So, How Good Am I REALLY?

For the past 9 years, I have been successfully helping literally hundreds of people to refocus their lives and careers for greater enjoyment, accomplishment, success and fulfillment. After all, I am an Executive Coach, I am here to help you to create and sustain positive change! Let me help you, and your workplace, to work BETTER!

Now the pressure is on for me to, once again, reinvent and transform my own life. I already did this back in 2001/02 when I left a 20 year government management career at age 42 to retrain and start my own consulting business as a leadership coach. And I did it - I succeeded way beyond my own dreams and expectations. I quickly grew my business and coaching reputation to the extent that I was earning two and a half times my previous annual income and working just 9 months a year. I worked very hard during those 9 months each year; it wasn't easy by any means. But it was generally very enjoyable, I felt like I was making a difference, my clients appreciated my services, and it was definitely lucrative.

Then the Wall Street meltdown and the economic implosion of September/October 2008 hit and affected my clients to the extent that their drastic budget cutbacks meant they could no longer hire me. My major clients (provincial government & the health care sector) actually BANNED contracting with external consultants prevented the hiring of training and leadership development coaches such as myself. My carefully built and nurtured consulting/coaching business disappeared almost overnight. By spring 2009 my income had plunged by 95%. Gulp. And there is no sign of any recovery in sight. And I can't sit around and wait for the pendulum to swing back anyhow. I have to do something and soon. But what? If I am anywhere near as good a coach as I think I am, I should be able to reinvent myself with flare and panache!!

I have been blogging (here on this site, and I am re-published on a website called "Vibrant Nation" for women aged 50 and over) and have gotten a lot of credible feedback (some from published authors) that I should write and publish a book. I'd love to do that, but it's so much easier said than done. I am not even sure what kind of a book I'd want to write - and to what end? Most books sell about 300 copies apparently. Writing a book might be a source of personal accomplishment and satisfaction, but it cannot be counted on to pay the bills! I am both savvy enough, and crass enough, that I want my efforts to result in financial remuneration.

I am currently thinking about a self-help sort of guide for midlife women - to help them figure out "where to from here" in their own lives, recognizing all the issues that go along with being 50+, dealing with aging, health, menopause, relationships, elder care, empty nests, careers, becoming a grandparent, hopes/dreams etc. etc. Maybe if I document some of my journey and how I am navigating it that could be a blueprint for other women to figure out and chart their own course. A book like that would make sense because it could become the basis for going out on a speaking circuit. This has potential. I am going to work on this some more. Stay tuned.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)