Well, hello, hello, and welcome back. Today, it's my very great pleasure to introduce Monique Feels. Who is a podcast host, certified business coach, speaker, Anne a mentor. She is also a certified life coach and a personal transformation trainer. So she combines these tools with multiple skills learned during her 24 years as a school teacher. Anne leader, of course.
And now, Monique is guiding entrepreneurs and leaders through simplified strategies that yield remarkable results in personal, professional, and financial goals. Which leads us very nicely into the title of your own podcast, Monique. Tell us what that is.
So, the title of my show is remarkably simple Anne it is all about how individuals be they professional or perhaps in their, individual lives are attaining personal, professional, and financial success, the different ways that they go about that just creating conversation around this and sharing their tips and strategies with others to try. Okay. Well, we'll go into a little bit more detail about that.
Shortly. But, Paul, what was it that made you move from teaching officially into coaching and mentoring? So I was, an educator for a total of 24 years. 14 of those, I was in the classroom dedicated, so. And, just looking to have a bigger reach and impact to affect more students. And so in my 14th year, I moved out of the classroom into a support role. I did that for 1 year, helping to do provide, professional learning for the teaching staff at a new school.
And, after that, I moved into administration. So I was an assistant principal. Which was a glorious job for 4 years Anne, then bravely accepted a principal role. And, while I was a very proficient teacher leadership is somewhat different than just doing your regular day job because you have your regular day job and the responsibility of an entire organization in people that you lead. And, it was it was very rewarding in a lot of ways.
I learned tremendous skills Ultimately, though, I've I encountered some challenges Anne, was missing some competencies and not finding strategies easily around me to help me with some of the I wouldn't say difficulties, but some of the challenges that I was experiencing in this new, sort of level Anne that's what prompted me to study life coaching because I wasn't struggling so much at work. It was this, challenge that we have where when we're really motivated. And we've got high aspirations.
We can overwork ourselves and not necessarily make, yeah, not necessarily make the most efficient decisions and perhaps the most sustainable decisions. And while I was concerned about sustainable improvement and progress in my schools, I was not having an eye for my own personal sustainability, and the impact that the level of commitment that I was giving to my work was having on my personal life and my family. Anne, This is something that was really important to me.
So ultimately, I decided to transition into helping other leaders balance this need to accomplish their professional aspirations with the success of their personal and financial lives. Because I have seen and experienced how it is possible to have success in all areas of our life but it's something that takes very intentional focus, very intentional practice. It's not automatic. It's usually not something that we can work out for ourselves.
That's the whole point of a mentor to take you down a path that the mentor has already followed, learn from, and now the mentor can help you along. And I wish I had come across this concept of a mentor when I was much, much, much younger, or at least at the beginning of my professional career. Yes. I can connect with that. And, you know, I think on one hand, we all have what we need. We are blessed with gifts like intuition, that are intended to guide and direct us.
However, I would say that I had the experience that you described. While I had mentors, they were entirely focused on my professional performance. I was given quite a lot of feedback and guidance about the way I was showing up and contributing in my profession, I was on my own to find strategies to balance the rest of my life, and I am a spiritual being. I have, my health. I have family. I have community.
And in my instance, the work was so consuming, and I was so willing to fill in gaps that other people weren't stepping into, to bravely, you know, do things I thought for a time I did not realize how quickly my personal well-being in the other important areas of my life were being sacrificed while I thought I was, you know, giving and going the extra mile for sort of like a temporary investment, you know, I didn't I didn't realize how quickly that sacrifice
that I was taking would, you know, take a toll on That's right. Because when you Anne depleted, you have no resources left to give Anne as women, aren't we just trained to give, give, give. And every time somebody asks for something, we say yes. Yeah. I think I willingly I I don't know if I would say I was trained to do that, but it absolutely was innate in me. To be, as especially as I've gotten older Corbin and more concerned and devoted to, other people's interest.
And I don't consider that a bad thing. I just think, back to what you were saying about having a mentor and why it's so helpful to have partners who work with you, understand your vision and your ultimate desires, but can help you when you perhaps are overlooking blind spots. It's very natural for us human beings to be focused. It's like the way our brains work. You know, if we give our brains a task, it sets out to do that task. Whether it's a positive or negative Anne.
