Our main objective here at the National Coach Academy is to enable aspiring coaches to reach their full professional potential. One of the most effective ways to educate students about the world of coaching is by offering them a window into the world of real, practicing coaches and showing them all the different ways coaches make a difference in the lives of their clients.

We hope today’s interview adds another insightful glimpse into the dynamic world of coaching.

Today we are interviewing Robin Emmerich. Robin is a Transformational Life Coach & Artist based in Austin, Texas. She is also the founder of Beauty and the Mess, an art-inspired athleisure brand.

NCA: Can you describe your coaching practice and the kinds of clients you typically work with?

Robin: I’ve had my coaching practice for 10 years now. It started with transforming my own life. I was running a healthcare staffing company at the time and I had begun to soul search: “What am I doing? What’s my purpose? Is there more out there?”

A series of events took place to where I began to start a path of understanding the mind-body-spirit connection — or maybe you could say the mind-body-heart connection. It’s a little bit more mainstream, I think, than using “spirit.”

What I realized is how we can store past experiences in the cellular memory of our body. I went through my own life change and then developed a technique for people to understand their subconscious thought-patterns, understand their desires and their heart and align those two while releasing the stored emotional energy in the body to move forward in life.

A lot of the clients that I typically work with are men or women wanting to make changes in their career. Changes like becoming more innovative, receiving a promotion, getting into an entirely new career, attracting a new relationship, or leaving an unfulfilling relationship. A lot of transitions, empowerment, innovation, having a bigger voice in the world, having a bigger legacy to follow, or creating their own legacy.

I work with people that know there’s something more, but they don’t know what it is.

NCA: What initially got you interested in becoming a coach?

Robin: It was definitely two-fold. One, as I mentioned, I changed my own life. I remember just being completely in awe and literally in tears of this extremely new perspective I received on how to live life. A lot of times, we don’t know what’s possible until we’re on the other side.

I grew up in a very traditional upbringing. I had done all the traditional steps of graduating high school, going to college, graduating, working my way up the corporate ladder. It was just a very strict to-do list that I had followed and hadn’t opened up to who I truly was — that part of me that’s an entrepreneur, a creative, and now an artist. I went through such a significant change.

NCA: What is the most rewarding part of your career and on the flip side of that, what would you say is the most challenging aspect of the work that you do?

Robin: The most challenging part is the energy to sustain helping people. That’s something that I’ve learned to have different tools for over the years. It’s like a journey in and of itself.

Obviously the most rewarding is when you see the transformation in people. There’s so much power in witnessing the beginning and the end of the journey. Not that it ever ends, but you do go through a significant transformation.

I do 12 session packages, which is about three months. We’ll stay consistent for the first two months and then we usually spread out the last three to four sessions over three to four months. By that point they’ve moved forward living their lives and I will just check in and get anything back on track or just to let them say, “This is where I’m at. This is what I’m using most.”

I have a very organic process to it. Especially for women. A lot of women have a hard time investing in themselves but having that package gives them the freedom to make all of the changes and have that support to check in. Because otherwise, they most often don’t do it for themselves, which can set them back. They’ll go back to the mindset of “Oh, I don’t want to spend the money for the support” and it’ll be the opposite of what we really want. It’s kind of interesting how that works.

It was just a very strict to-do list that I had followed and hadn’t opened up to who I truly was — that part of me that’s an entrepreneur, a creative, and now an artist.

NCA: Can you think of mentor who was most vital to your success as a coach? In what ways did this mentor help you to thrive in your career?

Robin: I worked with two mentors. The first one is more my spiritual director all centered on heart teachings. I worked with her to receive mentorship to help other people.

And then I worked with Dr. Coletta Long who taught me about the subconscious. I got certified in working with the subconscious and working with releasing the energy stored in the body with her.

She ended up retiring and asked me to carry out her legacy of work, which is over 65 years of pioneering work in the field of regression. I was literally in Italy when she sent me an email asking me, “What would you do if I handed you over this legacy of work?” I’m like, “Oh my gosh!” [laughing] I called her from Italy and she was like, “What are you doing? It’s too expensive.” I’m like, “No, no, no. You can’t just send me an email.” [laughing]

I was actually on my way to Saint Francis of Assisi, just to pray to be of more service to the world, and then that happens. It was quite beautiful.

NCA: What is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is just starting out in their coaching career?

Robin: I would say a lot of people talk about niching yourself right away, but I feel the opposite of that. I see a lot of coaches stay stuck when they are trying to come up with a business before putting in the work.

I feel like it really served me well to work with the people that I felt led to work with and through that, I was able to find how I help people the most. I came from that place of “How can I serve? Who can I help? Guide me to those.” Then through that, I worked out the business.

Original Post on National Coach Academy

Interview by Brandon Baker at Life Coach Path