June 4, 2025 • 31 mins
Claire Pedrick talks with coach Sandra Whiles about her new book, The Coaching Tools Compendium which is published today. They discuss Sandra's journey into coaching, the inspiration behind her book, the writing and publishing process, and the importance of design and quality in creating a coaching resource. Sandra shares her hopes for the book's reception and encourages coaches to engage with the tools and insights it offers.
Takeaways:
- Sandra's journey from public sector chief executive to coach.
- Writing a book can be a journey of self-discovery.
- Coaching tools should be practical and accessible.
- The book includes contributions from other coaches.
- Design and quality are crucial in publishing a book.
- The book aims to be a resource for coaches at all levels.
- Engaging with the book can lead to personal growth.
- Sandra hopes readers will find joy in using the tools.
- The book represents a legacy for Sandra's coaching career.
Sound Bites:
- "I think I've always wanted to make a difference."
- "This is a book about journeys."
- "I want to know what pages I want to go back to."
- "I hope people will pick it up and start from there."
- "This isn't a rule book. This is a resource for you."
- "I hope they like playing with it."
Contact:
- Contact Sandra through Linked In and order the book from https://www.sandrawhilescoaching.com/
- Contact Claire by emailing info@3dcoaching.com or check out our Substack where you can talk with other listeners.
Further Information:
- Subscribe or follow The Coaching Inn on your podcast platform or our YouTube Channel to hear or see new episodes as they drop.
- Find out more about 3D Coaching and get new ideas and offers in our weekly email.
Coming Up:
- Open Table - Who we were and who we are becoming
Keywords:
coaching, book launch, coaching tools, Sandra Whiles, coaching journey, personal development, coaching philosophy, book writing, coaching community, coaching resources
We love having a variety of guests join us! Please remember that inviting someone to participate does not mean we necessarily endorse their views or opinions. We believe in open conversation and sharing different perspectives.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Coaching Inn, is celebrating the launch ofSandra Whiles' new book, The Coaching Tools Compendium.
Is that the right title?
it.
took a long time to get that agreed.
So in a minute, I'm going to introduce you to Sandra.
(00:37):
Just a reminder, if you don't subscribe or follow the podcast, if you do that, you'll getit every week.
What I love about having Sandra here today to celebrate the launch of her book is that youknow well that I don't like tools and Sandra's book is all about tools.
And it's isn't it great to interview people when you don't quite agree necessarily.
(00:59):
because we agree on lots of things.
We don't agree on tools and it is absolutely delightful to hear all about them.
Sandra, welcome.
Thanks, Claire.
I'm smiling because when I was thinking about who would I really like to review my book,it was like, am I brave enough to send it Pedrick?
And it was like, I must have had a couple of glasses of wine, but yeah, I'm going to sendit to Claire because I really, really value your take on the world and you've inspired and
(01:26):
I suppose really supported my journey as a coach in the last few years.
So thank you and...
I'm a bit excited to be here, so lovely.
I mean, what a day to have got to this point and to have you here matching your cover.
Yes, it's like, yeah, color, color is quite important for me.
(01:51):
So I know you can tell that from the cover.
So Sandra, tell us a bit about your journey into coaching and then we'll find out allabout the book.
OK, my journey.
I'm suffering with sniffles at the minute, so bear with me if I start sneezing orcoughing.
Journey to coaching.
So I used to have a grown up proper job.
I worked in the public sector for, gosh, 30 odd years.
(02:14):
final 12 years of that, was a chief executive for council in Leicestershire and the bestjob in the world.
I absolutely loved it because it was a council where it was ripe for change and culturechange and stuff like that.
realised over those 12 years that actually whilst I love making things better for folklike I did a new houses and a great refuse collection so what I really really loved was
(02:39):
actually unleashing the energy of the people that actually were in the organisation and Idid that for 12 years and I made loads of mistakes but increasingly I was like conscious
that I was spending my time in that
mentoring space, coaching space.
I'd never worked with a coach, actually.
I'd done a bit of coachy trainee stuff and I'd been doing the NLP practitioner program tohelp me deal with some challenges in the organisation and the partnerships.
(03:09):
And I'd had team coaches into my team.
But I got to that stage that there wasn't any really new challenges and I'd got anabsolutely amazing leadership team around me.
And
I've always needed challenges.
get a bit bored and I get a bit like naughty.
I don't have to make big.
And the time was right.
(03:30):
And I'd had at the back of my mind, yeah, one day set up a business and move into thatcoaching world.
A couple of people that had brought into this and work with the council to help us aroundsome of the people's strategy stuff.
said to me, stop being a chief exec, just go off and get your post-grad training incoaching because that's what you do, just go and do it, you know, they don't need you here
(03:55):
anymore.
So I phoned Barefoot because I live in the Midlands in Leicestershire and people saidBarefoot coaching is not fun.
So I phoned them one day just to have a chat about what was involved and this amazingwoman answered the phone, Kim Morgan, who was packing up boxes.
as they were moving from one place to their new offices and training room in Melbourne.
(04:22):
And that was it.
And Kim, like probably the first, I'd say proper coach that I'd spoken to.
So I spent a few, 12 months, I popped into a couple of barefoot things and I took theplunge and told my leader of the council that I was going to resign and leave.
(04:43):
in the elections in May 2016, but you can't.
So well actually I can and stuff.
So I had quite a long transition, about six months handing over and leaving theorganisation in a place of confidence to be forwarded and then went set up a business
which I hadn't got a clue how to run a business.
(05:03):
That was nine years ago, so early June 2016.
Did my training at Barefoot, March to May 2016.
and have learned lots, made lots of mistakes, but absolutely love what I do.
And I think I've always wanted to make a difference in some strange way, whether it'sactually clean streets or new houses or helping people find their own way to succeed.
(05:28):
And I think I couldn't have done much more of that as a chief exec in that role.
