The Art of Transformational Coaching with Elena Aguilar, ep. 194

The Art of Transformational Coaching with Elena Aguilar, ep. 194, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:00

Coach, I know you’re trying to figure this all out on your own. You’re investing in your own learning on your own time because you want to show up for your teachers in the best way possible. Building your coaching program is a huge challenge. And it’s even more difficult when you’re asked to know about literacy practices and how to support them. That’s why I created the confident literacy coach. This self paced course gives you the knowledge strategies, processes, and downloadable tools that you need to be confident in your coaching work every single day. The new update to the reading and writing modules includes information about literacy that will help you grow your skills practices, and grow your students into skilled readers and writers. Check it out at confident literacy coach.com And stop reinventing the wheel.

Chrissy Beltran  00:40

Have you felt like you’ve provided all the PD, you facilitated all the PLCs and you’ve had all the conversations, but your teachers are still stuck. If your teachers are resistant to instructional change or having trouble implementing new things, it might look something like this. They’re still using outdated practices that we know don’t work. They fight every PLC to claim to their favorite lessons or strategies. You see evidence of for instructional methods everywhere despite having provided tons of PD and better practices. And kids aren’t learning and the same kids are at the bottom of the data chart every single time. Does this sound familiar? To literacy coaches who are committed to helping students grow as readers and writers This is especially frustrating. That’s why I created a free webinar for literacy coaches, but really any coach can value from it. It’s all about helping teachers embrace new practices and try out something new even when they’re not excited about it. We’ll learn why teachers resist change, how to help teachers feel secure and ready to try something new. And my favorite strategies and methods to encourage choice while expecting and holding them accountable for trying new things. I’m so excited to share this information with you that I created a free download that you’ll get when you grab the free pre recorded webinar at buzzing with Miss b.com slash shift. Grab it today. It’s totally free and it will make such a difference in your coaching.

Chrissy Beltran  02:03

Welcome to instructional coaching with Miss B where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach and every coach does too. I’m Chrissy Beltran, an elementary teacher who became a coach, and I had to create my own coaching program that worked. Now I teach coaches how to design their coaching programs, build a school wide action plan and use differentiated strategies to support teachers. Plus, I’ve got a special spot in my heart for literacy coaches. Now let’s dig into the episode.

Chrissy Beltran  02:30

Hey, coach, and welcome to Episode 194, transforming our leadership the art of transformational coaching with Elena Aguilar. This is our last episode in our series on leadership in schools. And I am so happy to welcome our really special guest. Actually, Elena was a guest on this podcast back in season one, she was kind enough to join me when this podcast was in its infancy. And so you can check that out in Episode 28. We talked about coaching for equity. And so now Alana has her new book of rise, the art of transformational coaching coming out and she got this amazing bonus workshop that I want to make sure I ask her about that comes with, I think the pre order of the book. So I’m really excited to welcome Alana today.

Chrissy Beltran  03:12

Before we jump into that conversation, I want to remind you that you can sign up for the waitlist of instructional coaching startup, this course will help you be ready to start the school year next year. So go to buzzing with MS b.com slash startup. And you will get a coupon code to use when the course actually opens in July. So definitely sign up because that is going to be a really great saving. On top of that I have something free for you. Because who doesn’t love free stuff. I love free stuff. So let’s talk about the startup jumpstart course you can go to buzzing with MS b.com slash jumpstart and get a free mini startup course that helps you design your coaching role and really think about what kind of coach you want to be how you want to show up what your coaching business vision is. You can get all of that for free at buzzing with MS b.com slash Jumpstart. So without further ado, we are going to welcome my wonderful guest Elena Aquilar to the podcast. Welcome, Elena, and thank you so much for being here today.

Elena Aguilar  04:09

Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be here. Thanks.

Chrissy Beltran  04:12

Okay, so I would love to hear about a few things just in case people don’t know who you are. I’m gonna get most of my listeners to do but just in case who do you help? And how do you spend most of your time and energy at work?

