What is coaching and do I need one with Clare Sutton Coaching |EP282

Clare Sutton, an accredited mindset coach, joins us to shed light on how coaching can be a game-changer for small business owners. Her journey from teaching English and working in the charity sector to becoming a coach illustrates the power of finding one's true calling. In our conversation, Clare reveals the unique role coaching plays in overcoming mental hurdles like self-doubt and procrastination, setting it apart from mentoring and therapy with its forward-focused and collaborative essence.

Our discussion spans the vast spectrum of coaching and mentoring, touching on the crucial need to understand the different roles and methodologies. I share why my own path led me to embrace mentorship in the podcasting world, where guidance is paramount. The episode underscores the interconnectedness of personal and professional challenges, advocating for a holistic approach that takes multiple perspectives into account. A personal anecdote involving a narrow specialist's advice serves as a reminder that compartmentalized expertise can sometimes miss the broader picture.

We wrap up with practical strategies for selecting the right coach, likening this relationship to a mountain guide helping you navigate your climb to success. While the coaching industry faces some skepticism, we offer a roadmap for making informed choices based on your individual needs, preferences, and budget. From understanding your unique goals to evaluating a coach’s qualifications and fit, this discussion equips you with the insights to find a partner who can truly empower your journey, without dictating your path.

Website https://www.claresuttoncoaching.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/claresuttoncoaching/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/claresuttoncoaching/

'We can Do Hard Things' by Glennon Doyle. 

The 5 Power Pillars of Podcasting 12th Dec 1pm UK register here > BOOK

www.donnaeade.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Exploring the World of Coaching
• 9:19 Navigating the Coaching Spectrum
• 17:43 Benefits of Having a Coach
• 23:32 Choosing the Right Coach Wisely

Transcript

Donna eade: 0:30

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their growth. John Whitmore, welcome back to the podcast. Everybody, I am so glad to have you here today with me and my guest, claire Sutton, welcome to the show.

Clare Sutton: 1:04

Oh, thank you so much, Donna, for having me. I'm super happy to be here and really looking forward to our chat today.

Donna eade: 1:11

Me too. Me too. So today, guys, we are going to be talking about coaching. This is something that has exploded in recent years. It's something that everybody seems to be a coach. There's coaches for this, coaches for that, coaches for the other thing, and it is a minefield out there. So we're going to be diving in to all things coaching. How can you spot a good one, why you might need one and all of the things. So first of all, claire, introduce yourself to us. Tell us a little bit about what it is that you do in your business and how you help people.

Clare Sutton: 1:48

Yeah, absolutely so. I'm Claire Sutton from Claire Sutton Coaching and I'm an accredited mindset coach who supports people who are running their own small businesses. So, yeah, yeah. So my clients typically they are service-based business owners and they're super passionate about what they do, their work and supporting their clients and customers, and usually they have so many great ideas and plans and strategies for what they want to do in their business. However, the challenge for them comes around feeling blocked in some way about what's happening in their mind and for some reason, whatever it may be, whether it's lack of confidence or self-doubt, procrastination these things stop them from being able to take the action that they want to in their business. So that's where I come in and that's where I'm really focused on. Supporting people is to helping them change the relationship that they're having with their mind so that they're able to work with their mind to support their business in the best way, instead of having that constant battle and tension with it.

Donna eade: 3:05

Love that Brilliant, and how on earth did you get into this line of business? So what's your background?

Clare Sutton: 3:12

Yeah, well, it's interesting because I would have never expected to be here if you'd asked me, you know, just a few years ago. Even I didn't even really know what coaching was until a few years ago, but my background has always been about working with people and supporting people to learn, to grow and to develop. So I started off as a teacher, teaching adults English as a second language, and then I moved into working in the charity sector and in the charity sector I was working a lot with people management and learning and development. So I was supporting a whole range of different people, from volunteers up to senior managers, and supporting them and their professional and personal development as well. And then it was for a charity that I was working for at the time who actually use coaches themselves to support their clients.

