I found out this week that I am one of twenty-six finalists for Coach360’s Top 26 Most Visionary Coaches of 2026, and my first honest reaction was to laugh. I was at my kitchen table in leggings, reheating coffee for the third time, arguing with a plugin that had broken a client’s website. Visionary felt like a word for someone else, probably someone wearing real pants.
The word sat with me afterward, though. For most of my twenty years in this field, I was proud of the wrong things. I wanted to be the hardest trainer in the room, and I collected certifications the way other people collect vinyl. Getting sick is what changed it. Losing the version of myself everyone knew taught me my worth was never attached to my output, and everything I teach now came from that stretch.
None of what I say is new. People have been saying versions of it for years, usually from the margins, usually to rooms that were not quite ready. What feels different is that the rooms are ready now, and that twenty-five other people are pushing in the same direction. I know several of them, and they have made my work better by arguing with me and being generous with ideas they could have kept.
Thank you to Coach360, and congratulations to the other twenty-five.
