PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: “I was completely defined by work. Now, I'm empowered”
Client: Nicole Daniels
Location: Cardiff, Wales
Occupation: Founder and director of bespoke furniture design and manufacturing company Karna Design
foundher program: 12-month private coaching partnership
To put it simply, Nicole Daniels was stuck.
She had been working in a senior operational role in a successful family furniture manufacturing business for years and the pressure had reached breaking point. Nicole knew it was time for a change, but she couldn’t see the way forward.
Family relationships always add a layer of complexity to business, affecting decisions, changes and individual success. Nicole had been attempting to find the best approach to navigate her way out of the family business for some time, while ensuring its ongoing success.
“Because it had gone on so long, it had a detrimental effect on my confidence to make that decision,” Nicole explains. “I’m a project manager, so I thought, ‘If I can’t work this out, then I obviously need some help!’”
Nicole decided to explore private coaching, so she reached out to a friend who recommended Elana at foundher.
Nicole was cautious at first. “I’ve had coaches and mentors before, but they haven’t worked for me,” she explains. Her aim was to partner with a coach who would combine inner development work with a real understanding of the corporate world.
Happily, during an initial inquiry call about private coaching with foundher, Nicole resonated strongly with Elana, not just on a personal level but a practical one, too.
“I found Elana’s approach very personable and pragmatic. I liked the fact that she wasn’t from my industry, so there was an element of detachment. But particularly, I liked her transition from corporate to coaching,” she explains. “If someone understands the working of business, then they’re going to understand some of the pitfalls. I found that level of understanding really useful.”
Nicole’s biggest challenges at the start of her 12-month foundher partnership were direction, focus and confidence. She needed support in deciding what to do about her role in the family business as well as to reset her work rhythm to a more sustainable pace and restore her sense of self-belief, which had been eroded over time as she put other people’s demands before her own needs. She recognised she needed to do things differently moving forward.
Laying the groundwork
Elana quickly helped Nicole cut through her overwhelm to find the perspective and confidence she needed to resign from her role running the family business.
Nicole considered moving into consultancy work or finding a new career path. But, at the back of her mind, she had been forming an idea for her own business, one that would design, manufacture and install bespoke, environmentally friendly furniture for workplaces, restaurants, cafes and other businesses. She just wasn’t sure it was the right time to get started.
“I was coming out of running a small business so the last thing I wanted to do was walk back into a small business,” Nicole explains. “But Elana helped me overcome a lot of that and to get on with it. [She taught me] you’ve got nothing to lose.”
All of foundher’s private partnerships begin with a deep dive questionnaire, which Elana reviews to create recommendations of developmental growth that will support your work and results. This is followed by a strategic planning intensive workshop, where, with Elana’s support, you’ll design a strategy that considers who you need to be in order to achieve what you have to do in the months ahead.
In Nicole’s case, creating a new definition of restoration for herself with much-needed recharge rituals and time to think, articulating her purpose, creating space to crystallise her business ideas and design a plan to move forward become the baseline for a new beginning.
Within three months of commencing her private coaching partnership with foundher, Nicole had left the family business and started her own company, Karna Design, with a business partner. While she says it sounds like a fast turnaround, “It felt really organic and natural and manageable, not overwhelming.”
That’s thanks to Elana’s ability to challenge the excuses and self-doubt that can crop up and distract us from the goal at hand. “She’s very good at taking away the anguish and the anxiety and the ‘shoulds’,” says Nicole. “You’re just left with what you need to do on a day-to-day basis to achieve what you want to achieve.”
The first 90 days of their partnership involved a lot of personal development work for Nicole, so that she could embark on her next chapter with new habits and beliefs that would set her up for success. That meant reflecting on how she’d approached work in the past – that is, with an all-or-nothing attitude!
“I was completely defined by work; how much output I had and how much I did for others,” says Nicole. “I was able to really evaluate and unpack what I was doing on a day-to-day basis, and where it was and wasn’t adding value to my world. I had just been working, I wasn’t actually achieving what I wanted to achieve. It was everybody else’s goals.
“Within month three [of the partnership], there was a shift towards empowerment, and realising that the world wasn’t going to fall apart if I changed direction.”
A new toolkit
Nicole’s new foundation toolkit includes morning and evening routines and a daily journalling ritual that helps to give her perspective and space for self-reflection.