Clare Sutton: 4:07

And that's where I first found out about what coaching was, and it was honestly like one of those light bulb moments. I was like, oh, because I realized, okay, this is actually how I tend to work. Naturally, this is what I've been doing for years and supporting people, kind of coaching people with that empowering approach, which I absolutely love. You know, it's more about helping people find their own solutions as opposed to dictating what I think is right. So it was a beautiful mixture of that and then also recognizing this is I'm really good at this, this is where my skills lie and actually I can make a really big impact for people here with this. So I decided, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna train to be a coach.

Clare Sutton: 4:56

I didn't know at that point, you know who particularly I wanted to work with. I just knew I wanted the skill of coaching and be able to use that to help people. And then since then I've worked with a whole range of different people. But what I was recognizing is that over time, similar themes were coming up with the clients who were working with me as I mentioned you know, those mindset challenges and particularly with female clients as well coming to me who were working on their own businesses. So that's where I've kind of focused my attention now.

Donna eade: 5:30

Brilliant. I love that and it's great because you've kind of touched on what my first question was going to be in that. So it's great because you kind of touched on what my first question was going to be in that. So I would love for you to expand on that. A lot of us, you know, we see the word coach, we see the word therapist. There are other names, you know NLP practitioners. There's loads of different kind of names that float out there in the same sort of area. So what is the definition of a coach? What sets them apart? What makes them different to these other kind of helpers that we have.

Clare Sutton: 6:05

It's a really good question. And also, as you say, there's lots of practitioners who work across both, so they might be a coach and a mentor, a coach and a therapist. So, yes, I understand the confusion. So, in its purest form, coaching is really a collaborative relationship between the coach and the client, and it's where the coach is almost like a thinking partner for the client. So, whereas in something like mentoring, it's more about the mentor sharing their expertise and saying this is what you should do and advising parts of action, the coach, on the other hand, is more about recognizing that the client is the expert of their own experience their own, you know what is going on for them and it's the coach who is facilitating the client to work out their own solutions and the best way forward. So, as well, coaching is very forward focused, which kind of differentiates it a bit from therapy.

Clare Sutton: 7:13

Therapy and therapeutic spaces, which are more, you know, looking into the past and working through that and a sense of kind of healing from that in order to deal with the present. Coaching thinks about okay, where is it that you want to be in the future? Getting really clear on what your aims, your aspirations are, where is it that you want to be and then gaining an understanding of the present, where you are now and how do you get from a to b. So how do you get from where you are now to the place that you want to be, but in the way that's best for you. So what are the steps, what is the course of direction and what is the process that you're going to take that journey that's going to work best for you as an individual and it's very unique to each person, so the coach should really help you in identifying that on a unique and individual basis an individual basis Brilliant.

Donna eade: 8:18

And looking at coaching, there are different areas within that as well, isn't there? So can you talk a little bit about the different types of coaches that we might find out there and what they actually do and help us with?

Clare Sutton: 8:29

yeah, absolutely. I mean it's quite often, you know people, we kind of self-describe, so it's not like there's a, there's a technical like description of every. You know every business coach you go to is going to do xyz. So it's really about taking every person as an individual and seeing how they describe themselves and getting to know themselves. But you can have, within business, for example, you can have you know sales coaches who help you, can have you know sales coaches who help you around you know making sales and around that element of things you can have more business strategy coaches.

Clare Sutton: 9:01

So thinking about the kind of nuts and bolts and the strategic planning of your, of your business and for me, as I mentioned, I'm a mindset coach that's much more about the kind of inner mindset and behavioral kind of stuff that's going to help you and support your business. So there's really a whole range. And also I think it's good to just be aware that if somebody describes themselves as a coach, they might not necessarily be coaching in its purest form. They might be more kind of advising or consulting or mentoring. So you know, take I would say take all the descriptions with a pinch of salt and just get to know the individual and how they work.

Donna eade: 9:44

Yeah, I think that's a really good point that you made, because I make a very clear point of telling people that I'm not a coach. I don't coach people to podcast. People who don't know how to podcast don't have the answers within them of how to podcast. I have to tell them how to do it. I'm a mentor, so it's something that I've been very careful to label myself as a mentor rather than a coach.

