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About The Episode

After coming to the realization that she couldn’t be the only adoptive mother feeling alone in her journey, Alex Fittin sought to connect with other moms who had adopted by way of a podcast. And although her podcast garnered over one hundred thousand downloads from all over the world, Alex still had the desire to keep improving. She hung up her podcasting microphone and became a certified Enneagram coach to work with individuals in a counseling setting and help businesses build stronger teams.

 

“There’s so many people that have their nine-to-five job they might be successful in. They might make enough money, and they’re really good at it. But they go home and do their side hustle, and it takes years for that side hustle to become enough. It’s a giant leap of faith. It’s very scary, especially when on paper you should be fine with what you have. That was definitely where I was at.” - Alex Fittin, (29:46)

After coming to the realization that she couldn’t be the only adoptive mother feeling alone in her journey, Alex Fittin sought to connect with other moms who had adopted by way of a podcast. And although her podcast garnered over one hundred thousand downloads from all over the world, Alex still had the desire to keep improving. She hung up her podcasting microphone and became a certified Enneagram coach to work with individuals in a counseling setting and help businesses build stronger teams.

 

“There’s so many people that have their nine-to-five job they might be successful in. They might make enough money, and they’re really good at it. But they go home and do their side hustle, and it takes years for that side hustle to become enough. It’s a giant leap of faith. It’s very scary, especially when on paper you should be fine with what you have. That was definitely where I was at.” - Alex Fittin, (29:46)

 

A Passion for People

As a self-proclaimed people person, it’s no surprise Alex majored in communications. She loved the concept of learning about people and knew that whatever trajectory her career took, she wanted to connect with individuals. Along with her passion for people, family was always important to Alex, and she knew from the time she was a teenager that she wanted to be an adoptive parent. But more specifically, Alex wanted to adopt older kids in foster care because they are the hardest to adopt.   

 

Fast forward, Alex and her husband Bryan did adopt an older child in foster care. And although it was something Alex had always wanted to do, Alex realized she felt very alone in her struggles but soon concluded she couldn’t be the only adoptive mother experiencing the mixed emotions that come with adopting a child.  

 

“What I think was really hard was that when we got into it, I had all this passion, l was on fire for adoption. Then he came into our home and that passion doesn’t necessarily transfer into love. It was like, yes that got me here, but now what?” - Alex Fittin, (6:11)

 

In an effort to connect with other adoptive mothers who were also feeling isolated, Alex started the Adoptive Mom Podcast (AMP). The one thing Alex intentionally did differently with her podcast was make it less educational and more about the connection between the Mom and child. She wanted to focus mostly on adoptive mothers and the struggles they were going through, as well as provide them with resources to help them. 

 

Recognizing Unfulfillment

Alex was adamant that her podcast would last longer than two years—a milestone most podcasts never reach. She wanted her podcasting endeavor to be worthwhile, not something she was only interested in for a short time. Ultimately, the Adoptive Mom Podcast ran for almost four and a half years, and for all intents and purposes, was a great success. However, Alex is admittedly hard on herself, and she had a hard time enjoying her podcast’s notoriety. Eventually, Alex realized she needed to look elsewhere to achieve fulfillment. 

 

“I realized what I wanted out of it, and the numbers were not really scratching that itch for me. I think that helped that hunger to keep improving because I was still searching. I would see the numbers rolling in, and I would see people from all over the world listening to my podcast, and that was so cool for a minute, and then it was like, I want more out of this.” - Alex Fittin, (10:12)

 

Pursuing a New Passion

Once Alex answered the reflective question, “is the podcast was something she still felt led to do” the answer started her down a path of a decision that was hers to make, and she couldn’t let anybody else influence her choice.

 

“I’m a people person. I want to include people’s opinions. I want to ask questions. I want to do this as a group. I want to make people happy. But this was the first big decision that I felt like I had to listen to myself and not everyone else saying, ‘You should be happy, and this should set your soul on fire.’ It had to be my true self.” - Alex Fittin, (13:44)

 

After talking to anyone who would listen, Alex determined she couldn't keep doing something her heart was no longer passionate about. However, during this time, Alex realized she was fascinated by the Enneagram and understanding people’s motivations behind why they do what they do. Therefore, in an effort to marry her two passions, her heart for adoptive moms and her obsession with the Enneagram, Alex produced a season of The Adoptive Mom Podcast where she interviewed past guests of each Enneagram number and spoke to Enneagram experts.

