The surprising trend I have noticed in challenging times
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After making some delicious, home baked Quarantine bread and slow cooked Quarantine Stew this weekend, I thought to share a little insight.
First, a little background...
I've been here before.
Well, sort of.
In 20 years of supporting myself as a coach, I've been through 2 challenging times in the US.
I was a nutrition coach during 9/11.
A short recession followed that.
I was a business coach in the 2008.
A longer recession followed that.
Plus I lived through a few "self-created" recessions.
These, in my opinion, are the worst kind because it seems you're the only one going through it. Ugh.
Like when I decided I no longer wanted to do health and nutrition coaching.
I knew I wanted to switch to business coaching, but I felt that wasn't "okay" to do.
So, I pretended to work until I ran out of money and had to get a job in a local boutique for $12 an hour.
Yes, $12 an hour! I live in the rural countryside and that's considered a good gig around here. Depressing.
You can bet your bum I ended up using that very humbling time to pivot my way out of that jam. (But that's another story.)
Like after the birth of my first child and the ENTIRE coaching market seemed to change over night.
I was no longer one of the few business coaches people turned to.
While everything changed, I sat in my pajamas, nursed my baby and hardly slept.
So you can imagine my state of mind: Hello total identity crushing shift!
Or the time when my second child was born and I no longer had a 6-month cushion of c-ash to give myself a nice little maternity leave.
I had to create a coaching program out of thin air, get it out the door and fill it to pay the bills, because my family needed me to.
All while secretly wishing I could just do nothing and stay in bed with my daughter.
Not fun, not easy, but the clients loved it.
(Happy Little Practice was later born from the ashes of this postpartum business blues, but that's another story too.)
Now we are facing some next level weirdness in the marketplace, our communities and the world.
I don't know what's going to happen.
But here's one thing I want you to know.
There is a pattern I noticed in the coaching field during times of crisis.
Coaches and those who change people's lives for a living are not as negatively impacted.
In fact, I have seen an UPTICK in business.
I don't mean that in a "yay us and too bad for everyone else" kind of way.
I mean, in crisis, it's worth noting that there is always a "back to basics" movement and it may not be what you think.
When things start to feel out of control, people start going inward. (And that's not a bad thing!)
As a result, some people stop spending. Totally normal.
And yet, many do the opposite.
They start betting on themselves in an effort to feel in control of SOMETHING in their life.
Right now, people are stuck at home and feel a loss of leadership in their lives.
And with that comes a reckoning of sorts.
With their relationships - hello working in close quarters with EVERYONE in your household. (Or conversely, in painful isolation.)
With their health - hello stress eating!
With their business - hello freezing up and freaking out in business!
With their parenting - hello home-schooling AND home working!
And more.
It is go-time for many people, simply as a way to stay sane during uncertain times.
One of my mentors, Brooke Castillo, calls this time: The Super Bowl for Coaches.
You and I guide others through personal and professional challenges for a living.
This makes us well versed in traversing uncertainty.
Perhaps you're not that well versed on staying in business during economic uncertainty.
BUT you do know how to navigate the unknown in your expertise - be it in health, relationships, career, etc.
If you're a health coach you know how to not eat your feelings in times of stress.
If you're a life coach you know how to dare to pursue greater meaning when everyone else is fine with the Netflix and chill lifestyle.
If you're a relationship coach, you are well versed in transforming how people relate to each other in challenging times.
If you're a career coach, you know how to strategize your way to a different future while keeping your day job.
If you're a pain relief coach, you know how the fear-tension-pain cycle can be made worse right now. You know how to solve this.
If you're a parenting coach, it doesn't take much to see you were made for these times of family quarantine.
So this is a little dose of encouragement.
Some people are ready to hire you right now.
But only if you're willing to be visible and lead.
Is it time for you to become more visible and lead?
That's really up to you and your circumstances.
Some of us don't feel we have a choice in the matter.
We just can not stand to sit on the sidelines during this time.
We feel like a special kind of first responder, to quote my colleague Nancy Marmolejo.
And sometimes, necessity is the mother of invention.
And that can be a good thing.
The good news is, you can do this imperfectly right now because no one is expecting perfection in times of crisis.
More on this in the coming weeks.
I want to help you stay grounded, clear and focused on your next steps.
I want to help you lead with heart, sensitivity and consistency.
Because you and your coaching were made for times like this.
Karin
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