Evergreen Life Coaching | Megan Chadwick

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."

In this episode, we chat with Megan Chadwick, the founder of Evergreen Life Coaching, to explore the transformative power of coaching. Megan shares her personal journey into life coaching, offering insights into what inspired her to help others navigate life’s challenges.

We delve into her coaching philosophy, discussing how she empowers her clients to unlock their potential and achieve meaningful change. As a special addition, Megan shares a sample of her coaching approach, offering listeners a firsthand glimpse into her techniques and how she helps her clients create positive change.

Whether you’re curious about life coaching or seeking inspiration for personal growth, this episode has something for everyone.

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"This Place, Our Voices" Credits:

Host: Elyssa Germain
Produced By: OneZeroCreative https://www.onezerocreative.co.uk/

Transcript

In this episode, we'll be diving into the world of life coaching as we're joined by Megan Chadwick from Evergreen Life Coaching, who's dedicated her career to helping people transform their lives by gaining self-confidence and self-belief. Good morning, Megan. thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

So, for those of us that are new to the world of live coaching, for you specifically, what is it that you offer your clients?

So, I help my clients to gain their confidence, to gain self-belief, to overcome things that are holding them back in life. If they have something that they want to achieve or reach, but their confidence is holding them back, I help them to gain that and really make the best out of their life and be the best version of themselves that they can.

What was it that inspired you to start a life coaching business?

I went through a quite a traumatic event in my life quite a few years ago and following that I eventually plucked up the courage and had a bit of counselling and it sort of gave me a, it sort of sparked something off inside me and I was like, oh, I really like this, you know, the transformation it does to people. I was like, this is what I want. So, I decided after having my little girl, I worked in a full-time job prior to that, and it was really, it was a job that used to drain me, used to really affect my self-confidence, and I just never felt good enough to be able to do better. And after having my little girl I decided that that wasn't the life that I wanted for her to be involved in and for me to go forward. So, whilst on maternity leave, I did my life coaching diploma and along with that it just completely transformed my life. It gave me the self-confidence and the self-belief. I was able to leave my full-time job that drained me, that constantly sort of doubted myself and it really gave me that opportunity to then set up my solar business which really is life coaching. And I've just not looked back since. And the transformation it's brought to my life, you know, my career and my relationships, you know, the mother I am now to my daughter is just incredible.

So, your belief comes from the fact it's given you exactly what you're trying to give to other people.

100%. Yeah. and you know, when I think back to how I was, I was somebody who always used to people, please. I always used to overthink everything, second guests, everything, and worry about absolutely everything and it's just no longer a part of me at all. Now and the freedom, and what that's brought to my life is just unreal.

Are there any common misconceptions about a life coach?

Yeah, I think a lot of people think that, you know, by reaching out for any form of help, whether it be a life coach or anything like that, but more so with a life coach, people think, oh, I, you know, I must have a mental health issue, you know, there's got to be something wrong with me to want to reach out for that help. And you know, it's not always the case. Yes, it is the case for some people, but just because you're wanting to better your life and get the most out of your life and become the best version of yourself, it doesn't necessarily mean that you've got to have I saying the word, you know, a mental health problem, you know, it's just a case of wanting to better yourself and get the best out of your life.

I think everyone, if they were honest with themselves, they've all got areas of self-improvement. and it's just those that are a bit more proactive, that think outside the box to go, I don't have to do this on my own, I could try a life coach. And I think a lot of celebrities do live coaching, don't they? So, they do definitely have that reputation of being so something that you do just as a matter of course. It doesn't have to be because of trauma or because of really bad anxiety, but just to be the best you that you can be.

Yeah, it's so true. And I think as well, I think especially you know, the type of, you know, clients that I have, you know, people who do lack that self-belief and have that horrendous fear of judgement, you know, a lot of the time you, especially nowadays, you know, people are so quick to judge, people are so quick to gives their opinion and that sort of holds a lot of people back and makes people scared to actually make that leap and take that step. But the change and the transformation are just unreal.

Is this a relatively new business for you?

Yes. So, I started my diploma about a year and a half ago.

