The Power of Coaching: Building Trust, Communication, and High-Performance Leadership

How business owners and leaders unlock clarity, resilience, and growth through coaching and psychological safety

What separates high-performing leaders from those stuck in constant overwhelm?

It’s not more information.
 It’s better awareness, communication, and support.

In this episode of TalkStory Media: Business Edition, William Peetoom sits down with Anna Floyd, an acclaimed life development coach in communication and President-Elect of ICF San Diego, to explore how coaching transforms the way leaders think, operate, and grow.

With over two decades of experience, Anna shares how business owners can navigate pressure, uncertainty, and decision fatigue by developing stronger internal clarity and external communication.

This conversation goes beyond traditional coaching stereotypes and reveals a deeper truth:

Coaching isn’t about giving answers—it’s about creating the space for better decisions.

You’ll learn how effective listening, psychological safety, and self-awareness directly impact leadership performance, team dynamics, and long-term business success.

If you’re a business owner, executive, or entrepreneur looking to elevate how you lead and operate, this episode delivers practical insight you can apply immediately.

TalkStory Promo Intro

William Peetoom, Commissioner - Executive Producer & Co-Host: Business Dev. Advocate - A Modern-Day Urban Robinhood | Blue Zone Living Benefits Insurance - Broker/Agent, Licensed Life & Health Insurance Professional | CA License #4347307
For Interviews & Advertising | Follow TalkStory on LinkedIn

TalkStory Media Presents our Business Edition Podcast is an intimate interview setting with leaders of our shared global business communities, offering best practices and hacks to achieve success. Inspire, Empower & Impact is our mission with a Vision to uptick the world we contribute to.

Together, share and simplify the latest research and best practices from award-winning business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals to educate and empower you on how to make money, save money, and compound the interest of earned revenue to thrive happier, healthier, and improve your business practices for greater efficient impact. The end result is that you understand alternative pathways to roads less traveled to success that the daring duo share on the show.

Together with ignite San Diego, sparked by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), we resolve the challenges and obstacles of growing a successful business to be victorious in a new era of i...

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Trends, current affairs, and pathways to success on Talk Story Business Edition Podcast. On this podcast, Austin Biek, an award-winning mortgage real estate guru, and William P2, a modern-day urban robinhood, share and simplify the latest research and best practices from award-winning business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals to educate and empower you on how to make money, save money, and compound the interest of earned revenue to thrive happier, healthier, and improve your business practices for greater efficient impact. The end result is that you understand alternative pathways to roads less travel to success. The Daring Duo Share on the Show. Together with Ignite San Diego, sparked by the BBB, we resolve the challenges and obstacles of growing a successful business to be victorious in a new era of innovation. This production is supported by the Better Business Bureau, National Referral Network, Countywide Mortgage Lending, Business Group Resources, and Kaisen Group International.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Welcome to Talk Story Media. I'm Will Pitum. Austin Bihick is traveling and will not be able to join us. But we want to welcome you to another impactful episode of Talk Story Media Business Edition Podcast, where we bring you closer to the solutions and the best practices that drive the success of small businesses worldwide. In this episode, we're going to dive into key challenges small business owners face today and explore how expert guidance, support, and tailored financial strategies can help them navigate through these challenges effectively. Our mission is to inspire, empower, and impact through conversations that provide you with practical tips, stories, and the latest industry insights. I'm William P. Toomb, like I mentioned, a modern-day urban Robin Hood and small business advocate. And today we focus on empowering businesses. So this morning, we have an exceptional human being that I totally admire and adore. We have Ms. Anna Floyd. She's an acclaimed life coach in communication with over two decades of experience guiding individuals, professionals, and organizations towards success. She holds a prestigious ICF professional certified coaching credential and serves as the president-elect for the ICF San Diego chapter. Anna has empowered thousands of clients across industries, helping them unlock their potential through compassionate, open-hearted listening, and targeted coaching solutions. And so she's got a list of accolades here. So without further ado, Ms. Anna Floyd.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Good morning, William. It's fun and exciting to be here with you today. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

I've been wanting to get you on the show for some time now. You know, we do something a little different here. I gave a little intro, but this does not do us justice. Could you give us your 30-second elevator pitch?