Donna eade: 10:08

And you know, I think what you were saying there about mindset coaching is quite interesting and I wondered if you could saying there about mindset coaching is quite interesting and I wondered if you could touch on that a little bit, obviously it being your area anyway, in terms of, we also hear and I think this is kind of almost where coaching got a bad rap and people kind of pushed back on coaching a little bit and sort of saw it as maybe not something that they wanted, and that was the life coaching.

Donna eade: 10:36

You know, all of a sudden life coaches were popping in and it's like hang on a minute. You know, 20 years ago nobody needed a Blink Life Coach to get them through their lives. Why have all of a sudden all these life coaches around? And there is absolutely benefit to a life coach. But I was thinking that because you are working in the mindset area of coaching and you deal with business owners, I thought but mindset is really the person and their life and surely that comes into it a lot. So can you talk a little bit about the mindset coaching and how it kind of does parallel both of both of those sides of life and business when it comes to coaching?

Clare Sutton: 11:16

yeah, absolutely, and it's so interesting that you say that because I previously described myself as a life coach, um, which was interesting. It did sit a bit funny with me just because of that, certain connotations, you know, because the industry, as you say, there's such a spectrum of people you know, unfortunately at the moment you don't have to have specific you know it's not a regulated not a regulated industry, so anybody can call themselves a life coach, um, or a coach so.

Clare Sutton: 11:48

So you have to be quite careful around that. But but really, I mean mindset fits into everything that you do. It's for me, you can't really, you know, completely compartmentalize and separate work from business, from life. You know, it is part of life, all of it is life, everything that we're experiencing is life and everything is interconnected and feeds into each other. Experiencing in his life, and everything is interconnected and feeds into each other.

Clare Sutton: 12:15

So, you know, I, as I say, I advertise myself as a mindset coach to support business owners, and we may start with clients, you know, really talking about the business and what challenges they're facing.

Clare Sutton: 12:29

But as we delve into things, we end up talking about a whole gamut of things and addressing, you know, things that are happening outside of work and how that might be impacting them inside of work as well. So it's a really exploratory and broad process. I think the people who get most from coaching are people who are willing to go on that exploration and to be able to really uncover what's happening and what's lying beneath the surface of things, and quite often it could be something that you didn't expect it could be, you know, a relationship that you're struggling with with your aunt, for example, could be affecting how you're showing up in your business. And we, just we, just you know, we're organic humans. We can't separate these things into little boxes. So so, yes, you know, with the mindset we focus around for me and my clients, what's going to help them to take the action that they want to in their business. But the journey in which we take in order to get there may encompass all of these different elements.

Donna eade: 13:36

Yeah, I love that and it's such a good answer, and I love what you said about compartmentalizing things, because that's something that I'm actually very good at like in my brain. I think it's how I've got to where I am today, by being able to put things in boxes and keep them very separate. But the truth is is that it is all interconnected and I have a little funny story to tell you guys that this is just the perfect opportunity to tell you this because it illustrates it perfectly, and this is something that happened to me today. Actually, before we jumped on this call, claire and I was just like my mind was blown, and it was a friend of mine who has seen a specialist who has suggested to her that women over 40 shouldn't be doing any high impact exercise, that they should be using swimming and walking only because, because of our age and because of the delicate bones that we have, that we need to protect ourselves, and by doing that, you know swimming uses all the muscles in the body. We know that's a really good exercise and it's got that resistance with the water and walking is a low impact exercise that everybody can do. So I understand what he's saying in that, but he is a specialist in spines and there is an awful lot of other things that go on. You know our muscles need certain you know nutrients and certain exercises to keep them happy.

Donna eade: 15:02

And I said to them you know, oh, what about strength exercise? Because I've been hearing a lot that how women in their 40s should be lifting weights and lifting heavier than they think they should for less time to really help their muscles, protect their bones. You know, so it's helping. And she said, oh, no. He said no, no, weightlifting, it should be swimming.

Donna eade: 15:24

And I was just like my mind was blown, because that's a specialist, compartmentalizing just what he sees as being the right thing to do based on his specialism and not looking at the broader scope. And if we don't look at the broader scope, potentially we could be damaging ourselves, and so I love you know it's just a little completely like separate sort of situation, but very much similar illustration of how not looking at the broader picture. So even though coaches will kind of put themselves in a box and say this is what I help people with, I love the fact that you say that for you at least you actually take in the broad gamut of things, because it all has that impact Really interesting absolutely, and that just goes to show the importance of recognizing your own priorities as well.

