Professional coaching

What is professional coaching?

Professional coaching is a set of deep conversations in which a trained coach supports a client to maximize the client's personal and professional potential. As a certified professional coach, I work with clients in a clear, thoughtful and calm way to help them get unstuck, to become what they want to become, and to build a better and more beautiful future for themselves.

Coaching, to me, is a privilege. I work with designers, artists, technologists, founders, and other professionals as an active and inquiring guide, helping them to navigate serious obstacles and, most importantly, to unlock their creative potential. Professional coaching is about enabling you to do the best work of your life — and achieve the goals that you yourself set out.

As a member of the International Coaching Federation, I like one of the metaphors the organization uses to describe professional coaching:

What is coaching all about? Imagine driving on a road you’ve never traveled before. You’re in the driver’s seat, in control of the destination, but beside you is a trusted navigator — your coach — helping you see new possibilities, find alternate routes, and ensure you don’t lose focus. This partnership empowers you to unlock answers you already have within, while also challenging you to go further than you imagined.

Topics that you might bring to coaching

What kinds of topics do clients bring to coaching? It really ranges but very often designers and other professionals are challenged by things like imposter syndrome, speaking up for themselves, finding more rewarding work, building a great portfolio and, of course, worrying about their role and career in a time of meteoric change.

A few career-related topics I've heard over the past year:

• "More and more of my work is being outsourced (or insourced) to AI. What will happen to me if I lose my job?"
• "My boss does not listen to me. I have more to contribute to our organization but I'm feeling stuck and unappreciated."
• "I need new skills and solid training to stay competitive. How am I going to stay relevant with so much going on?"
• "I like designing for the web but I'd like to move into more environmental design work. I'm in a complicated place right now."
• "I want to sell my business and become a consultant. But I feel like no one will respect me as an advisor when I've never done that before."
• "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I've lost touch with the artist that I was. But I know that I want to create."

Is my coaching right for you?

Good question. Coaching can be helpful for almost anyone standing at a crossroads, personal and/or professional. Which direction do you take? What does it look like when you get there?

As a certified professional coach through Concordia University's renowned PGCC program, I am trained in an approach driven by empathy and active listening. I take an approach that is flexible yet structured and that offers clients the opportunity for growth in a short period of time. I am also working on becoming ACC accredited through the ICF.

A coaching engagement with me starts with a free introductory call to see if we are a good fit. After our call, you can decide if you'd like to work together. There will be no pressure from me and no hard feelings if you decide it's not the right time and place. Coaching is an investment in your time and resources and I want you to feel both comfortable and excited about helping yourself.

How does coaching work?

Actual coaching is not about providing advice, which generally falls under the rubric of consulting. Coaching is also not therapy, which may look into your family history or personal past. Coaching is also not about finding your flaws — I bring a non-judgmental approach to every topic we discuss.

Professional coaching is oriented around your goals. It is focused on the future. Over a series of sessions, we discuss those goals as well as your future, your hopes, your dreams, and your desires. I will ask powerful and sometimes difficult questions and I will listen actively to what you say. I will offer feedback and reflection so that you build confidence as you step forward into action.

Good coaching can be a truly transformative process. I can help you find the solutions that are within your reach and create actionable plans that lead to positive momentum. Together, we will start and then sustain that flywheel, propelling you and your ideas forward over and over again.

Why work with me?

I do this work because I believe in the power of personal transformation. Coaching has helped me on numerous occasions, including when I was making large personal and career changes. After I went through numerous health challenges a couple of years ago, I decided to dedicate myself to helping others build their own capacity for change and forward momentum.

My approach to coaching is also deeply based on 25 years of experience in the field of design and digital communications. I bring all of the work I've done during that time to our conversations — the numerous businesses I ran, the thousands of books I've read, the dozens of conferences I've attended, and the hundreds of friends I've made.

Having run a design studio for 20 years and worked at digital agencies for 5 years, I understand how freelancers, studios, agencies and teams work. And I know how challenging the business environment is right now.

I live and work in Montréal, Canada, and I help clients across Canada and the United States.

As the founder of a Certified B Corporation, I also believe that each of us, and every business, has the capacity to build social impact into our work. I love working with professionals and leaders who seek to create something bigger than themselves.