Alice Ackerman with A D Ackerman Coaching & Consulting

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results and less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the Broadcast Executive and Leadership coach with A.D. Ackerman, coaching and consulting the lady herself, Alice Ackerman. How are you?

Alice Ackerman: I am really good, Stone. Really good. The spring is on its way and everything is lighting up and break and and and, you know, things are getting ready to emerge. So I’m feeling that energy.

Stone Payton: Yeah, it’s a fun time of year and it’s a wonderful day. And this is definitely a bright spot in my day. And for those who are listening in, I got a ton of questions. Alice, I know we’re not going to get to them all. Uh, but I think a good place to start would be if you could just share with us mission. Purpose. What are what are you really out there trying to do for folks?

Alice Ackerman: Well, Stone, my goal is really to help people find the best way to lead them themselves. People often don’t realize that they are leaders. Even if you know you don’t need a title, you don’t need a job where you are bossing, uh, you know, 10 or 20 or hundreds of thousands of people to be a leader. You are always a leader of yourself. And my goal is to help people to do that better.

Stone Payton: So I’m interested to know why you became a coach and how in the world you, you landed in this role doing this kind of work. What’s the what’s the backstory?

Alice Ackerman: Well, the backstory is for most of my professional life, um, I worked as a physician. I’m a pediatrician. I was trained specifically in pediatric critical care. So those are the not little tiny babies in the NICU, but anybody older than that and younger than about 20 who, um, needed help staying alive. Uh, and I did that for many, many years. I held a bunch of leadership positions in major medical centers. Um, and the the most recent job I had was, I was I was brought down to where I currently live in, in Roanoke, Virginia, to help start a new medical school. And, um, that was a phenomenal opportunity. And I did that for about ten years. And then I said, you know what? I want to find a different way to help people. That won’t necessarily entail me having to stay up all night. Uh, me having to remember doses of drugs and other things and, um, and somehow I found my way into coaching. And it was when I, I sort of set back and said, what were the most meaningful, uh, periods or episodes in my life as a physician, but I wanted to to have it be not the patient care that was the most gratifying to me was the patient care. But besides that, and I realized it was those times that I sat across a table from someone having a conversation about what they wanted to do with their life, or how they wanted to be better in patient care or research or whatever. And when I would see the light go on in their eyes and they would look at me and go, that’s it, I’ve got it.

Alice Ackerman: I know what I’m gonna do now. And usually it was just because I asked them some pertinent questions, and they came up with it all by themselves. And I sat there and I was like, is there anything I could do where I could do that all day? And by talking to a bunch of my colleagues who were not physicians, um, they introduced me to the world of coaching. My knowledge of coaching up until then had been, oh, it’s either for sports, which is not my thing, um, or for people who were in need of doing something better. So I was like, nah, I don’t want to do that. And then I met someone who was really instrumental in talking to me. About what? What leadership and executive coaches do and how they help people improve their own lives, improve the lives of the people that they work with, improve the lives of their families. And I was hooked. I was absolutely hooked. I was like, wow, if I can do this all day and I can actually get paid to do this, because this is something I cannot even imagine. And so I engaged and coached training and, um, you know, as they say, the rest is history. I, uh, I now have my own coaching business, and, um, I work with people, most of whom are in the medical profession, but not all. Um, I work with folks who, you know, are facing burnout. Folks who may be questioning is, did I make the right decision in my life or or, you know, really anything. And, um, yeah, that’s that’s the backstory. Any other any questions about that? Oh, I.

Stone Payton: Got a ton. And I do want to dive into the the work, the mechanism for the work and how that unfolds. But before I go there, uh, you made the decision to become formally credentialed. Lord knows you’re not scared of school if you became a doctor in the first place. But, uh, what prompted you to decide? You know what I am. I’m going to go through this. What? I think you know, many of us recognize a pretty rigorous, uh, process going through that formal certification. What was that like?

