How I got More From Life
It takes a lot to make that leap of faith and jump from one career into another or follow a dream you have which requires lots of planning and risk taking – but this was part of my mission to achieve ‘More From Life’.
I strongly believe in a unique, realistic, and step-by-step approach to starting a business, making a career change, or making a big life change.
My aim was to leave a full-time job and become a professional coach. But of course, this doesn’t happen overnight, and I needed to ensure I had financial security, so I made the first step which was to MAKE TIME to focus on the end goal. I managed to agree a 4-day week in my current role so I could follow my path to change the direction of my career. Although I knew I wanted to coach, like anyone making a big change I did have some doubts, and worried how my friends and family would react.
After qualifying, I spent the first year NETWORKING - offering individual coaching sessions for anyone in my network who felt like a good fit. These connections mostly came through friends and colleagues, and I noticed that most of the people I worked with were females working in advertising who were looking for career change. Working a 4-day week in a familiar industry as I did this gave me the chance start coaching without piling on too much financial pressure.
I now had a taste of what life would be like if I were to become a full-time coach so I bolstered my connections and joined Bloom, a professional network for women in communications. Through this group I met other women and better understood the career challenges within the advertising industry. I took the opportunity to host live workshops, facilitate regular career coaching circles, and be a coach/mentor for women at an earlier stage in their career to me.
Although none of this work was paid it was great experience, and gave me confidence and a huge buzz when I got positive feedback. Alongside individual coaching work, I developed workshops that I started offering for free and marketing through my network.
It was amazing experience and gave me confidence, plus a huge buzz when I got positive feedback.
In parallel to this, my role in advertising was changing and I felt increasingly like I didn’t know where I fitted. I had a conversation with the Head of People, sharing more about the coaching work I’d been doing and my interest in career development and wellbeing. As the world went into the first wave of lockdown, I transitioned from a business development team to a people team supporting global initiatives around wellbeing, culture, and team collaboration.
Because of this I saw an opportunity to move my coaching work into working with businesses, as well as individuals, and contacted people I knew in the music and advertising industry. This got me my first two pieces of work from high profile brands Snap Inc. and SONY Music, providing workshops and 1:1 coaching.
There were moments when this change gave me anxiety and I struggled to continue BALANCING the dual roles which is when I would start to see a coach myself. The best thing I did in this space was to work with a hypnotherapist, as this helped massively with the anxiety.
I realised I needed to continue to hone my craft, so I applied to work with several global coaching platforms, and eventually found the right fit with Bravely. I spent a year coaching people in a variety of industries and roles and businesses all over the world, and covering all aspects of a career from setting goals and working towards a promotion through to managing stress, managing people, or developing leadership skills.
Through my work in the advertising industry, I met some brilliant companies offering coaching, workplace wellbeing, and career development. One business in particular PUSH Mind & Body stood out to me and I approached them about being a freelance coach. This has now evolved, and I regularly run workshops for some of their clients including The Body Shop, Havas Media, Rightmove, and Media Arts Lab.
With my renewed confidence and calm, alongside my bolstered coaching experience, I decided it was time to enlist some HELP with marketing. First, I did a brand shoot with Amy from The Woman and The Wolf, and I was fortunate enough to win a competition with Betty Brooks design agency. This has become a real partnership and led to me also working with a social media manager MOB Management.
A large part of my energy this year has been focused on getting clear on my message, my audience, my tone of voice and my offering, but I realised I couldn’t do this ALONE – just like my clients need me to help them I also needed to accept professional advice for certain aspects of my business.
Something that has always been important to me is to live and breathe the message of More From Life, so that it feels authentic, and a way to support a lifestyle choice that’s intentional, has a positive impact, and allows me to make the most of every day without success, money and long hours being the focus.
I’m excited for 2023 and what’s to come and so glad I took that first step!
My goal moving forward now is to cut down to a three-day week in advertising and I think in my third year of coaching this is more than realistic. I’m excited for 2023 and what’s to come and so glad I took that first step!