Lynda Fletcher got her first taste of life coaching almost by chance. She hired a coach to teach a communication workshop at the family business she was part of. And, unfortunately, her co-workers weren’t into it. But the life coach made her a deal. Since Lynda had already paid for the sessions, and there were no refunds, she agreed to coach Lynda privately for a year.
Her experience was transformative, to say the least.
For instance, Lynda started to understand her negative mindset. For a long time she believed the inner critic in her head. “We believe in the voice in our head, and we think that voice is us. We think it’s real. And we think it’s true. I suck. I made a mistake. I could have done it better.”
By changing her negative mindset, Lynda became a happier person. And she realized she could help others.
“I thought all my problems were a result of other people,” says Lynda. “If other people were just different. Logically, we know that we can’t change other people, but we have this desperate desire to.”
Through working with her life coach, Lynda came to the powerful realization that other people aren’t the problem. And that was her pathway to positive transformation.
Bit by the bug to help others toward a path of transformation, she was certified by the International Coaching Federation. She launched her coaching business two years ago.
While Lynda works with clients with a wide range of pain points, the throughline is that most are fed up with sabotaging themselves. They want a breakthrough. Lynda’s goal is to light the path for them to undergo their own journey toward positive change.
If you get a toothache, you’d go to the dentist, right? But if you have a pain point in your life, what most people do is they suffer through it.
Expanding her goals
Lynda envisions everyone having access to life coaches and Luminaries who can help with those transformative experiences.
“If you get a toothache, you’d go to the dentist, right?,” explains Lynda. “But if you have a pain point in your life, what most people do is they suffer through it. They settle, or they fill themselves with food, TV, or whatever. I mean maybe overall they’re a happy person, but they have a space in their life that’s a little bit of that quiet desperation.”
For those who feel helpless, Lynda wants to do her part to show that there are amazing practitioners out there who understand and can help. “If there’s a pain point in your relationship, in your parenting, career advancement, sexuality or your level of self esteem, help is out there. But not everyone knows this.”
Even though life coaching is well-known, sometimes when she tells people what she does, they ask: “Is that an actual thing?” That response inspires her to make life coaching and personal transformation more widely understood and accessible for practically anyone who could use it.
I want people to know that you do not have to settle or suffer or numb yourself through these things that aren’t working in your life
Mainstreaming transformation
While Lynda loves what she does, coaching isn’t big enough for her. In other words, she can only impact one person at a time.
“I want people to know that you do not have to settle or suffer or numb yourself through these things that aren’t working in your life,” she says. “There is an amazing person out there who has a program or can coach you or consult with you through this thing that’s going on with you and it can. It can become no longer a pain point.”
Lynda started asking herself: What would you do to mainstream transformation? She started jotting ideas down in her journal, then started thinking about how to turn her vision into a business.
She had worked for her family business for 25 years, having a hand in everything from finances to operations and human resources. And when the family business sold, she decided to foray into life coaching full-time. But initially, she was stuck. “It was awful,” laughs Lynda.
“I feel like I’m a pretty competent coach, and have spent many days feeling like I’m a terrible business person,” she explains. “When the business didn’t grow in the way I envisioned it, it was because I didn’t know how.”
Many coaches may struggle with marketing. “It feels like you’re selling you, which feels braggy and aggressive,” says Lynda. “But what you’re actually selling is the relationship. And when you go out there and sell what you offer, people who need what you offer can find you.”
While she loved coaching one-on-one, she wanted to help more people. And in turn, she wanted to turn her practitioner business into a Legacy Business.
Those who want to provide a transformative experience — whatever it is — need to be able to eat
A vision in progress
“Those who want to provide a transformative experience — whatever it is — need to be able to eat,” says Lynda. “But many of them don’t know how to sales and marketing, or they don’t know how to write copy. They’re already this amazing human being with this transformative experience that they can offer. But they can’t get it out there to the people who need it, because they don’t know how to write a sales page or advertise on Facebook or whatever it is.”
Lynda’s vision for her business is to create a platform to connect practitioners with the skilled specialists they need to succeed. Copywriters, social media managers and marketing mavens who can help them grow life coaches and luminaries grow their businesses are all necessary components to a successful business. You can call it an Amazon Marketplace of sorts to connect resources with skilled professionals who can serve their businesses.
Tentatively called LifeCrush, the business is still in its initial stages of development. Right now, Lynda is working on a roadmap, revenue model and building out a marketing and sales plan. She’s excited for the possibilities of her business and the potential to support fellow coaches. Not to mention the opportunity to help everyday people undergo transformation and experience personal breakthroughs.
“If we weren’t occupying our brains with ‘I suck, I suck, I suck, I suck,’ maybe we’d actually be on Mars, right?” laughs Lynda. “That’s energy that takes up space in your brain. If we weren’t wasting that processing, that energy on worry and self-doubt and on the judgment and criticism of ourselves and others. What might we be creating? What would our lives be like?”
The views and opinions expressed are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of MindShift.money.
Jackie is a personal finance writer and content marketer. She is passionate about telling money stories and spreading financial literacy to a mainstream audience.