There are a lot of experienced coaches out there that have a lot to share with younger coaches and their experience and wisdom can really benefit us and benefit our profession in general.
Coach Anne Overall
Introduction
I’m Dr. Moira. I’m a college professor, instructor, coach, and passionate mentor to health coaches around the world, but I haven’t always been that confident and committed to my coaching career. I wasn’t sure if I could make it work or even what the best approach was to success and fulfillment. I decided to step up and step into my dream of guiding health coaches on their journey from Hesitant Health Coach to Committed Health Coach. With a unique approach to coach growth, the Health Coach Catalyst program creates a strong hexagonal effect. The Coaching Hive podcast is your glimpse into the concepts, ideas, and approaches that underscore the Hexagonal Effect while giving you the opportunity to implement tools and tips along the way. Are you ready to dive into today’s podcast? Then let’s go and remember that this podcast is family friendly so go ahead and play it through your speakers!
In this podcast episode, I have an opportunity to sit down with an overall a national birth certified health and wellness coach. She is truly blazing a trail forward and really supporting not only her clients, but other coaches as well. One of the ways that she has been giving back is through clubhouse. She has been helping lead clubhouse rooms on a variety of topics for health and wellness coaches. She gives us her time and energy with such joy that it’s contagious. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into this conversation so that you too can experience this contagious joy that Anne shares.
Interview
(please pardon any inaccuracies in this auto-generated transcript)
Moira: I’ll be honest. I’ve been watching all of the amazing things that Ann has been up to recently, including becoming a guru with clubhouse that is so much fun. It sounds like a blast and that you can create so many neat connections through clubhouse.
Anne: Listen In and just see how it works. If it’s a lot of fun, you can make good connections, you can share with amazing people. And I love it. I really do love it.
Moira: That Sounds amazing. And I know you’re going to have so many words of wisdom and encouragement to share as you’ve been growing your coaching business. And you’ve been doing it during this virtual time, which I know has been tricky for so many and you are just thriving. I’m so happy to sit and talk with you today.
Anne: Well, it’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Moira: To set the stage. Could you share just a little bit about your background as well as what led you to help them on this coaching?
Anne: Sure. Well, I’m an older coach. I’m in my early sixties and I raised, I was in the Air Force. Initially loved the Air Force served my four years, but I had to get out to start a family because I’m married a wonderful Marine and they had stationed us apart from each other a lot. So, we decided, you know, I would go ahead and do that. I have three beautiful children and I needed to work. So I wanted to stay home. And I, I opened a licensed daycare facility in my home, and it was, it was a great experience. I had over 75 children go through my daycare, some of them up to eight years, their families. Yeah. So, I have a big extended family. Now a lot of kids that I feel like are partially, you know, my kids, but yeah, I did that 17 years when my youngest went off to school finally to college, I decided to stop because it really had wrecked my health. I was working 50 hours a week taking care of up to eight children, two babies for preschoolers and two before and after school, along with raising my own three kids, I took care of all my own business. You know, all the bookkeeping. I took care of my own home, cooked, cleaned everything. And actually, it pretty much wrecked my health. By the time I, I retired from daycare, I was not in very good shape. So I decided to go on a mission. I was going to learn how to take care of myself better and get better.
Over the years, I just kept studying reading books, learning about lifestyle medicine, which I didn’t really know anything about changed my diet exercise, incorporated, stress management, the whole shebang, having no idea that this was what I was going to be taught and health coaching because my family saw me getting better and they couldn’t believe it. They were just like, this is amazing. You have learned so much, you’ve had so much success. You need to do this to help other people. So, I looked into coaching because I have an older daughter. Who’s also a coach. She’s a professional coach, not a health and wellness coach, but I looked into it and I just decided to take the plunge because I knew that if I could do this with my own health, that other people could, and I wanted them to feel empowered. I wanted them to know that they could make decisions that would improve their health. So that’s how I started my journey.
Moira: So, you are no stranger to owning your own business and really figuring all of that out.
Anne: Yeah. With daycare, you know, once the word gets out though, I mean, I had people lined up as soon as I had an opening and, and that took a little while to build that. So, I’m building that right now with my health coaching as well. Word of mouth is a big part of it. And it’s important to have a good relationship with your clients and continue to stay in touch with them so that they, when someone says to them, oh, I need help with this. They go, ah, I know who you should go to.
