It’s time to reclaim your resilience.
hi, i'm amanda
For me, it was balancing several corporate moves while trying to have a personal life. It was finally finding my husband, trying to integrate into a new blended family, all while commuting three hours a day to a leadership job where I was building a new function.
It was planning a wedding and honeymoon while my mother-in-law was terminally ill. Then immediately diving into the struggle of trying to get pregnant and infertility. Soon thereafter, grieving that my future children would never know my mother-in-law, supporting my husband through his loss, and navigating the very sudden transition from a job I loved while figuring out what came next.
We all have these pivotal moments. These periods of intense change. Where joy and grief exist almost in the same breath and we question everything we thought we knew about ourselves and our world.
Everything all at once
In 2020, we learned to work remotely. Thousands of us stepped away from careers we loved to care for loved ones. Home-schooling was added to the full plates of parents. And while we grieved, slowed down, and processed the changes in our lives we began to ask questions like, “Who am I now?”, “What are my goals?”, “How do I really want to spend my life?”. Our work, now, becomes integrating our losses and rediscovering our joy. Bringing the grief and the hope, the lessons and the courage we’ve found during these defining moments into the version of ourselves who can confidently step into the next chapter of our lives.
MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
One of the things that got me through that intense period of change in my life was coaching.
Trust the Process
It was a safe space to explore which direction I wanted my professional life to take. I had a decade of experience in Learning and Organizational Development and needed to decide whether to return to an internal leadership role or strike out on my own.
My coach and I set goals together mostly centered around how I was showing up as a person, a new wife, and once I finally became pregnant, the kind of mother I wanted to become. We worked on how my identity impacted how I grew my business, managed client relationships, and showed up as a coach, facilitator, and leader. I needed to not only shift some of the behaviors (that had served me well as a single woman managing my own life) but also my beliefs and mindsets.
My coach and I discussed the balance between how to be my own person and yet also partner fully with my husband. How to create space for myself as a socially confident introvert married into an extroverted family, who didn’t always recognize my need for time alone or quiet. And how to determine how much risk I wanted to take as I expanded my newly re-launched business.
I wanted to mindfully step into these new roles AND continue to grow as a leader. I needed someone who was objective and could ask questions I hadn’t considered yet. I needed someone who genuinely cared about me and gave me a place to bring the raw emotions of infertility, miscarriage, pregnancy, and eventually becoming a new mom. Coaching gave me that time and space to explore my feelings, beliefs, and mindsets and offered new possible ways of being.
Coaching gave me that time and space to explore my feelings, beliefs, and mindsets and offered new possible ways of being.
WE’LL FIND THE ANSWERS TOGETHER
When we share our stories we feel less alone. Because even if the stories themselves are very different, we’re still connected - all navigating our own challenges, all holding onto relentless hope for the future. Despite all the upheaval, I know you still have big dreams and big goals. You want to do meaningful work. To know who you are, the value you bring, and find your footing again. And I know that sorting through all of it on your own feels…daunting. That’s why I created The Coaching Cottage.
Because I believe with the right support you can find the answers you’re looking for, reclaim your resilience and grow through the changes you’re experiencing.
focusing on feelings
Confident
Competent
Connected
Calm
Amanda Kathleen Zinke
Professional Bio
Amanda Zinke is a coach, trainer, facilitator, and consultant who brings more than a decade of experience to her clients. She has a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Master of Science and Organizational Development (MSOD), and is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She also serves as adjunct faculty with the Executive Coaching Program at Georgetown University.
Amanda has been an internal leader at Fidelity, Microsoft, IBM, and Talbots. In her last two internal roles, she led Learning & Development. She has worked with companies in various industries from start-ups to well-established businesses. She’s passionate about leadership development, communication, and creating a culture where every voice is heard.
Amanda is a mom of an active young family. In her opinion, there’s nothing better than a good book, a beach chair, and the ocean.
If you want to create habits that help you reach your goals, communicate with compassion and confidence, reconnect with yourself and the value you bring, sign up for our email insights where you’ll find our candid stories, hard-earned wisdom, and actionable advice that can inspire you to create change in your own life.
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CHANGE REQUIRES COURAGE
