From Lawyer to Life Coach: My Story & Why if I could do it, you can, too!

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‘The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle’ – Steve Jobs

The moment I realised I wanted to leave law, I was sitting in the car park at work on Sunday for the nth time, stifling tears of fatigue and frustration.

The moment I realised coaching could be the ideal fit work-wise was sitting a-top a double decker bus in London, reading an article on coaching, having that soulmate feeling you get when you know you may have hit the jackpot.

For the rest of my story, check out my short no-holds-barred video below explaining my move from lawyer to life and career coach and corporate trainer.

In it, I address:

💡 the dealbreakers that helped me realise law wasn’t for me;
💡 what helped me get clarity on career change;
💡 why working with coaching clients met my needs more than supporting people through divorce;
💡 why ‘net income’ is so important and why ‘income’ is a deceptive notion;
💡 why owning my own business was attractive instead of scary; and
💡 why knowing my superpowers was a real guiding light in my career change

If you’re unhappy or even just discontent in your career, know that if I can do it, you can, too.

You don’t have to see the whole staircase to make change, you just need to trust your instinct and take the first step.

Don’t know if coaching or career change may even be the right thing for you?

Take comfort from Bob Nardelli’s words, former CEO of Home Depot which has a $353 billion market capitalisation today: “I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum potential”.

Unsure if you can change paths and keep the salary you want?

Most of my new clients feel the same but quickly shift state from fear and doubt to excitement and hope, like Vanessa, another lawyer, below:

“I was referred to Mel at a point when my I felt trapped in a frustrating role and working environment. Mel proved to be a lifeline and a joy to work with as she: got me to articulate what really matters to me in my working life; has turned my frustrations into inspirations; and always ended each session with a practical ‘to do’ list. Mel’s sessions have not only allowed me to focus my thought processes on what I want and need from my career but also helped me work out a practical approach for pushing my current career in the direction I want it to go. Each session left me feeling energised and positive. I could not recommend her enough”.

Remember, our time on Earth is short.

As Steve Jobs said: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”.

To watch my story click here.

And if you’d like to hear more, get in touch for a free 30 minute life or career coaching discovery call and let’s see if we could be a good fit – www.melanie-pritchard.com

3 Ways to Sex-Up A Cover Letter!

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“Seduce my mind and you can have my body, find my soul and I’m yours forever” – MD Waters

Can you guess the link between dating and careers?

I see average cover letters again and again. Just like attracting a crème de la crème mate, we need to up our game massively to attract top employers, stand out from the crowd and secure the top jobs.

This means hardcore seduction.

I’m talking KC level, evidence based seduction that wins High Court cases.

There should be nothing average about it.

If it’s not breath-taking, don’t send it.

It you know it’s not a 10 out of 10, keep drafting.

If you don’t know how, drop me a line.

Corporate seduction is my superpower!

Like anything in life, it’s easy when you have the magic formula.

To find out how I can help you uplevel your life or career, book a free discovery call here

Still unsure? Here’s what a recent client, Tina LePomme said: ‘‘I worked with Mel in 2022. She helped me redefine my career, think about my key priorities and supported me throughout the entire process all the way until I found the dream job. She is absolutely amazing, she’s incredibly resourceful, will go above and beyond to support you in any way she can and is very professional. I cannot recommend her enough”

LA Weekly: 10 Career Coaches to Follow in 2023

press womens la weekly 10 career coaches to follow

Whether your career is in its infancy or you’re ready to change paths, working with a passionate and expert career coach can make a big difference. Career development can be quite daunting and everyone can benefit from the guidance and support career coaches are meant to provide.

If you need help exploring careers paths, setting and achieving career goals, developing your skills, and finding new and better jobs, among many other things, working with a career coach will make things a lot easier. They have years of experience and a wealth of knowledge under their belt, it’s just a matter of finding the right fit for you.

Browse our list below to find the top 10 career coaches in 2023!

Why Management Consulting Can Feel like a Toxic Relationship

‘Management consulting is like a toxic relationship – you love the salary, status and perks, but you hate the intense workload, demanding clients, lack of work life balance and lack of praise’ – Career Coaching Consulting Client

Are you a management consultant, lawyer or professional who loves the highs of the job – the big pay check, the nice house and the social status but secretly hates the feeling of being stuck in the ‘corporate cage’ where you crave changing out of the ‘always on’ culture but love the big salary and feel trapped by a big mortgage and other liabilities?

