Why I Joined The Life Coach School Certification with Brooke Castillo

I’ve completed a lot of training in my lifetime. This is proven by the fact that I earned a Ph.D. in 2013! But even since earning a doctoral degree, you may be surprised to hear that The Life Coach School Certification process is the certificate I’m most proud of. It’s the first one that I earned simply because I wanted to. I didn’t do it for external validation or praise. I did it for me.

Let me take you back to the beginning of the story. In 2016, I was going through a career crisis. I was finishing up my third year as an assistant professor in my dream job, but it had been a difficult year for me. I was struggling with teaching. Our university president had just resigned. And a project I was emotionally invested in came to a screeching halt. 

I was devastated. I found myself searching for what was next. 

Getting Started with Life Coaching

So I dipped my toes into coaching that summer and into the fall. I found Brooke Castillo’s podcast in a random search and started listening. I proceeded to complete a foundational course in an ICF accredited program and then got to work coaching. My first paid coaching client started in January 2017. 

I was thrilled to be doing something that I felt connected to. I started coaching more clients, but then I started to run into a wall. While some of my clients were taking actions and getting results, some of them weren’t and I didn’t know why. I wanted to help them.

As I continued listening to Brooke’s podcast, I absorbed more of her wisdom. (Honestly, I was very suspicious of the fake nails and eyelashes. That’s not how we typically roll in academia! I wanted to see authentic evidence.) As reticent as I was, the more I read the books she recommended, the more I realized she really knew what she was talking about.

In the summer of 2018, I began wondering about my business. I questioned whether I should keep moving forward with it. If I should continue spending my free time coaching. But then it happened, as if by magic: Brooke revealed her first online certification cohort.

Something inside of me screamed YES. You have to do this! You must make this happen. I had heard the siren call when she first opened up Self-Coaching Scholars and ignored it. Now was my time and I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass me by. 

But I was PETRIFIED of spending that kind of money. I had spent less money on my car than this program cost. I had never paid for tuition in school as I was always on scholarship or fully funded in graduate school. (I took out loans for living expenses, for sure.) But this? This was a huge deal. I was on a mission to get out of debt and this felt like moving in the opposite direction.

The Life Coach School Certification

Even so, I took the leap and signed up. That’s also when I had my first experience with quality coaching for myself. I hired someone to help me work on my money beliefs (fortuitously, she’s now my accountant). A Life Coach School certified coach helped me to process through my thoughts and fears as we geared up for the program starting in October 2018. I had so many thoughts to manage but, through that coaching, I overcame my constant worrying.

And then I became unstoppable! 

Learning all of the tools and techniques from Brooke, I knew exactly how to help my clients get results. Now I have the model and I can understand what keeps a person from taking action. It’s because of the feelings that drive them. Circumstances are neutral. But it’s thoughts that create feelings. And the good news? I get to choose my thoughts.

I couldn’t have anticipated the monumental results I got simply from showing up for myself. Just from being coached, I was able to: 

• Become a time ninja as I balanced coaching and being a professor.

• Figure out with my husband how to reconnect after years of him traveling and me “being busy.”

• Become a confident mom when we adopted out of foster care.

• Reconnect with my own mother after years of not talking.

• Earn back all of the money I invested in certification (and more) within 6 months.

• Give myself permission to trust myself and make decisions for myself instead of asking everyone else around me what I should do.

• Stop outrunning myself.

• Deal with my emotions (boredom, worry, overwhelmedness, etc).

• Realize I wasn’t supposed to be happy all of the time. (100% happiness is a myth.)

And then I created an amazing result. Brooke asked me to be on the podcast.

Brooke Castillo’s Life Coach Podcast 

Her podcast is regularly in the top 250 list of all podcasts. This was huge. If you had asked me in 2016, when I started listening to her, “Do you know you’ll be on a future episode?” I would have looked at you quizzically. In 2018, I might have said, “Yeah, maybe in 2025?” 

But here I am, on one of Brooke’s episodes in 2020, sharing my enthusiasm with the world!

