Coaching Client Case Studies

Shawn left a ‘good job’ to become a speaker and corporate trainer 7 years before we first spoke with him, and he’d done pretty well for himself. But he’d hit a plateau he couldn’t seem to get past, mostly because he couldn’t identify exactly what it was or where it was coming from.

As we began coaching he started to realize his wildly fast-paced business life was often about keeping up with (the hours and hours of) work and travel he felt he had to do (and didn’t really like) instead of work he passionately loved and really wanted to do.

He’d also been investing the lion’s share of his time and energy with just one client whose business was making less than 25% of his total revenue. A closer look showed that income was what had been his first steady ‘base’ revenue when he began in business, which helped explain why he was having a tough time redirecting his energy, attention and focus.

Daring to believe he could make a great living doing only work he loves, and slowing down long enough to dig deep enough to discover what that actually was, Shawn came to see he was answering a calling to purpose: to inspire people of all ages to believe in their dreams no matter what and live their full potential.

With coaching helping him identify, distinguish and define his direction and best route, he got clearer about what he does and who he does it for. He refocused his energy on speaking and facilitation - thoughtfully withdrawing from his ‘base’ client while helping them adjust and fill in the gaps his departure created - and kept his eyes focused on his new and larger sense of vision.

Then he revamped his old web site to suit that new vision, and began making use of new mediums of communication and social promotion to give people an ‘up close and personal’ sense of who he is and what he’s about. Then he did what he does best: engage and relate in a real, fresh and inspiring way with people.

He simultaneously renegotiated old business (or replaced it with new), and retooled his key presentation (making it much more personal) and taped a video of it that’s getting rave reviews.

A couple of months of letting the people he already knew what he was now doing – and keeping his eyes (and mind) open for opportunity and opening - and soon a new kind of booking started rolling in.

Today he books more revenue in a single day than he used to in three months. He’s doing exactly what he loves, without the drag of stuff he doesn’t enjoy, and making much more doing it than he once dreamed possible, securing engagements from coast to coast and building a following of raving fans as he goes.

‘I’d been bumping up against something for a while, I just couldn’t figure out what. Working with Lissa and Randy was like someone turned floodlights on! Once I could see what the problem actually was, and what to do to change it, I could refocus and really get to work. Now, I only do what I love and I’m making more in a single day than I used to in 3 months.’

Lorna is an attorney with a deep sense of social justice who was earning a great living working 100+ hour weeks doing what was, in her own words, ‘sucking the life right out of my life’.

When she came to coaching she was thinking (sadly) that she might have to leave the profession she ‘once really loved’. In her mind the choices were black and white: it was either a happier life or it was the security of a steady legal practice. It wasn’t both.

Not long after coaching began, she realized that – like many of us - she’d mistakenly put a higher value on earning and security than on living a life she loved, and that had taken a steep toll on her deep senses of vocation, creativity and possibility.

She also began to see that the solution might not be ‘happy life’ versus ‘law’ but a redefinition of life lived more tailored to her with both included (which challenged her thinking but brought a rush of excitement and passion).

As she began to unearth her old dreams and take their connection to her calling seriously, she started to see that it was possible to remain an attorney while living and working differently - without necessarily losing solid, steady income (her greatest fear).

She started to realize that she didn’t need to trade-off a happy and fulfilled ‘now’ in the name of a great investment portfolio and secure future ‘later’. She also began to see how the migraines and ‘spells’ of extreme fatigue and achiness she pushed her way through were her life’s way of saying ‘NO’ in an effort to redirect how she was living.

Within a couple of months, Lorna took a leap by taking a ‘scouting’ trip to California, a place she’d long dreamed of living, where she discovered she loved it as much as she’d dreamt she might.

Within six months she’d moved to her dream city of San Francisco and began an exciting new position with a leading North American environmental agency’s legal team. There she serves as champion for causes she passionately believes in, doing what she does best.

Today she’s energized, headache free and on fire with optimism – and being paid almost as much as before while working a substantially shorter work week (and the moving and licensing costs were covered by her new employer!). That leaves her plenty of room to enjoy and explore her new home, new city and new life ‘right now’.