I think the impact of what I now do is hopefully helping other people make a difference.
Great.
What a lovely thing to hear your journey.
Also, I'm super distracted by your Lego flowers.
Yes.
(05:48):
because they're the same as my Lego flowers.
They're beautiful, yes, yes.
And then somebody bought me those and then they bought me the latest one which are wildflowers which are in the kitchen.
So if you haven't got the wild flowers, they are really beautiful.
I haven't, I have got the orchid.
I haven't got the succulents either.
(06:09):
Right, Lego.
Part of my journey as a coach was to invest in becoming a Lego series play facilitator,which I chose to do in Denmark as opposed to because actually, why would you not go to the
home of Lego?
Can I just say there are an awful lot of coaches who have Lego flowers, but anyway, movingback to the book.
(06:35):
So if you're a coach who has Lego flowers, do send us a picture.
You better send it to me, Claire at 3dcoaching.com.
Cause if you send it to info at 3dcoaching.com, I'll get told off by our team for floodingtheir inbox with strange pictures.
So where did the inspiration for the book come from, Sandra?
(06:58):
Yeah, it's been there niggling, niggling.
That's not the right word.
Bubbling for probably four years.
I started writing, it was at the start, monthly coaching tools newsletter, probably aboutfive years ago now, for a range of reasons.
If I do something, if I read something or if I like go on some training, for me, I like tomake it practical.
(07:21):
And sometimes that would then lead to something.
I'm like, OK, like, how do we put this?
I don't know.
branding practice into how do we how can I actually help people and other coaches get someof this stuff about CBT or whatever.
So started watching this coaching tools newsletter partly because I wanted to share stuff.
(07:41):
So one of my real like energizes in life is rating in people and part of it I likechallenges.
I didn't know how to use MailChimp.
I didn't to write things.
And so I started that and I've been writing, I was writing them once a month on randomstuff.
And people get saying, oh, you should put these things in a book.
(08:02):
You should put these things in a book.
And I go, oh, I don't know about that.
I don't know if I've written a book.
And the Coaching Tools News has moved on quite a long way over those five years.
There's an amazing group of people that respond back to the newsletter and we have a groupcoaching once every two months.
drop in for coaches.
(08:22):
So it's real great community.
People get saying, like this stuff, put it in the book.
I hadn't, didn't know how to write a book.
I didn't know how to run a business.
But I was sitting with, so my own journey as a coach has been quite interesting.
I think like many coaches, I rocked it out and barefoot think of, can't do a really goodjob and I've got to know what I'm going to do.
(08:43):
And I would coach face to face in that world that we weren't living on zip.
And so I'd turn up and I'd have my coaching cards and I'd have this and I'd think aboutthat and I'd have a model and I'd have an exercise.
And actually, sometimes I'd use them, often I wouldn't, but it was like, I've to be reallyorganized and stuff like that.
(09:04):
So the book, writing a book over, I suppose, my own journey, been like, yeah, I've donequite a lot of deep, deep thinking about me and I've worked with some amazing coaches
coaching me and some amazing supervisors.
And I've now got to a place where actually I think models and tools have a real use, butonly if we understand ourselves as coaches and they're held gently and we trust that our
(09:30):
instinct will tell us if it's helpful to suggest something to a client.
I got this like, how can I write a book about tools when I think that we coach from us,from like our human instincts and our whatever.
And so.
It's been a real journey.
My own supervisor, Kate Hammer, has been really helpful in that, challenged me and pokingme and suggested this probably about two years ago, might even longer, that I worked with
(09:57):
Indy Niyogi using story forming, which is a set of cards to get underneath a business ideaor an idea and really get underneath that.
what's this for?
What's it about?
So I did that work with Indy, which was helpful and it emerged from that that
This is a book about journeys, journey from training to becoming a coach to then carryingon stretching themselves coach.
(10:25):
But I was still sitting with this like tension, coaches tools, instinct and coach that Itrained with Annie Lee.
We were running a retreat with some of the coaches from the coaches gathering that we.
support and said just get on and do it, what is holding you back?
(10:46):
And at that point I discovered some of David Clutterbuck's work around cultural maturity,I'd done a lot of work on myself in terms of like being able to let go with being totally
controlled and organised and Annie just said just do it, get on with it, do it.
And so I committed to Annie that I would go home and book two weeks retreat residentialsomewhere where I could go away and start writing.
(11:12):
which I did.
so, yeah, that's what was there.
And I soon realised that I had to a team of people around me because I don't know how towrite book.
So I went on Pete Mosley's How to Write a Book course.
I spoke to somebody who's done one called the person called G Sabini Roberts, who hashelped me with visual stuff about actually, do they know how to lay out books?
(11:38):
And they introduced me to a book editor.
and started writing and was really clear, and I think the work with Indy had made it clearto me that it was a book about journeys and that journey is from how we are fledgling
coaches, little birds in a nest, and how we can really dig into our own philosophy and ourvalues and our preferences and our own thinking and what that means to then establish
(12:09):
our own coaching philosophy and that that can include the use of tools.
We might use a pen, we might stand up and pretend to be a tree or we might actually getout a model.
And that helped me work out what the book would look like.
It's changed a bit over the journey.
Actually, it's.
(12:31):
Has it been one of the hardest things that we've done?
probably been one of the most joyful but stretching things ever done.
harder than getting planning permission for a new term.
It's like, yeah, but really, really like amazing.
comparison harder than gaining planning commission for a new town.
(12:51):
But lots of comparisons because in that journey, I did lots of things as a chief exec thatI had no idea how to do and they were really hard.
But in all of those journeys, I've had people around me and surrounded myself and beingpart of a team and I might have had to take different roles in those teams.
And I've been stepped into things I didn't know how to do it.
(13:13):
And sometimes it's gone desperately wrong and actually it's been sorted.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that that really makes sense because the book that our next book, it's taken ayear to get the shape of it.
And now we're going to go for planning permission.