Related to that experience, I was also flown out to Dallas for a photo/video shoot to talk about my experience in Coach Certification. It all happened in the same week and I only had about two weeks to prepare. You know your true priorities when an event like this happens - I could have easily said my schedule was full or I was too busy. But I dropped everything!

In order from top left to bottom right - Andrea Scalici, Lauren Cash, Elizabeth Salazar, Lisa Hatlestad, Lindsay Dotzlaf, Janet Archer, myself, and Carrie Marshall

I was privileged to spend the day in Dallas surrounded by other incredible women. The conversations in between videos (and in such a fancy house!) were mind-blowing. I saw the evidence of what it’s like to put yourself in the room with smart people. These women were mirrors for myself and what I had also accomplished. 

As I soaked everything in, I heard earth-shattering statements just casually mentioned on the car ride or at dinner. We all helped each other to shine brighter. That trip gave me so much energy to move forward. 

Although Dallas was magical, I did need to come back home. But after being surrounded by these encouraging women, I am more trusting of myself now. I used this experience to anchor myself, to remember how far I’ve come and where I’m headed.

Is Life Coaching for You?

I want the same kind of energy and motivation for you to accomplish your dreams. I want you to “trust your knowing”, as Glennon Doyle puts it. When an opportunity taps you on the shoulder and you feel pulled to it - you go for it. That’s what certification was about for me. Listening to and acting on something I truly wanted to do, just for myself. 

You probably have things like this too. Are you pushing them away or leaning into them? Even if it’s scary. It’s time to take the leap! 

How to Get Started on Your Next Steps

Feeling some motivation to get started on a big goal, but don't know where to start?

You're not alone this time of year. Millions of people are making new year's resolutions and trying to figure out where to begin. It's really easy to throw around big lists of goals at the beginning of the year.

Maybe some of these resolutions or goals are on your list:

• I want to get organized.

• I want to switch jobs or careers.

• I want to workout consistently.

• I want to travel more often.

• I want to go back to school to finish that degree.

All of these types of big statements feel big and difficult to start.

Let's take the example of switching careers. If you say, "I really want to change my job." My first questions would be centered around helping you to define that goal more clearly. Why do you want to change your job? When do you want to change your job - by the end of the year or in the next month?

Asking questions about your goals helps you find clarity.

Really thinking about you want that goal or resolution to stick helps it become more important and meaningful for you. Sometimes I give up on a goal because halfway to "the finish line," I realize I didn't really want to accomplish that goal at all. Stopping to think about the goal in the first place would have helped me know why I was working towards it.

Detailed questions also help make our goals SMART. Have you heard about SMART goals yet? Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Instead of, "I want to change jobs this year," turn it into, "I want to transition into a job that pays me "X amount of money" by June 1st." The statement is no longer vague or unclear. Maybe it isn't more money that you want, but a more fulfilling career. That's why you need to the do the clarity step first to create the SMART goal.

After gaining clarity and making a SMART goal, break it down into tiny steps.

When you make a really big goal, it can quickly start to feel overwhelming. "How in the world am I going to accomplish THAT by THAT date?!" With our job example, it can seem impossible. But that's where we want to just take the next step forward to start to gain momentum.

Six months from now may feel really far away, but what about one month from now? What about next week?

What's one easy, manageable thing you can do in the next week to get closer to that goal?

Is it telling a trusted friend about your goal? I wrote about how to find someone who can help scaffold your development here.

Is it putting it on a big piece of paper to tape to your fridge so you'll see it every day? I know what you're thinking. "Oh that's WAY too easy." That's the point. It's easy. It gets you going and creates some momentum. Once you tackle a tiny step, you can create another tiny step. And keep going from there. Week by week gets easier and before you know it, you're making progress on the goal a month later, two months later, etc. 

Need more inspiration for goal setting? One of my favorite resources is the author James Clear, who has a whole page of articles dedicated to goal setting.

So where are you in the goal setting process? Making a goal, gaining clarity, or working on your tiny steps?

Tell me below in the comments or send me an email so I can help follow up!