Testimonials

Cheers to Elijah and to our coaching sessions and the positive impact that it has had on me. I became intrigued with her coaching abilities watching my wife make some major and positive improvements in her overall happiness and contentment thanks to Elijah and her coaching.

A little background; my wife and I co-founded what has become a successful restaurant company with twenty locations in four states. She retired (semi-retired) a few years ago and I am the President and CEO. I am 58, and we have a very comfortable life and a strong marriage. But it was not bringing me contentment or fulfillment.

My comment to Elijah, which became our goal for my coaching sessions, was that; “If my 23 year old self could see the business success that was to be in my future; he would have jumped for joy. But, if the 23 year old self could also see the lack of joy and the lack of doing the things that brought me joy as a young man, he would have been shocked and saddened.”

I was either working, thinking about work, or worrying about work. Oddly enough, I truly enjoy what I do and who I do it with. But it was consuming me and even the fun part of that aspect of life was quickly waning. It was not good for me and not fun for my wife either. My initial goal with Elijah was to build the business to a point that we could sell and move onto other things. And then I could start having ‘fun’ again.

Elijah helped me to realize the very simple (in retrospect) things that I needed to do to change the trajectory of my happiness. And one of those was to realize that there are many things in my life (in childhood, etc.) that have shaped the person that I am today. Some of those were negative experiences that although I cannot change them, I can learn to accept them and understand them, but more importantly, to not let them hold me back. There are also positive experiences in my earlier life that do need to be acknowledged and applauded - often years and decades after the event. A second thing was to challenge me to ‘just do it’. Set a time and go play tennis, or take the yoga class that I have been too busy for, paddle boarding at White Rock Lake, etc. Small steps. Sounds simple, almost silly, but it was the hardest part for me to accomplish. Finally, she helped to encourage me to realize that there are things at work that I don¹t enjoy and am frankly not the best at, and then there are aspects that I truly enjoy but ‘cant get to’ until I complete the other things that I don¹t like doing! I felt guilty about ‘passing off the ‘un-fun’ stuff to any of our Leadership Team Members thinking that they were too busy themselves and/or that I was getting lazy. As I finally began delegating to various members of our Leadership Team, it not only freed me up to do what I was best at, but it also made them feel more valued and happier. And I was happier. Work was becoming fun and mentally stimulating again.

Since my coaching with Elijah, my wife and I have travelled to Europe, passed our Bareboat License for sailing, remodeled and landscaped our home (we enjoy doing that stuff) and spent time hiking and taking more trips. And the latest at work is I have taken it a step further and hired a very experienced and talented gentleman to be our President and Chief Operating Officer. This is allowing me to spend a much greater percentage of my time doing what I enjoy and allowing me to continue to grow the business. I am thoroughly enjoying work and don¹t have the desire to be focused on trying to sell the business.

This has been a very freeing journey (and a relatively short one - three months!) that has made a huge improvement in my life and my contentment.

Thank you Elijah!

- Bill B., Dallas, Texas, USA

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