 

Following the Enneagram season of the Adoptive Mom Podcast, Alex’s husband told her if she was going to be this passionate about it, she should become a coach and make this a career. This declaration opened Alex’s mind, and she soon found a new calling in helping people better connect with each other by utilizing the Enneagram. Alex then decided to stop producing her podcast and became a certified Enneagram coach. She now works for a counseling clinic and runs her own lucrative coaching business.  

 

Alex’s journey highlights that even though something is successful doesn’t mean it is fulfilling, and that it’s okay to welcome new passions into our lives.

Show Notes

(0:35) Introducing Alex Fittin

(1:34) Alex’s Background in Podcasting

(0:35) Introducing Alex Fittin

(1:34) Alex’s Background in Podcasting

(3:09) Utilizing a Communication Degree

(4:24) Deciding to Adopt

(8:25) Scaling a Podcast

(11:24) A Processing Period

(16:17) About the Enneagram

(18:44) Becoming a Coach

(25:06) Making Decisions Alone

(30:41) Closing Question

“What I think was really hard was that when we got into it, I had all this passion, l was on fire for adoption. Then he came into our home and that passion doesn’t necessarily transfer into love. It was like, yes that got me here, but now what?” 

Alex Fittin

Episode Transcription

Alex Fittin:

I mean I certainly had a couple people that were encouraging of that, but then most people were like, "What are you talking about? You're killing it, you have an awesome following, you have a 3000 plus member Facebook group, you have access to all these people. What's wrong with you?" A little bit. Nobody necessarily said that, but that was definitely what I was feeling about like, what is wrong with me? I asked myself that so many times. Why is this not what I want?

Rick West:

Welcome to Push Go, a podcasts presented by Plum, where we highlight the defining moments that impact how we live and work. Today I'm joined by Alex Fittin. She's a certified Enneagram coach working with individuals in a counseling setting, as well as helping businesses build stronger teams. Today you're going to hear how Alex made the decision to sunset a successful podcast to launch her coaching practice.

 

Alex Fittin:

I mean I certainly had a couple people that were encouraging of that, but then most people were like, "What are you talking about? You're killing it, you have an awesome following, you have a 3000 plus member Facebook group, you have access to all these people. What's wrong with you?" A little bit. Nobody necessarily said that, but that was definitely what I was feeling about like, what is wrong with me? I asked myself that so many times. Why is this not what I want?

Rick West:

Welcome to Push Go, a podcasts presented by Plum, where we highlight the defining moments that impact how we live and work. Today I'm joined by Alex Fittin. She's a certified Enneagram coach working with individuals in a counseling setting, as well as helping businesses build stronger teams. Today you're going to hear how Alex made the decision to sunset a successful podcast to launch her coaching practice.

Alex, welcome to the podcast.

Alex Fittin:

Thank you so much for having me. I am thrilled to be here.

Rick West:

I'm excited to have you here. I've had one other trained professional podcast person on, and I was stressed out the whole time. So I'm going to try not to be stressed out today, because I know a lot of your background, you've sat in my chair before.

Alex Fittin:

I have, for almost five years I did podcasting.

Rick West:

Wow, that's crazy. That's crazy. So we're going to kind of start a little bit before that. Did you think kind of in your professional early years that you would end up being in the podcast world? How did you get to even going down that path of having your own podcast and getting started? Something you dreamed about, someone introduced you? How'd you get started?

Alex Fittin:

So I think, I mean honestly it takes me back to, I mean my whole life honestly I've been, to use a very cliché, I'm a people person and I'm really, really excited to connect with other people. And then, so that brings me to college. I majored in communication, which everyone kind of treats as a throwaway degree. I never understood that, because I was like, this is people. You're learning about people, what could be better? And so I just always knew that whatever I did, it was going to need to be connecting with other people.

Fast-forward a little bit, we adopted, and I had this realization that what I was doing was super hard. I felt very alone in it, and I knew that other women had to be going through that too. And I thought to myself, how can I connect with those women on a wider scale? And I just so happened to have a husband who was already all about the podcasting industry, knew a lot about it, had all the equipment, and so it was kind of an obvious choice for me to connect with lots of different adoptive moms all at once. And so I started the Adoptive Mom Podcast and did it for about four and a half years straight, and it was a fun ride. It was good.

