The Highs & Lows of Being A Professional Coach & How to Handle Them
SUMMARY
In this conversation, Angie and John reflect on their experiences over the past year, discussing the ups and downs of their coaching journeys. They emphasize the importance of flexibility, mentorship, and the understanding that success is often temporary. The duo shares insights on navigating the noise in the coaching industry and the necessity of continuous learning and growth. They conclude with a focus on the importance of presence and the mindset needed to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of coaching and personal development.
Takeaways
This year has seen a year of ups and downs.
There is a perception that we, as coaches, have it all figured out.
Flexibility is key in business.
Success is often temporary and should be redefined.
Having a mentor can significantly impact your journey.
You need to keep pivoting until you find what works.
Don't get lost in the noise of the industry.
Throwing spaghetti at the wall is part of the process.
The journey of learning never stops.
Your word for the year can guide your focus.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Reflecting on a Year of Ups and Downs
07:17 The Importance of Flexibility in Business
13:15 The Value of Guidance and Mentorship
20:17 Understanding Success as a Temporary State
26:14 Navigating the Noise in the Coaching Industry
33:21 Embracing Continuous Learning and Growth
Keywords
coaching, business growth, mentorship, flexibility, success, personal development, entrepreneurship, guidance, challenges, learning
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2023 Present Influence Productions The Coaching Clinic: Grow Your Coaching Business & Master Coaching Skills 77
Angie.
Angie (:Hey, John.
John Ball (:Would it be fair to say that this has been a year of ups and downs?
Angie (:my gosh, yes, every year is up and down, but yes, for sure.
John Ball (:I guess it is. This year has been a very interesting one. I thought it might be good for us to share some of our journey and our ups and downs with our audience as well and how we're closing off the year and what we are looking forward to as coaches in 2026.
Angie (:it has been such an interesting and eye-opening year, I think. And funny enough, like, do you think, and I don't know, you all that are listening, maybe it's for you to actually answer, I think there's a perception that because here we are, we're giving all of this advice and we're talking about the good and the bad and habits and all the things that you do as a coach, you know, as a business. And I think that there might be this really misguided perception that
We've got it all dialed in, right? you know, we're just, we're, ⁓ right? We're at like cruising altitude and, you know, it's just this smooth sailing and it's certainly not, right? There's always going to be, you know, in that vein, there's turbulence, you know? So I think that's why it's important for us to kind of come clean today, be a little transparent about our journeys and, you know, talk.
John Ball (:You don't?
I love
that we're getting some ⁓ aviation metaphors here, Angie. It definitely speaks to me as an ex-flight attendant.
Angie (:It definitely should and it's yeah, it's good. It's all good. Listen, I won't talk about crashing and burning because you know, that's not fun. But right there, it's it's kind of you know, how do you view your business? And I think for people early on, right, when you're first coming out of the gate, I think that we're a little hard on ourselves. Right? Initially, like think about where you were when you started, you had an idea.
I want to be a coach and you knew nothing compared to what you know now. But when you go from being new green to anything and there's that excitement and it's all of the things and it's not quite as smooth, right? Getting up to that cruising altitude is very bumpy and not usually very quick. And you and I've had triumphs, but we've had a lot of perceived failures. I like to just call them redirections, but
You know at the time they felt like failures they felt like ⁓ no what now so.
John Ball (:Yeah.
I think I think you might need to go and feed that bird that keeps making a noise in your background after we finish recording and even let's let me just let me just say let me just say that ⁓ we we don't once we definitely have our ups and downs. There are there are we had this conversation kind of a bit last week about how I asked Angie like do you do you feel like you have
Angie (:Gosh, I can't. I apologize.
John Ball (:pushed through all those times that you and anyone else probably would have quit. And we both of us were like, yeah, 100 % 100 % we just kept pushing on and pushing on other people probably would have quit long ago. And you can get to those points, you think how much further how much further do I have to keep digging before I before I strike strike goals or whatever it is you're digging for? How much further is this? Does this have to go how much
Angie (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah!