Clare Sutton: 16:19

So for him, maybe, you know, the priority is protecting the spine at all costs, but for somebody else it may be, you know, actually having more of a holistic well-being, you know, being able to strengthen other parts of the body. So it's, it's really individual, isn't it? It just goes to show that everything there's no one size fits all solution. It really depends on what your priorities are at that time of your life as well which can change exactly.

Donna eade: 16:45

Yeah, because for her maybe actually what he said is absolutely perfect for her and her body and what her body needs, but somebody else actually that wouldn't be the prescription. It is so individual and that's what kind of worries me about. A lot of stuff in the health and wellness space with coaching and things like that is people just saying like it's one size fits all, which just isn't the case. So let's move on to why people might need a coach in their business, because I think a lot of people I really think, would benefit from a coach from the offset. Personally, when I think about it, like if I could have had one thing that was like given to me as like here is your business starter kit, it would have been here's a coach to help you. Because I think a lot of the times we come into business we haven't got a clue what we're doing. Um, so what? What is it that people need a business coach for?

Clare Sutton: 17:40

yeah, yeah, it's a great question. I do have there's a bit of an analogy which I might share with you, which I found quite, quite helpful in understanding. Yeah, so, so imagine, if you are going on, you want to climb a mountain, right, and you haven't climbed this mountain before, you don't know what the terrain's like, you're not really experienced with it, but you know you want to get to the top. You can absolutely, you know, start climbing that mountain on your own and you might get to the top in the end. You might not, you might, get lost. You might, you might, you know, go down, get injured, exactly, you may, you may get to the top, but it may take you four times as long than you were hoping, right?

Clare Sutton: 18:25

So so having a coach is really like as if you were to have somebody by your side walking up that mountain with you, and the chances are that's going to make that climb a whole lot easier, because what they can do, they can't physically walk for you. You still have to walk the steps and put, keep putting one foot in front of the other, but they can help you with working out. You know, okay, what equipment might you need along the way which is going to support you so that you're best supported along the walk. They might help you to plan a route, a direction that makes sense for you and having to maybe reroute at certain points, they're going to help you, you know, with your ongoing motivation and accountability. They're going to help you, you know, with your ongoing motivation and accountability, they can help you, you know, overcome any unexpected hurdles that come along, those mindset blocks Absolutely.

Clare Sutton: 19:22

Absolutely. They can help you, you know, challenge you and push you a bit and kind of expand your way of thinking so that you can keep going, you know, and also congratulate you and celebrate the wins and help point out all of the progress that you're making along the way. And all of this really helps with your like, resilience and your endurance to keep going and keep climbing that mountain and, in the first place, recognize is this even the mountain you want to be climbing?

Donna eade: 19:50

oh my gosh. Yes, yes, I wish, I wish I'd had you at the bottom of Snowdon a couple of years ago absolutely so.

Clare Sutton: 20:01

So that analogy, I feel, just just kind of shows, you know, yes, you can start off on your own and you can, you know, try and run your business by yourself, but it is a whole lot easier when you've got somebody by your side who can help you really work through all of those challenges that you're facing, making sure that you're really sticking to the direction that you want to go in and making sure that you're focused on what really matters to you, um, and staying your course so that you can get to a point where you feel you've made a business which is not only, you know, successful, necessarily in monetary terms, but really fits into creating the fulfilling life that you want and how it fits into the rest of your life and family and and everything else. Yeah, oh, I love that. That was a great analogy. I do love a little bit of a story time.

Donna eade: 20:51

We've had a bit of. That was a great analogy. I do love a little bit of a story time.

Donna eade: 20:54

We've had a bit of a story time this week guys, I do love a good story and yeah, so, so important to know that you're going up the right mountain. And the other thing is obviously with a coach is because they have those skills to do the coaching element. They're also in business themselves so they can help you avoid pitfalls that you know startups have. You know people young in business, but also, looking at it from you know, the perspective of somebody who's been, you know, 10 years in business, there are always things that are going to come up and trip us up, so there are always. There are always things that are going to come up and trip us up. So there are always knockbacks, setbacks, things that we need to work through. And having that person that is just going to be there to help you just like you said earlier, be a second brain, that bouncing off of somebody else, rather than sort of sitting there trying to figure it out yourself in your own head, which can just send you crazy um, is just invaluable.