Rick West:

Okay, so let's pause on, you made that five and a half years sound so easy, so simple, and you just went from college to that. But in going through school, you talk about communications, did you think broadcast career? Were you thinking about in front of the camera, were you behind the camera? What were you even in that, I know it's people, but how were you thinking about things? Because you didn't just jump into podcasting. You had obviously a thought of where you were going to go, so what was the initial thought from a communications standpoint? How were you going to use the degree?

Alex Fittin:

Yeah, that's a really good question, because whenever you're a comm major, you get introduced to a lot of different forms of communication. You're doing mass communication, mediated communication, organizational communication, and interpersonal communication. And that was the one that I was like, that's what I want. Interpersonal communication. Which if you know my story, that plays a big part. Because what I did was I went into the mediated communication realm, and it was so good for a while, and that was what really drew me to that is being able to connect with a lot of people at once. But yeah, I think that that actually wasn't what I set out to do. I really was more interested in the interpersonal world, but what was in front of me was mediated communication.

Rick West:

Yeah, so having that kind of engagement, so you mentioned adoption, Adoptive Mom Podcast, right? AMP, was that the-

Alex Fittin:

AMP, Adoptive Mom Podcast.

Rick West:

There you go. So what was the passion or the draw to adoption? I mean, I grew up with an adoptive father, I have an adopted daughter, so it's in my family. But that's also kind of in my background as well. So let's talk a little bit about the passion that got you to the point of making the decision to adopt.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah. I guess I've missed it in the previous times I've talked to you, but I did not realize you were an adoptive dad.

Rick West:

Yeah.

Alex Fittin:

That is so cool.

Rick West:

Yeah. My youngest Sarah, she's 22. We adopted her from China when she was about 11 months old.

Alex Fittin:

Goodness, that's amazing.

Rick West:

Yeah, so special. So cool. And just a great part of life. And so we've been able to process life a little bit. I grew up with my birth mother, but didn't meet my birth father until I was 30, and grew up with a dad-dad, truly adoptive dad. And-

Alex Fittin:

So adoption's in your veins too.

Rick West:

In the veins. And we've had great conversations over the years. We have that little bit of a connection. But it's not for the faint of heart.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah, no.

Rick West:

And it's normally not a randomness that takes people down that path. So what was in your background or what was in front of you that said, "Hey, I want to pursue this path."

Alex Fittin:

Yeah, and it's funny because if you ask my parents, it does feel a little bit random. I didn't grow up in an adoptive home, we don't have family or close friends that were adopted. It was just always something that I knew that I wanted to do, and I started talking about it even as a teenager.

Rick West:

Wow.

Alex Fittin:

I met my husband and told him on I think our second date, "I'm going to adopt someday, so if this is going to be a thing I hope you're cool with that." Which is a really weird thing to say.

Rick West:

But it was still very early on in your life, you knew there was something about the concept of adoption.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah. I think family was something that was always really important to me, and I know that's important to a lot of people, but having more exposure to the family structure and the different paths that that can take, I think I just knew that there were kids out there that didn't have the option to be reunited with their birth families, which is always the better first option, most of the time if possible. But those kids needed a home, and I specifically wanted to adopt older kids in foster care, because they are the ones that are the hardest to adopt. Which is what we ended up doing.

What I think was really hard was that when we got into it, I had all this passion. I was on fire for adoption. And then he came into our home, and it was like, oh, that passion doesn't necessarily transfer into love or into easiness, or into any of that. It was just like yes, that got me here, but now what? And that was really the fire in my belly to start the Adoptive Mom Podcast, because I knew that I couldn't be the only one experiencing that, where it was like, yeah, I wanted to do this, and this is really cool. But how? How does one parent a teenager when you're only 24 years old, how does one deal with trauma when you didn't grow up in a trauma household? How do you educate yourself on the fly when you're dealing with it live in your home? And I think that one thing I really wanted to do differently with my podcast was, I wanted it to be less education and more just connection. And again, that goes back to my interpersonal background.

Rick West:

Mix storytelling in it.

