Episode #16: Understanding the Power of Business Coaching with Jill Rogers

In this episode, we pull back the curtain on all the things you wondered about leadership coaching and why YOU need a coach of your own! Jill Rogers, an entrepreneur, Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and MOM, talks to us about her journey to becoming a coach, the principles of leadership coaching, and the impact coaching can have on your career trajectory.

Understanding the Power of Business Coaching with Jill Rogers Episode Recap

In this podcast episode, the guest, Jill Rogers, the President and CEO of J. Rogers consulting LLC (JRC), discusses coaching and its impact on personal and professional growth. JRC is a woman-owned small business that offers strategic human capital solutions, including leadership development, training, and coaching for various government departments. Jill shares her journey into coaching and how it helped her transition from being a delivery person to a business principal.

Coaching is seen as a valuable tool for individuals who feel stuck in their careers, industries, or personal lives. Jill explains that coaching involves introspection through powerful questioning to help clients discover their own solutions and get “unstuck.” It is different from therapy, which deals with past issues affecting current behaviors. Coaching, on the other hand, focuses on the present and helping clients set goals and work towards behavioral change.

Julia and Kelly share their personal experiences with coaching. Julia benefited from coaching as a business owner, and Jill’s guidance helped her address roadblocks, increase confidence, and set clear goals. Julia emphasizes the importance of having a specific idea of what one wants to achieve in coaching.

The podcast also touches on how leaders in advertising agencies can adopt coaching principles in their roles. Coaching involves asking open-ended questions and giving clients space for self-discovery. Jill highlights the power of silence during a coaching session, as it allows clients to think and achieve transformation.

To find a coach, Jill suggests reaching out to personal networks for referrals or exploring coaching associations like the International Coaching Federation (ICF). It’s essential to find a coach who aligns with the client’s needs and goals.

Jill goes on to share how being a mom has honed her multitasking skills, which are invaluable in running a business. As a working mom of three, she emphasizes the importance of flexibility in her schedule, allowing her to manage both her business and family life effectively. Julia and Kelly agree that companies should embrace flexibility to accommodate working moms’ needs and talents.

Jill talks about her journey as an entrepreneur and how she started her business shortly after having her first child. Over time, she expanded her business, won prime contracts, and hired employees. Having control over her schedule has been crucial to her success and happiness as a working mom.

Towards the end of the episode, Jill explains the role of a business coach and how they can help working moms. She emphasizes the power of coaching questions that lead to introspection and self-discovery, helping individuals identify their goals and overcome obstacles.

Overall, the conversation sheds light on the challenges and joys of being a working mom and highlights the importance of support, flexibility, and self-discovery in achieving success both in business and as a parent.

Show transcript:

Julia

Today our guest is the wonderful Jill Rogers. She is the President and CEO of J. Rogers consulting LLC, also known as JRC. A woman-owned small business with a breadth of capabilities and demonstrated experience engaging with senior leaders across the federal government to improve the effectiveness of an organization’s greatest assets, its people. JRC is a trusted advisor that designs, implements, and evaluates strategic human capital solutions, including leadership development, training and coaching across the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and Department of Homeland Security. Jill went to Catholic University and earned her executive coaching certificate through American University. She is an associate certified coach with the international coaching Federation, a project management professional and Certified Professional culture facilitator and certified to administer leadership assessments including the emotional quotient inventory, and eq 360. She is a member of the women for change coaching community and a hockey mom of three boys committed to learning something new every day, which is one of the reasons why I connect so much to her. So we all are moms, we are all business leaders. We have three kiddos.

Kelly

So we have so many questions to ask you, Jill. And I’m going to start because I have never had a coach before. And my coach has always been my dad, he’s kind of been the person that I go to regularly to ask for advice. But I I’ve always thought about getting a coach and especially a female coach. And interestingly enough, I must be giving off vibes that I need a coach because every coach on LinkedIn has reached out to me in the last three months. And so, I must seem like I need one. I want to know a little bit about what do people come to you mostly? For coaching? What are people looking for? is are there some general patterns as to why people are seeking out coaching? Now, during COVID? That’s different from prior years? Can we start there?

