Today we’d like to introduce you to Elaine Garmon.
Elaine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I began my career in personal development with an undergraduate degree in education, and then as a counselor after completing a masters degree in clinical counseling. I have logged thousands of hours sitting in an office with my clients helping them to work through issues in their lives and become healthier of mind, body, and spirit. I worked with them to develop self-love, and to help them make positive changes.
I truly cared about and enjoyed working with my clients, but something about this work began to frustrate me. The lack of movement and lack of mind/body connection felt severely limiting, and then unnatural. I have always been an active person as well as a nature lover and would encourage my clients to incorporate exercise into their lives in order to energize and accelerate their progress. Many of my clients were entirely disconnected from the natural world and didn’t even realize the negative consequences of this disunion.
When working with a client I could always see their strengths and capabilities so clearly, but an inner voice told me that sitting stagnant in a room was not the most effective way of helping them move forward, towards their best selves. During this time, I began to search for better ways to help my clients reach their potential and have the life they wanted. As a side note, most of my clients were not clinically mentally ill, they were working on personal challenges and struggling with the adversities that life brings to all of us.
This nagging feeling, that their progress could be even better, led me to seek out working with individuals in a very different way. As a side job, I began facilitating at an outdoor ropes course facility and quickly noticed that although the clients were coming in with some of the same issues, dilemmas, goals, and dreams, the personal development work was accelerated and enhanced by the physicality of the challenges, and the simple fact that we were outside in the Fresh Air! This insight led me to try walking sessions in nature while working with clients.
I quickly became enamored by this combination. My clients became energized by their own progress and shifts in thinking. Along the way, I migrated from counseling over to coaching as I felt this was a much better fit for my practice and my clientele. Although coaching is not considered therapy in the traditional sense, walking in nature has inherent therapeutic and healing benefits that complement the coaching modality in a seamless way. This is an abridged version of how Walking Your Talk was born.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Is it ever a smooth road? Opening your own business is never an easy path, but it has been the most rewarding and I have grown so much over these last 3 years. To add to the chaos of starting a new business that was inherently different than most coaches or counselors, my family and I had just moved across the country and were adjusting to many changes. I have always sought out adventure and love trying new things, though, so it was an exciting challenge to manage all of this while helping my kids adjust to a new life in San Diego.
I would say that the biggest struggle for me was figuring out a way to deliver my message to my prospective clients. Coaching in the outdoors is a non-traditional way to deliver services and it has many logistical moving parts. I struggled to find my niche and to get connected to other female business owners in the area. Slowly, I have developed a network of female entrepreneurs, professionals, and friends who have helped me to find my market and hone my business skills.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Walking Your Talk – what should we know?
Walking Your Talk is a professional coaching business for women and teen girls. What makes my service unique is the fact that I walk with my clients while I work with them. We don’t sit in a comfy office or work over the phone like most coaches and counselors. Movement work has been growing since I started my business in 2015. To me, it is just a natural evolution in the mental health and coaching field. You are beginning to see more and more walking, hiking, and running in personal growth and development fields.
Walking Your Talk is a coaching model and business that I developed to meet the needs of active women and teens who have goals and dreams they want to work towards, but who may feel constrained or uncomfortable sitting in an office, face to face, with a practitioner. It’s for women and teens who want to be less sedentary during their personal work. My clients know first hand the numerous benefits of movement combined with intention and coaching.
The clients I work with typically value action inherently or they realize it is lacking in their lives and find WYT helps them to get and stay unstuck. They are usually looking for a professional woman who understands them and aligns with their vision and they often find the traditional model of face to face therapy to be lacking and sometimes too static. Overall, they are looking for a more compelling experience and relationship with their coach, one that helps them to elicit their innate power and self-confidence.
I am so proud of the fact that I have managed to combine all of my background experience into something I am deeply committed to and absolutely love doing. Each client I work with brings me such energy and hope for the direction our world is moving towards.
Coaching is a profession based in personal growth and client-initiated change. In each 60-minute session, we will walk together and work together, focusing on whatever agendas you bring to coaching. You set the walking pace and I fall in sync with you. Some of my clients power walk or even run. Together, we decide the best place to meet and begin our journey.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My number one supporters are my husband and my children. John, my husband of 20 years, who deeply believes in what I am doing and who has been there for me as I made my way along this winding journey of a career from educator, to clinical counselor, to gymnastics coach, to mom of three, to high ropes course instructor, to life coach and writer, among other things. He knew that I was on a journey to find what I am passionate about and supported my curiosity and adventurous spirit wholeheartedly. My three kids who love me unconditionally as I do them. They are who I want to be my best self for every day.
As always my strong and loyal female friends (and sisters) from Philly, Maine, Virginia, and now California, some of which I’ve known since the first grade, have always believed in me and had my back through thick and thin. All the women with whom I’ve walked, hiked, and run hundreds of miles with over the years. They listened without judgment and helped me to flesh out my vision. This is how I decided I HAD to make this type of growth-oriented work available to all women, as I was literally doing the work myself!
My family of origin… My 5 siblings, who took an interest in my dreams and cheered me on and helped to drown out the nay-sayers. Both of my parents were always supportive of my out of the box ideas even though they both come from a more traditional career culture. Perhaps most instrumental in the final push to actually make Walking Your Talk a reality, was my sister-in-law, Katie Richards, who is a never-ending guide when it comes to all things business.
After building two successful businesses in her twenties, she went on to build a highly successful natural supplement business, called Innerzyme. She is truly an inspiration to me. She enabled me to believe that I could really do this and helped me every step of the way, answering every question, no matter how small. She taught me to be business savvy and to get out of my head instead of overthinking every decision. She gave me courage when I had doubts and for that, I am so grateful. Now, I get to pass that courage and belief on to all of my clients. As women, so often all we need is one really strong and loyal mentor…. and the sky is the limit!
Pricing:
- free 30-minute phone consultation
- 1 hour of WYT coaching – $125.00
- 1 hour and 30 minutes of WYT coaching – $180.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.walkingyourtalk.org
- Phone: 804-245-1572
- Email: elaine@walkingyourtalk.org
- Instagram: @walkingyourtalk
- Facebook: facebook.com@walkingyourtalk.org
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