Okay.

as part of that I had to do with 60 I was coaching. So, I then launched my business once I was fully qualified. Although some people do it beforehand. I waited and so I did start. I launched my business just at the beginning of summer.

Did you find any challenges that you encountered in those very early days?

I think the biggest challenge for me was sort of you know, getting my name out there. You know a lot of people haven't really heard of life coaching. A lot of people don't really understand what it is that I can do like you know, for their life. And I think a lot of people think yeah it probably would benefit me. But they just sort of sit on the sidelines and watch. So, you know, sort of getting my message across and my name out there been has been quite tough.

Would you say that you've got a niche or a specialty, something that you are extremely confident in dealing with?

I think somebody really that has been on the same sort of journey as me. You know, somebody who wants to gain their confidence and their self-belief wants to overcome that people pleasing then that constant worry or second guessing. You know, I feel like that is massively the area which you specialise in to help people overcome those fears really.

Is there a way that you measure your client success? Are there any success stories that really stick in your mind?

Oh yeah, quite a few really. I mean you know, just by each session, sometimes by seeing how somebody holds themself, you know the words you’re saying the things that they're doing. That alone is just amazing to watch that transformation front of me. But you know I've had a client who he was in a job that was really, really affecting his mental health but he never had the confidence to actually leave and find another job. Because not only the fear of leaving but also, he didn't have enough confidence to go and you know, have interviews and find that other job and he's actually found his dream job and the difference in the transformation has done to his life. It's unreal. I've had another client who She was in a really hard relationship who her partner actually was very manipulating, but she felt very trapped and didn't have the conf. You know, to step out. And just by gaining her self-confidence and seeing things differently has given her that like lease of life that she's now not trapped anymore. And it's just

Unreal.

It's just the best job ever.

So how is it that you help people gain confidence and self-belief?

What I firstly look at with my clients is their belief systems. Now a belief system is something that we have a belief about whether it ourselves, the world or other people. And this is something which is usually deep rooted from our childhood. So, I look at the real roots cause as to why somebody lacks their confidence and why somebody has that self-doubt all the time. Because yes, you can have strategies and tools in place to help you build your confidence. But actually, overcoming it, and gaining that self-confidence. You have to go right to the root of it, in my opinion. So, we get to the root, we see what truth is actually in that. Because a lot of the time or beliefs that we hold mainly about ourselves actually isn't the truth. And it usually comes from a negative experience or a learnt behaviour or something that we experience in life that creates that belief. So, we look at the belief, we heal if it needs healing, we look at reprogramming and rewriting, then we look at how we can help that move forward. So, the main thing really with my work is all about moving forward in life. We don't sort of talk about the past a lot, we don't go over that, we go to it and then we look at a ways to move forward. This is why life coaching sort of differs very much from other forms of therapy like counselling and things like that. So, once we then have worked on their belief systems, I then go into mindset. We look at mindset and about sort of getting rid of that automatic negative thought patterns, you know, when something happens, rather than us automatically going into that negative thought or that inner critic stepping in and telling us, you know, we're not good enough, we're not able to do whatever it may be. So, we work on mindset about getting more of positive mindset. We work on identity work and seeing truly what it is that somebody really wants to do in life, what it is that they're drawn to do, what lights them up. So, we do a lot of identity work. We do a lot of work with emotions as well, you know, understanding emotions and learning how to process emotions. Because a lot of the time, you know, we take on emotions from other people or we don't really know how to process emotions, and we have big outbursts, or we put them under the carpet and sort of bury them away. And it's about sort of, you know, truly connecting with yourself and really, you know, having the best care for yourself and gaining that self-love and understanding who you are as a whole.

I suppose one of the excuses that people will always have these days is even if they think that this is definitely something that they could benefit from, they just don't have the time. But what mediums are there that you work with people in?