Or maybe you’ve reached the pinnacle of your career, near Partnership, only to realise that all your efforts seem to count for nothing unless you hit whopping billable targets or you’re able to bring in new business.

Or maybe you simply don’t have the time to explore these niggling feelings and doubts – or you don’t know who you could talk to to discover alternatives that meet your wider needs?

Perhaps you’ve normalised feeling flat, frustrated or unfulfilled for so long that you’ve failed to notice the negative ripple effect your work is having on your mental health and your wider quality of life with family and friends?

Can you even imagine what it feels like not to have to be perfect every day at work, like you’re on a never-ending treadmill constantly fending off burn-out?

I get it – as a lawyer turned Career and Life Coach, I help smart, successful professionals working in high stress worlds design careers and lives they love – and much as your monkey mind may tell you this isn’t possible, I’m here to tell you it is!

Whether learning simple mindset mastery tricks to help reduce stress and optimise work life balance, learning how to develop boundaries and people please less, exploring career alternatives that thrive off your superb CV or managing wider life goals like love and relationships, I’m here for you.

It’s easy to boost hope and joy in life when you have the right tools and the space to explore what you really want, what your options are and how to reconnect with your strengths to strategise for change. It doesn’t have to be money or happiness – it can be both.

Check out a powerful example of one of many bright but frustrated career coaching clients I work with in the in the short video here.

What do you relate to?

What are your main pain-points?

And how committed to change are you in 2023?

If you’d like to explore how I can help you master your mind and re-design your career or personal life, drop me a message here for a free discovery call. Helping smart, successful professionals get unstuck fast is my superpower 🙂

Here’s what a recent legal client said:

‘Thank you so much for everything – I feel like you’re the best investment I made in myself in years. I feel much more connected to my true self and have more trust in myself than I have had in a long time. You have a real gift’

How to Unearth the Hidden Job Market and Find Work you Love!

Who Owns An Idea? A Good Idea Doesn't Care Who Has It

‘My best interactions to secure this new career were through speculative approaches’ – Buzzing Client!

I just came off a call with an overjoyed management consulting career coaching client who came to coaching feeling overwhelmed, confused and unsure about how she could find a new career she loved. She lacked confidence and worried it wasn’t possible to maintain her pay and find happiness through career change. She has since secured her dream career in a new industry and new role she’d previously doubted was possible, combining her interests in law and tech to great effect (throw in Mondays off to work from home with her children and a higher salary, too!)

She did this through an unusual route, which, done well, can secure you the job of your dreams in ways your inner saboteur may try to quash!

It’s one of the most high-results producing methods I share with disillusioned career coaching clients who want to find work they love in cultures that truly align.

Watch my short video here for the insider scoop and reach out if you’d like the secret formula!

Disclaimer: don’t do this if you’re not prepared for massive career fulfilment!

If you’d like to learn more about how to get career clarity fast to find work you love, contact me for a free discovery call here!

#coaching #career #job #work #love #video #management#managementconsulting #law #lawyers #stress #happiness #change#transformation

How Radical A Career Change is Possible with Career Coaching?

10 Signs You May Be Ready for a Career Change

‘Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’ – Confucius

🤫 Bored by your career?
🤫 Lack interest in the subject matter?
🤫 Hate the place you work?
🤫 Secretly long to change paths but don’t know how, into what or if you can maintain your earnings?

So many of my clients have many of these doubts and sooo much more.

Happily, working with hundreds of clients across all industries has confirmed successful career change is ABSOLUTELY possible – sometimes in radically different directions as explained above!

Infact, making ‘major’ changes become so much easier when you get clear on who you are and what you need to be happy. One way we do this in my 360 Career Change Programme is by examining:

🍋 Your passions and interests
🍋 Your strengths and superpowers
🍋 Your values (what gives your life meaning)
🍋 Your purpose

Sound hard? It’s easy with the right support, it really is.

Unknotting confusion is my superpower which is why anxiety starts to fall away from the moment we start coaching together – instead, hope, excitement and momentum abound!

