Hi, and welcome to my blog. I'm Katie, and I'm a lot of things. I'm an executive coach, a Flow Consultant, and a business leader with decades of experience and three businesses (so far!).
I live in North-East England, on the coast, in a place called Whitley Bay. I can see the sea from the end of my road. I moved here in 2020 as part of an ongoing quest to ... well, I could say to live a fully enriched life in a beautiful place, which would be partly true, but primarily it was so I could swim in the sea as often as possible with the least possible inconvenience, and also to live nearer my dad so we could support each other as he becomes older (which is happening in years but not in spirit) and as I raise my young son.
I'd started my first business, Polyphony Arts, a couple of years before, and so was happily in a position to relocate and work from somewhere where these additional wellbeing factors were readily available.
When I got here, I knew I was going to spend as much time as possible on the beach and in the water, and I remember wondering whether I would ever stop being fascinated by the sea. Fast forward three years, and I can confirm that the answer to that is a resounding "no".
Every single time I see the sea, it is different in some way. The colours, the patterns of the water, the "goings-on" on the water (boats, paddleboarders, birds, sometimes seals and dolphins) capture me every time, and I don't see that changing.
What I wasn't expecting, back in 2020, was that the sky would be as enrapturing as the sea. The sky is available everywhere, and although I have always loved a good sunset or cloud formation, I hadn't anticipated that I would become as obsessed with looking at the sky and its ever-changing colours and patterns, as with the sea.
So, why have I called my new coaching and consulting business Sea and Sky? Well, I hope you're ready for some metaphors, so here goes.
The sea, although ever-changing in its day to day quality, is immovable and permanent. It is always there, its tides always turn. It behaves simultaneously erratically and wildly, and entirely predictably. It has a quality of permanence that I find so comforting in this turbulent world. No matter what is going on in the world, politically, economically, or with me personally, big or small scale, the sea is always there, turning its tides and sustaining the life within it. When I swim in the sea, I feel (cold, and) simultaneously enclosed and sustained, and also challenged and enriched. This is one element of what I aim to be for my clients: constant, reliable, and dependable, whilst also encompassing a level of splash that stops things getting stagnant!
The sky, then. Obviously also still very reliably there, but with very different qualities. The terms 'head in the clouds' and 'blue sky thinking' are associated with inspiration and creation. We can't spend all our time in water or the enclosure becomes too much - we need the freedom of air and space to bring out our creative and expansive ideas.
The other thing I get to see a lot of at the coast is the horizon. Where the sea and the sky meet. Where stability and endurance meets creativity and space.
I love working with creative people like myself, because we are often really well connected to our horizon, or our ultimate purpose.
My training and zone of genius is in enabling creative people to work together to 10x their creativity, revenue, and delivery of purpose. This is what gets me really fired up, even more so than a sea or sky metaphor.
When you work with me, I'll shine a light on the skills and genius of you and those in your organisation, and support you with coaching and tools to support your purpose.
What do you do to get yourself thinking about your horizons?
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