Elena Aguilar  04:25

I help coaches I help leaders. I would like to think I help all human beings. Anybody who is interested in having deeper connections with other people and helping other people learn and grow and so coaches help teachers learn and grow. Teachers help their students learn and grow. The work I do is around professional development but more broadly human development. I’m really committed to helping People learn how they can thrive. A lot of the work I do involves emotional resilience and how we can cultivate emotional resilience in ourselves and in others. And most of my time at work and energy is focused on creating content. I write books, I have a podcast, I write newsletters and create other content. I design workshops and facilitate in person and virtual workshops. And that is how I spend most of my time and energy in creation, as well as in teaching, I suppose in facilitating those workshops. So I design them and then I teach them. Perfect.

Chrissy Beltran  05:43

Thank you so much. And then this is the really probably the trickiest question I’m going to ask you today. And it is what is your favorite movie or TV show?

Elena Aguilar  05:52

And that is really tricky. Because I have so many I love movies and TV shows I consume a lot of them. And so depending on the month or the season, I would answer that differently. But I will say one of my favorite TV shows for the last few years has been Ted lasso. And I have watched it now almost three times and I rarely repeat shows. But I love that show. I love the community that they build. I love the struggles of the individuals as well as the group. I love how the characters develop, and you see these different components of them in size. And I just love the message. I love the message. So yes, I would say that is my favorite right now.

Chrissy Beltran  06:36

That is a great one. And I can imagine a lot of coaches answering that same way. Because it is so it’s so aspirational in so many ways, and also very human in other ways. So yeah, that’s a great show.

Elena Aguilar  06:49

I just realized I’m gonna, I can’t believe I didn’t realize this before. I mean, this is like the biggest mental block. He’s a coach. Yeah. I’m just like, Oh my God, he’s a coach, how did I not make that connect? That’s really like the biggest. Okay, I’m a little embarrassed.

Chrissy Beltran  07:07

Let’s go on to the next question. Okay, I’m glad that we could be here to facilitate this moment. You’re gonna watch it with a whole new lens.

Elena Aguilar  07:15

I mean, I think I knew that I think it’s so obvious, but it’s like, Oh, of course, he’s like, he’s who I want to be. Who I want us to think about, like, what does it mean to do this work with that kind of combat compassion and humility? And perseverance? And yeah, okay. I’ll, I’ll go back and process that. Yes, I

Chrissy Beltran  07:35

love it. Your next newsletter can be about that. Okay, so some of the questions that we some of the things that you’ve been doing so much work around is you focus on transformational coaching? And so can you introduce coaches to transformational coaching? If they haven’t heard about it before? You was there anything you can do to kind of illustrate what this can look like? So we can envision it?

Elena Aguilar  08:01

Sure. So maybe what I’ll do is share a story that illustrates the difference between transformational coaching and instructional coaching. So many years ago, I coached a teacher. And I’m trying to think of what is the pseudonym I usually use for her and I can’t remember, but let’s just say a costa teacher, she was a middle school history teacher. And when I first started working with her, she was open, and she was welcoming of coaching. She had been coach, she had been teaching for about 10 years. And when I first started working for her her classroom, the seats were in rows, and she would stand up at the front, and she would read from the textbook and the classroom was silent. And kids were disengaged and bored. And she would occasionally ask a question and answer the student who raised their hand in there was always like one or two students that raise their hand, very traditional. So when I started working with her, and we were working on integrating discussion structures and engagement strategies, she was open and she was reflective. And after I worked with her for a coaching cycle, which was about three months, and after those three months, she had agreed to group her students in small groups, and they were using discussion protocols. And I thought, Great, I’m done here, check. And I left and then I went back to work with her in the spring semester, and I walked into her classroom, and the seats were back in rows, the chairs were back in rows, and it was silent again. And I was like, when we met after school to debrief, I was like, what happened? What happened to the group structures and all the conversation? And she said, you know, Elena, I realized I just don’t believe that students need To be in small groups to learn, I don’t believe in that. And also they got noisy again, you know how eighth graders are. And so I went back to what’s always worked. And I had the biggest epiphany in that moment when she said, I didn’t, I don’t believe that they need that. And that was when I realized that, as coaches, we have to be unpacking beliefs. Because every action we take emerges from a belief whether we’re conscious of it, or not, every single thing we do in our lives has at its root, a belief that we hold about that action. And so with this teacher, I engage in some really meaningful conversations about her beliefs around what do students need in order to learn and what is the role of discussion and why? Why rows are not conducive to learning and so on. So transformational coaching has at its core, the belief and the practice of coaching, what I call the three B’s which are behaviors, beliefs, and ways of being traditional instructional coaching, focuses on behaviors on instructional practices, lesson planning, and design and instruction and engagement strategies and assessment, analyzing student work, and so on. And in transformational coaching, we do all of that. And we explore the underlying beliefs and the ways of being which includes emotions, that includes our core values that includes our identity experiences. And so it’s a holistic and robust approach to cultivating growth and change in someone.