John Ball (:longer do I need to keep doing this? And the answer is nearly always longer than you think and longer than you want to.
Angie (:my gosh, I mean, I guess that's just rule number one, perhaps with any business, right? If you open up a storefront, let's just say, and I don't care if you're selling coffee or ice cream or whatever, right? There is that moment, you have to wait for people to become aware of your presence and who are you. And we've talked about that and we will continue to talk about that obviously in, as we move forward on like, how do we do that? What makes the most sense?
And honestly, for me, that was probably some of my biggest. And again, I'm going to say failures, you know, clogging up of the pipeline. But anyway, but you have to come out of the gate with the belief that something's going to work. Even if you don't know exactly what that is, you have to start throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks. You have to. And that's part of the process. Right. I mean, I could have said something else, but come on.
John Ball (:to a point. Yeah.
Angie (:I didn't want to be that. too early in the morning. ⁓ But you know.
John Ball (:⁓ For you, for you.
Yeah, I agree. We end up doing it. But I think that can that can end up becoming a long term strategy. I think I think I was throwing this spaghetti for way too long. And too many too many different things that we were talking about, as we like to chat before we record as well. And you were saying then it's like jumping on these trends each time they were coming out and never really getting anywhere with them is trending topics.
Um, see that in the coaching world, we see that in the speaking world, instead of actually finding your thing and, you your thing is not the next, your thing, your thing is probably not the next big trending thing. Uh, and that's had by happy coincidence. They, they do match, um, that you need to find, you need to find your thing, your, your place, your space in the market. Um, now I had a really interesting conversation with, uh, uh, a coach who was, uh, another speaker coach recently.
Angie (:Yeah?
John Ball (:And one of the, one of the reasons I really, really wanted to speak with her because she had set her business up in such a way that she's doing coaching and she's doing speaking and she's doing a one woman show and she's doing all the bits and all the bits that she wants to do. And, and she did a, it's, it's completely her way, like her ecosystem, her way. And it didn't just happen all at once, right? She didn't just sort of, all right, this is this time doing it and
Angie (:Mmm
Right.
John Ball (:poof, the whole thing appears by magic. She had to build that out over time and focus on different elements at different times. But she now has that she has her business looking pretty much exactly how she wants to. And she even has her one woman show feeding her speaking business and her coaching business. And other end as well. Her coaching is feeding the speaking and you know, just great how she's done it. I was like, yeah, that is what I want.
Angie (:Sure. Yeah.
John Ball (:as well, not exactly like hers, but my version of that. And that's what I hope every coach wants as well. What's your version of that? What do we ultimately want your business to look like?
Angie (:Yeah,
right. And I think that we've talked about being flexible. Like what the idea you start with your entry point, it just may not be where you evolve to. And I think that having the mindset of flexibility is definitely a key component to creating whatever vision you have to be a speaker or to just, you know, to be a coach or to be both, whatever that is.
⁓ I think it's really important to know like I have to be flexible if I'm rigid everything Well, that doesn't go the way I planned or thought it should is going to feel like a failure That's the first thing so you have to be and I think I don't know if I if I look back I think that That was a one of my hardest lessons Honestly is was learning that because I believed so much in a confined
spark and find specific vision of something of what I thought it was going to be supposed to be look like all of the things that I was like well, jeez let me try something else and it was like a completely different. Space and it's so funny cuz here I am all these years later working in the space that I originally set out to but doing it with much more experience and all if I had only known then what I know now so.
John Ball (:Right. It is interesting, you know, I was thinking back to some of my earlier days in coaching, why I didn't have any of this figured out really, was ultimately, guess, moving around in the dark, I walked around in the dark and not knowing what sort of traps and issues lay ahead for me. ultimately clueless, but not really knowing even
Angie (:Yeah?
