Get Your Life: Seven Life Coaches Every Black Woman Should Know


by Liz Alexander

As the New Year approaches, many women are finalizing their New Year’s resolutions. In fact, according to the Statistics Brain Research Institute, roughly 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Some of the most common resolutions include losing weight, saving money, finding a new job, and establishing a new and/or cultivating an existing romantic relationship. However, of the 45 percent of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions, only 8 percent of them are actually successful. For years, I too was among the majority of Americans who were unsuccessful in achieving their New Year’s resolutions and personal goals in general.

That is, until I hired a life coach.

I would describe a life coach as someone whose expertise is to support you in enhancing your life. A life coach acts as a guide to assist you in retraining your mind by adopting new ways of thinking, which can involve replacing harmful beliefs with positive and affirming ones in order for you to reach personal and professional fulfillment. Some life coaches even have areas of specialty such as reinvention (personal and professional), relationships, lifestyle and business.

Think of a life coach as someone whose literal job is to help you reach your goals and ultimately enhance your life.

In my own personal experience, I decided to hire a life coach after hitting rock bottom. At the time, I desired change and longed to amplify my quality of life. But regardless of what I did, nothing seemed to work. When I accepted that I needed help, I reached out to a life coach.

One of the most profound things that my life coach helped me to realize is that my strategies were unsuccessful because I engaged in self-sabotaging behaviors. With the help of my coach, I was able to discover the root of these behaviors: a fear of change. As someone who has a history of abandonment and loss, I loathed change and associated it with my previous traumatic experiences. After some time, I was able to replace my beliefs about change with new ones, while also improving my self-confidence. A major outcome of this breakthrough was new opportunities and more fulfilling relationships.

I am clear that my life is much richer because I invested in a life coach.

With that said, here are seven of the BEST life coaches that every Black woman should know.

1. Kawanza Billy of K.Billy Push


Kawanza Billy has a vision of a world where work is play and everyone experiences freedom. K.Billy Push is a company dedicated to developing good ideas and producing outrageous results. Their mission is to create solutions and to provide resources for people and businesses on their road to success. All you need is a little PUSH!

Services: Vision Matters Workshops (including S.M.A.R.T. or C.L.E.A.R goal setting and vision boarding); The 90-Day Push Challenge; Strategic Planning for Workshop Design; and The Push and Pull Project—Self-Awareness and Social Emotional Learning through Service for Youth.

You can find Kawanza via Facebook and her website www.kbillypush.com. Contact her directly by email at kawanza@kbillypush.com.

2. Sylvia High of Aiming High, Inc.


Aiming High Inc. is committed to creating powerful partnerships and extraordinary futures. Aiming High is a training, coaching, and consulting company committed to building partnerships that support each client in creating their extraordinary future. Each client is unique, each goal is unique, and each dream is special. Therefore, their focus is your focus.

Services: The Basic Breakthrough, the Advanced Breakthrough, and the Leadership Breakthrough. The focus is to uncover the maximum number of hidden self-limiting beliefs that drive our lives. Once they are uncovered, you are empowered with new choices.

Contact Sylvia via Twitter @SylviaHigh, Facebook, her website www.aiminghighinc.com, or directly by phone at (510) 303-4032.

3. Sharmayne Jenkins of Reinvention Now


Reinvention Now is a private consultancy practice whose mission is to assist clients in getting to the heart of who they need to become and what they need to do, in order to get from where they are to where they want to be—both personally and professionally. Sharmayne offers personal coaching, workshop development and facilitation as well as support for small businesses. Reinvention Now supports clients in achieving an extraordinary life by challenging traditional thoughts, rituals and habits. Reinvention Now is committed to helping clients achieve clarity, create action steps, and to create measureable goals.

Services: Personal Coaching (Relationship, Family, Health and Wellness); Business (breaking the glass ceiling, navigating work dynamics, increasing salary); Mastermind Groups (Synergy, Communication, Team Building)

Contact Sharmayne via Twitter @Manifest_Coach, Facebook, or her website www.reinventionnow.com.

