Career Coaching Secrets

Karen Thom: Bridging Corporate Acumen with Heart-Centered Coaching

• Davis Nguyen

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In this Career Coaching Secrets episode, host Rexhen interviews Karen Thom, a women's executive coach. Karen Thom, with a background in global fashion, now guides women to purposeful, balanced lives using strategic mindset, mindfulness, and breathwork.

She finds it rewarding to see clients realize what's holding them back. Karen Thom primarily works with ambitious women (35-55) navigating life and career transitions, often through LinkedIn and referrals. She offers personalized 3-6 month programs and plans to expand into group coaching.

Karen Thom highlights her Co-Active training as a key investment and identifies lead generation as her biggest challenge. Her advice for new coaches: return to your "origin story" to differentiate and attract ideal clients.

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Karen Thom:

So typically, yeah, everyone's got a program. But I think because everybody is so individual and different, it's really aligned with what that person, what they want and what they need. Some people want to meet or want a call online, whatever, one time a month for an hour or something. Some people need that accountability. So they want every other week and things like that. So it really is quite a, what's the word, sorry, brain fog.

Davis Nguyen:

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Nguyen, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching business myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, You'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Rexhen Doda:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Rejan, and today's guest is Karen Tom, a woman's executive coach with a vibrant background in global fashion leadership and a passion for guiding women towards purposeful, balanced lives. After 25 years in high-stakes buying and supplier roles, managing multi-million pounds budgets, and leading teams across the UK and Europe, transitioned into coaching combining her strategic mindset with a heart-centered approach rooted in mindfulness breath work and transformation from corporate boardrooms to wellness workshops karen empowers women to reconnect with their strengths navigate life transition life's transitions life's transitions okay the editor can just take the right one and create careers that align with who they truly are. And it's a pleasure for me to have her on the podcast today. Welcome to the show, Karen.

Karen Thom:

Thanks, Roger. Nice to see you.

Rexhen Doda:

It's nice to have you on the podcast. Thank you for coming. I want to know more about how this all got started. What inspired you to become a coach and then start your own coaching business?

Karen Thom:

Yeah, so for me, it really began when I was actually I was living in Bangladesh at the time and I was working for a big British retailer and with an office out there and you know it's like the classic super cliche of having a life that on paper on instagram sounded amazing looked amazing my friends all told me if i ever complained about anything my god how can you complain you have nothing to complain about in life but something did just feel off and although like surface level all of those things were brilliant there was just something missing and then I actually don't even know how I came across coaching or coach. I was obviously down a rabbit hole somewhere and this lady popped up who was a coach and I was like, okay, interesting. She was like a women's coach and so I dropped her a message and we had what I now know as a discovery chemistry call. And I was like, okay, yeah, this is exactly what I need. And over the course of the next six months, we worked together and I created this plan about what I wanted to do and what was happening and where I wanted to go and sort of started to find some purpose. And so it could make a huge change in my life. I left Bangladesh, I came back to the UK, set up my own business. in fashion consultancy. I was having a great time, met my husband and all of these things that I was saying I wanted, I made happen. I went back to work with her three or four years later because again, the thing was there and it's still not quite right. And she actually said, I'm going to voice something, take it or leave it. She's like, have you thought about being a coach? I think you would be great. And I was like, actually, after the last time of working, I was like, yes, I want to do this because I've made so much change. I want everybody to feel the change but I just thought everybody must feel this after they've been through coaching and I kind of yeah didn't listen to myself ignored my gut there's a red flag one and that was it and that was then the journey of I made such huge change in my life from being coached and I think really as well it was about the type of coaching that it was and that was it so impactful because it was really about embodied coaching so i don't know if i can say i trained with coactive and their their approach really resonates for me in that the being the doing everything's a real balance in that way that's not just about the goal what are you achieving yeah let's get you there let's go it's like okay slow down what's going on here And that was really important for me and my lifestyle, who I am and as a personality. That really resonated.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. So how long has it been since you started doing it full time?

Karen Thom:

It has been around nearly 10 months. So still quite at the beginning of my journey. Only certified, I have to say, in May of this year. So I passed my certification. Woo! All done, which was great. But yeah, I've been coaching clients, obviously, throughout certification since then.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool.

