What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
I meet with a new client for an initial 30-minute consultation before engagement, to learn about their objectives, what they are looking for in a coach and to answer any questions they may have about me or the coaching experience. Once engaged, we start the coaching process before the first meeting with a personality styles survey, personal questionnaire (to get the thinking process started) and several other exercises - all to be competed before our first session.
Our first session is 1.5 - 2 hours long. There is a lot to cover in going through your homework, clarifying objectives & outcomes, and reviewing the feedback from the personality styles survey. After this initial session, all other meetings will be for 60 minutes, meeting twice monthly.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Although I started out on my path with a Master's degree in directing improvisational theatre, after performing, training and directing actors for nearly 25 years, I had begun coaching my students in more than acting techniques, breaking through what was getting them stuck in moving their careers forward. Then people other than performing artists started to ask to work with me, saying "Would you help me get unstuck too?"
I then started working with business teams in creativity, communication, teamwork and strategic planning. I worked for 16 years with a firm that specialized in working with family businesses through succession, and became a Certified Succession Planner through the International Succession Planning Association.
Later, I trained and became a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) through the Coach Training Institute (CTI) and a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF). I have logged in nearly 2,000 coaching hours since certification. I am now the current President for the ICF San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.
I continue to attend conferences, workshops and summits on leadership, coaching and earning CEU's through CTI & ICF to maintain my credential.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your service? If so, please share the details here.
Two sessions per month via phone/GotoMeeting is $400/mo
One session per month via phone/GotoMeeting is $250/mo
How did you get started doing this type of work?
I think true coaches are born, not trained. It is a calling, not a vocation. Coaching is either intrinsically in your bones or it's not. It's who you are and what you do, whether you are being paid or not. It's just your way of being.
I have always been a coach - starting as an acting coach, a breakthrough coach, a succession coach and finally a life coach. I started out doing my graduate work in Directing/Acting, specializing in improvisational theatre. I have always been curious about finding ways of being with and living in change. Improv seemed like a great venue to experiment with change. I spent 25 years coaching actors, teaching them how to discover the creative flow within and with each other. This led to coaching breakthrough weekends with artists and then executives to identify where individuals get stuck, debunking disempowering beliefs and creating actionable steps for achieving their goals. It was a very powerful training process. I have leading this kind of work since 1978.
What types of customers have you worked with?
Helping untangle the issues & beliefs that keep you from moving forward - whether you are a business owner facing the difficult decisions related to succession, an executive manager dealing with organizational change or an individual facing or desiring life changes that may seem overwhelming.
You can't separate business decisions from your personal life, just as you can't separate your personal self from your work self. If you find yourself feeling frustrated or unable to move yourself forward, the co-active approach will help you get to the core of what is holding you back from having the life that you desire.
Describe a recent project you are fond of. How long did it take?
Lately quite a few of my clients are working on changing jobs or careers. What is exciting is to see that ALL of them are achieving their goals - landing new jobs either in the same professional track, or on the one they always dreamed to be doing.
What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Make sure the coach is professionally certified by an accredited educational institution.
What questions should customers think through before talking to professionals about their project?
My coaching is an experience of personal and professional development unlike other kinds of coaching. Based on the Co-Active approach, it begins by holding the coachee as naturally creative, resourceful and whole, and completely capable of finding their own answers to whatever challenges they face. My job is to ask powerful questions, listen and empower to elicit the skills and creativity a client already possesses, rather than instruct or advise. I use use an array of proprietary tools that have been proven as the gold standard over the past 20 years of the coaching profession.
