speaker-0 (01:13)
Hi everyone, I'm Aila,

speaker-1 (01:16)
And I'm Barb.

speaker-0 (01:17)
and welcome to Inside the Practitioners Path. Today we're going to talk a little bit about our upcoming academy that starts in September. And it is called the Practitioners Academy.

speaker-1 (01:33)
Good job, good job.

speaker-0 (01:35)
Yeah. and it's a six month program. It's for coaches and practitioners and people who are

leading groups and teams inside of companies or organizations. And it's really a merging of of all that we have learned and experienced and we we know about not only running a business and being a solopreneur, solopreneur, but also really taking a deep dive into how do we create an impact in our work with others? What is it that

Helps us help people. And something that we know we're we're just getting very lit up around and we're sharing a lot about in the last year is appreciating that a huge factor in what creates impact in others is appreciating how we've been impacted and what we're seeing for ourselves. And earlier this year we did a program, and one of the months.

that we we focused in on with the group was around the practitioner as the instrument. And this idea that if we can appreciate what we're working with inside ourselves, that we have wisdom, that we have insight, that we have just a natural knowing of where to go in a moment with a client or with a group, that we have we're being guided, we're being led. And

that that's always on offer for us. We don't need to rely on tools and techniques and all of the different ways that we've we've learned to coach and to guide that that often those fall short anyway. I know that has been so true for me working with teenagers who don't want to comply with my seven steps to issue resolution or things like that. So it's something that

Barb and I are very into is appreciating that when we show up present and we show up appreciating what we're coming with, and we're tuning our own instrument when we're caring about our own presence and our own what we know about emotion, what we know about thought, what we know about what creates in the world, we have so much to offer our clients.

So the academy is this bridging of the practical, of like how do we create our practices, how do we build a business, but also that incredibly impactful, meaningful work of like how do you take it to the streets? How do you go and do the thing? what does it actually take to be a business owner and and to have a a business that sustains your life if that's what you want?

speaker-1 (04:29)
Yeah, I think this five-month immersion that we did called The Practitioner's Path really gave Isla and I this amazing place to go deep and listen deeply and you know how some things become almost second nature and you're like, Yeah, what am I doing here? Or what do I really what's the ground I stand on, want to stand on? What inside of me still has

Edges and opportunities for more capacity, more expansion, more understanding. And, you know, in that journey, we both just got really inspired. And that idea that the practitioner is part of the practice, right? That our own presence, our own ability to hold things for ourselves, to our own consciousness, awareness, relationship to uncertainty, to taking action, to

You know, how we show up in our own coaching to how we show up in our own business, all is a part of that journey of what we hold and offer people. And I think as part of that, what we've both seen over the last number of years is we are both deeply grounded in do people know who they are beyond their conditioned mind? Do they understand this innate reservoir, this well of being that

Has these capacities for resilience, for well-being, for creativity, for expansion. You know, and as all of you listening know, so much of what people understand is that's a skill I have to develop. It's something that, you know, I have to attain. And our work is really pointing people to what's innately true for them. And I think it's where we started to see that both of us.

love that bridging of the deep inner work and pointing and waking up that we we do with our clients and ourselves. but how do we bridge that into you know for our clients more connected relationships more better leadership better communication more reaching new levels of expression or financial gain in their work and lives like how do we take what is

could be looked at as profound only, but have helped people actually embody it in such a way that they're able to live it in the day-to-day. And I think for both of us, that bridge has required like we're we're the first student. What is that, N minus one kind of, you know, in the experimentation of life. And so that question, especially for me, has been like such a place of curiosity.

Over my life, like how do people change? How do we shift? How do we help people show up to life in the their highest possible wish for themselves and me too? How do I do that for myself? So that piece of in addition, like there's no separation between us and our ability to what we can bring to others, that the impact we offer is one of the grounds of having a thriving and successful business. And so

In the academy, we're going to share with you not only the understanding of, you know, of the mind and an understanding of our deeper nature and an understanding of where experience comes from, and how to guide people in that way in a moment to moment during a session, but we're also going to share what we've seen around being in our bodies while doing this. Like

you know, our own nervous system's ability to hold the full range of the human experience. I think that would be one of the other things we stand on is that the goal is not to help people get necessarily never experience their own suffering, right? We we hope to lessen it or to help them have an understanding about it that helps.