While taking a break, Lorna wrote us this e-mail:

‘I almost can’t believe I lived anything other than this for as long as I did. It seems so simple now, but it sure didn’t feel like it at the time. I’m still stunned at how things just came together, and how fast. I’m actually doing what I love to do for causes I believe in. Life’s beautiful, isn’t it? And we’re just getting started, aren’t we?’

Brian was a successful serial entrepreneur with the Midas touch. In record time - and with great public acclaim over the course of his 25-year professional life - he’d turned half a dozen troubled, and very diverse businesses, into star performers producing real profits.

But when we first spoke, he was stressed out and completely stumped.

During the same period he’d married, divorced, and remarried – and was back in marital counselling, sadly wondering if divorce was on his horizon again.

He was also between businesses and unable to take any meaningful steps in any particular direction.

The idea of turning one more business around - or starting a new one – really ‘wasn’t doing it’ for him. But he had no real idea what else to do ‘with the rest of his life’.

As a result of working with us, he got a clear picture of his deeper passions (public service, connection, community, golf!), true calling (teaching, building power coalitions dedicated to public service and positive change, social promotion) and deeper purpose (helping people make meaningful personal turn-around’s and using those results to inspire others), and he re-evaluated his definition of success to include effective public service that makes a measurable difference in the world with ‘at risk’ populations that are all too often underserved.

He also began to see that the women in his life were more ‘projects’ than partners, and his relationships were very much like his businesses had been, with him in the dedicated – and perpetual - role of ‘white knight tuning things around’.

As his professional focus began to reorient itself, he found himself attracted to women (and men) of a wholly different kind of character, values and life outlook. He also found himself unwilling (and in some cases, no longer able) to maintain old relationships where he was in his old role.

Through these overlapping experiences, he discovered he had new preferences for shared partnership and responsibility, and new boundaries when it came time to taking the casual to the serious. These discoveries added to his sense of ‘right’ direction, and informed his ideas of ‘how to’ in his reoriented professional work.

Today, he’s loving life as a first-time unattached ‘silver fox’ with a beautiful place overlooking the bayou he loves and lots of time for ‘the sacred game of golf’.

He’s also refocused his touch-of-gold business acumen on creative consultancy work with flagging national NFP’s in sore need of reinvention and renewed financial and program delivery performance. And that allows him to bringing the best of his experience and flair together with his sense of purpose in a whole new and deeply satisfying way.

*** Names in Green are the names of those happy both to share their experience of coaching and to be identified, and names in Blue are the names of those happy to share their experience but preferring to remain anonymous (largely to shield those closest to them)

Now that you have a sense of how people’s lives have been impacted by coaching with us, you can read about our Services here.

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Is This You?

While we help committed people from all walks of life find their ‘true path’ (aka their life’s one-of-a-kind potential for good and lasting happiness)…

The clients who tend to achieve the greatest results working with us are self-starting leaders - managers, executives and entrepreneurs - who:

• have created some real success in their life but who’ve snapped awake somewhere in mid-life to realize that they’re feeling sort of dazed, lost and confused - unhappy and unexpectedly off course

• are successfully on track in one or more areas of their life but off-course (and completely stumped) in others

• want to do more than make money: they want to make a lasting and positive difference in the world, preferably through their work (or their wealth)

Does Any Of This Sound Familiar?

Here are some quotes from actual pre-coaching client experiences, along with our take on their significance:

“I’m respected. Referred. Consulted. An expert people turn to. I’m really good at what I do, and I’m smart with my life. And yet I feel like I could be exposed as a complete fraud at any moment, which makes no sense. In fact, nothing makes much sense these days. It used to. I used to feel so sure of myself. And now, I don’t know anymore…”

You want life to make a new kind of sense now – to feel wholly confident in yourself, your direction and your work again.

~ ~ ~

“Honestly, it feels like I’m life’s bitch. As long as I keep delivering and bringing in the money, everything’s good. Good for the company, our employees, my spouse, the kids, my portfolio manager, my attorney, my accountant…

But what about me? It feels like I don’t own my own life. I want the life my family has, and I feel like a schmuck just for thinking it.…”

You want to live a life that includes what’s best for you as well as what’s best for those who matter to you.