Jill

Absolutely. Great question. I generally find most folks are looking for coaching to get kind of unstuck from what they’re in and what they’re stuck in can be a variety of things, whether they’re stuck in a bad job or stuck in a career or an industry that they want to make a change from. I’ve worked with folks that are transitioning from the military and are struggling with and are stuck in kind of how to transfer their skills to the current to the private sector. I have found that the easiest way to describe it, I know it’s kind of simplistic, the word stuck but the folks are generally kind of stuck in a pattern, stuck in an industry, and stuck in a job and can’t seem to navigate their way out. But they’re the ones that truly know how to navigate their way out. And that’s the thing about coaching is that it’s working with the client through certain practices and principles and competencies that we’re trained in as coaches to help the client through a process of self-discovery, and working to find out the solution to getting unstuck, if I can use that as a word. I’ve also worked with some folks that may be stuck in a in a bad habit, and they’ve received some feedback, either through a 360, or through a performance assessment. And they’d like to change that, that behavior that consistently is demonstrated in the workplace, which may be holding them back from a promotion or from other opportunities. Coaching is a very effective tool for behavioral change, working with clients to kind of explore what the change could look like, what the new behavior could look like. And then they try it on in the workplace or in the same situation. And then we kind of discuss how it felt is this sustainable. So that’s kind of a quick, quick explanation of how it can work for behavioral change. But, that’s pretty much what I have seen, in my experience. In addition, as a federal contractor, I see coaching, as part of many of the leadership development programs that we run. It’s kind of a very strong kind of concurrent path. While we’re teaching different principles around leader development, and practices and competencies, to have the opportunity to talk to a coach while you’re going through that about what does this really look like in the workplace? What does this really look like with my team? How can I exemplify that behavior? So we’re not only learning and teaching about leadership in the in the in the works or in the in the classroom space, but then they have the opportunity to try it on and react to it with their coach. So that’s kind of how I see it bundled kind of in the workplace, in, in my experience? Do I think that do I hypothesize the reason why a lot of folks wanted more now during COVID? Yeah, none, none of us have been, none of us have lived or worked like this ever. And it’s suffocating. And when you don’t quite know where to go next, you’re kind of stuck in your own head, I think that that’s what’s I think that that’s what’s causing some folks to want to talk to a coach, they’re not sure if they need therapy, or not. And and therapy is quite different from coaching. But to have some kind of outlet to engage with someone else, either personally or professionally, because there is both kind of personal life coaching, and then kind of professional leadership or business or career coaching.

Kelly

You know, it’s funny, I just read an article in The New York Times, and you might have read it as well, because it’s going all over social media that they’re calling COVID, the languishing and I felt like wow, that’s kind of how I feel right now and how everyone feels — we’re kind of in the suspended state of limbo, I guess, waiting to see what the future is going to hold. So that resonated with me. Can you talk a little bit about what makes coaching different from therapy? And does it frequently kind of end up becoming a therapy session? Or is it? Because I would imagine a lot of your personal issues come out in your in the workplace? And that’s what you probably end up working on. But let me know.

Jill

Yeah, absolutely. So the International Coaching Federation, ICF is kind of the governing body for coaches that that want to be kind of certified. And that’s where I’m credential through there as an ACC, there are plenty of coaches that do not align themselves with ICF. And that’s fine, too. They’re great coaches, but there’s certainly a significant amount worldwide that align themselves with ICF and one of part of ICS code of ethics. And they are kind of the professional society of coaching professionals, they they’re pretty adamant about knowing when you get up to the line with therapy, and that we are not coaches and are not are not therapists. And when I was taught about the distinction, therapy is kind of working through and this is the kind of the most simplistic definition that coaches use because I’m sure therapists will tell you well, you know, that’s not and I don’t want to speak for therapists but you know, it’s kind of working through maybe something that happened in your past that has kind of come up for you again, that’s causing certain behaviors or certain practices in your life now, whereas coaching is kind of loose. Deep introspectively through powerful questions, some other elements, some other tools to kind of look inside yourself now at this stage to figure out kind of which direction you want to go in, or how you want to solve your issue or how you want to address whatever it is that your concern is. So it’s a fine line. I have been in sessions before where I have felt like we were getting a little bit close to that line. And because coaching can be kind of emotional, when you’re passionate about your career, or your work life balance, or whatever it is that that drew you to coaching in the in the first place, it can definitely be emotional. And just because it’s emotional doesn’t necessarily make it therapy.

