Room 11 Coaching | Anna Bates

"The purpose of coaching is to close the gap between potential and performance."

In this episode, we sit down with Anna Bates, founder of Room 11 Coaching, to explore the power of self-belief, resilience, and personal growth. Anna specialises in coaching individuals and teams to unlock their full potential, whether through her Telesales Masterclass, her Maternity Coaching Programme, or one-to-one mindset coaching.

We discuss the importance of confidence in both personal and professional life, how coaching can transform the way we approach challenges, and practical strategies to build resilience. Anna also shares how she finds inspiration in nature—especially through wild water swimming—and how reconnecting with the outdoors can help reset the mind.

Whether you're looking to improve your sales skills, navigate career transitions, or simply feel more empowered in your journey, this episode is packed with insights to help you move forward with purpose.

https://www.room11coaching.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/room11coaching

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-bates-woodhart/

If you would like to feature as guest on a future episode of This Place, Our Voices, submit your application via our form: https://bit.ly/podme

"This Place, Our Voices" Credits:

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

Transcript

We're joined by Anna from Room 11 Coaching, a successful Nantwich based coaching company who help people and businesses all over the country. Welcome Anna.

Hello.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today.

Thank you for asking me.

So just to begin, what's the story behind Room 11 coaching? How did it all start?

I have a lifelong like of helping people. It's kind of who I am. It's just me. Yeah and I have spent the last 18 years teaching babies to swim. I own was babies locally and in the lockdown in the pandemic obviously they shut tal swimming pools highlighted how vulnerable my business was and two ladies that I worked with that were fellow franchisees are ah business psychologists and they said we think you'd be really good at this coaching. Which I didn't really know what business coaching or transformational coaching which is what my qualification is was about because my natural approach to helping people is to help them to find a way of doing it themselves anyway so it kind of comes, it's in me, it's how I am. My mum was a teacher, my dad used to swim. We teach years ago and so I think naturally it's about working stuff out which what coaching is has help people to do. So I did this qualification it was an 18 month diploma in transformational coaching which is accredited by the EMCC, the European Mentor and the Coaching Council which I'm really proud of because there's a lot of range of scope in terms of qualifications in business coaching. So there's people who haven't got any quals at all and doesn't make them that they're bad just they don't have any calls and then there's all the way through to people who are much more qualified than me as well. I did that qual with really the aim of I knew that I was going to have to help my team back after the pandemic I was aware that I would need support me and to look at another revenue stream as well. Fast forward now five years and I took step back from Water Babies last August and I made the transition to running room 11 full time. So I mean the name itself now I know more about the number 11 as well. It's even more incredible. But the name room 11, when you're starting a business it's really difficult to find a name really difficult. And the two ladies, Heidi and Roe, my friends who suggested that I do this course, we all go skiing with a group of us every year and we all share room 11. And so it's. That's where that name came from. But actually 11 is a healing number. It's a helping number. And I had no idea because I've definitely embraced my more spiritual woo woo side over the last year or so. And so it's really apt. Yeah, really. my logo is a mountain, which is because we're up in the mountain skiing obviously. So yeah, that's where it came from.

I was going to ask where room 11 came from actually, funnily enough. So obviously this podcast is this place. Our voice is produced by one zero Creative, which is also myself at one zero ten that's my number. It's funny how we take little snippets things and put them into our passion.

And I didn't even realise that somebody said to me about eight months ago, number 11 has loads of significant meanings. And when I googled it, oh my word. And it's all about helping people and providing guidance and assistance and which is exactly what we do as a coach. So yeah, it's perfect.

It's also quite strange how Covid was a pinnacle point in time that just catapulted them in a completely different direction.