Yeah, I totally agree. You know, everyone's so busy nowadays, so, in my one-to-one programme, they get a set amount of one-to-one coaching sessions that are an hour long, and they're old on via video call. It's in the comfort of their own home. They don't have to travel anywhere. It's straight away on your computer or phone and it's there for an hour. I also do support between sessions, which a lot of people don't do, which I think is so important to help them, you know, get through their journey. Because if we're having a every two weeks, you know, a lot of the time we have muscle memory, and we're so used to being a certain way and it's so easy to slip back down. So, I'm there to help support them, you know, sometimes as well, the work that we do, it can bring couple different types of emotions and a lot of the time people don't know where this is coming from, how to process it. So, I'm here to help support them through that as well. I will be looking at doing group sessions in the new year as well, which again is all going to be virtual. So that's something I'm going to be promoting in the new year, so watch out for that, which would be really exciting. And I've recently just launched a free audio series which is all done via an app, which is free, where I'm dropping voice notes in just to give people a bit of a taste to really about what it is that I do and just to help give them a bit of insight about themselves and learn a little bit about themselves. It's more of the foundations of my coaching.

And, just in case anyone is wondering what that is all about, we're going to be putting a little sample at the end of this podcast for you. So, you don't need to go anywhere, do anything, just keep listening. Is there any way that people can find out more specifically about your business and what you do and how you may be able to help them?

Yeah, of course. So, they can reach out to my social media accounts. So, my company name is Evergreen Life Coaching. I'm on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok and I'm always putting posts on there as well. But they can direct message me through those social medias. If they've got any questions or anything they want to speak to me about, I can have a call with them.

Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Megan. It's really opened my mind to the benefits of just speaking to people and perhaps a life coach is something that somebody listens to, this may benefit from.

You're more than welcome. I've really enjoyed it, so thank you for having me.

Thank you.