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yes. So my name is Anna Floyd. I am a life development coach in communication. And I am an individual that enjoys working with other human beings that are in business and/or whatever aspect of life that they're encountering and supporting them to find creative, uh long-term solutions to their challenges.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Wow. That's quite interesting. Can you uh go into how you got to this point and juncture in your life and and just share with us.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Do I get 30 seconds for that too?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

I'll give I'll give you 35 seconds. How's that?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I will I will make it as short as possible. So uh, you know, I grew up in the coaching space. That's really the the most succinct way I can speak it. Um I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area originally. I now call San Diego my home. And I grew up in a space where leadership development, personal development, and self-reflection was just a way of life for me. And so I just so happened to be uh home first from uh school during the summer. And my mother, who is also uh she's a one of the pioneers in the coaching industry. I'm second generation. Uh, she was doing this fun thing with her friend, um, who happened to be uh Thomas Leonard and the late Thomas Leonard, and uh they were doing this project in San Francisco, and it was setting up workshops to discover your life purpose, and the story continues from there. Fast forward uh 30 years later, uh I've had the opportunity to coach uh several hundred business owners. We went into the uh coaching space with working with business owners, uh supporting business owners with their challenges, their their uh successes, um, their long-term strategy, strategies with growth, and also supporting business owners to understand how to bring their whole self to their business, not just their um mental uh acuity to their business, not just their strategy strategic thinking to their business, but who are they as business owners and how does that impact their business growth and their growth of their teams?

SPEAKER_02 5:36

So good.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

So um there's a lot to unpack there. A lot. So so you only gave me 30 seconds, though. So I hope I I gave you 35. Right, 35. Hope I came under that.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

So so with all that said, share with us your why. Why are you doing this?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

What you know, uh the truth is uh I'm a human being that believes in other human beings. And one of the things about being an entrepreneur is it requires a lot of risk. It requires the ability to be able to get up every day and want to make a difference. And even though we know as human beings we want to make a difference and we choose to go into being a business owner and and contributing some sort of service or product that will make people's lives better, there's always the human aspect of it. There's the inert being immersed in the inertia and the tasks and the doing and the legalese and all of that. And and what I found is that one of the things that gets that we miss is just our own humanity and what we're doing and how come we're doing it. And so, how come I'm coach I am interested in coaching and continue to be interested in coaching is it's also a life path for me. When I work with other individuals, I'm also engaged in conversations that are pertinent to me and what I'm going through. And so, again, in our in terms of being an entrepreneur in this world, it's important to make sure that I am grounded and always focused on what makes all of us progress and move forward. And for the most part, as far as I can tell with coaching, that means providing an opportunity where we can always check in with ourselves, we can always self-reflect, we can always uh take a pulse in terms of what we're doing and where we want to go next. And it coaching allows for the business owner to open up and be able to see what are the challenges, what's in their way, and what do they need to do to be able to excel and move past it. And what do they learn from those challenges as well, right? I think a lot of time we get so caught up in the challenges, we forget to reflect and enjoy the journey and realize, oh, I'm smarter than I was before I knew how to solve this problem, or the problem may still be there, or the challenge may still be there, and yet I'm one step further to create to creatively solving that challenge. So I find that being an entrepreneur brings out all of our skill sets, whether we want to or not. It calls on all of our skill sets. And being front and center as a coach, um, again, to be able to experience that with business owners and also have that reflect back on me is just very rewarding.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

That's so wonderful. So who inspired you? What are your icons and mentors that really are profound in your life choices?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

You know, it changes. Um what I can say is right now I am really inspired by I'm inspired by the community of individuals that are, there's a variety of terms, but the the the disabled community. The individuals that have um certain, I don't really care for the word disabilities, so certain uh inhibitions or limitations, excuse me, limitations to their physical abilities, so to speak. Because these individuals actually have demonstrate have and continue to demonstrate how very um resourceful human nature is, right? How very resilient, how very capable and competent and creative um we're required to be as human beings. And so when I look upon, I was just watching the Paralympics, and when I look at what these athletes are doing with very few physical limbs or a slowed uh impaired processing ability, and they're still excelling at gold star athlete level. Yeah, honestly, William, it's like I have no excuse.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yes, and and we have all our limbs.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yes, exactly. And all our faculties. And so when I look upon individuals that seem to, again, I use the word seem to have less going for them, and they exceed and excel far beyond anything that seems possible, it really inspires me. And I just whenever I'm having one of those challenging days, I I look to my left or look to my right or look for that inspiration, and I just get back up and I say, I have no excuse. So it's fascinating to watch.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