~ ~ ~

“I have everything I aimed for. I’m highly respected in my field, doing work I’m really good at. I travel. I’m healthy. Fit. Reasonably attractive. I make plenty of money. I live in a beautiful home. My spouse is my best friend. We have solid investments. A good retirement plan. Really, I want for nothing. But there’s no spark, no zip. Nothing. It just doesn’t feel like I thought it would. And I have no idea what to do now… ”

You’re caught off guard by how little real satisfaction your hard-earned achievements have won you, and while you’re not sure what to do about it, doing nothing’s just not an option.

~ ~ ~

“I broke the ice with a big new account by telling a funny story. Everyone laughed, and then my boss joked that I’d missed my calling! That really stuck. Then a while later, I watched someone in the office cut her birthday cake and realized that cake in the lunchroom is the most exciting thing I have to look forward to. As far as I can see it’ll just be more of the same, and that just sends shivers down my spine.”

Your life’s pretty good but you suspect you’ve ‘missed’ your calling, and ’good’ just doesn’t feel good enough any more.

~ ~ ~

“I’ve really got it going in my career now but I’m just not enjoying any of it. It all feels a little crazy and out of control. Not being able to figure out how to make it better, well, that’s been the worst. I just don’t understand it. And I don’t understand me.”

You want a simpler, saner, more satisfying life – and you’re ready to toss out the idea that in today’s complex world, unique personal bests happen on their own.
~ ~ ~

“I made the leap and started my own company 18 months ago. Had a banner first year too. Blew the money doors right off their hinges. But you know what? I’m not happy. It’s like someone reached in and turned off my mojo.

What you thought would be completely fantastic has turned out not to be. Profit without passion (and a deeper sense of purpose) isn’t for you: you want – and need – the whole enchilada.

Clients come to True Callings when:

• Despite concern to the contrary, they’re perfectly healthy people for whom it’s become very clear something in their life’s just not working for them. They can’t put their finger on exactly what it is, or how to change it on their own, and they need truly objective, highly qualified, entirely supportive assistance.

• They’re deeply motivated to identify the real problem - even if that means challenging their life’s status quo and facing inconvenient truths.

• They’re willing to make what matters most to them a priority in their life, and to step out of their comfort zone to see or do things in wholly new ways.

• They recognize that big time pro’s and CEO’s don’t make it to their peak all by themselves, and neither does anyone else. They understand that their ultimate happiness, fulfillment and success is worth their investment of time, energy and attention, and they don’t see getting the expert assistance they need as a sign of fault, flaw or failure but instead as an intelligent - even strategic - move.

• They’re willing to ‘do their own sit-ups’. They understand that no one practices for Tiger Woods or the Dalai Lama - and no one can practice for them either. They accept that practice is necessary and cumulative, and understand that on the court of life it’s really their game. So they take complete responsibility for how they play day to day, and have chosen to use every ‘right’ opportunity available to create the kind of lasting change and meaningful success they’re after.

• They want a life of passion and purpose, meaning and magic while making good money, but they aren’t willing to fudge results, sweep things under the carpet, take short-cuts, use people or sacrifice their values or integrity to do it.

Who’s most likely to benefit?

Hands down, the people committed to making what matters most to them more important than what they fear - or what they fear they might lose – benefit the most.

Let’s face it: we all have “our” fears. Some of them are deep and primal. Taken at face value - or left unexplored, unchallenged or unspoken - fears can all too easily become incapacitating. The folks ready to challenge their fears and act on what matters most are the people who benefit the most.

Beyond that, those who get a whole lot of life-changing value out of coaching are people:

• open to new ways of looking at themselves and the world.

• willing to let go of “the way it’s always been / done”, open to experimenting with new approaches.

• willing to give their best effort to the work lasting change requires.

• ready to laugh more than they have in a long time.

• who want and expect honest feedback and clear direction about how to create lasting change and inside-out improvement.

• ready to leave footprints they’re proud of – to contribute to or create a lasting and meaningful legacy, whatever that might be.

• who remain steadfastly committed to being true to themselves, no matter what.

• compassionately thoughtful about the impact their life’s change has on the lives of those who matter to them.

• really ready to go from ‘Me’ to ‘We’.

Sometimes people are ready to grow but not quite ready to do the work, or take the action it takes to grow. For coaching to be successful for you - and for your investment in yourself and your life to pay you back the way you deserve - you must really be ready for both.

Now that you know about the type of clients we serve, take a look at How We Work