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The Darien Starbucks was humming Thursday morning when my friend and I sat down for coffee. She is a financial whiz and also recently authored a book on interior design. We quickly dove into our own world of comparing notes, offering contacts and sharing war stories.
This woman is chin-deep in the current economic crisis. She’s a financial advisor for one of the companies we’ve been reading about on the front pages ad nauseam.
Her attitude is nothing short of remarkable. She’s suiting up every day and going to the office, fielding customer calls (which can’t be gratifying) and organizing creative networking opportunities for savvy women.
“I can’t wait to tell my grandchildren about this in 20-30 years. I’ll tell them how I was at the epi-center of the early 21st century financial meltdown, and that I had a front row seat.
“Not only that, I was being paid to go through it and earned the equivalent of a Ph.D. in macro and micro-economics to boot.”
I left the coffee shop inspired and uplifted by this woman’s courage, vision and sense of proportion. This, too, shall pass and she’ll live to tell the story and relish every minute of sharing what it was like in 2009.
No one I’ve coached has ever signed a contract on the day we were introduced. Usually, a seed is planted, I water it frequently via contact through blog posts, e-newsletters, online offers, networking attendance and occasional phone conversations. When the client’s need arises, having stayed top-of-mind, I get the call.
Sometimes it takes several seasons for that to develop. This week, in fact, I began coaching relationships with two people whose seeds were planted well over a year ago. Whether it’s busy-ness, fear, timing or the economy, each person has his/her own timetable for readiness. People have their own rhythms and bandwidth. I respect that and work with it.
This pattern of individuality was driven home to me during a coffee date last week with a friend in academia. Carolyn, who had been my practice client while I was in the midst of my coaching certification program, is a highly trained artist who often puts her own practice on the back burner in order to earn her living teaching and advising at a university. She made great strides in our work together–drawing daily, exhibiting her work and ratcheting up her self-care by getting to bed earlier than her usual midnight and allowing herself 8 hours of sleep.
I’d asked her for a testimonial after we completed our coaching sessions. During this coffee meeting she verbalized her gains from our work:
“I’m a muller. I wouldn’t be your poster child for dramatic transformation, but over time, the transformation has been profound. What was uncovered, with cymbals clashing, was that the question you would ask would break a thinking pattern and open up a new space and perspective. And what has evolved over the past few years I can trace to those aha–opening moments.”
I respect each person’s unique style from the quick-out-of-the-gate client to the muller. It’s what makes you successful. My mission is to foster your growth. I know that time, sunlight and nourishment are my allies so I’ve become a patient and optimistic gardener.
My husband, a retired English Department Chair, and my kids used to do the ‘happy dance’ (even before it was named that) when the prediction and nature supplied a snowstorm worthy of closing schools. There’s still that jubilant feeling in the air today when Mother Nature takes over and plans get changed. I’ve already canceled two meetings that were going to take place this morning and required me to be somewhere out of my home office.
Fortunately, my afternoon appointments are virtual and therefore secure. One is for a follow-up call after a Dream Peek Experience last month. Within 30 days of our initial conversation, my client will check in with her progress, successes, challenges and evaluation. It’s always an exciting call because everything shifts when you get into action mode.
My other meeting will be via Skype.com. I joked with this new client that I’d have to wash my hair since we’ll be using our video cameras during the call. (If you don’t yet know Skype, check it out! It’s a free service that allows communication with crisper sound than the phone. We used it these past four years to have regular contact with our daughter who was in Japan. It was as though she were right next to me–her voice was that clear.)
Today I’m happy to re-group. I gave myself the weekend to play and enjoy life. I’ll use this newfound time to debrief my systems/relationships coaching notes from last weekend’s course, summarize a client meeting held on the 26th and catch up on my correspondence.
Then, to reward myself, I’ll put on my boots, hat, scarf and gloves and get out for a walk to my PO box a mile away (or go for a manicure–a mile in the other direction).