Alex Fittin:

Yes. I just wanted to talk to people and learn what they were struggling with. And I know that there are a lot of amazing adoption podcasts out there that are very education focused. You want to learn more about trauma, we got you. And I really just wanted to focus on the mom and what she was going through, so that's what I did.

Rick West:

That's great. So you take that passion that you had, you were living it, and you took the interpersonal communication aspect of that, and instead of traveling around the country talking to thousands of people why don't we use this medium called podcasting.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah.

Rick West:

And kind of put the two of those things together. And from what I can tell talking to a few other folks, you're pretty good at it.

Alex Fittin:

Well, I appreciate that.

Rick West:

All joking aside is that it wasn't like you did a podcast and it was like, eh. It ended up being a thing, so let's talk a little bit about that. You said, I want to do the podcast. It's a passion, I'm living it, I want to bring all this together. I want to be unique. But anyone can say that, but executing it well, getting the right kind of audience, providing, producing amazing content... now you kind of referred earlier, Brian, your husband was the technical guy over here that would make that happen, but you got pretty good at it. So let's talk about that journey. You got started, you had your first few podcasts. I'd love to hear, at what point did you realize, "This is going really well. I can scale this thing." So let's talk about that.

Alex Fittin:

Oh, yeah. So I think that scaling it was something that was never not an option. I'm kind of, if I'm going to do it I'm going to do it kind of person. And it also helps again that my husband's like, "I have the resources to help you do it." So yeah it was, we got branding, I did the thing, and I think really consistency was a big part of that, that I decided early on I wanted to do it by season so that I had breaks built in. I wasn't going to try to do this every week, every year. And that really helped, so I did 15 episode seasons. I did two to three of those a year. And-

Rick West:

So I want to pause on that. If people are taking notes, two amazing things. The first, the season aspect of it is so important, because there is burnout. I mean even with this, we've already talked through what does the season break look like, how is that practical. So that's fantastic to even think about that.

Alex Fittin:

Thanks, and I knew the statistic that most podcasts don't make it two years, and I really wanted to beat that statistic. I did not want this to just be something that I was interested in for a minute, and now I'm not interested in it and I'm moving on. Especially, I wanted to make my time worth it, and my husband's time worth it, and anyone else. And as we went, we had more people kind of helping or contracting to help put on this podcast. But to answer your earlier question, I think that what was really interesting about me is I had a really hard time soaking in that it was successful. I had 120,000 downloads by the end of it, and that number to me, while it really impressed other people, it really didn't impress me that much.

Rick West:

You're hard on yourself.

Alex Fittin:

I'm really hard on myself, but also it was just that I realized that what I wanted out of it, numbers were not really scratching that itch for me. And so yeah, I think that that helped that hunger to keep improving, because I was still searching for something. I would see the numbers roll in, I would see people from all over the world listening to my podcast, and that was so cool for like a minute. And then it was like, but I want more out of this. And yeah, so I feel like I was always in search of that, you know what I mean?

Rick West:

Yeah, yeah. Well we're going to get to that in a second, because it really is kind of your transition. That push go moment for you is that you're progressing along, you're successful, the numbers looked really, really good, and we've all found this at some point in time in our lives in other things. I could do that, but it's not necessarily what I'm truly being called to do. Even though people looking at this are like, fostering kids, adoption, how can that not be the thing that gets you up every morning, and your calling? And then now you have a podcast and it's popular and it's moving. How can this not just be the most fulfilling thing you've ever had? So let's speak to that a little bit, because the outside person looking in would say, Alex, you're kidding me. How could you not just roll this thing for the next 10 years? So when did you begin to think about that, and how did you process that, that this may not be the thing?

Alex Fittin:

I think it really helped me to slow down on what I really loved about doing the podcast. I got to interview some celebrities, I got to interview some really cool people, and even just people that weren't big names but that I just really wanted to connect with. And that made me so happy for that hour that I was on that Zoom call or in person with someone just set my soul on fire. I loved it. I loved getting to connect with other people, and then I loved getting to put that out into the world and share my experience with the masses. And I think slowing down on what about this does make me happy was really what helped me realize what I was searching for. Does that make sense?

Rick West:

Yes, yeah. So that's coming along. Now, did you have people over here saying, "Yeah Alex, makes sense, let's move on," or did you have people saying, "Are you kidding me? Do you know what people would do to have this kind of following, this kind of structure, unlimited content?" So what were the people in your life, and we're going to ignore Brian for a second because that's going to be the last person we want to hear from.

