Unlocking Holistic Business Success: The Power of Coaching with Ana Floyd

Unlock the pathway to sustainable business success with the transformative wisdom of Ms. Ana Floyd, a distinguished life coach celebrated for her mastery in communication. As a second-generation coach, Anna has honed the art of guiding entrepreneurs to align their personal and professional lives, empowering them to create businesses that reflect their true essence. Prepare to embark on a journey where holistic growth and deep self-reflection become the keys to overcoming obstacles and creating a lasting legacy across industries.

Join us in discovering the profound synergy between coaching and entrepreneurship. Through Anna’s guidance, we’ll explore how fostering human connection and psychological safety can unlock extraordinary potential. Drawing inspiration from the resilience and tenacity of Paralympic athletes, she reveals the power of active listening and nurturing nonjudgmental spaces. These invaluable techniques cultivate trust and fuel resilience, vital for small business owners aiming to thrive in today’s dynamic landscape.

But the conversation doesn’t stop there. We’ll dive deep into the value of coaching credentials, uncovering how proper training and standards elevate the coaching profession, especially in HR and organizational development. Learn how the International Coaching Federation’s guidelines can enhance your effectiveness and credibility, ensuring a measurable return on investment for businesses.

Join this enlightening dialogue filled with compelling stories, actionable strategies, and the promise of growth. Whether you're an entrepreneur, coach, or business enthusiast, Anna’s insights offer a roadmap to success, where authenticity and strategic communication fuel lasting impact.

TalkStory Promo Intro

Chapters

• 0:19 Empowering Small Business Owners Through Coaching
• 5:47 The Impact of Coaching on Entrepreneurs
• 13:24 Creating Psychological Safety in Coaching
• 22:46 Building Resilience Through Coaching
• 28:59 Navigating Coaching Credentials and Standards
• 36:28 The Value of Executive Coaching
• 51:03 Navigating Business Challenges Strategically

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

Transcription by CastingWords. Share and simplify the latest research and best practices from award-winning business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals to educate and empower you on how to make money, save money and compound the interest of earned revenue to thrive, happier, healthier and improve your business practices for greater efficient impact. The end result is that you understand alternative pathways to roads less traveled to success that the daring duo share on the show. Together with Ignite San Diego, sparked by the BBB, we resolve the challenges and obstacles of growing a successful business to be victorious in a new era of innovation. This production is supported by the Better Business Bureau, national Referral Network, countywide Mortgage Lending, business Group Resources and Kaizen Group International.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Welcome to Talk Story Media. I'm Will Petum. Austin Behic is traveling and will not be able to join us, but we want to welcome you to another impactful episode of Talk Story Media Business Edition podcast, where we bring you closer to the solutions and the best practices that drive the success of small businesses worldwide. In this episode, we're going to dive into key challenges small business owners face today and explore how expert guidance, support and tailored financial strategies can help them navigate through these challenges effectively. Our mission is to inspire, empower and impact through conversations that provide you with practical tips, stories and the latest industry insights.

Speaker 2: 2:02

I'm William Petbe, like I mentioned, a modern-day urban Robin Hood and small business advocate, and today we focus on empowering businesses. So this morning we have an exceptional human being that I totally admire and adore. We have Ms Anna Floyd. She's an acclaimed life coach in communication with over two decades of experience guiding individuals, professionals and organizations towards success. She holds a prestigious ICF professional certified coaching credential and serves as the president-elect for the ICF San Diego chapter. Anna has empowered thousands of clients across industries, helping them unlock their potential through compassionate, open-hearted listening and targeted coaching solutions, and so she's got a list of accolades here. So, without further ado, ms Anna Floyd.

Speaker 3: 2:59

Good morning William. It's fun and exciting to be here with you today. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 3:03

I've been wanting to get you on the show for some time now. You know we do have something a little different here. I gave a little intro, but this does not do us justice. Could you give us your 30-second elevator pitch?

Speaker 3: 3:18

Yes, so my name is Anna Floyd. I am a life development coach in communication is Anna Floyd. I am a life development coach in communication, and I am a individual that enjoys working with other human beings that are in business and or whatever aspect of life that they're encountering, and supporting them to find creative, long-term solutions to their challenges to their challenges.

Speaker 2: 3:50

Wow, that's quite, quite interesting. Can you go into how you got to this point in juncture in your life and and just share with us.

Speaker 3: 3:54

Do I get 30 seconds for that too?

