coaching

An Ode To Coaching (& To You)

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Being a coach, teacher, artist, speaker, healer or trainer is challenging.

It asks you to be fully vulnerable while YOU become your product.

It asks you to market yourself and all of your brilliance, talents, skills, experiences, knowledge.

It asks you to take the risk of guiding others when you don’t have a crystal ball and don’t for sure know any outcomes.

It asks you to show up in your expertise, relying mostly on yourself, because even though you can get certified as a coach, you can’t get a PhD in it.

It asks you to trust your expertise, even when you know you aren’t perfect.

It asks you to be seen.

It asks you to keep on going, even when there are the inevitable folks who don’t resonate with you or even like you.

It asks you to create boundaries so that you don’t over-give or take over-responsibility.

It asks you to continue loving yourself even when not every client achieves the goals they want.

And yet, for all these challenges, I love this profession.

I love it with my heart and soul, because it’s enabled me to activate my brilliances and use them to support others.

I love this profession, because it’s helped me be part of healing the world.

I love this profession, because it’s enabled me to trust myself and my intuition.

I love this profession, because it’s showed me how to break free of limited thinking.

I love this profession, because it’s forced me to learn to love myself more and more every day.

And I love this profession, because I feel so alive when I am serving and supporting my beloved clients.

Coaching, teaching and healing are not for the meek or the faint-hearted. There is risk, especially for those of us that are breaking boundaries and leading our clients to deep, sacred places.

But it is oh, so worth it.

I honor every person who dares to step into this beautiful, exalting, messy, risky life’s work.

You are inspiring.

You are brave.

Don’t ever give up your Sacred Work — not because of criticism, not because of rejection, not because of fear.

The more you own it, the more you grow your business, the more you will grow your Sacred Self.

(And of course it would be my honor to help you attract more clients for your Sacred Work – just let me know and we’ll set a time to speak). You can apply here.

With love,
Joanna

Why You Need Coaching Skills (No Matter What Your Job Is!)

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When you see successful entrepreneurs in your field, do you wonder how they have become so successful?

Do you wonder how they developed such strong rapport with their clients and team members?

Do you wish you could create those kinds of relationships with your own clients and team?

If you said yes to any of these questions, the answer is: coaching skills! Before you say, “oh, but I’m not a coach…” let me explain. Coaching skills – no matter what industry or field your work is in – can enable you to transform your relationships with your clients or team for deeper, more meaningful communication.

Foundational coaching skills are important not only for coaches but also for anyone whose work is about helping or healing another person. This extends beyond coaches to include:

  • Teachers of all kinds
  • Health practitioners
  • Team leaders
  • Community organizers
  • Therapists
  • Real estate agents
  • You name it!

Over the past 5-10 years, coaching itself has turned into a popular and successful industry. This is not surprising to me because I think that when done well, when you have a mastery of certain coaching foundations, no matter who you are, you communicate better.

When you can communicate better, you can help others feel seen, create awareness for themselves and make breakthroughs past unproductive or limiting patterns and habits they’ve been living with for years. This is when they can achieve results they want to achieve as well as cultivate deeper confidence. This concept and understanding of deeper communication and being fully seen is absolutely universal throughout the coaching industry.

But when you think about it, that’s what everybody wants, not just coaches.

That’s what so many practitioners want for their clients and teams. For example, let’s say you’re a real estate broker and your purpose is to help your clients find a home that they love.

You know you understand the market and you’re really good at finding appropriate homes, but just imagine just how much more effective your work could be if you understood how to communicate deeply with your clients. You could:

  • address their fears around buying or selling, in a way that really resonates with them rather than just bouncing off them
  • talk them through areas of resistance and help them see beyond their initial reactions
  • hold their hands through the process in such a way that they can find that house and achieve the results they want

With soul-centered communication guided by your foundation in coaching skills, your clients will be able to move more ease-fully through and reach their goals.

Over the last several years, in my work helping women build their businesses, I’ve helped many different entrepreneurs build their businesses in a wide variety of fields. As a coach myself, I’ve noticed I’m not just helping people build their businesses, but also helping them communicate deeply with their teams and colleagues. By using these skills, they’re communicating much more effectively and intimately than ever before.

You know, as I’ve started thinking about this more and more over the past few months, I realize that I apply my coaching skills every day for my 4 ½-year old daughter! This is because in the role of mother, I want to help her create confidence, more awareness for herself and to help her achieve her goals. So coaching skills aren’t only for use in the world of work – they can be infinitely useful in many aspects of your life.

What I’ve been up to this month…

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Mid-April to mid-May have been BUSY! A few weeks ago, I was in NYC meeting with my Soul-Centered Leadership mastermind group, and leading them through some advanced techniques on claiming your value and helping your prospects and clients claim their value.

I love, love, love these women: they are super-committed to their businesses and their sacred work, and show up in BIG ways. The incredible women in Soul-Centered Leadership walk their talk, befriend and move past their fears, are willing to stretch even when it feels uncomfortable, and know how to dance like nobody’s business.

I always feel so filled up after I have the honor of teaching and coaching them for 2 days straight.

