From Loss to Legacy, She Now Found Her Purpose in Coaching and Changed Countless Lives

Interviewing Joanne Waldman, an award-winning coach with over two decades of experience in life and retirement coaching.

From starting as a counselor to becoming a sought-after coach and educator, Joanne has dedicated her career to helping others create the life they truly desire. Inspired by a deeply personal experience, she turned her passion into a lifelong mission that helps to guide individuals through major life transitions and mentoring future coaches.

Now, she’s expanding her impact through group coaching and working with financial professionals to bring a holistic approach to retirement planning. And here is her story.

1. Hi! Can you introduce yourself and share how many years have you been educating others as a coach?

My name is Joanne Waldman, and I have been a coach since the late 1990’s. My journey started with a master’s degree in counseling, but when I heard about coaching, I aligned more as a coach.

In 2001, I started training life coaches for International Coach Academy a school out of Australia and stayed there for 10 years.

One of my students started her own coaching school, Coaching Cognition, and I taught there for 7 years.

Concurrently in 2002 I helped start Retirement Options where I served as the Director of Training where we taught non-financial retirement coaching. And as a coach, part of our job is educating clients about life, resources, and so many other things!

2. What inspired you to help others as a coach, and what’s the story behind your journey?

My father got sick when I was 13. As he lay dying in 1977, he said that he could not die as he had so many things left to accomplish in his life. He died a week later, He was 50 years old, and I was 19.

That experience had such an impact on me, I became a counselor and helped individuals deal with their own life and career issues.

I started New Perspective Coaching in 2001 and have helped many individuals create the life that they desire.

Now I am focusing more on the non-financial side of retirement, although my clients are getting younger and younger every year.

3. What were some of the initial challenges you faced when educating others as a coach, and how did you navigate them?

It can be difficult to learn how to coach if you have been a consultant, therapist or other occupations that tell clients what to do or give advice.

Coaches do neither of those and helping students learn how to listen and support without giving them the solution is always a challenge.

Clients do so much better when you let them find their own way by asking powerful questions or giving feedback.

Coaches could see that clients reached their goals quicker if they were not told what or how to do it. Clients usually resist that kind of help and the coaches in training could easily recognize that outcome.

4. Can you share some of your early experiences in coaching and the obstacles you encountered along the way?

I learned quickly to get paid up front. Other challenges usually are around marketing and finding clients.

I was lucky that I was offered a column in our local newspaper where every month I wrote about career, life or wellness issues and was able to fill my practice that way.

When I mentor coaches, I have them focus on three ways they love to market and put their attention there.

Now there are so many other ways to get one’s name out there like podcast guesting or social media that were not out there 24 years ago. Finding speaking gigs can also be a challenge. But networking one’s way out there is still useful.

5. What strategies have you found most effective in driving engagement and achieving success?

Writing has always been a good strategy, I have over 60 articles that I wrote and am repurposing them now for social media and my blog.

Podcast guesting is a new frontier that I enjoy. I have also been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, MarketWatch, Kiplinger’s, Readers Digest and several more as a retirement expert.

Every time I am quoted, I often can get new clients.

6. How has your role or organization evolved since you started, and what are your long-term goals moving forward?

I am now also focusing on doing group work, you can help more individuals that way and they help each other by listening to individuals getting coached in the group.

I am also expanding my services to help financial planners, registered investment advisors and wealth managers with their clientele or their own leaning about how to coach their clients.

7. What key lessons have you learned as an educator and a coach?

It is important when you are teaching to speak to all the learning styles.

People learn auditorily, visually, kinesthetically or they can be auditory digital, meaning they are thinkers or processors. People use specific language to let you know how they learn.

For example, I hear you/it sounds good, I see that/ looks good, feels good or let me think about the or that makes sense.

If you don’t address all those styles, people can feel left out and disengage in the learning process.

8. What tools, resources, or systems have been critical in helping you manage and grow your ability to coach others?

I use two non-financial assessments to determine retired readiness.

They are the “Retirement Success Profile” and the “Life Options Profile“. I trained 100’s of students to use those while at Retirement Options and I feel that they are the best transition assessments out there.

I also use values exercises and visualization exercises with my clients. Each assessment comes with powerful questions and exercises to help the client determine their strengths and focus factors. Retirement Success looks at 15 factors necessary for a successful retirement and the Life Options Profile looks at 24 dimensions.

9. Are there any books, podcasts, or resources that have significantly influenced your teaching style and approach to coaching?

“The Retirement Coaches Association” has been a great resource for my niche, I have learned a lot about podcasting from “Interview Connections“, I love Karen Cappello’s work on getting clients and Dorian Mintzer has a good podcast on retirement.

10. What advice would you give to those aspiring to educate others as a coach?

I am a big believer in coach certification. Getting a Board-Certified Coach (BCC) or certification from the International Coaching Federation (ACC, PCC, or MCC) is a great start.

Getting training as a Mentor coach is also a great strategy.

11. Are there any particular trends or areas in coaching that you’re currently focused on developing or improving?

I am now looking to educate financial planners and wealth advisors on how to better work with their clients close to retiring.

By teaching them coaching skills I think they can better serve their clients.

And partnering with them to coach their clients is something I am offering those in that industry and related industries.

12. Where can people go to learn more about you and connect with you?

They can go to my website at www.newperspectivecoaching.com. I am also on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Credit: Photo credited to the courtesy of industry experts featured in the article. Wordings maybe edited for understanding or formatting.