I totally agree. And and it just kind of leads me to, you know, every gold medal, every medal up on that pedestal had a coach. Absolutely. So success comes with coaching guidance. You know, are there any books, any references that you could share with the audience that really hit home that maybe they're not able to access a coach uh currently, but there are resources out there uh that are free and easy to navigate and take action with.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Well, one of the books is near and dear to my heart because one of the things, as I said, I'm a life development coach in communication, which means I really I really work with people on their communication based on how they listen. So it's also important in terms of coaching to understand how you I listen as an individual and how individuals or teams listen. And so there's a book called Listen. There's a world waiting to be heard. There's also another another version of the book called Um I Know You Hear Me, Are You Listening? Oh. So I like to read books that have a lot to do with listening and communication. There's also another book that I am just now beginning to engage with, and it's part of a uh larger project that I'm involved in, where I'm just I'm researching uh the aspect of coaching called uh developing trust and safety, cultivating trust and safety. So this book is um called The Power of Trust. Forgive me, I'm not recalling the the uh author at this time. She's a Harvard professor. So uh look up the power of trust and people should be able to find it. Also, there's another book that's valuable, Amy Edmondson, who's also another Harvard professor, who deals with cultivating trust and safety and specifically psychological safety. And the reason I bring that up as we're talking about it in the books that are inspiring me is business owners specifically require uh having a safe space so that they can really explore those aspects of how can they move forward in their business with all the business challenges and still have a safe space with a coach to be able to trust their choices, trust their decisions, trust that they're moving in the right pathway. And sometimes a coach can provide that safe space for people so that they know that no matter what their choices are, they're on the right path towards their journey and accomplishing their goals and whatever it is that they want to accomplish.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

So good. I'm just downloading all this information. Thank you so much. Um, your your personal practice focuses on listening. And when I think of coaching, I see the coach with the whistle and they're yelling at, you know, the athlete athlete, and and they're constantly uh giving information, sharing information, you know, and and you know, coaching. But you've pivoted and turned it around and you're more listening. How does that work? How do you coach when you're not saying anything and you're listening?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

True. Well, I don't, depending on who you ask, they might say, they might wonder how come I'm not saying anything, because I am a communications coach, so I I uh communicate quite a bit. The the listening component, it's actually one of the competencies in coaching, and I'm glad you asked that because a lot of, as you said, the the the typical version of coaching, as you said, is someone who's rallying the troops, so much of a Tony Robbins type, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Um, rallying the troops, telling folks they're great, you know, climbing the highest mountain, all of that. I got my my Dwayne Johnson stuff every morning.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

And so, and and a lot of that is very true. A lot of that is very true in terms of um the coaching profession. The aspect of listening, and this is specific to our methodology because we focused on this, because we feel like listening actually affects all the other competencies in coaching. There are several competencies, competencies to being a uh professional coach, and active listening is one of them. So for my coach entrepreneurs out there, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. One of the reasons we chose, meaning myself and my mother, I'm in a family business, we chose to focus on active listening is because we feel as though listening actually activates all the other aspects of coaching. When you're listening deeply and you're listening closely to the challenges that are available, that are uh present in a client's life or in a team or in a conversation, you're able to really understand what are the questions to ask. This type of coaching that I do involves listening so that you have the effective questions to ask that particular individual so that they can ask themselves that question. Sometimes it's okay to stay in the question. They don't always have to have the answer because oftentimes in the society, we're expected to have the answer, have the answer, know what to do. And entrepreneurs, we really have to double down on making sure we know a lot and how much do we know and we're quizzed every day and we don't know enough and all of the uh mental chatter that goes on with trying to navigate this world. And so listening is very important for business owners so that we can really make sure that we're clear in our head with all the things that we need to do. We can prioritize effectively and we can stay focused on our North Star, right? And where we have to go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

