About Iris Grimm
Hello I am Iris Grimm. I have been working as a coach for almost a decade. Within that time I had the honor of working with hundreds of people supporting them in make meaningful and efficient improvements in their lives.
To the Balanced Physician Program I bring passion, compassion, energy, optimism, intuition, practicality and creativity. Additionally I bring a vast amount of knowledge, not only about human psychology and medical practices but also about business success and common sense.
I’m very grateful for the opportunities and experiences I’ve had. It hasn’t always been easy, considering that I was brought up in a society where dreaming and achieving was unrewarding. But I can truly say that I ended up achieving far more in my life than I ever thought was possible.
In coaching, I now do what I truly love. And I really enjoy seeing clients get inspired to do more than they thought possible. I have a busy practice, usually working with more than 20 clients, who come to the Balanced Physician program with a diversity of personal and professional interests.
Personally, I’ve been happily married to Sloan for 12 years. We don’t have any children, however we receive a lot of pleasure and activity by sharing our life with our 2 German shepherds Cito and Barko and our foster Rottweiler Shelby.
Background Summary
Memberships: Coach Inc., International Coach Federation, Coachville, Toastmasters, National Speakers Association – Georgia, United Schutzhund Club.
Training: Corporate Coach Inc., Coach Inc., Coachville
I work one-to-one with individuals, physicians, executives, and leaders helping them gain clarity, align their passions and strengths, create a plan to get the results they want, and live inspired and balanced lives.
Top Values: Family, integrity, health and fitness, personal growth and learning, nature.
Favorite Activity: Mmmm…. Taking my dogs on a nice hike through the serene mountains of North Georgia.
Favorite Book: That is difficult to answer but I like anything that has to do with personal development and dogs. Working and training with dogs has taught me a lot about myself, life and communication.
Hobbies: Lifting weights, training dogs, scrapbooking, hiking and backpacking, spending time with friends. Recently, I have been spending a lot of time at Homeless Pets, a no-kill shelter in Marietta, GA. I volunteer to walk dogs and recently we started fostering a little Rottweiler puppy. To read her story, go to www.fromtheleaderofthepack.wordpress.com.
What I do is give people the space and energy to get clear where they are in their life and the I help them find their strengths and passion, become inspired, believe in themselves and stay focused on the dreams and goals they want to achieve. Coaching is the most rewarding work I have ever done. If you are interested, here’s how I came to do what I do.
My Story: I grew up in communist East Germany where life and thinking was very limited. At age 6 I became an active athlete in cross country skiing. Sports was very important part in my life where I trained 3-4 times a week with competition trials on Sundays. This has helped me gain mental strength and discipline and I competed in regional and national events.
When I was 17 years old and I had to decide where I wanted to go to college I decided to study tourism. I loved learning new languages and I thought that I could have the possibility to escape to the Western world one day. However, the East German college system was rather unfair and I was denied due to the fact that I didn’t volunteer to join the communist party. Instead I was accepted to study economics.
In 1989 the Berlin wall was torn down and the communist system collapsed. This was the chance for me to pursue my dream of moving away. I packed 2 suitcases and moved to West Germany on my own. I worked for a year in a travel agency before I enrolled in college to study business and communication.
After graduation in 1994 I realized my dream of moving and living in America. I was accepted to work at the German American Chamber of Commerce in Atlanta, Georgia. The work experience there taught me that the people you work with are more important than the work itself because at the end if you don’t get along with certain people, they can make the best work miserable.
Ever since I arrived in the US I though about starting my own business. My goal was to find a path that I would enjoy. On the Internet I read an article about career coaching and I was intrigued. I signed up with Stacey Mayo as my career coach and for many months she lead me through an interesting discovery process. I realized early on that coaching was using my strengths of analyzing, listening, and encouraging.
My Outlook on Coaching
I love coaching. It allows me to make a difference in people’s life while they are working on their own agenda. I enjoy working with my clients, learning from them and experience their determination and desires to make meaningful changes in their businesses / careers and lives.
I believe that we all have unique skills and talents. Life is about knowing what we are good at and focusing our time and energy on that. Additionally, we delegate the tasks that we don’t feel comfortable doing or that we see as a weakness. Coaching helps people identify their strengths and gives them the confidence to delegate their weaknesses.
My coaching approach and philosophy have been equally influenced by my formal coaching training, my personal studies and my own life experiences. These inspirations shape my work with my clients in unique ways which set me apart from other coaches.
My training and certification in professional and executive coaching through Coach Inc. provided me the fundamental knowledge for effective coaching relationships. In 2001 I also joined Coachville, at that time one of the largest coach training schools, which provided me a vast variety of knowledge and insights.
Additionally, I read dozens of books about coaching from the German market. The German coach approach is different from the Coach Inc. and Coachville approach and provides a more academic and human systems theory approach. Accordingly, you can expect from me a very structured (German) but also a flexible (American) coaching approach in my interactions with you.
Coaching is about getting clear on where you are, where you want to go and what support and resources you need to get there. Many people don’t take the time to review these important concepts and they don’t have the energy to make consistent improvements. As a result they either regress or feel trapped in their way of living and they feel uncomfortable stepping out. Coaching is the commitment of constant improvement with the help of 2 experts. The client is expert number 1 who knows / determines the goal (s)he wants to accomplish. The coach is expert # 2 who knows the path and process that gets the client where (s)he wants to go. After all 2 minds are stronger than one and the power of collaboration is unlimited.
Since I have been a child, I was fascinated by reading books on personal development. After all, in sports we were encouraged to read books to strengthen our mind. Coaching allows me to share this knowledge with my clients. After all, if knowledge is not applied or shared, it is only death capital.
My Outlook on Life
I view life as a journey rather than a destination. It is about enjoying and appreciating each day, making progress, making a difference.
Struggling, suffering, burning out, being miserable is just as much a choice as living gratefully, happily and successfully. We all have choices in life and people who cannot see that need to make space for awareness and discovery.
I also believe in proactive problem solution. Problems are always opportunities in disguise and it is up to us to make the best out of them.
To me a successful life is lead when a person gets up in the morning with excitement and goes to bed fulfilled at the end of the day. That is what coaching is all about.
If you are ready to make positive changes in your life - and you choose to work with me – I will be dedicated to support you in accomplishing the results you want.
I am looking forward to connecting with you,
Iris Grimm
