This week's Coach in the Spotlight is Shahleeni Gardner. Shahleeni worked in education and as a Senior Assistant Principal before training to become a life coach with The Coaching Academy. She now runs a coaching business with a focus on coaching educators working with young people.
My journey started like many others, in having the experience of hitting rock bottom. A close friend of mine took me through a 6 month coaching programme and this changed my life. Having someone to not give you all the answers, but to question you, allow you the time to think and grow at your own pace was very motivational.
Out of all the coaching organisations I researched, I found The Coaching Academy to be the most flexible and supportive. They listened, were able to provide me with the best options and the flexibility allowed me the opportunity to sign up to the Life Coaching Diploma and begin my journey.
Coaching has helped me to continuously focus on my internal strength and self development. Reflecting on my personal journey and understanding the importance of looking forward, setting goals and working through those limiting beliefs, has allowed me to not only continue to work full time, but to also launch a successful coaching business along side and live the dream.
Busy life was definitely an understatement. Raising twins, full time role as a Senior Assistant Principal, catching Covid 3 times and then hit with virtual fatigue and high blood pressure. Although this all probably set me back about 1 year into completing the qualifications, the amazing thing was, at no point was a judged, or felt any pressure by the Coaching Academy to complete the course at a rush. I 100% trusted the process they mapped out and was able to complete at a suitable pace and qualify successfully.
Having the opportunity to coach clients, celebrate their promotional successes and to observe them making their own decisions throughout their journey and discussions held. Understanding the power of letting go and thinking deeply about the right sort of questions to ask. Also having the pleasure of meeting Natalie Potts and being mentored throughout the programme. The guidance was genuine and realistic, questions made me think about my niche and the path to take in order to succeed. Which thank you Nat, I am now on the journey to huge success.
I launched business “It's OK World - Internal strength to build the next generation.®” focusing on educators working with young people. Young people are unfortunately faced with many challenges due to social media, having the confidence to mange personal workload, have some of those difficult conversations every day and manage their emotions/mental health can be a challenge. Coaching them to find personalised strategies, called rooting strategies to build their internal strength, self belief and self confidence, so they can tackle any situation, continue with their dreams to help the next generation to grow and explore their own dreams.
With coaching you are always learning and growing your skills. It isn’t about the one off qualification but about the start to wanting to learn more every day. I’m starting the NLP Diploma in September with The Coaching Academy and hope to in the future have the opportunity to mentor for them and support clients like Natalie Potts supported me and is continuing to do so in my journey.
Take the jump and have confidence in yourself. Competition with other coaches, does not mean you don’t have a unique offer to change someone’s life. Like Natalie once said to me “There are over 8 billion people out there, someone needs your help.”!
The six live online training days and the linked workbooks. This allowed you to reflect at your own pace and go back to the workbooks even after qualifying to use the great strategies given as examples for yourself and your clients.
The Coaching Academy's members' area with all the videos allowed you to see the real life examples of coaching, use to build your own confidence and adapt for your personal clients. The opportunity to work with other people on the programme who are going through the same journey and you can comfortably relate to and trust.
Thank you Shahleeni for sharing your inspirational journey with us!
The Coaching Academy was established in 1999, and is now the world's largest coaching school.
In that time we have trained over 14,000 people to become life coaches.
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