It sounds it sounds more of a holistic approach where you're really kind of pivoting, like I mentioned, and allowing your client to have that self-realization moment, absolutely that Epiphany uh-huh moment for themselves. You know, because I find it when you when they think they have the solution or resolution for something, they feel proud, right? Exactly. It's not something, oh, my coach told me this. Exactly. And so I really love that. And so one of the concerns that has uh been raised is is the safety, the psychological safety. You know, many business owners uh feel isolated and overwhelmed by pressures and running a business. Um, we discuss how creating psychological safety through non-judgmental guidance and offering confidential space for sharing challenges can significantly boost morale and productivity. Can you elaborate on that? How does how do you what lens do you wear and see uh psychological safety?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah, so again, this is a this is a uh topic that's near and dear to me because I'm studying that now. And and one of the, again, uh Amy Edmondson is really a um a solid uh influence in this space. One of the things about psychological safety is allowing individuals, particularly if we're talking to bit about business owners and any individual, whether you're an entrepreneur on a team, you're working for someone, uh, you're retired, it does not matter. We all require some aspect of knowing that we're safe in the space that we're in to be who we are. I think oftentimes, especially as entrepreneurs, right, we have to have our brand, we have to have our image, we have to look a certain way, we have to dress a certain way, we have to know all certain facts about our industry that at times it has us miss our own authenticity in that space, right? And or based on whatever feedback we're at, what networking mixers we're going to, what is the next entrepreneur doing that I'm not doing? It it clouds our own ability to really just feel comfortable in our own skin, feel comfortable with the words that are coming out of our mouth, our own thoughts. And so, again, dovetailing back to how come a coach is supportive, and particularly a coach that is very, very skilled in listening, is we're able to support clients to navigate all those areas so that they can find their own sense of psychological safety, right? So, this conversation about psychological safety, we've talked about it from okay, how is your external and external environment supporting you so that you feel safe? Oftentimes we miss looking at our our own internal environment. How are we creating psychological safety for ourselves? What are the words we're telling ourselves? What is the conversation we're having with ourselves? And with a coach, a coach can support you with asking you questions, with listening to you closely, with supporting you to really expand and open up to understand what you are doing well and what are the areas to develop versus coming from being frustrated because you did something wrong, you didn't hit the contract, you didn't make your numbers, and the the list goes on. And then we go, we spiral down into this pit. So oftentimes a coach can support you to come out of the pit, or even if you're in the pit, we'll talk to you while you're in there to support you to understand how to get yourself out and that it's okay. And even talk to you in a way and ask you questions in a way that allows you to realize, well, what can you gain even if you're in that pit? What are you learning?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

What are you seeing? What what I visualize is is you're scaling this wall. There you go. And you don't realize there's a grip to the right, just slightly up, and all you have to do is grab it so you can pull yourself up. But but your perspective is you can't see that. Exactly. So sometimes it takes a third party to really kind of shed light on the opportunities and the right path to continue on so that you succeed. Absolutely. This this all leads me also, we have a lot of business owners that chime in and and listen to the show. And uh so how how does a business owner create psychological safety for their team?

SPEAKER_00 20:50

You know, that's a great question. And it depends, to be very honest. And when I say depends, it it depends on the kind of the composition of your team, right? You have to know the types of personalities you have on your team so that you really, as a business owner, can understand how to best work with each individual and their own personal expression, as well as how do they work together in teams, right? So, one of the ways that business owners can really support their team and create because psychological safety is an environment. It's not like an activity, it's not something you do. Um, I'm actually looking for a different way to express psychological safety because you know, once these words hit, they start to be trendy and people use them, and then you don't even really know what you're saying, right? So, and for lack of a better term, right now, we'll use psychological safety. And one of the things that's important when you're working with teams is to really understand how to provide each individual on that team with their own sovereign experience of how they contribute to that team, right? And and own it and highlight it. Now, there might not be, there might be elements where it may not be there. Contribution may not be appropriate to whatever project is happening at that time. However, it doesn't mean that their contribution is not relevant somewhere. I want to go back to the the analogy we were talking about in terms of being in the pit, right? You might have a team member that's in the pit that day for whatever reason. They come into the office, something's going on in their life, et cetera. And what a business owner, one can do is listen, be available to listen without judgment, uh, allowing that individual to and and the team members, allowing that individual to just be in the space that they're in, and then utilizing that space to allow the individual to see how they can be resilient through that. And sometimes resilience means just being in that space, being in that void, just not knowing how to get out of something, how to work with it, so that and and and really being comfortable in that. And I want to say that because oftentimes we think psychological safety is warm and fuzzy, right? We're good, we're comfortable, we're we're warm, we're safe. Psychological safety also means being willing to give people the permission in the room to just be where they are, even if it feels uncomfortable. They're safe though. They're safe to be in that discomfort. Because what happens is once you're really clear that you're you're really okay where you are, all of a sudden it's like the light bulb goes on. You be you you return back to your own resilient self. You return back to being resourceful. Either the pit disappears or you figure out some jewels and gems. How many times, right? Treasure is always found underneath.

