Coaching and Thriving

Coaching On and Off The Field | Julian Maliszewski

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 18:00:00 -0400

Episode Description

What if becoming a coach isn’t about becoming someone new, but recognizing what you already bring with you?

Carrie sits down with Coach Training Alliance graduate Julian Maliszewski: professional paintball and lacrosse player, entrepreneur, and founder of Paintball for Purpose. Julian started as a teacher and spent years coaching athletes before a chance airport conversation with a former therapist pointed him toward professional coaching.

They talk about what felt familiar in coach training and what he had to unlearn. Julian covers learning the structure of a session and going deeper with his questions, and how acknowledging a win but asking “what’s next?” differs from cheerleading. He also explains how he now brings that curiosity to his athletes, and why he works to be the same coach on and off the field.

Key Takeaways

You can stay yourself. Julian was drawn to coaching because he could keep his own style, with a conversation structure to work within.
Acknowledge, then move forward. Celebrate the win briefly, then ask what’s next. This differs from the cheerleader role of a team coach.
Better questions open doors. Clients often just need space to be heard, and a good question lets them decide whether to open a door they’ve kept closed.
Listen for the repeated word. Shifts in tone and phrases a client keeps returning to can point to what matters.
Embodiment goes beyond the session. Julian applies coaching presence everywhere, including when he gets cut off in traffic.
Not every coach fits every client. That’s normal and not personal.
Build your support team. Julian outsourced his financial setup so he could focus on coaching, and he is blending his own practice with work for a coaching platform.
Coaching changes how you lead athletes. Instead of “you’re wrong, do it this way,” he asks players what they’re thinking, then sends them back to the field.

Chapters

00:00Introduction and welcome

02:05Julian’s path from teaching to lacrosse and paintball coaching, and the airport conversation that led him to coaching

05:08What felt familiar at the CTA coaching demo, and why he calls himself a “personal development coach”

07:32What coach training changed: session structure, moving past cheerleading, and deeper questions

09:16Opening doors for clients, listening for tone and repeated words

11:56Embodying the coach in and out of session

15:11Letting your path unfold while building a business: frameworks, outsourcing, and combining a private practice with platform work

18:05How coaching changed his approach with high-level paintball and lacrosse athletes

22:49Advice for anyone wondering how coaching fits their life

About the Guest

Julian Maliszewski is a Coach Training Alliance graduate, professional paintball and lacrosse player, entrepreneur, and founder of Paintball for Purpose. He coaches through his company, T2F Coaching, and can be reached by DM on TikTok, Instagram (@t2fcoaching), and Facebook. Linked in: linkedin.com/in/julianthewhale

Coaching and Thriving is produced by Coach Training Alliance. Explore our free becoming a coach workshop, or visit www.coachtrainingalliance.com to learn about our ICF-accredited Certified Coach Program for anyone new to coaching as well as ongoing training for established coaches. HumanGrowthCapital, LLC

About the Host "Coach Carrie" (Carrie Martello) is a certified mentor coach and E-RYT with more than twenty years of experience in self-development, teaching, and entrepreneurship. She has trained coaching students around the world, and now hosts Coaching and Thriving with one goal: that every listener walks away with renewed confidence, fresh perspective, and a deeper connection to the coaching community.

Somebody Out There Needs Your Story | Ron Turner

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 13:00:00 -0400

Ron Turner has spent more than 30 years in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He's fought professionally, opened seven gyms and trained UFC fighters. Now he's a certified coach. Coach Carrie talks with Ron about going from the one with all the answers to the one who asks the questions. They also cover why strength is mostly mental, and why your unusual life story may be exactly what a future client needs.

Show notes

What does a professional fighter know about coaching? More than you'd think.

In this episode of Coaching and Thriving, Coach Carrie Martello talks with Ron Turner. Ron is a martial artist, gym owner, fight coach and graduate of Coach Training Alliance. His martial arts life started when he saw The Karate Kid at a drive-in theater. It turned into a lifelong love of jiu-jitsu and a professional fighting career, and a mentor stepped in when Ron needed a father figure. Years later, with his body wearing down but his passion for helping people stronger than ever, Ron found professional coaching.

Ron is candid about his biggest hurdle as a new coach: letting go of giving the answers. He shares how asking instead of telling builds his clients' confidence, and why "I don't know" is the start of a good coaching conversation. He also has a message for anyone who doubts they have the "right" background to become a coach.

In this episode:

How a mentor in the gym shaped Ron's view of coaching and community
Why fighting, public speaking and big life decisions are about 90% mental
Going from instructor mode ("I have the answers") to coaching mode ("you have the answers")
How small wins build momentum and self-trust
Ron's favorite coaching question: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
Why your life experience is an asset, whatever your story

Words of Wisdom in this episode

"Losing and defeat is the easiest thing… that answer is always there. Winning is hard."

"It is not my life. It is their life, their journey."

"There's a coach for everybody. There's someone out there that needs your story."

"You're not your job. Your career does not define you."

Connect with Ron Turner:

Website: ironstandardcoaching.com
Instagram: @ironstandardcoaching and @dirtyronturner

Why Advice Backfires | Dr. Dave Krueger

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0400

Here's an uncomfortable idea for anyone who coaches: when you offer advice, you usually make your client more entrenched in what they already believed.

