From Flicker to Flame: The Spark That Built My Coaching Framework (part 1)

Part 1: From Flicker to Foundation

Back in March, the spark that first ignited this entire business journey was simple: life coaching.

After years of working with leaders, what kept tugging at me was deeper than leadership competencies or organizational strategy. I was drawn to the humanness behind the titles. To purpose. To self-awareness. To what drives us when the titles fall away.

I had been doing my own inner work since late 2019, and in the years since then, my work in leadership seemed to be more and more connected to my inner work. The exploration of self-awareness, positive psychology, growth mindset, leadership philosophies, the shadow work, the soul whispers, the identity shifts . . . they were all pieces to the same complicated puzzle. And while I could sense they were part of something bigger, for a while, it was like I was chasing shadows in the dark. I felt like a main character in a Dan Brown novel, decoding something shrouded in an ancient, sacred mystery.

I felt called forward into something more, something bigger. So, that was when I started building my business.

By April, the vision was growing bolder, and I realized I needed to reimagine the model of life coaching I had originally envisioned. Not because I didn’t believe in one-to-one coaching, I deeply do. But I also knew that while sustaining a 45+ hour/week career, I couldn’t support the level of impact I envisioned through individual sessions alone.

That meant scaling differently. And that required creativity.

I began thinking about self-paced courses. About distilling my knowledge and theories into something beautiful and structured and accessible. Meanwhile, as the ideas continued to marinate, I began to feel the undeniable pull to build the foundations of my business before anything else.

While most business coaches insist on launching your product first, my many years in project management, change management, and marketing strategy told me otherwise: build the systems first. Build the structure. Build something that could support the weight of what I was dreaming. I knew I was building something vast, and I needed it to be rooted.

And so, I did, for two months I put the dreaming on the backburner while I built. Business coaches and experts warned me not to “waste” time building backend systems, I immersed myself in it for nearly two months. My website, my course platform, my payment system, and all the legally required registrations.

Because the truth was: I couldn’t NOT build. The vision was coming through me too fast. I felt like my body would burst from the momentum. I felt agitated and restless. There weren’t enough hours in the day to bring it all through.

I built the site. I created the structure. I mapped out ideas and courses. And all the while, something else was taking shape.

A foundation.

Still just out of sight, I could feel something forming . . . this platform that my business would one day springboard from. A place where the knowledge, the insights, the soul work would finally align into a clear path.

And beyond that, there was a bigger picture I was always mapping in my mind. What fit? What didn’t? Where did each piece belong? Which ones would completely fall away? Which ones were still unknown? For a while, that process felt never-ending. A temporary sense of relief would wash over me when a puzzle piece finally clicked into place… but soon another question would surface. Another insight. Another missing link.

Until June, when the burning finally shifted.

After talking with countless colleagues, mentors, and clients, a pattern had emerged. Women with big visions. Big hearts. Big dreams. All isolated on their own islands.

I suddenly saw it: the map wasn’t just a path. It was an interconnected network of bridges.

The missing link wasn’t another tool or strategy. It was connection.

Community was the foundation.

All along, I had been trying to build the perfect model, the perfect process. But what I was really trying to do was build a space where women could rise together.

And in that moment, the fire roared to life.

To be continued in Part 2: Finding the Framework within the Flame