unknown 23:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Rarely do we find it. We wish we could find the treasure on top. Yeah. Typically, treasure is found underneath. So if you're in that pit, more than likely you're gonna find some treasures that will support you to make it, make it through and make it out. And that's all of that all of those actions embolden someone's sense of confidence, which contributes to their psychological safety and also contributes to the safe, to their safety and cultivating trust and safety within the team.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

So good. Thank you. Absolutely. So profound. I'm gonna quote you.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Good.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

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SPEAKER_00 26:59

So you're asking how would can you answer ask the question again?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

So HR departments working together with coaching.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Right. So how okay, so how would a coach executive level?

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Because there's a lot of executives that need guidance. Um this takes me to ICF. Yeah. Uh does, you know, ICF is the international coaching federation. Absolutely. And there's so many segments to it. Absolutely. Uh does ICF offer uh opportunities for HR departments to tap into resources and the coaching. Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

And I understand your question now. I just had to understand exactly what you were asking. So are there opportunities for coaches to be able to work with these HR uh departments? And yes, to answer your question, ICF San Diego, ICF, first of all, ICF Global, ICF is a global organization. We have about 70 to 75,000. Last time I counted, uh I have to look up the statistics again, um, credential coaches worldwide. And so we're a large organization. We'll turn 30 in 2025. So just coming up here on 30 years, here in a few months, actually. And so while it's a uh relatively young organization, it's still very uh it's growing rapidly day day by day. And so here's the interesting thing about this industry as it relates to HR. Uh the human resources organ the human resources industry caught on to coaching early on because of course they deal with people. And so certain organizations will either create their own internal coaching teams, right, which ICF supports with through some of the um coaches that come in, the credentialed coaches that come in and support to train those teams, or those organizations will send their HR representatives to get coaching training and certification at some of the certification and uh credentialing uh schools and education centers that are exist. So in terms of how would a coach to specifically address your inquiry and those that are listening, how would a coach be able to who's interested in working with that field? There are a variety of ways these days. One, um, if you have certain business contacts, you can go to networking events, particularly HR networking events, and highlight what you do as a coach and who you want to work with and who you have worked with and look for your connections there. Again, you can also, as a coach, consider getting additional certifications in the, I believe, the org, the associate, the SHERM organization, right, which is the Society for Human Resources and Management. So those two industries I found blend very well together. Um and through ICF specifically, I believe, and don't quote me, I'm still having to keep up with all the different the ICF is has so many different collaborations and partnerships with these or with different associations. I have to keep up with them all. However, I do know the human resources um field uh is very closely connected with um ICF Global. Uh and here in ICF San Diego, what we're working to do is make more opportunities available to our coach members. We have probably close to 400 members in our database and uh and and growing. Every time I go to a networking event, I find one more coach that I can invite to an ICF event because they're they're either they're not part of our ecosystem or they just joined our ecosystem. Um, and then we also make sure that different disciplines are able to come and speak to our chapter. So if we're talking about the human resources, individuals that are coaches and they're in the human resource space, and they have certain skills and information that they can deliver because coaches are always required to maintain their continued education, right? That's part of our uh process in terms of how come we have to uh maintain our credentialing. So it's required. Uh and we also have those that are in the psychology psychology space, right? That also come and deliver content so that we can equip our coaches with a wide range of skills and a wide range of abilities so that no matter what client or opportunity they encounter, they have some skill set to be able to effectively coach through it. I want to be very clear though that coaching is a very specific discipline. The beauty about coaching, though, is it blends with all the other disciplines. So we have coaches that have come from the legal profession. We have coaches that have come in from the health profession. We have coaches that, again, as I said, came in from human resources, psychology, construction. So coaching is a beautiful way that human beings get to be with other human beings and participate with each other as we continue to grow and prosper, right? The industry now has just made sure that we've got some structures and some standards because we're still dealing with human beings at the end of the day. And we all want to make sure that we're safe in the conversations that we have.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

So you had mentioned uh a number of times uh certification and credentials. What sets apart the self-proclaimed business coach that read a couple books and now I'm a coach? Right. I've get I've I've come in contact with a lot of them. I and and I asked the question, so you know, what makes you a coach? What who certified you? Where's your teachings from? What is the standard of ICF for coaches? And where is the bar uh for credentialing? And what is the certification needed to um really project your brand into the business community to be substantial?