Kelly

And I’m going let you jump in Julia, good questions. The self-discovery phase? How long does that usually take? And I know that’s an unanswerable question depends on the person. And what sort of tools do you use? Is it just talking it out? And we know there’s specific tools that you use to help people in the self-discovery phase? Do you literally go through like your annual reviews, those sorts of things?

Jill

Yeah, that’s a great place to start. Absolutely. If there’s a particular element of feedback that you want to work on. If I was, if you and I were going to enter into a coaching relationship, the first conversation that I would suggest we have is, what are you trying to accomplish with coaching? What’s the big goal? What’s the overarching goal, and then our subsequent coaching sessions will be kind of smaller conversations that get us towards the higher level goal. So if we were going to be on a weekly basis for an hour, I would ask you, Kelly, before each session to give, give some thought to what it is you want to accomplish during that session. Coaches typically work with a 50 to 60 minute timeframe, I have done power coaching sessions for 30 minutes here, they’re certainly sometimes if a client calls me and says, I’ve got something before a big meeting or a big interview, I just need to talk this through. But one of the principles of coaching is to set the agenda with the client upfront. And that includes both the overarching what you want to accomplish during the engagement relationship. Most engagement relationships are typically about six months, that’s what we see is more opportunity to have real impact on change and to accomplish something. And so each time that we get together on the phone, I will say Kelly, what do you want to accomplish in our in our time together today? I had a coach once who used to open it up and say, what’s the magic we’re going to make today, which I absolutely love writing right down? Who doesn’t want to start a conversation that way, think about the magic you’re going to make at the end of it. So you set the agenda with the coach, I would probably reiterate that back to you. To make sure a that I understand it and be that I think it’s probably something we can cover in an hour. It has to be something that can be pretty much talked through in an hour or significantly addressed. And then once we’re in agreement that this is what today’s session is going to be about, we will get started. And I probably check in with you once or twice to make sure that we’re still meeting the goal of what you were hoping to accomplish. When you said this is what I want to talk about today. We could start with a performance assessment. If there was some feedback that you got, I might send you an assessment in advance so I could learn a little bit more about your personality traits. Myers Briggs is a good one. Sometimes emotional intelligence EQ is a good one. Because if you came to me and said, I need to learn why I’m not so patient at work. My boss says I’m an impatient, I’m always talking over people. I can’t let my team get a word in. I’m missing that. And I just don’t know how to fix it. Well, understanding a bit more about your personality may give us some insights into how we can work through how you might want to make some how you might be able to address that and change your behavior.

Kelly

Got it very helpful. Well, Julia, you’ve been through this process.

Julia 

I think you I think you were right on Jill, like when my husband said, you know, Jill is getting her certification. She is a business coach, and I think you could really benefit from it. I definitely was stuck. And a lot of the things we talked about was like my confidence and really the mental blocks that I had that were holding me back. And those it was just so helpful for me to because I have a therapist too. So I was able to kind of differentiate for myself like, Okay, I’m going to talk to Jill, I have these types of things that I want to talk about. And sometimes I would just talk about like what’s going on in my business so that Jill could pinpoint for me, just me talking like what are those things that were roadblocks for me at the time. I was a year into starting my business, I was really looking for growth, I was having changes, right. So like, in the agency world where Kelly and I work, there’s lots of turnover with clients. We don’t have long term contracts and a lot of in a lot of cases, and at the time, I was having some changes. And I was taking everything so personally. So it was really great to talk through those things. And one of the things that Jill really talked to me about was like my goals, which my husband does too, he’s always like, why Julia? I answer the question, why are you doing this? Anyway, so one of the things that Jill told me to do as a business leader was to write down my goals. And now every, every year, I start this I use — shout out to drew McClellan of AMI. He does this like one page business plan. And it has your goals, your leadership goal, your staffing goal, your internal systems goal, your financial, your new business and your agency marketing goal. And I was able to say, this is what I want to do, I want to get, I want to hire these types of people, I want to hit this type of income, just Jill, forcing me like every week, saying, go write it down, was such an important piece for me that I now practice every single year. At the end of the year, I print out the sheet and I start thinking through my next year. I actually want to go back to Jill and just ask you a question. How did you become interested in coaching? Or it seems like it’s tied very closely with your business, and you’re an entrepreneur, and just tell us a little bit of background?