Alex Fittin:

Sure.

Rick West:

But the other folks that are calling in, and people that have been on your podcast, and the people in the industry, are they asking what are you doing? Are they encouraging you to keep this going, or are they saying yeah, if it's not really meeting the needs you have then go do something else?

Alex Fittin:

Yeah. I mean, I certainly had a couple people that were encouraging of that, but then most people were like, "What are you talking about? You're killing it, you have an awesome following, you have a 3000 plus member Facebook group, you have access to all these people. What's wrong with you?" A little bit. Nobody necessarily said that, but that was definitely what I was feeling about like, what is wrong with me? I asked myself that so many times. Why is this not what I want?

Rick West:

How did you answer that? Because that's the tough inward focused reflection point that many people can't get through, which is, gosh, what is wrong with me? You realize there's nothing wrong with you, because we know the end of that. There's nothing wrong with you, but it's a fair internal question for you to ask. So how did you process that?

Alex Fittin:

So I think that that was kind of the beginning of this big journey for me, and that was something that was a really hard transition for me to go through largely on my own. I'm a person that, clearly I'm a people person, I want to include people's opinions, I want to ask questions, I want to do this as a group. I want to make people happy, all of those things. But this was kind of the first big decision that I feel like I had to make on my own, and listen to myself and not everyone else saying, "You should be happy with this. This should set your soul on fire." I had to be true to myself that it wasn't, and that was a really hard decision. It was hard to give up things, it was hard to feel like I was letting people down. Yeah, but I think-

Rick West:

So were you a journaler? Were you a list person? How did you go through the process that got you to that next moment, which is this is my sweet spot, this is my zone? Because people listening to this are like, "Yeah, I've thought about it too but I just have to keep going, or I don't know how I would even start to take the time to really assess am I in the right career or am I in the right trajectory." So how did you personally process that?

Alex Fittin:

Well I'm an external processor so I did not journal. I just talked the ears off of anyone who would listen as I processed through these feelings. I think I knew that I couldn't keep doing something that my heart wasn't in, that it wouldn't be good it wouldn't be done well. I went through a lot of different thoughts about, is there someone else that could take this over? Is there a way that I could let people down less? But it really helped to focus on what was making me happy within this, which was connecting with someone else directly.

And I kind of feel, I'm an extrovert, I know you're an extrovert as well; I have a strong belief that I feel like all of the access via the internet, which is amazing. No shade to the internet. But all of the access is kind of like fake people-ing, fake extroversion, and it really doesn't actually fill us extroverts up. What does is actually connecting with people. So once I had that, once I said, okay, this is the part that I love-

Rick West:

That's your anchor. You knew that that truth for you was your building block. How did you then choose, of the 50 different paths you could have chosen of that as a building block, how did you choose to get into what you're doing today? How did you start that?

Alex Fittin:

Well that's kind of a funny little anecdote because I was already obsessed with the Enneagram. It was something that kind of boomed, it was a pop culture phenomenon, every-

Rick West:

Well explain to folks, if you've never heard of the Enneagram, if you've heard of Myers-Briggs and certain personality tests, so within... and I don't want to say what it is, but within that realm of things, what is the Enneagram?

Alex Fittin:

So it's like those, it's a personality typing system. It's made of nine different types. The difference is that the Enneagram examines our motivations for our behavior, where you have things like Myers-Briggs and DISC and Pathfinders that are going to look at your behavior. A lot of them are geared toward certain things like your behavior at work or your behavior at home. The Enneagram is kind of this bigger umbrella of, let's look at what you do, but let's also look at why you do it. What is driving that motivation? And I think that that just absolutely fascinated me. It was all of a sudden this key to understanding other people better, which is what sets my soul on fire. And so having this resource in my lap of like, this is this roadmap to understanding people's brains, and being able to connect with them, and being able to build relationships with them. And at the time, even being able to connect with adoptive moms, being able to understand my kids better, all of those things. So it really just started clicking into place.