So, I'm excited, so what's the next book, Claire?
(13:34):
So it's something about neurodiversity being, but not being an expert.
And so that's just really, that's really been quite tricky.
How'd you find your voice?
So I'm writing it with Nathan Whitbread and Kim Whitten.
You should listen to our team meetings because we're all neurodivergent.
(13:58):
Your own book, Simplifying Coaching, I mean, it's written on, but and yeah, it goes onholiday with me quite often.
But I think your book was a real catalyst for me in my own journey.
So thank you.
I've just read it again.
Yeah.
So I'd love to talk to you in four years or five years time when you read yours again,because I'm reading it again going.
(14:22):
And people go, I really like reading your books.
It's so easy to read.
And I'm reading the first chapter and going, that's really complicated writing.
It's, but yeah, but every page has got nuggets in it and it's well written.
Thank you.
Mrs.
Oldfield, my English teacher, did you hear that?
(14:47):
He told me I couldn't do it.
When I was 12 years old.
so what's what's exciting you about this book being born?
exciting.
The fact that it has somehow managed to bring together some sensory experiences.
(15:09):
So I know some people will hate it because it is bright, it is colourful, it has aplaylist, it's got a QR code to get to the music that I've written the book with.
You know, it's written in a hopefully accessible style.
I had some great help along the way from somebody that advised me on how I write because Iwrite as I talk and think and so people might not...
(15:29):
be able to follow the flow.
So excited that it's come together as something that is colourful and I've been told isreally useful.
That's hard to read.
I found it really hard to ask and read the reviews.
I'm excited that it gets into people's hands.
(15:50):
I would really like people to buy two copies or so and get rid of them, but one so it'spretty on their bookshelves and beautiful.
And another that they write in and they scroll in and whatever.
And I think for me in the writing, it was on stage, but they're putting together as aproduct.
sounds really boring, doesn't it?
(16:11):
As a gift was really important.
So it has to have I get annoyed by books that don't lie flatish.
So it's so that it.
lies flat.
Now it's 270 odd pages so it won't lie as flat as its spiral band.
Spiral band wasn't the quality that I wanted but stitch band.
So it took me ages to find a printer that could do that.
(16:34):
it's a long way, there's a printer around the corner or a couple miles away and theyspecialize in animal husbandry books and books around you know eggs and stuff like that
and then I rocked up there one day, made an appointment and he was just so helpful thisyoung man.
He's like, you took me through all the, and yeah, says, and what you're talking about,Stitch Band, that's what you need.
(16:54):
We can't do this.
We're not the printer for you, he's, so it's Stitch Band, it lies flat, it's colourful,it's got other people's stories in it.
So it was really important, wasn't, this isn't all about Sandra.
This is about a journey from baby coach to a coach that carriers aren't growing, but I'mjust one of many.
(17:17):
And I wanted to think it was Kate Hammers suggested my supervisor.
Let's just ask a few other people to put their stories as a combination of tools, ajourney to reflect on the gifts.
And that's based on some of my learning and stuff.
(17:38):
It's got some case on it and it's got a playlist in it.
And it's got.
accessible.
So there's another QR code that allows people to download the tools in bigger font becauseit's quite small in the book.
Because for some people and for some clients, they want something to work on betweensessions.
You might want to share something on screen.
(17:59):
So it's how can I make it as practical as possible, but also accessible.
So the price bit has been really interesting here.
And some of the tech stuff about the
Making it so it's designed like that, yeah, the easy way of getting books out in the worldis through some of the big online things, isn't it?
(18:20):
And print on demand, and that wasn't going to give me the quality that I want.
So the book will be available outside of the UK as a print on demand version.
And it will be available as a hardback print on demand version and an e-book.
But if people want the real one, it's actually you get it from me on the website, probablywill work out how to get the real books into Amazon.
(18:43):
that life allows.
I'm so interested that you say that because I was at an event the other day and some ofthe people had brought the human behind the coach for me to sign.
And I picked it up and I thought this isn't my book.
And I went to sign it with my signing pen.
I hope you've got a signing pen.
(19:04):
New pen.
It's pink, which is like, yeah, like pink isn't my colour, but it's it's something bold.
So I signed it with my signing pen and the ink bled.
And I looked at the book and I thought, this is not my book.
And it was a print on demand copy from Amazon.
And the spine was about three quarters of the size of my spine.
(19:28):
Because the human behind the coach is printed on really lovely paper.
And it was just so very interesting.
It is, and I think my book's been printed by Beamreach Printing up in Lim, in Cheshire.
And know, David there, great, we went and felt papers and you know, and the covers and hesaid, you know, we need the cover to be scratched, whatever, because the colours, you
(19:54):
know, you've got dark greens.
So yeah, but I think there is the practicalities, you know, I really hope that the bookgoes beyond the UK coaching world.
I've already got three copies going out to America, which will be the proper ones for acoach that I in a swimming pool in Lake Garda last year and the other ones going out to
(20:16):
New Zealand.
actually, publishing myself, I There's lots of learning there because we've got we'll bestuffing envelopes or maybe envelopes.
So we will be print on demand available.
And there's a print on demand hard copy that
I did just as a test.
The quality of that got better, but the cost.
(20:38):
There are of learning.
It's easy for people to buy from Amazon, isn't it?
We have readers in 128 countries.
Listeners, mean, sorry, because I said readers because we're on books.
We have listeners in 128 countries.
So, yeah, and people will find my book, whatever, but the spine, the Stitch Man one willbe coming out from our place in the shiny green envelope.
(21:09):
So people who want to buy it from the UK.
Yes.
or are willing to pay the postage.
How do they get it?
If they go down to my website, which is being updated so that it actually is suitable tobuy from, can just tell you so www.sandrawilescoaching.com or drop me an email.
(21:32):
But yeah, that's been another journey for me really.
