People love the idea of a positive change! Be it a confident move of explaining that eureka moment at work or celebrating small improvements during irksome phases, small differences change the way you outgrow big challenges. And not to sound too poetic, but clearing the stumbling blocks in your mind and soul is synonymous with living the ultimate life!
So, with so many people talking about transformational experiences and life coaching, I sat for an interview with the dynamic duo and life coaches, Jake and Whitney. Known for some powerful choices, the couple picks their inspirations from the past to navigate clients towards better living.
Whitney has successfully lost 40 pounds, has bid goodbyes to excessive drinking, and has outgrown the challenges of being a stepmom. Jake is a teacher with 20 years of experience as a master educator and certified in 2 states. The duo has been helping clients to recognize what has been cocooned inside them for a long time. Well, there is a lot more to know about these two! So, here we are, unfurling some profound insights about their world of coaching. Feeling stuck in the grey area? Whitney and Jake know how to get things done right!
Q1) Looks like you have knitted your inspirations from past experiences. Please take us through some of your inspirations that encouraged you to become a life coach.
Our introduction to the world of life coaching was Brooke Castillo. Whitney had been listening to her podcast before we met, and I started listening as we began dating. I ended up using her podcast The Life Coach School Podcast as a means to propose to Whitney, and it seems like our three lives have been intertwined ever since.
Whit and I were getting coaching from Brooke to grow our fitness business, and as she started to know us better, she kept saying, “When are you two going to open a coaching business and start changing lives full time?” We laughed at first, but then we started to really consider it. Then we did it!
As I’ve learned more about this life coaching world, I am really grateful that Brooke was our entry point. There are a lot of different coaching styles and philosophies out there, but the training we received from Brooke has us positioned in a place that makes me feel confident we deliver a top-end product!
Q2) We have seen some reluctance in people to approach a life coach. So what do you think is an answer for such situations?
In our experience, this reluctance has three sources.
- “I think life coaches are for people who don’t know how to do life.” The truth is that a life coach is similar to an athletic coach. They are on the sideline so they can see adjustments that are difficult to see from “the field” When a client comes to us with a struggle, we are trained to hold space for them—meaning we can talk about the ins and outs of their situation without getting wrapped up in the stories and the familiar patterns that have lead them here. A life coach offers perspective and a fresh set of eyes.
Having a life coach means you’re bad at life about as much as having a basketball coach means LeBron James is bad at basketball.
2. “I think I can just do it on my own.” We think you can too! It’s just faster and more efficient with a coach. And double that with two coaches. A life coach meets you on the path you’re already on and helps you navigate it faster. A coach is to go from good to great rather than broken to healthy.
3. “I don’t trust just anyone to mess with my belief structure.” This is a really important one and the reason that Jake and I are so vulnerable about our Christian faith in our marketing. We want you to know who we are and what we believe, so you can love your choice, have an open hand with your view of the world, and be willing to try on unfamiliar perspectives.
Q3) What kind of strategies do you find most effective in your sessions?
Whit asks powerful questions that expose default thinking and limiting beliefs while Jake quietly observes and tracks your thinking until your patterns, stories, and limiting beliefs emerge. The greatest value we can offer is to not believe the same stuff that the client believes. If we agree with your excuses, then all three of us are stuck! We offer distance and awareness to allow you to evaluate your assumptions about your limitations and make the shift in your thinking that will move the needle. We’ve found this to be orders of magnitude more effective than simply offering advice about new actions to take.
Q4) So as Jake and Whitney are life coaches that transform lives together as a team, are there times when your approaches repel? How do you manage to harmonize them?
We have enough “behind the curtain” communication that we don’t “repel,” but we do have different perspectives often! We have learned that the effort we put into our own artistry and mastery of this unique characteristic of our coaching style can make it an unbelievable value to the client’s experience. Our main adjustment in harmonizing is to assign roles. Whitney is the head coach and Jake is the assistant coach—we have meetings, get feedback from clients, and even watch videos, like athletes, to refine our roles and make sure we know how we can enhance what the other is bringing to the table.
Q5) What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is just starting out and aspires to become a life coach?
Get a coach! We both have coaches, and we always will. A coach is not ahead of you, or better than you, or someone with all the answers. A coach is someone who is watching from the sideline so they see things that you don’t see. We like to say that we always want to have “eyes on our brain.” If someone aspires to be a coach, they’ll want to make sure they are clear on the value of having a coach. In my experience, the best way to gain that clarity is to experience it.
