Jenny Toh is one of the coaches that we found this month and we did a little interview with her. She impressed us with her honest and grounded approach to coaching.

Even though she started her coaching career 2 years ago she had a calling toward helping people live more authentic lives almost all her life.

Her resilience and dedication helped her launch her coaching business even though she was within an environment of naysayers. And her love for helping and connecting with her clients helps her business grow faster than others.

She is approaching each client uniquely to their own uniqueness. She helps people gain clarity about who they really are and what their true values happen to be so they can align and live more authentic lives. Here is what she said.

Meet Life Coach Jenny Toh:

Name: Jenny Toh
Pillar: The Spirit, The Mind
Who is this coach for: Anyone who wants to gain clarity about who they really are and be more authentic to their truest self.
How they can help: Through conversation, reflection and understanding one’s self and limiting beliefs.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these Pandemic times?

I have 3 school going kids (1 teenage son and 2 pre-teen girls) and adjusting to home-based learning in the earlier part of the pandemic with my husband and I working was definitely a challenge.

However, we have all since adjusted and adapted. Right now, we are just relieved that the restrictions here in Singapore have been lifted.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your clients? Did it affect you at all?

It’s this increased sense of uncertainty – when will the pandemic end?

People have a tendency to put their lives on hold, to wait out the pandemic. There is also an increase in stress especially when the boundaries of home and work have blurred for all of us.

I am a planner by nature so the pandemic definitely disrupted my plans.

I was faced with the question if I should launch my business during the pandemic or wait it out.

I am glad that I followed my heart and went ahead to start my business. If I kept waiting, I would still be waiting until today!

What are the biggest lessons that you learned in this pandemic?

Despite differences in background, culture and life experiences, we are all going through the same emotions during this pandemic. It is important to remind ourselves that we are not alone, to reach out for help when we need to and not to suffer in silence.

It brought to the forefront the importance of communities. I also learnt to truly count my blessings and be appreciative of the daily successes.

We all have daily successes. We just need to be present enough to notice them.

The Origin:

Tell us about you, your career, how you started with your coaching career?

I am lawyer, qualified to practise in the U.K., Malaysia and Singapore. I started my legal career in Malaysia as a trial attorney and then moved to Singapore where I worked as a derivatives legal counsel.

I transitioned into coaching because as a Christian, I believe this is what God is calling me into in this phase of my life. It was an overnight transition. I rationalized intellectually that life coaching wouldn’t work for me.

However, the pull towards it was so strong that I couldn’t put it off. I decided to take a leap of faith and trained as a coach in 2019.

I then started my company, River Life Coaching Pte. Ltd. in April 2020, at the peak of the pandemic. I am happy to say that looking back, it was one of the best decisions in my life although it didn’t feel like it then.

My business is now 2 years old and growing. I am also an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Professional Certified Coach with over 500 hours of coaching under my belt. What an amazing journey it has been for me and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead!

What was your biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your life that made you who you are today?

Moving to the U.K. to study law as I had a lot of naysayers who didn’t believe I could do it. They took the view that being as introverted as I am, I would not have the capabilities to be a lawyer.

I am grateful that my parents supported me throughout with my decision and I am proud of doing what I set out to do.

The Coaching Style:

How do you innovate with coaching your clients?

It’s always about your clients, never about you as the coach. I am always reminded by my mentors to “trust the client, trust the process”.

Trusting the client means that you truly believe that your client has all the answers within themselves or that they have the inner capabilities, strengths and resources to come through. As the coach, I serve them by shining the light on what they don’t see about themselves.

Trusting the process means that the coaching conversation is framed in a manner that allows for safely and confidentiality and provides a judgment free conversation for the client to be at ease to be themselves with the coach. It’s to partner with the client to discover their true potential in any given situation.

What’s unique about your coaching approach?

I help my clients reconnect with their core values and who they truly are.

Once they are clear of their authentic selves, they also become clearer of the next steps that they have to take to reach their goals and to live life purposefully.

What benefits do your clients get after working with you?

Clarity of their values, understanding of their true selves, awareness of their inner judge and saboteurs in their minds that are holding them back and have strategies to deal with them.

They become more confident to live authentically and to define success on their own terms.

Do you use any specific tools to be efficient with your clients?

Not really, as each client is unique and different.

However, for my clients who haven’t experienced coaching before and do not know where to start in terms of what to be coached on, the Wheel of Life is a good exercise to evaluate your fulfilment in the various areas of your life.

The Impact:

If you had a super megaphone that, when you speak into, the whole world will hear your message, what would you say?

My primary message is for my introverted clients.

Introversion is not a sign of weakness. Embrace your introversion and be empowered to make an impact in this world in your own unique ways.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned in your life?

Align your life with your values and stay focused on your higher goals.

Trust that things will fall into place. Setbacks and failures offer the opportunity to grow and progress.

Your final thoughts?

I like this quote (and book) by the late Richard Carlson – “don’t sweat the small stuff… and it’s all small stuff”.

It’s a good reminder for me especially when I have a tendency to worry. It’s all small stuff and at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what happens because each of us have the resilience to thrive through life’s challenges.

Where Can You Find Jenny Toh?

If you liked this interview and you would love to find out how to live a more authentic life aligned with who you really are, go to https://www.riverlifecoaching.com/ where you can find how Jenny might help you.

She has appeared as a guest on many podcasts and you can find all her podcast episodes here. If you want to connect personally with her you can find all her social media here.