Coaching is the Gift that Keeps on Giving!

One of the biggest decisions [for me was] being smart enough to say “Yes” [to my coaching journey. To say], “Dude, you’re smart enough to see you needed it and smart enough to swallow all your own nonsense. Permission to swear? All my b*******.”

life coaching guest
PK SavyAccredited Professional Coach

My first training at The Coaching Institute was the end of July 2017. It was the best $49 I ever spent!

Matt Lavars and a lady by the name of Fiona came to Brisbane. It was one of those chance things where [I'd seen] something on the net about coaching. It really activated in me that the idea of coaching – or the word “coaching” – [had] been hanging around [in] my life for a long time.

I was gone from “Hello”. What I saw at that training was Matt and Fiona talking about living life in a particular way through the lens of what coaching could do: the journey; studying; and [actually] becoming a coach.

life coaching guest
PK SavyAccredited Professional Coach

There was a genuine heartfelt space that these two people [had created while] running this training. I couldn't ignore it.

They were saying the journey of coaching got them to this sense of self, this sense of emotional growth. [It taught them] their ability to become good with things, like vulnerability.

All the stuff that I was just totally not with. I wanted to be part of that. I wanted that.

As soon as I started listening to these guys, I was just taken. The conversations that they were having and the levels that they were having [them] at – in a training – just [blew me] away.

I remember [thinking] I didn’t want the weekend to end. I was definitely in some other place, emotionally and mentally, when I was in that training.

At [the end], Matt did a call to those who wanted to look [further into life coaching], so I asked [him] about what [it took] and how much time it [would] take.

I just didn’t think I had it to give.

It was a pretty vigorous thing... I could feel something was about to happen if I followed through [with it].

I signed up for Masters Academy originally. By the time I had my first call with the WOW team to get myself set up, it was already evident to me [that] I needed to be an Accredited Professional Coach.

I wanted to run a business and to learn all [of] those skills.

I did Foundations of Coaching Success in September 2017, and that was the beginning of the beginning.

I worked at Telstra from 2006 for 10 years. [I had] made it to being [a senior sales staff member at Telstra after starting] on the phones like a WOW team member at The Coaching Institute.

I ran acquisitions sales, so I called non-Telstra customers about coming back to them.

At the end of my career there, I [was running] the training and coaching and developing sales people. I was helping them become better at the experience and enjoyed seeing people “get it”, whatever “it” [was] that they were looking for.

But I didn't have a language for it.

As soon as I was in that [first] training with Matt I began to see what had activated in my life prior. It was helping people, in particular with this skill that I had some strength in. Sales, leadership and management... Then it was just clear as day to me.

At the time of my first training, I had left Telstra for a couple of years.

I had built up a company that was a bit of a juggernaut, with two businesses: housekeeping and ironing.

I’d always been good at getting stuff done… That was a strength. Finding meaning? That was a tough one. I had zero ability…

I used a lot of the stuff that I had learned over [my] period of time at Telstra to build my company and [I had] a lot of employees and a lot of clients… [Say] 500 employees, 2,000 clients?

It’s a totally different language compared to the way I had learned at Telstra and everybody thought something had happened to me! Like I’d joint a cult or something. [They’d say] “He’s so nice!”, “What’s happened to PK?”.

[In saying that] I'd say it was a pretty dark place [for me]… I was hiding inside [my] work. My world was 100+ hours, 7 days a week.

I had to shift stuff around. I had to think about how I was [going to do] things to [enrol at The Coaching Institute] and allow 10 hours of study.

I was keen, my life was rubbish up until then and I was trying to fix [it].

You [think to yourself], "How is that going to work?"

Matt was very kind, he gave me a few days and we connected again and I said “Look, let’s do this.”

I didn’t know what I was doing, but it really made sense.

I jumped in to try it, both feet as quick as I could! Everything they said, I devoured. I chewed it up. I [think] annoyed a lot of people asking [a lot] questions...

