Frequently Asked Questions

• Creating accelerated results on what you really want in your life
• Greater focus than you might have on your own
• Identifying your strengths and leveraging them for the best results
• An opportunity to have a sounding board in making important decisions
• A professional co-creative relationship
• When you have an accountability partner, your thoughts become actions and those actions become results!

• Therapy
• Excavating deep emotional pain or trauma from the past
• Addiction counseling
• Making decisions for you
• Diagnosing mental or physical health issues
• Parenting
• Telling you what to do
• Licensed legal or financial advising

All turbulent and messy times are welcome! A mistake I see people make all to often is thinking they need to figure some things out before they start coaching. Well, that’s exactly what coaching is for. You don’t have to have it all together to begin coaching. You just have to be ready for it to be different, willing to release what doesn’t serve you, open to consider different  decisions and creating new ways of thinking that propel transformed habits and patterns. In fact, if you have all your ducks neatly in a row as the rockstar you are, living your truth every day with joy and satisfaction, you may not need coaching. Only you know if you’re living to your highest potential in a life and career you love.

After a great deal of diverse training and experience about what works over the last 12 years of coaching clients (I’m almost always learning something new), I have a robust toolbox that is customized especially for you and your needs.

I am the creator of a Strategic Formula for Career Power and Relief. Yes, that’s CPR, so you can breathe again. You will step on your journey somewhere along this path, depending on where you are when you reach out. This is a fluid and creative formula that allows us to move throughout each milestone with plenty of spaciousness to expand and work in the direction that’s right for you because this is how true learning occurs.

Can you see where you are on the Career Power and Relief Path?

• Put Out The Fires
• Upgrade Your Software (You 2.0)
• Double Click on What Already Works
• Who Are You Outside the Box of Your Business Card?
• Create an Open Door Policy for Prosperity
• Design Your Escape
• Make Someday Today

Therapy is about excavating the past, looking at family of origin issues and processing deep feelings. Working with a therapist might include exploring issues such as addiction, grief, eating disorders, low self-esteem, physical, sexual or emotional abuse.

Career coaching focuses on the present and the future and relates to specific goals. In other words, coaching focuses on closing the gap between where you are presently and where you would like to be in your life. A coach asks powerful facilitation questions, listens closely and guides the client to their own answers.

I may change hats at times, with your permission, and act as a consultant, making suggestions or offering career change advice. This might include such things as recommending books, job search resources, resume and cover letter writing, business start-up consultation, practicing behavioral interviewing skills, etc.

• First, think about what you are looking to get out of career coaching.
• Then begin to search for a coach that specializes in your primary area of challenge, incompletion or frustration.
• Look for the spark and rapport you feel when connecting on the phone as you speak with a potential career coach.
• When exploring the opportunity to work with me, please talk to me here. If it looks like we could be a fit, you’ll receive an invitation to a Career Strategy Consultation to assess your overall career satisfaction, how it impacts other areas of life, what you want instead, your readiness to coach and your ideal learning style. If your greatest challenges are in alignment with my strengths, I will invite you to be my client to design your life and career based on the truth of who you are.

I am a Certified Life and Career Coach, trained by the Life Purpose Institute, accredited by the International Coach Federation. In addition to my professional certifications in both career and life coaching (because your career doesn’t happen in a vacuum), I am a Certified Money Breakthrough Coach to help you release your unproductive money beliefs and transform your financial fears so you never have to feel stuck in golden handcuffs again. I work with a 7 Step Model for Clarity & Results that is not only creative, fun and results-oriented, but integrates all aspects of who you are. I am passionate about self-discovery and facilitate many powerful exercises that help you uncover your natural gifts and what truly fulfills you.

Additionally, I hold a BA in Psychology as well as a BS in Mass Communications and have successes in every type of career model. These include starting my own business twice, climbing the ladder at a worldwide corporation, managing a team at a national public company, and consulting at a fast-growing start-up, and family-owned business. I am an excellent planner, brainstorming partner and creative problem-solver with two decades of experience as a corporate manager, business owner and marketer. And as a bonus, I have even trained personally with Julia Ross, renowned author of The Mood Cure in Amino Acid Therapy and nutritional solutions to stress and your bad mood.

You may:

• become more committed to what you want.
• discover exactly what is ideal for you.
• create clarity that allows you to make decisions with ease.
• take decisive action that moves you forward with increased momentum.
• complete goals that you have been unable to achieve on your own.
• be committed to your own growth.
• put your physical and emotional health first for optimal balance.
• get out of your own way and move beyond the ways you stop yourself.
• increase your confidence and learn to stand in your power with grace & style.
• close the gap between what you say you want and what you’re actually doing in your life.
• experience freedom and the rhythm of your own satisfaction.
• find your dream job, transform the job you have into a job you love, start a new career, develop or grow your own business.

