What does impact mean to you?

A buzzword becomes meaningful

The first question I ask when I kick off one of my Regenerative Chats is, “What does impact mean to you?”

Yeah, I know, easy question, right?

Well, I thought it would’ve been fair to answer it myself, so here we are.

If you had asked me about “impact” 10 years ago, I would’ve given you a puzzled look.

I always lived in a “conscious” way, but “impact” wasn’t a meaningful concept to me, and the one association to the word I would’ve done would’ve probably been with Deep Impact, the movie. It was nothing good, neither the idea of a comet impacting the earth nor the movie itself, from what I recall.

Fast forward to 2018 summer, when that idea finally clicked for me.

I was training a client, a brick-and-mortar shop owner, about online marketing. She was telling me about how frustrated she felt about all that online stuff and how she fell prey to a web agency that sold her a pricey e-commerce website without explaining to her how to use it and promote it to have a return on her investment.

My (sometimes quite rigid) ethical side felt enraged, but most of all, I had an epiphany. I didn’t want to provide done-for-you services anymore. I wanted to make my clients independent, able to make informed decisions autonomously, free, and —possibly— happy.

I wanted to have a real positive impact on their lives.

That was the first time the word “impact” became meaningful to me. Then, it brought me to my first coaching training. I decided to become a coach because I thought it was the most aligned way for me to have an impact on people’s lives.

Last year, during a new, powerful coaching training, I took time to sit with the concept of impact again.

Since the beginning of 2023, I had felt less fulfilled and more unmotivated. I came to the realization that the impact I was having didn’t feel enough anymore.

I wanted and needed to do more for our earth and every being inhabiting it because the world is crumbling, and — yes — I am a drop in the ocean, but I’m willing to be that drop and contribute to the ripple effect even though I won’t be alive to see it worked.

So, I decided to rebuild my coaching practice from its foundations to serve people who are actively having a positive impact on their communities and the world to empower them to take care of their well-being to be more effective, joyful, and ready to join forces with other drops in the ocean.

Despite impact being a buzzword, I decided to claim it and use it to give meaning to my job title, too.

For me, impact moved from the particular to the general while still encompassing the particular. I’m curious to see what its next iteration will be and where it will take me.

Wanna play along?

Ponder the question “What does impact mean to you?” yourself. Then, come share your reflections with us (you readers and me) in the comments.

With care,
Giada

🗂️ Open Tabs

Stuff I kept thinking about or still open in my browser

• off the grid ✿ clubhouse by is finally here!

  Amelia’s business insights and forecasts and her ability to go beyond and tackle more complex conversations with depth and care make Off The Grid my favorite podcast. Amelia is an excellent professional and an inspiring, generous human being, and being part of her community is amazing. Consider joining in!
  
• I’ve been thinking about my friend and colleague Katrin’s LinkedIn post in response to my article about stillness. She closed her post by asking, “How do you incorporate quiet time into your busy schedule?” This helped me notice that I tend to put my quiet time at the edges of my day or week. I do yoga in the morning and sometimes meditate at the end of the workday, and I take time to be in nature during the weekend. But what about all the time in between?So, I decided I’m going to experiment with sprinkling Katrin’s 2-minute stop moments throughout the day and see how it goes.
  
• Speaking of joining “things”, I’ve joined Jessica Lackey‘s Deeper Business Membership and am excited to have a place where I can deepen my business-building skills together with like-minded people!

Work with me!

Hello! I’m Giada (Jah-da, more or less), an Impact Coach who blends coaching and neuroscience to empower change agents to turn their impactful vision into action and contribute to collective well-being while feeling good and not burning out in the process. Sounds interesting? Let’s have a chat!