Clare Sutton: 21:56

It really is yeah, absolutely, and it's. And what a coach does as well is it's like offering information. So there's lots of you know, strategies and tools and frameworks and all exercises and all of these things. That is is about offering. It's not dictating, so it's saying okay, I'm putting these on the table, these are for you to take them or leave them as you wish. Pick up the ones you think are going to be useful to you, have a play with them, see if they work for you. But it's always the control is there within the client.

Donna eade: 22:29

Yeah.

Donna eade: 22:30

I love it, brilliant.

Donna eade: 22:31

And then I suppose the next thing is is if people out there are now kind of convinced okay, yes, I do need a coach but they are nervous because, as we've said, you know, the industry has had a bad rap in the past and it is very easy to get sucked in by the glitzy marketing that somebody's promising you the earth, and it's one of those things where we don't really know what we should be looking for and looking out for when it comes to choosing the right coach for us.

Donna eade: 23:02

Can you give us some tips of things that we should look out for or questions that we should ask that will allow us to find the coach that is going to be the best set for us? Because, you know, I would love to say to everybody go to Clare and get her to coach you and you can have an amazing business off of the back of that us. Because, you know, I would love to say to everybody go to Clare and get her to coach you and you can have an amazing business off of the back of that. But, as you have so rightly said in this conversation, not every coach is right for every person and there's plenty of them out there. So where do we start?

Clare Sutton: 23:30

Absolutely, absolutely. So I would say the first thing is really get clear for yourself on what kind of coaching would support you in where you are in your business. So really identifying what is it that you want help with. Is it strategy, is it mindset, is it confidence? What is it that you're looking for in particular? So that will really help narrow down the field of people who you're looking at to get support from.

Clare Sutton: 24:00

I think as well is just reflecting for yourself on how much investment can you afford to put in. You know you don't want to be putting yourself at financial risk in any way from investing in a coach, so making sure you've got a reasonable budget. What does that stretch to? What does that look like? As well as maybe thinking about, is it one-to-one coaching that you would most benefit from, or is it? You know, lots of coaches also offer group coaching packages as well, so would that be something that you're interested in and would support you? So really just getting clear on who it is that you feel like you need coaches. Styles are very different as well, so whereas some coaches might be a lot kind of softer and more nurturing, other coaches might be like right, kick up the bum, kind of like giving you a shake, kind of coaching which is fine and it suits different people for different needs. So have a thing what do I really feel like I need energetically right now to support me, and at different stages in life those may be different.

Clare Sutton: 25:03

And then the second thing I would say is to do your research in terms of the kind of practical things. Definitely have speak to a few different coaches so that you can get a feel of different people that you can compare. Look at their client testimonials and often you'll be able to ask if you could actually speak to potentially a previous client that they've had as well, so you can hear directly from somebody who's worked with them before to get a sense of them. Definitely look at their training and their experience. So coach training ranges from anything from a one day course to five year courses. So it's really good to identify and get clear on the amount of time that somebody has spent training and what that training looks like. So you can ask them yourself. But if you look on their website, you can just look at the training that they've got on there if they have any and and look to see what that actually entails and and things like checking that they've got professional insurance as well is a good thing. So that's the kind of practical side of things.

Clare Sutton: 26:11

But then also, I think there's a real element of listening to your kind of heart and gut with these things as well. So coaches should offer you a chance to have a conversation with them one-to-one, before any money is exchanged. So you've got an opportunity which is no commitment to have a call with them. Absolutely recommend doing that before you work with people, and one of the most important things is really about that sense of trust and where they create a space which is safe, that you can feel you can come and be yourself and share openly and honestly and be in that really non-judgmental space. You've met somebody you know. Is this somebody that I feel like I can trust, like I can confide in, and that I'm really being listened to? I think that's really important. Do you feel like you're being listened to and they're trying to understand more about you as opposed to just selling to you, right? I think that's really important as well, and I would say as as well.