John Ball (:what I want is my business to look like. But the goal setting thing that we talked about, how we want things to look, the goals we have as speakers, this is an issue that I've had with goal setting, I think from early days of that, the way it's often been taught for people is, is that sort of this is your outcome, this is what it has to be anything other than that is, anything other than that is a failure. So you get a
Angie (:NNNN
to me.
John Ball (:the attachment to this outcome, then that's the outcome. You're cut, you start to cut yourself off from other possibilities, because you're gonna go, you got to be committed to it. This is the outcome that you're going for. And on that journey, you're potentially going to miss out on some of the big opportunities that the universe puts in your path. Because you are focused on this one outcome this particular way, which you may
Angie (:Ahhhh
Yes.
John Ball (:you may get to or you may get to something similar to it, but ultimately you may end up like most of us getting to something that looks nothing like that. But at least you were pointing, least you're pointing your face in the direction you wanted to go.
Angie (:Right.
Yeah, and I think so, you owe you and I do this we have these conversations much of what John and I talk about besides the friendship part of our relationship and all the things you don't want to hear but when we talk about business, I think that something that I will share with you I think that one of the successes one of the things that has helped me grow beyond being the flexible person I wasn't always in the beginning, right
But if I took that to the next level, if I were now to look back and sit down in my rocking chair as grandma and coach Angie and give everybody my words of wisdom, I would say that having a trusted resource who actually has experience, right? So my dad was a very professional man his entire career, right? Super successful, self-made.
and inherently has some things that he could always share in terms of habits and work ethic. within our space, right, you don't want somebody who's necessarily your confidant that's gonna like, you know, just tell you what you want to hear. You really should have objective, an objective person that knows and has some type of success to help guide you. I'm not selling, you know, John or myself personally, although hey, we're here, but seriously,
John Ball (:I know, why not, but yeah.
Angie (:Right, but why
not because we didn't have that luxury and much this is me much of what I have learned about the business of coaching was how to Take what i'm really good at naturally and passionate about and turning it into that business But it took so long because I didn't have I didn't get a coach or I didn't have find that person You know, and I and of course you guys have a lot of noise right like there you go on to
any social media and everybody is perceived in any field, any industry as some kind of an expert based on what they're producing from marketing. I'm saying find somebody, I have a John, I have several other people, right? Some of them he and I share that we trust to not just, support us through the tougher times, but even redirecting and ask us the tough questions like you absolutely need that.
If you think you are going to single-handedly figure this out with all of the noise going on nowadays, I think not. I really have to say that to me was, I won't call it a failure of mine, but I didn't know what I didn't know. That's why I started off this little dissertation from my rocking chair, because I've learned that the greatest asset I had wasn't just my product.
But it was having somebody to help me sort through the weeds, which I was not. I'm great with you all, you know, coaching. But when you're in the business mind, there's a lot. You don't want to walk those halls with me. You don't want to get in there and see what's going on. Right. You need somebody to help. And I think that is a huge success for me was to have somebody in the know in the industry with experience, with success.
to help decipher the noise. Why are you laughing?
John Ball (:Yeah,
I'm loving the metaphors today, Angie. Grandma Angie. I love that you even came dressed as grandma Angie today. I appreciate you for that.
Angie (:Okay, I'm just saying, okay, you know, John is so
making fun of me because I said, do we have to like put the video out on this one today? He was apparently not because I'm literally wearing like a fleece blue robe with my favorite sunflowers all over it. And he's like, Yeah, yeah.
John Ball (:It's beautiful. It's a visage, Angie. It's a visage.
I get, I get 100 % of what, what you're saying there. And, and I, and I do think, you know, we, we, one of my biggest regrets, I may have shared this on the show. I'm sure I know I've shared it with you. I don't know if I shared it in a recording, but one of my biggest personal regrets was not getting coaching when I first was getting started.
ow, you know, hindsight being: Angie (:Yeah? Yeah?