Speaker 2: 3:57

I'll give you 35 seconds. How's that?

Speaker 3: 4:00

I will. I'll make it as short as possible. So I will make it as short as possible. So you know, I grew up in the coaching space. That's really the most succinct way I can speak it.

Speaker 3: 4:22

I'm from the San for me, and so I just so happened to be home from school during the summer and my mother, who is also she's one of the pioneers in the coaching industry I'm second generation she was doing this fun thing with her friend who happened to be Thomas Leonard and the late Thomas Leonard, and they were doing this project in San Francisco and it was setting up workshops to discover your life purpose, and the story continues from there. Fast forward, 30 years later, I've had the opportunity to coach several hundred business owners. We went into the coaching space with working with business owners, supporting business owners with their challenges, their successes, their long-term strategies, with growth, how to bring their whole self to their business, not just their mental acuity to their business, not just their strategic thinking of their business, but who are they as business owners and how does that impact their business growth?

Speaker 3: 5:35

and their growth of their teams so good, so a lot to impact there A lot, so you only gave me 30 seconds, though, so I hope I I gave you 35. Right, 35. Hope I came under that.

Speaker 2: 5:47

So so, with all that said, share with us your why. Why are you doing this? What?

Speaker 3: 5:54

you know, the truth is, uh, I'm a human being that believes in other human beings, being that believes in other human beings, and one of the things about being an entrepreneur is it requires a lot of risk, it requires the ability to be able to get up every day and want to make a difference. And even though we know, as human beings, we want to make a difference and we choose to go into being a business owner and contributing some sort of service or product that will make people's lives better, there's always the human aspect of it. There's the being immersed in the inertia and the tasks and the doing and the legalese and all of that, and what I found is that one of the things that we miss is just our own humanity and what we're doing and how come we're doing it. And so how come I am interested in coaching and continue to be interested in coaching is it's also a life path for me. When I work with other individuals, I'm also engaged in conversations that are pertinent to me and what I'm going through, and so, again, in terms of being a entrepreneur in this world, it's important to make sure that I am grounded and always focused on what makes all of us progress and move forward and for the most part, as far as I can tell, with coaching that means providing an opportunity where we can always check in with ourselves, we can always self-reflect, we can always take a pulse in terms of what we're doing and where we want to go next.

Speaker 3: 7:38

And coaching allows for the business owner to open up and be able to see what are the challenges, what's in their way and what do they need to do to be able to excel and move past it. And what do they learn from those challenges as well. Right, I think a lot of time we get so caught up in the challenges we forget to reflect and enjoy the journey and realize, oh, I'm smarter than I was before, I knew how to solve this problem, or the problem may still be there, or the challenge may still be there, and yet I'm one step further to creatively solving that challenge. So I find that being an entrepreneur brings out all of our skill sets, whether we want to or not. It calls on all of our skill sets and being front and center as a coach again, to be able to experience that with business owners and also have that reflect back on me is just very rewarding.

Speaker 2: 8:26

That's so wonderful. So who inspired you? What are your icons and mentors that really are profound in your life choices?

Speaker 3: 8:38

You know it changes. What I can say is right now. What I can say is right now I am really inspired by the community of individuals that are there's a variety of terms, but the disabled community, the individuals that have certain I don't really care for the word disability, so certain inhibitions or limitations, excuse me, limitations to their physical abilities, so to speak, because these individuals actually have, demonstrate, have and continue to demonstrate how very resourceful human nature is right.

Speaker 3: 9:28

How very resilient, how very capable and competent and creative we're required to be as human beings. And so when I look upon I was just watching the Paralympics and when I look at what these athletes are doing with, yes, with very few physical limbs or a slowed, impaired processing ability, and they're still excelling at gold star athlete level, honestly, william, it's like I have no excuse.

Speaker 2: 10:03

And we have all our limbs.

Speaker 3: 10:04

Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2: 10:05

And all our faculties.

Speaker 3: 10:06

And so when I look upon individuals that seem to again I use the word seem to have less going for them and they exceed and excel far beyond anything that seems possible, it really inspires me and I, just whenever I'm having one of those challenging days, I look to my left or look to my right or look for that inspiration and I just get back up and I say I have no excuse. So it's fascinating to watch.

Speaker 2: 10:33

I totally agree. And it just kind of leads me to you know, every gold medal, every medal up on that pedestal had a coach, Absolutely. So, success comes with coaching guidance. Are there any books, any references that you could share with the audience that really hit home that maybe they're not able to access a coach currently, but there are resources out there that are free and easy to navigate and take action with?

