I want to be a coach. Not a basketball coach or a football coach, but a life coach.
(And while I’m at it, I also want to be a nutrition consultant, for which I’m working on certification, and a NOLS instructor. And, what the heck, I want a Family Vs. Wild show, too. But I digress.)
As Frontier Consulting Group and/or HaveMediaWillTravel, I will continue, part-time, as a consultant to businesses and/or organizations in the areas of content development, marketing, destination marketing, tourism promotion, travel PR, media production, social media, etc.
But I will also be reinventing my professional self.
What will be the outcome, you ask?
This is how I’ll answer that: My family, national parks, the outdoors, epic hikes, the Wind River Range, the frontier that is Wyoming, social media, technology, fitness, coffee, nutrition, etc., are passions of mine. As a result, I read and share a lot about these things across all my “networks” of friends, family, colleagues and people I’ve never met — in an effort to motivate people to travel to Yellowstone or Grand Canyon, to improve their fitness, to embark on epic outdoor adventures such as climbing the Grand Teton or doing the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim of the Grand Canyon or snowboarding at Jackson Hole. To explore the backcountry, including my beloved Wind River Range, and the frontier of Wyoming.
Motivating others — or at least trying to — to do any of the above things is fulfilling. Helping to motivate people to affect positive change in their own lives would be particularly fulfilling, not to mention an honor.
But there are other reasons for embarking on this journey.
The life coaching coursework and in-person learnings should help me become a better listener, and to be more present in the various moments and experiences that comprise my life. Such learning should help me in all of my relationships, in consulting, at home and with family, friends and colleagues.
During the years leading up to the September 2008 sale of our business, I met and enlisted Betina Koski as a life coach. I found her after reading Jim Collins’ Good to Great. Betina was a phenomenal help to me. She did not have the answers, or even offer answers (although I would have welcomed them on many occasions!) What she did do was listen to and ask me a bunch of powerful questions. She made me think and reflect and focus, and she provided direction. She “coached” me, and always, I was better for it.
Finally, human will and potential are fascinating to me. So ultimately, it would be a tremendously rewarding challenge, to play even a small part in helping people master and realize theirs.
So, back to the first sentence in this post – about wanting to be a life coach. I’ve enrolled in the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). I will be making five monthly weekend trips to the San Francisco area for hands-on coaching learning between now and March. I will then begin a 25-week certification to become CPCC-certified, which will include taking on clients and conducting 100 hours of coaching, supervised coaching, and additional work and instruction.
Check back here often because I will be generous in my sharing of what I learn on this journey.
Most importantly, thank you for your readership, friendship and support.