Why I Decided to Become a Coach, P.1

I have always been a teacher.

For more than ten years, I taught English and French in private schools across Quebec. I loved the classroom, the students, the feeling of helping someone understand something for the first time. But I was also exhausted. I was working hard and still struggling financially. At some point, the truth became impossible to ignore: I was tired of being poor. Sometimes the beginning of a life transformation is that simple — a quiet moment of honesty.

That’s when I remembered instructional design. I discovered it back in 2013 and felt something spark inside me. It felt like a natural extension of who I already was. Teaching was the foundation, and instructional design felt like the evolution. By 2016, I decided to go all in. I built my first portfolio, researched programs, and prepared myself to start over.

I was turning 40 — right in the middle of a life crisis that I couldn’t fully name at the time. I felt my old self slowly shedding. I knew I needed to step into something new: new ways of thinking, new approaches, new possibilities. So I went back to Concordia to complete a graduate diploma in instructional design.

Becoming a student again taught me two powerful things. First, I love learning — not just a little, but deeply, passionately. Second, I love sharing insights, ideas, and reflections. I’ve always had that impulse to guide, to explain, to help someone see something clearly.

After graduating, I worked in several companies — seven, in fact. Always the same role, instructional designer, but in completely different environments, with different philosophies, different expectations, different types of content and subject matter experts.

And slowly, something changed.

I became an instructional designer who was tired. Frustrated. Not because I didn’t love the craft, but because I couldn’t find my place in it. I felt like a square peg trying to fit into every possible round hole. I knew I had more to give, but I didn’t know where I truly belonged.