The Story Behind CP Coaching

Juanita Hendrix

My coaching practice is inspired by my grandmother - Juanita Hendrix. She and my grandfather ran the local country store together in a small mountain town and she was widely respected as a savvy business person. She was the church organist, a piano teacher, a busy mother of two girls who kept her own house, managed the family vegetable farm, and even in her spare time made her family's clothes. She was creative, community-oriented, and most importantly happy.

What was the key to her happiness? Her life was built around her values - faith, family, community, and creativity.

As an executive, I spent years working to build someone else's dream. It was a great training ground for the work I do now. But I never felt a deep satisfaction I craved even when a job was well done and was hungry to build my dreams. I'd quickly get in my own way by focusing on all of the stumbling blocks that made my dreams "unrealistic". Time and time again, I decided I was better off with the stability and security of a defined career. Constant migraines, weight gain, a failed marriage... these are not the markers of a happy person, but they were what was happening in my life. I had money and a successful career... but that was about it.

So I began working with a coach, (and I still invest in myself with a coach) and began defining what I really wanted. I looked at my grandmother as a starting point and thought about what her to-do lists looked like. My head would spin wondering, "How did she ever sleep?"

But it's simple. Her life was built around what she enjoyed and what she was good at. Therefore, work was never really "work".

How many of us feel run down and ragged getting through our day and have the conveniences of pre-made food and clothes, dishwashers, vacuums, and QuickBooks? My grandmother was able to keep up because she was working from a place of joy and confidence. Yes, she had a lot on her plate - but she loved being intellectually stimulated by the business or dressing her girls in the latest fashions - this woman went to college in 1935 and sewing was not a hassle. When she picked and canned vegetables from the farm, she would share the surplus with friends and they reciprocated!

She was a community builder and a provider for her family to eat a variety of foods year-round. Her faith kept her grounded and free from anxiety, and she loved expressing herself as the church organist and shared her incredible musical talent with her community by teaching piano to local students.