Yeah. And actually on a kind of more sombre note on that, one of the people who I cherished very, very dearly in my life was the guy who was our MD, Group CEO and water babies, Steve Franks. And he had always said to me, and you're really good at it. Like you're really good at helping people, you're really good at, at ah, teaching people, at training people, at nurturing people. You should do more of this. Which obviously I was teaching babies in toddlers swim. So I was doing that but from a grown up adult side as well. And he passed away in Covid of COVID And it was, you know, the ripple effects in the industry and wider and very much, you know, for his family and friends and the water Babies family were immense. And I felt like when I did that, while it was almost a little bit for him as well, not for him, but I always thank him.

His words inspired you.

Yeah, absolutely. And he was like my work dad as well. So, And now I didn't know for ages. Couldn't talk about without crying, but I now I'm good. But I think you know that we all have guides, Don't when we have people in our posse that are the people who inspire us and who teach us how to be and help us how to be. And he is definitely 100% in mind.

Well I was gonna ask you what sparked your passion for coaching businesses and individuals but I think we've already covered that.

I think it's just who I am. Yeah, just who I am. I've always, always done it. I love doing it. And my background is in sales years ago because I flunked my A levels as you do. well as I did. And so when I got job in telessales and I was just good at it and then I always wanted to train people and I deliver a sales and communications training course now as well as part of that because I just love watching people grow.

What was it that made you go from just individuals on a one-to-one scenario to businesses?

I think I've just got a lot of experience. I've got experience running businesses. My dad is self-employed so I've watched that growing up as well and I think I've just got that knowledge and that experience. So it made sense. Because transformational coaching actually is not specific to business or personal. It's a very wide spectrum of helping people to have a transformation to transform an area of their life, whatever that may be. And it just so happens that my comfort place is in business and specifically helping senior leadership teams to develop, helping business owners to step back. You know I've been there, I've done that. I've been there with three young children. and being the go to person for everything in my business and learning how to take a step out of that and into strategic management instead is massively important for people. Just where I am happy.

What sort of people or businesses could benefit from your work?

Any really but I enjoy working with people in sports and leisure industries because that's kind of my whole world. It's my background and I, I play a lot of sport myself. I don it anymore. I'm old and crocked now. My children play sport and both my sons play rugby. One of my sons literally plays rugby like five, six times a week. So I'm constantly on side of rugby pitch. I think it's just where I feel naturally comfortable. But from a business point of view really I don't need to have any knowledge of the industry because I'm not mentoring them. I am from a purely coaching point of view. I'm helping them to identify what blockers they have, what might be their challenges or what might be their areas that they're really good at but can improve more and then helping them to work out ways to improve it. It's not about me telling them what to. In fact if you're working with a business coach who is specifically coaching, not mentoring or consulting. They should never be telling you what to do because that's when you are getting your level of thinking yourself is when you're doing yourself. My job is to hold a safe, confidential, non-judgmental space. The content and the outcome is all the coaches.

So you're coaching that person within their role and what they do personally, not what they're doing. For the company itself there's an overlap really.

For example, if somebody came to me to work on career transition.

That's very specific to what's going on in their job. But there will be elements of that that look at personal stuff that they've got and then there'll be elements of it that look at professional skill sets where they've got skill set gaps, where they've got stuff that they might want to leave in their old role or take through to their new role. Confidence, for example. Confidence is. Anybody can suffer from imposter syndrome and I know that firsthand. I've had to overcome that. I'm sure we've all experienced that, that for group CEO ah where a multi million pound company can still be in existence. It will directly impact the decisions that they make in their business. But it is very personal. It's an emotions based experience for them. So a lot of what I talk to people about is emotion space which think sometimes puts people off. I I don't know if you've been to the Nantwich Business Owners Club, but the Nantwich Business Owner Club locally it makes me laugh because I was at one of their meetings last year and I think people in the room were just like this is Anna and she makes people cry. I was like no, I don't make people cry at all. But a lot of the time there can be an emotional response to questions that we ask. Inviting coaches to look at themselves at the emotional response. It means that it's, it matters and that's when it means it's working and that's why it's so important it's confidential because obviously I don't talk to people about what we talk about in sessions but it's that change in people.

I think we are becoming a lot better talking about our feelings openly with people or within safe spaces like you say.