Karen Thom:

Quite a new journey.

Rexhen Doda:

And so how do you, like, when working with a client right now and going through your coaching journey with them, what is it that you find the most rewarding since you started doing this?

Karen Thom:

It's seeing people and predominantly it's women and it didn't set out in the beginning that I would work with women but predominantly it's really been women who I work with and it's just seeing seeing them make the clicks and the realizations in their life and understand what it is that's holding them back because a lot of the women that I've worked with are in the same situation that I was and it's them making those realizations that what got them to one place is not going to get them to the next level and I think that's really important because a lot of people think I've done so much reading I've read all the books I've done some retreats I've done some workshops I've done all of these things and it's still not there so maybe it's just and I hate that it's like oh maybe it's just what it is and it's like it's not there is choice choice happens in everything and it's that point of people then realizing that actually there's still another level of stuff that needs to unpack and moving on from that and realizing that there are things that are still holding them back so seeing that realization that's really really or seeing Witnessing people see that realization, it's really impactful and empowering for them, which is, in a selfish way, really rewarding.

Rexhen Doda:

And when it comes to the clients that you're working with, is there a certain ideal client profile? How would you describe it? Do they... come from a certain industry. We did mention fashion, but maybe it goes beyond that. Do you find them of a certain demographic? We also mentioned women. I don't know if you also work with men. How would you describe the ideal client profile?

Karen Thom:

Yeah, I guess for me, like I said, I didn't set out for it to be women as such, but it just turns out that it is women. Generally, they've tended to be, I guess, 35 to 50, 55, something like this. And just going through a I guess a career, a life change, just that realisation that I should be super happy with this, but I'm not quite. And I think that's the real realisation of it. But I have to say across industries and things, not really because I think I've had such a varied and expansive life. I've lived in four countries. I've worked across the world. I've always worked cross-culturally, multinationally. So it in that way it hasn't been a set industry quite a few people from the fashion industry but i guess that comes from like recommendation people of people who know you and i have to say that's where most of that's where most of my clients have come from either recommendation and or then through actual like expat circles and things like that as well

Rexhen Doda:

cool and for someone who's Listening that wants to work with you, how would you describe working with you? Is there a certain program of a certain length that they go through? How does it work to...

Karen Thom:

So typically, yeah, everyone's got a program. But I think because everybody is so individual and different... It's really aligned with what that person, what they want and what they need. Some people want to meet or want a call online, whatever, one time a month for an hour or something. Some people need that accountability. So they want every other week and things like that. So it really is quite a, what's the word? Sorry, brain fog. There's quite a, it's, oh, sorry, we'll cut that bit. Start again. So what they would do would be, It's a personalised plan, really. So really, generally, it's three to six months, but sometimes people need and want longer. So we can extend and we can work in that way. It's really whatever that person is working on because everybody's needs are completely different. So that's really the way that I have been working with people going forward. I'd love to really want to look at doing some workshops. I think having that sense of community, having that sense of women around you who are going through the same things as you are, creates like that support network of I'm not alone. There's other people. This is not, not just, it's not just me that these are having these thoughts, that's doing these things. There's loads of people in the same situation. And I think that's really, it starts to break down a lot of those barriers and those thought patterns just from that. So I would love to do that as well.

Rexhen Doda:

And where do people generally find you? to connect with you. You mentioned some of these are referrals from clients that you work with in the past as well. But do you find that there is a certain marketing channel that is working best for you right now?

Karen Thom:

Yeah, I think. I've had a lot more what's the word I'm looking for I've had a lot more connection with LinkedIn rather than Instagram and especially through like thought posts and things like that but I have to say that definitely that comes from more industry people from fashion that are within my connection and my network who have really appreciated seeing some resonance in things that I've written that I don't know things that I felt that I'd been through that I'd worked through that they're seeing themselves so I would say that LinkedIn probably has been more important for me than Instagram.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. And in LinkedIn, do you currently doing some, is there some strategy on LinkedIn right now or is it mostly your profile optimization or are you posting in there as well?

