Spotlight on Board Member, Garry Schleifer

I’m working on some high-level vision work for my business “choice, the magazine of professional coaching” as well as growing my coaching business. For GCA I’m on the Board and am part of the DEI and Welcome Wagon groups.

What are you working on? I’m working on some high-level vision work for my business “choice, the magazine of professional coaching” as well as growing my coaching business. For GCA I’m on the Board and am part of the DEI and Welcome Wagon groups.

Why did you join? Because Tim Kincaid told me to! :) We met at an ICF Global Conference in Dallas-Fort Worth around 2011 where I was promoting choice Magazine. In his words “Well, you are amazing and so involved in the coaching world (and not hard on the eyes, either ;-) . You are gay, you are a coach, so our ideal demographic. Also, I remember we were looking for conference sponsors, and we (the first conference planners) wanted you and choice magazine to come on board with GCA for conference sponsorship. Glad we did!”

How did you get into coaching? I was taking a community project course at Landmark Education and it offered a coach. I had never heard of it and I loved having a coach to be accountable to. Fast forward and I heard about professional coaching and I immediately signed up for a coaching course with the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). That was January 2001 and I’ve never looked back.

What do you love most about coaching? I love the connection with my clients. They become beloved friends as well as clients. I also love the “AHA” moments when the coaching hits that sweet spot of hyper-awareness. I feel that this is something I’m going to love doing for a long time.

What is your burning desire in life? To travel the world again and to keep coaching to cause and watch for those AHA moments.

What's your secret to success? Great question. I don’t think much about whether or not I’m successful. I think I am but what makes me successful…I guess it’s an easy way to engage with people on a business and/or personal level and get to know them. I also think that despite my large physical appearance I am seen as a gentle approachable person.

What is one thing nobody (in the GCA membership) knows about you? When I was younger I was fortunate to “retire” after selling a business and took a trip around the word for 6.5 months. It was an amazing experience which has me still be in contact with some of the people I met along the journey.