They'll go out in nice shiny green envelopes and there is the ability to buy a book bag,which will have some goodies in it because I think
I don't know what you're like coach, but yeah, get a new coaching book, particularly apractical one.
Yeah.
(21:53):
I want to know what pages I want to go back to.
I want to have a notebook with it.
So I'm going to wave a book back at you.
It hasn't got the goodies in it at the minute.
And in that you'd able to put the book plus a notebook plus some bookmarks plus somepost-its because I think
(22:14):
Because that is your toolkit, isn't it?
yeah, because part of the design bit was, can I have five or six, you know, what do theycall them bookmarks, the ribbon bookmarks?
And he said, well, you could, but it's going to put another 20 quid on each book.
So I've got had one, my designer G has helped me get some really great bookmarks printedoff so that we don't have to bend too many quads.
(22:44):
safer.
Yeah, nice.
So how much is it, Sandra?
It will be £28.50 plus postage and packing.
The book bag will be probably £34 with stuff finalised and plus postage and packing.
And I've got some lovely people that helping me with the distribution.
So I don't know if there's ever a second book.
(23:04):
I think there's loads of learning to go through.
Yeah.
So in the next few weeks, what's your hope?
That's my hope.
I hope we can move quite a few of the boxes out of my brother's garage, where theycurrently are sitting.
I hope that people will pick this book up and it's a time of year.
(23:28):
I hope they'll buy it and pick it up and that they will take it somewhere with some cup ofcoffee and just not dive straight into the tools.
That they will actually really focus on that bit about, well, who am I as a coach?
What am I as a coach?
How do I use my resources as a human being to be able to build that relationship with myclients so that in the moment, me and the client can actually work out what's the best way
(24:00):
to do some thinking together.
Yeah, I know some coaches will pick it up and like go, that's an exciting tool.
that's an exciting tool.
But I really hope people will pick it up and start from there.
Let's settle into versus, okay.
Several people have said that it will be a really useful resource for newer coaches, but Ithink it's there for all of us.
(24:23):
But I think one of the things that as we go through coach training and my time at Barefootwas like life changing and lots of other work, I've done quite a lot of work with other
team coaches, studio and optimists with coach, it could see over the years.
But I think the tenets is we can come out and we think we're perfect and we've to do itright.
(24:44):
So I think that.
taking some time to settle.
And as people have been doing this for nine years now as a professional coach, I go backto that from time to time and just that, like some of it we do in supervision, but we can
do it for ourselves and never to stop growing and learning and doing whatever that is.
(25:04):
For me, I think we touched on previous conversations a couple of years ago, I I've got togo and do my MCC now.
I've got my hours in, I've got this.
Actually, that's not right for me.
That's not my journey.
It is the right journey for some people.
But for me, the journey was to get a book out there as a bit of a legacy.
And that sounds I don't want to sound that big headed, but, you know, I am not sure howmuch longer I will be actively coaching.
(25:30):
I don't think I'll ever stop coaching.
I will never stop wanting to work with coaches and support communities of coaches.
But actually, you know, what's that physical thing that I can see and hold in people?
and point to in his book, you know, legacy for being a chief exec was a bit of a no-turnand a beer hall.
So it is the beer hall book.
(25:50):
a long time, Kate and I were laughing at, yeah, we couldn't actually call it the beer hallbook because nobody would know what it was, it?
But it is the beer hall book and the first chapter was written in Everard's Breweries BeerHall because that was a massive project that, again, a great team that I was part of as a
chief exec.
(26:11):
Nice.
A beer, read a book or cup of tea.
So I love how you're saying that you want the beginning, you want people's first encounterwith it to become a conversation between them and the book and their work before there's
any consumption.
(26:32):
Yeah, that's conversation with themselves that we returned to from time to time and tolook at that there's 11 really lovely coaches that have shared their own journeys.
So that's in terms of that.
And just to look at those and just think, actually, we're all different and we can all doit.
We can do it in our own way and be true to ourselves.
But actually, what is it that makes them the coach that they are?
(26:57):
And sometimes they might want to.
There's 56 odd tools in there,
quite a few them are targeted at coaches to help us settle and to do it.
I'm smiling because yeah, there's something about rituals.
You know, have a bit of a ritual before I go into a coaching conversation with somebodyand it is how do we settle ourselves so that we are able to be there with our clients or
(27:23):
think what's the right question to ask because it will come if we just.
Of course it will.
you really want people to make it their own.
And make it their own and to let me know how they play with the tools, how they adaptthem, yeah, what bubbles up for them.
There are already eight new things to go into a second book because it's like, but yeah,I'm really happy that I've gone through that.
(27:54):
This isn't a rule book.
This is a resource informer.
for you to make your own resources.
So yeah, I'd love to hear what people do with it and play with it and stuff, stuff, lotsof stuff.
first thing I do when I write a book is keep one copy for myself where I write in ink allthe things that I would change if I was ever to do it again.
(28:19):
And great tips.
people have been so generous on this journey.
it's been lots of help along the way.
It feels like it's a village that's written.
you did decide to do it yourself, so kudos.
Yeah, I think if I did a second book, I'm not sure how I'd do it, but there's stillsomething for me that's important about the quality of it as a project.
(28:44):
Yeah.
I can recommend a very good publisher who'll let you get the quality you want.
FYI.
And they might come chat to you.
And I've got the design stuff there now.
Yeah, that was the difficult.
The front cover was interesting because I was playing with good old AI stuff and saying,just give me some ideas for cover.
(29:05):
And it came out with something that I thought, and so G was gone.
But we can't use cover off chat GBT.
they got the paints out and they painted lots of little bits of paper and then.
them into a tech machine, I'm DOP techie, and have collages, so we have lots of beautifulcollages of the images.
(29:27):
Yeah, so all the designs of them now, isn't it?
It's just, yeah.
So I hope people, I hope they like find something and let me know what doesn't work, letme know how they'd add to it.
and you're having a party this evening.
