Meet Innovative Woman Christine McGuire, Certified Professional Life Coach and Bikram Yoga Instructor.
How and why did you start your business?
After 20 years as a manager in the restaurant industry, I started my own business as a Certified Professional Life Coach, specializing in success coaching, in order to share the joy that I recently found in my life. I want everyone in my community to have the same contagious appreciation for life that I have! For so long I lived in fear: of failure, rejection, abandonment, of making mistakes, and of feeling not good enough! Well, no more! I read a few books that were the catalyst for my startup: The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, Daring Greatly by Dr. Brene Brown, and Loving What Is by Byron Katie. These three books TRANSFORMED my life! Success, wealth, health, abundance, peace, self-love and acceptance, hope and contentment now permeate my every breath. This excitement and joy for being alive cannot be contained! It is my calling to share it with the world! I utilize an integrated curriculum to guide clients on their own journey of discovery to create these same Life Achievements (as I call them). I committed to my career revolution and within three months became certified as a life coach, studied and certified with both Jack Canfield and Brene Brown, and rented an office space. All for under $2500. Small investment for what will become a huge spiritual and emotional ROI.
It is important to me to teach my two year old son that he must follow his dreams and never give up on his goals. I want him to learn that serving his community is a critical part of generating more kindness and peace in this world.
What has been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
My biggest challenge has been marketing myself. There is a beautiful amount of competition in my field, with some very strong and influential leaders leaving their mark. Instead of competing against them I’ve decided to emulate them and model their behavior. I spend at least two hours a day on concentrated marketing strategies. I am very diverse in my marketing: door hangers, free sessions, pushing corporations and small businesses, newsletters, YouTube videos, blog, and a monthly offering I call “How to Eat a Watermelon: One. Bite. At. A. Time.” This is a series of real stories told by real women about how they find and create, or accept an absence of, balance in their lives. Marketing is a fluid and rapidly changing component of starting your own business. Staying current in trends and technology will ensure success.
How do you define SUCCESS?
Success is different for every person. Working one on one with your clients will teach you that lesson incredibly quickly! My Success is comprised of many different components. Perhaps the most dynamic of these is the ability to accept, understand, and learn from failures. Certainly financial Success, authoring a world wide best selling book, speaking boldly in front of 10,000 attendees at a conference, and simply feeling accomplished at the end of the day are pieces of the Success puzzle too. My greatest Success, that which makes me most proud, is seeing a joyful and inspiring transformation in my clients after they’ve been doing The Work for awhile.
If there was one thing you wish you knew before you began, what would that be?
I wish I had known how difficult it would be, initially, to sign up those first few clients. But, perhaps, it was better not knowing…I came into this adventure fully motivated and excited and committed 100% to making this coaching practice a success! Not knowing how hard it would be to sign on clients allowed me to not be tempted with pessimism or hesitancy. Learning as you go is oftentimes far more rewarding than pre-knowing or expecting what is around the corner.
What makes you an innovative woman?
Innovation is about creating, designing, inspiring, changing, moving forward, and practicing. These are all traits that I’ve developed in myself, personally, first, and then professionally as well. Particularly in my career as a success coach innovation must not only be embraced but sought out. I believe innovation begins within and then manifests without. Innovation is also about “new” or newness. In a matter of three months time I left my 20-year tenured well-paying job as a restaurant manager and started my own business. Completely new, completely renovated myself and created & designed this new coaching model that will profoundly change the world. THAT is innovation!
To find out more about Christine visit www.CreateLifeCoach.com or on Twitter.