Now What?® Coaching

Category: Global Impact

The Pandemic Changed My Business: How One Question Might Help You

The pandemic shut down was hard for so many people including people I know personally.

For me, it was fraught with challenges but turned out to be one of the best years I’ve had in a long time.

I shed 32 pounds after gaining 19 in the early months of the upheaval. Most of my work that required travel, public appearances and many active negotiations all died out to nothing.

I am fortunate to have coaching clients consistently and as crushing as it was to see my young adult children have the most exciting years of their youth brought to a complete halt, it was a treasured gift to have everyone under one roof for 18 months.

So many people contemplated their work and lives with the extra time at home and I’m not any different. Instead of drowning in anxiety about what I had lost and what the future might look like because of it, I decided to make a HUGE assumption that catapulted me into clarity and action and I’m so, so happy I did.

I said to myself: “SELF!—Proceed like none of it is coming back.”

I transformed my Now What? Coaching business, producing and delivering a new online version available to more people than I could possibly serve one on one in my coaching practice.

I’ve given work to the coaches I’ve trained to use my methodology as a result and we’ve doubled the business. (Oh, and the other work has come back too!)

But here is what I really want to tell you.

I’m starting a second business. I’m not giving up my career coaching work nor the company that houses it. I am adding on something that I haven’t done since my early days as a founding member of the International Coaching Federation: serve coaches.

82% of talented people who train as a coach, quit within two years. As an ex-actor those numbers hit me extra hard because they are way too close to the numbers that the actors’ unions report about the percentage of members who don’t work.

That is UNACCEPTABLE to me. I have 27 years of experience and I’m preparing to share everything I know that has allowed me to sustain a profitable business through three huge economic downturns, the game-changing world of social media and more that is not worth dating myself over.

Every downturn in my business and life has become a catalyst for new growth and discoveries. They are not fun or particularly joyous and they can be outright painful, however, the sooner we mourn the loss, the sooner we can innovate.

I invite you, if you are in a valley, to adopt my question above: “What if it (the industry, the job, the money or even a person) is not coming back? Stop waiting and start moving.

I’m pumped up about my new offerings coming up and look forward to continuing to serve all you Now What?’ers who have stuck with me over the years!

August 31, 2021
Unemployment, Civil Unrest, COVID and What It Has to Do with Your Career

I sincerely hope that you are one of the people who still has a job in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis and the unrest in our country. Whether you do or not, we are going through something epic that the majority of us have no experience with. You’d have to be 100 years old to have lived through the last pandemic. We have not seen this level of unemployment seen since the 1930’s, and current day civil unrest is reminiscent of the 60’s. Facing all of this at once? Unprecedented. There is no roadmap on how to cope with all this.

A lot of people are understandably overwhelmed and upset. Their lives have been upended, and they are dealing with the pressures of working while juggling family at home. They do not have the breaks that come from kids being in school or summer camp. The deep pain of racism is palpable. Many are furloughed and are fearful that their job may not come back. Finances are in a long hiccup, and relationships are likely feeling the strain. All of this on top of missing friends and family we are not free to see. It’s a lot.

Let’s face it. For a lot of people, this is a shit show.

What can you do?

Remain calm
While fear can sometimes be a great motivator, try to manage your stress and anxiety. You will make better decisions and handle life’s uncertainty better if you can find a way to settle your mind and nervous system. Try a free meditation app on your phone or computer. Exercise! Try tapping to work with the emotions and thoughts that arise!

Be Strategic
Is it time to put the family on a strict budget? Are you in an industry that won’t recover any time soon? If so, how can you pivot? This is a good time to keep networking, whether you need a job or not, to keep yourself in the game, and learn what’s going on in your field.

Re-examine
For many, it’s become an opportunity to rethink careers and what you want from them. Does your management style need work? Do your priorities need reshuffling? How are you integrating the recent heightened awareness of systemic racism into your life and work? What are you grappling with in any area of your life? This is the time to examine and evolve.

Pivot
If you’re one of the people that has to pivot, the sooner you mourn your loss, the faster you can get on with your next step. Whatever you do, don’t look at your resume for guidance. Next, think about what marketable skills you have (even if they are hobbies). If you’ve long been holding back on making a change, the opportunity is here. You are not looking at a blank slate right now for no reason. It’s time to gather your resources and your courage to make the leap.

Redefine Opportunity
If the job market proves difficult, it’s natural to say there are no opportunities and to feel victimized. Now more than ever, opportunity needs to become something you create. Don’t wait for it to become available the usual ways. Redefine opportunity not only as something to attain, but also see the gap as the opportunity.