That’s the simple power of coaching – it gets you out of the lonely silo of your circular mind and zooms in on the truth – what energises you and what direction you yearn to follow to find the deep happiness and success my clients long for.

If you’re wandering what sort of clients I work with and what sort of industries they start in and move to, here’s a sneak peek in this short video.

If I sound confident about your ability to change paths, it’s because my clients do this again and again. I’m talking 99%!

Like anything, it’s easy when you know how and have a structure.

To hear more about how I can support your next steps towards the career and life of your dreams, email me ‘bring it on!’ here. I have space for two new clients in the next 6 weeks and offer an early bird discount for the super keen! Think fun, clarifying conversations with tangible results which hit bullseye.

To quote one lovely client: ‘Coaching with Mel was the best investment I’ve ever made’. You can check out more Google Reviews from past clients who have moved from career confusion to successful 360 career change here!

What’s stopping you?

5 Top Tips for Becoming a Life Coach: What I Wish I’d Known Earlier

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Coaching offers the secrets to happiness most of my career and life coaching clients dream of: freedom, work life balance, creativity and the ability to be an entrepreneur and run your own business on your own terms. What’s not to love?!

Having coached and mentored many career coaching and life coaching clients keen to switch careers into coaching, here are some top tips most coaches to be are unaware of:

1. Choose the Right Coaching Course

Any course you spend money on should be seen as an investment rather than an expense. A high value course should be measured for the return on investment it provides versus the cost. The coaching course I did worked well for me because it offered the flexibility of online study and was well reputed because it markets itself extremely well with free weekend taster courses – but great marketing doesn’t equal great quality. I’ve since met many coaches and can clearly see some stand-out courses which cost a lot more money but which yield notably excellent returns in terms of skills, business tips and certification. So take the time to connect with well-established coaches with wide networks and ask them which coaching schools they’d recommend based on the coaches they’ve met. The right investment will pay dividends in terms of building your confidence, skills and future business.

2. Marketing is King

As I always say, a great coach without marketing is like a chateau without road signs. It doesn’t matter how gifted you are if people can’t find you. My personal path involved undertaking my coaching training and developing my coaching skills through a lot of free sessions, gathering client testimonials so I could build my future brand (website and blog) and writing articles on areas of interest around happiness, success and personal development. The truth is, this was an easy win as writing sets my heart a-flutter and sharing learnings from books I was reading and my own new experiences living in wonderful new places on paths less travelled, was an easy way to energise myself, consolidate key pearls of wisdom and build my profile as a personal development specialist. Much later, I turned my attention to marketing, such as writing articles for publications such as the Huffington Post, investing in PR, exploring search engine optimisation and creating a podcast to get more traffic to my website. Marketing is like a game — you’ve got to play the game if you want to create enough chemistry calls to make a living. For while coaching may meet those much sought after values such as freedom and work life balance, this isn’t much fun if you’re not earning enough money to make a living. With great testimonials and enough client enquiries, you can increase your prices and be sure to make what you need and more every month with the kind of freedom, stability and growth that, well, sets you free!

3. Work for Coaching Companies as a Freelance Coach

Once you’ve got enough coaching hours and great testimonials under your belt, it shouldn’t be too hard to secure freelance coaching as an associate coach. This is a really high results producing activity as it ensures you get clients funnelled to you without any marketing costs your end. The other major benefit is the business acumen you acquire from seeing how other coaching businesses operate. If you’d told me when I started coaching that I could easily sell 9 session career coaching packages to clients, I never would’ve believed you. I would’ve also found it hard to believe that I could even make £300 a month from coaching! Working for more established coaching companies has proven otherwise, teaching me powerful tools around effective marketing, how to conduct powerful chemistry calls to convert potential clients whilst boosting my confidence though coaching hundreds of clients across different industries and at different levels from undergraduates to trainees, associates, managers and CEOs.