4. Reese LaFrances, The Freedom Coach


As the Freedom Coach, Reese LaFrances’ mission is to assist clients with releasing past baggage and overcoming the barriers preventing them from finding the freedom in following their dreams. The Freedom Coach believes healing, happiness, and hope are the key ingredients to building a life of limitless possibilities, while addressing issues on L.I. F.E (love, inspiration, faith and experiences). In addition to offering personal coaching and consulting, the Freedom Coach also offers professional services for educators, parents, and community organizations.

Services: One-on-one and group coaching services primarily focus on women, teen girls, and single women who are parenting; also seminars and forums on building healthy relationships.

Learn more about Reese via Twitter @LadyReeseSpeaks, Facebook, or her website www.ladyreesespeaks.com. You can also contact her directly via email at coachwithreese@reeselafrances.com

5. Dawn Shedrick of JenTex Training and Consulting


Dawn Shedrick’s mission is to support clients and professional staff members in flourishing in their chosen profession. Thus, JenTex Training & Consulting is grounded in the values of integrity, passion, innovation and excellence in continuing education and professional development for human services, healthcare, and mental health professionals.

JenTex’s core belief about professional development is quite simple: clients, organizations and communities thrive when they are served by well-trained professionals who feel good about the work they’re doing. JenTex designs and facilitates workshops, training programs and learning events that not only feature the most relevant content for helping professionals, but delivers them with the very passion and dynamism they wish for you to leave with.

Services: Continuing Education, Staff Development Consulting, Leadership Coaching, Workshop Design and Facilitation and Training.

Find out more about Dawn and JenTex via Twitter @JenTexTraining, Facebook, and their website www.jentextraining.com. Contact JenTex directly by email at info@jentextraining.com or by phone at (631) 231-4704.

6. Vallori Thomas of WOW Coaching and Consulting


Vallori Thomas’ mission is to support clients in cultivating fresh perspectives on life, learning and the things that matter to them the most. WOW Coaching and Consulting provides client-centered services that ensure maximum engagement, maximum results, and maximum satisfaction. WOW is invested in helping clients to “see around the corners,” and identify beliefs, patterns and behaviors that obstruct the path to the goals they set. Since every client is different, WOW artfully tailors its coaching methods to create a style of coaching particularly suited to individual client needs.

Services: Individual Coaching, Group Coaching, Think Like A Woman (specialty coaching for women) Youth Coaching, Leadership Development, Corporate Training, Workshop Design and Facilitation and Custom Packages.

Find out more about Vallori and WOW Coaching via Twitter @WOWCoachV, Facebook, and her website www.wowcoachingandconsulting.com. You can also contact Vallori directly by emal at Vallori@ValloriThomas.com.

7. Akilah C. Thompson of I Am B.E.A.U.T.Y.


Akilah’s mission is to to empower and inspire girls and women to be BEAUTY (Beautiful, Extraordinary, Ambitious, Unlimited, Talented and Young). Her company I Am B.E.A.U.T.Y. aims to build self-esteem by helping participants love who they are, believe in the leader they can become and equip them with the tools needed to accomplish their dreams. As a result, girls and women become bold, confident, passionate, purposeful and courageous. Program levels include I am BEAUTY Juniors (ages 8-12), Teens (14-18) and Women.

Services: Individual and group Coaching, Career Awareness and Mentorship, Personal and Professional Development, Leadership and Team Building, Girl Talk (girl centered workshops), I am BEAUTY Boot camp and Workshop Development and Facilitation.

Find out more about Akilah’s services via Twitter @IAmBeautyInc, Facebook, and her website www.iambeautyinc.com. You can also contact Akilah directly by email at akilah@iambeautyinc.com.

Cover photo: Shutterstock

Liz S. Alexander is an urgent, connected, and responsible woman. She is a womanist social worker, writer, and founder of She Dreams of Freedom (SDF), a project that uses media to raise awareness about the plight of girls in the juvenile justice. Liz is a regular contributor to For Harriet, as well as the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE). She writes on themes of trauma, healing, spirituality, and social justice. Follow her on twitter @radicalwholenes.

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