Kendra Kinnison is one of the most upbeat and positive people I’ve met, so it comes as no surprise that she is one of the top coaches on the coach.me platform. As her former client and having received in-depth guidance from her during my coach.me digital certification process, I was keen to find out more about her.
What’s Kendra’s secrete to being a great coach? What advice would she give a budding coach? How did her coaching journey begin? What is her most important goal?
I was thrilled when Kendra agreed to a Skype interview on. As expected, she was generous with her time and answered my question in great detail. But before getting to the interview, let me give you some background information on Kendra.
Kendra Kinnison’s Career
As the youngest MBA graduate from Texa A&M University-Corpus Christi, Kendra is the current General Manager for Port Royal Ocean Resort, while running a thriving leadership coaching business. Kendra is also one of the top coaches on the coach.me-platform, where she coaches clients how to establish effective habits to work toward reaching personal or professional goals.
Beyond work, Kendra is at the forefront of several community projects and has been heavily involved in the recovery of her hurricane-struck home community on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Kendra’s Philosophy – Habits and Tiny Steps Lead to Lasting Success
In our conversation, Kendra told me how she started using the Lift habit building app (now coach.me app) several years ago and became a bit of a “habit nerd”. She started working with Tony Stubblebine and contributed to the changeover from Lift to coach.me.
Since its launch in 2014, coach.me has gone from strength to strength, providing users with the tools required to build effective and life-changing habits.
During Kendra Kinnison’s coach training, she involved family members and friends, supporting them in the establishment of simple habits such as daily flossing. To Kendra, making small changes by introducing new daily habits, is a highly effective way to success. Tiny habits become small but certain steps toward success. The momentum created unlocks a fuel and driving force, making the reaching of goals possible.
In that sense, habit coaching is a sure recipe for success.
Coach Kendra Today
Over the last few years, Kendra Kinnison has coached hundreds of clients on the coach.me platform and through her private practice. Habit coaching and leadership coaching are her main focus areas. If you look at the coaching stats, you’ll soon realise that Kendra has a habit of keeping clients. How does she keep clients motivated to work with her? Well, if you’ve ever had the privilege of experiencing Kendra’s coaching, you’ll know how.
Kendra listens and responds meaningfully. This is true for any of her coaching relationships, be it in her role as a habit coach or in her role as an executive and leadership coach.
Thanks to the diversity of her coaching packages through her website and coach.me, you can hire Kendra and reap the benefits you seek.
The Interview
How did your coaching journey begin?
I started using the Lift app way back in 2011 and became a little obsessed with habit tracking. I met Tony at that time as well. Previously, I had done some coaching in my local area in leadership roles at work even though I didn’t make the connection (to coaching) there and then, and that’s where my coaching journey really began. I started coaching family members and friends how to floss. My mom fell in love with the app….she still uses it…..and that became a connection between us. I coached her and other family members and friends on flossing and that’s how it all began.
Over time I began to realise that what I was doing in real life and online had this….they were really quite parallel and I could merge the two.
In what area can you provide people with the most help?
The areas I think I can offer the most help to folks is traditionally known as productivity coaching and also in leadership coaching. That’s really what I enjoy, I think it’s fun to impact other folks’ lives, so coaching other leaders is the best way to do that.
How do you build a personal relationship with each client even though you have so many at the same time?
(On coach.me) I never really use the bulk feature….I think I’ve used it twice……to me those are kind of an emergency situation. I definitely, ….it’s almost painful to use that bulk feature…..I have folks take an initial survey and I really pester to take it and to answer it at least reasonably completely. And I get resistance sometimes, people say “no, I’ll just chat with you.” The survey gives me a searchable email I can have open while coaching. I almost always coach online and hardly ever through the app. So, I have the coaching platform on one pane and the survey on the other, so I can constantly reference back. …..and tie back to the information in the survey.
It can be intensely personal what their (the clients’) why is, so I try to keep that information right in front of me as I’m messaging…..I try to take notes on what people say is important to them. I try to understand why a certain goal is important to them. So, I try to be reminded of that every time I send that person a message.
Over time, you learn what works (for that person) and what doesn’t, what’s effective and what isn’t. …So the content of what I give people isn’t that different but the delivery
How is it that some of your clients have been with you for years?
I think of it really as layers. We can go as fast or as slow as people need. Let’s say my longest client, she’s a business owner in Australia, got a family, got all the different challenges of modern day life. I believe in the Momentum Method. Other methods work too, but the momentum method is very effective. So we just start.
Almost always I start on the schedule and almost always I start with bedtime. And then we move to wake up time and then we move to a 10-minute morning routine and then we go to like the 30-minute routine. And then we go to the first 30 minutes of your workday. So we just literally take it layer by layer.
Inevitably, things come up….I’ve got this presentation coming up…can we rehearse for that…kind of thing. Or issue come up, I’m having issues with my kids, my coworkers….life happens and you may take hiatuses from habit coaching and work on event-specific things. Or tragic things happen and I’m there to support.
Sometimes they pause….and I’ve learned to just trust and be encouraging and trust that they are going to come back even if I don’t hear from them for a while. ….I’m just that guide through life. I do think the extended time is super helpful because we learn exactly what helps a client keep moving forward.
You say you help people to get unstuck. What do you mean by that?
I love helping people who just feel stuck. I think I’ve developed some exercises and techniques so that if people are saying I’m working super hard but I’m not going anywhere…..I’ve seen enough reps of that and I can identify two or three different momentum methods. But often, figuring out where to start can be tricky. Usually, after exchanging a couple of messages I can have a few ideas that within two or three suggestions I can get them moving forward.
What’s your advice to new coaches?
I work with a lot of new coaches on coach me and I always tell them to experience coaching on the platform themselves. That’s how you get to know the coach.
It is obvious that Kendra Kinnison loves her work and enjoys coaching clients and leaders to success as well as providing meaningful support. To my mind, Kendra’s success as a coach lies within her unique ability to understand her clients and their needs.
Talking to her and listening to her speak about coaching was a privilege, so thank you, Kendra!