Alice Ackerman: Well, Don, I have always believed that if you’re going to be marketing yourself as someone with credentials, and I’m going to say I’m a coach, well, you know, I can’t say I’m a doctor without having the medical degree, without having a license, without having certification in the specific area that I want to practice, but I could in fact say I’m a coach and market myself however I want. But what gives the potential buyer of my services any kind of reassurance that they’re getting quality? I, I know I have to prove it to each and every client that I have what they need, but how do they even know that I’m worth taking a chance on? And it’s just something I believe in very fervently that one shouldn’t go around saying that you can do something unless you’ve proven that you can do it. And so I chose the International Coach Federation as the body, um, the credentialing body that I really feel most aligned with. And a lot of that is because of their very high ethical standards. Um, there’s a a coaching code of ethics that anyone can find if they, if they look at the, um, at the icf’s, uh, website. And when I engage with a client, one of the first things I do is I say, hey, this, you know, you’re interested in working with me. That’s great. I want you to understand the ethical principles that I abide by. And, oh, by the way, I also meet all these competencies which most people are like, yeah, so what? But, but but it is my way of saying, yes, I’m legitimate. I’ve done this, I believe in it, and I continuously work just like in the medical profession, where we have to get a certain number of continuing education credits per, per year. We have to do that, um, for coaching as well. So it’s, it’s engaging in that lifelong learning. Um, it’s being open to learning new things, to not be stuck in the past. I I’m pretty old. Um, but I don’t ever want to be so old that I can’t learn something new. And I think that’s really important.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds like you made the right decision. You’re benefiting. Your clients are benefiting. So? So I’m glad I asked. I do want to talk about the work, the the mechanism, like the mechanism for the work. Is it one on one facilitated conversation? Is it group work? Is it speaking? Writing?

Alice Ackerman: Uh, yes. Okay. Um, it it’s all of the above. Right now, I’m focused mostly on individual work with clients. Um, I, I write a little bit, and I have a secret, um, that I haven’t even shared with my family yet. So this is going to come as a surprise. Um, I am in the process of writing a book. Oh, um. And I anticipate probably it’ll take a year to, to come to fruition, maybe longer. Um, but I realized that there are so many lessons that I learned that during my life, since the time I was a child, that contributed to the way that I approach leadership. Um, and I want to share those experiences because I believe many people are having similar experiences that are shaping the person that they are, the leader that they become, and they don’t even realize it. Um, and so this is this is my new, um, my new sort of intimidating goal for myself, uh, for the next year is to work on this book. Um, but yeah, most of what I’m doing is, is is one on one. Um, coaching with people. I do some, uh, group coaching.

Alice Ackerman: I did a lot of group coaching, uh, during the pandemic because there were so many people who needed to work through issues that they were going through, um, that I couldn’t, couldn’t manage meeting with each of them separately. So they got to get, you know, I got them together into groups and we were able, um, to have situations where I would facilitate the conversation. People actually were able to help each other and talk to each other and talk to me. And, um, and that worked very well. And and nothing’s to say I won’t do that again, but right now, uh, yeah, that’s that’s my focus. Um, um, I write some in terms of my blog, on my website. Um, and I am about to start and I don’t have a date for this, but I. I am about to start a process where I may start sending out, um, like a daily newsletter. Um, and I just have to get myself, um, psyched up to do that every day. But those are those are the things I’m I’m either doing or considering doing.

Stone Payton: What an exciting time for you. I really am excited for you on on the book. And I do think you will serve a great many people by committing your your wisdom and your experience to paper and putting it out there. Uh, for folks. I also suspect you will find that going through that process will probably even even further solidify, crystallize your thinking on a number of topics, and probably make you an even better practitioner.

Alice Ackerman: I think you’re absolutely right, and I’ve been waking up almost every day going, oh, this I have to put this in. I have to put this in. Um, yeah. So there’s, there’s things that now I’m realizing sort of how, you know, you kind of emerge as a, as an, as an infant. You’re sort of a blob from the standpoint of your personality. Right. Um, and you have some qualities. You’re either crying a lot or you’re giggling a lot, or you’re eating a lot, or you’re doing all of those, um, and over time, your personality gets shaped by the experiences, not only the experiences you have, but it’s really your reactions to those experiences. And those all serve to sort of, you know, what color are you painting yourself today? Um, what is what are you presenting to the world? And, um, and I think, you know, it’s it’s not all that, um, mysterious how we end up the way we do. Um, and so, yeah, my goal is, is to try to kind of take some of that mystery away.

