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masterful coach

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the

masterful coach

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PROFITABLE BUSINESS | IDEAL LIFE | COACHING SKILL MASTERY

The Chronic Fatigue Coach: An Interview with Sharon Wirant

podcast Nov 24, 2021

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“Before succumbing to chronic fatigue, doubt and my inner critic encouraged my overthinking of everything. Overwhelm invited indulging in busyness, over-researching, and shopping sprees for needless things. Striving for perfection and making everyone happy nearly sucked the life out of me by forgetting to think about me. Black clouds hovered above me as I questioned everything I did. I couldn’t figure out how to get out of my funk and then fatigue dropped me to my knees.” Those are the raw and honest words of Sharon Wirant, MA, chronic fatigue coach, and best-selling author of the book, Tired Yet Wired: Breaking Your Chronic Fatigue Cycle. In this episode, I interview this beautiful soul. Sharon shares her insights, her personal journey, her CALMR Process and coaching style, and a bit about the unique population she helps. In addition to all this, Sharon reveals what has been the most impactful for her as she builds her business. I loved every moment of our conversation and hope you get as much out of it as I did.

What You’ll Learn  

  • Who tends toward chronic fatigue
  • Sharon’s book and journey
    • Battling chronic fatigue and illnesses
    • Quieting the inner critic
    • Her STOP moment
    • Identifying thought patterns for healing
    • Finding life coaching and the complex healing experience
  • Exploring within this niche 
    • Voicing thoughts and feelings: being a client’s soundboard
    • Grounding within the body
    • Molly shares her chronic fatigue experience
    • Not minimizing the reality
  • Structure of Sharon’s unique coaching and business
    • Tell all, then sift and process
    • Giving adequate time to the F Line
    • I’m where I’m supposed to be
    • Stepping into belief
  • Sharon’s CALMR Process
    • C - check in
    • A - awareness
    • L - lean into thoughts and feelings
    • M - mindful choices
    • R - reflect
  • Business flow, biggest lessons learned, and best advice
    • Blocks, not rigidity
    • Liberating her authentic voice
    • Don’t compare and despair but be inspired
    • Coming home to self; opening up to new tools and approaches
    • Create little stepping stones

Connect with Sharon Wirant, MA

Sharon Wirant, MA is a chronic fatigue coach, and best-selling author of the book, Tired Yet Wired: Breaking Your Chronic Fatigue Cycle. After battling ongoing burnout and overwhelm, one day courage grew within her to redesign her life. She now helps others do the same. She relates: “Life coaching changed everything and offered me something the medical community doesn’t. I hired a coach, trained to be a coach, and applied coaching tools daily. Confusion, doubt, and self criticism weakened as my mindset shifted. As my thinking changed and I befriended my emotions, energy began to rise. Tending to my mind and heart calmed my nervous system, along with my medical treatment plan.  Courage grew within to redesign a life that supports my chronic fatigue by changing how I think and not by reciting daily positive affirmations I don’t believe in. My results fueled desire to expand my toolbox with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, The Life Coach School, and the Optimum Health Clinic. My inquisitiveness and being a lifelong learner keeps me learning from experts in the field. All that I’ve learned and applied helped me create my powerful CALMR Process. The CALMR Process helped me untether old thinking habits blocking healing to create new ones that increased my physical and mental energy, find clarity, confidence, and courage that transformed my life into one I absolutely love. Rewiring my brain allowed my medical treatment and nutrition plans to do their healing work. And, can for you, too! Life coaching bridges the gap between healing and recovery by creating a calm and healing inner environment so you enjoy life to its fullest.”

YOU’RE INVITED! Tea & Conversation: Tired Yet Wired Book Study Club --  bit.ly/2YPLaVs

Connect with Molly Claire

Full Episode Transcript:

Molly Claire: Welcome to the Masterful Coach Podcast with Molly Claire, where coaches learn Skill Mastery, Business Mastery, and Life Mastery at a whole new level. If you're ready to create a meaningful coaching business that makes a difference, you're in the right place. And now your host, master coach instructor, Molly Claire. Hey coaches, today I have an amazing interview with Sharon Wirant. Sharon is a chronic fatigue coach, and she has just published a bestselling book. And she is a beautiful soul. I'm really excited to have her share some thoughts with you, some insights, a little about her personal journey. And for those of you that are wondering if this is really relevant, because this may not be anywhere near your niche, I promise you that there is a lot of value in listening to this. Sharon and I talk a little bit about what's been the most impactful for her as she has built her business. We talk a little bit about her own personal coaching style. And of course, we talk about the unique population that she helps. I'm really excited to share all of this with you.  By the way, in case you did not get the email, those of you on my email list, you should have already received it. But I am opening up a very small group that I am working with in the New Year. So if you are a new-ish coach, and you could use a little support as you lay the foundation, this is for you. Spots are extremely limited. I'm not just saying that, I'm going to be working with 12 coaches in an intimate setting for 90 days. So if you are interested, please email [email protected]. And we'll get you taken care of. We’ll send you the application and we can see if it is the right fit for you in the New Year. So thanks for being here. And here is today's interview.  I have a treat for you all today on the podcast. I have Sharon, you've been on the podcast before, haven't you, Sharon?  Sharon Wirant: I have.  Molly Claire: Yes. Hello, welcome. Sharon Wirant: Thank you. Molly Claire: So Sharon is such an amazing coach. She is a mentor in the Coaching Collective. She has just written a bestselling book. I have a special place in my heart for Sharon, as a human and as a coach, and also for your niche. I'm just really excited for you to share all of your wisdom and experience today. Sharon Wirant: Awesome. Thank you so much for inviting me on. I am so excited to share. I can't believe I actually did this.  Molly Claire: I know. Sharon Wirant: This is your fault, Molly.  Molly Claire: I will take full responsibility for the blame of your amazing book.  Sharon Wirant: Yeah, it was actually so much fun, but yet so much growth happened throughout this entire process. Molly Claire: Yes. Oh my gosh, I know. Well, when this airs just last week, I interviewed Everett, who you and I both worked with on our books. I have the feeling that a few coaches that have had it on the backburner are going to want to do it. And they should, right? Sharon Wirant: Yes, they should. It really helps bring everything that we're doing to so much clarity. Molly Claire: Yes, totally. Okay, so we're going to talk all about this. So Sharon is amazing. Sharon, tell the audience about who you help. Sharon Wirant: I help people who have chronic fatigue, whether it's chronic fatigue syndrome with ME, I'm not even going to bother pronouncing it. But if you have ME, you know what ME is. If you have an autoimmune illness, if you have just chronic stress in your life, if you have chronic illness, or even compassion fatigue, because you are a caretaker, whether for another human or for animals, my book and the people that I help are all within that framework. Molly Claire: That's it. Yes. I of course experienced chronic fatigue. That was something you and I had connected on. I think also, don't you find that a lot of people, whether they have a chronic illness or whether they just experienced this chronic fatigue, so often it's people who are empathic, highly empathic, highly sensitive. Sharon Wirant: Yeah, very much so. I'm a bit of a scientist, so the more people I work with that kind of data that I want to keep to the side to see if there is some kind of relationship there. Molly Claire: Yes. I think I've definitely seen that to be true just in my limited experience with it with myself and working with other clients as well. And of course learning from the optimum health clinic which I know you're working with.  [00:05:01] That is Sharon. And then tell us a little bit about your book then, what's it called? And tell us what it's about? What does it cover? Sharon Wirant: All right, so the book is Tired Yet Wired; Breaking Your Chronic Fatigue Cycle. So the book is about breaking that chronic fatigue cycle. I talk about my journey, how I actually became chronically fatigued, which was just a combination of overworking, overplaying, just overdoing, and taking life-challenging events and turning them into something more than what they really are. So some people might call that a small t trauma, such as when I was very young, I was bullied. And of course, I kept all that anxiety within me because, way back in the 70s, you don't know how to express that, therapy, or it was thought of as doing something, calling the therapist shrinks and stuff like that, unhealthy relationships, and then finding myself in a job that I had to do a lot of traveling. All of that culminated into stressing out my nervous system, it kept it on high because I was running faster than what my body really wanted. That just opened the door for, viruses lay dormant in our bodies, that's