Episode #22: Allegra Stein - How to Flourish as a Coaching Misfit
Described as "a breath of fresh air in the coaching industry", Allegra Stein is a self-styled coaching misfit.
With a background in wildlife biology and a career that included two years as a fishing conservationist in Bulgaria, Allegra's is a unique and captivating journey into coaching. Her coaching community, Misfit To Maverick, challenges what she calls "The Coaching Industrial Complex" and offers an alternative path to success that is built around authenticity and self-knowledge.
She draws on her background as an educator and ecologist to illuminate the idea of a coaching niche as a supportive, nourishing environment, and a habitat in which individuals can flourish. As she says: “Who you are is as much a part of your niche as who you want to help and how you do your work.”
In this episode, we talk about:
The tiny practices that make up the big picture of ‘create a paying client’.
How the language of coaching often holds us back.
Focusing on your strengths as a coach instead of getting bogged down in building a business.
Why there is no ideal combination of strengths to be an effective coach.
Plus Allegra tells us about the many different things she has done to grow her business - from writing, to running free workshops, to a ‘coach-and-dine’ event - and we speak frankly about the financial success of our coaching businesses.
For more information about Allegra, visit: www.allegrastein.com
Watch Allegra's message to new coaches here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFpOUFWhUAU
For information about Robbie’s wider work and writing, visit www.robbieswalecoaching.com.
Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQg
To support the Coach's Journey, visit www.patreon.com/thecoachsjourney and to join the Coach's Journey Community visit www.thecoachsjourney.com/community
Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):
~6: Martha Beck https://marthabeck.com/
~6: Brooke Castillo and The Life Coach School https://thelifecoachschool.com/
~10: B-School https://marieforleobschool.com/
~10: Robbie’s podcast with Minor Arias https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-3-minor-arias-living-by-design-glz56
~28: The Prosperous Coach by Steve Chandler and Rich Litvin https://richlitvin.com/the-prosperous-coach/
~28: Steve Chandler https://www.stevechandler.com/
~30: The CliftonStrengths Online Talent Assesment https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx
~35: Toku McCree's Coaching Dojo https://samuraicoachingdojo.com/
~45: Seth Godin https://seths.blog/
~45: Tad Hargrave https://marketingforhippies.com/
~53: John Morgan https://jpmorganjr.com/
~1.06: Kerri Twigg https://www.career-stories.com/about/
~1.06: YouMap https://www.myyoumap.com/
~1.14: Three Principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Principles_(self-help)
~1.18: Kristin A. Sherry https://kristinsherry.info/about/
~1.26: The Niching Compass https://allegrastein.com/niching-compass
~1.40: Robert Kegan https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/robert-kegan
~1.58: The Niching Compass Podcast https://allegrastein.com/podcast
FULL BIOGRAPHY FROM ALLEGRA
Allegra discovered her gifts as an ideator and an activator during a career she describes as ever changing. A love for trying different things – and doing them differently – has guided her through an adventurous life.
After majoring in wildlife biology and fishing conservation at the University of California, Davis, she spent a number of years doing fieldwork in the great outdoors. Her passion for environmental work led her to join the Peace Corps, which took her all the way across the world to Bulgaria where she worked in ecology at a nature park for two years.
Allegra pursued another calling when she moved into education, having been "captivated by the art of teaching". Completing the Teach For America programme in New York, she taught in the Bronx before taking a role outside the city where she met her husband, and together they started a family.
It was after the birth of her second child that Allegra discovered coaching, first in an academic setting, and then under the mentorship of Brooke Castillo. Upon becoming certified as a coach in 2012, Allegra's latest adventure began.
Reflecting on her experiences as a teacher, she likens the challenge of creating a coaching business to building a school in which to practice her craft. That school is Misfit to Maverick, a community for coaches who want to do things differently and strike out from the well-beaten path of coaching businesses that focus more on business than coaching.
Through Allegra's programme The Niching Compass, her community supports and nurtures unique talents, helping others to discover their niche and carve out an approach to coaching that works for them. Find out more about her work at https://allegrastein.com/