Kevin Stafford 0:01
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast today I have great pleasure and I’m gonna pronounce her name right it’s very funny because I have a tendency to pronounce from my throat when I should be pronouncing through my nose. This is Andrea sextets. She is a delight and I’m so glad to share her with you today. Well about Andrea. She’s actually a retired coach. She opened her coaching business sage coach back in 1997. She’s logged well over 10,000 coaching hours working with executives, leaders and entrepreneurs. She also teaches for CTI which is an acronym I forgot to look up before I started reading so I’ll ask you about that in a second. More more important. She has a well balanced life lives in the high desert which I’m definitely gonna love talking to you about and loves to hike. She has visited all 63 of the US National Parks, which is awesome and remains as always an adventure. Andrea, I can already tell 1520 minutes is not gonna be long enough for me. I am so grateful. I get to chat with you for a while today. Thanks for being here.
Andrea Sigetich 0:57
Thank you. This is great fun. I appreciate it.
Kevin Stafford 1:00
What does CTI stand for I’m so sorry. I forgot to look that up where you teach
Andrea Sigetich 1:04
coaches training institute. It’s the world’s largest and best coaching program. facility. I think there’s about 30,000 CTI train coaches, if you hear the word co active coach. That’s the CTI coach.
Kevin Stafford 1:18
Okay, okay, that’s that’s ringing all the right bells. Thank you. Also, before we get for get started wherever you star started, but I lived in New Mexico, in the high desert for about 11 years of my life. And I will love it forever. It is one of my very favorite climates to be in my favorite favorite environments. I just I love it so much. But we can talk about national parks after we talk about your your coaching career. Let’s start at the well around the beginning. When did you first realize that you were a coach? Maybe you already were maybe you didn’t have a word for it, but kind of discovered that coach being a coach and coaching is what you wanted to do. And then how did you go from there into and through your entire coaching career? Big question. I
Andrea Sigetich 2:01
know. Right, right. So we’re going back to ancient history here, because you’re going back to February of 1997. I attended a weekend workshop called the necessity of empty spaces, which was facilitated by someone named Jeff Staggs, who took me aside on Saturday night and said, Have you heard of coaching and I said, No. And he said, you would be good at it. And so I proceeded to hire him as my coach who was my coach for the first three years of my business. So that was in February and I got my I was working in the corporate world working in high tech, and I got my corporation to pay for my first CTI class. And then I had it and I left I just I was one of those people who just went out without a job and not not even having finished my training was that the heart realization I had was one day realizing or working with a, I was doing leadership development in high tech, and and realized that I think Kim very much about the company, but it cared about the leader that I was working with. And so I decided I wanted to direct my career more towards the leaders, as opposed to the overall effectiveness of the organization. And coaching seemed to be the perfect, the perfect way to do that. So So I quit in May of 1997. And with with a consultant that I was working with, that I had brought in brought into my organization, we bid on a contract, and I caught it in September of that year. And that was to provide leadership development to to another corporation. And, and that sort of kicked off my career.
Kevin Stafford 3:49
I love the how quickly you identified that you don’t so much want to serve an organization. But what really got you going is like I want to help this person I want this person is where where all the good change is gonna happen is where I want to see it develop. And, and obviously, I’m sure you realize is very early on. It’s that’s how change starts radiates out from a person and infuses not only everyone else around them, but also the entire organization around them. And so I love that it took you the snap of a finger to identify that and then go after it. Great. So talk a little bit about I mean, obviously 97 Like you’re talking about ancient ancient days, and it’s been a while and you have a very long and fruitful coaching career. Then there’s probably a laundry list for this question. But what are some of your favorite highlights of your coaching career people you’ve worked with? milestones, experiences you’ve had any like insights that you’ve developed over the course of the years and the decades that and that’s probably the longest list of all, where you just realize that there are certain maybe core principles that just sort of emerged out of your coaching career. Jump off anywhere you want. I just want to hear you talk about your career because it’s it’s amazing.
Andrea Sigetich 4:57
Okay, that’s, that is a laundry list. I’m so I want to start with with one of my one of my soap boxes. So the soapbox, I’m gonna get, I’m gonna jump on right now is, is don’t sell coaching. Now when I started 25 years ago, it was very different landscape than it is today. And nobody had any idea what coaching was. And I and the person I was working with Nick sold leadership development. And what we recognized was that coaching was a tool to reinforce what we were developing in, we were working with high potential leaders, we were developing the skills, and then we did training and facilitation and assessments and that sort of thing. But coaching was the thing that allowed them to carry it back into the workplace. And so I would work with them for the contract was always six months, but I rarely worked for some, for somebody with somebody for six months. So typically be more like 15 or 18 months. And so it was the tool that helped them to carry back what they were learning into the workplace. And I think in many instances, and this is tempered a bit, because coaching has become much more popular and much more recognizable now. But in many instances, I would say it is best to sell. If you’re selling into an organization, it’s best to sell the organizational results, and consider coaching as one of the tools in your toolbox, as opposed to selling coaching directly. I think it’s more effective. It’s also easier on your bottom line, because you aren’t just selling hours of coaching. Now, if your market is individuals, that’s a that’s a different, that’s a different scenario. And I’m certainly sold coaching to individuals. But if you’re working in organizations, I would look more at the value, you can create any organization, whether it’s around wellness or leadership or, you know, any kind of skill development and attach the coaching in order to reinforce the skill development.