4. Play to your Passions

Although people often speak about the importance of having a niche, I advise new coaches to start broad unless you’re sure what direction you want to take. If you know you’re nuts about nutrition and want to go hammer and tongs to train as a nutrition or health coach, go for it, as passion sells. But if you’re unsure, don’t corner yourself too soon. Instead, enjoy experimenting by working with a range of clients and getting curious about what you most enjoy. I worked with a real mix of people and noticed that career coaching clients naturally gravitated towards me because of my own career coaching journey from lawyer to life and career coach. I also realised that having worked across a range of fields from property and law to PR, journalism, copywriting, higher education and start-ups gave me unique insight into a range of careers that could benefit clients across a real breadth of diverse career sectors. I also realised that my journalism experience and First Class degree in English were superpowers other coaches may not have, helping clients with key pain points whether nailing CV’s, applications, cover letters and interviews to secure the jobs of their dreams. What are your unique strengths, experiences, passions and selling points? And how might these support the area of coaching that you could work in?

5. Carve out a Unique Selling Point

While coaching sounds like the killer career in terms of work life balance, freedom and making a difference, this also means it attracts a lot of people who want a piece of the cake. To ensure you stand out from the crowd, think about what your unique selling points are and how they can bolster your brand identity and origin tale. For instance, as a lawyer turned life coach, I have a unique selling point as a coach who has successfully traversed career change — particularly from the high stress, ‘always-on’ corporate world, to a more freedom filled, values-driven, coaching lifestyle. This story resonates well with professionals like lawyers and management consultants who can be a little snobby about who they work with. My creative strengths as a writer have meant that I leant into creating my own blog and writing on subjects that inspired my own personal development from how to take the stress out of online dating, to top tips for moving abroad (think London to Madrid and the French Alps), to how to master your mind and transform your life and career. My strengths as a writer separate me from other coaches and have helped me gain PR opportunities with publications like Grazia, The Financial Times, Huffington Post, Refinery29, Elephant Journal and Refinery29; this has paid dividends in boosting my gravitas as a commercial creative hybrid who specialises in helping a range of professionals who are confused about their careers find work they love!

What comes to mind when you ask yourself the above questions? Feel free to drop me your thoughts or queries here.

5 Top Tips for Changing Careers in Your 30s

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Shifting career at any point can feel scary, sometimes all the scarier in your 30s. At this age, you’re no longer the fearless undergraduate hungry to cut your teeth in competitive new industries and the rose tinted spectacles of inexperience may have well and truly fallen off. You may also feel burdened by the liabilities of real life whether mortgages, children or otherwise.

But do not fear! These fears are very normal — so normal, that I see them again and again in career coaching clients hungry for career change but often disabled by fear. This is exactly why they seek out career coaching — so they can find ways to master their minds and harness easy to apply methods to shift into careers that truly excite and fulfil them.

So here are 5 top tips for taking the stress out of switching careers in your 30s, fast:

  1. The Values Audit

Before even contemplating changing careers, it’s important to get clear on your values — the needs or drivers you need to be connecting with in life to feel happy. I call this your ‘Toolkit for Life’ because once you know what energises and excites you, you have a roadmap for happiness and the clarity to shift path with confidence. For instance, it was easy for me to leave law and traverse into creating my own business when I realised I needed greater work life balance, freedom and fun to feel truly fulfilled in life. Getting clear on your values also helps you label why you’ve felt unfulfilled by prior roles, organisations or industries which brings clarity, relief and validation — the ideal springboard for career change. For instance, let’s say you’ve felt drained working in a very process driven role and you realise creativity is central to your sense of self — it’s then easy to see why you’ve felt out of sorts and more motivating to shift into a career that really compliments you. To get clear on your values, start by asking yourself what you can’t do without in life at large? What would your dream job involve? What are you key frustrations and what’s the opposite of each? What would make you truly happy? As Mahatma Gandhi reminds us: ‘Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.’

  1. Identify your ‘Why’

Most career coaching clients have no idea what their purpose is — that North Star that guides the bigger picture. For some career coaching clients, this may be making a difference, for others it may be spending quality time with family, for others it may be winning awards and becoming an expert in their field. To work out your ‘why’, ask yourself who do you admire in life and why? How would you like to be remembered when you leave this world? What kind of things would you like to hear people saying about you at your funeral? What kind of legacy would you like to leave? A lot of us think in ego driven, linear ways when it comes to careers, but as Steve Jobs warns us: ‘I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to’. So park your ego and ask yourself instead, what does success really mean to you? What would drive you on days when you feel like giving up? What kind of career and impact would leave you feeling proud at the end of your days?