Well for businesses if you can create or you can give your employee something that is going to help maintain their mental well-being. Yeah from a very mercenary business point of view financially you have less Staff sickness. You have better retention of staff because they're not looking for a different role because they're not happy in this role. So people are more invested in their works, they're more productive in their work. It's a no brainer. A no brainer.

Absolutely. I think we are getting there. With business owners understanding how important that is. I still think we've got a long way to go.

A massively long to go. A massively long way to go. If you go to America, everybody has a therapist and everyone works with a business coach.

It's the norm. Yeah, yeah.

It's just here we seem to still have this reluctance to talk about feelings. People who come to me for coaching because they want to, that's brilliant. People who come to me for coaching through, through a business, sometimes I've got a bigger resistance to it because they go, well I don't why do I need coaching? And because people think that it means there's something wrong with them or there's a weakness. It's not a weakness. There's just a raising of awareness of where our opportunities for growth are.

Yeah, that's it. What were the biggest challenges that you faced in the early days?

Oh my God. My own imposter syndrome.

Yep.

Massively. And moving from a business that I knew and loved. I guess the transition when I went from water Babies to room 11, that was probably quite a challenging time for me. I loved what I did in water babies. So the decision to move on from that was I ah, had to feel it in my tummy. I'm very much my intuition tells me when stuff's right and that told me when that was right. But it was a challenge to work out who I was. My eldest son was in Australia and I went to Australia for two weeks on my own to take any of m my other children with me because I was kind of I just need to go see Jack and just be for two weeks. And it just really helped me to overcome that. But yeah, that was probably my biggest challenge really. I mean in the early, early days of doing my qual it was actually studying. Cause I haven't done any studying, didn't go to uni, haven't really done any studying since then. So all of a sudden I've got to write 5,000 word essays. I was like, oh my God. I'm not really a problem finder. I'm a solution based person. I always try and look for the solutions that we can do. So just keeping on going, what would.

You Consider to be your biggest achievement with Room 11 coaching so, far.

probably what I'm gonna say is a bit controversial, actually. I. It's not intended to be controversial at all. There's a huge movement around women in business at the moment and helping women in business and inspiring women in business. And you know, I've been a woman in business for 20 years, so I totally understand and I've seen firsthand what it's like to be a woman in business when. When you are not taken seriously. I have a real issue with us not then supporting men in business as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, a lot of my friends are, men in business and I see where they need extra support. So I would say probably the thing that I'm most proud of is the men that I've helped. The blokes that have helped who, when I've looked at them, I've thought you and never in a month or Sunday is going to talk to me about. And that's my own assumption which I should obviously shouldn't have. So I know that and I close that down. But you. Another a month or Sunday's going to talk about feelings and emotions. And in fact, one chap that I coach literally said to me the first time we sat down was like, well, don't talk about feelings. I was like, okay. And by session three he was talking about feelings. And I think it's not that I don't want to support women in business though. That's not the controversial because I absolutely do and I support everyone. That's just who I am. But I think the thing I'm most proud of is the support that my business then gives to blokes in business who wouldn't normally ask for iteah because they're no less susceptible to mental health dips than anyone else. In fact, probably more so. Yeah. Because they don't naturally talk about it.

Yeah.

So giving them a safe space to talk through stuff is brilliant.

I totally agree. The issue that we've got with how business has been very male dominated and we're pushing that needle back the other way. We have to be very careful to not let the pendulum go too far the way.

Yeah. There's a whole debate, isn't there, about women in business and glass ceilings and all of that. And I absolutely see that and I don't. I'm not disagreeing with any of that. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't support LUS in business.

Absolutely.

As well. Yeah. Let's just get parity. That's what we need. We need fairness and equality across the board. That means that we also need to give support here because a lot of actually the change that we can make to help the women in business have an easier ride is to educate the men who maybe didn't have the emotional awareness in the first place. So it's twofold. And that again is controversial. I know, because lot blokes will go, but I have and we won't get into that.

