A Case Study By Roxana Stoica, Mindset Shift Coach, SWITZERLAND
The Powerful Framework of Flip It
The client came into the session with some concerns regarding starting an Instagram account for her coaching business, specifically about being creative with the content and posting things that the viewers can relate to and find interesting. The meaningfulness of bringing the topic in the session was to create a connection with the audience, to provide helpful content, and to potentially convert some of the viewers into coaching clients. The client was enthusiastic about having her own Instagram page and trying this new activity and marketing venue on her own. The objective of the session was to feel more empowered in taking on this activity and to feel less pressure on the topic. The session would be successful if the client would feel differently at the end of the session, specifically feeling more confident and comfortable with trying this activity.
There was a fairly heavy feeling about how the client was expressing herself about the topic and a feeling of being defeated. This was in contrast to how the client was speaking when she was imagining herself being successful in this activity. So it became clear that there was an unhelpful mindset standing in the way of her accomplishing or even starting this task.
We began the exploration by grounding the client into the difference in feeling states and a few of the words used in the beginning. I enquired about what being creative meant for her in this context, to focus the client on how she wants to feel and act once she has started doing this task, and make sure this abstract concept has a clear definition in her mind. We also went a bit deeper into the feeling of pressure that she was having, to understand there was a certain “should” that was also playing a part there – specifically, the “should be successful from the start” which was created by the assumption that not putting out the right content from the start would alienate viewers and create a roadblock in the future success of the social media account.
After this part of the conversation, I suggested we use the “Flip It” guide for coaches, provided by the International Coaching Academy (www.flipitframework.com), as the framework to identify the disempowering perspective and attempt to switch the mindset.
Flip It Guide for Coaches
Find It
The image that most resonate with the client with her current situation was the first image, with the young boy with clothes and skin showing marks of manual labor, leaning on a metal rail with a blank stare in his eyes. She picked this photo because it conveyed to her the feeling of being lost and thrown into the unknown, not knowing even where to start or what to look at first. The question coming up for her was “How do I do it?”. When I reflected back this question to her, there was no answer coming up, so we decided to move on to the next stage of the framework and trust that the answer would reveal itself.
Feel It
Looking at the suggested list of feelings, the ones that stood out for her were lost, pressured, insecure, and uncertain. Also, I felt disempowered and somewhat lonely on the road ahead. We did not dwell too much on these emotions, we agreed it was important to name them and be aware of them, but there was no need to dive deeper as the client felt the answer would not be there.
So we moved on to identify the values that underpin the desire to make this social media activity successful. After reading through the list of suggestions, the client picked generosity, growth, authenticity, kindness, creativity, contribution, learning, and adventure. We explored a bit some of these, for her to better understand how these abstract concepts specifically apply in this situation. The client had a really positive energy when talking about “adventure”, linking the excitement to trying something new and connecting with people. “Growth” was linked both to herself and her audience, hoping the content she would put out on social media would inspire or help some of her viewers. “Authenticity” was another powerful value, as she expressed the desire to be more herself, with less fear of being judged.
Frame It
Fraud was the card that spoke to the client the most in this situation. Specifically, because she realized that the way she was looking at the situation was not in alignment with her values. She was not being authentic to herself by allowing fear to stop her from taking actions that would encourage creativity and ultimately help others. She was also preventing her own learning by not starting this task and seeing how it goes, on a practical level. At a deeper level, she was justifying this to herself by telling herself it’s safer not to put herself out there – and since safety is such a strong motivator, it was outshining the rest of the values. But by bringing this all out in the open, she was able to observe that the feeling of safety was a default reaction, which did not have so much weight in this situation. She noticed that she can lean into other coping mechanisms to allow the fear to subside and regain trust in herself, the situation, and the outcome of the social media activity.
Flip It
The flip side of this was truth – specifically, re-focusing on the values underpinning the situation and allowing those to be the driving force for the next steps. She noticed there was misalignment within herself around this topic, because of a limited way of looking at it. She realized she was not living the full truth of herself and the situation, and this made her curious to understand more how this different perspective can play out in this case. Looking at things from this new perspective, the client initially felt a reconnection with her values and she was able to overlap them in this situation, to include them as part of the full truth. This created a sense of completion and started to change the balance between the different emotions she was having regarding this situation. She felt more empowered to start, allowing space for creativity, learning, and growth. Seeing this as an adventure, it started to feel less like pressure, and more like a conscious stepping on a journey that may have ups and downs, but ultimately will be beneficial.
This also allowed the client to be more comfortable with the idea of making mistakes, and that maybe things won’t be perfect from the first post. She also created a connection with how the peer coaching journey was, remembering there was some stress when she first started coaching and how that changed along the way with practice and with meeting peers she connected with. And while the connection was stronger with some peers versus others, she found ways to manage all relationships and she continuously learned from the interactions.
We went on to explore how other of the previously identified values can support her moving forward. Leaning more into the value of “authenticity”, she came up with the idea of being transparent on her social media account when needed, and not pretending for things to be perfect. This allowed for more of the pressure to fall off, and instead be replaced with a more aligned communication and collaboration approach, seeing the viewers as peers and not as “judges”. This perspective created a feeling of motivation and empowerment, and her overall energy was higher than at the beginning of the session. She was speaking with more vibrancy, her physical gesturing was more visible and open, and she was sitting more straight on the chair and even leaning forward a little. This was in contrast to the beginning of the conversation when she was more sunken in the chair and with her shoulders slightly hunched.
As she was speaking through the new perspective, she also realized that she could counter-balance the idea of “not being creative enough” with authenticity, once being a crutch for the other to “come out and play”, or in other words using one of the values to bring out another.
After this awareness and mindset shift, we circled back to the objective of the session and took stock of where the client was in relation to the outcome she had expressed. She was happy with the exploration and progress and felt that the intention she had for the session had been achieved. Reviewing the conversation, she realized she learned that she was looking at the situation in a skewed way, by ignoring the actual emotional intention behind the activity. Expanding the learning to herself, she expressed her gratitude for having the opportunity to reflect on the values that underpin her initiatives and decided to bring her awareness to her values more often. She also realized that acting in accordance with these values brings empowerment, courage, and lightness to taking the next steps and that she could do this exercise again when she notices a similar feeling of pressure and stuckness coming up in other situations. She also noticed that she was giving too much significance and weight to the feeling of pressure and that most of her energy was going into fueling this perspective. She decided to notice when such heaviness would appear again in the future, and investigate if perhaps there is something else going on at a deeper level. The client seemed confident that she would be able to do this on her own, and when asked what support she may need in the future to make this happen, she did not feel the need to put in place a support structure at this time, nor to involve other people. She did leave open the possibility of engaging in another coaching session if it would be appropriate for her to do so.
I prepared the client for the close of the session, by asking if there was anything else that she felt needed to be added in order to make this more complete for her, and after a few moments of thinking, she replied there was nothing else she would like to note at the moment. I took this opportunity to reflect back to her on the work and progress she has made and to celebrate the great learnings and awareness that came up during the conversation, concluding the session in partnership and with good energy.
For myself, this session was a good reminder of the powerful framework of Flip It, and also beyond it, how significant and fast it can be to switch our mindsets and anchor into our values to move into a more empowering perspective that allows for space and action.