normal. But being on such a high alert, my immune system was overworking, so that made it weaker. I had all these viruses reactivate and then I was exposed to toxic mold. Molly Claire: And then it just layers one thing on top of another. Sharon Wirant: Exactly. And along with also, like my thinking habits weren't exactly pristine. I had this inner critic telling me I had to achieve, I had to get all these certifications, I had to do all these things, I had to be a certain person. I have that helper tendency, which leads me to I always have to be available. All those things just created like this little mini storm until finally, it was like I had to stop. I write about when I stopped in my book because it was almost like an out-of-body experience. I was in a yoga class and I had had several yoga classes where all I could do was lay and child pose, but this particular instructor, I was feeling good that day.  All the poses were all about letting go of resistance. We moved back into downward dog and I'm settling in there and she says, “Ask yourself what you are resisting.” And then literally, it sounds like this bull horn next to my ear. “Stop.” And that's when I really, really started thinking about how I was going to stop. But then my mindset was like, “No, you got to keep doing this work. It's very important work, you're going to miss it.” So that feeling of missing out. So it took a while. But the best thing I did was to resign, retire and start taking care of me. Molly Claire: Yes. I love it. And you share that in your book. And then your book is very, I love that you address the thoughts in relation to how that really drove the things that got you to the place of having chronic fatigue. It’s so many things. I want to be careful. I want to back up and make sure that I'm not by any means suggesting to anyone that has a chronic illness that they are at fault, or that they created it or they are the problem. I want to be very careful about that for sure. But the reason I point that out is I know for me, it's been very helpful to identify the ways that some of my thought patterns have impacted the way I treat myself mentally, emotionally, physically, all of that. And so it's not about like blame or the reason or the problem why, but there's just so many different pieces that are important to understand in healing. Sharon Wirant: Exactly. We think that it's just one thing. It’s just the reactivated mono, and then it was oh, now it's a toxic mold. But it's more than that. It's this big picture. We have a tendency to want to compartmentalize and keep things in just a microscopic tainer when so many other pieces affect us. [00:10:00] Molly Claire: I think especially like for my audience listening as coaches, we all want to find the solution. Let's find out the cause and let's find out the solution, and then we'll fix it. Sharon Wirant: Exactly. That’s exactly my journey, because I'm a researcher by nature. I was doing a lot of research about the different illnesses about the different viruses, and then it led me to life coachwork because I was feeling, I don't want to say I was super depressed, but it was like this big, dark cloud was always following me. I had a book written by Martha Beck jumped out at me. And that's when I started my life coaching journey, which was more about kind of tapping into your body, as well as looking at your mindset. And my research just took me all the way to even how our emotions affect us.  Molly Claire: Absolutely. I like the integral approach, because I know like, a lot of the coaches listening in my audience, they come across this with their clients at some point or another, some aspect of this. I think it can be tricky, because when we're doing emotion or cognitive work with our clients, we never want to dismiss the physical experience and the physical pain. And yet, I also think that if we don't look at or address how the cognitive and emotional pieces play into it, I don't know that people can have that whole healing experience. You can't separate one from the other. Sharon Wirant: No, you can't. It's just one big thing. It's beautifully complex. Molly Claire: Yeah, which is why I think I love what you do. It's so powerful. I'm so glad you wrote the book. I don’t remember where I was going, but I remember it just been released. And I took it with me on the plane wherever I was going, and I just like plowed through it and absolutely loved it. So it's amazing.  Sharon Wirant: Thank you.  Molly Claire: I want to share a little and I know for all of you coaches listening, this may not be exactly your niche. This may be a little foreign or outside of the realm, but I think it's so valuable to listen to, well, first of all, Sharon is going to share some experiences of building her business as well. I think even as you're listening to what she's sharing about how she helps people, I think it's always useful to think about how can I take this in and understand my clients better? How can I utilize this in my own niche even though it seems a little bit different? I think there's so much value in that. Okay, so one thing I want to ask you is, so for your niche, you have a lot of knowledge, you've done a lot of research, and yet you also do a lot of exploration with your clients kind of holding that neutral space, we call it right, for you, how do these two things fit together? Sharon Wirant: I think that what people who are ill are suffering from chronic fatigue, even the coaches building their businesses, they just need to get it out. They need to be heard by them