Below is a recent interview that I did on All Business Media FM. I was honoured to share my story of what led me to coaching. To hear my (painful) life lessons, hit play or read the full transcript below.

CJ: Share with us a little bit about yourself, what do you do?

Jasleen: I am an online career and life coach. I coach people to confidently quit their day job by creating their dream niche.  There are some of us who are really lucky in life (and are) able to “find” their niche. You hear people say, “I need to find myself.” They leave it to the universe to tell us what we are meant to do. But for a lot of us, like myself, we are a little unlucky. For the unlucky ones, we have to find out the hard way or we never find out at all. We might end up in a job that is draining our energy and making us feel undervalued. So what I like to do is give people the confidence, the tools, and the structure for the self-discovery to help them find their dream niche.  It can be a career niche or they might decide they want to start a business.  

CJ: What’s your story, what inspired you to help others?

Jasleen: I would describe myself as a multi-passionate. Some people may have described me as scattered because I’ve tried out all sorts of different things. But I’ve positively reframed that now as multi-passionate. I’ve had many different interests, jobs and taken so many different types of courses. It took me a really long time to figure out what I wanted to be when I “grew up”.  My educational background is in Psychology (honours degree), and then I did a post-graduate certificate in Human Resource Management. Then I went on to work in the Oil & Gas sector for about a decade. And it was there that I experienced burnout in my job.  And I believe that was because I hadn’t found my niche. The way I describe a niche is when we’re using our core strengths and aligning that to our passions and finding out where we are adding the most value. So where is that need in the world or market? And I don’t feel like I had that complete alignment in my job. The way this manifested itself was in a variety of ways. But I did experience burnout in a real way.  I had really bad anxiety. I developed carpal tunnel syndrome. And the first really big sign, when I realized I had to make a change was when I developed shingles on my face. Honestly, (the shingles) was the most (physically) painful experience of my life.  So that was really hard to ignore. So I said, “Ok, I’ve gotta make a change here.” Then shortly after that I left my job to go on maternity leave. I had twin boys who are four now. And they arrived in an unexpected way. They were two months early and it was due to a rare pregnancy complication that I had. I almost died. So, that near-death experience was my (final) wake-up call. When I woke up in the ICU- it is really hard to describe this feeling- but it was such a palpable sense of clarity. It was like before that experience I had been living in this fog. And I woke up and it was like the world was so crystal-clear. I really was focused on what mattered the most to me. It was there and then that I made a vow to say, “I am going to stop living in fear.” Because I realized that’s what the fog was (fear). I was living in fear- fear of judgement, fear of failure, fear of other people’s expectations of me. I said (to myself), “from this day forward I am going to make decisions based on my core values and not (based on) what is expected in the world or what other people think I should care about. And that’s what led me to coaching.

CJ: Take me through your approach when you’re working with a new person. How does it work since you’re an online coach? Is it through video chats, phone calls…?

I do most of my coaching on the phone, Zoom, or Skype. We do a little bit of video just to get to know each other. But, the type of coaching I do is actually more effective when we turn the video off because it gets us out of our emotional brain (system) and helps move us into our neocortex or a future and solution-focused brain (system). So I find that it works best when the camera is turned off. Sometimes my clients will be closing their eyes, or they will be imagining things. So yeah, I like to sometimes have the camera on so people can see my face, get to know me and so we can build trust but everything else is (off camera).

CJ: Not only as a coach, but also as a businesswoman, what are you looking forward to? Where do you see yourself down the road?

Jasleen: I see myself growing my business and coaching even more people 1:1. I’m just putting the finishing touches on a workbook that I’m creating that will help speed along the discovery process of finding your niche.  So whether (my clients) have made that step in starting a business or even if they don’t know what they want to do in life- it’s a tool for everyone to get more specific around (their niche) to make (the process) faster. That way (during) the 1:1 coaching we can go even deeper plus hit the ground running. Also, I have another tool I am working on for people who have already found their niche. But they might be working it as a “side-hustle” and they still (rely financially) on the job they want to leave. It’s a tool to help you create a client avatar. It’s a marketing tool to that will be the first step to allow the brand to do the work for you, so you don’t have to be a sales-y, spam-y robot and will allow you to succeed faster. All of these tools will be made available on my website for those who sign up to be a Dialogue Insider.

CJ: Any other way to reach out or is the website the easiest (way)?

Jasleen: Website is easiest- all links to social media are there and a contact form as well.

CJ: Definitely very easy. Jasleen, thank-you so much for joining us.

Jasleen: Thanks for having me CJ.