It's a beautiful tool that it, you know, it has the ability to find the solutions and, you know, solve problems that we give it. But if we are ignoring particular problems, it's really good at ignoring those with us as well. And, you know, not placing appropriate attention on things that really do matter to us or things that we might choose to matter.
So one way that I think I could have been helped as a young administrator when I when I first started the job was if I had had, at that time, mentor or mentors who were working closely with me and whose guidance I was, you know, yielding to. That advised me about this.
I don't I don't think that balance really exists, but just giving whatever amount of attention I decided to all of the other areas of my life, I think the entire course of my leadership in in, formal education would have been completely different. And, I'm just interested in helping other leaders entrepreneur small business owners in particular to avoid, you know, reaching the point of overwhelm and burnout that really do result from exactly what you said.
It's when you allow yourself to be completely depleted of Those other strengths that are really intended to help you stay strong and resourced and energized for the work that you do. We talk about getting our buckets filled Anne our cups filled. I think we have these components of our life for a reason. They're intended to bring to bring us to be this, the best version of ourselves. And when we let those resources be depleted, sometimes with our own awareness.
It can be detrimental to our overall desire to make an impact and, you know, lead in the way that we desire to lead. So I do think that mentorship in this way is very valuable. So when you are Your typical client comes to you for advice. Do you take on private clients? Do you offer a training course? How does it work? That's such a great question. So I work with people in a variety of ways. I have, been doing this for relatively short time, so I do have one on one clients.
I, I have one client whose team I work with each person individually because this is the nature of what, you know, we worked out to offer in that one context, but my preference is to work with individuals Anne groups Since my target is leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, it is very healthy for individuals to have other people who are having similar experiences to bounce ideas off of.
So my preference is to group coaching, Anne, the reason for that is similar to my experience leading teams and, leading children in the classroom, very often we're not at a particular transition point, but it benefits us to be in proximity to someone who is so that when we encounter the thing, maybe they're ahead of us in their journey.
When we encounter what they've encountered, we've been able to sort of peek at some of that process, and it gives us a little bit of an edge because we've been able to preview what that looks like, hear some of the feedback, and start embracing ideas even before we're ready to grow.
And on the opposite side, when we are, you know, a high achiever Anne of the things that can be very useful being in a group of people who are in, different stages of progress is that it just sort of supports individuals who are stronger to be that much stronger because we learn so much when we have an opportunity to teach and shared in the model for others.
So my preference is to work with entrepreneurs and leaders in particular in groups so that they have the benefit of my coaching mentorship and the materials that I use, but also the benefit of the group to give each other feedback, to bounce ideas, to, really be engaged in the process together. But this is the whole concept of the mastermind, isn't it?
It is very much I have been in a few official masterminds, which I have joined as being the kind the next natural step in whatever training I was doing because like you, I am a lifelong learner, and I keep studying and taking exams Anne courses and so forth, because I love doing it. But I have found that the top level is generally the mastermind. Where you show up whether it's in person or online every so often, but unless the concept of a mastermind is explained to you, It's wasted.
And I've also found that people love helping other people. And as you said, each Anne of the very best ways to learn yourself is to teach it to other people, because then you realize the bits that you don't know, you think you know them. But try and explain. Was it Einstein or somebody said, if you can't explain a concept to a six year old, then you don't like, understanding yourself? I think that's probably true.
And, this other layer of the mastermind that is so powerful is At a certain level of performance, you will find that, participants are far more practical. Right? They're very wise and experienced. And you get a higher level of application, so it can be very, useful to be in, this kind of group because you are doing the work together. And I love the workshop concept that we don't just study theory. Those of us who, you know, have followed somewhat traditional education roots know what I mean.
There's a level of learning and study that you can do that doesn't require any application, and so it's just, you know, words in your mind or ideas that you carry, but it can be very engaging to work with a group of people who are actually applying what is learned Anne, reflecting on what works and what doesn't work, based on the application. I think that is, a sort of what I would call a high growth opportunity. I've just made up that term right now, but it's the best way.
It's a great Yeah. I think there is a difference, and we hear this phrase. There's a difference between knowing and doing. And when you can get engaged with a group of people who are focused at you as you have described at the mastermind level in actually experimenting, like in a lab testing out the principles and finding what works for them, the the many variations of what works for them. And then in my concept, simplifying the work. What is this 1? I love that concept. What is this 1?