hearing their own voice sometimes when they resolve their problem, but it also helps them that then start coming back down into the body. And then I help the client kind of stay in their body and feel that when you're aligned with your thinking and with your heart, how grounding and how settled it feels, then go and do the thing that you want to do. But it is very important just to sit back and be that sounding board, especially someone with chronic illness, they are so accustomed to the eye roll, but do just take a nap. Just plow through. They need to process what they're really feeling and what they're really thinking about what is happening because it is really happening in their bodies. Molly Claire: Yes. I want to highlight this because I know that especially coaches who really take a pretty aggressive cognitive approach, it can be very easy to overlook the importance and the value in being with the client and their thoughts and feelings. And sometimes in a client's like and granted, it's well-intentioned, the intention to help our clients have better thinking or more powerful thinking, whatever that means, right? What happens is, it's like in this effort to show what's happening factually and what's happening in someone's brain, it can actually be very dismissive of something that's valuable to listen to. [00:25:00] Sharon, what you're talking about with, I know for me, so I'll just share a little bit about my experience with chronic fatigue. My scenario was I had a lot of things underneath building up. So sometimes chronic fatigue, Sharon knows that sometimes chronic fatigue kind of comes on gradually. It's like the steady decline. And sometimes there is like kind of one trigger that like sinks the ship. And so for me, that was me, I had the boatload, and I had all the things and I have the mindsets that Sharon's talking about, push through, keep going, like, just move forward. And it comes in a lot of the helper, a lot of the achiever patterns, all of that stuff. And underneath, I had a lot of things like some trauma, like some physical things going on with my health, with my thyroid. So you have all of these different things underneath. And then one thing just like, took me down, and just like that, I couldn't get out of bed the next day.  I did have a point in saying all this, Sharon, you have to keep me on track here in the interview. My point is that when you experience something like this, and when all of you, when your clients experience something, whether it's a chronic illness, whether it is a tragedy with someone in their family or anything that they're struggling with, we want to be careful about not minimizing or overlooking what their experiences because I have the same experience, Sharon. I literally one day was like, why can I not get out of bed anymore in the morning, I tried to walk my kids to school, and I go, I need a nap afterwards. And so I started going to doctors to see what was wrong. And you know what they did? Just what you said, a lot of eye-rolling, go get an antidepressant. Go take a nap. Don't be so hard on yourself not really listening to what my experience was, which was not helpful. Sharon Wirant: Yes, and the key was to find somebody who could help or who was willing to listen, then for me, mine came on gradually. Mine actually started when I was about 16. When I had my wisdom teeth were extracted. So for what, 38 years, this was the response. And it wasn't until 2017 when I actually found a physician who was willing to help. Molly Claire: Yes. I bet you, my guess is that you probably can remember vividly some of those moments of finally having someone that would help you and listening. Sharon Wirant: And then the moments of relief as we were treating certain things, and then also being willing to go in when I was in a crash. That was really pivotal, because that's when we discovered the toxic mold in my system. And then just recently, the doctors that's treating me for the toxic mold was starting to talk about infections where we had teeth extracted, so I just had that surgery. And let me tell you, it was like, he did the first one, it was like, the lights turned on. I had three, what they call cavitations or osteonecrosis lesions. I had the third one done. And literally my body did this sigh of relief, I couldn't control that. I feel great. I mean, there's still fatigue there a little bit, but my body's been working hard for 38 years. Molly Claire: I know, right? Oh my gosh, that is amazing. I love that you bring your experience and your gifts and I see that you are going to be so impactful for so many people that are struggling. I just love it. I want to talk a little bit about this because Sharon has a unique coaching style as all of you do, right? We all have our unique way. Sharon is one of the beloved mentors in our program. Our coaches love to work with her especially for your bodywork. So tell us a little bit about what makes your coaching style or approach unique? Sharon Wirant: I think it's how I hold space. I just allow the client to tell me it all. And then we start sifting. I think I spend a lot of time in the F line. We spent a lot of time there and we spend some time processing and there are different ways that I help the client process. Sometimes I use Emotional Freedom Technique and sometimes I allow them just to follow it and get curious and just notice what it's doing in their body. And then if they're hearing a message, what is this feeling telling you? And then I have some other little tricks that I'm bringing on board, like for the client that is ready to make the leap into that new feeling state, that new thoughts.  [00:20:08] We work on processing that the negative piece that unhealthful part and then we settle into the new part that they want. And we create an anchor. So it's a little bit of hypnosis, Create an anchor so then they can retrieve that state when they need it, or want it. We can always change our state. Molly Claire: What I love about this, what I'm hearing is, as I'm watching you, and listening to you talk about this, that you are not in a rush with your clients. I think we were actually talking about this before that it's the same in your business, right? Well, well tell us a little bit about that, like your belief about where you are and where you're supposed to be. Sharon Wirant: I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. And just my past experience, anytime I've tried to rush that, get far ahead, things just kind of like fell apart, it didn't feel right. There’s a sense of urgency that I would go home with or go to sleep with that I don't like anymore. I believe I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Everything is folding in exactly when it's supposed to. I feel that I'm able to, because I like things to be complete before I put them out there. It offers me the time to come to completion with whatever I'm working on, and not be rushed. So therefore I'm offering a better product. I can't change anything except for right where I am now. I still have that big vision and I keep that in mind where I'm at and how is this going to lead me there? It's how I make my decisions is going to lead me towards that. Which is why in the Coaching Collective, I love how we go through what we want. What our values are. What are you genius is because all of those are your guideposts to true result.  That's what I bring to everyone that I coach, whether it's someone through the Coaching Collective, and they're working on their business to someone I'm working on with their chronic illness or their chronic pain. We align to your values, we align to your uniqueness. You're going to feel better? Molly Claire: Yeah, that self-connection, that self-trust, that alignment, it's got to be the foundation. I want to ask, because I know that people listening might think, oh, yes, I've heard before I should think, you're exactly where you should be. And then we're like, “Okay, well, how do I think in that way?” I think for you, it's very authentic. And it's almost like, you don't just think it but you feel it, you embody it, it just is your reality. Sharon Wirant: It is my reality. It's a practice that I started though a few years ago. So it's not something that happened overnight. I started thinking about stepping into beliefs. And it was an exercise that I actually did through the Coaching Collective where I sat into what do I want to feel, and then I named it. And then I kind of morphed it into a practice that I did every two hours to bring my nervous system down. And so it's called the stop process, but the way I have turned it, I turned it into the calmer process where you check in with yourself, you create an awareness of what you're feeling and what you're thinking, you lean into what you're feeling, and then become more mindful. That's when you make some choices.  Then the R is to reflect and choose how you want to move forward. So literally, on my phone, every two hours, I have this beautiful ringtone that goes off, and I say stop. My hands over my heart, and I breathe in through my nose slowly out through my mouth and I reconnect. If I'm sitting, I feel my bottom in the chair, then I feel my feet on the floor, I get really grounded. And I stay there until I feel that shift into the feeling that I want. And then I come out and I decide well, do I want to continue with where I'm at or do I need to get up and go for a walk?  [00:25:00] I think that practice alone has trained me to be in the moment right where I am, where I am. Molly Claire: And I love that you speak about it as a practice. Something you committed to doing, that does really shift your pattern. And as I was listening to you, I was thinking about, I've actually thought this before, how if anyone's ever had like a Fitbit or anything like that, where it'll kind of have this buzz go off and say it's time to move. I remember saying one time, “You know what I need? I need a watch that says it's time to stop.”  I think that that's really true for everyone because even if someone doesn't appear physically busy, my guess is that every single one of us could benefit from pausing and just connecting with how we feel and getting grounded. Sharon Wirant: Absolutely, because we aren't as humans, we aren't designed to go like machines. That’s through the industrial age. Our society has created work hours and jobs and it's become that we have to go, go, go because we had to produce, produce, produce, but that's not the human way. The human, we need sleep to rejuvenate and restore, the brain needs to pause. It takes 15 minutes before it shifts from one task to the next. But what do we do, we plow right through it. And that means that our bodies eating up glucose. So then we want the caffeinated drinks or the sugary snacks to keep up with the energy when the body and the brain are really saying, “I need a break?” Molly Claire: Yes. I just love the way that you put that and thinking about how really the expectations that we put on ourselves. I think that the world says like, this is how much you're supposed to work. This is how you're supposed to do this, and you should push through. I think sometimes people have a little bit of fear of slowing down or pausing or listening to the body because they equate that with laziness or indulgence.  