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It Is Your Choice
17 Plays10 months ago
In this week’s episode, Elias sits down with Garry Schleifer, PCC, publisher of Choice Magazine, the go-to resource for professional coaches. Garry shares the inspiring story behind the creation of Choice, revealing the moment he saw a gap in the coaching industry and decided to fill it with a publication dedicated to coaches. Launched 22 years ago, Choice Magazine is an unbiased publication available both digitally and print publication offering valuable insights on various coaching topics. Garry also reflects on the evolution of the coaching industry over the years, discussing both the changes and the core principles that have remained constant. Plus, if you've ever thought about contributing to Choice Magazine, Garry shares how you can submit your articles for this influential publication. Don’t miss this insightful conversation!
Visit Choice Magazine Website.
#Coaching #ProfessionalCoaching #ChoiceMagazine #FreedomFridays #CoachingCommunity #DiversityInCoaching #ArtificialIntelligence #CoachLife #CoachingJourney #CoachingInnovation #ChoiceForCoaches
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Transcript
Welcome and Guest Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Prime Space, a Prime Coaching Academy podcast with your host, Elias Scultori.
00:00:14
Speaker
So hello, coaches.
00:00:15
Speaker
Today I have another guest, a very dear friend of mine, Mr. Gary Schleifer.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello, Gary.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello.
00:00:24
Speaker
How are you today, sir?
00:00:26
Speaker
I am doing great.
00:00:27
Speaker
And it's wonderful to hear and talk to you, especially that you just came back from the beach.
00:00:34
Speaker
Well, technically, I came back from Mexico and the beach was there.
00:00:37
Speaker
So I'm back in Canada.
00:00:40
Speaker
So thank you.
00:00:41
Speaker
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us a little bit here.
00:00:45
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For those of you who do not know Gary, I met Gary actually.
00:00:49
Speaker
Well, I knew of Gary for many years, but we met personally recently.
00:00:54
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at the Gay Coaches Alliance winter conference, the in-person conference a couple of years ago.
Gary's Values and 'Freedom Fridays'
00:01:01
Speaker
And that's where we connected.
00:01:03
Speaker
Gary has been the president of the Gay Coaches Alliance, and he is also the recipient of the Thomas Leonard Award that the Gay Coaches Alliance grant every year.
00:01:15
Speaker
So congratulations on that, Gary.
00:01:17
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:17
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:18
Speaker
Gary is a PCC coach and he said, as he already said, he is Canadian, lives in Canada, but he spends his winter in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, a wonderful part of the world with beautiful beaches.
00:01:33
Speaker
I love the Pacific coast of Mexico.
00:01:36
Speaker
Gary was the president of ICS Toronto and vice president of ICS Global.
00:01:42
Speaker
A few years ago.
00:01:43
Speaker
And Gary, I would love for you to share this because you before we started recording the podcast, you said that you are the freedom guru.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:55
Speaker
So I love, love coaching because one of the things that gave me was a very clear understanding of one of my most important values, which is freedom.
00:02:04
Speaker
And what that means to me is freedom, financial freedom, time, freedom, location, freedom of self-expression, all of those.
00:02:11
Speaker
And I'm constantly on a quest for myself and for others to have freedom be a part of their lives.
00:02:17
Speaker
Well, what I did when I was going to Mexico is I said, you know what?
00:02:21
Speaker
I want to have a beach day every Friday.
00:02:24
Speaker
So I literally went into my calendar, took out anything that was in there and put in a block that said beach day.
00:02:33
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And every so nobody could book any calls.
00:02:35
Speaker
And every Friday while I was in Mexico, I went to the beach and it was a blast.
00:02:41
Speaker
And then I got back and I well, even before I left before before I came back, I said, well, you know what?
00:02:46
Speaker
Why don't I take every Friday off?
00:02:49
Speaker
So I've now blocked every Friday as Freedom Friday for me to work on my dreams,
00:02:58
Speaker
go for a massage whatever like all those things that we say we'll do sometime i now have a whole day to do it or do nothing at all which is another kind of freedom yeah i absolutely i love that yes i don't have any scheduled uh clients on friday and i've never had this in my whole uh career as a coach yes you beat me to it
00:03:23
Speaker
I meet with Amy, you know, on Fridays, you know, to discuss things for Prime Coaching Academy, but no clients for sure.
00:03:30
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:03:31
Speaker
I appreciate that.
00:03:32
Speaker
But here.
