Anna Levy: Coach in the Spotlight

Tell us about your journey into coaching.

I used to work at a PR agency in London, but I was miserable. It was very much the wrong job for me – I see that now – but at the time I just blamed myself.

When I left PR, I went to work for a social enterprise, running a co-working space and it was there that I met a lot of coaches.

I’m very curious about people. I love hearing their experiences and helping them get unstuck, so what those coaches did really appealed to me, but they also talked about struggling to find clients.

Coaching seemed so competitive and that worried me.

I spent a long time thinking about becoming a coach but I kept talking myself out of it, and my route into the work ended up being quite cautious and gradual.

It started with a marketing role at an organisation that offered group personal development coaching in the workplace.

This allowed me to transition into the world of coaching and be around like-minded people, whilst using my existing marketing skills. 

That experience made me realise that I wanted to be the person doing the coaching and leading the groups, rather than doing the marketing. It also enabled me eventually to apply for funding to do my CTI coach training.

Upon entering the training room on my first day, I felt I was exactly where I was meant to be.

It was so fascinating and fun, and it felt like a natural fit for my skills. I knew I needed to keep pursuing it.

I then got a job as a careers consultant for the University of London which was a brilliant opportunity to develop my coaching skills whilst having the security of a full time job. But it also made me realise I wanted the flexibility of running my own business, and this pull was strong enough to override my initial fears.

In the end, my business grew quite gradually and organically. I'm quite a risk averse person so I needed to take my time with that transition in order to build my confidence.

I started seeing private clients in my free time, and I also began running workshops for Careershifters in the evenings and weekends.

Having that experience of being unhappy and in the wrong job is what inspired me into career change coaching and it’s what motivates me in the work I do now.

I now have that deep sense of purpose and contribution in my work. I want to help other people to have that too, because I know it’s possible for everybody.

 

Having that experience of being unhappy and in the wrong job is what inspired me into career change coaching and it’s what motivates me in the work I do now.

 

How do you source your clients?

When I first started my coaching practice, I used Facebook to make my offering to my existing networks.

I charged very little at first, but I didn’t want it to be for free. I needed that challenge of knowing that people were paying me for something, and I needed to deliver on their expectations.

Posting on Facebook was enough to start building the momentum as I began to get referrals from the people I’d coached.

Nowadays, I don’t use Facebook, but I’m very active on LinkedIn. I post regularly and I enjoy writing and sharing blogs and articles.

Someone suggested that I set up my business on Google My Business, so now I appear on Google Maps and I’ve had a few enquiries through that.

I think it’s important as a coach that you focus on the bits of marketing you genuinely enjoy, and you get some energy from.

I never liked cold calling – that's one of the reasons I hated working in PR – so I don't do things like that.

That’s the beauty of running your own business. You get to decide what you want to focus on – there isn’t anyone telling you what you should do.

 

I think it’s important as a coach that you focus on the bits of marketing you genuinely enjoy, and you get some energy from.

 

How have you used the Firework programme with your clients?

Before I discovered Firework and the Careershifters methodology, I’d been muddling through, using my knowledge of careers guidance work.

Firework is brilliant at digging into the self-reflection side of career change. I use a lot of tools from the Explore phase. I believe the inner work and outer work needs to happen at the same time, so I encourage my clients to get into action as soon as they begin working with me.

As my clients go out into the world, discover new possibilities, and have conversations, they learn more about themselves.

That’s why I encourage them to get curious about the world straight away and urge them to go out and start talking to people and try new experiences that will expand their horizons.

In terms of my favourite Firework tools, I think the Ideas Bank is the most critical to the process of discovery and exploration.

It really helps the client to think more broadly and consider a much wider range of possibilities than they likely have before.

I also like taking clients through the Ideal Working Day exercise and getting them to fully imagine themselves somewhere else. It can be so motivating and energising for them.

 

Who do you typically work with?

I work with all kinds of people, but a common trend is women in their 30s who are having an awakening of sorts.

They’re questioning their careers and their lives and want to do something that feels more purposeful and more meaningful. Sometimes this awakening coincides with a time when they’ve become a parent and this experience has caused them to reassess things.

For many clients, they’ve been in a role that wasn’t right for them throughout their 20s, and now know their next job needs to hold greater purpose and meaning for them. I’ve noticed this seems to be a common trend.

I worked in the social impact space before I became a career coach, so I enjoy coaching people that want to “make a difference” whatever that means to them.

Although, I also believe that social impact can come in many forms and that, generally, people do tend to create more value in the world when they're in a career that's right for them.

 

People do tend to create more value in the world when they're in a career that's right for them.

 

Tell us about some of the results you’ve helped your clients achieve?

I help my clients identify what matters to them and what drives them – a greater level of self-awareness. They also have an increased sense of what’s possible.

It’s lovely to see them get excited about discovering new career paths they may not even have known existed!

Career change can take a long time for some people and a much shorter time for others. I typically work with clients for around six months. Sometimes people will come through the process with me and won’t have made a full career change in that time, but they know what they want and are confident in what they need to do to make it happen.

Having said that, in the last year I worked with three different clients who after three sessions with me, either landed new jobs in completely different industries or got accepted onto training courses. That's not a typical result though – it doesn’t usually happen that quickly.