Chrissy Beltran  11:44

Yeah, I think that’s a really great example, because we’ve all been there, that we have worked in a classroom and then come back later. And they’re like, Oh, the kids, they just couldn’t handle it, or they just didn’t, it wasn’t working. And that’s because they don’t really think that that is what they need to be doing. The teacher doesn’t, you know, and so those three B’s, I love that you brought those up, can you share a little bit more about those three B’s and just talk a little bit about, you know, why those are the three that you chose, you know why they’re so impactful?

Elena Aguilar  12:10

Sure. So another thing, another story from my early years of coaching, this was very early years of coaching. I loved teaching, I love lesson design, I love talking about books and curriculum and creating units. And I started teaching, I started coaching new teachers. And I would go in to meet with a new teacher after school, and I was all excited to like talk about the content. And she would sit across from me crying, sobbing, first month, first couple of months of school, right teaching, she was exhausted, she was totally overwhelmed. And this is one particular teacher, I remember who just could not stop crying. And each week I would go in, and I didn’t really know what to do, I would hand her the tissue box. I would, you know, try say some things that I hoped were kind of helpful or consoling, but she didn’t stop crying. And sometimes I would start feeling a little frustrated or irritated. Like come on. Can we talk about, you know, your lesson for tomorrow? Because the one I saw today was a mess. And maybe you wouldn’t be crying so much if it wasn’t. And I just didn’t know what to do. So I wasn’t trained, the minimal training I had and coaching did not address the teacher who can’t stop crying, or the teacher who’s like, everything’s fine. What do you mean, everything’s fine? Or the teacher who would say, you know, I don’t know why you’re coaching me, there’s all these new teachers here, you should go coach them I’m doing you know, my classroom is good. I’m getting good test scores. Why do you coach me the sort of seemingly resistant teacher so I realized that it took me a long time to accept that I needed to learn how to coach emotions. And so when we talk about coaching a way of being that includes coaching emotions, it means learning strategies to recognize and acknowledge emotions. It doesn’t mean that we are therapists. There’s a real clear distinction, which in I have a book coming out in July of 2024. It’s called a rise the art of transformational coaching. And it’s basically everything I’ve learned in 20 years of coaching, I started coaching 20 years ago. And in that book, there are three chapters on coaching emotions in a way of being so it’s organized around coaching the three B’s and, and in one of those chapters on coaching emotions, there’s a whole section called but I’m not a therapist, because it is so important for us to understand what’s the difference and what does it mean to be As a coach and address emotions, and also talk about lesson planning, and engaging students and so on. So that is core. And then the other element that is that I’ve mentioned, but that’s often left out is around coaching beliefs. And especially when we are committed to creating equitable schools where every child gets what they need and what they deserve every day, we need to learn how to explore beliefs, beliefs aren’t good or bad. They’re just thoughts, beliefs are our strongly held opinions. And we as coaches need to learn how to help someone be aware of what their beliefs are, and then make decisions about whether or not they want to enact those beliefs, or perhaps shift them. And so that’s a whole skill set. There’s also several chapters in my new book on coaching beliefs. That’s a whole skill set that we don’t learn. And I would also say that that’s a skill set that benefits all of us, professionally and personally, as we as coaches cultivate our awareness of what it means to hold a belief and act on a belief, we just have more we have a greater sense of empowerment or greater sense of agency in living our lives. Yeah, and

