Yannick Jacob

"I couldn't imagine having another child. I have enough on my hands parenting my own inner children."

A colleague said this when I told him we're expecting.

And I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

It made me think about how we relate to the parts of ourselves that keep showing up.

The anxious part. The critical part. The part that pushes buttons and won't change no matter how much work we've done.

If a child in your care kept doing the same frustrating thing, you'd probably meet them with patience, understanding and maybe some firmness, but always wrapped in care.

But when it's your own inner child doing it, most people meet that part with frustration. Impatience.

"𝗜'𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲?"

The parenting metaphor is powerful because it forces the question.

How much compassion are you giving yourself? How much patience? And is the balance between love and discipline actually working, or are you just being harsh and calling it accountability?

I write about this kind of reflection in my weekly Nuggets. Come say hi!
https://rocketsupervision.com/nuggets/

The quality of your coaching is directly affected by how exhausted you are.

And most coaches are more exhausted than they'll admit.

There's a hardiness in the profession. A "keep going, keep pushing" mentality that gets romanticized. Especially in older generations. But I think that's also why there's so much burnout. So much misadjustment. So many coaches quietly running on empty while holding space for everyone else's struggles.

When you do complex psychological work, it takes its toll. It accumulates. And the thing that suffers first isn't your technique or your framework. It's your presence. The quality of attention you bring into the room. The capacity to truly be with someone.

And your clients feel it. Even if they can't name what's different.

So here's something I've been reflecting on in supervision recently. Can you factor regular breaks into your pricing? Not as a nice-to-have. As a professional requirement. Because if the quality of your work depends on how recharged you are, then rest isn't optional. It's part of the service.

If you're building your practice and trying to figure out sustainable pricing, the free Coaching Starter Kit has tools and guidance for exactly this.
https://rocketsupervision.com/coaching-starter-kit/

"Everything is changing. I have to let go of who I was before I can become who I need to be."

I keep hearing this from coaching clients going through transitions.

And the letting go part is the thing that stops them. Because they don't actually want to let go. Something in them is holding on.

And when we explore it deeper, we almost always find the same thing. They're not changing as much as they think they are. There's something that carries over. A value. A belief. A motivation.

A way of being that was there before and will be there after. The form changes. The essence doesn't.

I had a client with a music background and we started thinking about this through DJing. In a great transition between tracks, everything changes. The melody, the energy, the feel. But the bassline stays the same. Or the drums carry through. One element holds it together so that it's not a jarring cut but a natural evolution.

That's what most transitions actually are. Not a complete reinvention. An evolution. The bassline stays. You're just playing a different track on top of it.

Once you find what that bassline is, the letting go gets so much easier. Because you're not letting go of what matters. You're letting go of doing it in one particular way.

This is existential coaching in practice. If working with transitions, identity, and meaning interests you, the ITEC course goes deep on all of it.
https://rocketsupervision.com/existential-coaching-training/

We prepare people financially for retirement. Nobody prepares them existentially.

And then we're surprised when people fall apart six months after the farewell party.

The identity crisis that follows retirement is one of the most underestimated transitions in human life. You've spent decades knowing who you are. And then the thing that defined you stops. And the question "who am I without this" lands like a truck.

It's the same question a 14-year-old is sitting with, by the way. "Who am I becoming?" But we expect the retiree to handle it because they're older and experienced. As if experience with life's content prepares you for life's existential shifts. It doesn't.

Coaching is one of the best spaces for this. Not therapy, which still carries stigma and feels pathologizing for something that isn't a pathology. Coaching feels active. Forward-looking. Grounded. "This isn't a problem. It's a transition. Let's figure out who you're becoming."

I wish more people had access to that.

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If you're ready to get good, get confident, get visible, and get clients—and understand that it takes time and dedication to build a coaching practice —this 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗞𝗶𝘁 is for you —an ever-evolving, comprehensive collection of everything I’ve created over the years to support new coaches.
https://rocketsupervision.com/coaching-starter-kit/

We've lost the art of endings. And it's making every transition harder than it needs to be.

Ancient cultures understood something we've forgotten. That you can't step into a new identity without first honoring the death of the old one. That's what rituals were for. Not sentimentality. Function. A line in time that says "before" and "after."

Now we change careers over email. End relationships over text. Move cities and never look back. And then we wonder why we feel unmoored. Why the new chapter doesn't feel real. Why the old version of ourselves keeps showing up uninvited.

A coached client recently considered holding a small funeral for the person they used to be and a ceremony for who they're becoming. It sounds dramatic. It's actually one of the most practical things you can do during a transition.

Mark the ending. Honor what was. Then commit to what's next. Without the marker, you're just hoping the old life lets go of you. It won't.

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If you’re building your practice or deepening your craft, I’ve created a 𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀: tools, trainings, reflections, demos, business guidance, and a growing collection of existential coaching materials.
Take your time. Explore what resonates. Let these resources accompany you as you develop your voice and your way of working.

https://rocketsupervision.com/coaching-starter-kit/

"I have to sell myself and I hate it."

I keep hearing this in supervision and it never stops being important.

When you're the coach, the product feels like it's you. Your skills. Your time. Your worth. And when someone says no, it lands like a judgment on who you are.

I really don't see it that way.

When I talk to coaches about what they care about, it's never "selling coaching." It's the quality of the work. It's what the work leads to.

The awareness, the shifts, the ripple effects in someone's family, workplace, community. When I ask them "how's the world different once that work is done?" their eyes light up.

