In this episode Andrea and Robyn show you that getting a coach has tons of benefits – how a coach can save you time, money, uplift your health and ultimately keep you right on track on what is most important to your life and family. Being a coach yourself is also important. Listen through or read on to know why.
Full Transcript
Robyn: Hi everyone. Welcome to Coach Street, Episode 8. I’m Robyn Logan with my co-host, Andrea Lee. Today we’re bringing everyone a great episode on “Why You Should Get a Coach.” We’re going to look at personal stories, why Andrea and I both got coaches, and what we got out of our coaching. Also, as a coach, why we think everyone in the entire universe should have coaches. Right, Andrea?
Andrea: Yeah, but I think we should really start this episode out with a very important announcement, don’t you? Isn’t today a very special day?
Robyn: Oh, no.
Andrea: Come on.
Robyn: Okay, off you go.
Andrea: Happy Birthday to You. [Sings].
Robyn: That’s great. Thank you very much. It’s my birthday today and I was just saying before I couldn’t think of a better thing to do on my birthday than a lovely little Coach Street episode in the morning before I go out for my beautiful three-course lunch.
Andrea: In listener comments we’ll try and coach Robyn into getting some ideas for funner things to do on her birthday than record podcasts. You know what? Isn’t it nice and sweet that she wants to spend time with you on her birthday?
Highlights of Being a Coach and Having a Coach
It’s a great episode we have planned. Why the heck get a coach? Sometimes it might seem basic, like everyone knows a coach is a good thing, but when things become a little cliché, everyone needs a coach or everyone benefits from a coach, I think it’s smart to review our assumptions once in a while and drop into the details.
I thought it would be fun if we each shared a highlight of both being a coach and how that would relate to why a person should consider getting a coach. Also, being coached, right? We’ve both had our fair share of coaches.
Robyn: Totally. Why don’t we start with being coached? I think a great place to start is your first coach. What made you get a coach?
Andrea: I was in career transition. I didn’t know what to do next. I was actually in some legal trouble and I had a swirl of overwhelm, a lot of confusion about what would be the best thing to do. I was very emotional and I really needed something to change. I actually really didn’t know what. It was just so unclear. I just knew something was wrong and needed to be different, so that was the main impetus.
Robyn: So that was a while ago, right? Did you actually know about coaching already or did you just stumble across someone who happened to be a coach?
Andrea: No, I cheated. I knew of coaching before. I had been part of a coaching organization but I hadn’t ever hired a coach before this. I had just been helping people get trained as coaches.
Robyn: So tell me about your first coaching experience. What was it like?
Andrea: It was kind of like Heaven and Hell at the same time; a little bit of the agony and the ecstasy, all at the same time. It was amazing to feel like I could be in this safe place and relax and not have to spot myself. I didn’t have to watch out for myself and just trusted that someone else would do that for me. It was a really remarkable sensation.
That coach was able to lift my head up from the details that were right on my desk and in my computer and ask me to look at the horizon. Instead of seeing one tree on one mountain, to be able to see the mountain and even the continent of my life. It startled me awake to say, “My God, I’ve been focusing on the wrong details.”
Robyn: I remember reading about coaching in an inflight magazine. At the time I was running an educational consultancy/training company. So I’d go into companies and train them on all the soft skills. I remember reading about business coaching on an airplane and thinking, oh man, that’s what I need.
I don’t really have any peers. I don’t have a boss. I guess most small business owners are in this position. They have staff; I had subcontractors, a lot of trainers that worked for me. But I really didn’t have anyone I could moan and bitch to about the day except for my partner and I just thought, oh really. I don’t want to come home every night talking about what happened at work today.