Moira: Yeah. And you really took your health into your own hands and saw that you could be of service to other people. And I think so many coaches get into this for similar reasons. You realize, you know, you have just truly gone through all of this material and found you’ve boiled it down to the bare minimum and to the basics, and then kind of enhanced it from there. You are now in such a great position to be able to help others and guide others along that journey.
Anne: Especially because you understand how it feels. And if you’ve been sick, you know, you understand how miserable you can feel. You want that energy back. You want to be able to do those things that are important to you. So that empathy that you can have for other people, you can really understand what they’re going through when you’ve been through it yourself.
Moira: It makes all the difference in the world to be able to have that just genuine, honest empathy. As you sit down with your clients, that’s what makes you that, you know, that’s what that word of mouth that’s, where it comes from too, is they realize you’re invested and that you care as you’re sitting down with your clients. And you have seen that. And you know that from all that you’ve experienced throughout your life, just to have such a rich background on which to draw.
Anne: At first, I was con I was a little concerned that it would be a detriment to me, but I think the life experience, you know, having not been a coach for 20 plus years, I think the life experience that I’ve had has been a benefit to me in my coaching practice.
Moira: You’re so much more relatable to your clients versus just walking out there and never having had any struggles. And I think it really, you know, most of us have some kind of health and wellness struggle along the way. And we of course have to be careful about oversharing with our clients, but there’s still that balance of, we need to be human because we are, we are human and that makes them more comfortable. And it certainly creates that relationship. So how are you currently serving your clients? What are you doing?
Anne: Well, I am coaching a couple of clients who came through the diabetes prevention program through the health department in my area, and they needed some additional help. They had made some progress, you know, it’s when people have a lot of challenges ahead, it’s not always a real quick fix. And so they needed additional support and I’m with them and they’re doing great. They’re both still losing weight and improving, you know, their lifestyle and other areas that exercise, stress management, sleep, all of those areas. I have some senior clients that I coach and, and one of them recently just had a great success. I mean, in three months she lost 25 pounds, dropped her 40 points and she is no longer pre-diabetic and she’s totally thrilled.
Moira: That is a huge change.
Anne: Yeah. And she has continued to maintain and even lose a little bit more weight. She’s still on board all the way. She’s still exercising, eating right, and she’s so happy. And I see her out in my neighborhood exercising all the time. She’s so, you know, happy with being able to maintain her independence. Cause she’s about 70, I think. And she wants to maintain her independence well into her senior year.
Moira: So she’s thrilled. I can’t blame her. I want to be independent and my senior years. So I think that’s something that we all hope for and you are out there serving this community, helping them to make that more possible. Congratulations, you are, you are making a difference. You know, whether you have three clients or 10 or 50, we are making a difference. And I think that’s so important to remember.
Anne: Yes. Even with one person’s life, because you really don’t know what happens even from there, they sometimes will reach out to other people and it just continues to grow and grow and grow and, you know, just touching one person’s life that is very, very important and meaningful to me.
Moira: It’s that ripple effect.
Anne: Yes. Let’s start a revolution in health. We need it so much.
Moira: I agree. And I think, honestly, we’re trying to head in that direction. I think now is the time and health coaching is really rising to the top as a profession. That’s a possibility for so many.
Anne: Yes. And I have a saying you have more power than, you know, that’s one of my favorite sayings that I tell people because we don’t have to be victims. You know, we can’t always get rid of all of our health conditions, but we certainly have a huge influence over improving our health and, and keeping things from getting worse, even, you know, definitely improving. Some of them will turn around all the way, but some that don’t, you can still improve your quality of life a great deal with lifestyle changes.
Moira: Taking control of what we can control, right?
Anne: Yes, exactly.
Moira: And you’re right. We can’t control everything and genetics still does play a role. Right. But we can certainly do our absolute best to take care of the body that we’re given and the health that we’re given and, and do just every little bit that we can. And it does, you know, you’re right. We have more power than we realize.
Anne: We do. And what a legacy to leave our children and grandchildren.
Moira: Yes. So I know that you are heavily involved or, or at least that’s my impression you’re heavily involved with the national board for health and wellness coaching. You seem like you’re really heading up, especially that clubhouse. I see you active in our community group. So tell me a little bit more about how you have really started to get more involved with.