But really what we've seen in our own lives and over again is that it's when people have a capacity to hold more of life, to meet life and what life is presenting and not protect themselves from it, not run from it, not freeze, not fight, not flight. and they're able to realize like, I can be with this, I can handle this, I can be with this. There's something here that is ultimately intelligent and expansive.

Then they're able to step into their lives more naturally in bigger ways and trust themselves more. But that comes in the day-to-day, not via the interpretation or the intellectual understanding. So so much of our work is: yeah, how do you meet people in the day-to-day when they show up to a call and they're like, I'm uninspired, I've lost all inspiration about my job. Do I need to leave? Or

You know, my partner and I are having a rough patch and I'm I'm not sure we're gonna make it. Or they say, I've just been given an opportunity and I'm scared. You know, like just all these things that are just life. We love that part of our work is helping people expand their ability and capacity to be with the full range of it.

speaker-0 (10:02)
Yeah. And just part of the origin story of the academy, I know it's it's unfolded for us over the last year, but I reached out to Barb a year or so ago. And part of me reaching out was there's a lot of reasons, but one of them is that I've been running groups for coaches for years. And in the groups I run, especially this last one of the mastermind I ran,

I couldn't, I didn't create it in a way where there were a lot of opportunities to do this depth of work and this depth of this opportunity for practitioners and coaches to meet themselves in that messy middle kind of space inside themselves, where in the in the mastermind I really taught this kind of this relationship-based system for creating clients.

And what I saw over and over again is a lot of the coaches understood it and they could do the steps. They could do the work of connecting and and serving and d they could do it, but they weren't they weren't they weren't creating the results that they wanted. I'll say it that way. And when I was slowing down and really looking at how do I serve these people in a deeper way, how can I help them see what they're missing around this whole process of being

an entrepreneur and and trying to help other people in the world, what I really saw was like there has to be more conversation around the practitioner, the coaches' own relationship with themselves, with how they how they respond when they're afraid or how they interact with themselves when they're feeling overwhelmed or when they're feeling discouraged. And that like that deep looking inside just what Barb said here was

It's like the way that you respond to yourself as a coach and a practitioner and the way that you understand what's happening inside of your psychology and also the spiritual understanding you hold or the metaphysical understanding. I don't know how to say that better, but whatever your ideas are about the fullness of who you are, what you know about that, it impacts your ability to meet a person in their lives going through something really tricky.

or somebody in a lot of suffering around something. If you're afraid of their experience, you can't be as effective. And so this is the the terrain that we'll be exploring in the academy. It's not only about business growth and development, which Barb and I love. We love that conversation. Barb has been one of my favorite people to talk to about my the growth of my practice and really shifting, continuing to evolve it.

in a in a alignment with what's what I want now. And we love those conversations, but we also know that it's like we can't we can't bypass the inner, can't bypass ourselves in the process. So there are so many coaching programs or so many wonderful places to go to learn. And we think ours is the best. No, I'm kidding. I'm joking.

but I will say the work that we've done over the last year together with groups has been so profound for me to get to witness and hold space for and co-facilitate and for the participants. I know they've had a good time. Like it's been a really meaningful experience. And this is this kind of this culmin culmination of this last year, but also the last 25 plus years of work that we've done with ourselves, learning, but also teaching and guiding and being

solarpreneurs. I started my first business when I was 21 and just kind of never stopped being on that path of learning how to how to be

speaker-1 (13:59)
Be

speaker-0 (14:01)
in I'm just gonna say it this way, in business for myself and just all of the learning that comes with that and how to create a a business structure that feels relaxed and doable and also sustains life.