How do you stay inspired yourself, Ann? And where do you go for new ideas?

I mean, my children are my inspiration. They're my driving force without a shadow of a doubt that I have three children. They are the reason I do everything that I do in my life. So that's probably where I, I certainly get my motivation to get up and work hard every day because I want to provide for them. Get a lake and I go for a swim or I walk up a mountain or I get on a beach and that gives me just, it just kind of opens my soul, I guess, to ideas coming in and I find that all the time. Yeah. Just give myself some space.

Are you cold water swimmer? Are you?

Yeah.

That's crazy.

I know. And actually I've been doing that since I was about three. I think it just makes me laugh. I'm considering joining a Wim Hof group actually at the moment because I am really interested in the breathing side of it.

Okay.

Yeah. It's just I need to have a bit of time to do that. So when I do. But I just go to Alderford and just get in the lake. Alderford, go for a swim. I love it.

Why not? Are there any specific partnerships or collaborations that have been key to your growth so far?

Yeah, definitely. There's specific businesses that I've worked with. They really given me a help in hand. I probably wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to talk about this without mentioning Jamie hall at Adherton because he know I know him, I've known him for a long time and I kind of said to him one day, I'm going to coach you and if you don't like it, I'll never ask you about it again. I'll do it for free. And if you, you went, oh, okay. And I worked with them for a long time and I really, really love it. I mean again, Heidi and Roe because their re business they both run businesses outside of Water Babies and they've certainly helped me. They've, you know, it's definitely been integral in, in My growth and I think sometimes we can be a bit harsh on ourselves. Really. I need to. It's something that I've worked on by going, do you know what? Actually I've grown a business from nothing to really quite a decent turnover. Six months, which is good still. Got a long way to go. and I've you. My vision for what I want to do with the business is, is obviously still evolving, but yeah, we'll see what opportunities come up. It's exciting.

What advice would you give somebody thinking, I don't know, I think this might be for me, but I'm not sure what would the start point be?

Just have a chat. Just come and have a chat with me. Because for anybody that's going to work with the coach, the coach has to be the right person for you. So although I get on with most people that I meet, that doesn't mean that I'm the right coach for everybody. and there might be a specific requirement that they have that is not what I do, but I will always be honest about that and I'll always own that. and they might want a mentor more than a coach. And that's a whole separate conversation. Coaching sits right in the middle of mentoring and therapy. It can. Sometimes people will sit down and go, I just need you to tell me what to do, Anna. I go, well, that's not what I do. So I can, you know, I might have personal experience with this I could offer, but actually prefer it if I didn't. Because then you think what options you've got yourself, you work it out for yourself. I just have a chat. If we never do anything, we'll never get anywhere. If you think it might be helpful, you don't have to commit. I have all kinds of different packages. I have 12 month packages, six month packages, one off ad, hot packages. Just let's have a chat. The first point is we sit down, we have a conversation, we go, what do you want to work on? And am m I the right person?

So is that first initial consultation that's like completely free of charge?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that can be the face to face or it can be over Zoom. I work with people in Devon, I work with people in Yorkshire. I can work with people in, Canada, Australia, wherever. It doesn't matter. Because technology now is so great, isn't it? You know, we can hold sessions on. I mean, having said that, you also hold sessions on Zoom for people in N Twitch sometimes was because time commitments. Yeah, that's the better way to do it. So, yeah, that initial conversation is totally free. The initial conversation is about the relationship building. So that's kind of the setting out of how do you want to work?

Hm?

How will you be best working? What do you want from me? Do you want challenged? Do you want me to keep you in line? Do you know, you go off on a tangent. What does it look like? What's the framework that we're going to work within? The first then initial session is about goal setting and that isn't necessarily going to tell you. I would say you'd need to commit to at least three.

Okay, so s the process there?

yeah, because you would then set your goals. You usually would have an overarching goal. Not always, but it usually would. And then we'll set some specific goals. Sometimes you can work on, that one goal over a couple of sessions, but more often than not we'll try and work through a goal in a session. And a session might last an hour, it might last too. So if we've got a specific time frame, we've got to get it done in an hour, then the process can be managed in that way. If there's a bit more flex around the time, then it just gives us a little bit more time to go, go a bit deeper into it, which it's good.