Jill

Yeah, absolutely. And this kind of Kelly, when you asked me a minute ago to about why your folks on LinkedIn seem to be reaching out to you, it could possibly be to, in addition to the pandemic, because you’re a sole proprietor and you have your own business, I find it’s been almost 15 years that I’ve in August, it’ll be 15 years that I’ve had my company, it’s kind of lonely to be the owner of a small business, because you can’t talk to your operations folks, you can’t talk to the folks that support you about a lot of those things that you just need to kind of get out and get perspective on. Like, usually I talk a lot to my spouse, which is not always, not always the best move either. So I engaged a coach, the one that helped me work the magic, at a time during JRC’s growth that I needed to move out from being a delivery person and into kind of the business principle, JRC grew organically based upon my love for client service. And that’s funny, that’s why its name is Jill Rogers consulting, which we’ve since rebranded to JRC.

Because when I set up shop, I just grabbed a domain name that sounded like my name, I never thought I would have employees and contracts and teaming partners and stakeholders that it didn’t feel right for it to be always about me, because it was never really about me, just for my love of client service, which was when I set up the company, so I needed to get it by engaging with a coach at that time that I met through my network. And she helped me talk through the challenges. I had never run a business before. And I was about to start running a business that already had contracts a couple of employees, and had been in business for about five or six years. So it was several years and another child in that, that I finally made that move from from doing delivery, and working side by side with my team to take a step up and manage my team. So she helped me through that. And I realized the benefit of having someone to talk to as a grownup about really important yet confidential things in my business, as well as personal things that scared me about being the lone owner and manager and responsible for the livelihood of my team. It’s it can be it can be lonely, and the coach really helped me through a lot of that. And then and then after the after I worked with a coach fast forward to JRC moving more into leader development. And we started seeing coaching opportunities everywhere in side by side with our training. I first thought I would get certified to as a coach because I thought if I’m going to be selling coaching and writing proposals, I should really understand more about it. So that was the impetus. It’s not it’s not emotional, it’s not glamorous, it was very much like if I’m going to sell this stuff I should really understand what it’s about. It was more pragmatic than anything. But coaching is a process. It is a it is very introspective. It’s a journey. And during my coach trading, which many coaches will tell you, you, yourself go through that journey. And I came out the other end thinking, I can’t wait to apply these tools and principles to help others. I also had the benefit of coaching and an experience that really helped transform me and my business. So those two things combined, I started coaching after I, after I came out of the program, so we still do it as a company, which is, which is fantastic, because now I truly understand it intimately. And I’m able to talk to clients about why they should consider it. We’re actually training coaches now at Department of Homeland Security. We’ve got cohorts, we’re training 30 internal coaches a year, because they’ve recognized

the importance of having their internal folks as coaches to support there. I think there’s, I shouldn’t guess how many, but there’s a lot of people that work at, we’re working specifically with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. So there’s a lot of people that work there, and they’re getting an internal coach cadre to support them, which is fantastic.

Julia 

That’s awesome. I wanted to ask how does someone find a coach? And how do they know the person is right for them?

Jill

My gut says, check your network, your personal network, reach out to some friends or some some other like-minded folks. For example, if I was looking for coach, I might reach out to you or Kelly knowing that you’re kind of like me, we’re running our own business. And we’re juggling families. And so, if you if either one of you had had a coach, I might start with that as a referral.

