1.2. Who am I and why this Course was created?
Who am I?
I am called Stephan Szugat and my story is the following.
In business life, it all started with an apprenticeship in Wholesale and Exports. After that I was going to study but decided to stop after a while and went to work. It happened to me that I worked mostly for North-American Company Groups.
Besides that I had the chance to learn all about Finance and Accounting up to Company Group Consolidations, Controlling and Business Processes. Sounds like boring stuff to you? Well, for me, it was fantastic as I love numbers.
No business nor your life will run without numbers. And Accounting as well as all about Finances could give you so many insights into a business and life. But most people just see Accounting as a government requirement. Think twice!
By the End of 1999 I decided to work on a self-employed basis, thus I could serve more companies at the same time. After a few years I had many customers wanting my service nearly at the same time during every month. That of course wasn’t practical anymore and limited the growth of my income.
Though, I decided to change my business model, which took some time again. After a while the assignments changed towards Interim-Management assignments up to the position of a CFO.
If you never heard about Interim-Management, it just means you hire someone for some time to do a specific job or to help you improve your business. It’s like a manager for rent.
Industry Knowledge
Not to mention all the different industries I had the chance to look into. Such industries as Car Sales and Repair, Waste Management, Venture Capital, Personal Recruitment, Software Development, Special Ceramic Productions and Mechanical Engineering for the manufacturing of automated production lines for Life Science Products, Electric motors, and others.
Over the last years I recognized that I was getting more involved in Business Strategy as well as coaching. The latter took a while for me to clearly see, but anytime I presented the numbers about the business, the discussions were going towards Business Strategy and Coaching.
At the beginning the coaching was more about providing feedback about the work and ideas of the respective CEO rather than being a structured coaching. However, it was helpful as far as I know.
Becoming a Coach
As it became obvious to me that I’m more into coaching already, I decided to learn more about coaching, especially how to do it in a structured way. So many approaches are available, I was just blown away.
Learning 40+ different coaching methods was a great start, which helped me find the ones which are in line with my coaching style.
The methods I love most are the ones which help you to get your answers fast. Business owner and Executives don’t have much time, though this is something they could do either.
If a CEO doesn’t have 10–30 minutes a day to engage with coaching, then he/she should ask why this is the case.
Today I love to coach as I could see the impact in the person coached immediately. I wouldn’t see it with you in case you do the course alone.
But, I have to be honest with you, sometimes the results take some time to show up. Be patient and persistent.
Why this Course was created?
First, this course was created because One-on-One Coaching could be expensive. This online course should be seen as a starter into coaching. The cost of the course would probably give you 1-3 maybe 4 One-on-One Coaching Sessions with an Executive Coach like me.
On the other hand, you have lifetime access to this course, even though it just takes about 7 weeks to complete it. Therefore, you could retake the course as many times as you like.
Also, this course should help you to improve your life. It’s inevitable, that this includes all areas of your life, be it your business, your job, or any relationship. This is the most important reason why it was created. Helping you to discover your full potential.
Now let’s take a look at how this course will impact your business / life.