Hmm
Hmm.
John Ball (:really successfully managed to slow down my journey in coaching by never getting the expert help when I was getting started out that really would have accelerated me rather than trying to figure it all out by myself. I was clueless. I'd come from being a flight attendant and a trolley dolly to being a to being a business coach, suppose business coach.
Angie (:trolley dolly
Sure. Yeah.
John Ball (:I
Angie (:Yeah.
John Ball (:was clueless how to run my own business and yet I was there coaching, wanting to coach other people on their businesses. Crazy.
Angie (:You know what's so interesting though? And I can understand that, right? That's what we're talking about is like not knowing like, well, mine also was a little bit of resistance. know, ask anybody, my parents, right? Mom's gone, but you can ask my dad, hey, you know, is Angie obstinate? Right? And my obstinance got in my own way. I was so excited. I was literally like the bucking bronco trying to get out, ready to get into the, you know, like the arena. And I didn't
Although I don't think I consciously said this to myself, but I can tell you for sure how I felt. I felt like anybody else's input was going to hold, was going to be what held me back. And it was kind of this obstinance of, know what I see, I know what I want to offer, I know what I can do, I know what I want this to look like. Who's going to be able to dial into that as well as me? Hello, coach, hello. ⁓ But again, you know, like I was, what?
John Ball (:It's funny, Angie.
My parents would also describe me as stubborn, obstinate. I wouldn't ever describe myself as that. And when that came up once in conversation with my husband, he agreed that I was stubborn. And I thought, yeah, that was probably part of my equation too, bloody mindedness, being stubborn about it.
Angie (:Yeah. Yeah.
John Ball (:And it's also probably one of the reasons why I just refuse to have ever quit on this.
Angie (:Yeah, yeah, it's just I think too it's like part of my you know my own psyche and I've worked through this like my control Right not wanting to hire people to help me. No, no, no, I can do this myself So I'm long long so long past that but here's the interesting thing that I was pointing to in the beginning of today, you know recording today is thinking like There is no when you're a coach or you're this type of bit like a personal professional development
coach and I don't really care what the industry is it can be speaking it could be whatever right whatever it is coaching itself. The truth is that you don't ever arrive. I thought you know. At some point it was like this finite summit that I was going to reach and all of a sudden I was going to go yes but John and I and I I won't get super specific but John I've been talking about very for both of us very recent successes.
And here's the interesting thing. These successes are probably temporary, right? Getting a new client or developing a new product, whatever that success is, is not forever. It's just not. And when you realize that, you kind of go, ⁓
And we've talked about pipelines and things in the past, right? Not having a cyclical business. I'm not really talking about that. I'm talking about the perception of the success. And it's like, how do you know when you're actually successful? Well, maybe you have to define what success would mean for you. Is it a type of client? Is it a dollar amount of earnings that you can keep consistent? I don't care what it is. It's 95 % of the time.
And I'm only saying that because I don't want somebody to say, how could you say that? It's so absolute. But 95 % of the time, it is temporary. And you will always and forever be, know, maybe the success is figuring out your niche and knowing, ⁓ I have real clarity there. This worked. Finally, threw my spaghetti and I threw 10 pieces of spaghetti and these five or these three keep sticking. Maybe I should follow that.
and keep making that type of spaghetti. That's clarity and that's a success. But that's one space. But to think that you may never evolve into a new piece of spaghetti is absolutely wrong. John is just laughing at me. I know. Grandma, spaghetti, planes.
John Ball (:This concept
of people evolving into pieces of spaghetti, Angie, is one that's going to stay with me. ⁓
Angie (:Listen,
here's the truth though stop. It's trying business is trials and tribulations Right. It's it could be in clothing right it could be in the garment industry and saying What's the trend this year? And if you don't have the right trend at the right time you've missed it And now you have to wait until the next time so you could poke fun at me all you want and I'm used to you You don't scare me However, but the truth of the matter is you need to understand that there is to me. There's no finite
I have arrived. Clarity, but really, like any success that he and I have been talking about is absolutely, we know this specific thing is temporary and there is always more.
