Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Hodge.
Hi Claire, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a Life Coach. I help clients redesign their lives and teach them to think and live purposefully. I came to this role due to my interest in self-development, which started when I was 16. I found myself in the “self-development” section of a Barnes & Nobel bookstore in high school, browsing the books as I pulled random ones off the shelves. As I read, much of what was shared resonated with me. Ideas like “perception is a reality,” “what we experience is highly influenced by, and largely a result of what we believe,” and “beliefs are just thoughts we think over and over again.” From that point, I consumed a lot of personal development materials; Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, and Abraham Hicks, to name a few. The works intrigued me, and I applied much of it. This, of course, could have been more intentional. I was simply a young kid learning stuff and trying it out. Fast forward a few years, and I became a hairstylist. As most people have experienced, when you go to see your hairstylist, you tell them about everything happening in your life; they end up being ad-hock therapists. It was no different with my clients and me. Clients would sit in my chair and tell me their challenges, and I would regurgitate the information I’d learned from these thought leaders. In hindsight, I was already a Life Coach without the title.
A few years into my career as a stylist, one of my clients told me while sharing insight on their current woes, “You’re my Life Coach.” This was the first time I’d heard and considered these words. “Life Coach” what is that? Am I that? Sounds interesting. From there, I started an intentional exploration of the field. I quickly realized that it was essentially what all the great teachers I’d followed were doing and, in a way, what I was doing on a small scale with my hair clients. The next step was to figure out how to transition into an intentional career move. Saving all the details, I found a school and a certification program that connected with my personal beliefs and values (shout out to The Life Coach School) and decided to pursue it. I’ve since been working with clients every single week, helping them to create lives they love through understanding how their brains work, how they’ve created the lives they currently have, and how to make shifts, both mentally and physically, to move in the direction they truly want to go. It’s one of the most rewarding activities I’ve ever done.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been smooth?
Has the road been smooth? My coach brain will tell you, “Life is what you make it,” memories included. By that, I mean we all can look back on our past and “forget” hard times or modify our perspective of the challenges to see the good in them. That’s all to say. I could say, “It’s been perfect!” but I also feel strongly about not washing over negative experiences with a positive lens simply for the sake of wanting everything to be sunshine and roses. All life has duality, which is to say, all of life contains 50% positivity and 50% negativity. Nothing is without struggle, but also, nothing is without success. The entrepreneurial journey has had and continues to have its challenges. Some of the struggles that I’ve personally experienced include; 1) clients canceling/quitting and me taking it personally (IE making it mean “I’m no good at this”) that can be quick demise for an entrepreneur. The truth is, you are for some people and not for other people. That’s simply business. You will never sell to 100% of the people who “walk into your store” Trying to do so is a losing game. Making it mean you’re no good can easily lead you to give up and kill your business.
Another struggle; 2) Growing quicker than I was mentally prepared to do this sounds like a great problem, but how I rebounded was rough. I wasn’t in a space to receive all of the demand that quickly came for my services, and so, in response, I shut down. I stopped selling my services because I was overwhelmed, and it took me a long time to realize its impact and remedy it. I’m still in the process of remedying it. There was no way I could’ve avoided this. That experience had so many lessons for me as an entrepreneur that I could only have learned through the struggle. One of the biggest struggles I see in entrepreneurship, including myself, is belief—struggling to believe that what I have to offer is valuable and that there are people out in the world who want it. Most entrepreneurs struggle with this, especially those of us who tie the value of the product/service we’re offering with the value of ourselves as human beings. These two things are entirely separate, and you can still believe in the value of the product/service you offer even if you’re struggling to believe in the value of yourself as a human being (which we all do, even though we’re 100% worthy always) both require particular attention.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My business is a one-woman show. I provide Personal and Business Coaching Services to my clients. As mentioned earlier, I help my clients create and live more intentionally. Most people live their life by default because that’s how the brain is wired and how it functions. It is a very efficient machine. Our brains create neural pathways to make sense of the world during our young and impressionable years. Those sound like “if this, then this” or “this means this, and that means that” we don’t question these things; our brain decides “this is the way it is.”
Interestingly, “this is the way it is” is just a subjective decision, not a concrete fact. Here’s an example “you have to work hard to make money” some people believe “this is the way it is,” but not everyone thinks “you have to work hard to make money,” so, actually, that isn’t the way it is, that’s simply the way it is for you because that’s what you believe. If something (aka believes) “you have to work hard to make money,” they will work hard to make money. Suppose that person wants to make the same amount of money and reduce their work hours by half. In that case, they will struggle to do that as long as they have this (often unconscious) belief “I have to work hard to make money.” so many of us have so many of these types of thoughts. These types of thoughts (aka beliefs) greatly influence how we live our lives and, therefore, what results in what we experience in our lives. The work I do with my clients starts with assessing where they are now, comparing it to where they want to be, and then working one-on-one to uncover the thoughts/beliefs that have gotten them to where they are now and how those thoughts/beliefs may need to change to get them where they want to be. The old saying goes, “to have something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.” This includes thinking things you’ve never thought (and maybe letting go of old ways of thinking too)
We all can do this work completely on our own. However, I strongly believe in working with a one-on-one coach because we’re often too close to the tree to realize we’re looking at a tree. We need someone outside the forest to explain what’s in front of us and help us navigate it. After a while, my clients learn how to coach themselves and find that they use the tools and skills I teach them in other areas of their lives. Thought work is brain training; just like any other muscle, you have to exercise it to improve its performance intentionally. If you’re intentionally exercising muscles under a professional trainer’s supervision and guidance, you’ll likely see better results faster. That’s what Life Coaching is. Working with a brain trainer who can help you achieve better results in less time than you would on your own. Plus, it’s nice to have a completely objective third party focusing attention and energy (our most valuable resource) for one solid hour every week on your life and helping you overcome your specific challenges. It’s truly life-changing.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Hmm, luck. If we changed the word to “fortune,” I might be able to get behind it better. Luck, to me, often seems flippant. Some forces outside our control influence our lives (positively or negatively), but they are quite serious. I have been fortunate to be a white female-identifying person born and raised in America. That has truly provided me with many opportunities that I otherwise would not have been afforded, which is worth acknowledging. I’ve also had the fortune of having a supportive husband who has been a great partner, which has allowed me some safety as I pursue and continue to pursue entrepreneurship.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.consultwithclaire.com
- Instagram: @consult.with.claire
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/consult.with.claire
Image Credits
Image Credit – Alexandra Rostad of Little Runaway Photography (original headshot + photos of workbooks), Image Credit – Stan Foxworthy of Foxworthy Studios (“mindset is everything” photo)