Chrissy Beltran  16:21

how, how great is it to be able to look at yourself and think about, wow, I didn’t realize I held this belief, I this is something that I really believe and I didn’t realize how it was, you know, how it was panning out my behaviors, because we have to be able to examine ourselves to because we go into these classrooms carrying our beliefs with us. No, I like that. So one of the one of the skills that you actually discuss in your new book is really about listening expansively. So can you describe a little bit about what that’s like and why it’s so important?

Elena Aguilar  16:52

Sure, so listening is the starting place for a coach for transformational coach. We cannot build trust with a teacher or client or coachee. Without listening, it is just impossible. If you think about someone that you’ve trusted in your life personally or professionally, I can guarantee that you will think of them as a good listener, as someone who when we use the phrase like she just sees me, she gets me. That’s, that’s information that we acquire through listening. And when I say listening, I’m talking about hearing the words that someone uses as well as paying attention to their nonverbal communication, all of the what we call the meta communication, the pitch and pace and tone and body language and facial expressions. So when we want to refine our coaching skills, we have to start with paying attention to our listening, the majority of us are distracted a whole lot have short attention spans. There’s a funny piece of research, I find it amusing, which is that right now we have on average attention span of eight seconds. Oh, no. And goldfish have an attention span of seconds. So and you know, there’s a whole lot to say about what has happened to our attention and why and but I think we all know, like, Yes, I’m distracted, a lot of the time my mind wanders, so we have to start with listening and paying attention to our listening. Now many of us also listen. And when we’re listening, our mind starts taking what I call journeys, it goes on these little wanderings. And we might be listening, if we’re coach, we might be listening to a teacher describe a challenging situation. And our mind starts going into fix it mode, our mind starts thinking, I’m going to suggest this, or Oh, I know what the problem is her she really needs to do that. Or so we start going into that sometimes our mind wanders into places of connection. Now, there’s nothing really good or bad about any of this. It’s just what happens now when the mind wanders into connection. That might mean I’m listening to a teacher talking, I’m thinking oh, I remember when that happened to me, that was my third year teaching and that student, so my mind, that’s why I say it’s wandering. It’s not good or bad. It’s just getting away. It’s just distracted. And, and there’s other places our minds can wander into judgment where we’re thinking like, I can’t believe she just said that. Or we can just get space out and feel like when is this meeting gonna be over? I’m hungry. So expansive listening is sort of the antidote. Our minds actually want to serve us and they respond well when we give them direction. And so if we say, Don’t wander into fix it mode The mind is like, okay, where should I go help me I want to help. So inexpensive listening, there are a number of filters we could say, or lenses that we can listen through. One of those lenses is listening for possibility. And so when we’re listening to someone talk, we’re listening for what is possible here, what is possible in this teacher in the situation. And then we start listening for strengths, we start listening for opportunities. So that’s one of the lenses that we can listen through expansively, we can listen with compassion, we can listen with curiosity. So there’s all these different ways that we can listen, which direct our mind into a more helpful place often, and which keep us present in the conversation so that when we respond, we’re responding with something that’s truly helpful and relevant to the person in front of us. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  21:00

that’s so great to direct your brain to focus on something and to really listen with that lens. I think it’s such a good, good point, because you’re right, we, sometimes people finish talking and you just, you’re like, I, I know, I’m not supposed to tell them what to do. But what on earth do I say? Like, you really have to be thoughtful about how am I going to approach this conversation? What is my role here? What is my purpose for listening to this person? And so I think that’s a great way to view it.