John Ball (:I love that you say that and to think that you could even imagine that I might want someone else to host the show with me. I don't know where that could possibly come from. It would never be like this, Angie. And I love this. 100 % that 100 % uncertainty to a degree as entrepreneurs, uncertainty is the price for being freed from the prison of a nine to five.
Angie (:You know what? And there it is. Sometimes it's ambiguity. And then sometimes it's, don't know what next will look like, but maybe I have an idea of how to do what's next or get to what's next. And being open to the idea of there is always more, there's always something to learn. And if you're not getting it right, if it's not sticking yet, there's no traction being gained.
It just means that you have to keep pivoting a little bit until you do and then say, ha ha, right? John said earlier, like striking gold, you you don't always know, you kind of go, well, this looks like, and this has been the experience and this could be, and you dig and you dig and then you go, you know, we put a lot of resources here, probably not working, but what is next? Where do I go? And when you strike gold,
At some point, think about the gold rush and think of all the things like we're going with you now. Eventually it runs out and you have to be prepared for that. Sure, take advantage and do all the things you have to do when you find it, but no, this isn't your final dig. This is not the last time.
John Ball (:And this, this is part of what makes being a business owner, not for everyone. You whilst you don't, okay, having a job gives you a level of apparent security, you don't have to be so concerned, so concerned about the pipelines and all that sort of stuff. But they're still they're still relevant. This was becoming very apparent in a conversation with some of our ⁓ ex colleagues yesterday, right? I mean, things
Angie (:Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
John Ball (:things can change dramatically with with her even with a situation that you feel certain but as a as a business owner, that's all the time. That's your journey is going to is going to be how it is and sometimes they're going to be ups and you're riding the wave and other times it isn't and as a coach, know, think it is coaching is a little different speaking like I feel like in speaking, while some things change, ultimately what gets you there would
Angie (:Right.
John Ball (:will still get you there as a speaker like the systems that process the applications is pretty much stuff. Some things change, but mostly it's the same in coaching. That's not the case. What got you there last year won't get you there this year. we, again, having this chat yesterday with, with, friends, but, this, ⁓ the, the talk on sort of like paid ads would get you there before organic is more likely to get you there now.
Angie (:Mmm, sure.
Mm-hmm.
John Ball (:you know, see the success of that we talked about my article last time that the results have been getting from that is like, showing me all right, leaning into organic and articles, which is seems to be where a lot of attention is going. That's a good path to take. It's at least given me some indication of that. We'll see how we'll see if that continues to go for last week, I struck gold this week, who knows? Who knows? It may not last. So that's the nature of it all you had trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.
Angie (:Yes.
John Ball (:But coaching, think it is that little bit harder of other than word of mouth referrals. For the most part, for the most part, what gets you results as a coach may not still get you results in the future. Yeah, I think maybe there's some other things that probably still will like speaking word of mouth referrals. mean, they kind of very closely related there in person and kind of credibility building, but a lot of the other marketing and sales stuff.
Angie (:Sure.
Hmm.
John Ball (:has changed a lot in the industry.
Angie (:Well, listen, you know what?
That's the thing. I'm not saying not to make yourself or have a presence, right? We're not saying that today. You know what? Yes, why wouldn't you have a presence? But I think the role, relying on that and feeling like, I put myself out there, everybody's gonna listen. And maybe depending on what you're saying, and you don't, if you're not getting responses, you really have to think about how you're spending those resources, time and like personal time, et cetera, to that.