Kevin Stafford 7:04
Yeah, excellent point. I love that. And it’s so when you say it out loud, it’s so obvious, like, of course, it’s not the coaching, it’s the results of the coaching that you’re actually acquiring. But it’s an important distinction to make. And it’s so much easier to to get the buy in that you need. In order for coaching to be effective. When you lay it out like that, it’s like you’re not you’re not just here to get coach, you’re not just here to you know, be in a you know, in a conversation that to buy some books live in collect dust on your shelf, this is all going into action, it’s all going to deliver for you. And when people when that light goes on for people, that’s when they really understand what the value they’re gonna get from coaching is and that’s when they commit to it. That’s when the real work can begin. All right,
Andrea Sigetich 7:41
right. Right. That’s right. So it was so for, for the first I don’t know, longer than a decade, the first many years of my career, I sold leadership development. And so what would happen is end up selling a big package that did have training and facilitation and, and, and every time I sold one of those, I had 15 coaching clients. And that was I mean, that was a part of the package that was a required part of the of the development we were doing. So um, so it, it made it made that made that hurdle of getting clients quite a bit easier. So
Kevin Stafford 8:19
the right kind of virtuous circle where it’s like, oh, one, once one sale, one client leads to 10 leads to 100. And, you know, you it’s so that’s a worry for a lot of coaches too, it’s finding that perpetuating forward motion where it’s like, enough, enough energy going into it enough referrals and enough connections and enough of network to where things become sustained. It’s always a fear for coaches in their early days. It’s like, am I gonna be able to make this work as a business and you hit that point, and all of a sudden, you look around and you realize that this wasn’t as big of a problem as I was afraid it was gonna be.
Andrea Sigetich 8:54
Hey, there’s another point about that. You just You just reminded me, and I learned this from Henry Kimsey house, who’s one of the founders of CTI. And he said, Don’t ever talk about coaching, demonstrate coaching. And so another another way I built my business is at the time work life balance was a very popular topic. So I would go into corporations and sell like an afternoon workshop and work life balance. And I didn’t offer people coaching, once again, it was required as part of the program. Two things one is, whenever I did a workshop, whether it was for free in the community or as being paid by a corporation, I always demonstrated coaching, not talk about it, brought somebody up in front of the room and had people viscerally experience what it is like to be coached. And when I was doing these work life balance workshops, everybody in the room I had, I’m gonna date myself here I had a flip chart page with available times and everybody in the room signed up for two coaching sessions with me so that they could get the value and that wasn’t an add on you It was a part of the workshop. And so that really exposed and of course, some of those people became ongoing clients.
Kevin Stafford 10:09
Once you catch the bug once, once you once you really get a taste for how much your life and your your your self awareness and your windows, the world around you, and also how much you can serve, once you get a taste of that whole, the whole, the whole benefit package, the fruit of coaching. I mean, I don’t addiction is not the right word for it, but it is very self sustaining. Like once you get a taste you you really don’t want to go back, it’s like the first time I had pizza. there’s never gonna be a time where I want to go back to before I’ve ever had pizza, I’m gonna love it for the rest of my life that may it’s may be a more unhealthy habit for my midsection. But it really is it’s just once you once you catch it, it’s just ah, you want it you want to get more of it? Again, do you want to share it?
Andrea Sigetich 10:50
And if you don’t, you know, that’s okay. So you’re also screening clients that way, you’re giving them a couple of sessions. And they’re saying, This is really great, I want more, or they’re saying thank you, I’ve learned something about my balance in my life. And they go on, and that’s fine.
Kevin Stafford 11:07
Not every not every great relationship is some lifelong one. Sometimes people will encounter you for a workshop and you gave them what they needed. They got what they needed from you. Maybe they gave you something as well. And then you move on. And sometimes you have you know, clients for years and years and years, maybe for the entirety of a career. Maybe they even become friends and you have a relationship that lasts lifetime. They’re all different versions of a successful relationship. And I love another one of those things that coaching demonstrates so beautifully is that element of human relationships and how we can help each other and serve each other. When we’re ready, wherever we’re at. No, sorry, I keep having like follow up observations instead of questions. I’m just like to keep keep going. Because it’s like this is this is such meaty stuff. Um, so you retired how long ago? Just recently,
Andrea Sigetich 11:53
I officially retired three years ago. But I still coach three clients and I still teach for CTI, so I’m not completely out of it yet. I came up
Kevin Stafford 12:05
that’s, that’s different. Yeah.