Speaker 3: 11:14

Well, one of the books is near and dear to my heart because one of the things as I said, I'm a life development coach in communication, which means I really work with people on their communication based on how they listen. So it's also important in terms of coaching to understand how I listen as an individual and how individuals or teams listen, and so there's a book called Listen there's a world waiting to be heard. There's also another version of the book called I Know you Hear Me. Are you Listening? So I like to read books that have a lot to do with listening and communication.

Speaker 3: 11:55

There's also another book that I am just now beginning to engage with, and it's part of a larger project that I'm involved in where I'm researching the aspect of coaching called Developing Trust and Safety Cultivating Trust and Safety.

Speaker 3: 12:13

So this book is called the Power of Trust. Forgive me, I'm not recalling the author at this time. She's a Harvard professor, so look up the Power of Trust and people should be able to find it. Also, there's another book that's valuable Amy Edmondson, who's also another Harvard professor, who deals with cultivating trust and safety and, specifically, psychological safety and the reason I bring that up, as we're talking about it in the books that are inspiring me is business owners specifically require having a safe space so that they can really explore those aspects of how can they move forward in their business with all the business challenges, and still have a safe space with a coach to be able to trust their choices, trust their decisions, trust that they're moving in the right pathway. And sometimes a coach can provide that safe space for people so that they know that, no matter what their choices are, they're on the right path towards their journey and accomplishing their goals and whatever it is that they want to accomplish.

Speaker 2: 13:18

So good, I'm just downloading all this information.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 13:24

You know, your personal practice focuses on listening and when I think of coaching, I see the coach with the whistle and they're yelling at. You know the athlete and they're constantly giving information, sharing information and coaching. But you've pivoted and turned it around and you're more listening. How does that work? How do you coach when you're not saying anything and you're listening?

Speaker 3: 14:00

True. Well, depending on who you ask, they might wonder how come I'm not saying anything because I am a communications coach, so I communicate quite a bit. The listening component, it's actually one of the competencies in coaching and I'm glad you asked that because a lot of, as you said, the typical version of coaching, as you said, is someone who's rallying the troops, so much of a Tony Robbins type, right, yes, rallying the troops, telling folks they're great, you know, climbing the highest mountain, all of that.

Speaker 2: 14:34

I got my Dwayne Johnson stuff every morning.

Speaker 3: 14:40

And so and a lot of that is very true A lot of that is very true in terms of the coaching profession the aspect of listening and this is specific to our methodology because we focused on this, because we feel like listening actually affects all the other competencies in coaching. There are several competencies to being a professional coach and active listening is one of them. So for my coach entrepreneurs out there, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. One of the reasons we chose meaning myself and my mother, I'm in a family business we chose to focus on active listening is because we feel as though listening actually activates all the other aspects of coaching. When you're listening deeply and you're listening closely to the challenges that are present in a client's life or in a team or in a conversation, you're able to really understand what are the questions to ask.

Speaker 3: 15:35

Those type of coaching that I do involves listening so that you have the effective questions to ask that particular individual, so that they can ask themselves that question. Sometimes it's okay to stay in the question. They don't always have to have the answer, because oftentimes in the society we're expected to have the answer, have the answer, know what to do and, entrepreneurs, we really have to double down on making sure we know a lot and how much do we know? And we're quizzed every day and we don't know enough and all of the mental chatter that goes on with trying to navigate this world. And so listening is very important for business owners so that we can really make sure that we're clear in our head with all the things that we need to do, we can prioritize effectively and we can stay focused on our North Star right and where we have to go.

Speaker 2: 16:21

Yeah, it sounds more of a holistic approach where you're really kind of pivoting, like I mentioned, and allowing your client to have that self-realization moment.

Speaker 2: 16:34

Absolutely that epiphany moment for themselves, you know, because I find it when, when they think they have the solution or resolution for something, they feel proud. Right, exactly, it's not something. Oh, my coach told me this Exactly, and so I really love that. And so one of the concerns that has been raised is the safety, the psychological safety. You know, many business owners feel isolated and overwhelmed by pressures and running a business. We discuss how creating psychological safety through nonjudgmental guidance and offering confidential space for sharing challenges can significantly boost morale and productivity. Can you elaborate on that? Can you elaborate?

Speaker 3: 17:31

on that. What lens do you wear and see? Psychological safety, yeah. So, again, this is a topic that's near and dear to me because I'm studying that now and one of the again, amy Edmondson is really a solid influence in this space.