  1. Connect to the Truth

One of the key regrets Bronnie Ware identifies in her book, ‘The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying’ is: ‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not a life others expected of me’. So many of my career coaching clients fall into roles because their parents told them law or consulting would be a good idea or because the job title sounds sexy at dinner parties. Although it’s natural to be led by others when we’re young and unaware of what really drives us, with age comes experience, of different people, different roles and different corporate cultures — and greater awareness of how we really feel about each! By the time you’re in your 30s, you have an ideal backdrop from which to explore what you’ve liked, disliked and craved more of in a role and environment. This commercial landscape sheds light on the key factors which drive aligned career change including your leading strengths, your passions and interests, your values and your purpose. So instead of thinking it’s too late to change, see your experience for what it is — a vehicle to truth — uncovering key pearls of wisdom around what truly makes you happy. As F Scott Fitzgerald reminds us: ‘It’s never too late to be who you want to be’. Look at Ray Croc, the founder of McDonald’s — he was 52 when he opened his first McDonald’s franchise!

  1. Leverage Your Experience

Career coaching clients often panic that they lack the experience to shift paths into a new career, forgetting they have developed some great transferable skills they can use as evidence to launch into new career directions. Start by asking yourself what are your leading skills? What have you been most complimented on in prior jobs? What comes naturally to you? What are you doing when you’re most energised? And which of these skills overlap with leading skills in your new area of interest? Remember, existing killer skills can often be taken forward in new directions! You can also minimise panicking about career change by asking yourself what unique selling points you have in terms of prior expertise that you could harness to push you to the top of the CV pile for a new role. For instance, a client of mine had been a midwife for 15 years and was interested in moving into project management and innovation. Initially she panicked about her seeming lack of experience in these fields, but she soon started thinking more strategically, identifying how she could harness her unique selling point of clinical experience in new areas of interest. You guessed it, she found her dream job in a clinical setting and has been promoted twice already! If you don’t have experience in a new area of interest, what quick wins could help you close the gap, whether work experience, a course or seeking advice from people in that area?

  1. Chats with People

The most high results producing activity you can engage in, informational interviews with people in areas of interest will help you deepen clarity around new avenues, fast. Many career coaching clients panic about talking to strangers so start by asking yourself who you know in possible areas of interest and also who you know who may know people they can connect you to. Remember, we’ve all been confused in life — it’s the one commonality of being human — and people generally love talking about themselves, especially if you make them feel special. The one common mistake I see career coaching clients make here is the same problem I see in cover letters, job applications and job interviews — if you don’t bespoke your approach to the person or organisation you’re trying to seduce with specific examples of why you think they’re special, they won’t make time to talk to you. To be seen as worthwhile, you need to prove you’ve done your homework, showcasing your research, communication and interpersonal skills through specific examples that evidence your interest. The litmus test is asking yourself: ‘Could the reasons I’m giving to evidence my interest in this person apply to someone else?’ If the answer is yes, your reasons are too vague and not specific enough. To get clear on what reasons you could give, start by asking yourself, what 3 things truly inspire me about this person or their organisation? Then think of a specific example for each whether an article they’ve written, a project they’ve worked on or otherwise. Remember, authenticity and passion sells!

So there you have it — 5 simple ways to boost clarity to get clear on career change fast! It’s easy when you know how! Don’t believe me? These top tips have helped hundreds of career coaching clients like Marcel, all united by confusion, self-doubt and sometimes crippling fear, change careers in sometimes radical ways:

“Mel was arguably one of the best things that happened to me last year. I had just moved to the UK and found myself facing a lot of professional challenges regarding self-promotion, speculative approaches, interviews, etc. With a well-planned, straightforward programme, Mel made me rediscover my strengths and taught me how to adapt them to my new reality. Thanks to her strategies, I was able to thrive and secure a leading role at a huge multinational company!”

 

Refinery29: I Changed My Career & Regret It. Now What?

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Wonderful to talk to Sadhbh O’Sullivan at Refinery29, Inc. on how to navigate career change with confidence. Even if you think the move would be too extreme or would be impossible to explain in an interview, there’s always a way if you know how! And if you have career regrets about past experiences and feel stressed about how to explain new interests and passion, fear not. Equally, if you want to change job direction but are worried about money and the financial impact, there are ways around that too.

Read the top tips in the full article here!

 

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