00:03:33
Speaker
So thank you for that.
00:03:34
Speaker
I love that concept of the Freedom Guru and Freedom Fridays.
00:03:38
Speaker
So something for us.
00:03:40
Speaker
We're already benefiting from this conversation here.
00:03:42
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:03:44
Speaker
But listeners,
The Creation and Evolution of Choice Magazine
00:03:45
Speaker
coaches, I invited Gary here because Gary is also the publisher of Choice Magazine.
00:03:54
Speaker
And Choice Magazine, it's a very important publication here in the coaching industry.
00:03:59
Speaker
So I would love for Gary to share a little bit.
00:04:03
Speaker
Of choice.
00:04:03
Speaker
Gary, what is choice?
00:04:05
Speaker
Choice, the magazine of professional coaching meant for every coach on the planet.
00:04:11
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So what I find interesting, and I know you know this from your listeners and that is that here I am 22 years later and there's still coaches on the planet that don't know that their magazine.
00:04:22
Speaker
And I say...
00:04:24
Speaker
your magazine to your listeners because we truly make it for all coaches now that's not to say that other people like HR professionals and trainers and consultants and my 92 year old mother read the magazine as well okay I gotta tell you a cute story when I put out the AI issue last year game in the mail I seed it my mom gets it mailed to her which is a joy for her right because who gets mail other than bills and
00:04:50
Speaker
And she was talking to me and she says, what's this thing, this A1 coach, this A1 business?
00:04:56
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm scratching my head.
00:04:58
Speaker
Like, what is she talking about?
00:05:00
Speaker
And I realized she was talking about AI, artificial intelligence.
00:05:03
Speaker
Really cute.
00:05:04
Speaker
But anyway, I digress.
00:05:05
Speaker
You were asking me about, so Choice Magazine has been around for 22 years.
00:05:10
Speaker
I started as a coach 24 years and two months ago.
00:05:13
Speaker
I know that because I was in Denver in the second week of January, 2021, taking my first course.
00:05:19
Speaker
And a little while after that, I was looking around for a magazine because let's face it, leaders of all kinds have HBR, Harvard Business Review.
00:05:29
Speaker
Psychologists have psychology today.
00:05:31
Speaker
But the coaching industries only started in the mid 90s.
00:05:34
Speaker
So I didn't, I wasn't even thinking about that, but I went to the bookshelves and online, could not find a magazine.
00:05:41
Speaker
So sitting on the deck one August day and I said having a cup of coffee on my nice white fluffy bathrobe.
00:05:48
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No, it wasn't a Friday.
00:05:49
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It was a Sunday.
00:05:50
Speaker
And I said to my husband, well, our industry doesn't have one, a magazine.
00:05:55
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And he said, well, you're an entrepreneur, create one.
00:05:58
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So I and four other people got together in Half Moon Bay at Melanie Dewberry Jones' house.
00:06:06
Speaker
In April of 2003 and brainstormed and launched, started the concept of Choice, the magazine of professional coaching.
00:06:14
Speaker
I think I was the one that came up with the title, but hey, memory is what it is.
00:06:19
Speaker
I'm going to say so.
00:06:21
Speaker
I can have others tell me no.
00:06:23
Speaker
And by November, nine months later, we opened Choice Magazine and was the first time any of us had seen a copy, the team, at the ICF conference in Denver, which, by the way, was where I also did my first coaching course.
00:06:40
Speaker
And there it was.
00:06:42
Speaker
The very first one.
00:06:43
Speaker
And I say, I'm going to go back and say it's your magazine.
00:06:47
Speaker
And we'll talk about this later, but about writers and stuff.
00:06:50
Speaker
But we truly made it for the coaching industry.
00:06:53
Speaker
It's the only unbiased print and digital globally distributed publication just for coaches.
00:07:00
Speaker
I love this story.
00:07:02
Speaker
You've never told me the, you know, you've told me this story before, but not in detail as you did right now.
00:07:09
Speaker
And the thing that really caught my attention is this idea that you was thinking out of the box.
00:07:17
Speaker
Here you saw a need in the industry and you went ahead and you created it.
00:07:23
Speaker
And I say this all the time to my students and mentees when they start building their coaching practices.
00:07:29
Speaker
We leave coach training because we're in coach training.
00:07:33
Speaker
We are so focused on one-on-one coaching.
00:07:36
Speaker
And then we leave coach training thinking that the only thing that we can do as coaches is one-on-one coaching.