Elena Aguilar  21:30

Yeah, and what happens there, I mean, that description of like, the person finishes talking, and like when you were talking just now, like your eyes widened a bit, and it’s like the deer in the headlights, right? Like, oh, okay, I know, I’m supposed to say something. What am I supposed to say? Now? That was a whole lot? Or where do I even start, and that’s so common for coaches to I think that’s why our minds do travel into that, like, I’m going to give a suggestion, because then I’ll feel useful and helpful, and hopefully, the other person will find it helpful. And one of the chapters in my new book is called 50. Questions to ask. And so I provide a whole lot of ideas for things, including what I call the survival phrases, which is a handful of, I think there’s five phrases that you can use, especially in those moments when you’re like, wow, I don’t even know what to say. And so that we can kind of pull those out of our back pocket and offer those to our our teacher, our coachee. And, yeah, because there’s so much that goes on in a conversation, there’s so many possibilities for what you can say and how to respond. It can be for a coach really overwhelming. Yes, it can,

Chrissy Beltran  22:40

you can feel the pressure of having to have the most inspirational or motivating or clarifying response, because that is like you’re the coach, and people sometimes look to you for those things. And and you feel like the weight of that. And then you’re like, I don’t have any of those things to say. So I have to figure out something else. So you’re either I think that’s exactly why we go into fixing. Well, have you tried this? Well, why don’t we try this. And it’s like a comforting thing to do for us. It’s comforting to for us in Saturday.

Elena Aguilar  23:09

Right? Right. So it’s comforting it. So that’s such an important insight, because what that points to is the need for us as coaches to work with our own way of being. And so this is one of the core principles in transformational coaching is that we start with ourselves, and we explore our own reactions, our own emotional experiences, because what you’re describing there in that moment, is the experience of emotional discomfort, and sort of it’s fear arising, I’m afraid I’m not going to be helpful. And so how do we deal with our own fear? What are the strategies that we can use? And really, what are the bigger frameworks in terms of coaching that we’re operating under? So one of the core abilities of a transformational coach? And one of the core principles I would say, is that in transformational coaching, we work to cultivate a sense of empowerment in the client. So when we provide answers, or we say, have you tried doing this or that we’re actually taking away their power? And so when we work from a belief that change happens when other people feel more empowered, then we answer them we respond by saying, Wow, that sounds like a whole lot. That sounds really overwhelming. What thoughts come to your mind about what you might try? We’re handing them the Power BI and and subtly saying I believe in you, I believe that actually you can figure out this problem and that you don’t need me to give you answers.

Chrissy Beltran  24:48

Yeah, yeah, I think that’s so important and even it’s very helpful whenever you’re talking with friends honestly. As well it people who are going through a lot sometimes you just need to do you do need to feel that you know, it’s okay. Pay for you not to have the answers. And like you said, it’s not even, they’re not going to take your advice most of the time, and even if they did, it probably wouldn’t work. And so what we need to do is be better listeners and be thoughtful about, you know, helping them think through what they’re thinking through helping them pause, and think, because sometimes they’re just overwhelmed with with the feelings. Yeah. So one of the things that I really appreciate that you get into in your books, and you don’t see a lot in other coaching resources, is the idea of how race and will equity as well, you know, in general impact coaching. And so you talk about coaching across lines of racial difference. Can you talk a little bit about what’s challenging about this, and how coaches can coach people of different backgrounds and races, you know, that different than themselves successfully, and really do be thoughtful about this and keep that in mind as they’re going into their coaching work?

Elena Aguilar  25:56

That is one of the elements that distinguishes my model from many others is that we explore race, we explored differences in terms of identities. Do you want to do a little activity here right now to demonstrate what this can sound like?

Chrissy Beltran  26:19

Okay.

Elena Aguilar  26:22

I’m gonna acknowledge, I heard a little bit

Chrissy Beltran  26:24

of hesitancy. I’m gonna acknowledge I felt a little nervous. But sure. I

Elena Aguilar  26:29

appreciate you sharing that. And actually, you can just say, No, I’d rather not just answer the question. No, I’m

Chrissy Beltran  26:35

okay. I’m fine. That would be great. Yes, let’s do it. So

Elena Aguilar  26:38

I’m taking a coaching stance right now. And I’m just going to be transparent about also taking a coaching stance and saying, I heard that little bit of hesitancy, and I’m naming it. And so often, people feel really uncomfortable talking about race and racial difference. And one of the first things that we can do is just normalized, like it’s okay to feel uncomfortable. There’s a whole lot of emotional charge around talking about identity experiences, and race. And so let me just ask you the kinds of questions that I would ask if I was coaching a new client. And so my assumption is that you and I shared different racial identity markers or cultural backgrounds. And so this is authentically what I would ask someone so I’d say, Chrissie, how do you identify in terms of your race or your ethnicity?