Anne: Well, I have a passion for helping other coaches get good information. I really, another saying I just incorporated into my life is we’re better together. We, you know, there are a lot of experienced coaches out there that have a lot to share with younger coaches and their experience and wisdom can really benefit us and benefit our profession in general, and to help move, help coaching into a more respected professional light. I think it’s really important for senior coaches, coaches who have been out there in the trenches and have a lot of experience to continually share with younger ones.
And that is my passion with clubhouse. I like to run rooms that I call best practices rooms, where I invite senior coaches or coaches who have experience in certain areas to share with younger or more inexperienced coaches or just each other, because even we’d still learn from each other about, you know, different subjects that have to do with being the best health coach you can be.
So, it ranges from practices like note taking and let’s see HIPAA and things like that to what do you do when a client isn’t moving forward and, you know, just everything, the gamut of all different subjects. So hopefully the subjects will be unlimited, and we’ll be able to keep opening these rooms and sharing with each other for many years to come.
Moira: I have certainly seen all of the reviews of these rooms that you’re running, and they are just glowing. They love that you’re hopping in there. And just so selflessly giving of your time. I know that it’s very much appreciated, and I know just keep doing it, that it is such a service. So, I think I probably already know the answer to the next question that I have in mind. What is the most satisfying part of coaching?
Anne: Definitely the results, seeing people healthier, happier, and seeing them live that out in their future, the things that we can offer as health coaches, the way we help people grow the way we help people become more self-aware when they leave your coaching, you know, that they are going to continue. You know, they may have a few ups and downs, but because they have learned the right way by learning more about themselves, you know, that when they continue, they’ll continue to grow, even when you’re not right there beside them. And that’s really satisfying for me. I’ve had so many people, you know, feel better and start sleeping better and their stress is reduced and they’re just living a better life. That’s what it’s really all about for me.
Moira: They’re living more of that vision that they have in mind, they’re getting there and you played a, you played a role in that, and that is, that is satisfying, but it’s also satisfying to see those results because you’re right. When they learn the right way to do it, it continues on instead of just kind of falling off when you’re looking for that quick fix, we know that doesn’t create sustainable change, but when, when you slow down and work with a health and wellness coach and learn how to make these changes the right way, that’s when you get that change, that’s when your life starts to shift.
Anne: Yes, because it’s internalized. It’s something that they have, you know, learned from wanting it themselves and not having it pushed onto them. They have found their own reasons to continue. And that’s, what’s really, really different about just an educational program versus real coaching that I think I’m so glad that I took, you know, the master certification and the, and the board certification, because that’s, that’s an, a very important component of coaching.
Moira: So how do you feel that, that those trainings and pursuing that board certification and even pursuing your continuing education after that, how have all of those helped you to grow and get to them this point?
Anne: Wow. The board certification study just reinforced a lot of the things that I learned in the master certification that I took. And I think the more we reinforce things, the more we remember them, you know, it’s really good to keep going over and over and over those basics because it helps you to remember them and to utilize them more in your practice. So that’s been really important. The continuing education I have done has helped me round out my training because I’ve done some in stress management through Heart Math. And I have also done the ACE certification as a senior specialist. So that’s the exercise. And pretty soon I’ll be taking the DPP. I’m enrolling in that.
Moira: I wondered.
Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I’ll be doing that next. And I really feel like that helps round you out as a coach having these other certifications and who knows it might not stop there, but those are the main ones that I really want to keep because people need help with stress, you know, and they need help not becoming diabetic and they, they need help with exercise. And since I work a lot with seniors, that was an ideal thing for me, the senior specialist. So yeah, I think I’m getting the basis covered with trainings. Hopefully I feel more equipped to handle certain situations better.
Moira: It certainly sounds like it. And I love what you said, that kind of reinforcing. And it reminds me that every time we go back to information, even if it’s a review, we come to it from a different perspective and a different time in our life and our experience. And so we take something else away from it. We have that new interpretation or another way to apply that information. So as you’re talking about, you know, renewing certifications and getting new certifications, each step along that path, you’re inviting in these new perspectives and new concepts that you’re just integrating with everything. And I think that’s, that’s powerful.
Anne: Yes. You do notice different things that you didn’t focus on before each time you go through them yet.
Moira: Yes. So you have had so much information to share so much great. Just encouragement for health and wellness coaches. So I’m curious, what is a one tip or two, one or two tips that you have for a health coach who’s just starting out, or maybe they’re still trying to decide if they’d like to become a certified health coach. I know that it’s often a time that’s filled with hesitancy. And so sometimes just those simple tips can make all the difference.