If you haven’t yet checked these rockstars out, I highly, highly recommend that you do. I’ve invited them to participate in the Soul-Centered Success Gift-away, and many of them have graciously shared their incredible gifts for you. Today is the LAST day to receive their pearls of wisdom through the Gift-away: http://soulfulcoach.com/SCLGiftaway.php

In other news, last week’s article provides you with a quick process for immediately accessing something you absolutely need to run a successful business: your intuition!

With love,
Joanna

Tap Into Your Intuition to Enhance Your Career!

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Imagine yourself taking a long walk in the woods. There are beautiful flowers and trees along the path, but also some potholes and fallen branches you have to navigate around. Eventually, you come to a fork in the path. It splits into not two, not three, but seemingly endless paths. You’re pretty sure you want to continue on your chosen path, so you forge on, but keep thinking about all the “what ifs.”

What if you had veered off to the left? What if you had gone up the hill or through the mountain tunnel? What if you had ridden a bike instead of walking? What if you had a companion to walk with?

Do you second-guess your decisions? Do you stop and spend a lot of time wondering about all the “what ifs” in your career? If you do, you know that all the second-guessing causes a ton of anxiety, exhaustion, and difficulty in moving forward.

What if you didn’t have to worry about all the “what ifs”?

There is a way to keep the “what ifs” in check, and you have it within you all the time. Your body contains treasures of important and valuable information about your life and your career. This body wisdom is called intuition.

Calling your intuition to action can help you navigate your life and business with more ease and confidence – and less worry about all those pesky “what ifs.”

So often, however, I meet women who aren’t in the practice of hearing and listening to those valuable clues and facts that your bodies give you everyday. Luckily, there are simple ways that you can embrace your body and your body wisdom, and begin to hear valuable information about your career (and your finances, your relationships, and life!!).

When you can really listen to what your body is telling you, you will be empowered to make decisions and choices about work & life that feel really good, because they are aligned with your values. You won’t waste time and energy on second-guessing in circles, but instead feel great about taking solid action and moving forward.

I invite you to make time to try this easy and quick 4-minute technique that will support you in beginning to become re-acquainted with your body wisdom:

1) Make space: Set aside about 4-5 minutes just for yourself in a quiet and nurturing space. Sit in a comfortable position on the ground or in a chair.

2) Breathe: Close your eyes and take at least 5 deep breaths. Breathe through your heart, down into your belly, and to the outer edges of your body so that you feel yourself expand as your breathe in. Each time you inhale, see if you can open up; each time you exhale, allow yourself to release and let go. Use this conscious breathing to connect to the present moment, and to connect to yourself.

3) Connect with your heart: Now, still keeping your eyes closed, place a hand on your heart and connect with your heart. Breathe deeply into your heart and let it expand with each inhalation.

4) Ask for wisdom: With your hand still on your heart, ask your heart the following question: “What’s most important for me to know about my work/career right now?” And then simply listen. You might hear the answer or see the answer in an image, or just know it deep inside. It might need a little time to rise up and make itself known. Continue to breathe and be present as you listen.

Connecting with your intuition can be as simple as that! Of course, there are much more advanced techniques, but this heart-centered meditation is a great place to start to reconnect with your body and benefit from all the wisdom it has for you.

Good to remember: this is a practice. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work for you the first time you try it. Keep at it, and you’ll be sure to see results!

I Looove NYC!

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I am back in Charlotte after an amazing 10-day trip to NYC.

I looove visiting NY – it’s already my second time back home in 2 months, and I just love the energy when I’m there. The truth is that I do love Charlotte – it’s a great city. But New York still has my heart. :-)

For the first leg of my NYC trip, I hosted a 2-day retreat for my Soul-Centered Leaders. These women amazed and inspired me to no end. Some of the women are New Yorkers, and others came in from California, Florida, Minnesota, Boston, Philadelphia, Upstate NY, and even Canada – talk about commitment to yourself and your work!

The openings and transformations that occurred over the 2 days can’t even be put into words. We saw increased income projections, deep healing around their money story, breakthroughs around marketing plans, and so much more.

And as if that weren’t enough – the day after the retreat I met with one of my private mentor clients for a ½ day intensive together. The day started with me taking her out to brunch at one of my old NYC stomping grounds. Then we headed off to our private meeting room where we did ritual and process work to help her bust through limiting beliefs around visibility, which led into AMAZING planning of offerings and marketing that projected her into way higher income than she had expected.

These are the types of things that happen all the time when I connect with clients. I seriously feel like one of the luckiest women on the planet.

And now, I’m settling back in Charlotte and kicking off the Wise Woman Leadership Program with 30 rockin’ and soul-centered women ready to set deep foundations for their businesses.

Wherever you are, I hope you’re enjoying yourself and your week, and I hope you enjoy this week’s article, all about how to leverage your relationships for more success.

With love,
Joanna

Have You Created a 3-Tiered Support System for Success?

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Delegating is so incredibly important because the more successful you become and want to be, the more responsibility there is. You are not supposed to be doing it all on your own! In fact, any good leader knows that the way to accomplish all that you want to accomplish is by enlisting others to help you out.

By asking for support on your projects, soul-centered goals, and in your life, not only do you achieve what you want to achieve more quickly and easily, but you also avoid exhaustion and overwhelm. And here’s the added bonus: when you enlist others to help you out, you are empowering those support individuals by putting responsibility and power in their hands.

What I’ve found is that, for the most successful results on any project or goal, it’s important READ MORE