That's what you're selling. Not yourself.

The possibility of that world being a little different because someone did the work.

You're offering help. That's a kindness.

Get the ego out of the way and the conversation becomes so much lighter.

If the business side of coaching feels heavy, I put together a free Coaching Starter Kit with 15 years of honest guidance for coaches figuring it out.
https://rocketsupervision.com/coaching-starter-kit/

If every one of your coaching sessions has a clear outcome, you might be moving too fast.

Some of the most important coaching sessions I've had involved almost no progress at all.

No goals hit. No action plans. Just letting things sit and settle. Checking in and taking stock.

And I know how that sounds.

I've been DJing for over 20 years. And one of the things I've learned is that transitions don't need to be seamless and constant.

I found a playlist once that incorporated silences into the set. Intentional pauses. For contemplation. For breathing. For letting what just happened actually land before the next thing begins.

Coaching needs those silences too. Moments where you stop, step back, and ask, "Are we still on the right path?" before rushing into the next chapter.

In a nauseatingly fast-moving world, the most radical thing a coach can do is help someone stop.

This is existential coaching at its core.

"What do you want to work on?" is a weaker question than most coaches realize.

Try this one instead. "What's the work that needs to be done?"

There's a huge difference. The first one makes you a service provider. Someone who delivers what the client asks for. The second one commits both of you to something bigger. Something that matters. Something that has weight.

Peter Hawkins asked a question I'll never forget.

"Who or what does your work and your life serve?"

What does it serve?

When you sit with that, really sit with it, your motivation changes. You stop moving forward because someone is paying you. You start moving forward because the work is important. And your clients feel the difference immediately.

You don't need a polished purpose statement. It doesn't have to be stable for the rest of your life. It doesn't even have to last the month. But right now, today, what does your work serve?

This is existential coaching territory. The space where meaning, responsibility, and commitment come alive. If it resonates, the ITEC course goes deep on how to work with these questions, for yourself and with your clients.
https://rocketsupervision.com/existential-coaching-training/

A client picked up the phone mid-consultation, called their partner, and asked them what they should be working on in coaching.

My first reaction was, whoa. That's quite something. Right? Because it speaks to ownership, responsibility, commitment. Who are you accountable to here? Where is this coming from?

But as we explored it in supervision, it started to make a lot of sense.

Marshall Goldsmith does this with every client. Stakeholder interviews. "Tell me who matters in your life and I'll talk to them." 360 degree feedback has been part of organizational development for decades. You talk to people above, below, around someone and you get back themes they might never hear otherwise.

So why is it fine when it's structured and corporate but strange when a client calls their partner?

The question "what is being said about you that you might not be hearing" never fails to open up interesting conversations. As long as the client still decides what to do with the feedback. As long as it's information, not mandate.

If you want to see how coaches navigate moments like this in real time, that's what the Coaching Lab is for. Real sessions, real surprises, real deconstruction. Every month.

https://rocketsupervision.com/coaching-lab-coaching-sessions/

We're asking leaders to be vulnerable.

And then punishing them when they get it wrong.

An entire generation built their careers on confidence, certainty, and strength. They acquired skills, created reputations, built amazing things.

The armor worked. It was rewarded.

Now younger generations are walking in expecting something different. Eye level. Compassion. Purpose.

"Make me feel seen and heard."

And that's a legitimate expectation. The research backs it up. Different leadership styles create very different results.

But the transition from armored to open isn't a switch you flip. It's uncomfortable. It's confusing.

It means dropping protections that kept you safe for decades. And sometimes, honestly, it can feel dangerous.

I've seen leaders try. Awkwardly. Imperfectly. And get criticized for not doing it well enough. Which just reinforces the armor.

This needs more patience. More honesty. And a space where leaders can figure out where to put their foot down and where they might need to do some work on themselves. Without judgment.

That space is coaching. And if you're a coach sitting with leaders in this transition, supervision is where we figure out how to hold that well.

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲. 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹! https://yannick.satoriapp.com/offers/276315-rocket-supervision-discovery-45-mins

Imagine two people standing at the edge of the same ocean.

Same water. Same horizon.

But one is standing on sand and the other on rock.

One arrived at sunrise and the other at dusk.

One came to grieve and the other to celebrate.

Same ocean. Completely different experience.

That's what happens when your client tells you about something you've also been through.

You look out and you see the same ocean.

And the temptation is to say, "I see it too. I know this water."

But you're standing in a different place.

And the moment you assume you're seeing the same thing, you stop asking what it looks like from where they are.

You stop exploring. The ocean becomes familiar instead of unknown.

And the new meanings that might have surfaced from treating it as completely unexplored territory?

They stay beneath the surface.

You can still say, "I've stood at this ocean too." That creates connection. That builds trust.

But then you have to follow it with genuine curiosity.

"𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜?"

Because the answer will surprise you.

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I’m Yannick, existential coach and supervisor and my mission is to help coaches be the best coach they can be, with courage, clarity, and integrity.

If you’re building your practice or deepening your craft, I’ve created a **one-stop library of free resources**: tools, trainings, reflections, demos, business guidance, and a growing collection of existential coaching materials.
Take your time. Explore what resonates. Let these resources accompany you as you develop your voice and your way of working.

And if you ever want a more personalised path, I’m here for 1:1 work or supervision whenever the time is right.

https://rocketsupervision.com/coaching-starter-kit/