Yeah, we're having a party at Barefoot today and then we're having another party in Londonnext week.
(29:49):
Because Barefoot is my spiritual home as a coach, I suppose, but a load of the people inmy life and my coaching world come from other places and don't live in the Midlands or
Canaries.
Great.
So, sandrawhilescoaching.com.
(30:13):
or online retailers if you want a slightly less beautiful version, right?
In the UK, once I've worked out and I haven't got around to do, I will get fulfillment byAmazon.
Outside of the UK, it's available, payment on demand.
And I hope people enjoy it and I hope people like playing with it.
(30:36):
Great.
Well, thank you for coming to The Coaching Inn, Sandra.
And enjoy the first few weeks of the baby being alive.
Thank you for your support Claire, because it's meant a lot.
That's a real pleasure.
So thank you all for listening.
Thank you, Sandra, for coming.
And we'll be back next week with another episode.
(30:57):
Bye bye.
Hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Coaching Inn, is celebrating the launch ofSandra Whiles' new book, The Coaching Tools Compendium.
Is that the right title?
it.
took a long time to get that agreed.
So in a minute, I'm going to introduce you to Sandra.
(00:37):
Just a reminder, if you don't subscribe or follow the podcast, if you do that, you'll getit every week.
What I love about having Sandra here today to celebrate the launch of her book is that youknow well that I don't like tools and Sandra's book is all about tools.
And it's isn't it great to interview people when you don't quite agree necessarily.
(00:59):
because we agree on lots of things.
We don't agree on tools and it is absolutely delightful to hear all about them.
Sandra, welcome.
Thanks, Claire.
I'm smiling because when I was thinking about who would I really like to review my book,it was like, am I brave enough to send it Pedrick?
And it was like, I must have had a couple of glasses of wine, but yeah, I'm going to sendit to Claire because I really, really value your take on the world and you've inspired and
(01:26):
I suppose really supported my journey as a coach in the last few years.
So thank you and...
I'm a bit excited to be here, so lovely.
I mean, what a day to have got to this point and to have you here matching your cover.
Yes, it's like, yeah, color, color is quite important for me.
(01:51):
So I know you can tell that from the cover.
So Sandra, tell us a bit about your journey into coaching and then we'll find out allabout the book.
OK, my journey.
I'm suffering with sniffles at the minute, so bear with me if I start sneezing orcoughing.
Journey to coaching.
So I used to have a grown up proper job.
I worked in the public sector for, gosh, 30 odd years.
(02:14):
final 12 years of that, was a chief executive for council in Leicestershire and the bestjob in the world.
I absolutely loved it because it was a council where it was ripe for change and culturechange and stuff like that.
realised over those 12 years that actually whilst I love making things better for folklike I did a new houses and a great refuse collection so what I really really loved was
(02:39):
actually unleashing the energy of the people that actually were in the organisation and Idid that for 12 years and I made loads of mistakes but increasingly I was like conscious
that I was spending my time in that
mentoring space, coaching space.
I'd never worked with a coach, actually.
I'd done a bit of coachy trainee stuff and I'd been doing the NLP practitioner program tohelp me deal with some challenges in the organisation and the partnerships.
(03:09):
And I'd had team coaches into my team.
But I got to that stage that there wasn't any really new challenges and I'd got anabsolutely amazing leadership team around me.
And
I've always needed challenges.
get a bit bored and I get a bit like naughty.
I don't have to make big.
And the time was right.
(03:30):
And I'd had at the back of my mind, yeah, one day set up a business and move into thatcoaching world.
A couple of people that had brought into this and work with the council to help us aroundsome of the people's strategy stuff.
said to me, stop being a chief exec, just go off and get your post-grad training incoaching because that's what you do, just go and do it, you know, they don't need you here
(03:55):
anymore.
So I phoned Barefoot because I live in the Midlands in Leicestershire and people saidBarefoot coaching is not fun.
So I phoned them one day just to have a chat about what was involved and this amazingwoman answered the phone, Kim Morgan, who was packing up boxes.
as they were moving from one place to their new offices and training room in Melbourne.
(04:22):
And that was it.
And Kim, like probably the first, I'd say proper coach that I'd spoken to.
So I spent a few, 12 months, I popped into a couple of barefoot things and I took theplunge and told my leader of the council that I was going to resign and leave.
(04:43):
in the elections in May 2016, but you can't.
So well actually I can and stuff.
So I had quite a long transition, about six months handing over and leaving theorganisation in a place of confidence to be forwarded and then went set up a business
which I hadn't got a clue how to run a business.
(05:03):
That was nine years ago, so early June 2016.
Did my training at Barefoot, March to May 2016.
and have learned lots, made lots of mistakes, but absolutely love what I do.
And I think I've always wanted to make a difference in some strange way, whether it'sactually clean streets or new houses or helping people find their own way to succeed.
(05:28):
And I think I couldn't have done much more of that as a chief exec in that role.
I think the impact of what I now do is hopefully helping other people make a difference.
Great.
What a lovely thing to hear your journey.
Also, I'm super distracted by your Lego flowers.
Yes.
(05:48):
because they're the same as my Lego flowers.
They're beautiful, yes, yes.
And then somebody bought me those and then they bought me the latest one which are wildflowers which are in the kitchen.
So if you haven't got the wild flowers, they are really beautiful.
I haven't, I have got the orchid.
I haven't got the succulents either.
(06:09):
Right, Lego.
Part of my journey as a coach was to invest in becoming a Lego series play facilitator,which I chose to do in Denmark as opposed to because actually, why would you not go to the
home of Lego?
Can I just say there are an awful lot of coaches who have Lego flowers, but anyway, movingback to the book.
(06:35):
So if you're a coach who has Lego flowers, do send us a picture.
You better send it to me, Claire at 3dcoaching.com.
Cause if you send it to info at 3dcoaching.com, I'll get told off by our team for floodingtheir inbox with strange pictures.