What is the principle You know, we we we we've tried these things out, but what have we determined is essential? What is the piece of this that needs to be consistently implemented? When we know that, then we have the recipe that it takes to repeat the success. And, one of my mentors encourages everybody to repeat successful action. Well, you've gotta determine successful action.
And one of the best ways I know to do that is to bring a group of people together who are willingly sharing, trying out strategies, but also sharing and giving each other feedback so that we each get faster to what really is success. What does that look like in the context that we're working on? And then that would depend on, you know, what areas of business, whether we're looking at how to improve our sales or, you know, specific strategies to increase revenue, how do we attract more clients?
How do we boost Anne, optimize our marketing? It would depend on what strategy you're working on, but All of those things are really heightened when you have, action taking individuals around you who are sharing and discussing the actual strategies and actions that they are implementing, the results that they're getting, and you're getting to do the same. That is, a very rich learning opportunity Anne I would call it more than learning.
I love the concept of the lab because at this point, we're experimenting. We're actually putting into action and practice. What works? Anne then, you know, scaling that. It's very powerful. So for how long would a a typical client if such a thing exists? How how long would a person expect to be working with you before they saw results?
Okay. That's such a great question because, some of the material that I use, we offer, I wouldn't call it a guarantee, but, have this really strong confidence that individuals who apply what are, taught that they would see a a difference in their business within 90 days to improve their marketing and or sales, whatever is the focus.
Anne, that's pretty remarkable because an improvement of sales or, you know, the flow of leads to your business within 30 days in my own experience applying this strategy, it is, phenomenal. When you can transition from having a pretty slow flow to a steady uptick of potential clients that you now get to build a relationship and start to improve the rest of your process, perhaps You know, you can't master the process of sales if you aren't having enough clients to master the process of sales.
So, you know, this all sort of works together. But in my own experience and, using the materials that I have been certified to use to support people's business growth, it's just 90 days it takes to make a 30% improvement. And depending on what you sell, that could be exponential for somebody's business. Indeed. Yes. So, Monique, at remarkably simple podcast, how can a person get in touch with you? Well, so that's really easy. My company is High Yield Coaching Anne High Yield Concepts.
Anne so if a a person searches up high yieldcoaching.com, they can find me. I'm also all over, social, so you can search m0nekemoniquefields, and, I'm on all of the socials that way as Monique Fields Anne I'm happy to connect with individuals that way. Wonderful. And, you are based in the states. Right? So Yes. People need to just bear in mind that it for you, it's EST. Eastern Standard Time. Yes. And just perhaps give me a little bit of time to respond, but you know, I'm I'm pretty busy, lady.
And I'm pretty with it. So I will, you know, perhaps if if we're in a different time zone, my response may not be immediate, but usually within the 24 hours, I will be able to get back to someone, about, you know, their interest. Perfect. Yes. Because we're all operating globally now. It's very exciting, but, people need to just bear in mind these time differences.
I just thought of something if I can add that, one thing that I love to offer individuals because to to me, the reason I'm doing the podcast is that it attracts such great conversations. I get to meet wonderful people. Not everyone that I meet is a potential clients. Some people are potential collaborators. They're just, amazing creators themselves, so we create helpful content for our audiences.
Anne, sometimes it's just to build a community, but one of the favorite things that I love to do is to offer a free strategy session to an entrepreneur I do personal coaching. So if an individual is wanting to work on their personal goals that are not necessarily professional and business related, it doesn't hurt for them to reach out and try, to to have a strategy session Anne, I call it a mini session, right?
We just talk about what possible, and I give free suggestions and strategies that the person can try to achieve the goals that they have, outlined. But I love to do this as a way to just give to people. So I would I would love it if individuals would go to that website that we talked about. Anne, take me up on the offer for a free strategy session for their business or their personal life if they would like to work in that way. Fabulous. That's so generous of you. I Corbin, folks.
It's worth it because Monique and I have well, we met, I don't know, a year ago, 9 months ago, during some training that we did together. And in that time, we have connected a lot, and maybe it's because we're both educators. We just get on really well together, but I can assure you from personal experience, Monique is very generous Anne also very well informed. Thank you so much. Thank you, Monique. It has been such a pleasure speaking with you. Anne, maybe we'll do it again sometime.
Yes. Maybe we will. Thanks so much, Anne. K. And I'm gonna put all the contact details in the show notes for my listeners. Fantastic. Okay then. Bye bye.