Coaching Success Story: From Overwhelmed Caregiver to Courageous Leader
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:00:02 Welcome to Heart Glow CEO®, where high achievers evolve into purpose-driven powerhouses. I'm Kc Rossi, your Integrative Leadership Coach. Join us to break free from people pleasing and burnout, exploring mindset, embodiment, and soul alignment. Discover expert insights, success stories, and actionable tips for wholistic wealth on your terms. This is where transformation meets the modern female leader. Let's go!
This week, I stepped out of my usual routine and attended two in-person networking events. A rare occurrence for me. What struck me was how many people are still unfamiliar with coaching and the profound benefits it can offer. It reminded me that when we've been immersed in our field for years, it's easy to forget that not everyone speaks our language or fully understands what we do.
To break it break it down simply; Coaching is like having a trusted partner who helps you navigate your challenges, uncover your strengths, and create a game plan to reach your goals. It's not about giving advice or telling you what to do. It's about asking the right questions to help you find your own best answers.
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:01:24 from a professional lens - The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. That realization inspired me to share recent client success story. My hope is that it offers a bird's eye view of the type of person who seeks coaching, the journey we embark on together (challenges, breakthroughs, all of it), and the incredible transformation they can achieve. So let's go.
This story is about one of my clients who embodies transformation and resilience. To maintain confidentiality, we will call her Emma. She works for a nonprofit organization leading a team of direct reports. She's married and has a child with special needs, which requires significant time, energy, and emotional bandwidth. She has an incredibly big heart, but like many of us, she was feeling stretched thin and stuck in patterns that were not serving her. When we first started working together, we used professional assessments to map out her strengths and areas for growth. Some of the challenges we identified included conflict avoidance.
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:02:40 She often shied away from difficult conversations both at home and at work. Scarcity mindset and excessive worry, which kept her stuck in her head. I'm sure many of us can relate to that, and a tendency to be a fixer rather than a helper - taking on too much responsibility for other's outcomes.
One of the pivotal moments that our work together was when I guided her through a rage burn exercise. This allowed her to connect with and express her anger in a healthy way, helping her fully process emotions that she had been suppressing for years. As we dug deeper, we uncovered continued struggles such as poor change management, where she felt caught in the middle between her team and leadership, managing versus leading, where she was putting out fires rather than inspiring her team toward a shared vision and feeling stuck -unsure how to break free from the old patterns.
We worked on rewriting her narrative, using strategies to unhook from past limitations. She began to see herself not just as someone doing her best, but as a leader who could create meaningful change.
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:03:55 I mean, this is where the breakthroughs and the transformation started to happen. With conscious leadership tools, we addressed internal and external conversations. She learned how to reframe self-doubt and reflect on her unique strengths. We also looked at perfectionism. She recognized when she was being too hard on herself and began practicing self-compassion.
We also brought in heart-focused breathing. This tool became a cornerstone for staying grounded and calm during high-pressure moments. We connected her to her “Deep Why” — Focusing on what was within her control and what wasn't. This shift helped her embrace courageous leadership, to navigate tough conversations with honesty and grace. I think by now you're getting a sense of the new foundation that we built.
One area of growth was turning her caregiving nature inward. She began prioritizing self-care and family fun. Setting clear boundaries to truly disconnect from work during her personal time. Her commitment to fostering trust within her team led to more delegation and a shift toward a collaborative, rather than a competitive environment. We also worked on embracing her empathy as a superpower.
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:05:16 Showing her how to use it for team building and connection. She practiced modeling a “healthy brag” at work, acknowledging her contributions in a way that inspired her team to do the same.
The results. After 11 coaching sessions and her dedicated effort, she received a promotion that aligned with her deep desire to create a greater impact. Her team values her leadership and trusts her completely. She now relies on her intuition, communicates with clarity and confidence even in challenging situations, and delegates, effectively freeing up time to focus on strategic initiatives. She feels more balanced, energized, and fulfilled, not just at work, but in her personal life also.
When asked for honest feedback about her coaching experience, she shared, “ I have had the most wins in improving my confidence, trusting my expertise, identifying my strengths, and reframing my outlook/definition of strong leaders. Most recently, I've been focusing on my definitions of power and control and how to use power and control in responsible leadership. The realization that I have the skills and resources to be an effective leader, and that I even know how to use them already, has been profound for me.”
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:06:37 Oh, I love it. I get the chills. It's so incredible. I feel incredibly blessed to do the work that I do, and I'm also continually inspired and in awe when I sit across from these brilliant souls and watch them do the work. Watch them dig deep. Watch them take the exercises on board. Literally be open enough to be vulnerable and take their mask off, maybe for the very first time in their life. That to me is incredibly incredible. I'm like literally at a loss of words. It really is incredible for me to watch all of the limiting beliefs dissolve, and to see this new individual start to blossom, start to know their self, start to discover their beautiful facets in a way that makes them incredibly unique. And I think the key thing is we're not adding anything. Their soul was complete and perfect before coaching, but they just couldn't see it. And so part of this illumination process is this foundation of transformation, where there's a willingness and a coachability to look within, to be asked the powerful and sometimes challenging questions, and then to do the work.
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:08:05 Because insight without implementation is a total waste of time, and you're not going to see results. So it really takes this beautiful partnership of having the sacred space to be asked things that you've never been asked before, to go within, to reflect, to take the action steps, to change your neural pathways, to shift the way that you perceive things, to change your fixed mindset into a growth mindset and continue moving forward.
So this transformation didn't happen overnight. Many transformations don't, but it shows what's possible when you're willing to dig deep, do the work, and embrace change. If her story resonates with you, if you see parts of yourself in her struggles. No, my friend, that you are not alone, and more importantly, know that transformation is absolutely within reach. If you're interested in learning more about how transformational coaching can help you in your life or business, I invite you to reach out to me. I'd be honored to be a part of your journey. If you know someone that you think would enjoy this episode, or just hear one little nugget of wisdom that would help them.
Kc Rossi, PCC 00:09:20 Just send them the link. Give them a little shout-out and send them my way, because it really also helps the show. It helps me to know what's landing and what's resonating for you because I literally press record for you.
So if there's a topic that you're interested in, if there's a challenge that you're struggling with, shoot me a DM, send me an email, and let me know. Because I'm happy to create a solocast specifically around the topic that you're interested in.
Thank you so much for taking the time and listening. Until next week, my friend… breathe joy!
