Jay Shetty Certification School graduate Nancy Sawyer shares her experience of getting certified as a life coach.
Once COVID hit in 2020, I was stuck at home, like many others. After the initial shock of our new situation wore off, I felt the familiar tug I had been feeling for the past couple of years – a strong desire to help others. As I began to reflect on my current job and the past several years of my life, I knew it was time for a change and that this COVID situation was giving me exactly the time I needed to reflect and figure out my next steps. I had been considering going back to school to get a Master’s degree so I could begin a career in counseling and therapy.As we got deeper into the pandemic, I was spending a lot of time on Instagram, and I decided for my own mental health to clean up my feed and only follow motivational and inspiring accounts. One of the accounts I enjoyed following was Jay Shetty’s. When I saw a post about the Jay Shetty Certification School and dug a little deeper, a light bulb went off in my head.It became clear to me that I wanted to help people create their futures rather than look at their pasts. The past eight years for me involved living through big life transitions: losing my mom to cancer, going through a divorce, leaving the family business, and starting my own business. I had learned to thrive despite the difficult things that life had thrown at me and the difficult choices that had to be made.Then, I realized that I wanted to help others go through big transitions and come out the other side with feelings of empowerment, confidence, and hope for a better future. I took the free, five-day program Jay Shetty Certification School offered, and knew right away that this was the place for me.Once I decided to become a coach, I looked into a few other programs. I find Jay Shetty to be very inspiring and motivational, and I believe that was a deciding factor in choosing the Jay Shetty Certification School. We want to work with people we know, like, and trust, right? Jay’s vision of serving one billion people stood out to me. I wanted to be a part of a bigger picture, not just do this for myself. I dove head first into the Jay Shetty Certification School program in September of 2020 and was certified in April of 2021.Once I started taking the courses, I was captivated by what I was learning. I immediately felt like I was welcomed into a community. I have a very clear memory of something that happened shortly after I became a student at the school. There was a live Zoom session that students were invited to attend, and I hopped on. It was my first interaction with others in the Jay Shetty Certification School community. It was a beautiful day outside, so I brought my computer out to my back deck. There were 40 or 50 people on the call, so I didn’t speak. But I watched and listened intently.The discussion was enlightening and full of encouragement and support. People were welcoming, honest, and open. They shared about their spirituality, their challenges, their fears, and their hopes. I had never in my life been present in such an open and vulnerable discussion. As I sat on my deck, bathed in beautiful sunlight, I felt like I never had before – like I was in a space where I belonged and would be accepted. I actually got a little teary and thought to myself, “I have found my people! I have been waiting for this my entire life!”Up until that point, I had felt a desire to have deeply personal and vulnerable discussions, but I had no idea how to find that space, and now here it was, on my laptop! The Jay Shetty Certification School community is unlike any other I have seen. It is made up of people from all over the world coming together with a desire to help others while helping themselves at the same time. It solidified my belief that even though on the surface we may all seem different, at our core, we are all very much the same. How beautiful it is to be in a space where we are unafraid to be honest and vulnerable, and to explore our growth and discover our strengths in the ways that work for us.The support of my supervisor and the friendships I made in this community have allowed me to blossom in ways I didn’t know I needed.If I was starting the process all over again, I would advise myself to buckle up and get ready… and set aside time to really feel every minute of this beautiful transformation into the me I have always been meant to be.To others beginning the process or seeking to become a life coach, I would say this: In order to become a life coach and help others, you must first know how to fully experience life yourself. Step into a program that focuses on your growth as a person, not just on skills training or checking off the boxes for a certification. If you want to be a coach because you think it’s a cool way to make money and that’s what’s important to you, you can choose any program. But if you want to be a coach because you want to grow, lead a fulfilling life, and help others create significant change in their lives, choose Jay Shetty Certification School. Not only will you be trained well in the skill of coaching, but you’ll also get the bonus of being a part of a community that is changing the world.