Andrea Sigetich 12:09
But officially retired. And when I made that, that emotional mental shift, I felt, you know, relaxed. So now I just choose. I mean, if I’m gonna work with you, it’s because I’m already in love with you.
Kevin Stafford 12:23
Oh, that’s so sweet. And it’s, you know, I’m glad you said it that way. If I want to work with you, I’m already in love with you. Because that’s really, again, that’s, that’s that’s a core element of coaching. There’s there’s genuine love that passes in that in the activity of that coaching coaching relationship. I feel like it’s so important. To ground that. Yeah, go ahead, go speak, please. Oh, absolutely.
Andrea Sigetich 12:45
I fully believe that we, that we love our clients that we come to love our clients. And and if we if we don’t, I don’t, I don’t think I can be a very good coach for them. You know, so I mean, I develop a real rule caring for the individual.
Kevin Stafford 13:05
It’s nice to be less afraid of that word and that concept as I speak Speaking for myself, as I get older, I become less afraid of it even though my capacity for it and my hunger for it grows, it gets it gets bigger, but I’m less scared of it still still scary. I don’t want I don’t want to I don’t want to make it sound like I’ve somehow conquered that particular fear. Love can be can be a terrifying experience. But really, it’s it’s where everything good happens.
Andrea Sigetich 13:29
Yeah, yeah, that’s right. I don’t always tell you Oh, I was using that word with clients. You know, so because I’ve worked in the corporate world a lot. I’ve had a lot of men clients. So you know, I don’t necessarily use that word, but I know the feeling. Yes.
Kevin Stafford 13:46
No, I wanted like I selfishly want to keep you for well, all day. But I’ll definitely I like to keep so my one job on this podcast is just to just tee up coaches to share all of their insights in their in their in their wisdom and also make sure I don’t keep anybody too long. So where can obviously you’re retired, but you’re still around, I got to meet you. I believe we met on LinkedIn. Where Ken This is my two part question. I like to make sure everybody who’s listening can find out or know where to find out more about you. Like if you have a website or if you have a book or books or if there’s anywhere that you are online that you’d like people to go to learn more about you. And also if there’s anywhere online that you’d like to connect with people like a preferred social media platform, like you’d like to, you know, connect and exchange messages on LinkedIn or if you have any events you want to pro where you go and do any speaking or workshops that you know only only for love. Now that you’re where can people find out more about you and then connect with you as well.
Andrea Sigetich 14:39
So my website is sage coach.com. That’s been my business for for many, many years. And I do connect with people on LinkedIn but the place I actually have conversation with people. If there are CTI coaches listening to this is kickass CTI coaches on Facebook. It It’s a really great group. And it’s a place that we actually have conversation about challenges and successes. And it’s rich So kick ass CTI coaches.
Kevin Stafford 15:13
Already intrigued. Well, Andrea, thank you. Thank you so much for being here today, I have a feeling that I kind of want to have you back on. I love that one of the things I’ve been loving about this podcast is for a while it was just get on get meet new coaches expose, you know, new coaches, new ideas, because the audience to different kinds of coaching. And I’ve been having some coaches back for Part twos to kind of like not only talk about what’s happened in their business over the last six months, 12 months, 18 months, because obviously a lot has changed. And it’s really, it’s really fascinating to sight, the progress, not just of them as a coach, but also their business and their clients and things like that. But I just want to have you back on the talk with you. If you don’t mind, I’ll probably get back out. And we’ll, we’ll pick some topics and just talk about whatever’s whatever’s whatever is moving you or whatever is kicking ass at a particular moment. Because your your delight to talk to you. I love it.
Andrea Sigetich 15:59
It’s great. And I have opinions on lots of things and some experience to backup. So I’d love to talk more.
Kevin Stafford 16:07
I am very surprised and very excited to do this again. So Andrea, thank you so much for being here today. I’m really glad you took the time to talk to me. Okay. And do the audience. Do yourself a favor. Just trust me. You’ve gotten a taste, Andrea of great. There’s wisdom falling off the branches just just and also I can kind of tell I might be and I’ll open that assuming too much. You seem like you’d be you’d be a good time. Like I feel like we could just talk for hours we can get cantankerous, we can get angry about stuff, we can get passionate about stuff. And I’d come down to like, I’m almost like, I’m feeling greedy and I wanted to keep talking to you. But I just want to tease that get to know Andrea, do yourself a favor. I’m already grateful that I have and I’m already plotting my next conversation with her. So reach out, find her get to know her and we’ll talk to you again very soon.
