It's exceedingly common for coaches to finish coach training, go all-in on building a business, and then...something happens. A loss, a partner's unexpected layoff, an illness, or burnout from trying to hard to make the business happen. The coach takes a step back, thinking it's just a pause--and then it's longer. The thought of returning feels awkward. So how do you come back to your coaching business after a break?

That's exactly what we're exploring in today's episode, where we talk about not just the actions to take but the mentality to adopt when you're wanting to come back to coaching, especially after you've navigated a difficult life experience. It's okay to have taken a step back--and it's also okay, and very doable, to return to coaching and create the work from a different place.

At some point, we all face loss--which means that at some point, you'll have coaching clients who are facing grief and loss. Because grief and loss experiences can vary so significantly from person to person, it's important that life coaches understand the terrain that their clients are walking through and best practices to help clients navigate grief and loss while the coach maintains an ethical stance within the scope of coaching.

That's exactly what we're getting into in today's episode--with a personal lens, as I (host Kate Swoboda) am navigating the recent loss of my father and experiencing this from both sides.

What are the "weird" things about grief that come up? How can life coaches best support clients through grieving without pathologizing it? Let's dig in.

Coaching clients through career transitions is always complex work — but right now, when the job market is genuinely difficult and economic uncertainty is running high, it requires a particular set of skills that most coach training doesn't fully address. When a client has done everything right and the market still isn't responding, standard coaching moves can land as tone-deaf. And when a client's identity is wrapped up in work they've lost or are losing, the coaching goes deeper than strategy fast.

In this episode, we're breaking down what it actually looks like to coach career transition clients in a hard market — staying firmly in the coaching lane without crossing into career counseling, holding space for grief and identity disruption without getting pulled into rescue, and asking the questions that actually help when "just keep applying" isn't landing.

We're covering the difference between a career strategy problem and an identity crisis wearing career clothes, why the most important coaching in a job transition often has nothing to do with the resume, and the specific moves that help clients stay connected to their own agency when the external environment feels completely indifferent to what they have to offer.

Growing a coaching business in a difficult economy tests something most business advice doesn't prepare you for — not your strategy, but your belief. When inquiries slow down, the silence has a way of becoming evidence. Evidence that you're not good enough, that you waited too long, that the market has moved on. None of that is necessarily true. But it feels true, and that feeling drives decisions.

In this episode, we're breaking down what's actually happening when a coaching business goes quiet — the difference between a market condition and a personal failing, how to audit what's working without spiraling into an overhaul, and what to do in a slow season that actually builds long-term equity instead of just filling time. We're also looking at how this translates directly to your coaching work, because clients who are navigating "I'm doing everything right and nothing is happening" need exactly the skills we're talking about here.

This episode is equal parts honest business coaching and inner work. Because in a hard market, those two things are inseparable.