Stone Payton: Well, you certainly have a lot of, uh, irons in the fire as my as my daddy would say. But at this point, what are you finding the most rewarding about the work? What’s the most fun about it these days for you?

Alice Ackerman: Um, it’s really seeing the change in people. Um, I have a client I recently started working with. Who? Our first several sessions. They were, um, I wouldn’t say overtly sad, but there was. There was a lack of of energy coming from this individual. And we’ve been together now for about seven months. And the last time I met with them, their eyes were sparkling, their posture was different. They were sitting up. They were looking forward to the next step, the next, um, the next piece of their life. And to me, that is that is the most rewarding thing to see what people can do. And a lot of times they they want to thank me for it, but I’m not the one doing the work. They’re the ones doing it. They’re the ones that are seeing that the issues inside of themselves. Because I’ve asked them a few questions that have gotten to something, and maybe it’s something they’ve been hiding for a while. Maybe it’s something they’ve been afraid to look at. And when we’re together, it can be a little safer for them to look at something that they might have thought was frightening. And then they hold it out and and I try to serve as a little bit of a mirror. Oh, what I understand from what you just said, tell me if I’m wrong, is you’ve been feeling a bit anxious about this next thing.

Alice Ackerman: Oh, you’re right, I am. Oh, I just said that, didn’t I? I didn’t realize I said that. And then they’re able to look at themselves and realize what they’ve been hiding, realize what they’re interested in doing next. Realize that they can do it. And and when I see that I can sit on the other side of it, you know, a lot of coaches want to only work in person. I work mostly over zoom. And when you’re on zoom, you can see it. You know, even if you’re not physically in person, you can see it. You can feel it. The posture changes, the tone of voice changes. And they get that that gleam in their eye. And that basically says to me, wow, right. They are doing this themselves. They are going to feel so much more capable moving forward. And, and and that is really it. That goes to my heart. It goes to my soul. And. Well, yes, I do charge money for what I do, but that is the piece that gives me the most satisfaction knowing that someone else has become more empowered to take charge of their own life.

Stone Payton: That has to be so fulfilling. I recognize that every client surely has unique challenges, unique, distinct dreams. But do you see some common patterns from time to time in seeing multiple clients? Do you see some things crop up? Uh, more than once?

Alice Ackerman: Absolutely. Um, you know, I think one of the things I see, especially in people who work in healthcare, is the phenomenon of burnout. I’m sure everybody’s heard about, um, and, and one of the key pieces, and a lot of people know that burnout happens if you’re overworked. But it’s not just the overwork. It’s really the sense of not having any control that when you add it to the long hours, you’re like, what am I doing this for? And when you can or I can help people take back some control over their lives. It doesn’t fix the problem because burnout is a is a workplace issue. It’s not an individual issue. But while working to change the workplace, people can take more control over how that workplace is impacting them. And that can then help them to feel a little less burned out, which then helps them take a step, take a step in some direction. Is the step going to be I’m going to help make my workplace less obnoxious, or I’m going to find myself a different career, or I’m gonna spend more time, Um, loving my children because I haven’t spent much time with them.

Alice Ackerman: Because I felt I had to put all my time into this workplace. So it’s really the challenges are how do you take some control over the issues in your life that are not serving you and move forward from there? And so that is um, yeah, I guess that that’s probably, you know, one of the most common themes that I see, uh, that lack of control and then sense of, oh, oh, I’m not always at the mercy of my surroundings. I can have some control about how I respond and when I have some control about how I respond. Huh? Maybe doesn’t have to bother me quite so much. And and that when a person is able to get there, then they will be able to do anything because they will see that they do have choice. They can choose how they respond. They can choose what is going to be the thing that will enable them to create value in their own life, in their loved ones lives, and maybe even in the life of the business that they’re involved. And that is that’s empowerment. And that is what I, um, what I love to do.

Stone Payton: Speaking of challenges, I get the distinct impression that you’re probably well past this in your practice. But when you were in the early going, was it? Was it a challenge at all? The whole sales and marketing, the whole business side of coaching, like just getting the the clients. Was that tough at first or. No.

