Jo Mason: 'It has been a truly humbling experience!'

Jo shared more about her work coaching individuals in STEM disciplines, and what it meant to have her hard work recognised at the International Coaching Awards last year. We hope you enjoy her inspiring story. 

What is your coaching niche?

I’m Jo Mason and my business is Propulsion Coaching, which I founded upon qualifying with The Coaching Academy in 2017. I work with high achieving introverts, particularly in the STEM disciplines, and they can be one or more of: academics, students, entrepreneurs, innovators, professionals and practitioners. The ‘thinking style’ aspect – high achieving introverts – relates to the challenges experienced by those who already have effective strategies for success but whose introverted traits are getting in the way of them getting to that next level. The STEM aspect is a natural link with my background which has bolstered my credibility. This niche enables me to maximise the skills and knowledge I developed on the wider suite of studies as a Coaching Academy Protégé.

How do you use NLP in your coaching business?

At the most basic level, it has quite simply enabled me to become a better person.  Being able to understand more about myself and others, and recognise that I always have a choice with my responses – whether they are thoughts, emotions or behaviours - is extremely empowering, as well as rewarding and confidence-building. This has helped me build better relationships, both personally and professionally, which in turn has exponentially impacted my success as a service provider and business owner. The incredible quantity of techniques and tools learned and developed on the course enhanced the depth and breadth of my coaching skills, resulting in my increased agility and ultimately deeper impact for clients.

Can you tell us about your experience of winning NLP Practitioner of the Year at the 2018 awards?

To have won this award and be recognised for my work within a year of starting my business was such a tremendous honour. I was quite literally stunned, for which anyone who tried to speak to me during the rest of the evening could vouch…it was a bit like an out-of-body experience for me afterwards! Being amongst friends, colleagues and The Coaching Academy team made it such a special night and taking my place as an award winner alongside such superbly talented coaches was truly humbling.

How has this award benefitted you personally and professionally?

Being able to call myself an ‘award-winning coach’ has had immeasurable benefits for me. From a personal perspective, it boosted my confidence and validated the bold and brave decision I had taken to change direction with my career and design and build my ideal future. Professionally, it has heightened confidence in my skills for my existing and prospective clients, enhanced my credibility, leveraged the influence and promotion of my brand, and been a great conversation-starter (not by me, might I add)!

What was your favourite part of the awards evening?

With The Coaching Academy being a worldwide coach training provider, as a student, you very quickly nurture many diverse and often long-distance friendships; but you inherently get rare opportunity to catch up in person outside the accelerator training days. The awards night is one of those occasions and meeting up with people from every stage of my coaching journey - including the teaching, assessment and support team - was wonderful! Coming together on this special occasion really reminded me of how incredibly and uniquely supportive the coaching community is.