And I think too, you know, we're finding our experience has been that the organic space is one that gets overlooked a lot because you kind of go, well, everybody now knows what I'm doing. Isn't that what you said to do? Make sure every don't be a secret coach or speaker or whatever. Yeah, that's true. But dig the well, the deeper you go, the fresher the water. I feel like granny sitting on that chair, but it's the truth, right? Keep digging, keep having conversations.
because, and this is my perception, y'all can come at me if you want, but I feel like as the, as this, particular space grows and you're branding yourself and things like that, like, sure, keep doing that. But the noise is getting louder. I feel like the noise is getting louder. And if you really want to stand out from the crowd, don't be part of the noise. Step away from the noise a little bit.
and not do what everybody else is doing because you are lost in the shuffle of that. I don't care who you are. I don't care how you do it. If you are not like big, big name already, you know, guess what? You're part of the noise. So maybe it is about shifting that mindset a little bit and saying, hey, let me start off a little more like a little smaller or a little more direct or a little more specific.
might feel like it's taking longer, but how long do you want to sit in the noise? mean, that's just perception that you're out there and people know who you are. The only people who know who I am are the people who know me or the people who have worked with me. I'm being honest. My name is not a household name. am not a, and go through your head, top personal development people. There's at least a top 10 that we can all relate to.
John Ball (:Yeah.
Angie (:even if you're not in the field, right? I'm not one of them. I'm not. And I accept that. So why would I do what they're doing? Like, it's just for me, it gets a little murky.
John Ball (:Yeah, I like to personally, don't even I don't even want to be one of them. That's not one of my goals. not that I want to be successful, but I don't want to be I don't want to be one of those those top household name people in the personal development world is not a goal. That said, that's it. You said something yesterday. In another conversation that was that I think
Angie (:No!
John Ball (:could be interesting to hear a little bit about how you approach the win that you've had recently. And you don't have to share, of course, the details of that, but that you approached it differently. You approached it in a way you never have before. What are you able to say about that, that win and the way you approached it that changed for you?
Angie (:Yeah.
Yeah, think it was a huge for me and new. So to simply say it as as an entrepreneur, no matter what business industry, et cetera, it was let me show you a product. The product was a topic, essentially. That's what I've gone for. So, for example, you know, during after covid when quiet quitting was like the hot topic of the moment. Guess what I did?
I created a product around that that I could sell pitch proposed to the right people. Like I think I've advanced enough in my business, you know, and knowledge that I knew who that would matter to. ⁓ I'm sorry, to whom that would matter. And ⁓ but anyway, John's laughing at me. But so that that wasn't the issue. And I did something very different. Instead of proposing a specific piece of content.
which flash in the pan folks, know, topics and relevance change. Some of them are pretty consistent, but getting there, it changes with like the news. It's just like what's really important to people at the moment. and I never, I wasn't off the mark. I just wasn't speaking to these companies in the way that they were listening. They might look at it and say, well, gee, that is a true
you know challenge we have and I did get hired you know I didn't not get hired but it was only at a specific level and the change that happened that John's referring to is that instead of trying to solve a very specific problem I realized there was a bigger problem a bigger challenge ⁓ and I addressed that and it was for me providing flexibility and opportunity for these companies rather than
here's this one time, fill in the blank, this is what's hot right now solution, it wasn't broad enough. So isn't it interesting that I spent most of my career being told like pigeonhole it, what's the problem? ⁓ but I missed it. I was solving temporary problems or was solving very specific problems, but there was an overarching bigger problem or challenge.
And the minute I offered it differently, just took a shot, I threw some spaghetti at the wall. It stuck, like it stuck hard. And it made me realize that my approach was not different than anybody else's. So what I'm offering now is very, I wouldn't say nobody's doing it, but nobody that I know is doing it and I'm doing it very differently.
John Ball (:Yeah.
Yeah, I love that. And thank you for sharing that as well. think that without having to go into any detail, you're able to share really the essence of what was significant there. And the foot for me, you know, one of the biggest, one of the things that I think has been most critical and making a shift and change for me has been stopping trying to do all the things and just saying, All right, well, even though I want to do all these things,
Angie (:Mmm.