So where did the inspiration for the book come from, Sandra?
(06:58):
Yeah, it's been there niggling, niggling.
That's not the right word.
Bubbling for probably four years.
I started writing, it was at the start, monthly coaching tools newsletter, probably aboutfive years ago now, for a range of reasons.
If I do something, if I read something or if I like go on some training, for me, I like tomake it practical.
(07:21):
And sometimes that would then lead to something.
I'm like, OK, like, how do we put this?
I don't know.
branding practice into how do we how can I actually help people and other coaches get someof this stuff about CBT or whatever.
So started watching this coaching tools newsletter partly because I wanted to share stuff.
(07:41):
So one of my real like energizes in life is rating in people and part of it I likechallenges.
I didn't know how to use MailChimp.
I didn't to write things.
And so I started that and I've been writing, I was writing them once a month on randomstuff.
And people get saying, oh, you should put these things in a book.
(08:02):
You should put these things in a book.
And I go, oh, I don't know about that.
I don't know if I've written a book.
And the Coaching Tools News has moved on quite a long way over those five years.
There's an amazing group of people that respond back to the newsletter and we have a groupcoaching once every two months.
drop in for coaches.
(08:22):
So it's real great community.
People get saying, like this stuff, put it in the book.
I hadn't, didn't know how to write a book.
I didn't know how to run a business.
But I was sitting with, so my own journey as a coach has been quite interesting.
I think like many coaches, I rocked it out and barefoot think of, can't do a really goodjob and I've got to know what I'm going to do.
(08:43):
And I would coach face to face in that world that we weren't living on zip.
And so I'd turn up and I'd have my coaching cards and I'd have this and I'd think aboutthat and I'd have a model and I'd have an exercise.
And actually, sometimes I'd use them, often I wouldn't, but it was like, I've to be reallyorganized and stuff like that.
(09:04):
So the book, writing a book over, I suppose, my own journey, been like, yeah, I've donequite a lot of deep, deep thinking about me and I've worked with some amazing coaches
coaching me and some amazing supervisors.
And I've now got to a place where actually I think models and tools have a real use, butonly if we understand ourselves as coaches and they're held gently and we trust that our
(09:30):
instinct will tell us if it's helpful to suggest something to a client.
I got this like, how can I write a book about tools when I think that we coach from us,from like our human instincts and our whatever.
And so.
It's been a real journey.
My own supervisor, Kate Hammer, has been really helpful in that, challenged me and pokingme and suggested this probably about two years ago, might even longer, that I worked with
(09:57):
Indy Niyogi using story forming, which is a set of cards to get underneath a business ideaor an idea and really get underneath that.
what's this for?
What's it about?
So I did that work with Indy, which was helpful and it emerged from that that
This is a book about journeys, journey from training to becoming a coach to then carryingon stretching themselves coach.
(10:25):
But I was still sitting with this like tension, coaches tools, instinct and coach that Itrained with Annie Lee.
We were running a retreat with some of the coaches from the coaches gathering that we.
support and said just get on and do it, what is holding you back?
(10:46):
And at that point I discovered some of David Clutterbuck's work around cultural maturity,I'd done a lot of work on myself in terms of like being able to let go with being totally
controlled and organised and Annie just said just do it, get on with it, do it.
And so I committed to Annie that I would go home and book two weeks retreat residentialsomewhere where I could go away and start writing.
(11:12):
which I did.
so, yeah, that's what was there.
And I soon realised that I had to a team of people around me because I don't know how towrite book.
So I went on Pete Mosley's How to Write a Book course.
I spoke to somebody who's done one called the person called G Sabini Roberts, who hashelped me with visual stuff about actually, do they know how to lay out books?
(11:38):
And they introduced me to a book editor.
and started writing and was really clear, and I think the work with Indy had made it clearto me that it was a book about journeys and that journey is from how we are fledgling
coaches, little birds in a nest, and how we can really dig into our own philosophy and ourvalues and our preferences and our own thinking and what that means to then establish
(12:09):
our own coaching philosophy and that that can include the use of tools.
We might use a pen, we might stand up and pretend to be a tree or we might actually getout a model.
And that helped me work out what the book would look like.
It's changed a bit over the journey.
Actually, it's.
(12:31):
Has it been one of the hardest things that we've done?
probably been one of the most joyful but stretching things ever done.
harder than getting planning permission for a new term.
It's like, yeah, but really, really like amazing.
comparison harder than gaining planning commission for a new town.
(12:51):
But lots of comparisons because in that journey, I did lots of things as a chief exec thatI had no idea how to do and they were really hard.
But in all of those journeys, I've had people around me and surrounded myself and beingpart of a team and I might have had to take different roles in those teams.
And I've been stepped into things I didn't know how to do it.
(13:13):
And sometimes it's gone desperately wrong and actually it's been sorted.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that that really makes sense because the book that our next book, it's taken ayear to get the shape of it.
And now we're going to go for planning permission.
So, I'm excited, so what's the next book, Claire?
(13:34):
So it's something about neurodiversity being, but not being an expert.
And so that's just really, that's really been quite tricky.
How'd you find your voice?
So I'm writing it with Nathan Whitbread and Kim Whitten.
You should listen to our team meetings because we're all neurodivergent.
(13:58):
Your own book, Simplifying Coaching, I mean, it's written on, but and yeah, it goes onholiday with me quite often.
But I think your book was a real catalyst for me in my own journey.
So thank you.
I've just read it again.
Yeah.
So I'd love to talk to you in four years or five years time when you read yours again,because I'm reading it again going.
(14:22):
And people go, I really like reading your books.
It's so easy to read.
And I'm reading the first chapter and going, that's really complicated writing.
It's, but yeah, but every page has got nuggets in it and it's well written.
Thank you.
Mrs.
Oldfield, my English teacher, did you hear that?