00:07:41
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:07:42
Speaker
We can be so creative with all that exists in the industry, all the skills that we get in coach training.
00:07:50
Speaker
And your story is a perfect example of thinking out of the box and making it work.
00:07:54
Speaker
Thank you.
Gary's Solo Journey with Choice Magazine
00:07:55
Speaker
Oh, thank you.
00:07:57
Speaker
And seriously, like when you're doing it, you just do it.
00:08:01
Speaker
You see a need and you just do it.
00:08:02
Speaker
Right.
00:08:03
Speaker
So I say that humbly and I am honored to be in charge of choice.
00:08:09
Speaker
100% now it's on my shoulders for at least the last 15 years because all of my partners evolved and they went on to other projects and, and now I'm doing it all by myself.
00:08:21
Speaker
So,
00:08:22
Speaker
Well, good for you.
00:08:23
Speaker
So when you go and you are planning for the next issue, what is the thought process behind selecting articles, selecting themes, all the way to the point that the magazine is published?
00:08:39
Speaker
Well, first, let me tell you that at any point in time, we're working on three issues at the same time.
00:08:43
Speaker
Wow.
00:08:44
Speaker
Well, the issue we're working on right now is the March issue, which is about climate consciousness and coaching, connecting the dots.
00:08:52
Speaker
So that one's in edit mode.
00:08:54
Speaker
We've selected the articles.
00:08:56
Speaker
We've we're starting in the design and edit mode and it'll go to the printer at the beginning of March.
00:09:03
Speaker
Then we're also just collecting for the June issue, which is about racism, coaching and racism in an era of backlash.
00:09:13
Speaker
And I say that with pride because with this DEI initiative now or the...
00:09:19
Speaker
destruction of it it's even more important that we know how to how to work with that what's our role that sort of thing so i'm looking really looking forward to the articles we get we are getting for that and those are due on march 1st so if you're listening to this recording and you think you might have something to offer get in touch with me love to have a chat i love having chats with potential writers and um
00:09:43
Speaker
And then the other issue, we're working on themes, well, literally right into 2026 and our 25th anniversary in 2027.
00:09:53
Speaker
Wow.
00:09:53
Speaker
So like really looking ahead and planning forward.
00:09:57
Speaker
And I love that every issue you have a specific theme and you gather articles from different coaches to contribute to that particular point.
00:10:09
Speaker
So is it fair to say that most or all the writers at Choice Magazine are coaches?
00:10:17
Speaker
Actually, no, because wisdom comes from all sources.
00:10:19
Speaker
I love it.
00:10:20
Speaker
So
Contributions and Changes in Coaching
00:10:21
Speaker
if you're a coach and please coaches, it's called the magazine of professional coaching because coaching is a profession.
00:10:27
Speaker
Doesn't mean you have to have an ACC or PCC.
00:10:30
Speaker
We're just happy to have your wisdom shared with us.
00:10:33
Speaker
If you're submitting an article, the chances of being selected increase when you have actionable items and you're just spot on with where you... I always like to say, if you're thinking about writing or you've agreed to write, is write what's in your head through your heart.
00:10:55
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:10:56
Speaker
And we've done that spoken that way with people for years and the most fabulous articles.
00:11:01
Speaker
And I say to all your listeners as well, don't second guess yourself.
00:11:05
Speaker
It's it's not that it's super easy to go through the process of submitting.
00:11:10
Speaker
I think the toughest part is the actual writing majority of articles are 1200 to 1400 words.
00:11:16
Speaker
That's you keep it in there.
00:11:17
Speaker
You're more likely to be accepted and.
00:11:20
Speaker
Bring it on.
00:11:21
Speaker
Have a conversation with me if you're not sure.
00:11:23
Speaker
And we'll brainstorm titles, concepts, whatever you want.
00:11:27
Speaker
That's fantastic.
00:11:29
Speaker
And I love that, you know, as you're describing your suggestion for the writers, you are utilizing the coach approach to writing, right?
00:11:39
Speaker
Like it's not just an intellectual exercise, but there is the humanity and who you are and the authenticity that you bring to the coaching, to the writing of that particular article as well.
00:11:50
Speaker
One thing that I'm always curious, you know, because you have been in, you know, working with this magazine and in the industry for such a long time.
00:11:59
Speaker
I'm curious to hear from you from the perspective of the magazine and being the publisher of choice.