Clients work with me all different lengths of time, depending on where they start and where they want to go to reach all of their goals. The way you like to work, your learning style, what you want to achieve and the complexity of the situation will impact the length of our coaching together.

It also very much depends on how quickly you want to move forward. Some people need or prefer speed so I offer intensive solutions for them while others want to change habits and patterns which tend to need accountability and focus over a longer period of time. So for some, it’s one intensive day together while for others it’s a few months to a few years.

Especially for those who ultimately launch their own business, we may even work together longer to expand your business platform, products or services, your team and ultimately your income because you get  the bonus of a Career Coach who also has 20 years of branding and marketing experience in her toolbox.

Once I am your coach, the door is always open to you. Some clients do return for new chapters of work together when they are ready to take on something new or to access support on an imminent decision or impending action.

Yes, I work in person in Boulder, CO or cities I occasionally travel to for private retreats in half day, full day and 2-3 day programs I call VIP Days, where you get me all to yourself in a very concentrated period of time. In some case, where you cover my travel expenses, I’d be happy come to you.

Additionally, I host group mastermind retreats and workshops at various times throughout the year. All other programs are offered on the telephone via conference line across the US and to English speakers around the world.

Expenses for continuing education to maintain and grow your business and professional skills may be tax deductible in the US. Please discuss this with your accountant to learn more.

I am committed to results and having each session be meaningful and productive. I ask you to take responsibility for creating value and results for yourself. I see myself as a career coach so it is primarily up to you to do the work and apply what you have learned to your life, to ask for what you want each session, and to give me feedback about what works or doesn’t work for you. The results of our work together are cumulative with the best results happening because of your consistency and follow through.

As a client, your role is to:

• Be willing to invest in yourself.
• Name the takeaways you would like to have.
• Arrive or call me at the agreed upon time.
• Be centered and ready to work.
• Allow time to process what you learned and complete the action steps you agree to take on.
• Be open-minded. Try new approaches. Experiment.
• Be willing to change your beliefs and patterns if they no longer serve you.
• Negotiate what feels “do-able” for you, understanding that I ask clients to leap out of their comfort zone so they can create exactly the life they want.

As your coach, my role is to:

• Listen intently to what you say and what you may not have noticed.
• Ask powerful questions that create new possibilities.
• Offer objective observation.
• Be an accountability partner.
• Help you close the gap from where you are to where you want to be.
• Provide a sounding board to volley with.
• Hold up your vision, even when you forget.
• Ask you to stretch yourself through action.
• Support you to achieve your goals through a variety of powerful techniques.
• Maintain professional boundaries including confidentiality.
• Offer career change advice.

Yes, I have worked with life partners, business partners and team members in a coaching duet to develop goals, uncover blocks, make decisions, implement strategies, and provide accountability support to bring action plans to fruition. Duets are two clients working together as a team to create a shared personal and/or business vision in partnership. If you’re interested in working in a duet, both people must be present on our initial consultation call as one partner may not just sign the other person up. Together we will create a program that works for both of you, based on collective wants and needs. 

Note that a duet is not designed for two people who just happen to be working on the same types of challenges at the same time. (There may however, be a Mastermind Group that is a fit for this purpose so please contact Barb to inquire. 

I know you love them and want them to be happy although, for the coaching to be successful, the desire to make a change must emanate from the individual. Am happy however, to answer general questions, but ultimately the person seeking support needs to complete the questions here. If they are appropriate for coaching, they will be invited to book a complimentary Career Strategy Consultation and the two of us will determine if we are a good fit and the timing is right. If you would like to sponsor their investment, please see next question.

Yes! This is a very generous and wonderful sponsorship. Both the client being coached as well as the financial sponsor will sign program contracts, but the coaching will remain 100% confidential. If the client stops coaching for any reason, the owner of the credit card being used, will be responsible for the balance of the coaching fees associated with the program commitment. My strong recommendation is that the two parties have VERY clear agreements between them about how this will work and the what if scenarios, if needed. 

If you would like to surprise someone with a gift, I can offer a gift certificate for a single 90 minute Career Strategy Breakthrough Session to start, giving us a chance to make sure we are a fit and do some initial work. If at that point, it appears the client is a candidate for a longer term program, an invitation may be extended for further coaching.