Speaker 3: 17:46

One of the things about psychological safety is allowing individuals particularly if we're talking about business owners and any individual whether you're an entrepreneur, on a team, you're working for someone, you're retired, it does not matter we all require some aspect of knowing that we're safe in the space that we're in to be who we are. I think oftentimes, especially as entrepreneurs right, we have to have our brand, we have to have our image, we have to look a certain way, we have to dress a certain way, we have to know all certain facts about our industry that at times it has us miss our own authenticity in that space. Right, and or based on whatever feedback we're at networking mixers we're going to, what is the next entrepreneur doing? That I'm not doing. It clouds our own ability to really just feel comfortable in our own skin, feel comfortable with the words that are coming out of our mouth, our own thoughts, and so, again, dovetailing back to how come a coach is supportive, and particularly a coach that is very, very skilled in listening is we're able to support clients to navigate all those areas so that they can find their own sense of psychological safety right.

Speaker 3: 19:01

So this conversation about psychological safety we've talked about it from. Okay, how is your external environment supporting you so that you feel safe? Oftentimes we miss looking at our own internal environment. How are we creating psychological safety for ourselves? What are the words we're telling ourselves? What is the conversation we're having with ourself and with a coach? A coach can support you with asking you questions, with listening to you closely, with supporting you to really expand and open up, to understand what are you doing well and what are the areas to develop, versus coming from being frustrated because you did something wrong, you didn't hit the contract, you didn't make your numbers, and the list goes on, and then we go, we spiral down into this this pit.

Speaker 3: 19:45

So oftentimes a coach can support you to come out of the pit, or even if you're in the pit, we'll talk to you while you're in there, to support you, to understand how to get yourself out and that it's okay, and even talk to you in a way and ask you questions in a way that allows you to realize, well, what can you gain even if you're in that pit? What are you learning?

Speaker 2: 20:06

What are you seeing? What I visualize is you're scaling this wall. There you go and you don't realize there's a grip to the right just slightly up. And all you have to do is grab it so you can pull yourself up. But your perspective is you can't see that Exactly, so sometimes it takes a third party to really kind of shed light on the opportunities and the right path to continue on so that you succeed Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 20:37

This all leads me also. We have a lot of business owners that chime in and listen to the show. So how does a business owner create psychological safety for their team?

Speaker 3: 20:50

You know, that's a great question and it depends, to be very honest and when I say depends, it depends on the kind of the composition of your team, right? You have to know the types of personalities you have on your team so that you really, as a business owner, can understand how to best work with each individual and their own personal expression, as well as how do they work together in teams, right? So one of the ways that business owners can really support their team and create because psychological safety is an environment, it's not like an activity, it's not something you do I'm actually looking for a different way to express psychological safety, because you know, once these words hit, they start to be trendy and people use them and then you don't even really know what you're saying, right? So, and for lack of a better term, right now we'll use psychological safety, and one of the things that's important when you're working with teams is to really understand how to provide each individual on that team with their own sovereign experience of how they contribute to that team, right, and own it and highlight it. Now, there might be elements where their contribution may not be appropriate to whatever project is happening at that time. However, it doesn't mean that their contribution is not relevant somewhere.

Speaker 3: 22:10

I want to go back to the analogy we were talking about in terms of being in the pit. Right, you might have a team member that's in the pit that day, for whatever reason. They come into the office, something's going on in their life, et cetera. And what a business owner one can do is listen, be available to listen without judgment, allowing that individual and the team members, allowing that individual to just be in the space that they're in, and then utilizing that space to allow the individual to see how they can be resilient through that. And sometimes resilience means just being in that space, being in that void, just not knowing how to get out of something, how to work with it, so that, and really being comfortable in that. And I want to say that because oftentimes we think psychological safety is warm and fuzzy. Right, we're good, we're comfortable, we're warm, we're safe.

Speaker 3: 23:08

Psychological safety also means being willing to give people the permission in the room to just be where they are, even if it feels uncomfortable. They're safe, though they're safe to be in that discomfort, because what happens is, once you're really clear that you're really okay where you are, all of a sudden it's like the light bulb goes on, you return back to your own resilient self. You return back to being resourceful. Either the pit disappears or you figure out some jewels and gems. How many times, right? Treasure is always found underneath, right? Rarely do we find it. We wish we could find the treasure on top. Typically treasure is found underneath so. So if you're in that pit, more than likely you're going to find some treasures that will support you to make it through and make it out, and that's all that. All all of those actions embolden someone's sense of confidence, which contributes to their psychological safety and also contributes to the safety, to their safety and cultivating trust and safety within the team.