It’s a colossal amount of stuff, and you ask yourself “Where do you start”? You’re confronted with all the books and online resources, (and back when I started you were still getting DVDs) - all kinds of stuff. I think that’s a newbie experience, “Oh my gosh, how much stuff is in it?".

I went around to everyone I [had known previously in the telecommunications business], pitching on every whiteboard anybody would let me write on.

By the time I did the fifth one, I had my first paying client.

I [had been] working from being awakened by my clients, and that [had] sustained me… Now I knew I had to extricate myself out of one of my other businesses so I could go as hard as I could into [life coaching].

I asked Joe Pane, one of the trainers at The Coaching Institute, “I've got this problem: I've got to somehow find a way to move myself out of [at least one of my businesses],” and he said “So you're a coach, right?”

I [was] looking at him as we were talking, and it just hit me like a wet fish in the face like "Sh-mack".

I started to run workshops and training, [which] I call “events”.

The best workshops I've ever been to, The Coaching Institute ran. [I thought] “ I'm going to start running as much as I can in the same model," [and then] I kind of had a basic formula.

In January 2018, I must have run 12 or 13 events for free for [various] different companies. They would come and do a day's training, or I would go and do some training with their managers. Whatever I could make sense of from from [my] training, the webinars and online resources.

I was just trying to figure out a way to apply it, to just give it a shot. What could happen? I get it wrong, no one’s going to know. I'm the only one!

All of a sudden, I got brave and I couldn't figure it out! What the hell was going on?

I started running 2-3 day events in sales culture. The more I learned [from training], the more I applied in [mentoring] and I just kept getting more paid work.

I got into this really interesting cycle:

  • I would go and do free events for a company to get a taste for me
  • I would suggest a proposal for us to work together for a while, and that would come through
  • I’d get to work with the company, or number of companies, a couple of days a fortnight until I had a full book (so until I had something going on all the time)

And then people would say “I really like what you were talking about… What's that coaching thing that you're doing? You know that “one-on-one” stuff?”

I was doing all "one-to-many” [training modules], I was straight into that because that just made sense to me. What [ended up happening] was I’d have a full book of say, 4 days a week of 8am-4pm with clients; on site, doing stuff. Then 5-9pm, I’d have 3-4 one-one-one coaching appointments from people who were experiencing the training and wanted [to] therefore have coaching - and [my] business really started to take off!

Fast forward to today: here I am now!

  • I've learnt a lot
  • I learned how not to use work as an addiction
  • I’ve got a team of 5 in my little business and I have two facilitators who work with me
  • I feel great being in front of people, and some of our rooms are 300 strong+

We've still got uncharted territories: we want to create products and programs [and] we will later this year. Maybe externally [leverage expertise] from people to help us with things, like a more focused website.

This year it'll be more about the quality of what we can do and produce rather than just the quantity of it. We've got more than enough work to keep us going for ages: The next event that I run is event #100!

I've got so much yet to complete. There's just so much. I have an aspiration to be a world class coach.

I kind of got real with a few little things:

  1. The study would need to continue happening, but not with the ferocity that I had intended
  2. I’m going to do Masters, that’s for sure!

I want everything, I want to complete everything, every paper. I’ve probably done 95 per cent of the first 2 papers and half of Accredited Professional Coaching.

I resonate completely with the training and following that through, and "transformation through growth".

Every time that Matt’s up here [in Brisbane], I always try and go [to his trainings].

Sometimes he’ll interview me, which is great! I nearly always cry at every event, and the reason for that is the tremendous change that happened – and is happening, and continues to happen.

Not [only] am I learning things that are changing my thinking, but things that are helping my grow. I am committed to that 100 per cent, no two ways about that.

I seriously, really needed this.

I am such a huge fan of and advocate of The Coaching Institute and feel very protective because the journey of coaching, to me, has made me a much better person. Much better. I can’t even begin to quantify that...

PK mentors people in sales, leadership and management. His aspiration is to become an accredited world-class coach.

life coaching guest
PK Savy