I started just learning more. It was like I was a sponge, I wanted to know everything about it. And then I had this one overlap for my podcast that I was like, how can I marry these two obsessions of mine? My heart for adoptive moms and my obsession with the Enneagram. So I did a season of the podcast where I interviewed past guests of each number, and then I had also four Enneagram experts. So I got to interview Suzanne Stabile, which in the Enneagram world is a huge deal. She's kind of the godmother of the Enneagram, and that was such an amazing moment for me, to get to connect with the person who kind of, I don't know, started me on this journey. And I loved getting to connect, and then once that season was over it was kind of like back to normal.

Rick West:

Because you're still in the podcast world, so you dipped your toe. You changed content, still within adoptive parents, but within a flavor of the Enneagram. But it still wasn't meeting that need that you had for the engagement past the one hour podcast, so you knew it still wasn't there. As we talked to other guests, very seldom is your push go overnight. So now you spend another quarter, another three or four months. It's still not there. When did you find the moment that said in this way, with this truth I'm looking at is how I'm going to proceed going forward, which is really kind of the coaching world that you're living in today. How did you go down that path to become a coach with this foundation of the Enneagram, which is what you're driving?

Alex Fittin:

Yeah, so that's where the funny anecdote comes in. It was actually my husband who was... he's a go getter. He's an Enneagram three for those of you who know what that means. He is going to monetize everything he can. He's going to think through the lens of business and productivity and efficiency. And so he said to me one day, "If you're going to be this obsessed about this and talk about it all the time, you should just become a coach so you can make some money at it," which is just a really funny Brian moment.

Rick West:

And did you just kind of look at him like, "Of course I should."

Alex Fittin:

Yes.

Rick West:

But is it like, really, you hadn't thought about that? Or is it one of 10 things you were thinking of?

Alex Fittin:

I don't know that I gave myself permission to think about that. I don't know that I thought, this is something that I could make a business out of, or this is something that I could become respectable at. Because I looked at people who studied it and people who were so brilliant within the Enneagram world, and it never occurred to me that I could become that. And so-

Rick West:

But when he said that, you gave yourself permission to believe that?

Alex Fittin:

Yes.

Rick West:

Wow, so that was that push go moment. So it began a whole new journey. And that just didn't start overnight, because you still have a podcast, you still have to machine all the things here. You've been studying about Enneagram. Now someone says, "Poof, you should be a coach." So you just go put a shingle out and tell people you're a coach and everyone shows up, right?

Alex Fittin:

Yeah, and that's the hard part right? Because it's like, yeah you can get the certification, but then what? But what it did was it opened my mind up to, what do I want to do with this? And what is there a need for in the market? Because there's people that, sure I'm a coach, but where do I meet with you? Am I just meeting to type you, do i take this further, do I build courses, do I do the social media? Which there are some incredible Enneagram social media accounts. Do I want to just replicate that, or how can I set myself apart?

Rick West:

So you're a researcher. You're doing the studying.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah, observing for sure.

Rick West:

But did you see someone out there that it was like, that person has it. They know what they're doing. It's exactly what I want to do from a coaching standpoint.

Alex Fittin:

You know, I don't think that that was it. I think what I saw was someone not doing that. And there are people that do this, but not really in our area. And so I think I saw a hole in the market of, nobody's really doing this for business. There are a lot of businesses who will pay for a Myers-Briggs or something like that assessment and they'll adopt that for their business, but I didn't really see a lot of businesses adopting the Enneagram as their personality typing system, or using it to build better teams. Which is completely my heart, right? Let's connect, let's understand what motivates each other, let's understand how each other goes toward conflict. Let's go toward those things. And I didn't really see anyone doing it. So I think that that was really what my heart became, was how can I help a lot of people connect with each other better.

Rick West:

Did you feel like you had the skillset to do that, or is this starting all over saying, "All right, I now need to not only get certified, but do I have to go get trained to be a coach?" Because anyone can say they're a coach, but coaching, there's an actual process and a skillset, especially when you start coaching professionals and people that would argue they've already been trained to do X and now you're trying to integrate N. So how did you go about getting trained or getting the certification so that you felt confident looking across the table from someone that says yes, I may be a content expert, but I'm also a really good coach.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah. I mean, I definitely wanted a licensing or certification of some kind, and so I ended up going through one online. It's the one based out of the Pacific Northwest, and so I obviously had to do that virtually. I was part of a class of, I don't know, 10 different coaches that graduated at the same time as me, and it was really cool to join that community and be able to connect in that way. But then again, I was once again faced with this kind of, now what? Situation. I have this certification, I guess that makes me "smart," right? But what am I going to do with it? And so that brings me again to something that I did for the first time ever. I'm a person that really likes to be invited to things. It's not that I want them to come easy, but I want to feel like somebody's asking for this skill, like I'm not forcing it upon someone.