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Good question, and I'll try to answer each one of those questions as best as possible. I may need you to repeat a few of them. In terms of the credentialing and standards for the International Coach Federation, you have three separate um and there are more coming. Like again, the International Coaching Federation is growing, and so that you have a lot of certifications and credentials that are coming. The the baseline credentials are your associate certified coaching credential, your ACC, which is your minimum. You have your professional certified coaching credential, which is your mid-level, and then you have your master certified coaching credential, which is basically you are a master certified coach. And that means you pretty much have coached for a very, very long time. We're talking decades, and which means you've pretty much been in the in the coaching industry from the inception, because again, it's only several a few decades old. You're exactly part of the pioneering class. And um each particular credential allows you to be able to exemplify another skill set and another layer of your coaching proficiency, right? Now, don't get me wrong, you know, coaching is a practice. So even if you're an MCC, you can have ACC days, you can have PCC days. If you're a PCC, you'll have MCC and ACC days. If you're an ACC, you'll have MCC and PCC days. I it you know, you run the gamut like a business owner. You have your good days and your off days. Uh that's basically an easy what I'm using as the analogy. The beauty, though, is once you're getting into your practice and you're really looking at coaching, and this is what I would think is the biggest distinction. Once you're getting into your practice, you be you really start to experience who you are as a coach, as a way of life versus doing coaching. Usually in the early days, you're doing coaching. So you speak about the individuals who read a few books, and so now they're a coach. Now, let me say this, and and I want to be very clear while I'm I definitely am uh making sure that the standards of the ICF are honored because that is important and that is uh crucial to the longevity of this organization and our industry. I also have my personal feeling as a coach because I grew up in this space. So I grew up knowing, watching all of this come into existence, all of these different credentials and all the requirements, et cetera, et cetera, which I have. Um and what I can say though for those that have just read a book, because I'm not discouraging anyone. I all we need, we have a lot of individuals and human beings on this planet. We all need to have a coach somewhere, even if it's in our kitchen, right? Some for some of us, our mothers were our coach, our fathers were our coach, our uncles, our elders. That's really where coaching, if you will, existed. So different form, however, we still gained empowerment, we still gained insight, we still gained wisdom, right? From our from our ancestral lineage. The piece around the individual who's just decided they want to wake up and coach, more power to them because we need help out here. And what I would say is it's important to know that coaching is just more than being able to give a few tips or share your wisdom. And it's important to make sure you get certain structures and components in place so you really understand the dynamics that happen within a coaching conversation and a coaching relationship. What I would also say to those individuals is good for you. That means you have a natural knack for coaching. Now go do the study, right? Get yourself some credentialing, build your credibility because you will be surprised at how far uh these particular credentials and this education will take you. Because coaching, as I said, it's it's 30 years old and yet it's still emerging. We can all imagine those of us that are beyond 30. Of course, I'm still 29. I've been 29 for I'll be 20, I have a 29th birthday coming up. Yeah, the clock is stuck. There you go. Exactly. Um, however, if you remember the age you were, you you've as you felt your confidence coming in in terms of your maturity, if you're older than that, you realize the maturity and the wisdom really kicks in the more you are around, right? The more life you live. And so the same with the coaching journey, right? Coaching is not a destination, coaching is a journey. And so if you're willing to hang in and you get that first bug because you feel you read a few books, you felt inspired, you have that natural knack to just inspire others, then sure, maybe consider coaching as your life purpose and do the work.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Do the work. And contacting ICF is is a good start to lead you in the right direction for all the certification. Absolutely credentialing.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Absolutely. So ICF San Diego, we have we have an axe a database of training schools. We can't we can't emphasize one school is better than the other. We're we remain neutral. However, we are the uh umbrella for all things coaching. So the training schools, the accreditations, the credentials. If you want to know how to get your credentials, you want to know uh what school uh how to consider a training school to get your certification. Um a lot of the training certifications are moving into the university spaces now. University of San Diego has a certification program, American University in Washington, D.C. There are a lot of uh universities that are now starting to um uh offer my alma mater, University of California Davis, right? They're offering a certification through their programs through the extended education or professional education realm. So it's growing.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

So I I see ICF as just a beacon, uh a lighthouse to give you, you know, light when it's dark in the in and to allow you to pursue in the right direction for the appropriate education. Absolutely. Absolutely. Love it. Absolutely. So let's take it back to the business owner. So, you know, what are the benefits that you've seen business owners receive a return on investment? You know, because some of these coaching programs are not cheap and it's you know quite the investment in yourself, but let's take it to the other side of the fence. What are they what are they being impacted on and how are they succeeding?

