Today we’d like to introduce you to Mariah Bess
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was in high school, I used to take the bus to school. Every day, I would give my friend’s little sister a piece of advice…a daily life lesson. Looking back, for the most part, the advice was WILDLY inappropriate and far beyond my life experience at the time. But there were also some incredibly wise gems in there, if I do say so myself (on behalf of my precocious, fifteen-year-old self).
While this seems like a silly trip down memory lane, it also feels representative of something that was always meant to be.
Throughout my life, people have come to me with a desire to share deeply, dig in, and be honest in a way they usually couldn’t out in the world. The words “You should be a therapist!” were a weekly occurrence – one which I repeatedly brushed off (my mom is a brilliant psychotherapist and my father was an actor…I was determined to spend my life in the spotlight, rather than the armchair, so to speak).
Years later, however, fate had a way of doing its fate thing. I was in the depths of my suffering from a mysterious autoimmune illness and my now-coach, Sascha Alexander, offered me a light in the darkness. In three months of a health coaching group with her, I received proper diagnoses and began to heal…radically. And, not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. At the end of the group, Sascha asked me if I’d ever considered becoming a coach – and the rest is history.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh, yes! It’s been easy peasy.
Can you imagine if that was my response?!
No, it hasn’t been easy – there have been moments that have been humbling and humiliating, that have made me question if I should keep going. And then, I get honest with myself and remember that there’s nothing I love more than deeply connecting with people and serving them. There’s no other way I’d rather spend my days.
The biggest struggle, always, is working through my own limiting beliefs. Somedays, my inner critic will rage and tell me that I don’t know what I’m doing, that I don’t have enough stamina to be successful, that I’m a fraud. And, all of those thoughts are a distraction to keep me from showing up in the world and doing what I’m here to do. I’m constantly in conversation with those beliefs and constantly making choices that push me outside of my comfort zone (and, sometimes, the space between working with my thoughts and taking contrary actions is vast…my life’s work is in shortening the distance between suffering and taking action to alleviate that suffering). Walking this walk is how I’m able to have real empathy for my clients as they contend with their own versions of these “not enough” thoughts and help them find solutions to experience their lives differently.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a professional life coach, which means I help people love themselves, love their lives, and let go of anything getting in their way of doing so.
When a person becomes my client, we partner together in going after their vision for their life. That could be anything from creating a relationship to earning a promotion to treating oneself with more self-compassion. We chase that vision for 6 to 12 months, working with whatever is coming up on the inside (thoughts, feelings, beliefs) as well as taking inspired action out in the world.
My clients are bright, expansive, and willing to experiment with doing things differently. I’ve worked with individuals seeking support with ADHD/executive functioning challenges, relational issues, codependency, perfectionism, professional advancement and so much more.
And, my clients create tremendous results. I’ve had clients, who believed they’d never find love, get married. Clients who were stuck in assistant positions become highly sought after creatives in Hollywood. CEOs leave their positions to become coaches themselves. Individuals who were never able to set boundaries experience transformation in their marriages, families, and workplaces. Clients who were suffering from autoimmune diseases receive diagnoses, heal physically and spiritually – and experience massive shifts in their ability to love themselves and their people better. And so much more.
I think what’s special about my work is that I don’t shy away from being with the truth or the pain (before examining the truth of the pain, of course) – and, at the same time, I can’t remember a session that didn’t have moments of laughter and levity. I create a safe, loving environment where my clients can be human and, also, learn to believe in and act from their true potential.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
The stories you read on the internet or social media about peoples’ coaching careers blossoming overnight and commanding easy 7-figure salaries *just like that* are true anomalies.
That has not been my experience. Nor has it been the experience of many of my truly talented colleagues. When I was starting out, I wish I’d known that I was not alone in having to WORK to make my practice look the way it does.
My advice is to trust in the timing of your life – that your timeline is perfect as it is, even though your ego might tell you that your life and business trajectory should look different than it does.
To be an excellent coach, you need an excellent coach who has walked the path you dream of walking yourself. Not only does coaching demand a life-long commitment to personal growth (which, as a coach, should be an electrifying prospect!), it also requires you to find mentors to help you navigate entrepreneurship and building a coaching practice. You cannot serve at the level you dream of serving without this.
I also wish I’d created a community of other coaches earlier on in my practice. For years I didn’t feel a pull to connect with other coaches, because I figured we’d be competing for clients, that it’d make me feel inferior, and that this work had to be done in a silo. WOW, was I wrong! Being in community with other coaches has inspired me to try new things in my practice, has shown me I’m not alone in the ups and downs of being a coach, and has connected me to people who love being in relationship with other human beings as much as I do. It’s been the greatest gift that’s pushed me out of scarcity thinking and really deepened my belief in the importance of the work that we do.
If you’re reading this and you’re a new coach or a coach struggling with some of these things, reach out to me. Seriously. I will make time on my calendar to help you move through these internal obstacles faster than I did. You can reach me at [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @kingmariah
Image Credits
Theo Macabeo
