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Company: The Head Coach
Position: Coach
With over 20 years of experience as a certified coach (ICC) and senior manager, my speciality is working with people unhappy with their work-life. I work with clients who feel undervalued, who are stressed, bullied or burnt out; people who are struggling to sleep at night because they’re overthinking, overworking or struggling with imposter syndrome; those feeling stuck in their careers, bored, wanting to do something they love - something with meaning.
Book a free consultation with me to find out more.
By the age of 18, I’d had the life of a rolling stone. After a failed attempt to take my own life, I was faced with an important choice: be a victim of my life circumstances or choose to be the author of my own destiny.
I chose the latter. Choosing to live a life filled with adventure and creativity: I cycled around the world, worked my way up from factory worker to top executive and became a mum of two gorgeous young men. At 65, I am now a work-life coach helping others to thrive, and the co-founder of a charity that enables intellectually disabled adults to find meaningful work.
Who knows, perhaps I can help you find meaning in your work-life too.
Book a free consultation with me.
After years of working my way up the management ranks, at the peak of my career in my mid-40s, I was surprised to find that my long-held dream of being a CEO was no longer my dream. I realised it was something I thought I ‘should’ do, not something I wanted to do.
Management was where I had been conditioned to believe success lay - not working from home for myself like I do now. But after lots of soul searching, I eventually realised that was an external expectation - and success could be anything that felt meaningful to me.
But if I didn’t want to be a CEO, then what did I want to do? I started researching different career options. And as I had done at previous turning points in my career, I looked around at other people to see what aspects of their jobs appealed to me, and I looked at the things I enjoyed about my job and how those things could translate to another career.
This was how I had the realisation that it wasn’t just being in management that I loved, it was the people - specifically, the opportunity to lead teams and develop people.
Without knowing it at the time, I had already been coaching my employees for years. I had a habit of identifying people that were unhappy or not producing at work, and engaging them to find out what was going on. Depending what the issue was, I would sometimes help them move to a different role or change something about their working approach to make them happier. Often this included working through personal issues that were affecting their ability to be present at work. Now this would be recognised as coaching, but at the time it was just something that I did because it came naturally to me.
I knew other executive coaches and decided coaching could be a role I would enjoy. there was still a lot to learn. I had always done a lot of reading and personal development, so I started reading up on how to become a coach. It cost a lot of money to get the necessary training. At first I coached alongside my contracting work and offered my services for free to gain experience.
Finally, a year after I turned 50, I became certified as an executive coach by the International Coaching Community (ICC), and later on, I became a master neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner and a Certified Axiogenics Partner Coach utilizing cutting-edge science to help clients develop the life-changing mindset and skillset of Valuegenic Self-Leadership -- in short, "The Head Coach".
I’ve now been coaching for 10 years and I couldn’t be happier. My life is completely different to what I thought it would be at this age. I get to interact with people around New Zealand and the world every day. Coaching from home has given me a slower lifestyle, more time with my family, more space to be in nature, and a more relaxed work lifestyle.
“Rachel goes above and beyond for each of her clients. After working with Rachel the last few months, my perspective in life has improved and I find myself much more confident and happier. Rachel has become a valued confidant and treasured mentor.”
— Kat D, Sydney
