The AC Podcast

278: A Day in the Life of Amanda Pennington and Chris Bibbo: Inside Their Shared Life and Coaching Practice

In this episode of our A Day in the Life series, host Maxine Bell interviews new coaches and life partners Amanda Pennington and Chris Bibbo. They share their journeys into coaching after long careers in the nonprofit sector and reflect on how coaching supported them through major life transitions, including a bold move from the USA to Portugal. The conversation offers an honest, inspiring look at how coaching helped them navigate uncertainty, personal change, and professional reinvention. Amanda and Chris also speak candidly about the realities of building a coaching practice, from attracting clients to hosting their first live offering, the Life Blueprint Workshop, where they found immense joy witnessing their clients' breakthroughs. They explore the emotional heart of coaching, emphasizing self-awareness, courage and compassion to help clients find purpose and meaning in their lives. Their story highlights how coaching is not only a professional path but a powerful tool for resilience, growth, and meaningful connection — for both clients and coaches. Amanda and Chris's warmth and passion for coaching will encourage new coaches, enthuse experienced coaches and ignite those of you looking for authentic, meaningful coaching. You will learn: · Coaching is an impactful, supportive tool for courage and resilience in life transitions. · Building a coaching business requires persistence, experimentation, and a willingness to learn through doing. · How coaching assists, us to listen to our courageous hearts, and not just our 'monkey minds.' 'Seeing a client's life open up brings me so much life. It's an honour and a privilege to be part of that.' Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel_day-in-the-life-of-coaches-new-coaches-transitions-growth

277: Reflections on our 2025 Podcasts

Join host Rob Lawrence, for a special, inspiring episode where we bring back all six hosts from our 2025 podcast series to share their incredible journeys. This heartfelt conversation dives into their experiences, insights, professional and personal growth, as well as the ripple effects of stepping outside their comfort zones to share their passions. Our 2025 episodes covered diverse yet deeply connected and important topics, including: · Self-Awareness: Insightful Tools for Growth: Explore a range of self-awareness tools for growth. · Coaching for Good: Innovative coaching that transforms lives by working for social good. · Coach as a Leader: How coaches inspire and equip leaders to apply coaching mindsets and skills. · Supervision Uncovered: Explores the impact of supervision on coach development, skills and wellbeing. · Neurodiversity in the Workplace: Hear real stories, insights, and strategies to build truly inclusive work environments that benefit everyone. · Love in Coaching: The impact of consciously bringing love into your coaching practice. This conversation warmly celebrates collaboration, diversity, innovation, and the power of sharing stories to inspire positive change and development within coaching and the wider individuals and systems it impacts. Listen to reflect, be encouraged and maybe inspired to reach out to us with your own podcast series idea and contribute to future conversations: enquiries@associationforcoaching.com "Just do it. The excitement might feel like fear, but hosting has been such a thrill and a joy for me". Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel_insights-reflections-hosts-2025

276: Why Love Matters in Coaching with Helena Clayton

In this solo closing episode of the Love in Coaching series, Helena Clayton weaves together the key themes from previous conversations, reflecting on how coaching is evolving beyond performance-driven outcomes towards deeper, more human-centred practice. She explores the importance of coaches doing their own inner work — developing self-awareness and understanding how personal histories and relationships with love shape the way we coach. Helena considers the ethical and relational implications of bringing love into coaching, including flexible contracting, empathy, and the courage required to work more boldly in organisational contexts. She also reflects on gender dynamics, particularly the role of men supporting men in this work and invites coaches to consider whether explicitly naming love is necessary — or whether it can be embodied through practice. The episode widens the lens to include broader social, global, and spiritual perspectives, highlighting love's connection to meaning and presence in coaching. The episode concludes with practical reflections on how love can be embodied through care, deep listening, and acceptance, alongside book, podcast, and workshop recommendations and an invitation for listener engagement — affirming love's growing significance in coaching practice and the wider world. You will learn · How coaching has evolved from performance focused to deeper explorations of identity, meaning and human connection and why love is involved · Why coach's self-awareness and inner work are essential to understanding how love shows up in practice · Bringing love into coaching requires ethical courage, relational sensitivity and awareness of wider social and spiritual contexts "I have a feeling that conversations about love are the most important ones to be having right now." Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-love-in-coaching-love-matters-leadership

275: Tenderness, Mutuality, Bravery: Redefining Coaching Relationships with Ian Mitchell

In this episode, our host Helena Clayton is joined by coach, supervisor and coach trainer, Ian Mitchell for a rich and thoughtful conversation about the place of love in coaching. Ian shares his journey from the financial sector into coaching and supervision, alongside insights from his research into spirituality and love in leadership. Together, they explore what it means to bring love, intimacy, and tenderness consciously into coaching relationships, and why these qualities matter in work with leaders and coaches, particularly in our troubled world where the desire for meaning and purpose, over performance is growing. The discussion centres on the lived experience of coaching rather than technique — highlighting mutuality between coach and client, the courage required to stay present with vulnerability, and the role of porous boundaries in enabling genuine human connection. Drawing on influences such as Martin Buber, adult development theory, and therapeutic perspectives, Helena and Ian reflect on how a coach's inner world, reflexivity, and willingness to engage with shadow shape the depth and impact of coaching conversations. You will learn: · The role of love, intimacy, and tenderness in shaping our coaching stance · How love is expressed through a coach's action logics and developmental capacity · About mutuality between coach and client and establishing porous boundaries 'For me, a revolution of tenderness would be great in the work that we do.' Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-love-in-coaching-adultdevelopment-tenderness-intimacy

274: Love, Stillness, and Spirituality in Coaching with Aboodi Shabi

In episode four of our Love in Coaching series, host Helena Clayton speaks with veteran coach and educator Aboodi Shabi about love and spirituality in coaching. They explore how the profession has evolved from a performance-driven model to one that embraces the full depth of human experience. Aboodi shares why love—expressed as compassion, presence, and genuine care—is central to transformative coaching in the current world we live in, and how spirituality can provide grounding and insight for both coach and client. He also discusses the courage required to bring these themes into organizational contexts that often focus more on productivity than humanity. Aboodi emphasizes the importance of coaches doing their own inner work, humility and holding space for clients' full selves. Helena and Aboodi examine the importance of vulnerability, creating space for silence and stillness, and embracing diversity and inclusion in practice. They also contrast human coaching with AI-driven models, highlighting that authentic presence and heartfelt connection remain irreplaceable. This episode offers inspiration and practical insight for coaches seeking to integrate love, spirituality, and deeper human awareness into their work. You will learn: · Why love is foundational to modern coaching · Why coaches' own inner work is essential to enable them to hold an authentic, healthy presence and meaningful engagement with clients · How it is possible to bring love and spirituality into organizational contexts 'We all learn to harden our hearts to deal with the world, and it costs us connection and love.' Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-love-in-coaching-spirituality-love-presence