This week, we launched our first coaching conference with the Coaching Your Growth Conference. We’re recapping the event and reviewing what’s happening next. With speakers from First Responder Coaching (FRC) and Two Roads Coaching (TRC), plus a few other vendors and coaches, the conference served as both a practical workshop, education seminar, and a roundtable on coaching practices.
Presenters
Speakers from FRC/TRC include Jennifer Anderson (Founder/CEO of FRC), Paul Hackett (Director of Coaching), Ken Bosse (Coach Trainer), Dr. Jamie Hoffman-Rosenfeld (TRC Coach, ret. Child Abuse Pediatrician), Meghan Albanese (Coach Trainer), and Stephanie Rubel (FRC Coach, Co-Response Clinician). Other speakers include David Berez (ret. LEO, Founder Six4 Consultants) and Jules Nicole (Trauma Specialist, Jules Nicole Coaching). Additionally, Brian Gillespie represents Recovery Centers of America and shares their mission with attendees.
Highlights
There are so many points from powerful stories to Aha! moments. We’re sharing some highlights from the day and a half conference here.
Tuesday Morning
Jen and Ken kick it off with an introduction to coaching, what a successful coach looks like, and a little of their stories. Paul discusses active listening and leads attendees through an exercise which breaks listening into facts, feelings, and values. He shares videos from Marcia Reymolds to hear about emotional intelligence and other great coaching tools. “Being helpful makes people helpless,” Marcia says, emphasizing that coaches don’t offer advice but simply listen and reflect.
We share a video from Meghan who shares her story and talks about coaching.
Ken then asks for a volunteer for a live coaching demonstration. Ken walks the person through options the volunteer identifies. Ken reflects back all the volunteer says, finishing by asking the person for the greatest takeaway. Ultimately, for this session, the volunteer says that talking it out helps increase confidence in the situation at hand.
David covers topics such as resilience, post traumatic growth, and neuroplasticity (rewiring the brain). He also spends time talking about gratitude and building a positive portfolio. David has everyone write out gratitude notes and post them on the doors to share.
Tuesday Afternoon
Stephanie covers what coaching is and isn’t, reviews many assessment models in coaching, and “I” statements. She goes into her experience on the CISM team and as a co-response clinician. She then leads into the Wheel of Life, which Jules then uses in an exercise for the group.
Ken talks about neuroplasticity, the Johari Window, and about brain function and these six points about the brain:
- It’s a connection machine.
- No two brains are alike.
- The brain sees the world according to its own wiring.
- The brain hardwires everything it can.
- It’s practically impossible to deconstruct that hardwiring (such as addiction).
- It’s easy to create new wiring.
Later, Jules tells her story and talks about her practice as an Ordained Healing Minister. Each discussion of the day is engaging and we finish the day with Jen recapping the topics of the day. Jen shares a video from a Super Saturday training among coaches where her husband, Kevin, discusses his story. He outlines the raw details of his trauma and his journey to recovery.
Wednesday Morning
Paul speaks about coaching as a tool and brings the group through several exercises, including listening exercises, values worksheets, and several coaching practices. Stephanie comes back to talk about co-responders, ethics and confidentiality, and leads the group through an exercise in taking action steps.
Next, Jen, Paul, and Ken offer a Q&A session for questions about coaching, classes offered by FRC/TRC, the business itself, and anything else attendees wanted to ask. Finally, David shares his personal story and journey to where he is now.
Quotes
“To be a great coach means to be in the moment. If that means being silent, that’s okay. Dance in the moment.” ~ Jen Anderson
“We are creating champions of coaching. You champion that the person you’re coaching is truly whole and capable.” ~ Jen Anderson
“Optimistic people generally live longer.” ~ David Berez
“As you grow grass, you’re not pulling out the weeds. You’re growing your grass strong enough to choke out the weeds.” ~ David Berez
“Our number one job is to believe in people’s potential more than they believe in their potential.” ~ Ken Bosse
Moving Forward
We’re not finished. The conference is a pilot, a beta stage, to more collaboration, more connections, and more engagement. As FRC moves forward from this point, we’re making plans to partner with more people and groups to change the narrative, improving the quality of mental health for not only first responders and military, but for everyone. Stay tuned.