John Ball (:let's focus on what I decided is most important. And even having done that, other other stuff is still going on. Everything else is still carrying on around that. But I'm just saying, right, my focus, my attention is on this. It's freed up a lot of mental space for me. I say probably, I was thinking about, like to have a word for the year. I think you said something about having this as well before, maybe as well. But my word for my word for 2026 is, is year's word has been
Angie (:Yeah.
do have one but go ahead.
John Ball (:consistency. And I feel that has been a good touchstone for me this year. Next year's word for me. I did and next year's word for me is presence. His presence because I think I think that's what it's all about at the moment. And these changes that I've been making have given me more presence, they've given me a better ability to see the playing field that I'm on and to address the things that I'm talking about. Because when we spread thin, we don't have enough presence, we don't have enough presence to be able to see
Angie (:Mm-hmm. And you hit that.
Mmm. Yeah.
John Ball (:clearly what's going on or to really put to really put the value into what all the things that we're doing, we can we can apply little droplets of value here and there. But when we can be really present when there's less to try and achieve your results become a lot clearer. Like, you know, I said, Yeah, I think I spent several days working on the article last week. I would never have done that before. I it out and that's good enough. I decided
Angie (:Absolutely.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
John Ball (:I decided to spend time working on it I thought it was important and I wanted it to be readable, something that had a flow to it and something that had impact for people. It's like, all right, I want to carry on doing that. But if I was just all right, let's churn out the content, it would not have had anything like the level of presence that it did. Now think there were other things that played with that as well. But for me, this is the essence of it. Like, I have given myself the space to be present with what I'm doing. And that has changed changed things for me.
Angie (:Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
So here's the moral of the story, right? Is that, you know, although John and I are sharing, you know, some of our successes and some of the ideas that really didn't suit us or fit what it really should have looked like, we didn't know it, we didn't know, and we went through that process. But I think coming to this realization is gonna give us the opportunity to see now, ⁓ this is my new next door, right? The new next that I'm ⁓ under, my understanding, my,
lessons in business and that was part of our conversation right with a couple of our friends yesterday like I feel each of us is having these enlightening moments of what we believe to have been true about business for the industries that we're working in is not necessarily exactly as we perceived it to be and it's so funny because I think each of us were like ⁓ like I'm kicking myself and then we kind of came at each other and said well wait a minute kicking ourselves why that's part of the process.
So the point is to that, and I said this at the very beginning, when you are this type of personal development, especially, when you're learning and growing, it doesn't ever stop. And there should never be the expectation that there's some arrival. There's stops along the way that are going to feel like lessons, good or bad. But it just says the story doesn't stop. It doesn't have an ending, as long as you're in that business and in that industry.
It's not a nine to five where you can close the laptop at the end of the day and go, well, I'm done. It just doesn't work that way. So I think giving ourselves the grace to accept, you know what, get excited. Like I can, I had this success and I can't wait to see where the journey takes me next because I know there is a next rather than feeling disappointed because there is an X and going, ⁓ there's more. Yeah, there's more.
John Ball (:Yeah.
Angie (:And it's always, know, John and I aren't coaches for like a minute or a year. It's years, decades of doing what we do in development, personal professional. So I think it's a great mindset to go forward with. Yeah. What did you say your word for 2026 was?
John Ball (:Yeah, what a journey. Yeah, you win or you learn, right? You win or you learn.
presence.
Angie (:It is presence. I'm sorry I said that on purpose, but anyway, but so yeah, my my I had a couple I actually was trying to decipher. ⁓ One of them was no. ⁓ That's a personal one. ⁓ But I think professionally I haven't really come up with one yet. Like what is the word that I want to bring into my business or my mindset or and I'm still deciphering all that. So hopefully by next time I'll have something to share.
in terms of what that looks like. So that's it for me.
John Ball (:Yeah.
Well,
our touchstone, your word for: