When I moved to South Africa, I was full of ambition. After completing a PR Diploma and going on to work in marketing, my career was not living up to my expectations. I moved into owning my own small businesses and worked in my husband's IT business in sales and social media. I'd often wondered what I would do with all my experience as I felt like a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ kind of person. That first day of Coach training in London, everything fell into place.
I have spent years focusing on what is positive in life and have become what I like to call, a cynical optimist (apparently Steve Jobs was one too). It is this focusing of my thoughts, together with The Coaching Academy training, which has given me the tools to coach. It was important for me to have an international presence, as I love travel. I now coach people in many different countries and absolutely love it.
Many people live unhappy, unfulfilling lives, because they buy into the lie that what they were born into, is where they have to stay. I encourage people into believing you can be anything you put your mind to, if you’re prepared to put in the effort. If I come across someone who cannot afford coaching fees, I will happily coach pro-bono if I can see they are focused. That said, it is not always those people who are born into opulence that make the most out of their lives. I received a desperate message recently from a child attending one of the top private schools requesting my help.
A youth client I coached lost both his parents when he was much younger. He is a very ambitious young man who had hopes and dreams of one day opening his own business. I began coaching him in February 2015. He walked many kilometres to attend his session each week. He is very mature for his age and therefore is very open to understanding the coaching process. He was born into the previously disadvantage environment in South Africa, and we have worked together to uncover his fears and habits, teach him why it is important to have goals that fit in with his values, and assisted in raising an awareness of his limiting beliefs and, of course, raising his own self-awareness. This has resulted in him setting concrete goals, which he is working hard to achieve, to moving him from where he is today, to the dream he sees in his mind’s eye. I was thrilled at our last meeting to discover he has just registered and started his own small business distributing Stationery.
I also coach small business owners as this comes naturally to me, but one of my niches is young people, from the time they are making their important subject choices to deciding which career they want to move into. Most parents and children are at a loss at this time in their children's lives. I help coordinate the Catechism classes for children from the local boarding schools and over time I have come to recognise some of the challenges faced by young people, as well as knowing this from my own up-bringing and raising my own teenagers. I want to guide and inspire young people to recognise their talents, understand their personality types (using tools such as Disc Profiling), and believe in their abilities, so they can differentiate themselves from the thousands of other young people and set amazing, achievable goals. I’m hoping to give motivational talks at schools regarding the wonderful potential of incorporating coaching into your life from a young age.
You can find out more about Sam on her business facebook page