“I think boundaries were a massive thing for me – setting boundaries on a personal level and a business level with myself,” adds Nicole.
The payoff from implementing those tools has been huge. Nicole explains that she’s transformed from someone who worked “all the time” to someone who chooses when and how she works. “If I work in the evenings now, I work through choice,” she notes.
That’s had a ripple effect on other areas of her life. “Through journaling and self-reflection, I have a much more positive outlook, I’m much more grateful, and I’m able to take much more ownership of a situation; rather than feeling everything’s happening to me, I feel like I'm more in control of what’s happening. I think my personal relationships with my family and my partner have improved massively because of those boundaries and rituals.”
Nicole has also brought her reflection practice to her business planning, ensuring Karna Design is built on healthy foundations for sustainable growth.
Within its first six months of operation the business had doubled its income targets – an exciting achievement for any entrepreneur. But, rather than focusing on profits or extending their service and product offering, Nicole and her business partner are taking the time to analyse, reflect and consider what’s working, what’s not working and what it is they’re truly aiming for.
“Karna has hit the targets that we set for ourselves, so we’re really happy. But more importantly, we’re doing exactly the work that we want to do,” says Nicole. “This is where I think coaching really helps you to stick to your guns, rather than panic and think, ‘I need to do a bit of everything and keep everyone happy, because I don't know which direction we're going to go in.”
With foundher’s strategic support and accountability plan, Nicole and her business partner have clearly identified their target market and customer avatars, employed their first team member, and have begun working on a growth plan for the business.
Their vision for what’s next is to take Karna Design, which already prioritises renewable, natural and upcycled materials, completely green. “We don’t have far to go to get there,” says Nicole.
Redefining success
While Nicole is embracing her new rhythm and enjoying the results, she admits that it’s not all smooth sailing. But, she adds, one of the most valuable aspects of private coaching is the constant support it offers. When self-doubt rears its ugly head, Elana’s unique perspective and insight is just a phone call away – foundher’s private partnerships include quarterly workshops along with twice monthly coaching sessions plus Voxer access for laser coaching when you need it, ensuring you’re never left stuck.
“Sometimes I think ‘I can’t do it, this is all rubbish’, and then I’ll have half an hour with Elana. She has the ability to hold up the mirror and say, ‘Let’s turn it around a little bit.’ And within half an hour, I’m back on track. So when it comes to value for a business or to a project, it’s incredible,” says Nicole.
The most surprising part of the coaching journey for Nicole has been discovering that as she’s grown personally, her definition of success has fundamentally shifted. When, prompted by Elana, she started digging into her idea of success, she realised that it’s not the trappings of wealth – the luxury car and the big house and the holidays in the Maldives – that light her up, but the freedom to pursue what’s most important to her.
“My definition of what success looks like and what I want out of life has changed dramatically,” Nicole says. “Strangely, I’ve let go of a lot of things I thought I wanted. At the same time, I’m more ambitious in what I think I can achieve.”
This is a tangible indication that Nicole’s confidence and self-belief has dramatically improved. She’s shifted away from old patterns and stories into self-authoring her vision for the future.
“When you actually sit down and go, ‘OK, so what is important?’, and you start to measure it, so much of this [material stuff] goes. And the flip side was, I want to be earning that. I want to be retired by then. I want much more of my time to be a social and charitable endeavour, which means working less. So, I think the ambition becomes far higher in reality, but I have a better appreciation of what I do have. That, for me, was a massive shift and still surprises me now.”
This kind of deep transformation is what makes private coaching so powerful. One-on-one support allows you to fast-track your personal development and business success, while opening the doors to possibilities you never imagined were available.
One year on, Nicole is celebrating countless wins – both personal and professional – from her private partnership with foundher, but the shift she’s most proud of is her mindset.
“I’m getting rid of the self-judgement and the lack of self-worth,” she says. “I still have to catch myself, and I still might have to have a little word with myself not to go 100 miles an hour every day. But, historically, I’m someone who has been constantly stressed, constantly anxious, constantly in scarcity mode, and that’s completely reversed. Now, I’m able to acknowledge my ambition and not think it’s unrealistic.”
Shifting from who you are now to who you want to be next, and the impact that can have on your work, relationships and self-confidence, is truly transformative.
If you’re interested in exploring how you can transform your approach to work and life with a private coaching partnership – one that focuses on 360-degree transformation for you and your business – drop us a note at Private 360.