Not one to shy away from change, she is also on the mentoring programme co-ordinated by Thrive (Mentoring Foundation of New Zealand) with Tess Dwyer as her mentor.
"It's great: Tess is where I want to be with running her own successful business (Upstaged Home Staging). She challenges me and has suggested things I hadn't thought about. I appreciate her perspective."
Linda is very much on the journey with her clients. She says, "Everything we want is on the other side of fear."
Linda is still figuring out where best to place herself in the market: her online blog is worded so that it can help anyone but her real passion is in empowering women.
She has raised four children (now adults) and has a wealth of experience to draw from including education, health and wellbeing, time management, household management, self discovery and of course the challenges of starting your own business.
She supports people with a range of issues such as stress and anxiety, balance, women's health, decision making, major life changes, healthy eating and exercise plans. It is Linda's dream to build a sustainable career around her passion of coaching people although it is something she would want to be doing regardless of money.
Linda always thought she was a quiet and shy person but after working on herself and being a part of the Whanganui Toastmasters Club she realises that is untrue. She has discovered that she is actually a bubbly, people person who had just been taught to lessen herself / make herself smaller.
This is something that she sees in a lot of women her age and she aims to encourage women to step into their true selves in order to realise their potential. The next generation seems to be better at this but they have their own challenges with being authentic, she says.
"It's not about shouting and being super loud (unless that's your thing), it's actually really powerful to just be calmly and quietly confident in yourself. There is a misconception that empowerment means you need to be this big, loud personality but that is not the case at all.
"Power is often a gentle confidence and simply being at peace with yourself can be an act of resistance in this age of 'more'. For example, being a woman isn't about the image, big hair, bold makeup, etc, it's actually an internal thing. It's wonderful to see the energy emerge from people when they are given the permission to be themselves."
Recently Authentic Living Coaching held a confidence-building workshop as part of the Winter Wonderfest programme organised by the Whanganui Women's Network.
Linda says she is looking forward to offering more workshops in the future as they enable a wider range of people to access her services by reducing the price barrier. However, she says these workshops need to be kept small and around five participants are ideal to create a comfortable space that is still personal.
"The energy just bounces off people when they are able to connect and be validated through their shared experiences."
Authentic Living Coaching's latest Confidence Building Workshop started on August 30 and runs for six weeks. Linda is also setting up after-hours coaching on Monday and Thursday evenings for those working fulltime hours who are unable to make appointments during working hours.
She is also interested in possibly teaming up with other professional services to help those who fall through the gaps in the system.
When asked if she had considered counselling Linda replied, "No, I don't believe in dwelling too much on the past. My focus is to coach people to make changes to step into their future. I want to help people to be their best self, that is what will make the world a better place."
Contact Linda by email: authenticlivingwithlinda@gmail.com or phone 027 403 2523.