Karen Thom:

I'm posting in LinkedIn and yeah, I guess like trying to optimize on my profile and things like that.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. So since you're focusing on this right now full-time, how do you see your coaching business looking to the future for the next one to three years? Do you have any specific goals that you're working towards?

Karen Thom:

Yep, I definitely do. So I've seen, obviously at the minute, I'm working more with one-to-one clients. But as I said, I really want to expand on that because I think somehow this It feels like an epidemic of overwhelmed women who don't feel in and on purpose. And you can't get maximum impact from working one-to-one. That person creates a lot of impact for them. But without sounding too dramatic, our world is a sick place. And if we want to change systems and we want to break systematic functions, then we need to be able to work with a much wider range of people. So I think group work is going to be really important for me. Like I said, just like creating that sense of community where women can join together to understand and see the things that other people are going through, know that they're not alone. So I guess I see within that some workshops and probably maybe some program and something like that. So far, that's my...

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. And in terms of investments throughout these... last few months or the time that you've been coaching, what would you say have been some good investments? You did mention a training when it comes to coaching, so that could be one. Besides that, are there any other ones that you'd like to mention?

Karen Thom:

Yeah, so like I said, I did my training with Co-Active. I also did my certification with Co-Active and I think I mean, that was incredible. I thought in the intermediary course, I was like, oh, I'm learning to coach. And then I realized, oh, you're learning to coach yourself. I worked through all of my own back catalog of stuff. And then certification again was like just that deeper level that a thousand percent, if I never ever did anything else with my coaching certification, the investment in myself and for my own leadership of myself and how I would work with others was was paid for itself tenfold. It's been life-changing again for that. So that was been incredible. And I guess really it's been much more local things, connecting with some really good sales and marketing people, working through that to get clearer on who I am, what I'm doing, what I can offer to clients, what they're going to get from working with me. I would say that that's been the other sort of bigger impact and that I've had for now but yeah let's see there's lots of things that I now kind of like you get the taste and it's like okay what do I want to do now what do I want to learn next because obviously it doesn't stop now now is almost like the gateway so yeah I've got some ideas about what I'm gonna where I want to go next with some training and learning

Rexhen Doda:

and what is right now a challenge that you're trying to solve for next where is the bottleneck like from you getting from where you are at now to like mentioning your goals expanding further where would you say is the main bottleneck

Karen Thom:

I think the main bottleneck is really around lead gen. So that's something that I'm working on now. Generally in terms of conversion, that's good. So getting people into a discovery call conversion rate is good, but it's that lead gen that kind of feeds into that. That's what I'm working on now.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Lead gen is also like based on the research that we did last year for 71 coaches that we looked into has been One of the main challenges that has come up And yeah, there's like, when you're thinking about growth is definitely the first challenge that comes to mind. So you're not alone, let's say, in that challenge. Now, what would you, in terms of like looking for other coaches who are listening, what advice would you give to coaches like yourself starting out that want to scale their impact just like you want to do?

Karen Thom:

I think the most important thing for me has been to keep going back to my origin story. Why did I start here? And why have I started here so what's my clients looking for what's their origin story and why are they going to pick me over another coach because there's so many coaches so it's like how do you differentiate yourself so you find the people who are your ideal customers There's a lot of people that you speak to and you might have discovery calls with and things like that. But if they're not your people, then it doesn't gel for either of you. So I think in that way, it's really differentiating and finding out who you are, what your purpose is and why you're doing it.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I really like that you put the focus back onto yourself as an advice you'd give to yourself. So that's great. And I really appreciate our time today so thank you so much for taking time to come to our podcast for anyone who wants to find you or connect with you they can go into linkedin look karen tom they'll be able to find you there is there any other place they can find you i think there's a website too

Karen Thom:

so website is www.thefoundationstudio.co.uk or on instagram as the foundation studio with the little space of things underneath

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Karen. Thank you for

Karen Thom:

coming. Thanks so much, Rajan. Thank

Rexhen Doda:

you for having

Davis Nguyen:

me on

Rexhen Doda:

the show.

Karen Thom:

Thank you.

Davis Nguyen:

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit joinpurplecircle.com.