Speaker 2: 24:07

So good, thank you.

Speaker 3: 24:09

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 24:09

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Speaker 2: 24:21

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Speaker 2: 24:45

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Speaker 2: 26:03

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Speaker 3: 26:59

So you're asking how would can you ask the question again, please?

Speaker 2: 27:04

So HR departments working together with coaching Right.

Speaker 3: 27:08

Okay, so how would a coach At the executive level Because there's a lot of executives that need guidance.

Speaker 2: 27:15

This takes me to ICF. Icf is the International Coaching Federation and there's so many segments to it. Absolutely Does ICF offer opportunities for HR departments to tap into resources and the coaches and the network?

Speaker 3: 27:34

Absolutely, and I understand your question now I just had to understand exactly what you were asking. So, are there opportunities for coaches to be able to work with these HR departments? And yes, to answer your question, ICF San Diego, ICF, first of all, ICF Global. Icf is a global organization. We have about 70 to 75,000, last time I counted, I have to look up the statistics again credential coaches worldwide, and so we're a large organization. We'll turn 30 in 2025. So just coming up here on 30 years here in a few months actually. And so, while it's a relatively young organization, it's still very. It's growing rapidly, day by day. And so here's the interesting thing about this industry as it relates to HR, the human resources industry caught on to coaching early on because, of course, they deal with people in the credentialed coaches that come in and support to train those teams or those organizations will send their HR representatives to get coaching, training and certification at some of the certification and credentialing schools and education centers that exist.

Speaker 3: 28:59

So, in terms of how would a coach specifically address your inquiry and those that are listening, how would a coach be able to who's interested in working with that field? There are a variety of ways these days. One. If you have certain business contacts, you can go to networking events, particularly HR networking events, and highlight what you do as a coach and who you want to work with and who you have worked with and look for your connections there Again. You can also, as a coach, consider getting additional certifications in the, I believe, the SHRM organization right, which is the Society for Human Resources and Management. So those two industries I found blend very well together.

Speaker 3: 29:44

And through ICF specifically, I believe and don't quote me I'm still having to keep up with all the different. The ICF has so many different collaborations and partnerships with these different associations. I have to keep up with them all. However, I do know the human resources field is very closely connected with ICF Global and here in ICF San Diego. What we're working to do is make more opportunities available to our coach members. We have probably close to 400 members in our database and growing. Every time I go to a networking event I find one more coach that I can invite to an ICF event because they're either not part of our ecosystem or they just joined our ecosystem.

Speaker 3: 30:33

And then we also make sure that different disciplines are able to come and speak to our chapter. So if we're talking about the human resources individuals that are coaches, and they're in the human resource space. They have certain skills and information that they can deliver, because coaches are always required to maintain their continued education. Right, that's part of our process in terms of how come? We have to maintain our credentialing, so it's required. And we also have those that are in the psychology space, right, that also come and deliver content, so that we can equip our coaches with a wide range of skills and a wide range of ability, so that, no matter what client or opportunity they encounter, they have some skill set to be able to effectively coach through it.

Speaker 3: 31:24

I want to be very clear, though, that coaching is a very specific discipline. The beauty about coaching, though, is it blends with all the other disciplines, so we have coaches that have come from the legal profession. We have coaches that have come in from the health profession. We have coaches that, again, as I said, came in from human resources, psychology construction, so coaching is a beautiful way that human beings get to be with other human beings and participate with each other as we continue to grow and prosper. Right, the industry now has just made sure that we've got some structures and some standards, because we're still dealing with human beings at the end of the day, and we all want to make sure that we're safe in the conversations that we have.

Speaker 2: 32:08

I'm taking notes rapidly, so you had mentioned a number of times certification and credentials. What sets apart the self-proclaimed business coach that read a couple books and now I'm a coach? Right, I've come in contact with a lot of them and I asked the question so you know what makes you a coach. Who certified you, where's your teachings from, what is the standard of ICF for coaches and where is the bar for credentialing and what is the certification needed to really project your brand into the business community to be substantial?

Speaker 3: 33:02

Good question and I'll try to answer each one of those questions as best as possible. I may need you to repeat a few of them. In terms of the credentialing and standards for the International Coach Federation, you have three separate and there are more coming. Like, again, the International Coaching Federation is growing and so you have a lot of certifications and credentials that are coming. The baseline credentials are your associate certified coaching credential, your ACC, which is your minimum. You have your professional certified coaching credential, which is your mid-level, and then you have your master certified coaching credential, which is basically you are a master certified coach and that means you pretty much have coached for a very, very long time we're talking decades and which means you've pretty much been in the coaching industry from the inception, because, again, it's only a few decades old Pioneer.

Speaker 3: 33:59

Exactly Part of the pioneering class, and each particular credential allows you to be able to exemplify another skill set and another layer of your coaching proficiency right Now. Don't get me wrong you know coaching is a practice, so, even if you're an MCC, you can have ACC days. You can have PCC days. If you're a PCC, you'll have MCC and ACC days. If you're an ACC, you'll have MCC and PCC days. You know you run the gamut like a business owner. You have your good days and your off days. That's basically what I'm using as the analogy. The beauty, though, is once you're getting into your practice and you're really looking at coaching and this is what I would think is the biggest distinction Once you're getting into your practice, you really start to experience who you are as a coach, as a way of life, versus doing coaching Usually in the early days. You're doing coaching, so you speak about the individuals who read a few books, and so now they're a coach. Now let me say this, and I want to be very clear while I definitely am making sure that the standards of the ICF are honored, because that is important and that is crucial to the longevity of this organization and our industry, I also have my personal feeling as a coach, because I grew up in this space, so I grew up knowing, watching all of this come into existence, all of these different credentials and all the requirements, et cetera, et cetera, which I have, requirements, et cetera, et cetera, which I have.

Speaker 3: 35:39

And what I can say, though, for those that have just read a book, cause I'm not discouraging anyone All we need we have a lot of individuals and human beings on this planet. We all need to have a coach somewhere, even if it's in our kitchen, right? Some? For some of us, our mothers were our coach, our fathers were our coach, our fathers were our coach, our uncles to them, because we need help out here.

Speaker 3: 36:28

And what I would say is it's important to know that coaching is just more than being able to give a few tips or share your wisdom, and it's important to make sure you get certain structures and components in place so you really understand the dynamics that happen within a coaching conversation and a coaching relationship. What I would also say to those individuals is good for you. That means you have a natural knack for coaching. Now go, do the study right, get yourself some credentialing, build your credibility, because you will be surprised at how far these particular credentials and this education will take you, because, coaching, as I said, it's 30 years old and yet it's still emerging. We can all imagine those of us that are beyond 30. Of course, I'm still 29.

Speaker 3: 37:09

I've been 29 for I'll be 20, I have a 29th birthday coming up. Yeah, the clock is stuck there you go. I'll be 20. I have a 29th birthday coming up. The clock is stuck. There you go. Exactly. However, if you remember the age you were, you you've, is, you felt your confidence coming in in terms of your maturity? If you're older than that, you realize the maturity and the wisdom really kicks in. The more you are around, right, the more life you live. And so the same with the coaching journey. Right, coaching is not a destination, coaching is a journey. And so if you're willing to hang in and you get that first bug because you read a few books, you felt inspired, you have that natural knack to just inspire others, then, sure, maybe consider coaching as your life purpose and do the work, do the work.

Speaker 2: 37:56

And contacting ICF is a good start to lead you in the right direction for all the certification and credentialing.

Speaker 3: 38:04

Absolutely so. Icf San Diego we have a database of training schools. We can't emphasize one school is better than the other. We remain neutral. However, we are the umbrella for all things coaching. So the training schools, the accreditations, the credentials if you want to know how to get your credentials, you want to know how to consider a training school to get your certification. A lot of the training certifications are moving into the university spaces. Now University of San Diego has a certification program. American University in Washington DC there are a lot of universities that are now starting to offer my alma mater, university of California Davis right, they're offering certification through their programs, through the extended education or professional education realm. So it's growing.

Speaker 2: 38:55

So I see ICF as just a beacon, a lighthouse to give you light when it's dark and to allow you to pursue in the right direction for the appropriate education Absolutely, absolutely Awesome.

Speaker 2: 39:11

Love it Absolutely. So let's take it back to the business owner. So you know what are the benefits that you've seen business owners receive a return on investment. You know, because some of these coaching programs are not cheap and it's, you know, quite the investment in yourself. But let's take it to the other side of the fence. What are they being impacted on and how are they succeeding?

