Have You Ever Thought About Becoming a Life Coach?

I: What made you choose this arena for your life’s great work?
ML: Every friend, every colleague I had told me I was crazy. They were telling me there were so many coaching schools, why would I want to add one more?
I wasn’t really sure in the very beginning, but what I always knew was that I am a teacher at heart. Anything I know and am excited about, I want to share with others and teach them how to do it even better than I can. That was my initial impulse—just to teach what I learned and to share what I’m excited about. Then I said to myself, “Everybody is trying to tell me that this is not a good idea, that there are so many coaching schools, and that new coaching schools come along every day. Why would I want to have my own? Maybe we don’t need one more.”
But as I was looking around and saw that everyone had so many different ideas about what a new coach should know, I really felt that we desperately needed a more well-rounded education where you wouldn’t have to chose between the importance of thoughts versus feelings, or the importance of being versus the importance of doing. I wanted to create a truly holistic school that would unite all of the above—plus, things that I’ve learned and taught at NYU and other educational institutions, such as Positive Psychology, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), and Emotional Intelligence.
I think when you finish any training, you are going to be attracted to some techniques more than others, and you’re going to want to learn more about this or that, and that’s great. But I think that you have to have an overview of all the tools that are effective.
I: What is your definition of success as it pertains to coaching schools or the coaching industry?
ML: I teach my own classes, which separates me from directors and founders of many schools. What I think is important for any teacher is knowing that your students really get it by the end of the course—I want to know that they graduate as capable coaches, that they can do what I do, that they feel good about offering their services, and they feel confident they can produce results in their clients. That’s the true measure of success—seeing the results from your students. My students define my success.
And, to answer the second half of your question about success in the coaching industry—it’s all about us helping our clients to reach their goals and dreams. Actually, that’s how I came up with the name for my institute. Goals represent consciousness since we consciously choose what we want to accomplish. Imagery represents our feelings, the subconscious, and imagination. Therefore, Goal Imagery represents the unity between conscious and subconscious—a truly holistic approach to success.