I mean, all of those nuances are so helpful and important. We have all of that to bring to the academy. There's another thing I just want to talk about for a second, and that's the certification path that we're including in the academy. So the certification path is optional, but really we want to encourage everybody to consider it if you're really considering coaching as a profession. Because in in the certification path, there's

requirement that you coach a certain amount of clients as for a certain amount of hours and that you get paid a certain amount of hours. And just if you haven't done that before as a practitioner or a coach, just getting up to that inside of a container where you're being held and supported and seen and you can work through the material that's coming up in you. I I mean it's gonna be so helpful.

And if you're on that track, on that path, there's it's like the the learning will be exponential because you'll be doing the the work of bringing your insights and your you know, your intention to help people into the world in a practical, you're doing it, you're doing the physical world stuff, you're not just learning about it. And we love learning, we love theoretical stuff and full philosoph philosophizing about things, but

that track that will be an option inside the academy will be for those of you that really want to to just get into it and know that you'll be met along the way. You'll be met. And I know there's a lot of coaches that that have that have been interested in helping others for a long time that haven't necessarily created clients. And this will be a perfect environment to to test that out.

to try new things, to be supported, to really break through limited perceptions of what's possible. yeah, I'll I'll say that.

speaker-1 (16:22)
And I think the as part of the certification, you'll have an opportunity to have Ayla and I listen to a session and get, you know, explore and see what other possibilities are there. And I think the the other piece I want to mention is I was just speaking to somebody about it and they're a more experienced coach. So they have clients and but they're feeling a little

more their mind wandering about their business and am I still meant to do this? They're not feeling as energized or inspired. And, you know, I shared with them that I get that. And I think in, you know, over a business that's very common at some point.

And one of the things I started to realize when I started feeling like certain clients, like I started noticing, I was like, Yeah, I don't want to work with those kind of clients anymore. I only want to work with this kind. Or I started sorting in my mind. I really love if people already have an under like understanding of the deeper and they're out about it. So I don't have to, you know, I could just go there. Like I had started having all these thoughts about.

How to tweak my client or what changes would work. And then I realized that those moments where we're feeling less inspired, maybe even more doubt, and then where we're trying to like think about what to change externally to make it more fulfilling again or more alive again, are usually great times when I've seen, what am I not saying inside my sessions?

Yeah. Is there a way I'm actually not all in? Either because I'm, you know, don't think it will be received, don't think they're interested, don't think it doesn't belong. And in those moments when I started just getting more courageous and like aligned with what I really wanted to say and share, the aliveness came back. It didn't matter where they what their job was or how old they were or what stage of life they were in.

And I think that's this piece. It's like, how can we, and and we had somebody as part of the practitioner path who gave us a testimonial after, and we're gonna share it. Her name's Laura. But what she has been had her own business for years and been a thriving coach for years. And what she said is this work and going to this level of depth.

About what happens in a session. How do I really hold it? How do I challenge those things in me and in them? brought her aliveness and her inspiration and enthusiasm back for coaching. And so that excites like me too. Me too, you know, and and I think that the other thing that Ayla and I, when we were creating this, it's like it's true, like there's something to the shorthand of.

Just get really present and show up and trust what comes. Like there's something like bottom line truth in that. But as we were talking about what would we share and how would we share it, you start to see, no, no, there's and to that. Yeah. There's, you know, there are things we're doing inside of a session. There are ways.

that we're looking for something, they're we're listening, we're speaking into something, where times when we might teach something, but more often we're helping a client become available to maybe something they haven't seen, to see a blind spot, to have the deeper question, to hold a container that they feel safe enough to go deeper, just at the look in themselves. I don't mean they.

They ever have to see the spiritual side of life. It's just, but are they willing to go deeper inside themselves to discover more, to go beyond the conditioning that we all have to sort of examine what's possible beyond that? And it's not true that there's nothing we do. So it's like we will always say the moment, wisdom in the moment trumps any methodology. Mm-hmm.

Because that's the other thing I and I know you have stuff to say for this too, Isla. But it's like in my desire to want to be really good at what I do and to really help people, I would learn these different things and you know, and then like they'd be so transformative and I'd be like, This is the way. I found the way now and this is the way. And what I realized is sometimes that's where

I would get off course. I'd actually in energetically, or just to bear with me for a second, I'd all of a sudden what I'm trying to let feed me is a methodology or an understanding that has been deeply transformative for me. But I'm trying to answer inside of this container that I've made in my mind about what that means. And then it wouldn't always land. And when I started to just really say, no, no, what wants to come through me in the moment?

What am I hearing and available to in this moment? And trust what wants to come through. my work. And again, that aliveness really shifted. So it doesn't mean I now add a bunch of tools and, you know, neither one of us are tool heavy, but it means I'm not trying to be a certain kind of practitioner or a certain kind of coach.

And trying to use all I am in service to the conversation in the moment or the group.

speaker-0 (22:19)
Yep. And I I just love this so much because this feels just really special to me that I haven't I haven't stumbled across any teachers or guides or practitioners. I haven't learned from anybody yet who is looking at working with others from this lens. And it's really Barb and I did a inside of the five month practitioners path, we did a whole section around identity.

And really, what happens when we let go of these limited perceptions of who we are and how we need to be? And really, what happens when we let all of these limited fault they're false? I want to say false, but it's like they they might float in for a moment here and there. So they're real in a sense, but they're temporary. But what happens as practitioners when we when we get more in touch with the fullness of who we are and let

the inspiration in the moment guide where we go. And I feel like the just looking in this direction at letting go of my history and who I think I am, letting go of needing to be the funny one or the deep one or the one that always makes things okay. or the one that that doesn't like people who are angry or just these

these little these perceptions of myself, these identities, you know, we're gonna look at this in the academy. It's like, what happens when you let go of all of that as the way that you are and the way you need to show up, like like the impact that that has on how you can be in your life, for one, just experiencing your life in a whole new way in present time. but in a session with a client, it's totally different.

It's for me, it's different because it's it's like I'm not trying to be agreeable because I'm the agreeable one. I'm not trying to be soothing because I'm the one that soothes things. It's like I I don't know who I am. How thrilling. Like I don't know who I am. And with n with less of me on my mind about any tools or any ways that I do things, the more present I am.

The more I can actually meet a person in real time and tune into the energy between us and get loud if I need to get loud. Or I like to say this, it's like, I I don't I don't lead meditations anymore, but except sometimes. I don't I don't lead people through self-forgiveness work anymore, except sometimes I do. And it just that freedom of you get to go, like follow your own wisdom in the moment.

As you're looking in a certain direction, as you're as you're seeing kind of more deeply into what's occurring for the person, as you develop eyes for what's going on with them, for where they're afraid of their experience, or for that where they're forgetting the ground that they're standing on. Like as you develop eyes for what's really happening inside of a person that you're talking to, there's different pathways open up. And

And to get totally, I mean, not totally, but more free inside yourself, like those pathways become more available. I had a client last week who I I wanted this. I wanted her to to tell me exactly how she was feeling, what was really going on. And she just started yelling, you know, profanity about the world. And I loved getting into that space with her and just being like, yes, what what else? And what else?

And it was, you know, for me, it was fun just to meet her in that moment, knowing that that was what was moving through her. And to get into direct experience with it and to get into the felt sensation of it and to create space for it. it feels like it took about a minute. And prior to that moment, we were trying to talk about her business. We were trying to talk about what she wanted to create, but I could just feel this energy in her that was being kind of

Ignored and pushed down. And I just asked, like, hey, how about we look at that just for a minute and just see what's in there? And her willingness to go in and just feel what was present and give voice to it and just let it move through. It took about a minute. And it was just it it moved through. And I I just know for myself, I used to be afraid of going anywhere that felt low or heavy or dark. It was like, let's stay in the rainbows and butterflies.

And now I'm so much more interested in the full range and and more, even more than that, just being present with what's present and having this sense of safety in me that there's nothing that can come up when I'm talking to another person that that's a problem that needs to be shushed. In fact, my job might just be to help them welcome what is and get closer to it and more present with it.

To help them see, like a lot of the work with teenagers that I do, they're trying to push away their anxiety or or they're pushing away things about them. And what I see in that is they're afraid of it. They don't know who they really are. They don't know that they can hold it, they can let it move through. There's nothing to fear in their human experience. And as a for myself, my own journey with that, getting closer to the things that I've judged or tried to like the shadow side.

I'm getting closer and more interested. It's just made me such a more loving person. And I'm able to hold more, not only for myself and my clients, but for my kids. And it's it's it started on the inside of me of like, what can I can I let my own identity fall away of being somebody that's always in bliss? Like always happy.

speaker-1 (28:25)
Yeah.

speaker-0 (28:29)
Just seeing how limited that that's been.

speaker-1 (28:32)
Yeah. Yeah. So the the academy is an opportunity to dive deep into yes, what is the ground we stand on? People are whole and complete, they have innate capacities, so bigger and beyond what they can even imagine. They have conditioning that appears real and makes them feel limited. That, you know, there are things in the work that if we become available to it and present to it.

Can really transmute, can really alchemize and create a space and a container for people to have deep, profound internal shifts. And then how do we as coaches and practitioners help them carry that into their lived life? So we're going to talk again about all of that. How are we holding, what are we holding as practitioner? Then what do we bring into the sessions? And we'll share lots of different things. We'll talk about truth-telling, we'll talk about

Getting an eye for reflection and wisdom and lots of things in there. How do we handle people when they get reactive or when they get rooted in some idea? How do we help them see blind spots? All of that we're gonna talk about it. How do we help them accept like the amazing person that they are beneath all their ideas? So

We'll have lots of time for that. And then as Islas said at the beginning, we're going to talk about okay, what does it mean to have a business that's coaching, you know, or consulting or this idea? And it's like, what is it? There's no place where our own internal landscape is not affecting our own ability to see and respond and step into new expression. So that relationship is actually there. But again, just like in the work with others.

As Isla said, we'll bridge what it what's what's happening internally as well as now how do I step into real action and momentum around the business? Yeah. no matter what level you're at inside your business, I think most of us have a desire to either find new ways to keep the momentum going that don't require exhaustion or push or pressure or you know, seasons of drought and then rain.

You know, how do we do that? Or when you're trying to look at, well, how do you even get a business going? All of that, we've lived in all those stages and continue to live inside those stages. So we're super excited about this six month container and really bringing our full hearts and experience and love into it.

speaker-0 (31:15)
Yeah. And we hope that if as a participant, it's like you'll receive so much for yourself personally, and that it will be a a personally transformative experience. Barb and I are very, very dedicated to our own path of awakening and continuously seeing more about our essential nature and that richness. It

absolutely impacts our work in every way. So we can't leave that out. So it's I in myself when I think about the Academy, I think about like, gosh, it's like

you know, a nourishing space where you can come and really learn more about your own brilliance, your own capacity to hold more of life, your own ability to meet what occurs in your life with creativity and buoyancy and to have eyes for possibilities. we hope that you in the going through it, it's like you experience the confidence that you understand how to create clients and you understand how to build your business.

And then and and of course, along with that, it's like to understand how to facilitate a session. And if you're really experienced already at doing that, it's like how to excuse me, how to facilitate a deeper session, how to go deeper with people, how to be more yourself inside the sessions and be more honest inside the sessions, how to feel more at ease in the sessions. all of that matters to us and

It's like we're we're hopeful that this the Academy for those that are in it and who really participate in it will receive just so much value in all of these ways. and we're we're really looking forward to it.

speaker-1 (33:12)
Yeah. So yeah, if you have a desire to talk to us about it, you can email Isla at go ahead, Isla, just

speaker-0 (33:23)
It's

Isla Hale at Yahoo.com, A-I-L-A-H-A-L-E at Yahoo.com.

speaker-1 (33:28)
or Barb at Barb at Barbara Patterson.com. you know, and we'd love to have a exploratory conversation with you if you'd like to learn more. Yeah. And we're so glad you're here in the podcast and that, you know, you've been hanging and listening to us. And, you know, we're doing our best to keep getting on here and sharing what we're seeing behind the scenes as well. So thank you.

for being here. We really appreciate you.

speaker-0 (33:59)
Thank you everyone. Bye.