Sharon Wirant: Yes. Or have to listen to my thoughts.  Molly Claire: Yes. I think that sometimes we think about, okay, someone who's really intentional and intentional in their thinking, is kind of that hard driver. But in reality, what you're describing in my reality anyway, right, is that pausing, stopping, tuning back into yourself is perhaps most intentional way that we can live our life. Sharon Wirant: Absolutely. Live intentionally. And actually, I find that I produce more by slowing down because I'm clear and what I want and I'm more focused, and I have the energy and it gets done. And then I'm free. Molly Claire: Yes. Okay, so your unique coaching style, I love and tell us a little bit about anything that is a little unique to your business, or the way that you've chosen to do your business. Sharon Wirant: I just let it flow. Molly Claire: I would agree. And it probably just seems normal to you. Sharon Wirant: Yeah. I let it flow. I post more when I'm inspired rather than having a rigid structure. I mean, I have a structure to my day, but it's not rigid. It's not like the Monday when you put every little task in. I get more like blocks. And this block, I want to get these things done. But yeah, I created motivation in that when I get those things done, the rest of the time is mind to do what I want. I usually have extra, extra time. Molly Claire: I think as you're listening, because I'm sure that my listeners are thinking about, I hear all the time people thinking they should be more structured with their time or they should use their time a certain way. And as I'm listening to you, Sharon, what's so funny is I still remember when you were writing your book, and you posted like all of your post-it notes because you are very organized and structured. And yet what I see is I think you do so great at practicing your energy management. That's kind of how I like talk about it in the Collective. I think you already learned that before coming in. I think it's a practice that you have. Sharon Wirant: Yeah, it is. I have to because otherwise I'm stuck either in my recliner or on the sofa and I don't want to live there.  [00:30:00] I want to be outside, I want to enjoy the outdoors. I want to enjoy the time with my dogs. I want to enjoy the people that I'm coaching and some of the other things that I do. Molly Claire: I love it. So yeah, I think your business, you have your book, which is super amazing. And it did hit bestseller status, we had to shout out so that people know this. Sharon Wirant: I got the little gold medal on here. Molly Claire: I love it. So awesome. And it's just been really fun to see you create that product that has your powerful message in it, and to be able to see you using it in your business to help people. Sharon Wirant: Yeah, part of the reason why I wrote this book was a couple of reasons. First, I know that a lot of people who are chronically ill, they might not have the funds for coaching. And they could buy the book at 99 cents, or I think now it's 499 on Kindle, or they can buy the paperback, and they have a guide, and they can start applying and start feeling better, and maybe then start a part-time job. I just feel like I could impact more people with this book. And then for me, I think it was a part of me learning to be vulnerable. It was a part of me to use my voice in my way. I came from an academic background where you had to write a specific way, it was actually rather dry, which is why I didn't add like a lot of citations and a lot of science.  I wanted it to be a fairly easy read, let you know about the science behind chronic fatigue. So it was a fantastic exercise for me because I had to get through breakthrough an awful lot. For one was actually writing it because I had the inner critic, you're not writing it right, you’re not doing it well. Seeing the murder scene on my drafts from people, I had to do a lot of work. I did a lot of tapping around it and processed all that emotion that was literally everything stuck here. I actually wrote about it in the book where, I described it as like a champagne bottle right here. And the cork was preventing me from saying things the way I wanted to say it. But then as I tapped, that cork popped, and then all the sparkle, all the words came through. And literally, after that happened, the words flowed, the book flowed. I went back and rewrote some parts of it. It just flowed. It was just amazing. Molly Claire: Yeah. Such an amazing experience. I love that it's true. I think when you have a book, you can reach a lot more people in a unique way. I just love that. Okay, so I want to know, for the coaches listening, what would you say has been your biggest lesson learned in building your business?  Sharon Wirant: Really just be where you are right now. You can use the people around you for not really comparison, because you compare and you despair, because you're not where they are, and get where they started from. Use them for inspiration. I like how they coach or I like how they have this program set up. Maybe that's something I can do in the future. And put that aside, but stay where you are and constrain. I did this too. In the beginning, I was consuming so many so much stuff. Follow what resonates with you, follow what your instinct tells you, it's going to work for you because every business looks different, runs differently. And doing it your way, is really the best way. I think that's probably the biggest thing that I've learned through the Coaching Collective, I can do it my way, not one size fits all.  