I had so much fun making mistakes, but I learned from them. And this was the most important think to achieve, same as with our clients: to learn.
My suggestion to other students is to take as many coaching sessions as possible, keep your paperwork up to date and start writing your thesis as you read books and attend the Accelerator Days. Also, the following week after an Accelerator day, I made sure that I created a summary with all the tools, reading material and research so I could start digging into the subject more. I found this a manageable way to absorb all the material and definitively helped me to be on track within my busy schedule.
As I mentioned before, I have been working in multi-national organization many years and always thought there is a better way to build successful business with a people-centered approach and this is the reason I decided to study Executive and Corporate Coaching.
In October 2017, I graduated with Distinction and I was very proud for getting that grade as English is not my first language. The most important cause I wanted to show my children was that you have to follow your dreams and values, no matter what your age is.
In November, I launched my business Fastracktorefocus, and I truly hope I can help people and organizations to be successful by finding their Life-Work Leadership and contributing to this world.
Last weekend, I was reading the goal that I wrote down during the Free 2-days event: to have recurrent paying customers by December 2017 in my coaching business. And you know? I now have 4 recurrent paying customers after the first month of getting my Diploma - but the most important is the feeling of actually helping people to follow their dreams.
Thank you Jan, Kris, Pam, Ann and all my fellow students for all your help during this journey!
If Nieves’ words have inspired you and you feel that Coaching could be a potential full or part time opportunity for you, or if you would just like to know a little more about what Coaching is and how it can benefit you and the lives of others, please contact our Specialist Course Advisor, Jamil on 0208 996 4830 or email: Jamil@the-coaching-academy.com
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