Rick West:

And that's as in Enneagram?

Alex Fittin:

That's as anything my whole life.

Rick West:

But your Enneagram is?

Alex Fittin:

I'm an Enneagram one, yes. So I want to do things right. That's the Enneagram one. We want to be correct. We don't just want to look correct, we want to be correct in everything we do. And so I think that that played a part in it for sure. I didn't want to mow anyone over or inconvenience anyone. But I was in this situation where it was, I don't want to say it was make or break like it was so dire, but it was like, you're going to have to put yourself out there. That's going to be a big key to this.

So I had some connections at a counseling clinic. They had just started a counseling clinic a couple of years prior to that, and I contacted them. And I said, "Hey, I think you need an Enneagram coach on your staff." And they were like, "What would that even look like?"

Rick West:

"What is that?"

Alex Fittin:

Right. And I mean, they knew what the Enneagram was, but they were like, "What do you mean?" And I was like, "Like I would see your clients, but as an Enneagram coach. And then I would hand that information back to you, the therapist, as a tool to connect with your client better." I don't know anyone else that does that, and I'm sure that there is someone but I don't know anyone else that does that. So for me, it did feel like taking this giant leap of like, I'm going to throw this in your lap, what do you think? And I had to have this big initiative to put myself out there and possibly face rejection, possibly have it flop. But I don't know, it was kind of empowering to have this burst up in my adult life, to be like, no. I'm going to do things differently this time.

And it paid off. I work for the counseling clinic now, and I get to do all the different things that I love. I still get to work with businesses and do workshops, and do onboarding for new employees, and that is something I absolutely love doing. And then I also get to sit with people in a counseling like setting and walk people through their hard stuff through the lens of the Enneagram. So I really do get all the interpersonal communication in all the different ways, which absolutely sets my soul on fire.

Rick West:

Wow. And you said something earlier I want to go back and make sure we at least spend a little bit of time here. I think I caught this, you said it was really the first time in your life that you made the decision kind of on your own.

Alex Fittin:

Yes.

Rick West:

So let's speak to that a little bit, because I want to unpack what that means, on your own. Because you still had people in your life encouraging and being a part of this, but you really felt like, no, this was my decision alone because of my thing. So let's talk about that a little bit.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah. I think a lot of the messages that were coming at me were that I've invested so much time in this, I've invested money in this, I've invested other people's time in this, and that was definitely a message that I was getting was that this was successful, so why do I want to quit? This is going places, this is growing, this is reaching people, this is helping people. All of those messages that this is a good thing, and that made it so much harder to then make that decision on my own, especially when, I don't know if you want me to say this now, but even my husband was someone that was not wanting me to make that leap.

Rick West:

It was time to bring him in, exactly. It was time to bring him in. Which is because as a couple, as a team, you're really pouring into this. And he's like, "This is really, really successful, but without you it's zero." So it wasn't like he could continue to be the AMP podcast. That wasn't going to work, he couldn't sit across the table and make that work. It really needed to be you. But that being said, as a partner with you wants to see you succeed and be fulfilled, and what's really driving you. So that's a nuance we all face. And then you have to say, "Yeah, I know I could be helping people do X, but for me at this stage in my life, this is the right path." And so I'm proud of you for making that call. It's not an easy call, and reflecting back on it, obviously it was the right decision today.

But would you have processed it any differently, would you have done anything different, did you follow the steps you thought you really should in making that kind of call? Even taking longer because you hit this point where you did the Enneagram plus your podcast together, and you kind of played with it, which is a very smart business thing. But was it hard to finally just stop AMP?

Alex Fittin:

Yeah. I think it was really hard. It was a hard decision, and in fact it took me like two months to actually make the announcement. It was about that, I ended the season when I would normally have ended it, and then took the break like I would normally have taken it, and it took when the podcast would've normally started and even past that a little bit for me to finally-

Rick West:

When are you going to say it, when are you going to say it?