The future will not be about returning to normal. The future is evolving, and we will all be doing things a bit differently.

The upside of chaos is that it shakes things up to reveal new possibilities. It’s those that embrace it and proceed with focus who will bring in the new day successfully.

Please check out www.NowWhatCoaching.com and www.LauraBermanFortgang.com for more resources

June 5, 2020
The Shifting Landscape

After 9/11, I remember many people feeling that there was no point to their day-to-day activities. Concerns that seemed so crucial a mere week or month before the towers fell now felt meaningless. The loss of lives and the loss of our assumed safety was shattering.

Within four days of 9/11, my phone and inbox were flooded with inquiries for coaching. People felt life was short and unpredictable, and they would no longer tolerate living a life that ran them into the ground with little satisfaction besides a paycheck.

The COVID-19 disruption is very different. Where life stopped for the NY Metro area after 9/11, it is now stopped in most of the country and most places in the world. It’s a global pause.

It’s been an unpredictable, unprecedented stop to almost everything. Pollution has been reduced dramatically due to the halting of manufacturing and travel in the air and on the ground.

People are hunkered down with their families or have more alone time than they ever bargained for. Buildings and streets are empty to the tune of a haunting silence.

We are keenly aware of the financial halt. So many jobs lost, so many bottom lines threatened, so many people feeling scared and despair setting in. No matter how badly we crave “normal,” we are still on pause.

WE ARE STILL ON PAUSE . . .

However, going back to normal is a misnomer. How long will it be until you are comfortable being in a theater, a sporting event, an office or a school? Lifting the shelter-in-place order does not change the realities of getting infected with or unknowingly carrying this virus.

So what are we left with? The greatest reorganization in most of our lifetimes.

How do we want to live? How do we want to care?

The skies are clear. Are we OK with picking up where we left off? If things continue as they were, it is likely we have less than ten years to save the planet.

Our bosses never thought working from home could serve the mission and yet, isn’t everyone learning they can do quite a lot without being face-to-face? By now we know if we want to homeschool full time (probably not!).

Sure, we want our kids to be happy and engaged, but did we really need to have every available time slot taken up by enriching activities? Books, puzzles, games, together time and family meals are pretty enriching, if you ask me. Do you really want to pick up where we left off, or are you ready to make a change?

The question this time, I think, is deeper than the one that arose from the 9/11 pause. People are not jumping into hyper-drive as they did after 9/11, and more people are questioning deeply as they sit in the pause. It’s been a prompt to examine what makes a life.

How do we measure it? How would you like to measure it? The threat of terrorism is no small thing, but the threat to hundreds of thousands of lives has given us time to be and to think.

That “itch” you may feel might be cabin fever, or it could be boredom, but in my experience, boredom is a prompt to create meaning. It’s not that you have nothing to DO that’s bothering you.

It’s more about not trusting what’s shown up. It’s actually an opportunity to redirect your energy and attention.

The coaching clients that are showing up now are less panicked than those of September 2001. Feeling at the top of your game and itching for something else? Ready to stand up for what YOU want and make it a reality? Wondering how you got where you are and wanting to press reset? These are the scenarios rising to the top of awareness that are ready to be addressed.

If they’re yours too, we should talk. The Now What?® program will help. Reach out to me or to one of our Now What?® facilitators, and let’s work together toward that tomorrow you want to create.

May 13, 2020
15 Tips for Coping with Stress When the World’s Out of Control
By Teresa Bitner, Now What? Facilitator
Originally published in Bold Fulfilled Life Coach blog

Flooding, wildfires, and now COVID-19 – Is the world spinning out of control? If you have some anxiety and worry about the current events that’s 100% normal. You may ask, “What is the world coming to?” or “How will this impact my life?” Let me help you with coping when the world seems scary and out of control. Facts not fear.

First, if you or someone you know has been directly impacted by any of this, I acknowledge you and the impact, no matter now great or small. You are loved.

Second, it’s hard to NOT to be impacted by the news. You’re not alone. Just hearing of these natural disasters can make us feel anxious or fearful. Feeling stressed and or anxious after a stressful and or traumatic experience is common. We’re all impacted.

This distress shows up emotionally, mentally, and in our behaviors. You might not be directly affected, but the shock and news of it has impacted you. First step to coping is to acknowledge this stress.

Maybe you’re fearful, worried, sad, angry, filled with anxiety, hopeless, irritable, or even feeling depressed. I’ve heard comments from my clients like, “I’m concerned about public transportation,” “How will this affect my investments?,” “What about travel?,” “What about my family traveling to ____?,” “I’m just going to ignore this and keep on living,” “I’m afraid of …”

All 100% normal responses and parts of the process of dealing with stress.