Clare Sutton: 27:17

Take all the time you need to make a decision. For me personally, I don't think you should be rushed into making any decision. You don't have to make a decision on that call itself. Take some time to think about it and really reflect on how do I feel like? Do what do I want to work with this person? Um, you know, was it an enjoyable phone call? Do I feel like they really understood my challenges and do I like the approach that they're describing of how they would work with me? One good question to ask might be to ask them to describe somebody that they may have worked with previously who had a similar challenge and how they worked through that, as a bit of a case study, for example, and then you get a feel of how they talk about their work and their clients and their approach yeah, those are really good tips, and I just want to sort of circle back to that second one because I think it is so important, especially in an industry that is unregulated, and it's for me, it's it's.

Donna eade: 28:17

There are times where qualifications are necessary and times where they don't really matter and for something that doesn't really. I don't really know how to sort of separate them, but you know, I don't have a qualification in teaching, podcasting but if somebody comes and does my course, I'm not going to necessarily put them in any harm by teaching them wrong. Obviously, I don't teach them wrong, but if anything were to not be taught quite right, it's not going to damage the person in any way. However, with coaching, if somebody doesn't actually have the skill set to coach, ie they've been taught like.

Donna eade: 28:57

You're a perfect example of this. You know, in your workday life you saw that you were actually facilitating a lot of this kind of coaching practice in what you were doing and you were like I'm interested in this, I think this is a skillset that I could develop, and you went and got the qualification and training to hone those skills and to make sure you understood it and knew how to use it correctly, whereas somebody who's going? Oh yeah, I'm quite good at this, helping people figure stuff out, and they just do it without any qualifications. There is a real risk there that you could cause harm, and I don't, you know, it's not doctors and stuff.

Donna eade: 29:36

But it's that, like you know, the Hippocratic oath, you know, do no harm no, absolutely, I couldn't agree more.

Clare Sutton: 29:42

And also, it's not just it's not just a case of doing the qualifications and the training for the actual skill that's involved within the coaching session, but it's also around codes of conduct and ethical behavior and really understanding at a deep level. Where do those boundaries lie? You know I was talking about where it can blur into kind of therapy or into, you know, mentoring. And it's really important for the coach to be trained and qualified so that they understand where their remit is and that they don't overstep. And when you do get a client who presents with more, it moves from mindset coaching into maybe, actually maybe they need some more mental health support. Then you're in a position to be able to refer on to the support that they need from a different kind of professional. So it's's really important, I think, not just for the skill itself of the coaching, but also being able to behave in a very ethical manner around the practice that you're actually delivering people and not to overstep those boundaries and potentially cause harm. Absolutely, it's so important.

Donna eade: 30:52

It's a little bit of a minefield, isn't it? Because there are people out there and I'm not saying this to put you off booking with a particular coach, but it's just really important to understand what Claire's taught us here about what a coach actually is and does. And then, who are the people that are qualified to do that? Because there are plenty of people out there that call themselves coaches, like we were discussing earlier about the difference between mentorship and coach. Where they're actually, they're a mentor. They're not a coach, but they call themselves a coach because it's the in word to use.

Donna eade: 31:25

So they're not necessarily going to be doing that coaching element. They're actually going to be teaching you something like maybe there's a brand coach out there that's doing branding, but they're not actually going to be coaching you as much as talking to you like a brand consultant would. What do you feel, what do you want, what do you want your brand to look like and act like, and helping you work that out is a little bit different from the coaching stuff that we're looking at here. So it's not necessarily that they are a coach doing coaching skills, as much as they're just kind of a consultant or a mentor that is helping you to create a brand. So there is definitely, it's definitely a gray area, isn't it? So it is do your research.

Clare Sutton: 32:11

It is, but what's good is that more accreditation is coming through and it's becoming definitely more of a standardized thing across the industry that people are recognizing the qualifications and accreditation, so that's a good thing, yeah.