Speaker 3: 39:39

You know, amen, you hit it right on the head. Coaching is an investment in yourself and you're absolutely right. It is a worthwhile investment and it is not inexpensive. You will have to commit to yourself and a lot of times when we commit, we commit via dollars. Right, we based on the value we find, we value it in dollars, and yet there's such a larger, exponential value to that.

Speaker 3: 40:07

So let me give you a few statistics, because I've been looking at this myself when I talk to people and even when I continue to ask myself how come I'm doing this and what's the benefit? And how do we measure it right? Yes, we measure the value of coaching because we feel good or okay, we solved a problem or okay, our relationship is better, and yet how do you really quantify that? So American University did a great study and they're talking about. They presented that there's a 70% increase in professional and individual performance when people acquire an executive business coach. And for those I want to make sure we're very clear If you're an executive and or you own a business, you're still an executive. You're an executive of your business. You're called the CEO, or known as the responsible party the responsible party and you wear all the hats.

Speaker 3: 40:58

So actually you are the C-suite, if you will, if you own your business. All under one hat, there you go. So I want to make sure when we talk about executive coaching, we're still talking about the business owner, right and or if you're an executive and you have your side business, all of the above it applies to how do you best perform in a high-impact environment and a high-impact life. So again, american University talked about goal attainment, clear communication, higher satisfaction. They've discovered a 70% increase when they benefit and invest in coaching 50% increase in performance for teams and groups and organizations in terms of better conversations among teams, improved collaboration among teams.

Speaker 3: 41:43

We're going back to the psychological safety piece, because when you're feeling safe with the team you're working with, you collaborate more, you're more open to working with each other's ideas and working with different personalities and you have more room, you have more mercy and more grace to work with people. Enhance work performance. You always work better when it's when it's people you have fun with right Sure, so that you have increased work performance. You have close to 50%, which means you have close to 50% engagement in terms of in success, in terms of your organizational performance because your organization is run by your teams and your individuals. Based on the ICF and a metric global study, people organizations that have invested in coaching, particularly Fortune 500 organizations, have realized almost a return on investment of six times their investment, so that's 6x.

Speaker 3: 42:39

Turn on investment of six times their investment, right, so that's six X. The ICF claims that 86% of companies recoup their initial investment in coaching. Those are the reportings that they show. The Institute of Coaching talks about 70% of individuals that receive coaching benefit again and improve work performance, relationships and effective communication skills.

Speaker 3: 42:55

I was speaking with a prospective business owner yesterday and he has a jewelry business and he's working to duplicate himself, meaning get other jewelry independent business owner and distributors for his business, and one of the things he talked to me about was his messaging, and he wants to be able to not only support his own messaging so he can continue to convince more individuals to join in this business venture with him right to articulate his vision appropriately and the value of this vision.

Speaker 3: 43:29

He also wants to be able to have his independent business owners that he works with be able to articulate that vision so that his particular organization can grow at scale.

Speaker 3: 43:40

And so one of the things in terms of being able to invest in a business coach it allows you to be able to articulate your message, it allows you to be able to understand how to grow and scale your teams and it allows you to be able to be creative and resourceful and come up with ideas and ways to keep your leading edge, to keep your cutting edge in your industry right. So 61% of business owners that have hired executive coaches actually show improvement in their business management skills right, increase in productivity and communication. Again, we're talking about getting their message out, having their message be uniform across the board, and they're also able to effectively articulate their vision, particularly when the team needs to be empowered or inspired. This is a long journey as an entrepreneur and you're going to meet those opportunities where you might not feel inspired that day or you might just be tired that day because you've just been working. You need to be able to have a space where you can communicate all of those things and still come out feeling whole and complete. Love it.

Speaker 2: 44:50

It just also leads me to. You know, we just came out of the pandemic and sometimes you just need a catalyst to, you know, give you that jump start and get everyone back on on on the same path and and just you know, set that North star again you know, because you know there's so many distractions, so many, so many squirrels out there.

Speaker 3: 45:17

I can't. There All trying to get a nut.

Speaker 2: 45:20

So you know, where do you see coaching going for the future? What is? You know? How is technology playing into coaching? Do you see AI coming into the picture? You know what is the future of coaching? Um?