Alice Ackerman: Oh, it’s always tough. It’s always tough because, you know, you’re not selling a fancy red car that can go from 0 to 60 in one second. Um, people don’t know what they’re buying. And so, and, and most of us coaches, myself included, we don’t really want to go out there and say, oh, I’m so great. Look at all the things that I’ve been able to do and all the people that have benefited. It feels icky. So, um, so yeah, and I’ll admit, it’s still sometimes difficult. I don’t always have as many clients as I, um, could handle, but sometimes I have more than I would consider optimal. So, you know, it. It ebbs and flows. Um, yeah. And I’m afraid I’m not really answering your question, but, um. But, yeah, I mean, no, I do have an MBA. Um, but.

Stone Payton: Of course you do. Goodness gracious.

Alice Ackerman: I did not. Um. Wow. I got that mostly because I wanted to be able to understand and talk to the finance people when I was a leader in, in, in, in the medical field and, and just being able to know that the words that these people were using, they thought I was really smart and they stopped trying to, uh, bamboozle me. But anyhow, um, yeah. So having the MBA didn’t really help me feel more comfortable marketing myself. And, um, and I think what most people end up realizing is most of your sales are going to come from referrals, from people you’ve worked with before, or people who have known you, even if it’s in a different circumstance. People who can say, I know the person that Alice is. I know you can trust her. And that’s probably the most important thing from my standpoint, that a person would want in their coach is someone they can trust who is not going to talk about them without their permission, who’s not going to, um, judge them in any way, who’s not going to put them down? Uh, and, and to me, if I, if I were listing the qualities of a coach that you would want to be sure we’re there. But, you know, in addition to the competency, let’s assume competency. It’s the trustworthiness of I will. I will treat all of your secrets because they’re all secrets. When you talk to me as, um, you know, in inviolable, I will. I will hold them close, and I will give you room for you to talk about whatever it is that you need to talk about today. And, um, so, yeah, it’s it’s, you know, I think, I think marketing you’re, you’re coaching business is mostly, you know, having other people say good things about you.

Stone Payton: Well, I’m so glad you brought up the topic of trust, because I am trying to envision the the depth of trust that you must have to create to do effective work in this arena, not only them trusting you, but maybe to some degree, them trusting themselves.

Alice Ackerman: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think a lot of people don’t trust themselves, but they can learn to do that through the coaching process, because a lot of people are afraid that these these thoughts I have or these feelings I have or the, the goals that I have that I’ve never said to anybody, I don’t trust myself that that these are worthy or that these are the right ones or that I can accomplish them because, you know, I failed a test when I was in kindergarten. Huh? Who cares? Let’s, you know, let’s move forward from that because you’re not in kindergarten anymore. Um, but people are still holding on to a lot of those those feelings of being imperfect, being, you know, just just not having what it takes to get to the next level at work or, you know, get somebody to say yes to your marriage proposal or whatever it is. And, um. Yeah. Trusting yourself is so important. I’m glad you brought that up.

Stone Payton: I’m going to switch gears on you for a moment, if I might. I’m interested to learn about hobbies, interests, pursuits, passions, causes outside the scope of all this other stuff you got going. Do you nerd out about anything outside the scope of this work?

Alice Ackerman: I do, I got two things right. Well, maybe more than two, but but I’ll I’ll let myself to two. One is, um, related to a nonprofit organization that my husband and I recently founded, um, to help, um, families of kids and young adults with, uh, neurodiversity get the kinds of therapies that they maybe can’t afford or at the very start of this And and I have discovered it’s harder than I thought it would be. Mhm. Um, I kind of thought, you know, build it and they would come. All right. I’m going to start this nonprofit. We went through all the rigmarole of, well, I don’t want to insult the government, but you know, we met all of the government requirements. And then I thought, oh, I’ll just put out a note on LinkedIn that I’ve done this, and everybody I’ve ever known is going to give me a lot of money to support this nonprofit. And no, that didn’t happen. So so that’s that’s one of my passions. Um, the other one is, um, uh, some crafting that I do. I, um, I love to work with what’s called polymer clay. Um, it’s a plasticized material that you can cure in, you know, in your own, um, oven.

