Connecting with Your Inner-Self with Christine Raschke

I had the most heart-warming and mindful conversation with Christine today. I never have a dull moment when I speak to Christine and, more important, I always learn something new and always come out of it with something else I want to explore.

 

Becoming a Coach

Christine became an Executive Coach since 2018. Her path to coaching came after motherhood, in a time where she had a lot of questions. What was her definition of success? What was truly important for her? What did it even mean to live a fulfilling life? It was a multi-month period exploring these questions that lead her to conclude she always had it in her to coach people and connect at a deeper level.

She is loving every single interaction and believes there is something magical when people connect the dots. Her dream of becoming an explorer translated into now helping people explore themselves, changing one life at a time. Christine's transformational coaching bridges the inner and the outer world together in a conversation of radical candor.

 

Dealing with Lockdown

In the Bay Area, the large tech companies followed shelter in place before formal orders came, so the family has been home since early March. Christine was lucky that her nanny stayed as part of her "bubble" and, as she was working from home already, it did not have an immediate material impact. She did have to have more sessions via zoom rather than in person, but clients adapted relatively easily to this reality.

As lockdown raised the pressure on companies' spend, Christine started seeing more impact where some clients slashed their budgets and others postponed it for a few months. The impact is still uncertain, however, Christine believes coaching can be even more impactful in a time of crisis.

 

At home

Christine had to re-invent some of the house routines. After trying to work from home, Christine and her husband started "leaving" the house every morning so their children would understand they were not just hanging out. She replaced date night with a date bike ride. And the fact that there was no timetable just made the weekend time with family even more meaningful. It made the family be more present, connect more, and just hang out.

 

Changing Trends

For companies, there have been hot topics that Christine has been able to help with. One of the topics showing up a lot is related to communication - communicating virtually, communicating about tough decisions for companies in rough financial situations, communicating about racial justice. Communication has definitely been a sought after area. On the other hand, burnout and stress have been key too. It is not just something that is "nice to have" anymore, companies are trying to figure out what this new world looks will look like.

In the aftermath of Covid19, Christine also expects remote work to bring about a new reality. Facebook has already announced remote working indefinitely. This means companies now have globally available talent pools that they need to learn how to manage.

On a more personal level, career transitioning coaching has gone down as people halted creating another source of uncertainty in their lives and deferred career decisions. However, this is a reflection time for many people on what is important to them, what they lost and won, and what they are grateful for. Through this reflection, people are likely to re-evaluate their priorities and that includes work. So this segment could expand further.

 

New opportunities

Now that people are more accepting of Zoom, Christine believes this creates an opportunity to tap into a broader client base. She already has clients across the US and London, but this digital world is likely to open up even more geographies.

On the other hand, Christine has started exploring potential partnerships with other coaches to serve specific clients as a group, bring areas of expertise together, and naturally tap into each other's networks. As an extrovert, Christine thrives around people and believe this can be a great avenue for her to engage in a creative process with others. Similarly, she is also exploring going more into group coaching.

 

A growth journey

Christine has been on a steep growth journey for the last 2 years and had already slowed down her life. But overall, she has seen this time as a time of richness - which has to do with awareness and being mindful, with being in the moment appreciating little things and appreciating the detail.

 

Life does not have to move fast in order to be rich.

 

Christine's greatest challenge from this lockdown came from her three and a half years old. As he was frustrated by the Zoom lessons and she was flooded with the "should" word, she decided to drop the forced structure. Instead, Christine followed his lead on how to best learn, nurture curiosity, and keep him entertained. Letting go in expectations was key to take this forward. She applied to herself what she recommends to her clients.

 

 

Staying productive and sane

Christine brings to us her great tips on staying productive (and sane). First, she focused on being well-rested and energised. I am still not sure how she has managed this one.

She has also connected more with nature and moved more. She started running again and she also ventured into the Pacific Ocean and started surfing. She had feared the cold but the wet suit helped her get unstuck from her own 4 walls and dive into the open ocean. As a reminder that the world is still there and there is still beauty out there.

Ultimately, connection with other people is key for Christine, and while everyone got on zoom overload at some point, it was still great to have that ability to connect. The personal component was a key addition to movement and nature as it brings about a different energy.

 

Kickass and live life fully

Christine is no doubt very connected with herself and helping people connect to themselves as well. Lockdown has allowed her to deepen this connection and I trust it will open up even more opportunities as we all take deep looks inside ourselves.

 

Christine's Lockdown List

Lockdown Book: The Untethered Soul

Lockdown Sport: Surf

Lockdown Technology: Zoom

Lockdown Lesson: Patience

Lockdown Word: Present (and Slow)

 

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