Common signs of stress to be aware of in yourself and others
- Difficulty concentrating
- Making mistakes
- Low energy
- Overwhelm
- Headaches
- Stomach or digestive issues
- Pain – aches, tense muscles
- Sleep issues
- Clenched jaw or teeth grinding
- Changes in appetite
- Mood swings
Things to be mindful of when overloaded with stress
- Racing anxious thoughts
- Negative only thoughts
- Catastrophizing
- Irritability and anger
- Isolation and/or loneliness
- Racing heart
- Loss of drive
- Withdrawing from others and activities
- Neglecting responsibilities or procrastinating
- Using substances to unwind or relax
15 Tips to Reduce and Cope with Stress
1. Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings
2. Express your feelings in a safe healthy way
3. Maintain healthy routines
4. Stay connected
5. Eating healthy and drinking enough water
6. Sleep – get enough for you
7. Regular exercise – even a short walk
8. Nature – get outside, especially in the sunlight
9. Limit or remove news and social media content
10. Journal – just write with no expectation or judgement
11. Be mindful of how busy you are and how your schedule may increase stress
12. Practice Gratitude
13. Meditation or Praying
14. Play your favorite uplifting music
Bonus Tip – Support – Find Support
Talking to a trusted person, spiritual leader, friend, family, counselor or coach.
Join a group online

Journal/Contemplation Prompts
1. What am I feeling stressed/fearful/anxious about?
2. Where do I feel this stress/fear/anxiety in my body?
3. I want to feel______.
4. What do I have control over?
5. What is the opportunity in this stressful situation?
6. What are three good things about today?
7. I am grateful for ____ .
I hope this has been useful and helpful to you. My intent is that as we move into this new normal of change and chaos in the world that we can cope and thrive.
May 13, 2020
Crises Reveal The Essence of Things

It is said that the true state of a marriage is laid bare in the face of a crisis. If it was strong, the relationship will grow stronger with the crisis. If it was already breaking, the crisis will deepen the fissures to breaking. It is the same for each of us as individuals. We are being shown what we are made of.

The current state of affairs among the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic is laying bare our own essence. The novelty of our new “normal” is wearing off and reality is setting in.

We are seeing the virus hit closer to home as beloved celebrities and people you know are being affected or passing away. Generally, we are scared, and what is revealed is the state of our ability to deal with the unknown and our ability to be alone with that state.

There are so many questions and things that don’t have a clear solution right now. However, I offer you a few things to think about, journal about or discuss.

1) How are you?

I’m not asking about your physical health, but rather about your state of mind. How ARE you? Are you freaking out?, mildly worried? and relatively at peace knowing that you are controlling what you can right now?

Be with that for a few minutes. What is being revealed about your essence – your baseline of how you deal with things?

2) Who are you?

How do you show up during this time? Are you a helper? A researcher? An organizer of others? A nurturer? A hunter/gatherer? (our family’s joke about the search for toilet paper and essential items). Are you an alarmist? The rebel?, activist? and one fueled by outrage? (all are just fine)

What is the crisis showing you about how you show up? For me, it’s not much different than “regular life.” I’m the driver; I make sure young people get out of bed and don’t teen-sleep the day away, make sure there’s a meal every night, and herd the screen worshipers to connect as a family every night. (How much do I love them not being able to run off to friends, jobs and activities? Sorry. Not sorry). Professionally, the driver is making you think, absorb and evolve. It’s who I am. It’s what I do.

3) Who do you want to be?

If these questions are not revealing characteristics that you’re happy with or proud of, consider who you want to be. Where can you refocus your energy to practice the qualities you want to embody as you ground yourself for whatever is awaiting us?

A dear friend and colleague of mine often speaks about her aspiration to live with grace. Whenever she’s faced with a challenge, she puts her attention on handling all of it with grace, her highest value.

We are on hold. In the absence of action, there is suspension. Like the moment when the orchestra stops playing as the conductor raises both his arms in the air indicating a pause. All goes still, but there is anticipation and preparation lingering and holding, until the sudden indication that all can move forward again in a burst of sound.

For all of us, the outcome is unknown. Will there be a depression? Will the loss of life deeply impact how we can lead our lives? Will we see or want different things when we get to resume?

We don’t know, Are still in the surrender and will be transformed by this.

Watch how and who you are being. It’s the best preparation for what is to come.

April 10, 2020
It’s Easier than You Think

Looking to have greater impact, bring more value, or reach more people? It doesn’t have to be hard, and it’s probably easier than you imagined.

Take a peek and see what you might want to try out this year:

12 Instant Inspirations for a More Fascinating You

January 3, 2020