00:12:05
Speaker
What have you noticed as the evolution of the industry?
00:12:11
Speaker
Hmm, that's a great question.
00:12:14
Speaker
So many things.
00:12:15
Speaker
And what's funny is there's some things that change and things that stay the same.
00:12:19
Speaker
So, you know, for example, what's sort of stayed the same, but evolved, and we still repeat the theme is a team and group coaching.
00:12:27
Speaker
because it's changed dramatically over the years.
00:12:30
Speaker
I mean, there's now a supervision certificate and team coach supervision.
00:12:37
Speaker
There are conferences on supervision.
00:12:40
Speaker
It's just brilliant.
00:12:42
Speaker
Some of the things that also don't stay the same is cultural diversity and working with diverse clients, diversity, equity, inclusion.
00:12:49
Speaker
So much so that we, years ago, a few years ago, created a column called Kaleidoscope.
00:12:56
Speaker
And it's about
00:12:57
Speaker
Being the place for the voice of a D. E. I. Writer to our fellow coaches to keep that conversation alive in choice magazine.
00:13:06
Speaker
Some of the things that I would love to see more of, and that is the application of artificial intelligence and the testing and the ownership of artificial intelligence.
00:13:17
Speaker
I really think it has a great place to play in coaching, and I don't think we can avoid it as humans in any realm.
00:13:25
Speaker
And so I'm, you know, I like to say I get under the hood and take a look and see what makes it all tick.
00:13:31
Speaker
And I'm very surprised at how,
00:13:33
Speaker
much control we still have over everything.
00:13:35
Speaker
And I say still because who knows, right?
00:13:40
Speaker
You still have the matrix in those movies in your head going, you know, the machines will rise and take over.
00:13:46
Speaker
But for the time being, it's still very much under our control.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, you know, Terminator, that's the first thing that comes up.
00:13:57
Speaker
And I am so much with you on that.
00:14:00
Speaker
And I appreciate you sharing, you know, what is to come and what is the, I don't know, projection or what is the future?
00:14:09
Speaker
This idea of AI is inevitable.
00:14:13
Speaker
We are going to, it's part of life everywhere and it will be, and it is already part of coaching as well.
00:14:22
Speaker
So, Gary,
Podcast Conclusion
00:14:23
Speaker
if someone is, one of the listeners is willing to, you know, try and submit an article, what do they do?
00:14:32
Speaker
Go to choice-online.com.
00:14:36
Speaker
And at the bottom of the screen, there's a little tab, I guess, it's called Write for Us.
00:14:43
Speaker
And it's super easy.
00:14:45
Speaker
It literally is like a one, two, three, decide your topic, write it, submit it.
00:14:49
Speaker
I mean, we couldn't make it much easier.
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah, there's lots of detail on, you know, but basically it's a Word doc.
00:14:58
Speaker
We have editor, we have an edit managing editor.
00:15:01
Speaker
So don't worry about perfection.
00:15:04
Speaker
And if you still have questions, just reach out to me.
00:15:07
Speaker
Let's set up a call.
00:15:08
Speaker
I'm happy to talk to you.
00:15:10
Speaker
Except on Fridays, no Fridays.
00:15:12
Speaker
No Friday calls, no Friday calls.
00:15:15
Speaker
But I've made space on my calendar.
00:15:17
Speaker
We can have a Calendly link, you know, and set it up.
00:15:20
Speaker
Send me your link.
00:15:21
Speaker
Just make it easy.
00:15:22
Speaker
Enjoy, relax.
00:15:24
Speaker
Just get curious and find out if this is for you.
00:15:27
Speaker
So lots of details there that anyone who is interested in.
00:15:33
Speaker
I think the bottom line here is that sometimes we think of like, oh, being published, but it's easier than we think it is.
00:15:42
Speaker
So we can connect with you.
00:15:44
Speaker
Gary, thank you so much.
00:15:46
Speaker
for sharing your wisdom and your experience and your excitement for Choice Magazine.
00:15:52
Speaker
And I look forward to more conversations with you and we will definitely meet you at the Day Coaches Conference in April.
00:16:01
Speaker
So thank you so much.
00:16:02
Speaker
Thank you for having me.
00:16:03
Speaker
It was a great pleasure.
00:16:04
Speaker
And yeah, reach out and say hi, people.
00:16:09
Speaker
Thank you, everybody.
00:16:10
Speaker
And I will see you next week.
00:16:11
Speaker
Take care.