Cathy Liska 
During the down economy, Elaine was laid off from her job. She decided to start her own business. Elaine worked hard and built her client base steadily. As the business owner, she was working 12-14 hours a day. Elaine was successful, and she was stressed.
Because Elaine was overwhelmed, her stress affected her family and everyone was on edge. Elaine was afraid of slowing her work pace because she had responsibilities and had to earn a living. Elaine decided to consider hiring a business coach because she wanted to be more effective managing and growing her business. Elaine also wanted to find a way to be more efficient so she could have more balance.
When she interviewed prospective coaches, Elaine was thinking that to manage the expense, she wanted to limit the coaching focus to her business management. One coach she interviewed talked about the whole person approach. She explained that in the first coaching session, she would ask questions about what Elaine wanted in all areas of her life. The purpose of this was to create awareness of the big picture and all of Elaine’s influencing factors. In the second session they would work on the thinking and habits that would support Elaine as she achieved what she wanted. Then, in the third session, the focus would shift to the business with a full awareness of outside considerations. From that point forward, Elaine would choose what she wanted to focus on during coaching sessions.
Elaine decided it made sense to be clear on her own priorities, values, and motivations so she decided to hire that coach. As discussed, with whole person coaching all areas of Elaine’s life were explored and Elaine felt her coach really understood who she was and was on her side as she worked toward her goals. In addition to coaching for managing her business effectively, Elaine worked with her coach on creating balance.
Elaine discovered that having balance in her life meant she made better decisions. She is now relaxed and her business does well.
