Case Study
Cheryl Wing
Why did you decide to have coaching, and what were you hoping to achieve?
I decided to have coaching because I had this new business idea and I wasn’t getting focused on how to take it forward.
I had several good ideas but didn't have a structure, a process, or the confidence to do it; and I wanted to get my thoughts out of my head and share them with someone to get their perspective.
I wanted to take action and start moving forward. I had got so far in starting this new part of my business with my current thinking, and I just felt a bit stuck that I wasn't doing more.

I was occupying myself with the recruitment side of my own company, which was going well, and knew I needed a push and some accountability to start things moving with my new business venture.
One of the things, when you are a smaller business owner, is that you can make all the decisions yourself.
When you've been doing one part of the business like me for 23 years, that's a very easy thing to do.
It doesn't feel like I'm taking risks if I take decisions that I'm only 80% sure about.
When you're starting something new and there are quite a lot of risks behind that, I wanted to sense check that what I was doing was the right thing to do.
To have somebody else who's a business professional, as well as a coach, be able to ask me questions to make sure I was on the right track; was key.
It's important for me to work with a professional.
What do you like best about coaching and what were your biggest insights?
What I liked best is what I liked the least at the same time; which is the fact that it gave me accountability.
Whatever timeframe I did my coaching through, at the end of it, I said, "Well, I'm going to do this." I'm somebody that when I say I'm going to do something, I do it.
Rather than go back to my part of the business that's doing very well and just get on with that, I actioned what we talked about for the new side.
Accountability is hard because of time, but it was also my best thing. This resulted in me moving to where I wanted to be.
The result is that my new business is now fully functioning. I put things in place that I've been putting off for a long time.
The two businesses serve the same market in different ways; my original business helps recruitment companies hire recruiters to build their teams.
The new part of the business, which had been going for three or four years teaches and advises people how to carry out their own recruitment.
The information I had, and what I was doing was all there. It was about the planning, the content, the process, and the head space.
When you have something that you're really good at, it's really easy to do that all the time. I think working with Sharon made me stop and go, well, actually I just need to move direction for a few hours a day; Then that part of the business is going to get momentum as well.
What else did you learn about yourself?
So much; especially about change.
The biggest learning was that I love change. I embrace change, and I'm very good at it.
Though when you have coaching, and we talk about real change and uncomfortable change and change to breakthrough to get to where you want to go; I'm not so great at it!
Yes, if I'm really honest, I'm really good at making changes if I can see quite quickly what a great thing it's going to be.
I think what I learned about myself was I like to stay in my comfort zone.
It was a shock actually and something that I've really taken forward. Not just in this part of coaching but in other parts of my life now.
I would stop and think, "Okay, well, I'll be avoiding this because there's some uncomfortable change, which you think you're good at, and actually you are not."
That probably was my biggest thing about coaching.
Also, I really like learning, I really enjoyed some of the things Sharon taught me and all the resources I had access to.
I feel everything we talked about had facts and examples, reasons, and research behind it.
What results, or changes were you able to achieve?
I definitely feel I came out of my sticky point. Before I started coaching it felt like walking through treacle; I'm doing it, but I'm not actually moving forward.
I've been going around in that circle for quite a long time, and I came out of it.
Because we did coach weekly, even if I got myself stuck, I wasn't in it for very long before I talked about it and I got out; I felt more comfortable about that.
It 100% gave me the confidence to do the things I needed to do. I've had two sets of coaching.
The first set was a year ago, and I still have that confidence I developed. It hasn't been like it's wavered, it has been great.
I was probably delivering two to three of these recruitment training master classes a year and just dipping my toe in. After coaching last year, I did 36 and the other side of my business still continued to grow.
And I've actually hired my first member into that part of my business.
I also have to say that my first block of coaching, I think it was 12 sessions, gave me the confidence to go out and build and put a process in place.
Then getting to another point where it was doing well, but knowing I needed to move forward again, I came back to Sharon.
It was time to come back with some more things to talk about and start to create a different level of confidence.
How are you feeling now because of coaching?
Do you know, when I was having the coaching, I'd always come off the call really excited and motivated? I think with my plan of action, rather than feeling like, "Oh God, I've got more things to do," they felt real and exciting.
I could see where I was going and at the end of our coaching session, I was always really positive.
I always looked forward to the call. I think when we talk about emotions, I went from should I, shouldn't I, too; 'No I am doing this’.
Also, one of the things I now appreciate is it's okay if things don’t work straight away.
Instead of thinking, oh, this has got to be perfect because I've got this perfect business that I've had for such a long time that's amazing, I went in and thought that this new business had to be the same. I think that's where I was struggling emotionally.
I was feeling like if it wasn't perfect from day one, I was failing. What Sharon gave me was, well, go out and fail and go out and have a go and come back and tell me what's better.
I went through that emotion of like, it's okay, I'm relaxed. I was calmer about it. It builds confidence, but before you get the confidence, you have to have more baby steps as you move forward.
I also think, because I went in with that attitude, of course, I didn't fail at all. It just got better and better and better.
One of the emotions I started to experience which I was pleased about was I began to feel pleased and happy and excited rather than, "Oh, God" and dread of more things to do.
What might you say to someone who would be considering having coaching with Sharon?
I would say, if you are somebody who needs to move forward in something, or would like to feel different, or just have a sounding board of where you are and what you're doing, I would 100% recommend Sharon.
One of the things I like is I'm a business owner and I can be a bit chaotic; I want to do 100 things at once and I want them all done yesterday.
What I found is Sharon, is really calm, logical, and super knowledgeable, and lets you know that it's okay to be exactly where you are. That these are sometimes the big steps if you want to make it and sometimes the smaller steps of how to go forward.
I think it's all backed up with resources and things that you can take away. As well as being professional, she is a really nice individual to talk to; I really got the feeling she cares.
She had an interest in what I was doing. Often, I would get little emails saying, "I've just been thinking about this," or, "Have you thought about that?"
That was just really nice to know that it just wasn't a business transaction. When you're coaching or you're giving people raw information you might not be giving anybody else, especially when they're so easy to talk to like Sharon, you want to know that they are interested as well.
100% do it.