Donna eade: 32:24

And also all of the tips you've given here today, which really do put people in a better place of being able to work this out themselves doing the research, looking at the accreditation go through to whatever is on the certificate or whoever they say they're accredited by. Go to that website, check it out, see what kind of courses they do, how long are their courses, so that you can actually really understand how much has this particular coach put into their education around their coaching qualification and make an informed decision. And that's what it's all about for me is to help people make that informed decision, to help them move further and faster in their business to where they want to be. So I really appreciate your thoughts and input on that, claire. I think it's really important if people want to find out more about you and your style of coaching and and how you can help them, where, where can they go?

Clare Sutton: 33:24

Yeah, so I have my website, which is clairsuttoncoachingcom. I also hang out on Instagram quite a lot. If you like video content, I do more video content on Instagram and more written content on LinkedIn as well, and I have a newsletter, which you can sign up to as well, with lots of handy tips and strategies for supporting your mindset and your business.

Donna eade: 33:41

Brilliant. I will make sure that all that is linked in the show notes for you guys so you can go and connect with Claire. Too many C's there for me obviously.

Donna eade: 33:50

I do have a quickfire round that I like to do with my guests, claire, if you are up for a few quickfire questions, yeah, absolutely Brilliant, ok. So the first one is what is your favourite podcast to listen with my guests, claire, if you are up for a few quickfire questions, yeah, absolutely brilliant, okay. So the first one is what is your favorite podcast to listen?

Clare Sutton: 34:02

to so right now. I love the podcast called we can do hard things, glennon Doyle. I love it. Yeah, yeah it's, it's fantastic. So I've really followed Glennon after I read her book called Untamed, which I would also highly recommend, and they talk about everything in life challenges, work, family, everything but from a really compassionate and human-centered way, and they have fantastic, really interesting guests on there as well. So I would definitely recommend.

Donna eade: 34:36

Brilliant. I shall link that one in the show notes. And what is the book that's made the biggest impact in your life so far?

Clare Sutton: 34:43

So far, this has been the Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harris, and this is. It basically exemplifies a lot of the approach that I take within my coaching practice, which is based on something called acceptance and commitment theory, and it's really about how we can build a much more self-compassionate, accepting approach to work with our natural minds and bodies, as opposed to being in fight and battle with them. So for me, this book is so easily understood as well, like he describes everything so beautifully with such eloquent kind of metaphors. It makes it really easy to understand and incredibly powerful, and I've written, I've read it a good few times already yeah, oh, I love it.

Donna eade: 35:36

I love it when it's a book that you keep going back to. I've got a couple of those myself that I really enjoy, even though, as all of my listeners will know, my reading list gets longer and longer all the time and I buy more and more books and I never seem to get to them. But there is still time for me to go back to a few favourites and read them again. Absolutely, and I've underlined pretty much every sentence in that book as well Need a new copy.

Donna eade: 36:02

Start underlining again Brilliant, I love it. And yeah, as always, guys, I will link that one in my guest bookshelf down below as well. What is your favorite go-to snack when you're in a hurry? My favorite question.

Clare Sutton: 36:15

This depends if I'm being healthy or if I'm not. So if I'm being healthy, I will take a banana, because that's great and I do love banana. Um, if I'm being slightly less healthy, anything with cheese, cheese, tasty cheese and crackers just just reach for the cheese.

Donna eade: 36:32

I have to say yeah, my other half is a cheese fiend, so I do understand the appeal. And then, finally, what is your ultimate me time thing to do?

Clare Sutton: 36:42

so I am like really creative in my spare time. So I love doing anything that is. Yeah, I use my creative brain. So I've got these, this set of watercolor paints and a sketchbook that I take out um. So I love just going out into nature and having a little sketch, um. That's like just such quality time for me.

Donna eade: 37:05

It really helps empty my head yeah, yeah, I can't think of much when you're trying to think about how does that leaf look and how can I translate that onto my page? Yeah, just zoning out.

Clare Sutton: 37:15

Love it brilliant.

Donna eade: 37:17

I love that. Thank you so much for your time today, claire. I really appreciate you coming in and talking all about coaching. I think it's been a very valuable discussion thank you so much, donna.

Clare Sutton: 37:25

It's been such a pleasure and really love talking about it with you. So thank you for such interesting questions as well.

Donna eade: 37:32

You're welcome right, guys, that is it for us this week, um. I will see you next week, um. Until then, bye for now.