Day 106: Jerry Beck
“I’ve been involved in personal growth stuff forever, back when it wasn’t popular in the 70s and 60s and stuff like that. … But there’s something about some of the things that I engaged in where … all of a sudden it was like ‘Oh, what a minute, maybe I’ve been looking at this from the wrong angle.’”
.
.
Right click here to download…
.
Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Jerry, for being part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Jerry Beck: My name is Jerry Beck. I’m 65 years old. I’ve been coaching probably about 10 years; actually longer than that, but accredited for almost that long. I don’t know … what else would you like to know?
Toni: Well, let’s go into the interview, and I’m sure we’ll find out even more.
Jerry: Okay.
Toni: So Jerry, when you think about that word inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you do it?
Jerry: Well, my job. I work for a company that markets C-level individuals trying to get back in the marketplace. So, my task is to coach them for about six months. Part of that is keeping them inspired, keeping them focused because, especially in today’s market, it’s real easy to get uninspired, only because it’s a really challenging place to be right now.
Toni: Right, right.
Jerry: I’ve been in the staffing industry for more than 20 years and other industries prior to that. I’ve probably counseled thousands of people about career choices and things like that. I’m a Certified Expatriate Coach, and I’m an accredited coach with ICF.
Toni: And what does an Expatriate Coach do?
Jerry: Actually, it works with individuals who are on assignment in different parts of the world for companies that are in the U.S. — 45% of all those people drop out of the contracts they agree to take because of a lack of support.
Toni: Oh, okay. Now, when you say you do career coaching — you’ve done the Expatriate Coaching, career coaching — what do you do? How do you go about … particularly when someone’s looking for work, how do you keep them inspired? What are some of the things that you do?
Jerry: Oh, gosh; a lot of phone calls, because most of my clients are all over the country. I’m in Denver. They’re in Washington, California, New York, you name it. Many of them have long, successful careers, but due to budget cutbacks they’ve been let go. They’ve had very high level positions. In many cases, they’ve never even looked for a job. They’ve been working 30, 40 years and never interviewed.
A lot of what I do is giving them interview skills, talking to them about the things they want, the things they don’t want, how much longer they expect to be working, what’s an ideal workplace; it’s really developing a relationship. It’s the same with any other kind of coaching. If you don’t … if you haven’t established that relationship early on, there’s no rapport. Without that, it’s hard to have a conversation about both the tough questions and those that are easy.
Toni: So by building that relationship with those individuals in coaching or even personally, how do you think that then helps to explore the potential in others?
Jerry: Oh, I think it helps a lot, especially at my age – and it’s not that I think I’m old – it’s just that I’ve got a lot of experience and a lot of life experience as well. I think the fact that I am able to share some of the stories about my life and some of the challenges I’ve overcome, I think it helps to establish that rapport and that sense of trust, because I’ve been there, done that.
I’ve owned my own business, I’ve been in decent positions, I’ve been on the board of nonprofits, and I’ve done a lot of different things. I think that’s a lot of it, being able to establish a kind of a connection, especially with people that I deal with.
With younger folks that I deal with, it’s more about keeping it very, very light, because my experience is younger kids, those in their 30s and 40s – and for me, they’re kids, that’s how old my children are. They take everything seriously, so it’s really – that’s a generalization – so it’s important to stay light with them and to keep them focused because they tend to be scattered. They want everything, and they want it all right now.
Toni: So really, keeping it light is a very gentle way of focusing them.
Jerry: Exactly, right. It’s true of older people, too, but they tend to not need that kind of lightness as much.
Toni: What do you think they need more of, the trust?
Jerry: I think they need more trust, and I think they need to feel like they are being listened to, because they’ve already made the decision they’re too old.
Toni: Okay. Now, what about you, Jerry? What do you need to be inspired?
Jerry: What do I need to be inspired? To continue learning. I’m a lifetime learner. Some things I could care less about, other things I’m passionate about. The coaching school I attended, I try to stay as closely connected to the alumni as possible. I go to ICF conferences as much as I can, and other things unrelated to coaching. I have a wide area of interest.
Toni: Well, when you’ve reached that point and you’re going “Okay, you know what? I need to fill my bucket up. I need to be re-inspired”, because you’re dealing with people that their lives are turned upside down, you know?
Jerry: Yeah, they are.
Toni: And so if you need that inspiration, where else do you go? What tools do you reach for? What else do you need to do to kind of fill yourself back up?
Jerry: You know, what I do is so rewarding, I get a lot of inspiration from my clients who really are engaged. So it’s not that I go look for something to inspire me so much; I think just the process itself tends to inspire me on a daily basis. I’ve got bad days like anybody else, but it’s pretty remarkable how some people will challenge themselves to go way beyond what my expectations are. And as a coach, you’re not supposed to have any, but you still make assessments, you know? You’re human. It’s opinions about what you think people will do.
Toni: Have you always been that positive? Have you always been someone who has motivated and championed others? Were you always like that?
