Why do I call myself a coach?

Recently, I did a promo post and got hate in one of the dental Facebook groups.

In between promo posts, I love to provide as much education around self-doubt, fear of failure, overworking and burnout.

Why? Because I used to be consumed by it. I felt alone. I felt judged. I didn’t feel safe to share what was going on.

That all changed when I started to share my story a few years ago because I had had enough. I was tired of living in fear. I was tired of the self-doubt. I was tired of hearing the stories of incredible individuals around me who were depressed, anxious, burnt out and committing suicide.

So I dove into the research…textbooks, courses, primary articles…all the information that I could possible get my hands on. I wanted to know what I was experiencing and why I was experiencing it as a high-achieving woman. This has taken me years to figure out (and I am still learning more and more each day).

But my story doesn’t start only a few years ago. It starts at age 13, when I became a piano teacher. Yes, a piano teacher at 13. From there it evolved throughout high-school. By 18, I owned my own rock ’n’ roll music school and was a music coach. It continued to grow my passion in education.

At 20, I was diagnosed with a learning disability, specifically in reading comprehension. At the time, this was debilitating. I would call myself stupid, incompetent, and an idiot. How could I become a dentist, let alone continue to teach in some capacity?

Fast forward almost a decade and I have been a teaching assistant multiple times over (won awards), been an instructor at a dental school, sat on multiple levels of local, provincial and national education committees and have been an education director at a world-renowned cancer centre. I now own another school called Alchemist Academy.

Education is my passion.

At 20, my learning disability, albeit challenging and disrupting, gave me a huge opportunity. An opportunity to learn how to learn all over again. An opportunity to understand that there are different teaching and learning styles. An opportunity to become the educator I am today.

Whatever title you want to use: I am an instructor, an educator, a teacher, a lecturer, a speaker, but most importantly, a coach. My goal is to share information in different ways so that we can think differently and change our narrative.

So why do I call myself a coach? 

Because that’s what I am. I see the potential in you that you may not see in yourself.

And that, is why I call myself a coach.

Stay Awesome,

Jessica