(14:47):
He told me I couldn't do it.
When I was 12 years old.
so what's what's exciting you about this book being born?
exciting.
The fact that it has somehow managed to bring together some sensory experiences.
(15:09):
So I know some people will hate it because it is bright, it is colourful, it has aplaylist, it's got a QR code to get to the music that I've written the book with.
You know, it's written in a hopefully accessible style.
I had some great help along the way from somebody that advised me on how I write because Iwrite as I talk and think and so people might not...
(15:29):
be able to follow the flow.
So excited that it's come together as something that is colourful and I've been told isreally useful.
That's hard to read.
I found it really hard to ask and read the reviews.
I'm excited that it gets into people's hands.
(15:50):
I would really like people to buy two copies or so and get rid of them, but one so it'spretty on their bookshelves and beautiful.
And another that they write in and they scroll in and whatever.
And I think for me in the writing, it was on stage, but they're putting together as aproduct.
sounds really boring, doesn't it?
(16:11):
As a gift was really important.
So it has to have I get annoyed by books that don't lie flatish.
So it's so that it.
lies flat.
Now it's 270 odd pages so it won't lie as flat as its spiral band.
Spiral band wasn't the quality that I wanted but stitch band.
So it took me ages to find a printer that could do that.
(16:34):
it's a long way, there's a printer around the corner or a couple miles away and theyspecialize in animal husbandry books and books around you know eggs and stuff like that
and then I rocked up there one day, made an appointment and he was just so helpful thisyoung man.
He's like, you took me through all the, and yeah, says, and what you're talking about,Stitch Band, that's what you need.
(16:54):
We can't do this.
We're not the printer for you, he's, so it's Stitch Band, it lies flat, it's colourful,it's got other people's stories in it.
So it was really important, wasn't, this isn't all about Sandra.
This is about a journey from baby coach to a coach that carriers aren't growing, but I'mjust one of many.
(17:17):
And I wanted to think it was Kate Hammers suggested my supervisor.
Let's just ask a few other people to put their stories as a combination of tools, ajourney to reflect on the gifts.
And that's based on some of my learning and stuff.
(17:38):
It's got some case on it and it's got a playlist in it.
And it's got.
accessible.
So there's another QR code that allows people to download the tools in bigger font becauseit's quite small in the book.
Because for some people and for some clients, they want something to work on betweensessions.
You might want to share something on screen.
(17:59):
So it's how can I make it as practical as possible, but also accessible.
So the price bit has been really interesting here.
And some of the tech stuff about the
Making it so it's designed like that, yeah, the easy way of getting books out in the worldis through some of the big online things, isn't it?
(18:20):
And print on demand, and that wasn't going to give me the quality that I want.
So the book will be available outside of the UK as a print on demand version.
And it will be available as a hardback print on demand version and an e-book.
But if people want the real one, it's actually you get it from me on the website, probablywill work out how to get the real books into Amazon.
(18:43):
that life allows.
I'm so interested that you say that because I was at an event the other day and some ofthe people had brought the human behind the coach for me to sign.
And I picked it up and I thought this isn't my book.
And I went to sign it with my signing pen.
I hope you've got a signing pen.
(19:04):
New pen.
It's pink, which is like, yeah, like pink isn't my colour, but it's it's something bold.
So I signed it with my signing pen and the ink bled.
And I looked at the book and I thought, this is not my book.
And it was a print on demand copy from Amazon.
And the spine was about three quarters of the size of my spine.
(19:28):
Because the human behind the coach is printed on really lovely paper.
And it was just so very interesting.
It is, and I think my book's been printed by Beamreach Printing up in Lim, in Cheshire.
And know, David there, great, we went and felt papers and you know, and the covers and hesaid, you know, we need the cover to be scratched, whatever, because the colours, you
(19:54):
know, you've got dark greens.
So yeah, but I think there is the practicalities, you know, I really hope that the bookgoes beyond the UK coaching world.
I've already got three copies going out to America, which will be the proper ones for acoach that I in a swimming pool in Lake Garda last year and the other ones going out to
(20:16):
New Zealand.
actually, publishing myself, I There's lots of learning there because we've got we'll bestuffing envelopes or maybe envelopes.
So we will be print on demand available.
And there's a print on demand hard copy that
I did just as a test.
The quality of that got better, but the cost.
(20:38):
There are of learning.
It's easy for people to buy from Amazon, isn't it?
We have readers in 128 countries.
Listeners, mean, sorry, because I said readers because we're on books.
We have listeners in 128 countries.
So, yeah, and people will find my book, whatever, but the spine, the Stitch Man one willbe coming out from our place in the shiny green envelope.
(21:09):
So people who want to buy it from the UK.
Yes.
or are willing to pay the postage.
How do they get it?
If they go down to my website, which is being updated so that it actually is suitable tobuy from, can just tell you so www.sandrawilescoaching.com or drop me an email.
(21:32):
But yeah, that's been another journey for me really.
They'll go out in nice shiny green envelopes and there is the ability to buy a book bag,which will have some goodies in it because I think
I don't know what you're like coach, but yeah, get a new coaching book, particularly apractical one.
Yeah.
(21:53):
I want to know what pages I want to go back to.
I want to have a notebook with it.
So I'm going to wave a book back at you.
It hasn't got the goodies in it at the minute.
And in that you'd able to put the book plus a notebook plus some bookmarks plus somepost-its because I think
(22:14):
Because that is your toolkit, isn't it?
yeah, because part of the design bit was, can I have five or six, you know, what do theycall them bookmarks, the ribbon bookmarks?
And he said, well, you could, but it's going to put another 20 quid on each book.
So I've got had one, my designer G has helped me get some really great bookmarks printedoff so that we don't have to bend too many quads.
(22:44):
safer.
Yeah, nice.
So how much is it, Sandra?
It will be £28.50 plus postage and packing.
The book bag will be probably £34 with stuff finalised and plus postage and packing.