Alex Fittin:

Yeah, for me to finally put it out there. And I got so much support. It was not what I expected. I expected disappointment. I definitely got a big loss of followers, which was fine. I expected that. They followed me for the podcast and that was what they were interested in, and so I understood that. But the people that stayed were so supportive of my decision, and were supportive of the podcast ending. I had over 100 episodes, and I wanted to make that clear, those are not going anywhere. You can go back and use those resources. The website's still there, all of the Facebook group is still active, all of those things get to stay. I'm just not going to do this every day anymore.

Yeah, I think that as far as your question would I do things differently, I don't know that I would. I don't think I would be as proud of myself for it if I had quit sooner. I'm proud of myself for sticking it out and not being the statistic. I made it past two years. But the only thing is, I think obviously hindsight is 20/20 and I know what I know now, but if I could've handed Alex back then some information, just that you're going to be good at this, it would've been less scary I think. And there wasn't a ton riding on it necessarily, it wasn't this big make or break, my family's going to be going without or something like that. But as far as my career goes, it was a big step. And I think I wish I would've had the confidence back then to know that this can be something really awesome too, and it is. But I didn't know that then.

Rick West:

Wow, that's so cool. That's so cool. I often tell people that being successful in something is not the issue, because if you work hard, do the right thing, if you're smart, I mean the average person can be successful at really whatever's in front of them. But being successful and being significant is really hard. Because the significant part is, it's empowering to me, it's empowering to someone across from me, and there's that passion. And there are very few people that you meet that are in their passionate sweet spot eight, 10, 12 hours a day while they're being successful at work. A lot of people, which is kind of where you were as like, I was very successful at work doing this, but once I finished I was being passionate over here, and you run these parallels. So it's kind of a unicorn at times to say, what I do every day, I get up and I am passionate, not just successful. So that's fantastic to see that in your life and how you're processing that.

Alex Fittin:

Yeah. I think, I mean just there's so many people that have their nine to fie job that they might be successful in, they might make enough money to, I don't know-

Rick West:

Right, but they're really good at it.

Alex Fittin:

Right, they're really good at it, but then they go home and they do their side hustle and it takes years for that side hustle to become enough to make that switch. And it's a giant leap of faith, it's very scary. Especially when on paper, you should be fine with what you have, and that was definitely where I was at.

Rick West:

Yeah. Well I love the passion of where you are today. But let's do the obligatory, not really pitch right now, or you're going to get a push, because I want everyone to know that you can be the student of the coach here, okay? But if folks wanted to spend some time with you, have a cup of coffee and really engage about the coaching and what you do, or just really, they've heard about the Enneagram thing and I'd like to learn more about it, how do they chase down Alex to get that cup of coffee or have that virtual conversation, or to learn more about what you're doing?

Alex Fittin:

Absolutely. Well, so I'm on the socials. I am EnneagramAlex, and I hang out there. I post regularly, I do business-y professional things, but then I also do fun reels and TikToks about different numbers and the silly stereotypes. And so I get to have kind of both of those things, the professional and the fun. I'm also, you can reach me at AlexF, as in Fittin, at gaprelief.com. That's how you can set up an individual session with me. It's also how you can connect with me to do business trainings and to do like I said, onboarding for new employees or just to have me consult on leadership or anything like that.

I also just really love to talk about the Enneagram, because I will pretty much have coffee with you anytime, and just chat about what the Enneagram can do for your business, for your family, for your marriage, for everything, because I really do, that's one of the things I love about the Enneagram is that it's all encompassing, and it includes your entire life experience, not just who you are to certain people but who you are within yourself and how that manifests on the outside. Yeah, that's where you can find me. Also gaprelief.com/enneagram, so all of those places.

Rick West:

Okay, great. Well it's been fun having you on today, and when we finish up I want to learn more about the eight wing seven, because I'm an eight wing seven. I'd love to have a little bit of coaching as we finish up today. But Alex, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on.

Alex Fittin:

Thank you for having me, this was so much fun.

Rick West:

Thanks for listening to Push Go, a podcast highlighting the defining moments that impact how we live and work. It was great to have ale on the show today. If you liked what you heard, you can find more stories just like this on listen.plumshop.com. And hey, wouldn't be mad if you left us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. We have new episodes that drop every week, and if you're watching on YouTube, feel free to like and subscribe.



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