Speaker 3: 45:37

good question. I'll say my perspective is the future of coaching is now, and what I mean by that is more and more individuals again, whether you're a business owner or just a, an individual who's who's trying to figure out how to navigate their way in their life, no matter what space they're in. You're transitioning a career, you're retiring from a career, you're going back to work after retirement, you're a stay-at-home mom or dad and you're raising your children and you're trying to support the next generation of individuals. Coaching is required for individuals to really understand how to get a clear sense of their direction. Coaching is required for people to have understand how to get a clear sense of their direction. Coaching is required for people to have a safe space to always self-reflect and do the inner work that's required and ask the deep questions of themselves that's required so that they really know how to get the most out of life.

Speaker 3: 46:32

And when you talk about AI, that's a very, very interesting and sensitive topic. I'm sure for all of us. I'm sure it's not a secret. Ai, that's a very, very interesting and sensitive topic. I'm sure for all of us. I'm sure it's not a secret to anybody that's listening to this. I happen to look at it with caution. I know that AI can support us with our life and making it easier. I mean, a lot of us are dealing with AI when we're just going to the bank teller, so it's not like it's not been around the automated telling machine. It's not like it hasn't been around us for a long time. We just didn't equate it with certain devices that are making it easier for us.

Speaker 3: 47:05

Right, in terms of coaching, ai is looking to affect their influence on coaching. You have in the International Coaching Federation does have a specific group of study. We call it a community of study, community of practice, and there are some individuals in Europe that are studying because they have a technology background and so they're studying the effects of AI and how it will support coaches. There are AI apps that are here now to help people understand the individual who just kind of wants their own personal coach, without hiring a coach necessarily, but they want coaching concepts or they want a coaching mindset.

Speaker 3: 47:51

I see AI as really being supportive with that. I see that it's going to behoove all of us as coaches or whatever industry you're in, because AI is in legal, ai is in medical, ai is in all the industries, all the disciplines to make friends with it as best you can, and to also making friends with it so that you also know how to get ahead of it if you need to, and to also making friends with it so that you also know how to get ahead of it if you need to, or how to implement it in your daily life so that it really supports you for the greater good, and you're also able to be smart enough to know what not to participate in Right. The technology that we have has made our life absolutely phenomenal these days.

Speaker 2: 48:41

I also know that if the lights ever go out, I still want to know how to use a pen and a piece of paper.

Speaker 3: 48:46

Yeah, we're old school Some of us are hybrids.

Speaker 2: 48:47

We're technical and manual.

Speaker 3: 48:49

There you go and so that's what I mean about AI. Right Like, use it it's a tool, Own it it's a tool, Don't be afraid of it. And especially in the coaching space, it can be an ally for things. And in the business space, it takes a lot of the work out of having to send receipts or follow up or make follow up emails or follow up calls. It really helps to automate a lot of things, which leaves the business owner right and the coach, if you and if you're a coach entrepreneur that's what I call it it leaves you free to now be more creative in your business and find out what you need to do in your business, and you have a little mini personal assistant.

Speaker 2: 49:26

Yeah, I love it. I love what you're saying. I'm going to welcome you back to the show anytime. Miss Anna Floyd, acclaimed life development coach in communication. She is the president elect of ICF San Diego. Anna, thank you so much for being on the show. Any last words of wisdom or, you know, nuggets of knowledge that you can share that our audience can take away.

Speaker 3: 49:55

You know, I don't know how wise this is going to be, and I'll just speak from my heart, hopefully. You know, wisdom comes from the heart, so I'll speak from there. I have really found that coaching has supported me in my life. It's one of the few disciplines that I found that I can express all of me in the business side, the creative side and the human relations side. And if you're someone who loves people, you love humanity and you want to serve and you want to give back.

Speaker 3: 50:29

I would highly encourage individuals to really consider looking at coaching as a part of their skill set. They don't have to go out and be a coach. That's not what everyone wants to do. Coaching is merely an expression of who you already are, and so I would really encourage folks to either consider getting a coach particularly entrepreneurs, because it will be the best executive friend you'll have and or being a coach, and even if you're a business owner, coaching is a wonderful industry to consider adding to your business, even internally for your teams. So thank you for having me today, william, thank you for coming Again.

Speaker 2: 51:10

I want to also thank our audience for tuning in. We are Talk Story Media Business Edition business edition podcast, where we give guidance, support and tailored financial strategies so you can navigate the challenges efficiently. Thank you again and we'll see you soon. This is a Talk Story Media production. Talk Story Business Edition is hosted by Austin Behick and William P Toome, supported by the Better Business Bureau, national Referral Network, county-wide Mortgage Lending, business Group Resources and Kaizen Group International.