SPEAKER_00 39:39

You know, amen. You hit it right on the head. Coaching is an investment in yourself, and you're absolutely right. It is it is a worthwhile investment, and um it is not inexpensive. Um, you will have to commit to yourself. And a lot of times when we commit, we commit via dollars, right? We based on the value we find, we we value it in in dollars, and yet there's such a larger exponential value to that. So let me give you a few statistics because I've been looking at this myself when I talk to people, and even when I continue to ask myself, how come I'm doing this and what's the benefit? And how do we measure it, right? Yes, we measure the value of coaching because we feel good, or okay, we solved a problem, or okay, our relationship is better. And yet, how do you really quantify that? So American University did a great um study, and they're talking about they presented that uh there's a 70% increase in professional and individual performance when people acquire an executive business coach. And for those, I want to make sure we're very clear. If you're an executive andor you own a business, you're still an executive. You're an executive of your business. You're called the CEO.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Or known as the responsible party.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

The responsible party. And you wear all the hats. So actually, you are the C-suite, if you will, if you own your business. All under one hat. There you go. So I want to make sure when we talk about executive coaching, we're still talking about the business owner, right? And or if you're if you're an executive and you have your side business. All of the above, it were, it applies to how do you best perform in a high impact environment, in a high impact life. So again, American University talked about goal attainment, clearer communication, higher satisfaction. They've discovered a 70% increase when they uh benefit and invest in coaching, 50% increase in performance for teams and groups and organizations in terms of better conversations among teams, improve collaboration among teams. There we're going back to the psychological safety piece because when you're feeling safe with the team you're working with, you want to collaborate more. You're more open to working with each other's ideas and working with different personalities, and you have more room. You have more mercy and more grace to work with people. Enhance work performance. You always work better when it's when it's people you have fun with, right?

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

So that you have increased work performance. You have close to 50%, which means you have close to 50% engagement in terms of and success in terms of your organizational performance, because your organization is run by your teams and your individuals. Based on the ICF and a metric global study, the people, uh, organizations that have invested in core in coaching, particularly Fortune 500 organizations, have realized almost an uh return on investment of six times their investment. Right? So that's six X. The ICF claims that 86% of companies recoup their initial investment in coaching. Those are the reportings that they show. The Institute of Coaching talks about 70% of individuals that receive coaching benefit, again, an improved work performance, relationships, and effective communication skills. I was speaking with a prospective business owner yesterday, and he has a jewelry business and he's working to duplicate himself, meaning get other uh jewelry independent business owner and uh distributors to for his business. And one of the things he talked to me about was his messaging, and he wants to be able to not only support his own messaging so he can continue to uh convince more individuals to join in this business venture with him, right? To to articulate his vision appropriately and the value of this vision. He also wants to be able to have his independent business owners that he works with be able to articulate that vision so that his particular organization can grow at scale. And so one of the things in terms of being able to invest in a business coach, it allows you to be able to articulate your message, it allows you to be able to know understand how to grow and scale your teams, and it allows you to be able to be creative and resourceful and come up with ideas and ways to be to keep your Leading edge to keep your cutting edge in your industry, right? So 61% of business owners that have hired executive coaches actually show improvement in their business management skills, right? Increase in productivity and communication. Again, we're talking about getting their message out, having their message be uniform across the board. And they're also able to effectively articulate their vision, particularly when the team needs to be empowered or inspired, right? Because again, this is a long journey as an entrepreneur, and you're gonna meet those opportunities where you might not feel inspired that day, or you might just be tired that day because you've just been working. You need to be able to have a space where you can communicate all of those things and still come out feeling whole and complete.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

Love it. It just uh also leads me to you know, we just came out of a pandemic, and sometimes you just need a catalyst to, you know, give you that jump start and get everyone back on on the same path and and just you know set that North Star again. Absolutely. You know, because you know, there's so many distractions, so many, so many squirrels out there.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

I can't tell you all trying to get a nut.

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Yes, yes. So, you know, where do you see coaching going for the future? What is, you know, how is technology playing into coaching? Do you see AI coming into the picture? Um, you know, is what is the future of coaching?

