Why You May Need a Coach
I had the pleasure of being interviewed on the Gospel-Driven Entrepreneur by my friend and colleague P.J. Simmons. He asked me to share why business owners may need a coach. I invite you to read, listen, and “Speak Your Mind” in the comment box below. Thank you and bless you!
CLICK HERE to listen to the entire interview.
CLICK HERE to read and download the complete transcript.
Interview Highlights
P.J.: Today, Jory and I had a chance to sit down and talk about—is coaching necessary for every entrepreneur? Some questions we explore are—what’s the difference between New Age and Christian coaching as well as why everyone needs a coach, and really just the straight truth that you cannot do everything on your own. I absolutely love having Jory on the show with us.
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This concept of life coach, I think you hit on something that I definitely thought when I first started hearing the concept. This kind of seems a little New Age-y. Who needs somebody to talk to them about what their purpose is, give them peace, help them develop their passion? Doesn’t Jesus do that for us? Where was that for you? How did you find the differentiator between navigating secular New Age mysticism versus something that you really felt God was calling you to do? How did make that distinction?
Jory: Well, it definitely helped to land in Chris McCluskey-ville. That was a big help right there because we were able to talk those things through. What would have been off-putting to me was using terms like “universe” and all. I don’t worship the creation, I worship the Creator. I had been troubled by it, but as I was in the care of Chris McCluskey (the founder of the Professional Christian Coaching Institute) and at the time also Judy Santos who was the founder of Christian Coaches Network, I was like, “Oh yes, this whole idea of having somebody help you move from point A to point B in a coaching fashion makes so much sense.” Just extract some of that New Age language and I was quite at home. Not a problem at all, and then when I was certified as a career coach, that also was in a Christian environment.
It was through The Academies. Susan Whitcomb founded that. She’s a devout Christian and she actually had a Christian track just like Chris and Judy did for the life coaching training. Susan had a Christian track for career coaching, so that was awesome; but then I ran smack dab into it again when I just absolutely and totally intrigued by something that Tim Kelley started. It’s the True Purpose Institute and he had the True Purpose Process. I realized that more New Age type people, I’m sorry to put a label on it but I think people know what I’m talking about, that more people were attracted to the True Purpose Process who did not consider themselves evangelical Christians as I did. But I spoke with Susan Whitcomb about it and she knew Tim. She had spent about a week with him. She said, “Oh, Jory. I really feel like he’s anointed. This is going to be a good thing for you.”
Tim and I became actually very close and I realized that I can just adapt the True Purpose Process and have it be for Christians. So I reached out to Susan, “Hey Susan, would you like to help me convert some of these documents that are used in the True Purpose Process into a fashion that would be more comfortable for evangelical Christians?” and Tim of course was all about it. “Yes, please go for it.” That’s what we did. That was one very big strident glaring example of how I took something which a lot of people who do not consider themselves Christian use for finding their purpose and “Christianized” it, if you will.
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Why Do Entrepreneurs Need a Coach?
P.J.: For entrepreneurs and leaders, I was actually having this conversation the other day. One of my colleagues was speaking to a connection of his who is the vice president of a multi-billion dollar company right now. I asked him, “Over the last 30 years, you’ve seen this business grow from two stores to multibillion. What was the number one thing that you see that people need?” He said that everybody needs a coach. That’s the number one thing that I’ve seen over the last 30 years. Jory, for you, what’s your view, you being a coach, you working with entrepreneurs and business owners and leaders from around the country all the time. Why do you feel that every leader and entrepreneur needs a coach? Why is it so helpful?
Jory: Well, here’s a visual. I want you to imagine a chair standing/sitting in the middle of the room. I want you to tip it back. Just change the position that it’s normally in. Is it going to stay there?
P.J.: No.
Jory: You need somebody, something, some process, a coach to help you do that which does not come natural for you. A lot of us I think are just born motivated or we’re born with that drive to continue to grow and all of that, but it’s still hard. It’s either hard to muster up the motivation to do it or the courage to do it, or it’s hard to know what steps to do. Getting from point A to point B is not a walk in the park. When there’s either a steep hill in front of you or a long distance between point A and point B, or in the case of many leaders and entrepreneurs, it’s both. It’s both steep and wide, right? To help bridge the gap, you need somebody to come alongside you just as Jesus did.
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[Please click here to listen to the interview and here to read and download the complete transcript. Thank you!]
Transcription by Alma Noefe
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