We recently connected with Catherine Neff and have shared our conversation below.
Catherine, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I think this is something that a lot of us are always working on overcoming to some degree or have dealt with before. I experienced a 4 year period of time where I constantly felt like I was an awful coach and teacher and nearly closed down both teaching mountain bike lessons and piano lessons. During that time I felt like I was always pretending to be a good coach and teacher and really even just a person. Most of it was coming from external factors like others interjecting their thoughts and ideas when I was instructing. I was also comparing my own coaching and teaching to what I saw others doing on social media. Overcoming it was a challenge and it took me looking at the actual facts and reality vs. my interpretation of them, talking through my feelings with a few close friends and trying to stop comparing myself and businesses to others- this was the hard one. I have built and maintained two successful small businesses, mostly on my own- Ride Inspired Mountain Bike Coaching and Neff Piano Studio. I have great piano families (the best in my opinion), I have gone through multiple training & certifications, I am human, we all make mistakes, and I have people coming from multiple states to work with Ride Inspired Mountain Bike Coaching. Reminding myself that, my own actual limitations, and the successes I’ve had help to keep things in check.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I split my focus up between two small businesses along with a full time job- Ride Inspired Mountain Bike Coaching and Neff Piano studio. Ride Inspired Mountain Bike Coaching was launched in the fall of 2018 with the goal of using mountain biking as a tool to build confidence, self-esteem, and to inspire people to get out on a bike. We look at fears and how they impact our riding decisions and how to overcome them. We are proud to be a woman owned business and have mostly women on our coaching roster. Our coaches work with riders of all fitness levels, riding backgrounds, and ages.
Neff Piano Studio has been in existence since 2006 and has been one of the few travel studios in the area, meaning I go to my students’ home instead of them coming to me. I teach students as young as 3.5 years old all the way up through adults. I started teaching not only to share my love of music to people, but also to offer students the opportunity to take piano lessons without feeling the need to perform in recitals. As a student, I hated the performance aspect of music lessons. I loved playing and taking lessons, but performing just was never my thing, even in college. I’ve built my studio off of this and we have one optional solo performance a year.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
One of the three things that were impactful for me along the journey were great mentors. I had the opportunity to work alongside some amazing mentors. In the mountain bike area, Angi Weston, Leigh Donovan, Kelly Hazlegrove, Travis Brown, and Shaums March were some of my most inspirational mentors. For teaching piano, my own former piano teacher and mentor Kim Bakkum and my college voice teacher Dr. Amy Petrongelli and organ teacher Valerie Thorson! Working with all of them shaped me into the coach and teacher I am today. The second is my ability to adapt quickly and be flexible with not only the material I’m teaching, but the presentation and feedback. Being able to share the material in multiple ways allows me to convey the idea to all learning styles and also break the idea down into smaller steps if needed. Lastly, the desire to never stop learning and keeping my mind open to new ideas and concepts. It’s crucial to be a successful teacher.
The best advice for folks early on in their journey is to find a mentor or two and observe and absorb as much as you can. Take continuing education courses, watch relevant and quality videos, research your topic, keep an open mind, and be inclusive and understanding. Know that setbacks can and likely will happen, but it’s not the end of the road. Keep moving forward one step at a time.
How would you describe your ideal client?
In both mountain biking and piano, the ideal client is someone who comes with an open mind, is open to trying new things, can take constructive feedback and not take it personally, is willing to put in some outside practice time/work to improve, and comes with a positive attitude. Nothing is worse than working with someone who isn’t open or willing to try something a little different than they’re used to and comes in with a negative attitude and a huge ego.
Contact Info:
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Website: https://www.rideinspiredmtb.
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Instagram: Ride Inspired Mountain Bike Coaching
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Facebook: Ride Inspired Mountain Bike Coaching
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Other: For piano lessons inquiries: catherinemarieneff@gmail.com
Image Credits
Timothy Neff Jermy Bryner Megan A. Harrison