ICF has a ton of matching opportunities on their website. So you could also go that route, since that’s kind of the industry standard for coaches. But by and large, just going to LinkedIn, and maybe looking for one and starting there. Whenever I look to expand our bench of coaches for a project or a proposal, I find coaches are the easiest people in the world to network with. Because we can’t wait to talk to potential clients about coaching. We love coaching, we generally are extroverted and love talking in general. So it’s very easy to network with coaches, I also find that if you’re if they’re not the right fit for you, they’ll refer you to someone who could be based upon what it is you’re looking for. Because we all kind of specialize in different things. There are some folks that are better at coaching C-suite employees, some folks are better at younger employees and emerging leaders, some folks want to do kind of more kind of personal type coaching, life coaching. And so they’re all in that big bucket of, of coaching, and all follow the same, the same types of principles when it comes to the journey of self-discovery and, and getting unstuck from whatever it is you’re stuck in.

Julia 

Yeah, that’s so helpful, because I was just referred to you, by my network.

Jill

And we were a match right off the bat. But if we wouldn’t have been, I could have referred you to probably a handful of other people that I know and felt good about it. If we weren’t the right fit, for whatever reason, don’t feel like that would be another piece of advice to don’t force a coaching relationship. And if it doesn’t feel right, for one reason or another, then definitely seek out a different one.

Julia 

Yeah, I mean, if you’re going to go out and look for a coach, I would hope that you would have some sort of idea of what you wanted to get out of it. And that you could at least communicate that and of course, you’re going to unlock uncover all sorts of other stuff in the process. So tell me about telling me about a client where you feel like you had a huge breakthrough? You don’t have to say like who the client was, but just give us an example of a time where like coaching you walked away and you were like, yeah, that like really had an impact.

Jill

When you hear the words, I can’t believe this makes sense to me or I can’t believe I knew it all the time. And I’ve heard that the feedback from clients when they say I you know, I didn’t trust the process and I can’t believe that I had this within me that’s an essence you know, why we do what we do to help to help clients through this this personal or professional journey of self-discovery. And when they come out the other end when they’re amazed that they got they’re just using the coaching strategies and tactics it’s very, very rewarding. There are also clients that get very emotional about the breakthrough

Julia 

I’m sure

Jill

And that is very rewarding, as well when you see a client get vulnerable and really kind of move through a very emotional area and come out stronger and more confident and on the other end and they’re just the grateful to me, but I know that they did all the work not me, and so that I get the satisfaction of knowing that they did all the work because that’s what that’s what coaching is, I’m just there to guide you ask some questions that may help you on your lift a rock or, or look behind you or look in front of you, and just to kind of help guide you through the way but the cup, the coaching client does all the work to the self-discovery to the solution.

Kelly

As leaders of advertising agencies, Julie and I do a lot of coaching of our own teams and of our clients to kind of guide them in the right direction. And so the huge part of our day is spending time with clients, and, giving them advice, and kind of trying to be that wise sage based on your 25-30 years of experience, which is built over time with trust. And what sort of advice would you give for people like us, other leaders of agencies to help in our own roles as coaches? is there other pieces of advice that you can give us that will help kind of guide our thinking in terms of building trust and, and guiding clients down the right path or even staff members in their own development?

Jill

Yeah. So I think a lot of what you’re talking about Kelly is mentoring. And I understand when we’re managing teams, and certainly, it all fits under the big bucket of coaching because that’s, like a team coach, or, or a business coach. But in the coaching profession, we’re pretty persnickety about differentiating between coaching and mentoring, because mentoring is, we believe that mentoring is when a knowledgeable person helps a very seasoned, experienced person helps someone that’s less experienced, with just knowledge transfer, and just saying, This is what you might want to consider doing when I was in your shoes. I did this, this is how it worked out. Well, for me, which is fantastic. It’s very valuable. I’m sure that you know, given where we all are in life, we’ve had really valuable mentors along the way. So it’s a fantastic thing. Whereas coaching is more like, well, Kelly, I hear you saying this? Tell me what it would look like if it was that. Tell me if it would tell me more about that. What does it mean for what does it mean to you to do this? What’s coming up for you when I say this? And so those open ended questions in which I’m just stringing some words together, but you’re the one that’s going, Wow, that really, that really takes me here. One of the most powerful things during a coaching session is the quiet. That was really hard for me when I was being trained. I’m a talker, I feel the air, I’m sure you both do as well, we tend to be of similar personalities. And so it took me being very consciously aware of pausing to let the client do some work. And that was hard for me. And it’s typically when the client is thinking and does the most has the most activity and transformation going on.

