EPISODE Highlights:
Dr. Whitney: Today I’m speaking with Amy Grechniel, founder and CEO of Corporate Mom Coach. We are both really aligned with what we want for moms: more ease and a more reclaimed sense of self in motherhood. So I can’t wait to hear from you. Tell me about your story and how you became so mission focused.
Amy: I had always been focused on my career and really wanted to get ahead in it. Which was great. And then I became a mom and a very real, internal shift happened within me. I was becoming curious of how I should show up in this new role as a mom. Because the tools I had for showing up in my career didn’t always apply in motherhood. So I had to learn new tools and techniques and I became hooked on personal development, specifically within motherhood. So I created this brand and company to help women, based on what I went through myself.
Dr. Whitney: Tell me a little bit about your career before this shift. I’m sure there were some pain points happening within that role that pointed you in the direction that you wanted to go once you became a mom.
Amy: I was in management consulting for ten years after college and then I went into financial services and was a VP of a banking institution before I left to start my own businesses as a coach. But I loved my corporate career! It was just that when I entered into a new role as a parent, it was a punch in the gut. I didn’t know how anything was going to look or work now. Mom culture tells us that everything has to be overwhelming, but I didn’t want to subscribe to that. I wanted to lean into it and see if there was a way to make it enjoyable.
Dr. Whitney: Let’s talk about the difference between therapy and coaching. I know you believe, and I do too, that there’s a time and a place for both of them.
Amy: With therapy, they focus so much on the past. What happened in the past and how it affected you. And if there’s any changes you need to make today because of it. But what I found with therapy is that you tend to go over the same things over and over and over. It wasn’t creating any lasting awareness or change. But when I started working with coaches, I saw this shift that was more encompassed around goal orientation. I realized I get to choose how I think, how I feel, and I’m not a victim of my past. So we took what we knew about the past and reframed it for what you want out of the future. When you learn the mindset tools that can give you the goals that you want in life, it’s life changing. It was so powerful, but no one was talking about it! So I wanted to give people that forward momentum.
Dr. Whitney: I wanna hear about additional tools that you’ve learned or ones you’ve talked about with your clients. Ones that you don’t want any other woman listening to this podcast to live without.
Amy: The most powerful mindset tool I’ve learned is called the TFAR model and stands for Thoughts, Feelings, Actions, Results. You would think of a circumstance or fact (the baby woke up early), and then look at your thoughts and feelings around them. We as humans get to choose our thoughts about a circumstance. If we’re in the habit of filling ourselves with negative thoughts, that’s going to change the way we feel. You get to choose how long you remain with those thoughts and feelings. So controlling and managing your mindset is one of the first things that can change your outcomes.
