Iris Cai - Professional Career Coach - S01E08

Our guest this week is Iris Cai, CPCC, PCC - Professional Career Coach & Workshop Facilitator

• We learn about reinventing your career in very creative ways

• We find out how Iris uses positive psychology for her coaching clients

• We also discover that she can coach in English, Cantonese and Mandarin

• … and that Iris takes her clients on an exploratory treasure hunt

Links mentioned on the show:

• Book: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success - Adam Grant

• Room to Read charity who supports literary and girls’ education

• CoachMe on Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn  |  YouTube

Key Takeaway Summary:

• We learn about Iris’ personal journey to coaching and the various areas she supports her clients with, such as career reinvention for a more fulfilling career, development of leadership skills, higher confidence and resilience, overcoming limiting beliefs and barriers, etc.

• Iris fills us in on how she helps her clients with creative ways to reinvent their careers and lives:

  • Business Model Canvas approach - “You’re the CEO of your own start-up”

  • Design Thinking – Thinking of your own strengths as if you’re a product/ service you’re designing for others

• As a student of positive psychology, Iris focuses on the positive and strengths, rather than the negative.

• Iris can coach in several languages: English, Cantonese, and Mandarin

• 3 coaching questions/ approaches to help us listeners Thrive:

  • Take a good inventory of what you really enjoy and look for a common theme.

  • If money, time, and other resources were not a problem, what would you do to dedicate your time and talents to?

  • What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

• Iris particularly enjoys working with clients who want more out of life, are ready to step out of their comfort zone and take risks, as well as willing to give back to the community.

• Clients will be taken on a treasure hunt: “My job is a treat...I get to explore their lives with them… It’s like a treasure hunt. Drawing maps with them together…carry a lamp… and lighting up that path to help them realize there’s such a bigger horizon out there to play and make a difference in.”

• We talk about one of Iris’s favourite books Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant about collaborating in win/ win situations and that you don’t need to “have” a lot in order to give. One of the organizations Iris supports is Room to Read who helps girls with literacy and their education.

• Questions In A Bag – Find out the answers to these random questions: “What are you learning right now?”, “Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world or be able to speak to animals?”, “What’s your favourite place in Vancouver?”

Book a free initial consultation session with Iris Cai at CoachMeVancouver.com/book

CoachMe. Listen. Connect. Thrive.