Julia 

Yeah, you would replay things for me and ask me a question and then be quiet. And I’m like, Oh, I need to do the work. You’re not there to necessarily, you know, as you said, mentor me, you’re there to help me unlock my potential and get unstuck. That makes a ton of sense. I think Kelly and I started this podcast to be a mentor to a lot of people, especially in our industry, and especially moms, to just have this informal, conversational place to talk about that. So it doesn’t feel like we never want to talk down to someone we want to just share and people can learn from that. So it’s definitely different from coaching. If you are thinking about getting a coach, you have to be prepared to do the work. Because the coach doesn’t do the work for you. You have to be ready to do the work. Kelly, are you ready to do the work?

Kelly

I’m there. I’m ready.

Julia 

Okay, so ee’re two marketing moms. That’s our podcast. So we’re always interested in talking about mom content. And you are a mom, and you work with moms, we’re assuming. So we wanted to dive in some tips and advice on how you can help support moms in business, or what advice you would give to working moms. So, one, the first question is, how does being a mom make you better in business?

Jill

How does being a mom, it’s got to be the tried and true and dare I say, I don’t think it’s true at all. It’s the multitasking thing, right? I mean, I don’t think we ever really do just one thing at a time. And I also don’t understand how my husband… I just got balls in the air constantly, right? Just before this morning, I took two kids to school in two different cities, got the car washed, filled up with gas, unloaded groceries, had a team meeting. And then here we are on the phone at 10 o’clock. So the constant multitasking, shifting from one thing to another, and being able to kind of having a good memory to kind of keep things, keep things straight all helps that but you know, much like parenting in which no day is like the next. running a small business. No day is like the next when you have employees and clients and issues. Everything is new and popping all the time. It’s kind of a whack a mole game. So when you’re in that mode, and that mindset as a parent, especially of young kids,

Julia 

Especially three kids..

My husband likes to say that three kind of put us over the edge. I’m not sure how it was in your household. But definitely when we went from manageable to utter chaos, which we love the chaos. But yeah, so I think innately. When we become moms, we have this gift for multitasking. And that’s how it that’s how it all gets done working moms have to, I think we have also become much better. Here’s the actual ear works better. My children say that all the time. They can’t believe what I can hear from two floors away.

Kelly

They’re always bewildered about what I’m aware of. That they think they’re getting by.

Julia 

I tell my kids, I’m still listening while I’m sleeping.

So how did you talk about like your mom journey and your business? So like, how did you navigate? Being a mom? Like, when did you start your business, I guess, was it before after you had your first child?

___

Jill

right after so. So I started in the big firms, Price Waterhouse Coopers and Booz Allen. And I took a six month maternity leave from Booz Allen. And I always knew I would be a working mom, I love I love client service. I also that was my role model. My mom was the single mom, but a working mom. And I just always, I just always knew I would be a working mom. And so I set up the business as a way to just incorporate myself, I was a subcontractor to a big firm that had a big contract at a big agency. And I would, I would go and do my client work and come home at the end of the day. Being an independent contractor simplified my life, I didn’t have all the big firm overhead and that’s why I did it. And then about five years into it, I had my second child and took some maternity leave and then went back again to the same agency, the same, big firm, I was subcontracting to and opportunity knocks and you know, when you’re wired like we are as as entrepreneurs, and all of that opportunity knocked in some requirements came together that I was uniquely positioned to bid on. So I’ve been on it, I won my first prime contract and then everything just took off from there. It enabled me to get a facilities clearance I was working, I still do support the intelligence community hired my first employee. And as you both probably know, too soon as you hire one, and you get the infrastructure set up, you might as well hire 20 because it’s it’s just the hardest to to jump that first leap. And then once it’s all there, it became a bit easier to continue to hire and grow and, and the roller coaster started and I I never really stopped to think about what it is I was what it was I was doing. I just I just went and did. Um, I’ve always kind of been that way I don’t really get too philosophical about things. I just kind of go and do and and so I did and it was very much an opportunity strike while the iron taught and, and it and it just kept going from there.