How do people find you online then? What, social media and website?

Yeah, I've got a website. It's room11coaching.co.uk and I'm on Facebook so it's @room11.coaching. I'm on Insta, but I'm working on my Insta so we'll you can visit my Instagram if you're like. You won't find a lot. And I'm on LinkedIn as well as Anna Bates woodhart, so it's my maiden name at the end as well. There's a couple of different packages that I am developing. They'll be released this year at some point and one is a maternity package for businesses. A friend of mine does specifically maternity coaching. So I would, if, if it's a big company, I'll refer them to her. But actually I do a maternity coaching package as well, which is just six sessions and it's for obviously the person who is pregnant to have a coaching session when they first let their employer know around what does that actually mean for them in their job. So it's to, help them to navigate what changes, what they might need so the employer can help support them the best they can. But also you know just to get the head around the fact that I'm going to go and have a baby and what that looks like practically as well as you know from a coaching point of view. Then a session just before they go off on maternity leave just to really help that transition. Especially for Well it's not especially for any particular type person but I know when I have my first trial the thought of stopping my job to go and have a baby was actually really daunting and I had no clue what I was going to do. So had I have had some coaching at that point to talk it through and to work out what it looks like that would have been really helpful. And then a session just before they come back which I think is probably one of the most important sessions because it's the I'm go going toa go back to work practically what does this look like? What considerations do I need to have had? And then emotionally how am I going to feel?

Yeah which is the big one isn't.

It when you I'm going to go back to work and leave my baby and and then a session after month one, month three and month six. So from an employer point of view it really, really makes your employees feel supported. So for businesses who have women who are going to go on maternity leave it's a game changer really. It's no brainer. And then coaching packages for senior leadership teams and for owners directors who want to take a step back from that day to day chaos. And I chuckle when I say it cause I know exactly how it feels. I do a two day business audit where I'll go in and look at their processes. How can streamline processes. I'll look at the organisational structure to make sure the structure supports their goals. We'll look at their vision and their goals short meet them and long term and then look at specific blockers within teams or within the directors and what's going on there. So it's a short sharp plan basically on how they can go about it and then if they want me to I can work with them to implement the plan as well. It almost gives them a chance to get to know me without committing to a long term plan. But also what they get from it is a way to step back from that day to day chaos. And you know it affects you in lots m of ways. Personally miss I missing God I've m missed sports days, I missed parents evenings. I at you was just it's so there's so much personally that having no time to think in your business.

And you don't get that time back.

No, you don't get that time back. I mean I missed a whole maternity leave with my middle child. He lived under my desk and in his cot. Car. It was my own business. I had to pay the wages. So yeah, I had him on the Thursday. I was back in my office on the Monday. I had to pay the wages and he slept. I just thought I may as well carry on working. That is definitely not a healthy way to be. Hence why there's a maternity course that developed as well.

Yeah. You know how not to do it and that's why you've built your.

I've done it and I don't want to sound condescending in any way when I say that at all. Just I've experienced it and I do know how it feels and So I can help others not to experience that and other thing that I do which she is kind of more under training arm than it is under coach consulting is I do a one day telesalees and effective communication and deliver an excellent customer service course and that can either be online or it can be face to face. So I can go into businesses, typically businesses in the leisure industry who might have a large number of people who are customer facing who are not natural salespeople but need to upsell or cross sell or just understand how important it is to deliver excellent customer service in order to retain clients. And so it's only a day, it's dead easy, it's fun, it's interactive, we play some games. It's not just death by PowerPoint. I wrote that course nine, ten years ago and I've delivered it ever since. I absolutely love it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today. It's been super informative and if anyone wants to get in contact with you for just the chat. Definitely please do.

Yeah, please do. Thank you.

Thank you.