Dr. David Krueger calls it the boomerang effect. Share a belief, and the other person immediately measures it against their own. Agree, and they confirm. Disagree, and they refute. Either way they end up more firmly where they started — and the coaching conversation has done the opposite of its job.

In this episode of Coaching and Thriving, Dr. Dave and I get into what's happening beneath the surface of a conversation that actually changes something. He spent 25 years as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst before coming to coaching, he was one of my very first mentors at Coach Training Alliance back in 2011, and we now serve together on the faculty.

He shares the most elegant piece of supervision he ever received. He'd offered an executive client an interpretation he was sure would help. After a long pause, she said: "First you've got to be with me before I can go someplace new with you."

In this conversation:

The boomerang effect — why information, facts, and advice don't change minds
Why the client has to stay the point of reference, and what it signals when we step in with a suggestion
The map: where the client is, where they want to go, and how those two coordinates let you tell progress from detour
The circle exercise Dr. Dave teaches — how a coach gets inside it before going anywhere new
How the first few words of a conversation boot up connection or defensiveness, and set the tone for everything after
Why insight alone fades, and what it takes to move a change into someone's operating system — the 90 to 95 percent that runs without deciding
Change as identity, not decision: "at two o'clock, I'm working out" rather than choosing again every day
Why motivation isn't required — you need a plan and you need to stick to it
The habits that most often get in the way for new coaches

He closes with two quotes worth writing down, including one from his grandmother: if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right.

About the guest: Dr. David Krueger is an executive coach, author, and faculty member at Coach Training Alliance. He practiced for 25 years as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst before moving into coaching, and his work focuses on the science of human behavior, decision-making, and lasting change.

Am I Doing this right? | Laurie Cameron

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0400

"Am I doing this right?" is the question almost every new coach carries — and Laurie Cameron has a better answer than most: you are right enough for right now.

In this episode of Coaching and Thriving, I'm joined by Laurie Cameron — Laurie describes coach development as a spiral: doubt, then clarity, then more doubt as the next thing you don't yet know comes into view. The doubt isn't a signal you're on the wrong path. It's evidence you're still climbing. Normalizing that cycle, she says, is what lets new coaches stick with it.

We also talk about the moment that changed everything for her — when the coach she considered her idol called and asked her for coaching, and she realized she had to be herself, with the skills she had that day.

In this conversation:

How Laurie found coaching after asking herself what she'd do if she could get paid for anything ("I want to get paid to talk to people")
The doubt-to-clarity spiral, and why it never ends — for beginners or 28-year veterans
Why the business and marketing side is the real challenge most new coaches don't expect
"Right enough for right now" — permission to start before you feel ready
How confidence actually gets built: showing up, doing your best with what you know, learning, repeating
Why coaching mastery is a continuum, not a destination — "there is no there"
Having a plan, and leaving room for "divine editing"
When entrepreneurship isn't the right fit — and why that isn't failure
Laurie's why, the ripple effect, and the reason she has never had a Plan B

If you're mid-program and wondering whether the doubt means you should stop, this episode is the one to send yourself.

About the guest: Laurie Cameron is a professional coach, trainer, mentor, and speaker, and the founder of Wake Up Enterprises. Over 28 years she has trained and mentored more than 1,500 coaches worldwide. Since 2018 she has focused on teaching coaching skills to leaders and managers who want to coach their teams, and she serves on the faculty at Coach Training Alliance.

Stop Performing, Start Being | Dr. Laura Belsten, MCC

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:00:00 -0400

Why coaching is less about asking the right questions and more about how you make someone feel. Most coaches start out the way Dr. Laura Belsten did — trying to ask the perfect question, apply the right model, get it right from day one. Nearly thirty years later, her answer is simpler and harder: stop performing, and start being.

In our launch episode of Coaching and Thriving, I sit down with Dr. Laura Belsten — MCC coach, founder and CEO of the Center for Thriving Leaders, and one of the voices that shaped how I think about this work. We talk about what actually happens inside a client when they finally feel heard, and why that moment isn't a soft skill at all — it's a biological need.

Laura names something most of us have felt but never had language for: internal vigilance. That low hum of Am I making sense? Will this be judged? that keeps a client in a defensive crouch. When it stands down, people stop performing and start exploring. That's where growth lives — and it's the coach's job to make that safe.

In this conversation:

What thriving actually means — connection, growth, self-compassion, purpose, resilience, and choice
Why resilience can be built before you need it, and how to start
Internal vigilance: what it costs your clients, and how acceptance dissolves it
Curiosity as the engine, empathy as the fuel, self-awareness as the steering wheel
Why you can't lead a client somewhere you haven't been yourself
Coaching as "helping others think" — and as a mini vacation in the middle of a work week
Positive psychology vs. toxic positivity, and the gratitude practice Laura has kept for years
Helping clients build their own internal navigation system instead of driving the car for them

If you're a coach who has ever gone blank mid-session, or wondered whether your own inner work is keeping pace with your practice, this one's for you.

About the guest: Dr. Laura Belsten is an MCC — the highest credential awarded by the International Coaching Federation — and the founder and CEO of the Center for Thriving Leaders. For more than 25 years she has helped leaders, executives, and organizations grow through coaching, emotional intelligence, and positive psychology. Her free Wheel of Thriving assessment is available on her website.