A fun Coaching Salon!

Last night I attended a free “Coaching Salon” that happened to be held at a coffee shop in my neighborhood in Minneapolis. It was a really enjoyable time seeing how three very different coaches worked with clients, and the tools and techniques they used. I even got a 12-minute demo coaching session, where in the end I threw confetti in the air to celebrate a situation I’m in rather than worrying about it!

Nicole Lynskey, Grif Sadow, and Beth Wallace (pictured left to right) host a monthly Coaching Salon in Minneapolis at the Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop next to Loring Park. It’s a fun and safe way for folks to learn about coaching and try it out for the first time. And it’s FREE!

I was first very impressed by their professionalism and caring, as even in this fun introductory meeting, Beth Wallace emphasized a mutual agreement of confidentiality with regard to the participants and the possible situations they would be coached. With that said, I do want to share some wonderful observations about their coaching styles, as they were all just incredibly talented!

Each of them incorporated some kind of “physical movement or exercise” into their coaching sessions. Whether it was getting up out of chairs and moving to another area in the room to envision a more supportive living environment, having a client take deep breaths and scan their body to find where their situation might be “held” , or asking someone to place their hand on their heart, and then speak ideas that their heart would tell them – each of these exercises seemed to ground each “client” in the present.

I also liked how each coach really put their own personality into their coaching.

Nicole Lynskey seemed to reflect her connection with nature and landscapes by asking questions like “What do you see as the ‘path’ from here to there?” and was just wonderfully and positively goal oriented.

Grif Sadow (who coached me), gave a lot of permission for me to feel the feelings I had, and had a very bold spirit that helped me not make excuses or limit my experience. He coached me to a point where I said “I want to have a party now!” and we both tore up paper to make confetti and threw it in the air! Awesome!

Beth Wallace was a natural and compassionate listener! She was a textbook example in my opinion of Julia Stewart‘s principle of “Priming the Pump” - while keeping connected to deep listening. She made a great insight with a client = “You really do know where you are right now. You just don’t like it.” Which was a bold statment that validated unspoken aspects of what her client was seeking coaching.

What an exciting night! This is probably a great way for coaches to network and attract new potential clients. Something else that illustrates “The Power of Free” (I think I’ll be putting This Book on my reading list soon too!)

I may go next month just to watch again!