Chrissy Beltran  27:30

Yeah, that’s a good question. And I’ve actually talked about that in the podcast, throughout several episodes, because I don’t have an easy answer for that. I am, well, the word I use for myself. And because I feel like we can pretty much call ourselves whatever we like, right? So I’ve always thought in my brain about myself as a Halfer. Because my dad is Mexican American, and my mom is white with, you know, like, I’m Irish and English. And I’m so lucky in several different things. So I’ve always, I have not fit in, in lots of places, I’m either the whitest or the brightest person in the room, depending on where I am. So yeah, I’ve always felt like, like a happy. Mm

Elena Aguilar  28:10

hmm. I’m really curious. What, what’s the what did I guess? What is the meaning that you make of that? Or what are the emotional connections? I’m curious if, if that’s something that has been a source of conflict, or confusion or pride or or pleasure exploration?

Chrissy Beltran  28:41

Yeah, that’s also a good question. Because I think that has changed over time. And I never had, I wouldn’t say I have a lot of conflict. Except that, you know, I live in a part of the country. I live in El Paso, Texas. And it’s the majority of people here are of Hispanic descent some way or another Latin x. And so there is it’s common to have conversations about what Hispanics or what Latin X people are, like, like people who are in the community are frequently making generalizations about that. And I often don’t fit those generalizations. So and then sometimes I do, you know, it just depends. I mean, you know, I was raised, my both my parents were present, but my mom did most of the heavy lifting with us kids. My dad worked around the clock. And so I feel like I have learned really good things from both sides of my family. And then I don’t know that I’m really defined. I think the only conflict is in trying to explain to someone what my identity is because it doesn’t match all of 100% of anything. And so other people don’t always understand that. Because if they come from a background that’s pretty homogeneous, they might feel well, it can be confusing. If that makes sense. It can be hard for people to understand that I don’t have one with any one anything, you know, and then, you know, my husband is Mexican American, he’s first generation. And so we’re trying to raise our kids to see all of the good things that all of their parts of their family have. And so you know, now we’re doing more like, you know, my oldest is in folklorico, and we’re doing, you know, different things. So she’s exposed more to that. So I feel like my understanding of it has changed again, I’ll probably just continue to do that. My entire life, I think,