• • •

Belief system. A belief system is something that we develop as to be true. So, this is a belief that we may have about the world, what we may have about ourselves, or what we may have about. Well, anything, really. And a belief is usually developed between the ages of 0 and 7. It can be something that is developed from an event that happens to us, something that we witness or a learnt belief from role models such as parents or teachers. And if a belief is something which has been created within the age of 0 to 7, that is something which has started out in our minds and then as we get older, we try and find things, we look for things to try and cement that belief, to make that become the truth. I will use an example of confidence throughout, but this can be used with a number of different. Well, anything, really. So, for an example, if you have a lack of confidence that may have been from. This is just an example. It's not the case for everybody. But this is just to give you a bit of an understanding as to how a belief can form and then how we can develop and what impact that has on us. So, for example, a child at school, they may be bullied, and they may be bullied by their appearance and that then becomes something that, well, if all these children are saying this to me, I'm going to start believing this to be true. And then over time, this is something which is cemented into our minds, and we'll pick apart ourselves. We will tell ourselves that we look a certain way, or we behave or act in a certain way. And this is a negative thing because somebody's allowed us to believe that to be true. And then over the years, this is something which is potentially going to hold us back because we see ourselves looking different, acting different or behaving different. This can then snowball as to, oh, I'm not gonna have any friends when I'm at high school. I'm going to struggle to get a job when I'm older because of this thing. I'm not going to find a partner in life because of this thing. And this can have a real detriment effect to us just from that one thing that happened to us when we were a child. Now, this event, for an example, whether it be in a bullying thing or anything else, it doesn't have to be a big event. It may be something that you don't even realise has happened. It can be big, it can be small, it can be taken any way, but it's something which is cemented slightly in our mind and then we choose to Make a subconscious effort to make that the truth. So, you can see how something so crucial like that happens to us. Or sometimes it can be a traumatic event that you witness for somebody else. So, for example your parents breaking up when you were a young child and you see the effect that that has on your parents and that's something that then you may have then a fear and a belief of when I'm older, if I find somebody that they're gonna leave me or whatever happened. For your parents you can then see that as a traumatic event and believe that to be true for yourself because you see that that is what happens in life. An example of a learnt behaviour can be if your parents or your teacher, for an example, if a teacher says to you if you'll be naughty at school or you're never gonna get anywhere in life, you know you're gonna fail at life, that is something that you can then start to believe to be true. And then as you're older, well I'm not gonna try that because I don't want to fail. The fear of failing is too strong because of what I've been told about myself and, and I now believe that to be true. So, I hope this is making a lot of sense for everybody. But it's just to give you an understanding of what a belief system is and how it is formed. And it doesn't always have to be something which is formed from the age of 0 age to 7, it can be formed at any time. But these are real deep-rooted beliefs that we have. And for me a really, really powerful way to overcome something like lacking confidence is to find out where it truly stems from. When you truly find out where that stemmed from, only, only then can you unpick it. And only then can you see the truth in it. Only then can you do your healing. And only then can you rewrite that belief. When you understand that it's not true, when you no longer are triggered by it, when you now see yourself in a different light and reframe that so it's super, super powerful. And this is something, the journey that I take on a lot with my one-to-one clients, this is something that we start off at the beginning because the power in it is unreal. And yes, you can try different things and different tactics to try and build your confidence but if you've always got that belief deep down, maybe something that you're not even aware of, of having, then how are you ever going to be able to move forward with the confidence or whatever it may be I'm just using confidence as an example, but how are you ever then going to be able to move forward if you've always got that belief about yourself? We've now determined what a belief is and understood how it develops, how they form in our minds and how they can snowball. So, what we now need to do is see what truth there is in that belief. Is it your belief? Is it a belief that you've taken on from somebody else? Is it a belief that you've witnessed to be true, and you need to almost sort of, like I say, this is something which I massively do a lot with my one-to-one clients. But to do it with yourself, what you really need to start doing is looking at where that truly, truly stems from. Think back when was the first time you remember having the confidence that you wish to have? Do you ever remember a time where you ever had that confidence? Is there anything that truly stands out in your mind as an event or something that happened or something that was said to you as a child? Maybe that really stands out, that really triggers you, that makes you think that you're not good enough, that you're lack confidence, where that's lack of enough self-belief really comes from. It may be that it wasn't necessarily something that happened, it may be something there was a lack of. Were you ever told you were good at something? Were you ever told your parents, or your teachers were proud of you of something? Because again, it doesn't necessarily have to be something which has happened, it can be something which didn't happen. And you have the lack of that makes you think, well why am I then worthy of having that? Because I've never had that. It's about sort of unpicking. Some people like to write it down and almost think, right, well where did that come from? Well, where did that come from? Where did that come from? Till you really get to the pure root of it. Once you've then found that pure root, you can then look how much truth is in that. Yes, it may be an event that's happened, that may have been quite a traumatic event, or something you've witnessed, or something that you've been told time and time again over your life, or something you've told yourself time and time again. But actually, how much truth is in that? Whether it's something that you need to sort of heal yourself from. Whether that being writing a letter to yourself as a child, talking to yourself, giving yourself that understanding of actually there's no truth in it and actually you are a good person. You do deserve whatever it is that you'll feel like you are lacking. Try and fulfil that lack now as an adult, whether it be to your child or whether it's something that you need to fulfil yourself now. So now we've understood that possibly there may not be any truth in it. Again, this is really quiet something that can be quite tricky to do on your own because you've still got that mindset. I want you to look at how you can reprogram that. So, this is something which takes a long time, especially if it's something which was developed as a child. It becomes muscle memory, and it becomes the automatic response that we go to because we again believe that to be true. Especially if it's something which has perhaps been told by a role model such as a parent. It can be quite hard to think that you're disagreeing with them or disobeying them. But if it's something which isn't benefiting you, which is really affecting you, you really need to have a look, at finding a way to help it really impact you positively. Have a look at how this can be seen differently. I'm going to go back to the example of being bullied at school. A child is being bullied at school, so they're picking on you because of how you look or how you dress or how you act. Truly, what is their reason picking on you? Is it truly because of how you look? Is it truly because of how you act or what you wear? Or do you think it could possibly be from a place of their own lack, something that they're not getting as a child? And they, especially children, do not know how to process their emotions. They do not how to understand them. So sometimes their way of dealing with it is by projecting their feelings and their anger, whatever it may be, onto somebody else, by trying to make themself feel better by picking, on somebody else. So, there's always another way of looking at it. There's always a different reason as to why something's happened. And it's about understanding that and it's about learning from that and not allowing that to impact us negatively. Trying to see it from a different angle and trying to allow that to then positively impact us, to no longer hold us back so we can actually move forward. If this is something that you feel like you need a little bit of support or a little bit of guidance, then just message me directly and I'd be happy to give you a little bit of guidance, or support with that.