Hey everybody! What the COVID is going on for you? There’s a lot going on in the world right now. Bit crazy.
As of April 1st, I lost half my business.
Unfortunately, many of the business owners that I worked with closed, and coaching wasn’t the primary concern.
I thought, okay, this is like, a month, you know. Yay, staycation! Let’s get some things done we never have time for. That went on longer than expected!
In that time, my phone started ringing (before April 1st, actually) with calls from friends, family, acquaintances, who were really feeling the pressure of quarantine and the extra pressure on them and their relationships.
Many things in our relationships we tolerate, or we make OK because we’re only around each other every now and then. Now we’re around each other 24/7 and it’s enough to make you want to dig a hole, bury them, and just be done! There’s a ton of extra pressure on families on marriages, parents, kids, kids at home homeschooling…Holy Hannah!
Plus the basics of trying to go get groceries and financial scarcity – it‘s a lot.
People were looking for support, how to navigate some of this with their teens, and how to navigate this with their partners. How are they supposed to do any version of self-care when there was literally no break from any of those creatures? I know we all love our children, right? And it became really evident and that there was a need, a great need.
Let me take you back for a minute, 14 years ago, when I started my coaching journey…
I knew wholeheartedly that I wanted to work with families. I actually started my practice working with moms, then I started working with parents and families as part of my practicum hour. I absolutely loved that work! t’s where my heart is.
I grew up in a family with dysfunctional relationships (we all did to some degree!).
It was a source of enormous sadness and pain for me that required years and years of healing. And no, my parents aren’t evil. It was very difficult for them and for me. I acted out in all kinds of ways.
I pushed ALL their buttons. I didn’t know how to say what I needed to say.
As a young adult, I saw the life I was creating, repeating negative patterns, even though I knew I didn’t want that. I didn’t know how to make it be different.
I was a smiling, smart, sassy gal on the outside, yet I was a frantic, fearful, angry, hot mess on the inside. I know personally the pain that created in my life and what it took to undo it.
When we have discord at a family level, we perpetuate that even though we don’t mean to.
When we can get it right at a family level, we literally can change the world. I fundamentally believe that. That’s why I’m so passionate about working with families. Back to the story!
When I was working with families one of the partners would ask, “Will you come and bring these same results at my workplace? Our culture’s a bit messed up and we need some help.”
It started happening more and more until I was working full time with corporate culture.
I was helping them to understand the human dynamic and remove toxicity so they could attract the right people, retain the right people and achieve things that they never even imagined was possible.
I didn’t like it. I loved it because I got to feel important.
It fed my ego and I got to go to cool and amazing places and events. I got to be around big wigs and cool and amazing people. I felt smart, important and I felt like it. I knew the work I was doing was helping and making an impact and that mattered to me.
Ultimately, I never cared about the business. I cared about the people.
I learned a ton, being the only woman in some billion-dollar boardrooms, making some very consequential decisions. I could talk about business, but it didn’t matter in my heart because, in my heart, I know that business only works when relationships work. No matter what the industry, the economy, or the challenge the business was facing, it always came back to relationships and the same is true for families.
This whole quarantine COVID experience for me has been an incredible journey back to my heart.
I realized as quarantine was going on and I lost half my business, and my phone was ringing. It was like a Divine ‘flick between the eyes’. Aly it’s now! You’ve got to come back now!
I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity. It’s an opportunity in sandpaper as my friend Sherry would say, because it’s been really hard. It’s been really hard.
I’ve created a private, online group and I’m doing lots of training videos based on the calls and questions I was getting. I know that part is right.
I’m not a business coach. I’ve never taken a single business course in my entire life.
I realized I remained a business coach for as long as I did because I was so incredibly fortunate to help people create the results that they wanted, and my business ran purely on referrals.
I am a Certified Relationship Systems Coach and Certified Life Coach. Relationships are where my heart is at.
Now that I’m pivoting my business, you’ve probably noticed things look a little bit different around my pages and my social media posts. It’s pushing all my buttons cause I’m having to learn to do the stuff that I didn’t have to before. I didn’t have to know before how to make social media work. I didn’t have to get how to make a website work. I didn’t have to understand all the backend software. I didn’t have to understand marketing. I’d never done any marketing at all. None.
There’s a good number of days where I literally just break down in tears because I’m so frustrated with software not working or I can’t figure out how to write something that I need to be written.
I’ve been running my online community for parents and families called Finding OUR Way since May. Just getting things going as fast as I can and trying to figure it out and do it right the first time. And that has been extremely challenging. It’s extremely challenging.
I wanted to share with you because I think it’s really important just to keep it real.
I would love to know what the COVID has gone on for you. Where are you at in your life? Did things change? I know for many people things change and a lot of people, things stayed the same and it’s business as usual.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting me.
Thank you for liking my posts. Thank you for commenting and sharing. If you think there’s anything really important you want me to know, send me a private message or an email.
I’ve been making some TikTok and Instagram videos and some of them are taken off pretty crazy. I’m putting words to my passion for getting family right. Not perfect but getting it right.
Apparently, it’s striking some nerves. As a parent, what do you struggle with? What do you want your teens to understand? What do you wish they knew? And for teens, what do you wish your parents knew? What do you wish your siblings knew? What do you wish your friends knew? I will absolutely do my best to put some words to it to help support you, whatever that looks like.
Family dynamics are hard.
I don’t think there’s any pretending anymore to be the PTA president who’s perfect and got it all together. Bad Moms movie already proved that wasn’t real.
Maybe things have gone really well for your family with this whole quarantine thing. Share this with a friend!
I want desperately to serve.
I want to help families to get into healthy, happy relationships, to close the gap for families to have better conversations that are built on trust, respect, joy, and connection. Thanks, everybody for listening. Be well, stay connected.