Alice Ackerman: You don’t need a kiln for it. And, um, I’ll have fun. Just kind of making little things. I make little animals, I make, um, well, after nine, 11 happened, I made a whole bunch of of American flags that were pins. I mean, I could have gone and bought them in, you know, someplace for cheap, but I wanted to make my own because that sort of gave me an outlet of, you know, how to how do I, uh, support my own, um, my own needs. So, yeah, I’ve always got something that I would consider creative going on. Um, it’s not always the polymer clay. Sometimes it’s it’s making. Well, sometimes it’s photography. Right now that’s that’s a big, um, interest. And, um, mostly I take photographs of birds, uh, so, you know, do a lot of stuff, but, um, uh, and then I try to turn them into Christmas gifts, uh, you know, so that people get, um, maybe a calendar for the year that they can put on their desk that has a whole bunch of pictures that I took or, um, little things like that, that I just, I have fun doing.

Stone Payton: I am so glad I asked. You can learn so much about people. Ask them about their other interests. That’s fantastic. And I can’t wait to tell my wife. She’s really enjoyed, uh, taking a clay class here locally in Woodstock, Georgia. And she’s just she’s on cloud nine whenever she comes home from that. She just loves it.

Alice Ackerman: Yeah, yeah. Well, mine is not kind of clay that she’s probably working with, but, um, like, it’s called polymer clay and it comes in all different colors, so I don’t have to paint it. And like I said, I don’t need a kiln. It just I have a dedicated, um, toaster oven that I can cure my pieces in. So.

Stone Payton: Well, I’m weighing my options right now whether to mention it to her or not. The polymer.

Alice Ackerman: Well, I mean, you can mention it to her. She can find it online, and, um, it doesn’t take up a lot of space in your house, so it’s okay. No, I’ll.

Stone Payton: Definitely tell her about it. She’ll be excited to learn about that. Hey, listen, before we wrap, I would love to leave our listeners, if we could, with a pro tip around how to produce better results in less time. And look, gang. The best pro tip I can give you on any of these topics is reach out and have a conversation with Alice. But between now and then, let’s give them a little something to to chew on. Alice.

Alice Ackerman: Yeah, I guess my my pro tip really would be don’t be afraid of yourself. Um, let those good ideas come up to the surface. Don’t automatically say, oh, no.

Speaker4: I could never do that.

Alice Ackerman: Because you can. And I think just, um, just allowing yourself to listen to the ideas that come, the things you want. Um, and and take one step. The quickest thing you can do is just take one step toward that. You don’t have to get all the way in the first minute or the first day or the first year, but one step and then look back instead of forward and say, look how far I came. Because if you’ve taken one step, you won’t seem like you’re closer to the end. But when you look back and you’ve taken maybe one, maybe two, maybe three steps, you can say, wow, I’m no longer at the starting line. And that’s I guess that’s my tip.

Stone Payton: Well, that’s terrific, counsel. Thank you for that. What what is the best way for our listeners to tap into your work and stay connected.

Alice Ackerman: Um, sure. I guess the best way is, um, my website, which is w w w dot h d Ackerman. So it’s my first and middle initials, and then my last name, uh, dot com. And, um, there’s a couple of places on there where you can just click and it says, um, you know, get in touch with me. You can send me an email. That way you can, um, sign up to get, uh, you know, whatever items I might be making available at that time, uh, if you want, for free and and that kind of thing.

Stone Payton: Well, I hope that you will be open to having a conversation like this again when you get that book out, if not before. Okay. That would be a lot of fun. But thank you for investing the time with us this morning. You, uh, you are clearly doing a tremendous job and genuinely serving a lot of people, and we sure appreciate you.

Alice Ackerman: Oh, well, Stone, thank you so much for inviting me on your show, and I hope that the listeners got at least something that they can carry away with them.

Stone Payton: Well, I can guarantee you that happened, and this listener certainly did. This has been a great deal of fun, inspiring, invigorating. And I again, I sincerely appreciate it.

Alice Ackerman: Thank you.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Alice Ackerman, and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.