In 2003, after more than 30 years in a computer software career, I responded to the call to move from large-scale “corporate America” into a business that brought me closer to the world of authentic, “Mom and Pop”, Main Street, “brick and mortar” businesses.

The business I started involved selling a range of services to small businesses of all types. And this had me spending a lot of time out in the field, walking through business parks, knocking on doors, chatting with business owners and leaders. When I wasn’t out in the field, I was at my desk, making phone calls, opening opportunities to describe and sell the services I knew were of value to my clients.

When it wasn’t “prime time” for sales prospecting and sales meetings, I attended chamber of commerce and community events, and other networking venues to meet business leaders and owners.

The work was challenging and rewarding. It taught me a lot about running a business, and my business experienced ever increasing success.

Enter the Business Coach

About seven years into the development of my business, I decided it was time to ask for help to advance even further to a new level of success. So, I made an appointment to meet with Hank, one of the most impressive business coaches I had met at hundreds of business networking events.

Having already experienced a degree of success, I was ready to improve my results even more. I wanted to get a clear picture of how I could leverage everything I had already learned to achieve even greater success.

After describing my situation to Hank, it was his turn to give me an idea how he worked, what he did to help business owners and how he might be able to help me in my business. But a very interesting thing happened . . .

In describing what he did and how he helped business leaders – mostly business owners – Hank very subtly dropped the hint that I might want to consider doing the kind of work he did as a business coach. He didn’t sell me on hiring him as a coach as much as he showed me another possibility. When we ended our meeting, I had two very different options to consider. Hire a coach or become a coach?

The Second Meeting and Why This Matters

On the way home, I knew I had to meet with Hank again, and soon.

I needed to know the answer to a now-burning question. WHY?
Why did he think I would make a good business coach?

As soon as I got back to my desk, I called Hank and arranged another meeting.

When we met a week later, my eyes were opened. What Hank saw in me were two things: I listen carefully to whomever is speaking. And after listening, I think before responding.

Yes, there was a lot in my 30-plus years of business experience that would also be important, but it was listening and responding thoughtfully that set me up for a new career in coaching.

Business or Life?

Business coaching went well, but in time I realized I was much more interested in the whole person I coached, not only what was going on in their business. The idea of coaching the whole person began to dominate my approach to coaching business owners.

As a matter of fact, this perspective was already in prominent view on my business coaching website:

The purpose of business and commerce is to support life, not the other way around.
We were not put on this earth to become consumed by work, commerce and business.
We are here to celebrate life.

So, in 2019, I started to investigate how to become more skilled as a coach, especially when focusing on the whole person, not just the business side of life. In my search, I discovered Certified Human Potential Coach training.

Now, having completed the coach-specific training, I am more convinced than ever that I chose the best coach training for me, especially considering the business coaching I have already done for more than ten years.

If you haven’t already, this would be a good time to read the short introduction to Human Potential Coaching.

If you’d like to take an even deeper dive into what Human Potential Coaching can do for you, I invite you to schedule a free Discovery Meeting.