Elena Aguilar  30:25

yeah, thank you for sharing all of that. That’s so much nuance. So I’ll be totally transparent. And I’ll share. So this is exactly what I would be saying in a coaching conversation, I would say, you know, it’s I want to be transparent, because I realized I made an assumption about you. Because I would say you present as a white woman, we haven’t talked about gender identity, gender identity, or other identity markers. And so I made that assumption about you. And I didn’t realize that you were bicultural are multicultural. And so and then now you’ve just opened up, there’s so many layers of complexity, there’s how we present, there’s how close we are to the different cultural groupings of our there’s so much, there’s so much nuance, and then there’s the fact that you are married to a Mexican American person, and there’s that element in your life. And so I think when we’re coaching across lines of difference, the first thing that we have to do is just open up the conversation and be willing to be uncomfortable, because when you started talking, I had a moment and I’m, again, kind of pulling back the curtain and naming what comes up, I had a moment of actually feeling embarrassed or ashamed. I was like, Oh, I made this assumption that you’re a white woman. And now you’re telling me like, and not only that, but now I relate to you, because I identify as mixed and bicultural. I don’t like using the word half because I feel like it’s incomplete. But yeah, so I avoid the half. But I’m like, But I’m so often experienced and seen as Latina just because of phenotype and my name and representation anyway, so. So I had that moment of discomfort and, but what I’ve learned is like when I noticed that arising, I can work with that in the moment, rather than getting sort of shut down and getting uncomfortable and embarrassed. So the first thing when we’re coaching people across lines of difference is in some ways, is cultivating the awareness of the emotions that come up for us and having strategies to work with them, and being willing to be uncomfortable, and being willing to name and say, okay, just recognize that I put my foot in my mouth. And, you know, I, for example, I remember coaching someone early on in a very early on in a relationship and a coaching relationship. And I, he was in front of me, I thought he was African American, I use the phrase African American, he said, I’m not African American, and I was looking at a black man. And I was like, and I got all flustered. And he was like, I’m actually Haitian, okay? And I said, Oh, okay, and he was like, you can just call me black. Just think of me as black. And I was like, okay, and in that moment, I got really flustered. And, and I think like, this is just going to happen, there’s going to be discomfort. So I think that in some ways, that’s the hardest part. There are, there’s, there’s knowledge that we need that we just don’t get, for example, about all these different elements of our identity. So there’s race is one, but there’s so many other elements. There’s our socioeconomic status, there is our education status, there’s religion, there is our neuro who are neurotypical, and this are our ability, there’s so many elements, and this is these are identity experiences that relate to privilege and power and to what is what is accepted, what gets what has what is so many ways, rewarded or even safe in our country in our world. And so there’s a whole lot of intersectionality for us to understand and to explore and to recognize that it’s complicated, and we need to just learn how to open up conversations. So that that I would say is the starting point. There’s some knowledge there’s the working with the emotional discomfort, and then there’s just the opening of the conversations and starting to have them.

Chrissy Beltran  34:24

Yeah, thank you so much for that. And for that activity. I really enjoyed it. I know that you have we have your book coming out right I think is still isn’t available on pre order right now.

Elena Aguilar  34:35

It is available for pre order and we have pre order bonuses, if you order before July 22. Okay, and so, yes, the new book is a rise the art of transformational coaching and it is everything that I know about coaching in a far more organized, cohesive, useful way than anything else I’ve ever been put out. All

Chrissy Beltran  35:01

right, well, thank you so much for sharing about it, you gave us so much information, so many good things to think about. And I’m sure people are going to want to get the book and access that bonus workshop because it will really help. As you know, as we’re moving into the school year, next year, anytime, of course, but especially moving into the school year, next year, you have the opportunity to start again, you know, so it’s a great time to learn something new over the summer, and then start building that into your program next year. So thank you so much for being here. Is there anywhere else that people can learn more from you that you’d like to share?

Elena Aguilar  35:32

So my website is a good place to start. And that is bright morning team.com. I’m also on LinkedIn, and Instagram. And the links to those are on the website. And then I have my podcast, which is the bright morning podcast. All

Chrissy Beltran  35:48

right. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for such a great conversation with Elena. I appreciate her sharing all of her expertise. And here’s just you know, your little takeaway is Be brave. Everybody gets nervous. Just try and do your best. And you will definitely get to know people better. That listening expansively, combined with your conversations about you know, understanding where different backgrounds and where people are coming from, it’s going to go so far in building your coaching program.

Chrissy Beltran  36:18

I want to remind you that I have the instructional coaching jumpstart email course you can grab that buzzing with ms b.com/jumpstart and it will send you an email right away to get you started in the course it’s little videos every day for five days to help you set your coaching vision as a really great way to prepare for the coming school year. And next week, we are starting a new series. This was kind of our last episode in our series, and we’re starting our new one about the first 20 days of instructional coaching. So we’re going to start out with an episode with one of my students, David White, he actually attended the instructional coaching startup course last summer. And he’s going to share a little bit about things that he did that he’s really glad he did to start the school year and what those look like and some ideas that he has for starting differently next year. So I’m excited to share that with you next week. And until then, happy coaching!

Chrissy Beltran  37:12

now that you’ve got so much to think about head over to buzzing with Miss b.com to grab some free downloads, become a VIP, and check out the podcast show notes. Happy coaching!