Today we have the wonderful Jennifer Barley. She is the founder of Kickstart Coaching and she is a Certified Professional Life Coach, Public Speaker, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) Instructor, Author and former award winning Weight Loss Leader. She started in 2007 and she admits that she went through a long journey in her coaching career. She absolutely loves everything about it. Here are highlights on our conversation:

-        She was actually a high-technology marketing and communications dropout. She never felt the fulfillment that she was looking for in a career. She felt that a lot was missing in her life and she went on a long journey to figure out what was missing so she could pursue her passion. What she found was that she has a natural at being able to work with people and identify their goals, what’s stopping them, and what they want more out of their life. She was drawn to coaching through the path of being a weigh watcher – motivating and inspiring people to lose weight.

-        Her niche is helping coaches bring their coaching to the next level. She loves to work with coaches so that they can be better coaches. Jennifer wants to bring coaching into people’s businesses so that they will be able to connect better with their clients and be able to have a more holistic approach to their business.

-        Her lives by the quote “There’s no time to be bored in a world as beautiful as this.” Jennifer is a big believer of opportunities and she believes that there is an opportunity everywhere – there’s just so many possibilities. When she feels bored, for Jennifer that means she is unfulfilled at that moment. Connecting back to where the opportunities helps her create that fulfillment for herself, other people and the people that she serve.

-        Jennifer admits that being a business owner is different from being a coach. She believes it is wise to reinvest in your business at the amount of business you have at that moment. What this means is that, when you feel that a process or a phase of your business is not your expertise but is a necessity to your business, it would be wise to just outsource these processes to people who have expertise on those things. This will save you and your business time, money and effort.

-        When asked about how long you should keep your website, she gives a minimum of 2-3 years. If you are updating or changing how your website looks more than once every 2-3 years, Jennifer says you need to ask yourself what is the driving force behind that change because if you keep changing the website look ever so often, you tend to be inconsistent in terms of branding.

-        Jennifer believes that having a little faith in the direction your business is taking earlier on in your business would be very helpful, especially to those who are just starting in the business. Not having enough faith in the direction you want to go will just delay your business and professional growth.

-        Being an expert is not just about your book knowledge and the hours you have put into your practice, but it is really the confidence about what it is that you do and what it is that you deliver.

-        Here are some of her time management strategies: one is hiring a dedicated virtual assistant to assist you with your administrative needs. Next, she has a practice of segregating days on her week. For example, she has revenue days where she holds all her money-making activities. She also has Focus days for developments, marketing, strategizing and research.

-        Her favorite social media platform is Facebook which she believes is a very inexpensive and efficient way to grow your business and reach out to your audience.

-        Jennifer recommends the book, Managing Thought by Mary J. Lore. This book talks about the brain and how our thoughts need to be supportive of what it is we want out of life. She also reads the book Expectation Hangover by Christine Hassler, and it is about how to treat our expectation hangover so that we learn courage, faith, surrender, and love, and we make room for the kind of unexpected things that lead us more directly to a life we love―rather than a life we planned.

You can find Jennifer at www.jenniferbarley.com and you may also connect with her on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jennbarley), Twitter (@JenniferBarley) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbarley). You can also email her at [email protected] to get your free coaching questionnaire to kickstart your coaching conversations.