Jerry: You know, probably pretty much after I was able to separate myself from my own story.
Toni: Ah!
Jerry: That took a while!
Toni: Not too long, though!
Jerry: But clearly it’s something that I’m passionate about with my clients.
Toni: Can you give us a little example?
Jerry: Though I’m not being defined by that garbage.
Toni: Well, Jerry, this is why it’s so helpful when people tell their stories on the Get Inspired! Project. Would you be willing to tell a little of your story as to … maybe not the story, but where was the turning point for you? You said “when I separated myself from my own story.” That’s pretty phenomenal. So can you just give us a sample?
Jerry: It was the same thing for me.
Toni: What do you mean?
Jerry: I’ve been involved in personal growth stuff forever, back when it wasn’t popular in the 70s and 60s and stuff like that. And you hear this stuff all the time, but there’s something about some of the things that I engaged in where I just … I don’t know if I was just ready to hear it or ready to listen or what, but all of a sudden it was like “Oh, what a minute, maybe I’ve been looking at this from the wrong angle.”
But I do know that with my clients … my life story is like a lot of people. There was a lot of abuse. There were a lot of incredible challenges, and it was all about surviving all those things that had come up. I lived my life from survival most of the time. I think my gratification was in overcoming all these things. Then when I ran out of things to overcome, I was still in that behavior. Do you understand what I’m saying?
Toni: I do, I do.
Jerry: But there was nothing to overcome. So clearly, I periodically would create things to overcome because it was my MO. That’s what I was used to doing until I went to the Newfield Coaching School which I really appreciated, because it has an ontological approach to it. It’s not “do this, do that” in coaching. It’s like, you know, “What did you do in this circumstance and how might you do it differently? How could you maybe see that differently or with different eyes?” A language that was used that I was very unused to … it was a phenomenal amount of study.
In a year’s coaching program, I spent 10 months finding out how I showed up. It was $10,000. The money was a very big deal for me at that time, and about halfway through the program, I thought “I don’t give a damn how much money this costs, I’m done.”
Toni: Because you weren’t ready to hear it.
Jerry: “I don’t need this”, yeah. Coming from the other side of it, which was only a few days actually, I can’t even imagine why I was so upset. But something changed, something happened. I had a coach, I had a mentor who kind of walked me through it, and once I got to the other side of it, it was kind of like “Wow, I’m not even sure I understand.” I was just in a constant state of overwhelm and “I can’t do this”, which was another MO.
Toni: But boy, having walked on that fire and having someone walk with you, that was the key and you now …
Jerry: That was essential. If I hadn’t had a coach going through it, I don’t know that I would have completed it.
Toni: And that’s what you do for others now, so that’s pretty amazing.
Jerry: And I really am adamant with my clients about their stories. I want to know what their stories are, and I want to be able to observe in their behavior and how they show up, and it becomes obvious pretty quickly. There are those that are attached to it and those that aren’t. Not everyone is.
Toni: And you can recognize that pretty much, can’t you, because of what you went through?
Jerry: And having been there, yeah.
Toni: Absolutely. What do you do to continue to …
Jerry: It’s pretty hard to upset me with their story.
Toni: What do you do to …
Jerry: It’s like “Oh throw it at me, just tell me how awful it was for you.”
Toni: Oh, no! Well, one final question for you, Jerry.
Jerry: Sure.
Toni: What do you do to continue to explore your own potential? How do you keep moving that forward?
Jerry: I think I just stay curious.
Toni: Stay curious.
Jerry: I think a pitfall for me is becoming comfortable with what I know and not continuing to reassess where I am, what I’ve learned with different …
Toni: And probably by doing that, I would imagine that directly impacts — by staying curious — the learning that you go through so that you can continue to help these people of all ages in all walks of life to move through this transition that they are going through.
Jerry: Surely. I’m not the coach for everyone, you know? I’m also very clear. I’m very clear about people who are not ready for coaching and when it’s important to refer them to a therapist or to another coach.
Toni: Right.
Jerry: My style isn’t for everybody.
Toni: And not a lot of coaches recognize that. That’s refreshing to hear.
Jerry: Oh, no … see, it’s got nothing to do with me, because I have talked to people in the past that I didn’t think were a good fit for me. Or they were doing things that were out of my own integrity, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to coach them.
Toni: That’s also very, very important. Not only sometimes we don’t even recognize what that integrity is, we just know it doesn’t feel right.
Jerry: Right, exactly.
Toni: Oh, Jerry, you’ve been a hoot! You’ve been absolutely wonderful, and I really appreciate the honesty …
Jerry: Oh, it’s not a problem.
Toni: … and how you came to the table. There will be a way for people to get a hold of you posted at the end or just see what you’re all about. I really appreciate your time today for the Get Inspired! Project. Thank you so much.
Jerry: You’re welcome. I’m delighted to have been invited. Thank you.
Toni: Talk to you soon, Jerry.
___________________________________________________________
For more information about Jerry Beck: jerry@turbocoach.com
.
Post Comment