Molly Claire: That's right. I was thinking about that when you said, the whole compare and despair of these people are further along than me. I think also it can be comparing and thinking you should just be a little different than you are. Like that's a better way to be, a better way to coach, a better way to do a business. But it's not true actually at all. Sharon Wirant: No, it isn't. And I've actually found by just being me, has attracted the right people and it's easier. I don't waste the energy trying to be like someone else. Molly Claire: Yes. It's so funny. I remember I was talking to my awesome Instagram partner one day and we were talking about sort of, branding or whatever. And she's like, you're kind of your brand and I thought, oh good because I think I'm pretty good at being me.  [00:35:00] That's a relief. I can do that. I also would love to know, what has been the most beneficial thing that you've done. And maybe it's your book, maybe we've already talked about it. But for your business, what's the most beneficial thing you've done in building your business? Sharon Wirant: Actually, I think it's thinking outside the box, the book, yes. But also, not relying on just one tool or one method, working with the optimum health clinic really opened my eyes to a lot of therapeutic tools that are also so helpful in transformation because it was some of those tools that helped me to create my business the way I'm creating it, and to write the book. And just feel great, feel great where I am in my life and how I feel and in managing my energy, and I think, like coming home to yourself, it just feels really good to just be who I am. Molly Claire: What I hear is almost like, opening up to so many things, so many views, so many people, and always being true to you. Sharon Wirant: Exactly. I think another piece that really helped me, the optimum health clinic, but also I dabbled in human design. So when I pulled my chart and read, I'm a projector, I'm a one four projector, which means I do a lot of research. I do a lot of learning. But also as a projector, it's waiting for invitation. So my book is a way to give an offering and then have people invite me to help them. It's just fascinating how, looking at that design, I can go, “Yes, that's me. Yes, that's me.” So it's actually given me extra permission to rest when I need to rest and to ask for help because that's not an easy thing for me to ask for help. I always have to do it on my own. I think looking at those pieces, including the other life coaching tools that I have just really impactful for me. Molly Claire: Yeah. I love that because you're really, I mean, part of what was the most beneficial for you was understanding yourself better? Sharon Wirant: Absolutely. Yes.  Molly Claire: Yeah. It's kind of like we think, well, it was this marketing thing. It was this funnel. It was this thing. But understanding yourself is really the thing. Sharon Wirant: Exactly, because then that's what you project out to the world. Well, people are coming to you. They're not necessarily coming because you have a fancy ad or fancy pictures and stuff like that. They want you. Molly Claire: Yes, absolutely. Okay, so I got one more question for you. What advice would you have for other coaches building their business? Sharon Wirant: One step at a time. And if it doesn't feel right, then it probably isn't right. Don't rush the process, little stepping stones. Create little stepping stones to get you toward where you want to go. Molly Claire: I love it. And all the other advice too. Spend a lot of time with those feelings. All right, Sharon, well tell anything else you want to say or especially tell everyone where they can find you how they can connect with you? Sharon Wirant: Yeah. So right now I'm actually doing a six-week book club study. So you can go to Facebook, and it's teen conversation, Tired Yet Wired book study club, you can sign up there, or I can give you a separate link. Molly Claire: Sorry to interrupt. We'll put that link in the show notes for sure. So all of you listening, there'll be a link there. Sharon Wirant: Perfect. I've already done session one, but we have five more weeks where I am going through sections of my book. I'm talking about them and you can ask questions, and I'll answer those. I have that book club study going on right now. You can also find me on my website, sharonwirant.com. And you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Sharon Wirant Coaching. Molly Claire: Awesome. So any of you that have ever experienced or are experiencing chronic fatigue or any of that anything in that realm or people that they know, I think everyone knows someone who's struggling with. Sharon Wirant: Yes, I think so, it's pretty common, unfortunately. Molly Claire: Yeah. Sharon, thank you so much. You're amazing. Sharon Wirant: Thank you for having me. It was oh, it's always fun to talk with you. Molly Claire: Yes. So good. Okay. Well, I will see you. Maybe we'll have you on again sometime. Who knows?  Sharon Wirant: Wonderful.  Molly Claire: Thank you so much.  Sharon Wirant: You’re welcome. Thanks for listening to the Masterful Coach Podcast. You can check out www.thecoachingcollective.com for info about the ultimate program for coaches building a business. To find out more about Molly, you can visit www.mollyclaire.com