Getting a coach was one of those things I can honestly say I wish I had done 10 years earlier.

Since leaving school I have put myself under a lot of pressure and chased every opportunity that presented itself in order to get somewhere in life. I have found reasonable success but my identity has always been linked to my work, the people I am involved with and my status. 

My biggest role ended positively but rather abruptly. I have always been proud of biting off more than I can chew and suddenly I had nothing to chew on. Going from working as a senior exec in a global unicorn to figuring out things on my own, I was now making decisions completely on my own terms.

I felt desperately rudderless and was unsure which path to take. In the back of my mind, speaking with a coach was always there but I resisted reaching out due to having had poor experiences with clinical therapists in the past and I was also worried that a coach would reveal my gaps or validate my imposter syndrome. I was pleasantly wrong about coaching and unlike therapy, every session was constructive and productive, mixed in with some incredibly deep personal work.

Gareth has been in my personal network and reaching out was natural. Our first conversations were predominantly about if we were the right fit together, and the next 12 weeks were the most beneficial weeks in terms of personal development I have ever had. The sessions were structured but flexible enough to work through points we picked along the way. My commitment to the process was to remain vulnerable and honest and the return from Gareth was ten fold. 

He is deeply committed to his own development, research and journey which gave me huge comfort when he could easily relate or had the empathy to give me honest and direct feedback that was constructive. We focused on and unpacked me, then built the program around what I most needed. It was nice not to have a standardised “12 step program” force fed to me.

We established what my personal brand would look like and built tools and a framework that I now fall on daily to reach new levels in personal understanding and work performance. 

I highly recommend Gareth and value him as a permanent sounding board in my life.