In late 2017, just months after I left RRE Ventures and was navigating the liminal space between careers, I sat in an empty Starbucks in suburban Boston with Jim Rosen, a founder turned executive coach in the second half of his career.
I wanted to hear everything about his path: what called him to the profession, how he got started, what trainings he attended, and how he built his practice.
This was the very beginning of my own journey to becoming a coach. I was in the parking lot at the trailhead of my second mountain.
I told Jim I'd just enrolled in a year-long certification program called Coaching for Transformation and was excited to dive head first into the world of coaching, but I knew next to nothing. I felt like a newbie talking with a seasoned veteran.
At some point in the conversation, I casually said, "When I become a coach."
Jim's face turned serious and the air between us shifted . He looked me in the eye and said, "Steve, you ARE a coach."
I felt a surge of energy, but I brushed it off. "Not yet, but maybe one day," I hedged.
The title felt too big to own, and I wasn't even sure I was going to coach professionally.
But in the wake of our meeting, I couldn't shake those words. You are a coach. Something took root inside me.
A few weeks later, when I walked into The Open Center in NYC for my first training weekend, I decided to show up as a coach even though I was just starting out.
That decision set the tone for that weekend and the intensive that followed. I threw myself into learning the craft, started working with "practice" clients, and began to build my practice without hesitation.
Over coffee that morning, Jim saw something in me that I couldn't yet see. Once I could see it too, the title was mine to fully claim, and I did.