Writing this 39000 ft in the air, returning home after a strategic review with a client, and admittedly two glasses of red wine into the flight, I am struck by gratitude for the role I get to play in the lives of my clients, and the path that led me here.

Twenty-three years ago I was a brand-new coach, learning at the knee of my coach and mentor, David Screaigh, and returning home to Perth on this same flight. For some reason, can’t remember why, we laughed til we cried all the way home on the five-and-a-half hour flight. We had been coaching together in Brisbane, he leading, me learning, with Ed Neilan as the client in Caltex Australia. I don’t think there was anything particularly funny that had happened, but perhaps we were just excited at being able to do what we loved in another city.

David Screaigh and I had met years earlier in the Philippines; he a commercial manager for a mining company, me a director of a fledgling explorer in Mindanao. Fast forward a few years and I was Learning & Development Executive with Caltex, and he was a business coach looking for referrals.

I hired him to coach me, and he recruited me into his coaching business. Best decision I ever made. He shifted focus a few years later, I started Acuity with Steve Goddard. The rest is history.

Twenty-four years on, the last four weeks saw me

• in Washington DC with an engineering client, pitching product to US Defence
• conducting a management meeting for an Australian logistics business I’ve been coaching since 2005 that now drive a global unstoppable juggernaut,
• assisting a mining services business recruit a CEO to replace the founder
• conduct a strategic review for a water resource consultancy
• refresh a management meeting for multinational science-based practice
• support a traditional owner (TO) understand his value and expertise
• meet with my web app developer (a former client) to review my new SaaS platform
• cross my fingers for my property developer client who is just weeks away from approval
• celebrate with my award-winning commercial lighting client as opportunities abound
• map out structure for the fastest growing crane business in the country
• discuss private equity opportunities and value realisation events
• launch a new premium business referral group

Next week, my own coaching company, Acuity Group, goes on retreat to Bali for a week, with new licensees attending for the first time. I am excited to be rolling out new tech and product, while learning from the best who will be Zooming in from around the globe to educate us on AI, breathwork, and crypto.

Gratitude doesn’t begin to describe the opportunity I’ve been given, and delight undersells the joy I get from seeing the new business coaches beginning their journey, and clients kicking major goals. Amazing.

“Be grateful for what you have – at one point, it was all you ever wanted…”