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Um good question. I'll say uh it my perspective is the future of coaching is now. And what I mean by that is more and more individuals, again, whether you're a business owner or just uh an individual who's who's trying to figure out how to navigate their way in their life, no matter what space they're in. You're transitioning a career, you're retiring from a career, you're going back to work after retirement, you're a stay-at-home mom or dad, and you're raising your children and you're trying to support the next generation of individuals. Coaching is required for individuals to really understand how to get a clear sense of their direction. Coaching is required for people to have a safe space to always self-reflect and do the inner work that's required and ask the deep questions of themselves that's required so that they really know how to get the the most out of life. So I s and when you talk about AI, that's a very, very interesting and sensitive topic, I'm sure, for all of us. I'm sure it's not a secret to anybody that's listening to this. Um, I happen to look at it with caution. I know that AI can support us with our life and making it easier. I mean, a lot of us are dealing with AI when we're just going to the bank teller. So it's not like it's not been around the automated telling machine. It's not like it hasn't been around us for a long time. We just didn't equate it with certain devices that are making it easier for us, right? Um in terms of coaching, AI is looking to affect their influence on coaching. You have um in the International Coaching Federation does have a specific um group of study. We call it a uh community of study, community of practice. And there are two some individuals in uh Europe that are studying because they have a technology background. And so they're studying the effects of AI and how it will support coaches. There are AI apps that are here now to help people understand the individual who just kind of wants their own personal coach without hiring a coach necessarily, but they want coaching concepts or they want a coaching mindset. Um, I see AI as really being supportive with that. Um I see that it's going to behoove all of us as coaches or whatever industry you're in, because AI is in legal, AI is in medical, AI is in construct, it's in all the industries, all the disciplines. Uh to make friends with it as best you can. Uh, and to also making friends with it so that you also know how to get ahead of it if you need to, or how to implement it in your daily life to so that it really supports you for the greater good. And you're also able to be smart enough to know what not to participate in, right? The technology that we have has made our life absolutely phenomenal these days. I also know that if the lights ever go out, I still want to know how to use a pen and a piece of paper.

unknown 48:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah, we're old school like that. Some of us are hybrids, we we're technical and manual. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

And so so that's what I mean about AI, right? Like use it. It's a tool. Own it, it's a tool, don't be afraid of it. And especially in the coaching space, it can be an ally for things and in the business space. It takes a lot of the work out of having to send receipts or follow-up or make follow-up emails or follow-up calls. It really helps to automate a lot of things, sure. Which leaves the business owner, right? And the coach, if you and if you're a coach entrepreneur, that's what I call it, um, it leaves you free to now be more creative in your business and find out what you need to do in your business. And you have a little mini personal assistant.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Yeah, I love it. I love what you're saying. I'm gonna welcome you back to the show anytime. Uh, Miss Anna Floyd, acclaimed life development coach in communication. She is the president-elect of ICF San Diego. Anna, thank you so much for being on the show. Any last words of wisdom or, you know, nuggets of knowledge that you can share that our audience can take away?

SPEAKER_00 49:55

You know, I don't know how wise this is going to be, and I'll just speak from my heart. Hopefully, with you know, wisdom comes from the heart, so I'll speak from there. Uh I have really found that coaching has supported me uh in my life. It's one of the few disciplines that I found that I can express all of me in the business side, the creative side, and the human relations side. And if you're someone who loves people, you love humanity and you want to serve and you want to give back, I would highly encourage individuals to really consider looking at coaching as a part of their skill set. They don't have to go out and be a coach. That's not what everyone wants to do. Coaching is merely an expression of who you already are. And so I would really encourage folks to either consider getting a coach, particularly entrepreneurs, because it will be the best executive friend you'll have, and or being a coach. And even if you're a business owner, coaching is a wonderful industry to consider, adding to your business, even internally for your teams. So thank you for having me today, William.

SPEAKER_02 51:07

It's been a thank you for coming. Again, I want to also thank our audience for tuning in. We are Talk Story Media Business Edition Podcast, where we give guidance, support, and tailored financial strategies so you can navigate the challenges efficiently. Thank you again, and we'll see you soon. This is a Talk Story Media production. Talk Story Business Edition is hosted by Austin Behick and William P. Toon, supported by the Better Business Bureau, National Referral Network, Countywide Mortgage Lending, Business Group Resources, and Kaisen Group International.