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At the age of 45, Shelley Yampolsky
reached a classic midlife crossroads. Having resigned
from an "insane" job as a marketing manager
that had her working 80 hour weeks, the Thornhill, Ont.,
resident was left wondering: "What do I do now?"
Instead of struggling with the question, Yampolsky hired
Gwen Hayes, a personal and business coach in Toronto,
to help her find an answer.
That was four years ago. Now 49,
Yampolsky, who has always been interested in visual
art, does contract marketing and graphics work, and
recently sold a sculpture of her own creation. And the
uncanny thing is, her bank balance looks just fine.
"Gwen helped me create financial and emotional
reserves for myself," Yampolsky says. "I now
have a handle on my finances and I'm having a blast.
I've reconnected with what's really important to me."
Couldn't Yampolsky have accomplished
all the same things by herself? Maybe, but the fact
is that most people find change daunting, says Peter
Nordlinger, a personal and business coach in Victoria.
"They may plan to set aside Tuesday and Thursday
evenings for working on a new project, and then the
weeks just slip by." Nordlinger believes the coach's
job is to help a client confront her own fears and break
down the task of reaching her goals into small, manageable
steps. "Ultimately, the client has to do the work
herself, but the coach can help clear away the cobwebs,"
he says. "That's why personal coaches are also
called 'co-active' coaches: it's a collaborative process."
While fees for personal coaching
vary, monthly rates tend to cluster around the $400
mark. Typically, this sum buys you four 45-minute telephone
appointments, with e-mail follow-up and booster sessions.
If this sounds like a lot of cash to lay out, successful
clients will tell you it's money well spent. "Without
Gwen, it would have taken me five times as long to get
to where I am now", Yampolsky says. (To find your
own coach, see Coach's corner on page 10.)
While some clients, like Yampolsky,
turn to a coach for guidance with the whereto-next question,
others are clear about their destination but need help
with directions. Joseph Seiler, a certified personal
coach in Halifax, did just that for a client: he helped
her break down her dream of writing a novel into 50
doable steps, including the creation of a Web site to
promote her work-in-progress. A personal coach can also
lead a client to recognize he's on the wrong path altogether.
Bill MacGregor, a Halifax engineer, originally hired
Seiler to help him develop the small business he started
after creating a unique process for drying fruit. Unexpectedly,
he says, "Joe made me realize that I had been doing
the self-employment thing because I thought I should,
rather than because I truly wanted to." Now back
to being a salaried employee-he manages the consulting
engineering division of an aerospace company MacGregor
says he's doing better financially than ever before:
"I'm completely sold on the process."
- Gabrielle Bauer, Money Sense Magazine.
How do you select the person that is right for you
from a list of personal coaches? Finding your own personal
coach is as easy as logging onto
the Internet.
The
Coach Connection (www.findyourcoach.com)
will match you up with a mentor from a wide pool of
personal Coaches for free, and offers a money-back
guarantee if you don't
like the person
they set you up with. Coachville (www.coachvillereferral.com)
lets you power-search online for a coach with the
specific
education, professional background, gender and age
group you prefer, while the online search at Coachlnc.com
(www.findacoach.com) focuses on finding a coach in
your area with expertise in your particular goals.
Again,
the services are free.
If a personal coaches name is followed by the designation
CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach), that
means
he or she is certified by a recognized training institution.
Don't get hung up on credentials, though. Testimonials
from satisfied clients carry at least as much weight.
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