I think it helped that these people were reaching out and talking to people right from the get-go so they were able to make that transition very quickly. One client went to an informational interview with one organisation, and described his ideal working day. To his delight, they were able to shape a role for him incorporating exactly what he wanted.

This client was clear about what he cared about, what energised him and what he was good at. We’d done some really focused work on communicating his strengths so he was confident in having that conversation.

In terms of other career changes my clients have made recently, I worked with a teacher who moved into a learning technology role at a university.

I coached another client who moved from the banking sector into social investment and social impact.

I worked with someone else who moved from academia and into a job in healthcare.

There have been so many interesting and very different shifts.

The moves people make aren’t always as big as they thought they wanted or needed at the start. It might be a subtle change or a sidestep, or it could be more dramatic.

That’s why the Firework approach of exploring possibilities in an expansive way is so important – the client isn’t limiting themselves.

Uncertainty creates a lot of anxiety, and it makes people uncomfortable, but it is also the place where innovation and creativity can come from.

The client needs to allow themselves to sit in that liminal space to discover new possibilities.

If they let the anxiety take hold and they leap ahead to find a level of certainty as quickly as possible, then they might be missing out on other options.

 

Uncertainty creates a lot of anxiety, and it makes people uncomfortable, but it is also the place where innovation and creativity can come from.

 

What does your work currently involve?

Aside from my private coaching and working with Careershifters, I’m also looking forward to helping run the Firework Training programme from March 2022 onwards.

I’m excited to have the chance to share my enthusiasm for the Firework methodology with other coaches, because I've seen from my own practice just how powerful it is.

I can only work with so many clients myself so, the more coaches we can train, the more people we can help move into fulfilling work overall. The impact can be huge.

If there are more people in work that's right for them, this has a knock-on effect on the people around them and on what they’re able to contribute.

I genuinely believe coaching is one way to make the world a better place and this is 100% my mission.

I’m also excited to have the chance to work with other coaches because coaching can be a little bit of a lonely game.

 

I genuinely believe coaching is one way to make the world a better place and this is 100% my mission.

 

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced as a coach? How have you overcome them?

Ironically given my PR background, I’ve found the marketing side of building my coaching practice has been my biggest challenge.

When you run your own practice, you must put yourself out there and that can feel awkward sometimes.

The moment I’m working with a client it feels great, but I think getting to that point can be the most challenging part, regardless of how confident I am in my offer and my skills.

I see other coaches struggling with this too and I think you need to find a way of reaching potential clients that works for you.

I know other coaches offer a free coaching session to start with. However, I find that having a 30 minute chat with a prospective client about their situation and then telling them about the process I take clients through is enough for them to want to work with me.

That’s the beauty of having the Firework and Careershifters methodology to draw on. It’s a tried and tested process and it's going to get the client to where they want to be.

For a long while I was afraid of selling myself, but once I reframed it as sharing something of value, I was able to market my offering and get clients with greater confidence.

A marketing expert I know said that clients don't buy you as a coach, they buy their outcomes – that's what they're investing in.

So, you need to make your marketing message about them and what they're going to get out of the process.

I also think that people really respond to coaches who are real and authentic. You don’t need to try and pretend to be someone that you're not.

 

For a long while I was afraid of selling myself, but once I reframed it as sharing something of value, I was able to market my offering and get clients with greater confidence.

 

What advice do you have for new coaches?

I initially felt very uncomfortable about deciding how much to charge for my coaching services and I know this is something a lot of other coaches struggle with too.

When I finished my coaching training, I was told I should be charging at least £70 an hour.

At the time that seemed like a lot, so I set a much lower fee initially. I gradually started charging more and more as I developed more confidence in my abilities.

I think you need to value what you're offering, but it’s vital to feel comfortable with what you’re charging.

It was, and still is, important to me to be able to experiment and build up my skills without having any anxiety hanging over me.

As a coach, it's important to build a community around yourself and have other coaches that you can share your experiences with.

Coaches tend to be sociable people, but it can be quite a solitary profession.

If you can find people to gain inspiration from and talk about your ideas with, it keeps you stimulated and gives you a load of support when you need it most.

The Firework training is a great opportunity to meet like-minded coaches and form a tribe!

 

I think you need to value what you're offering, but it’s vital to feel comfortable with what you’re charging.

 

What’s the most rewarding aspect of coaching for you?

I love it when I get that email through from a client saying, “I'm so excited – I just got a new job!” You can't beat that feeling.

I love to see things happening in a very concrete way, but I also find every coaching session rewarding.

It’s great seeing the spark of a new idea and a client’s growing belief that change is possible for them.

When people start to own who they are, what matters to them and what they’re good at – it’s amazing.

 

Anna Levy is a Firework-licensed career coach who coaches individuals that want to make a positive difference in the world and find work that matters to them. She’s helped hundreds of people find fulfilling work, both through her private coaching practice and as a course leader for Careershifters. Anna is qualified as a Co-Active Coach with the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), and holds a postgraduate diploma in Career Coaching with Distinction from the University of East London. Find out more about Anna at www.annalevycoaching.com