About Ann

How I Coach

Media Mentions

SUCCESS

“My inner conflict has gone – I’ve stopped questioning myself. Every time I hit the ball you kept hitting it back. The bar has been raised much higher. You knew what was needed and set it up. It’s brilliant!” L.C

Evening Echo October 2004

My career and me: Ann Kelly – Life & Business Coach

Name: Ann Kelly, Age: 50 years, Lives: Cork, Glanmire/Glounthaune. Job title: Life & Business Coach

Education background: Coach University. (Neuro Linguistic Programming) NLP Master Practitioner.

Describe your job in five words: Rewarding, fascinating, demanding, challenging, freedom.

Describe yourself in five words: Determined, open, warm, great listener, inspiring.

Personality needed for this kind of work? Someone who engenders trust is a good communicator and relates well to people. It’s important to be a straight talker, vital to be a great listener, sensitive to peoples’ vulnerabilities. Someone who challenges and inspires them to be their best. Most important though is to walk your talk and keep working on your own personal evolution.

How long are you doing this job? All my life actually but officially four years.

How did you get this job? When the multinational I was working with was going through its second merger, I decided to get myself a coach; she coached me from Israel for two years.
I began training with Coach University and got some clients who wanted to make changes. It blossomed from there. I left my job and set up my business in 2001. I love being in control of my own destiny.

Do you need particular qualifications/experience? Yes. In my opinion, for Life Coaching you need life experience, for business coaching, business experience. Add to these the ability to listen to people to hear what they’re not saying.
Developing the coaching skills is necessary to communicate with clients in a way they can be to make the shifts they want to make. Developing yourself is vital to inspire them so they can trust you.
You need to have the know-how to run a business or professional practice. If you don’t have this then it’s important that you get a mentor or a coach to help you.

Describe an average day/night/shift at work: I get up between 6.30 – 7.00 a.m. An average coaching day is 9-10 hours. I exercise, stretch, write and prepare for the day, making sure my phone has been charged the night before.
Starting at 8.00 a.m. or 9.00 a.m. I’ll coach through to lunchtime, usually 1.00 p.m. Depending on the day I might have the afternoon free and will coach again at 5.00 p.m. till 10.00 p.m. Then I will answer emails, go to the bank, have a massage, or write my monthly newsletter, Your World Your Way.
Bedtime is 11.30 p.m.

How many hours do you work a week? It varies, three weeks a month; I can work up to 35 to 40 hours a week. On the fourth week of a month, I might do about 8 to 10 hours for the week. Again if I’m behind or very busy, I’ll do more.
I coach three days a week, three weeks/month. Which means that I have 16 weeks holidays per year, unless I give retreats/workshops. Then I work on my free weeks, which I did recently for my 5-Day White Space Retreat in Connemara.

What do you wear to work? At home, coaching on the phone, I dress casually. For corporate work I wear a suit and for retreats and workshops, I dress smart/casual/funky.

Is your industry male or female dominated? As far as I know it’s 60% female, 40% male.

Does this affect you in any particular way? It’s great to have both dynamics in this profession. It allows for diversity and breadth of experience. My clientele moves between being 75% male to 75% female.

Is your job stressful? Rate it on a scale of 1-10: No it’s not. Coaching is uplifting and energizing.

Running a business though, can be stressful. Keeping up with marketing, networking (I don’t do much of it), accounts, administration and developing your business can be a full-time job in itself. I would rate that at about 5 at the moment. When you work for yourself, it’s important to have a support group, a coach or a mentor to keep you on an even keel and upwardly mobile.

Do you work with others on or your own? I work on my own mostly. The White Space Retreat in Connemara, I did myself. I have worked with others, for example last weekend I and two other NLP Master Practitioners ran a workshop together called Getting The Edge On Your Negotiations Using NLP.

When do you plan to retire or give up working? I don’t. I’m motivated to keep developing myself. I believe I’m on this planet to evolve, grow and develop my potential till the day I die. I’m unstoppable in this and I thrive on it.

Best bits:

• When clients are delighted with themselves and their successes. Sometimes, they send flowers, or gifts, which is a wonderful surprise.
• Giving workshops and retreats.
• When someone rings me and says, so and so recommended you and I’d like you to coach me.
• Every month I get paid for doing something I love to do.
• Looking at my calendar and seeing my free weeks winking back at me, saying I’m free Ann, have fun with me.
• Training with and meeting so many other inspiring people who help me grow and evolve.

Worst bits:

• Sitting at a computer too much.
• A cluttered desk.
• Being behind with work.
• Writer’s block when my newsletter is due out.
• When technology fails and I can’t access emails.
• Not being sure that emails I sent have reached their destination.

Advice to those who want your job?

• Seek out the best training you can find.
• Get yourself a coach who has a successful practice.
• Get started immediately.
• Start as you mean to go on. If you want this work to give you a lifestyle design it to fit from the beginning.
• Set up a payment system that allows you to sleep at night.
• Put in place all the supports you need for you to thrive.