From Commodities Recruiter to Coaching

[Day in the Life of a Coach] Interview with ICA Coach, Nesrin Everett
(Executive Coach, SWITZERLAND)

As a recruiter for the commodities industry, ICA Coach Nesrin Everett decided it was now or never when the market took a downturn.  Nesrin chose to indulge her curiosity about people, their stories, what drives them, and train as a coach.

One pivotal moment for this decision came about in her role as recruiter.  Noticing a distinct difference between body language and the actual answers a candidate was giving to her questions, Nesrin asked him “If you could do anything, what would you do?”  His answer was precious.

Now a certified coach, her days start slowly with a sip of coffee and a leisurely breakfast (always), then on to a comfortable chair and attention to her emails.

Her day’s activities vary and it’s just the way she likes them as Nesrin enjoys the unpredictable, but understands the need for structure. How else can she meet the deadline for her monthly blog submissions for the Huffington Post?

Now coaching and consulting executives and companies, with a focus on the commodities market, Nesrin fills her schedule helping them with transition, stress management, career progression, life balance and personal development.

Interview with Merci Miglino

Merci: Hi. Today I’m with Nesrin Everett from Geneva. Welcome Nesrin!

Nesrin: Hi Merci, how are you?

Merci: I’m good. It’s so nice to meet you.  Nesrin is a graduate of ICA. She has a very interesting background and I can’t wait to hear what a day in the life of her life is like. But let’s start with this Nesrin. How did you come to coaching?

Nesrin: That’s a great question. I was working as a headhunter. The majority of my career was working as a headhunter in a commodity market and I really enjoyed my job thoroughly. What I felt was missing was being able to help people on a deeper level rather than working primarily to help my clients find people for their company and I realized more and more when I was interviewing people, I was getting very focused on what their desires were, what their motivation was and what they really really wanted to do. But I could never go into that with them because I had to focus on what my client wanted. So I gradually started orientating myself towards coaching. I began reading and started attending some seminars, and that was my first entry into the coaching world, while I was still working. And then, the markets changed for us. In commodity, there was a huge downturn. At that moment, they closed our office in Geneva. Well this was the perfect opportunity. It is now or never, I thought. I am going to immerse myself in coaching and take this window of opportunity. So I was actually thrilled [laughing]. Which slightly surprised  some of my bosses.

Merci: Oh yeah [laughing]

Nesrin: And I found ICA, started a few classes because I was skeptical at the beginning. I was “What? All online? And all over conference call?” But I was invited very kindly to join a class and I was really impressed and so I signed up. And that’s how I got into it, I was thrilled to be part of it.

Merci: That’s amazing. The now or never, I can certainly relate to that and with an external force says well. “What do I want to do next?” Some of us might look at headhunting commodities traders to coaching as a bit of a stretch, but you know, it’s interesting to let go of what you were doing before coaching. It led you here and you gave a really nice example of just noticing how deep you want to go or what was really behind this person’s wants and desires? I think that was well said.

Nesrin: The beauty of it is I get to use all the skills that I had as a headhunter which I enjoy but focus now also more on the human being rather than solely on the money-making enterprise. I use all the investigative skills, all my curiosity, questioning techniques and the research I do, are still a part of what I do with my clients so it’s just been a huge gain for me.

Merci: That’s beautiful. A lot of coaches get into a perspective that what they did before doesn’t have relevance to coaching and to me I feel like at some point, there was some innate curiosity as you were saying, or a desire to really support and help people and I think you said on your website that helping people achieve their full potential is your joy and it was probably always your joy.

Nesrin: It really was and it’s something that brings me so much happiness. It came to light not just in the working world but also with friends, I love tapping into what really brings somebody alive. And if they’re not sure, helping them find it. You see a glow start to spread when they start to talk about what they love and when they start to live it. And one classic example was when I was a headhunter and I was interviewing somebody and they were all hunched over and they were telling me how motivated they were to move into a different type of company. Everything about their body language was so just dreadfully sad. Finally they realized they could trust me and they could let go. When they were asked, “But what do you really want to do if you were not in this building, if you were doing something completely different what you wanted to do?”. I can’t remember quite how I phrased it. It wasn’t a leading question. I just said, “If you could do anything, what would you do?” And they said, “God I wouldn’t do this. There’s now way I’d want to be up until midnight working on spreadsheets”. And I said, “Then what would you do?” And they said, “I’d be a chef”. And [laughing] it was just so funny and so we laughed so much. Because the honesty, the whole burden came off his shoulders. It doesn’t mean he had to change overnight and become a chef  and drop everything but just that acknowledgement and recognition of what he really really wanted lightened him so much.

Merci: Yeah. That’s a great story. Wonderful. “I wouldn’t be doing this.” [laughing]

So what’s a typical day for you Nesrin?