And I've got some lovely people that helping me with the distribution.
So I don't know if there's ever a second book.
(23:04):
I think there's loads of learning to go through.
Yeah.
So in the next few weeks, what's your hope?
That's my hope.
I hope we can move quite a few of the boxes out of my brother's garage, where theycurrently are sitting.
I hope that people will pick this book up and it's a time of year.
(23:28):
I hope they'll buy it and pick it up and that they will take it somewhere with some cup ofcoffee and just not dive straight into the tools.
That they will actually really focus on that bit about, well, who am I as a coach?
What am I as a coach?
How do I use my resources as a human being to be able to build that relationship with myclients so that in the moment, me and the client can actually work out what's the best way
(24:00):
to do some thinking together.
Yeah, I know some coaches will pick it up and like go, that's an exciting tool.
that's an exciting tool.
But I really hope people will pick it up and start from there.
Let's settle into versus, okay.
Several people have said that it will be a really useful resource for newer coaches, but Ithink it's there for all of us.
(24:23):
But I think one of the things that as we go through coach training and my time at Barefootwas like life changing and lots of other work, I've done quite a lot of work with other
team coaches, studio and optimists with coach, it could see over the years.
But I think the tenets is we can come out and we think we're perfect and we've to do itright.
(24:44):
So I think that.
taking some time to settle.
And as people have been doing this for nine years now as a professional coach, I go backto that from time to time and just that, like some of it we do in supervision, but we can
do it for ourselves and never to stop growing and learning and doing whatever that is.
(25:04):
For me, I think we touched on previous conversations a couple of years ago, I I've got togo and do my MCC now.
I've got my hours in, I've got this.
Actually, that's not right for me.
That's not my journey.
It is the right journey for some people.
But for me, the journey was to get a book out there as a bit of a legacy.
And that sounds I don't want to sound that big headed, but, you know, I am not sure howmuch longer I will be actively coaching.
(25:30):
I don't think I'll ever stop coaching.
I will never stop wanting to work with coaches and support communities of coaches.
But actually, you know, what's that physical thing that I can see and hold in people?
and point to in his book, you know, legacy for being a chief exec was a bit of a no-turnand a beer hall.
So it is the beer hall book.
(25:50):
a long time, Kate and I were laughing at, yeah, we couldn't actually call it the beer hallbook because nobody would know what it was, it?
But it is the beer hall book and the first chapter was written in Everard's Breweries BeerHall because that was a massive project that, again, a great team that I was part of as a
chief exec.
(26:11):
Nice.
A beer, read a book or cup of tea.
So I love how you're saying that you want the beginning, you want people's first encounterwith it to become a conversation between them and the book and their work before there's
any consumption.
(26:32):
Yeah, that's conversation with themselves that we returned to from time to time and tolook at that there's 11 really lovely coaches that have shared their own journeys.
So that's in terms of that.
And just to look at those and just think, actually, we're all different and we can all doit.
We can do it in our own way and be true to ourselves.
But actually, what is it that makes them the coach that they are?
(26:57):
And sometimes they might want to.
There's 56 odd tools in there,
quite a few them are targeted at coaches to help us settle and to do it.
I'm smiling because yeah, there's something about rituals.
You know, have a bit of a ritual before I go into a coaching conversation with somebodyand it is how do we settle ourselves so that we are able to be there with our clients or
(27:23):
think what's the right question to ask because it will come if we just.
Of course it will.
you really want people to make it their own.
And make it their own and to let me know how they play with the tools, how they adaptthem, yeah, what bubbles up for them.
There are already eight new things to go into a second book because it's like, but yeah,I'm really happy that I've gone through that.
(27:54):
This isn't a rule book.
This is a resource informer.
for you to make your own resources.
So yeah, I'd love to hear what people do with it and play with it and stuff, stuff, lotsof stuff.
first thing I do when I write a book is keep one copy for myself where I write in ink allthe things that I would change if I was ever to do it again.
(28:19):
And great tips.
people have been so generous on this journey.
it's been lots of help along the way.
It feels like it's a village that's written.
you did decide to do it yourself, so kudos.
Yeah, I think if I did a second book, I'm not sure how I'd do it, but there's stillsomething for me that's important about the quality of it as a project.
(28:44):
Yeah.
I can recommend a very good publisher who'll let you get the quality you want.
FYI.
And they might come chat to you.
And I've got the design stuff there now.
Yeah, that was the difficult.
The front cover was interesting because I was playing with good old AI stuff and saying,just give me some ideas for cover.
(29:05):
And it came out with something that I thought, and so G was gone.
But we can't use cover off chat GBT.
they got the paints out and they painted lots of little bits of paper and then.
them into a tech machine, I'm DOP techie, and have collages, so we have lots of beautifulcollages of the images.
(29:27):
Yeah, so all the designs of them now, isn't it?
It's just, yeah.
So I hope people, I hope they like find something and let me know what doesn't work, letme know how they'd add to it.
and you're having a party this evening.
Yeah, we're having a party at Barefoot today and then we're having another party in Londonnext week.
(29:49):
Because Barefoot is my spiritual home as a coach, I suppose, but a load of the people inmy life and my coaching world come from other places and don't live in the Midlands or
Canaries.
Great.
So, sandrawhilescoaching.com.
(30:13):
or online retailers if you want a slightly less beautiful version, right?
In the UK, once I've worked out and I haven't got around to do, I will get fulfillment byAmazon.
Outside of the UK, it's available, payment on demand.
And I hope people enjoy it and I hope people like playing with it.
(30:36):
Great.
Well, thank you for coming to The Coaching Inn, Sandra.
And enjoy the first few weeks of the baby being alive.
Thank you for your support Claire, because it's meant a lot.
That's a real pleasure.
So thank you all for listening.
Thank you, Sandra, for coming.
And we'll be back next week with another episode.
(30:57):
Bye bye.
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