Figured someone reading this may say “Hmmm I wonder who she is” and what’s her deal. Well I decided to create a more in-depth telling of my story.

I was born and raised in
I was born in Kingston, Jamaica + raised in sunny South Florida (Fort Lauderdale)

Upbringing
My parents were entrepreneurs and started their insurance agency about 26 years ago.  Their drive and zest for building a life where they commanded their time, money, and contribution to their community has marked the woman I am today: someone who believes in the power of entrepreneurship and loving people where they are.

I wanted to be a women’s coach because…
For much of my life, I’ve taken my practical education and spiritual development really seriously. I was raised in church and came to own my faith in my teenage years. When I started getting involved in church ministry and leading college students, I distinctly remember the gap in leadership particularly for young women + a gap in guidance around economic empowerment.  As a woman of color that gap is palpable and bothers the heck out of me.

Where my love for coaching developed….
It all started out informally. With being a small group leader throughout college and in my 20s, leadership opportunities chased me down to mentor women, coach them in becoming small group leaders, and from there becoming a go-to resource for questions around general life issues. I didn’t even know coaching was a legitimate professional field until a friend told me about the International Coach Federation back in 2009 and I enrolled in an approved training program through the Professional Christian Coaching Institute to help me embrace the latent talent of encouraging/guiding people and sharpen my professional skill set. I immediately started facilitating group coaching experiences (via the 48 Days to the Work You Love workshops) by the end of that year. The attendees loved it.  I later did a second cohort of that workshop in 2014 and again had great results. I realized that where formal education, family support, and even church guidance leaves off, coaching picks up. My clients were finding coaching to be a resource for them to really clarify their super personal desires and allowing the coaching process to be like an escalator towards their dreams – they still have to walk, but they can get to their destination a lot easier.

Why Career Coaching
Specifically, we have a social contract to spend a disproportionate amount of time working (i.e. 5-6 weekdays attributed to work and 1-2 days off/Rest.)  That’s about 2000 + hours a year.  Google any metric on work happiness and what do you find?  Around 60% of American workers are disengaged or  unhappy with their jobs.  Crazy, right?

I love career coaching because it is a direct method for defining your purpose, your deepest interests and getting yourself in alignment with those desires instead of constantly chasing other people’s expectations or someone else’s idea of success.

What’s more, I believe career coaching opens people up to being empowered economically by finding income directly related to what they love.  Quality of life is a metric of health, which is a metric of wealth too.

My Personal Experience with coaching 
I’ve had business coaches who have helped me get out of my own way by being super clear about how I sabotage myself and what obstacles I have to overcome. This has been huge in overcoming a typical trait that millennials have – we presume the path before us is just green pastures.  More specifically, coaching is distinctly different than things like a generic small group, accountability with friends, or mentors who just want the best for us.  Here’s my experience of those types of relationships – in those interactions you are not employing someone to professionally hold your feet-to-the-fire about your unique goals.  Church group accountability may overlook your need for personalized attention;  Friends may forget to really hold you to your goals; and mentors may not have the bandwidth.

I have found that coaching is the profession with the explicit structured relationship of helping you fulfill your unique dreams. Period.   And it’s been worth every penny.

The Coaches who have been like role models
Dan Miller for his specialty in career coaching and helping people find the freedom to monetize their passions.  He is the first coach that gave me a framework to work from and with my background in christian ministry, his books helped me to really debunk myths around work that I grew up believing but have been poorly taught.   Second to him would be Valorie Burton (for her resources specifically for women developing confidence and happiness skills), Chris McCluskey (the founder of PCCI), and then Rachel Greenwald for her definitive training on helping single women open up to love.

This crazy enthusiasm for Real Estate
Always had an interest in real estate. After some self-coaching I realized that I had a deep desire to understand the setbacks my family faced during the economic downturn in 2008-2012. During that time my family short-sold two of our homes and life was hard knocks to say the least. We recovered, but I wanted to completely flip the script of my family’s story and my own around economic stability and wealth. (Side note, I also had thoughts about the issue of police violence against minority communities and wondered what role real estate development could play in changing our communities). Fast forward to 2014, I worked for a property tax consulting firm helping their BD department. Within one year, I had some success but wanted more know-how around the industry of managing commercial assets and development, so I applied for a grad program in real estate development and got in.  My ultimate desire is to learn the strategies to make real estate work a part of my family’s economic plan and build long-term wealth with it.  Since I’ve begun to take serious steps towards learning, the kind of opportunities that have fallen in my lap have been beautiful. [Bam Bam a la Sister Nancy]

My Experiences with Quantum Leaps
In simplest terms, a quantum leap is a  choice you make to aggressively up-level your future. That’s it.  I started taking small leaps as a teen, continued in college and in my 20s. I tend to think we should be more excited about our lives than our favorite tv show or movie. IJS (And I definitely love what’s on TV right now!) As an immigrant to America (I’m a citizen now) + with my Jamaican blood + and faith in God, I’ve always held this idea that I should maximize every opportunity before me while I’m young. (I did summer exchange programs in Quebec and London while in high school).  While I’m single. (I helped start leadership programs in college + helped launch a church campus after college). While I’m in school. (I launched an online blog, podcast, and rebranded my coaching practice while in grad school). The life conditions don’t even matter. Just maximize it.  I could go all philosophical on you, but the principle of quantum leaping, for me, is based on my family background. They leaped, so I could leap too.   As I’ve reflected on where my family has come from — my mom grew up in the country side of Jamaica to a deaf and mute mother of her own and was the first to go to college in her family and move to the US; my dad was 1 of 8 children to his mom, grew up largely without a father and had an uncanny innovation engine within him. Together they started a business in Florida that supported my family and funded their other business ventures.  I have realized that making huge dramatic steps towards your dreams stems from my heritage of risk taking and valuing progress.  My parents’ quantum leaps to move to America has made me the woman I am today.  My parents’ quantum leap to choose to own, operate, and run multiple businesses sent me to one of the best schools in the state and gave me the resilience for entrepreneurship now. And they’re still leaping. [Insert: Reggae horns]