Anne: Okay. One be brave, go do it. Don’t hesitate. And start where you’re known. I started a lot in the senior center. I have been attending the senior center as you know, to exercise and the people there got to know me. And when I decided to become a health coach, they said, let us know. You know, they said, let us know when you, when you do that. And I did. And they said, well, we want to bring you in to do classes here.
So I was able to present classes there and that’s where I started and that gave me a real sense of confidence. But you just have to kind of, you just have to just jump in with both feet and not worry so much about failure, because we learned much through, you know, any mistakes we make. We all learn more. I think through mistakes we make, but yeah, just be brave and try, just do it and schedule yourself, you know, as a, as a health coach, we’re our own boss. Most of us, a lot of us are, and you kind of have to be disciplined in that. You have to give yourself goals and you have to say, okay, I’m going to get this accomplished on this day. And, and then do it.
You know, that’s really important because you can make great progress, but you got, you just got to get out there and do it.
Moira: I love that. You said to be brave. I talked to so many new coaches who I ask, okay, who have you told that you’re now a coach and I get crickets because they haven’t been brave enough to say, I’m a coach. Now I’m a coach. You know, just even saying it out loud. So that concept of being brave and going for it, you told your senior center, I’m a coach now. And they said, yes, we want you. We want you to come work. We want you to come do classes. And sometimes it’s just that reminder to take that step outside your safety zone and say, I’m doing this right now. I’d love to know if you’re interested or, you know, if you know of anyone, any place I can help, I’d love to be of service.
Anne: Right? Because you have a gift to give them, you have a gift, you have training, you have abilities and people need you. Our world needs health coaches right now. And don’t be shy about sharing your gifts, you know, because people need you.
Moira: Very, very true. That’s so good. I just want to thank you so much for sharing your words of wisdom. It’s so encouraging to hear about your successes and all of the work you’ve put in, and that you are encouraged to continue on and that you see the purpose for this. And I know that, that I know that our listeners will also see here that in what you’ve shared today. So I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to sit down and share your experiences and your ideas. But I know that our listeners will also want to connect with you after the podcast. So can you tell me how they can do that?
Anne: Sure. They can contact me through my website, which is overallhealthcoach.com. I also have a Facebook page under Overall health coach and Instagram Overall health coach. I’m very fortunate. My name is Overall.
Moira: I love that. And you’re so consistent with your social media handles. It’s easy to find you and I am going to link all of that in our show notes and our transcripts. It will be easy to find, but yes, you are very lucky. I love that, Overall.
Anne: It’s just the name of my health coach business.
Moira: Yeah. And it’s just perfect for what you do. It works out beautifully. So as we get ready to wrap up, do you have any last words of wisdom you want to share before we sign off for today?
Anne: If this is going out to other health coaches, you know, just starting out. I just want to say no that what you’re doing is so important and that you can change someone’s life drastically and, and you’ll change your own at the same time, because becoming a health coach teaches you so much about yourself, as well as other people. And that’s a gift just right there.
That’s a wonderful gift that you learn so much about yourself as well, but just be encouraged and know that this field I really feel is going to continue to grow. And don’t be afraid. Just share your gifts with people, because it’s a way to love other people. You know, don’t, don’t hide your gift away under a basket, let your light shine and share and just know that you’re doing something important for the world.
Moira: Well, I don’t think I can add onto those words of wisdom there. They’re beautiful. So I’ll just say thank you again. And for sitting down and talking with me today, I look forward to seeing all that you have in store. You are just growing and learning and really contributing, not only to your personal community, but also the community of health coaches as a whole. And that is, that is a gift and you are certainly sharing it with everyone. So I look forward to seeing all that you have coming up with your coaching practice and I wish you well.
Anne: Thank you so much.
Conclusions
Don’t you feel inspired and hopeful after listening to Anne share her passion and commitment to health coaching? If you are looking for a group of like-minded coaches to support your journey, I encourage you to explore the Coaching Hive Membership. Although the doors are currently closed, they will be opening soon. Our members are consistently working toward growing their confidence and commitment to coaching. With a new MasterClass each month and two live calls, we stay focused on exploration, purpose, movement, confidence, professional development and taking action. Are you ready? I’d love to see you inside the Coaching Hive and back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast.
Would you like to connect with Coach Anne?
Social Media:
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/overallhealthcoach/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/overallhealthcoach/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anne-overall-03334010/
Website: overallhealthcoach.com
