Clicky

Coach Interview Series: Cynthia Escobar

by Brandon

Cynthia Escobar

Transformational Life Coach

thepowerofspirit.org

Our main objective here at the National Coach Academy is to enable aspiring coaches to reach their full professional potential. One of the most effective ways to educate students about the world of coaching is by offering them a window into the world of real, practicing coaches and showing them all the different ways coaches make a difference in the lives of their clients.

We hope today’s interview adds another insightful glimpse into the dynamic world of coaching.

Today we are interviewing Cynthia Escobar. Cynthia is a Transformational Life Coach based in Pasadena, California.

NCA: Can you describe your coaching practice and the kinds of clients you typically work with?

Cynthia: I’m a transformational life coach. The key to transforming any area of life is understanding how our thoughts influence our results — whether they’re negative thoughts or expansive thoughts. The thoughts we think most consistently directly create our results.

Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you’re right.” That is the basis of my teaching. I work with my clients to help them discover the thought patterns that they have within them that are stopping them from creating the level of success that they desire. Then we work on replacing those thoughts with thoughts that are in support of more expansive results.

I work with clients that want to experience more expression and more abundant in various domains of life. For some of my clients, it’s financially. For others, it’s in the area of health or love. And then others, it’s in relationships: the dynamic of their relationship with themselves and with other people.

The clients come in with one or two major areas that they want to focus on. I help them recognize how their thoughts hinder or support them, and then give them tools to start working with their thoughts. When they work with their thinking in one area of life, they learn the tools to shift their thinking in a different area of life and therefore, create different results. Once they discover how powerful their thoughts are and how their thoughts are responsible for the results that they create, they get to use this wisdom forever more!

NCA: In working with your clients, what would you say is the most rewarding part of that process and on the flip side of that, what is the most challenging aspect of the work that you do?

Cynthia: The most rewarding aspect of working with clients is when they have those A-ha moments and they’re able to discover the ways in which they’re stopping themselves from moving forward. And of course, the transformation that I see over and over again with the clients I’m working with. I watch them light up to new awareness and then I see them activate it. That is such an exceptional feeling.

As I watch my clients transform their own lives, they also become really an inspiration for the people in their life. That’s another fun thing. I invite all coaches to really pay attention to how that happens because not only are our clients transforming their own lives, but they really are going out there and making an impact in the lives of others by simply understanding the principles you teach and putting them on.

The most challenging part is when I listen to my clients and I can see the blocks in their thinking. I can see where the thinking needs to be shifted, but I can’t tell them that. Because if I tell them, “Oh look, here’s your block. This is where you need to change your thinking,” it’s not going to fully make sense to them.

My opportunity as a coach is to ask questions that will help them to discover that mental block on their own. It takes some skill to really be able to help them bring the answers up from within them instead of me directly telling them. It’s the most challenging thing, but it’s also the greatest opportunity for me to learn. It’s about asking the questions that are going to bring forth the awareness from my clients versus me directly telling them what I see in their actions and behavior and thought patterns.

That is really a skill. It is something that we develop as coaches. An understanding for how to ask the right questions, and then give them the moments of silence so they can process and discover the answer from within. It takes understanding and a certain level of knowledge. Intuition and wisdom, as well. I get better at it every time I work with a client. It’s not something that’s innately who I am. It is something that I’ve learned to do. But when you get there and you really understand how to help the person have their own awareness, then you’re a master coach.

Once they discover how powerful their thoughts are and how their thoughts are responsible for the results that they create, they get to use this wisdom forever more!

NCA: Can you think of a mentor or a coach in your own career who was the most vital to your success and in what ways did this mentor help you thrive in your career?

Cynthia: I have several mentors and I like to explore mentors. I keep myself working with mentors because that’s the only way that I can invite my clients to do the same. I simply cannot make others do what I am unwilling to do.

The biggest mentor for me is Mary Morrissey. She is the creator of the Life Mastery Institute which is where I’m certified through. They give mentorship not only in the transformational principles for me as an individual, but they have mentors in business that work with us. Mary Morrissey is definitely the number one impact on my business.

However, I have various mentors that I work with because I continue to grow and expand as an individual. I seek out teachers that I resonate with and I listen to them quite a bit online before I decide, “Okay, I’m going to check this person out.” Normally, I’ll work with different mentors for about three months at a time.

My spiritual mentor is Michael Beckwith. He’s made a tremendous impact on me as an individual, which is essential for me to then offer that to my clients.

I want to hear as many different voices as I can because every mentor has a different way of communicating their message and I will pick up different things from different people.

NCA: One of the most common challenges new coaches face is self-doubt. Some coaches call it Imposter Syndrome, where early on they feel somehow inadequate to take on the role of coach. What is one piece of advice that you would give to somebody who is in the beginning stage of their coaching career and dealing with these doubts in their mind?

Cynthia: I’ve been there. It’s definitely something that I worked through.

For a coach, it is absolutely essential to be working with a mentor, because that’s what you’re seeking to create with their own clients. You want to have a coach that will help and guide you, so that not only are you coaching others, but you’re experiencing it, too.

Secondly, you only have to be one step ahead of your clients. If you know a little bit more than your client, you can add value to that person’s life. Remember, you only have to be one step ahead. If you’re studying, if you have mentorship, if you’re starting to understand the principles you teach, you already know more than 80% or 90% of the people out there. When you’re consistent with it and you allow yourself to move forward being one step ahead of your clients, you’ll start seeing the transformation that’s created for your clients.

Once that has happen, then you’ll truly understand your potential and your power no matter how old the client, how young the client, or what area the client wants to focus on. Once you start seeing that your clients are creating results, that’s when you embody the truth that you are a value to whoever you work with. You just have to allow yourself to move through the initial stage, which is being one step ahead of your client, and also working with a mentor, so that that mentor can help you move through those insecurities and hesitations.

Once I went into a senior center and I was speaking there and I had two people sign up with me. There was this fear, because I’m 38 years old, that I wasn’t capable of coaching somebody that’s twice my age. My teacher told me, “You know, Cynthia, there is experience that comes with life and then there’s wisdom. Wisdom is ageless. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are.” What she was specifically referring to was the knowing that our thoughts create our results. When you tap into that and you know that, you’re able to give it to somebody else no matter how their experience varies from yours.

There’s knowing and going through experiences that other people have gone through and then there’s the wisdom of how this universe works. When you get in touch with that, it doesn’t matter who you’re sharing it with. You’re sharing this infinite wisdom that’s ageless. That was really an important lesson for me in overcoming the fear of coaching.

Previous post:

Next post: