How mindset, intentions and community can help you realize your dreams
The right mindset can be the key to success.
When I discovered coaching in 2016, I was all in. That very week, I enrolled in a coaching program while working full time. The learning was eye-opening. After completing the courses a year later, I still needed 100 hours of coaching. This would fulfill some of the requirements of becoming an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
I forgot about “the-running-the-business” part
I wanted to coach so badly that I’d overlooked the part about finding clients and running a business. Initially, my enthusiastic mindset did not translate into gaining clients. People told me that most people that get excited about coaching never make a go of it. Instead, they just stay in their jobs. I wondered if I had just invested in an expensive hobby.
Persistence and maintaining connections
But I persisted. I stayed in contact with a number of classmates where we encouraged one another to keep at it. In 2018, I attained my ACC. I was fortunate to coach people officially at my corporate job.
The following year, I coached a number of clients in the evenings. I maintained my connections with some classmates and in 2021, I had amassed over 500 hours, took the additional training, passed my recordings and exam and attained my Professional Coach Certification (PCC). That’s when I knew coaching had become more than an expensive hobby. That was the year I left my corporate role to coach full time.
MCC: The unachievable goal?
In 2023, I enrolled in a Level 3 MCC program to prepare to become a Master Certified Coach (MCC). At the time I was hundreds of hours short of the required 2,500 coaching hours and was unsure when or if I would reach that goal. Nevertheless, it was important for me to set that intention.
Joining a community
Later that year, a group of eight coaches formed a group to encourage one another to do the work required for MCC. By the summer of 2024, I had surpassed 2,500 coaching hours and fulfilled all the requirements to become an MCC coach. In October, I became an MCC coach. In fact, I am the ONLY MCC coach in my home province of New Brunswick (at date of writing). And of our group of eight, six (so far) have also become MCC.
The secret sauce ingredients include the right mindset
This was so encouraging that recently, Paula Braga, Jamie Slingerland and I kicked the Masterful Coach Community for ACC coaches. What’s most exciting is how most of the members in their introductions spoke of being “all in” and wanting to learn.
That’s the secret sauce.
Set your intention to “all in”.
Adopt and embrace a learner’s mindset.
Lean into your community.
Don’t listen to the voices telling you that your dream is not worth pursuing.
I’m living proof it can be done.
You can do it too (with the right mindset)!
Since becoming a coach, I’ve never had the “Sunday Scaries,” that feeling in the pit of your stomach on Sunday afternoons when you’re filled with a sense of dread about going to work on Monday. I LOVE working with my “thinkers” ( a term coined by MCC coach and author Clare Norman who says, “Coaching is a joint endeavour to discover new thinking that energises the thinker to move forward”).
Today, I’m still “all-in”, but not to the point of burnout (been there, done that, not doing it again). I work four days a week (three in the summer) to ensure I spend time away with my wife, kids, granddaughter, and friends.
Not a destination
I still have a learner’s mindset. Being an MCC coach is not a destination; it’s a whole new world of learning and growth opportunities.
I still need a community of coaches I can learn and grow with. A community where I can share successes and failures, where we can all continue to learn from one another.
Whether your dream is to become a coach or something else altogether, set your intention to “all in”, adopt a learner’s mindset, and get involved in a community to support you in the pursuit of your dream.
About Brent Roy, MCC
Brent Roy is an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC)—a designation held by fewer than 5% of ICF‑credentialed coaches—and is currently the only MCC in New Brunswick, Canada. Drawing on his own journey from ACC to MCC, he now helps senior leaders and aspiring coaches clarify their intentions, strengthen a learner’s mindset, and build the community they need to pursue meaningful goals. Through executive coaching and ICF mentor coaching, he works online with clients across Canada and around the world.
