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As the creator of The Coaching Tools Company.com, Emma-Louise now works with coaches and therapists who want to add some structure and tangibility to their practice through coaching tools. Her clients want professional coaching tools to help them stand out from the crowd, boost their business and add value to their existing clients - keeping the coaching fresh and fun.
Professional Coaching BackgroundEmma-Louise began coaching in 2003, completing her coaching training with distinction at The Coaching Academy in England in early 2004. Shortly after she moved to Vancouver, Canada and added the NLP Practitioner designation to her coaching repertoire in the summer of 2005 at Erickson Coaching College in Vancouver. She has been a member of - and volunteered with - a number of organizations including the International Coaching Federation, the Interational Association of Coaches, the Vancouver Crisis Centre and Toastmasters. Currently she is a member of her local Chamber of Commerce, Coachville and IPPA (the International Positive Psychology Association). The Birth of The Coaching Tools Company.comSo, how did The Coaching Tools Company.com come about? Well, as I was planning the move to Salt Spring Island and 5 acres of space to grow food, get back to nature and simply enjoy the peace and quiet I began to think about how my life-coaching business would evolve and continue. In Vancouver I was having fun volunteering, networking and organizing seminars and events BUT I was super-busy and I was tired. I knew I didn’t want to be travelling back to Vancouver all the time. Now, Salt Spring Island has a population of 10,000 which wasn’t going to sustain my business with life-coaching clients. Part of my vision is to run retreats in the future, but I was also looking forward to retreating a little myself after 5 years of building my business! So, I began to ask myself, "What other options are there?", "What else do I love or enjoy doing?". Well I had created scores of coaching tools in my time as a lifecoach and workshop leader. And I began to notice my clients often complimented me on the coaching tools and asked for the next one! For example, I received this testimonial from a client: “... I especially loved her innovative worksheets, exercises and unique tools which helped me put the many thoughts and ideas swirling around in my head onto paper and then ultimately into action... " - Lori Bryan, Real Estate Marketing So, curious, I began to mention my collection of coaching tools to fellow coaches and therapists. I found they were surprised and delighted by them. And they WANTED them! So, gradually, encouraged by friends, clients and colleagues, I began to believe there was something 'in' these coaching tools I had created over the years. Then I remembered something I often say to my clients (and you probably do too) - that we don’t tend to value what we find easy and enjoy doing. And yet, these are often the very things that turn out to be our hidden strengths and talents. So, that's how The Coaching Tools Company.com came to be: Coaching Tools created because of fear and insecurity around the intangibility of coaching – blossomed and grew into something fun and deeply helpful for my clients. And now it grows one stage further as I share these tools with you, my fellow coaches and therapists, to help you grow your clients and businesses too! About the Coaching ToolsVisit the Coaching Tools Catalogue or the FAQ page to find out more. Why Life-Coaching?Previously, following a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Information Technology, Emma-Louise spent 10 years working with computer systems, working her way up from programmer to Project, Relationship and Release Management. She worked for large companies and as a management trainee (and having had the good fortune to work for a Dale Carnegie instructor in her first year out from university), she learned a lot about leadership and developing people - receiving lots of great training and mentoring over the years. So, while Life Coaching may not seem an obvious choice it felt very natural - her favourite part of her job had always been developing her leadership skills, her team, building relationships and observing the politics! Why Coaching Tools?Well, working as a project manager for large corporations, all meetings and work-related documents were systemized and standardized using templates. This saved a lot of time, increased productivity and improved communication. So, it was almost inevitable that as a lifecoach Emma-Louise would create re-useable forms, tools and exercises for her clients and workshops. Her experience, natural people skills, creativity and organizational capabilities are strongly blended together in these coaching tools as we hope you will see for yourself! And now...In the spring of 2008 Emma-Louise moved to her dream home - a cottage with a small acreage on Salt Spring Island (inbetween Vancouver and Vancouver Island), plenty of wildlife, her husband, cat and a dog. Emma-Louise writes about her life on the island at her blog “Life on Salt Spring”, and for her new blog Rebel Women Cafe - which replaces her bi-monthly coaching newsletter “The Simple Life”. She also writes (when inspired) for online and print magazines, develops new coaching tools (of course!), workbooks and personal development products. For fun Emma-Louise walks the dog, grows vegetables, gardens her currently completely unlandscaped backyard, belongs to a writing group, cooks for friends, hikes, enjoys taking photographs and loves bumping into people she knows around town (the joy of island life!). If you like, find Emma-Louise on
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