A Soloprenuer Coaching Retreat

I just returned home from facilitating a wonderful day-and-a-half, one-on-one coaching “retreat” that I arranged with a good friend of mine who is wanting to start his own consulting business!  It’s incredible how a focused series of conversations can help a person zero in on aspects of a plan or “roadmap” to a future endeavor.  What’s more, I think our time together helped him move forward a bit, through his own insights, ambitions, and desires.

Within this mini retreat, we explored not only timelines, business focuses, and goals, but we uncovered a lot of surprises too.

“What do you really want, and why is that important?”
“What could move you forward faster to what you REALLY want?”
“What are you doing now that helps this process?”
“How do you separate what you feel you ‘should’ do from what you ‘want’ to do?”

Throughout this process we also took time to take breaks, prepare and eat meals, and my friend/client got to fix some plumbing issues while I composed a document of all of the notes, impressions, and insights we came up with throughout the retreat (I’m glad I didn’t have to do plumbing work!).

I really enjoy the coaching process.  As a coach, I don’t set agendas and I don’t “solve” problems for other people. Rather, through deep listening, positive inquiry, encouragement, and asking what I call “questions that matter” – a coach is a partner who engages another person to find their own solutions and “draw out” those aspects of thoughts or passions that really make a person “come alive.”

Even moreso, through a conversation, or a series of conversations built upon positive energy and insightful questions – coaching can move people (often very quickly) into those “a-ha!” moments of clarity and focus.

Many thanks to my friend Chris for allowing me to engage this process for him!  I’m very excited and privileged to assist in the process of what’s growing and coming to fruition with his consulting business!  All I can say is “Look out for him in the future!”