Julia

And during that time you had your third child is that right? Yes. Mm hmm. Yep. Oh, wow. Okay, so how was it different having a child while you were truly working for yourself versus the first two

Jill

Um, it was easier. Um, because I, my husband had a big, a big, firm job. And I had flexibility. No, and I was I still am in charge of my own schedule. And I said that off and on for years, this, those little people and, and everything that that that I have all of my client relationships could never have worked if I didn’t have flexibility over my schedule, but pretty normal schedule. But, you know, if I need to leave for appointments, and then make up the time later in the evening, that’s the norm. For me these days, sometimes I get caught up on email on a Saturday morning, while they’re all hockey practice or something, and it and it just works. And it’s the norm that I’ve known for years. So flexibility is absolutely the the key enabler to to my career and to my success. And I want to give that to my team also. And as a small business, I don’t have a lot of glamorous infrastructure or resources or things, but what I can provide them, I hope, are the most meaningful things like flexibility. And, and I don’t check in on them, they have expectations, they have clients, and I I know if they’re succeeding, because if they’re not, their client will call me and say, you know, I haven’t seen so and so during business hours in a while, and things like that. So it’s not a culture of checking up on. It’s a culture of, I want you to be happy. And I also get that your life will not work. Well, as a working mom, if I can’t cut you affords you some flexibility, because that has truly been being in control of my schedule is the only reason I’ve been successful for almost 15 years at this gig.

Julia

Yeah, I think all companies are going to have to get on the train in the future with providing some type of flexibility. Because we do Kelly and I hear about women in our particular industry, who become moms and just simply can’t do agency life because the hours are too knots, the expectations are too high. And in the creative services industry, you know, they just need there’s needs to be movement towards a work environment that allows moms to still work and give them their talents. But balance it with their home life too. It’s I see it, but it’s in the far future. It seems like

Jill

Amazon Fresh also helps me out too. I can’t remember. A grocery store.

Kelly 

Yes.

Jill

Yes. Having grocery delivered and paying for convenience also makes makes the world go round here.

Julia

Yeah, we need all the tools. Yes. Well, is there anything else you want to any wisdom you would like to impart upon us before we wrap up? Jill,

Jill

Oh, my gosh, I never thought of myself as a wisdom as a wisdom giver. And certainly, you know, as a as a coach, I hope that we can come to some collective wisdom that that works for, for my coaching clients each time. No,

Jill

I really don’t think I have any, any wisdom. I think that you know, collectively we’re we’re all in this together just trying to put one foot in front of the other have a rewarding career and raise contributing members of society. Kind of sometimes how I sum up my my mission, that’s my personal mission statement. And I think that both things seem to be going pretty well. So I’m pretty pretty content.

Julia

Alright, well, then I’ll ask you, it will leave with this question. If If you met someone, another working mom, like at a hockey game while your kids were playing? And she said, Well, why do I need a business coach? How would you answer? Wow, I was like, how would you sell her?

Jill

Yeah, the coach and me would would go right to powerful questions, because that’s how we do I would say, you know, what is it that’s not

Julia

fulfilling you about your current position? and pause?

Jill

What, what would what does the ideal position look like for you? What’s in your way of getting there? How can you push that out of the way that’s kind of the path I would go down, which is a kind of a classic example of a powerful coaching questions, I would ask them much slower and give the client a minute to kind of reflect a little bit but but yeah, the coach and me would go straight to asking the questions of that lead to introspection, and

Julia

Not a yes or no answer. That’s so perfect. So if you are listening and you are asking yourself questions that you can’t answer, you might really benefit from getting a business coach and helping they can help you help yourself answer all of those questions. Absolutely.

Kelly

I think this was really helpful for me to understand how you know how coaching can be beneficial how to choose a coach, taking away that fear factor of you know, asking for help. feeling like I need for help need help. And so I appreciate you spending the time with us today to tell us a little bit about what you do and, and we know you’ve been successful because of Julia, and, you know, helping her out over the last couple years. So thank you so much for your time today.

Jill

My pleasure. Thank you so much for asking. I am happy to do this. I am happy to pay it forward. Plenty of people have helped me along the way too. So whenever I get the opportunity to talk or to share, I’m more than happy to do it. Thank you very much for asking. Thanks, Joe.

Kelly

Wonderful.

Julia

Bye

Kelly

Bye