Nesrin: A typical day for me, I’m not a person who likes routine. I do like structure, so I don’t like to have exactly the same thing happening everyday and I didn’t in any of my careers. I like variety. But a day for me nevertheless does consist of certain things that are always taking place. So a typical day for me, let’s see. What always happens is that there’s breakfast and coffee, my day has to start with breakfast and coffee. And on a Monday, I wouldn’t roll into meeting on Mondays. I would focusing perhaps on emailing my clients, setting up meetings with respective clients and setting out my structure for the week. Tuesday and Wednesday, well Tuesday through to Friday mornings can be taken up with client meetings and also with writing. So a typical day for me, I don’t start work early in the morning. It starts from about 10 am because I warm up quite slowly and it can involve sending out proposals to clients to replying to emails from existing clients, setting up meetings or organizing meetings with new and existing clients. Perhaps ask me for more details and I can answer your question.

Merci: That sounds good. So you mentioned writing as one of the variety of things you do and of course that requires some structure. Am I correct, you write regularly for the Huffington Post?

Nesrin: I do, I write every month for the Huffington Post, I’m a blogger for them.

Merci: Ah great!

Nesrin: Yeah, I blog about topics that are related to the business people because I’m an executive coach I coach people mainly in the business arena but my articles are not about markets and what’s going on day to day in the business world. There are plenty of people writing about that. I write from the human perspective about things that I feel would give them some different perspectives in life, give them some inspiration, show them some possibilities and bring a little bit of soul to their world. I want to help them remember what’s important to them. These are the kinds of things I write about: creating space, relationships, thoughts about work, structure, these kinds of things.

Merci: So obviously, you’re a writer. You have the heart for it and the skill for it. And the topics sound like they can be applicable to coaches and non-coaches, people in the corporate world as well as the entrepreneur, freelancer. So I think that’s a great opportunity, talking to so many people. What has been the results of blogging regularly? What have you noticed maybe in regard to your coaching or coaching practice?

Nesrin: What I noticed was many positive benefits. I found that it was helpful for me to integrate some of the ideas that I had. Coaching is such a learning experience and I have my own experience as a human being as well. When I have relevant experiences I share that with my clients. And being able to integrate my own experiences and experiences of others and share them in a way that is non-directive but simply in an observational way with the public, is something that people find beneficial, something that helps people think. Sometimes I might send the information to a perspective clients and say well, I think this article could be of interest to you. That may encourage them to consider coaching , if not with me, then with somebody else and to enter into the coaching world and to start thinking about new perspectives for themselves. If I’m planning to work with the company, I’ll send my blog out as well, to show the company.  I find my writing reflects who I am and what I stand for and shows possibilities to individuals and companies as well. I’ve had a huge amount of positive feedback on it. It works on a personal level. It brings me joy. It works in the business level as well as it brings me visibility.

Merci: It sort of helps your profile. What I mean by that is getting published in something like Huffington Post and even for some of our coaches who are published on linkedin or wherever, is a  way of sharing who you are with the potential client or with people in general, you have to engage, I think you hit it on the head there with who “who am I?”, “how do I work?”, “what makes me think” gives people the opportunity to connect with us and resonate what with what we’re saying. I looked at one blog, it’s something about “You Really Can Take Lunch” which I laughed because in my hectic, crazy life, before I said, “it is now or never”, I never took lunch. Lunch was on my desk, on my phone, on my computer and it made me chuckle and automatically related to not just to what you wrote but Nesrin as a person who I’ve never met in a way. So I think that’s a really good learning point for people about writing, about sharing who you are, about blogging being one of the ways to do that.

Nesrin: Yes, thank you. I think so too. I think it’s a wonderful way to reach people who perhaps I can’t help directly. Either because they’re not ready for coaching, or they don’t feel they have time for it, but I can help them in a more passive way. Perhaps passive is the wrong word. But in an informational way, by sharing things, I’m still helping them even if I’m not able to directly do one on one with them.

Merci: Yeah, that’s so true, isn’t it? Changing  the world one person at a time even if I’ve never met them. Incredible opportunity. So you have a lot to say and you keep saying it in your posts and everything so this is going to be a challenging question. If you could say right now, one thing about coaching that the world should know, what would it be? That’s a big one right?

Nesrin: The coaching that I try to do, is an opportunity for somebody to create a special space for themselves. And within that space, they have the opportunity to really be honest and discover much more about themselves than perhaps they allow themselves the time for in their day to day life. It allows them to really think about what they want, who they are and really ground themselves.  From this place they are able to then do or be whatever, or whoever they want to be and I think its just gives people a chance to be honest with themselves, to take responsibility for themselves, to inspire themselves, to motivate themselves. The coaches is there to help them do that which is possible within themselves. And that is the gift that I believe that coaching brings. I bring it to people in the executive world. I try to bring them to be as close to who they are and their sole as possible which can easily get lost in the world of work. For me that is the gift that coaching really really brings, and what a coach can do is support their client 100% in order to be and do whatever it is that they want.

Merci: Well I certainly can’t add a thing to that. And I think you are a gift to all of us. And especially for coming along and telling us what a typical day in the life of Nesrin Everett is like. So thank you.

Nesrin: Thank you and thanks to ICA for getting me to this place. Because I have had so much of a wonderful experience, learning experience and joy through the gift of learning from ICA and I am very grateful for that.